Casting is not auditioning; it's not searching for undiscovered talent or evaluating an actor's abilities or performance. Casting is putting a face to an abstract thought; filling in the blanks of an unclear description; transforming a flavor, idea or notion into a character. Good casting is not unusual features or quirky characters, nor is it the unexpected choice. Good casting goes unnoticed; good casting doesn't contaminate an idea — it transfers it effortlessly.
Micaela Valin is a casting director based in Stockholm, Sweden. Through the years, she has worked on large-scale feature film productions, cultural and artistic projects and advertising — both domestic and international. Her casting process is built on an enthusiasm for exploring new possibilities, challenging the untried, and an urge to find new characters.
Have you ever wanted benefit from you pension today? Perhaps then, you should choose Danica. Because with their new initiative 'Friends of Danica' they're trying to help you stay in shape, so you can be active long after you retire. Mikael Marcimain and B-Reel Films asked Micaela and Alexandra Valin to cast a character that could run, while looking beautiful, and be both a mother and grand mother, all in just under 45 seconds.
All McDonald's wanted for Christmas was for friends to celebrate by showing up together, and of course some heart-warming compliments on the burgers and fries. All Flodell Film wanted for Christmas was Micaela and Alexandra Valin to cast this snowy, yet friendly film for McDonald's. And so on Christmas Day everyone woke up happy.
Stadium is the largest sporting goods retailer in Scandinavia. With 110 specialty stores Stadium offers a broad assortment of brand name sporting equipment, apparel, footwear, and Christmas decorations (not really). With the sporty Christmas just around the corner, Micaela was asked to find a handful of girls and boys of various ages that could combine their sense of sport, with their passion for dance, in an extraordinary fast-moving choreography.
Riksidrottsförbundet (RF) is quite simply the 'national sports federation'. They do a little of this, and little of that; they represent all Swedish sports clubs, both nationally and internationally. They do lobbying towards the Swedish government and politicians. And they lead the way for sports into the future. In order to show their efforts and passion for Swedish sports, RF called Eskils Junker Films to produce a homage to everyone who actively partakes in sports. And Eskils Junker Films in turn, called Micaela Valin to find the wide varity of faces to portrait the Swedish sports community.
Swedish production house Chamdin Stöhr (the makers of movies such as 'Cornelis') and award-winning director Peter Grönlund approached Micaela Valin and Alexandra Valin in early 2011 to work on their upcoming movie. Micaela and Alexandra where asked to find characters that could realize Grönlund's latest idea, a socio political drama named 'Gläntan'. 'Gläntan' had its world wide premiere at the Stockholm Film Festival 2011.
Isn't life just a dance on appliances sometimes? That's what IKEA and director Tomas Mankovsky told Micaela Valin when they hired her to find the perfect man to swiftly climb and graciously dance on top of and in between domestic appliances.
Put on the hunt by B-Reel Films and director Tom Malmros, Micaela Valin and Alexandra Valin scoured the seven seas in search of the perfect lead character to meander the gymnasium halls in Skolverkets campaign for "Sweden's most important job", the school teacher.
Swedish powerhouse dairy producer, Arla, unveiled their new and improved selection of lactose-free products. And it was Micaela Valin and Alexandra Valin that would be tasked to find the diverse and relieved faces of Sweden's lactose intolerant community for client and longtime collaborators, B-Reel Films, and director Patrik Bergh.
Best served poured over an glass full of ice, this sophisticated cider was first introduced to the Swedes back in 2009. And alongside the bottled sophistication came Lord Somersby, a modern legend in land of cider. This groovy chapter in the tale of the Lord was casted by Micaela Valin and Alexandra Valin — who found a dozen professional dancers to shake up the 18th century dance floor.
With Telia you don't have to plan your summer vacation around your favorite soaps, Dexters most horrifying plans or Simons harsh criticism. Instead do what you feel like; take a road trip, have a BBQ or go for a swim, like this family casted by Micaela Valin for Kalle Haglund and DDB Stockholm.
When in Sweden... chocolate is synonymous to Marabou, perhaps more specifically the chocolate bar. But when times change so does chocolate, and new mouthwatering ideas come to live. Like the new Marabou cookies. And when Mikael Marcimain and B-Reel Films wanted to tell the story of the long wait for the luscious new cookies they asked Micaela and Alexandra Valin.
"This is Emma! Feeling adventurous she tries..." Well, we don't want to give away the whole story. But the fact of the matter is that Carlsberg is launching a new drink called Beo. And they say that it's hard to explain and easy to enjoy – so we won't even try. Main character casting by Micaela and Alexandra Valin for Jesper Ohlsson at Social Club.
Ipren is probably the most well-known pain killer in Sweden. However not for it's mind blowing abilities, but rather for the "Ipren man", a character that's been selling the product for the last decade. But the time has now come to move on, and when Max Vitali and Callboy got the assignment to create the first Ipren commercial without the "Ipren man" they called Micaela Valin. The characters in the new fast-acting and long-lasting Ipren commercial where casted by Micaela and Alexandra Valin.
This idea is not exactly self-explanatory. But perhaps it started a little something like this: How do you release a new album from Swedish pop star Veronica Maggio, in collaboration with a wireless telephony operator, in never-seen-before kind of way? You take A. a phone and B. a young likable chap and C. the album single, then you intermingle them and voilà; you get a nation wide campaign with a phone number, when you call the number you get to listen the new single on the young chaps voicemail – and he can't pick up, and he has to carry the phone everywhere for two weeks. That's it! Obviously, Micaela Valin casted this charming young man.
What is Lönnebergaskinka you might ask? It's the ham you eat, probably almost all of the time, if you live in Sweden. Simply because it's the number one pig produce in this long, long country. This far from ham-handed Hobby Factory production was directed by Linda Callenholt and casted by Micaela Valin.
Riksgälden is the Swedish National Debt Office, which plays a key role in the Swedish economy and in the financial market. Their operations contribute towards taxpayers' money being used as efficiently as possible and the financial system remaining stable. But they also do something that's much more fun; they sell lottery bonds. Each lottery bond gives you several chances to win a million kronor – tax free.
The million lottery (Miljonlotteriet) has since 1964 been famous for generously handing out millions and millions in winnings, all around Sweden, each year. With 50 % of their earnings from lottery sales going straight back into their customers pockets, a single lottery ticket could in fact get you one step closer to realizing a dream (or not). In their latest production Miljonlotteriet and Hobby Film asked Micaela Valin to track down and cast three older ladies who had a mutual dream of owning a Swedish hot tub – for real.
We all know the classic American stars, from California, Chicago and New York. And so when someone tries to imitate or copy them we can all spot it right away. When McDonald's and Hobby Film's Oskar Bård needed some truly original copies for McDonald's freshest and newest burger ads they called Micaela Valin.
The folks behind Magnum – no, not Tom Selleck – the ice cream, have a long history of producing overwhelmingly impressive campaign sites, and the new site is no exception. In the slightly revealing clothes of a Laura Croft like character the visitor runs around a virtual world, literally jumping between websites. B-Reels Patrik Gyllström directed this online extravaganza and Micaela and Alexandra Valin casted the fabulous acrobatic leading women.
In Swedish 'wireless' and 'threadless is the same word, and that simple fact was the idea for the latest campaign for audio and video expert store Pause. The campaign image with the caption 'unusually wireless sound' portrays a modern cocktail party where all the guests are wireless (threadless). The picture was shot by Petrus Olsson from Adamsky, and Micaela Valin was in charge of the unusually threadless casting.
Burger King is a world leading fast food chain, founded in Florida in 1953. Today the chain employs more than 38,000 grill masters, flipping thousands and thousands of burgers each and every day. In 1976 Burger King opened it's first restaurant in Sweden, and ever since Burger King has been feeding the Swedish people with their royal treat – the Whopper. For this Whopper ad B-Reel and Tom Malmros asked Micaela Valin, and Alexandra Valin, to help out. On the agenda: find tasteful teenagers, suitable for a costume party.
Everyone knows IKEA. With more than 120 000 employees in 25 countries, the Swedish home furnishing company is working hard on spreading their vision of a better everyday life for the many people. In their latest Christmas campaign IKEA encourages people to keep their loved ones closer – with the help of well-designed and functional furniture. Micaela Valin and Alexandra Valin streetcasted a large number of characters, to act as an southern European family, in this B-Reel Films and Michael Marciman production.
Coop a leading chain of grocery stores in Norway. For their 2010 Christmas campaign Coop looked over the border to Sweden for inspiration, and more specifically to Acne's director Jesper Hiro. And Acne looked to Micaela Valin to do the casting of three campaign movies.
Director Henning Cronheim asked Micaela Valin to cast two Eddie Razaz and Rabih Jaber lookalikes and a dozen of kids for his new music video 'Not Helpless (Rink's If Only You Knew Remix)' by the Swedish Idol star duo Rebound.
Aladdin is obligatory Swedish Christmas tradition – on Christmas Eve there's always a box full of chocolates in every Swedish home. Just as important as having a box around, is having a strategy to get your hands on the pieces you like the most. And the anticipation for the pointers offered in the yearly Christmas campaigns are always high. For the 2010 campaign Aladdin teamed up with Camp David and director Robert Jitzmark. Micaela Valin was brought in to find two dozen unlikely characters portraying two large families and a small group of male friends enjoying their chocolates.
Hemtex is a Swedish interior decorating chain specialising in soft accessories; e.g. bed linen, towels and table cloths. For their relaunch of the Hemtex brand in 2010 they teamed up with advertising agency Åkestam & Holst, production company Acne Production and producers The Producers. Acne asked Micaela Valin to find eight sleeping beauties for three ads about dreams and sleep-in mornings.
Flora was introduced to the Swedish market in 1965 as an alternative to traditional butter. In a just few months Flora had to double its production a sixfold to meet the needs of the Swedish consumers. For almost 40 years Flora had a given place in every Swedish refrigerator, but in 2003 the production stopped. However, in 2010, the makers of Flora decided to relaunch the product, with a new design and a new commercial. Micaela Valin worked together with Alexandra Valin in order to find two young men full of harmony, to enjoy the taste of Swedish summer – Flora – in front of the camera. The movie was directed by Fredrik Edfeldt from StyleWar and produced by B-Reel.
Knullträdet is a nation wide public information campaign urging people to use condoms in order to protect themselves and others from STDs and HIV. The Swedish HIV council worked with B-Reel Films and director Mikael Marcimain who created an award-winning 5 minute movie (with an alternate 60 seconds television adaptation) showing a long string of Swedish celebrities having sex with one and other. Micaela Valin worked as part of a team of casting director on this production.
Stadium is the largest sporting goods retailer in Scandinavia. With 110 specialty stores Stadium offers a broad assortment of brand name sporting equipment, apparel and footwear.For their spring launch of new running shoes, Stadium teamed up with Micaela Valin and B-Reel Films to produce an impressive new film. Valin casted a dozen professional runners to appear in the ad.
RiksTV is Norway's second largest television distributor with more than some 450 000 customers. For a series of commercials informing their customers about a selection of new channels RiksTV teamed up with B-Reel Films and director Jens Sjögren. Micaela Valin, working in close collaboration with Alexandra Valin, was asked to find a cast of "perfect movie heroes" to star in these films.
3 is a world-leading operator of 3G networks, with more than 25 million users in ten countries. Commissioned by Synk Casting, Micaela Valin worked in close collaboration with Alexandra Valin to find the "perfect eighties man" for this commercial – part of a campaign encouraging mobile phone users to recycle their phones through 3 (and in return they'll get money and a tree is planted somewhere in the world). The movies where produced by Camp David and directed by Robert Jitzmark.
Some people know Annika Norlin as Hello Saferide, others as Säkert! It doesn't matter what name she goes under, when Norlin records a new song, or a new record, you sure to get a glimpse of the best Swedish pop music around. For her new single 'Fredrik', Annika Norlin teamed up with director Alexandra Valin to create a stunning music video. Micaela Valin helped with the casting of extras for this production.
Friends, founded in 1997, is the largest organization in Sweden actively working with schools to set up plans of action against bullying. Micaela Valin helped Friends and B-Reel Films to screen several hundred children, both amateur and professional actors, to find the best suited characters for this campaign against bullying.
Estrella is of Sweden's most well-known snacks manufacturers and the market leader in potatoe chips sales. Micaela Valin casted this film for director Robert Jitzmark. The film is one in a series of ads, with concept 'Unusually good'.
The ICA Group is one of the Northern Europe's leading retail companies, with around 2,200 of its own and retailer-owned stores in Sweden, Norway and the Baltic countries. ICA Sweden has a long running and much praised series of television ads about a local ICA store and it's staff. For the launch of their new concept 'Gott Liv' ICA needed a new body for their main character Stig. Micaela Valin found two new bodies – with extreme flexibility – for Stig, to appear in this web campaign.
Principe Valiente is an up-and-coming rock band from Sweden. Micaela Valin worked together with director Henning Cronheim on their dark debut video for the single 'The Night'.
Libero, a dedicated children's brand, is one of Sweden's largest manufacturer of diapers. For their new print campaign Libero, Adamsky and Synk Casting asked Micaela Valin to find ten newborns that were up for the job of being the stars at the photo shoot.
Inatt [translated: Tonight] is the thesis project from The School of Film Directing at the University of Gothenburg by Anders Hazelius. The movie tells a story about two men, born in the 1940s, who find each other and eventually fall in love. Micaela Valin worked in close collaboration with the director and casted the two leading men for the movie.
