As a second-year MFA student in the UCLA Producers Program, Andrea Massaro has cast many projects, “ranging from sections of features to shorts to music videos––which have all ended up on Backstage in some way or another.” For her part of the Student Emmy-nominated series “Sanity,” Massaro needed to find large numbers of actors to portray college students.
“Sanity” was produced through a class which combines directors, writers, cinematographers, producers, actors, production designers, costume designers and more from both the graduate and undergraduate programs.
The class produced three episodes of the series; Massaro’s episode was the second one. The series takes a look at mental health issues within the college setting, which Massaro appreciated. “I find that mental health tends to be a ‘taboo’ topic on college campuses, so anything to create a positive dialogue about it is something that I can get behind,” she says.
Most of the actors were involved in the class or UCLA students (they were required to cast UCLA students for the lead roles). Those actors auditioned and did chemistry reads for the director, producers, and writer who then submitted
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