“The Singers” filmmaker Sam A. Davis had read the 19th-century short story of the same name but “I was a little bored by it. I kept nodding off,” he admits, adding that it was late at night when he read it.
As he made his way through the dense pages that chronicle a night at a rural pub with its local patrons, Davis says, “I realized that the writer had played a trick on me, where I was lulled to sleep in this sleepy, Russian pub, and then got completely caught off guard by this unexpected moment of community and connection.”
When Davis picked up his phone a few moments later, one of the first videos on his Instagram feed was a viral video of Mike Young singing “Unchained Melody.” Those two things collided into a vision for Davis, who was inspired to do a modern retelling of “The Singers.”
Rather than go the traditional route of casting known actors, Davis pooled together unknowns (Young, Chris Smither, Will Harrington, Judah Kelly and Matt Corcoran), and he used social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram to help find that ensemble.
Davis worked with casting director Natalie Lin. He says, “It was an extremely unconventional casting process where most of the process was spent scrolling obsessively, mind numbingly, scrolling and scrolling and training the algorithm.” Searches included “small town karaoke legend” or “unexpected voice.” It took a few weeks for his algorithm to catch up, but when it did, his feed started filling with “interesting personalities from around the world who had unique and unexpected voices, but for whatever reason, had never really broken through, at least commercially.”
Davis wanted to create “a love letter to the underdog” with singers had garnered followers, but hadn’t broken through. The casting process took months and involved sending DMs and leaving comments. “We were begging people to reply,” he says.
With a background in documentary filmmaking, Davis knew he had to build trust. “When I first reached out, they would ignore me or take some time to come around.”
As he was getting ready to shoot, Davis suddenly had a fear in the back of his mind about Young. “I thought, ‘What if that performance was sort of lightning in a bottle. What if it isn’t quite the same?’”
Davis had also considered adding a narrative beat to Young’s character where he lost someone close to him, and he was dedicating the song to them in the film. “When I pitched him that idea, he told me he had lost his wife recently, and that he would dedicate that performance to her. So we leaned into that real-life element.”
The film landed a nomination for best live-action short and is now streaming on Netflix.
As TikTok and other social media platforms become a go-to for the casting process, Dawn Yang, Global Head of Entertainment Partnerships at TikTok says, “TikTok has become a powerful platform for discovery, giving emerging and established talent alike the opportunity to showcase their creativity and craft.” She added, “We’re excited to see productions like ‘The Singers’ tap into TikTok for casting as we continue to build bridges to real-world opportunities for creators, both on screen and behind the scenes, helping them connect with new audiences.”
English (US) ·