Cast
Carl
Carl is a thoughtful and technically minded media technology student. With Nadja, he becomes more playful: he enjoys her stories, joins in her jokes and looks for reasons to stay near her. During a camping trip together, their feelings deepen. Or is it all part of his reconstructed imagination? In later scenes, Carl must confront the past and move forward with his life.
The role includes a kiss with Nadja while swimming in the lake.
- Playing age
- 20–26
- Language
- Good conversational English. You do not need to be a native speaker.
- Filming
- Summer 2027
- Days
- Around 15 days
- Where
- Northern/Eastern Europe
- Pay
- From €175 per shooting day
- Expenses
- Travel and accommodation are covered
All six principal roles include outdoor scenes in forest and by a lake, swimming, and evening scenes around a campfire.
Audition sides
The scenes below have been prepared for self-tapes. You can record them on a phone and add the link to the application form below.
Side 1: Breakfast
Lines of other participants: Nadja (13), Sonja (2), Peter (1)
Setup. The first morning of a camping weekend at a remote lake. Six university friends have hiked in to film the lake for a group project: a world model, a navigable 3D version of a real place. Carl shares a tent with Peter. Outside, Nadja is cooking pancakes in Carl’s frying pan. On the walk in, she teased him about their last trip here, when she went out at night with a flashlight to check on a “bear” and Carl followed her with that pan. He has brought it again. The night before, Peter explained backpropagation at the campfire: a neural network makes a guess, measures how wrong it was, and sends the error backward so it does better next time. For more context, read the extended synopsis.
INT. CARL AND PETER’S TENT — MORNING
Green light through the tent wall. Peter is asleep on his back. Carl lies awake, already in his jumper, listening. Outside: the scrape of a spoon in a pan, Nadja and Sonja talking quietly. Nadja laughs.
PETER (eyes closed) Bring me a coffee.
CARL I’m not getting up yet.
Peter opens one eye, looks at Carl’s jumper, and closes it again.
Carl unzips the tent.
EXT. CAMP — CONTINUOUS
Mist on the lake. Carl walks barefoot over the wet grass to the stove, where he finds Nadja crouched, trying to turn a pancake with a spoon. Sonja sits beside her, in a sleeping bag pulled up to her armpits.
CARL That’s my pan.
NADJA You brought it for me.
Carl doesn’t argue. He pours himself a coffee and sits down.
Nadja points across the lake.
NADJA When we leave, we should take the path on the other side. It’s shorter.
CARL That’s where we got lost last time.
NADJA We missed a turn. If we take the turn, it’s shorter.
CARL You were very sure last time too.
NADJA I know where the turn is now.
He gives her a doubtful look. She laughs. Sonja interjects:
SONJA Tell him about when you got your high-school teacher to call the police.
NADJA I got three people lost on a school trip once. We were supposed to meet our teacher at this museum after lunch. I’d been there before, so I said I’d take them.
CARL Fair enough.
NADJA With my parents. When I was six.
Carl pauses.
CARL Well. They don’t usually move museums.
NADJA Exactly. That’s what I thought. I remembered these big steps outside. So I picked a street that looked familiar and started walking. Kept telling them we were nearly there.
CARL Once they’re following you, you can’t start hesitating. You’ve pointed. People are depending on you.
NADJA Thank you. I wasn’t going to let them down by wavering. One of the girls kept asking if I was sure, which wasn’t helping.
CARL Had she been to the museum?
NADJA No.
CARL Right. Then I’m not sure what she was contributing.
Nadja smiles and hands him the spoon.
NADJA So we kept going. I was still looking for the steps. And when I saw the burger place where we’d had lunch, I steered us into an alley before anyone noticed.
CARL Why were they still following you?
NADJA My leadership abilities… and the fun along the way. We popped into shops, watched street performers and looked at the architecture. And every time we got it wrong, I knew another way not to go. Like that backpropagation thing. You have to do the forward pass first.
Carl and Sonja laugh and nod.
SONJA You need something to correct.
NADJA By the time we finally found the museum, our teacher was on the phone to the police. Unfortunately, she didn’t know about backpropagation.
CARL If only she’d known.
NADJA She’d have congratulated me. So anyway, we definitely need to take that shorter path on the way back.
CARL Definitely. We know about backpropagation.
Carl laughs into his coffee. Sonja reaches between them and lifts the pan off the stove. They both look down at the blackened pancake.
CARL That one’s mine.
Side 2: Running into Max
Lines of other participants: Max (19)
Setup. A year or two after university. Carl works in tech, testing new AI models. At home he has reopened the lake project in much newer software, and he spends his evenings in generated scenes of a life with Nadja. In reality he never told her how he felt, and they have lost touch. Carl and Max live in the same city and are still friends, but they haven’t seen each other for a while. Both are on their way home from work. For more context, read the extended synopsis.
EXT. CITY STREET — EVENING
On the way home, Carl nearly walks into Max. Max is older too, but still recognisably Max. He is on his way home from work as well. Carl is looking at his phone.
MAX Carl!
CARL Max. Sorry, I wasn’t looking.
MAX What’s so interesting?
CARL Test results.
MAX Did you pass?
CARL The model did. Mostly.
MAX What is it this time?
CARL People. It makes people. Faces, voices, that sort of thing.
MAX Remember when Sonja had three arms?
CARL Now it can generate the rest of her life. These last couple of months, you can barely tell the difference.
MAX My mum keeps sending me videos of animals rescuing people. A dog pulling a kid out of a river.
CARL Does she know?
MAX I haven’t told her.
Carl laughs.
MAX As Peter said, this is the worst it will ever be.
CARL He was right.
MAX He still says none of it would have been possible without his solar panels.
CARL They charged one phone.
MAX I had dinner with Angelica yesterday. She asked about you.
CARL What did you tell her?
MAX That you’re fine.
CARL I am fine.
MAX That’s what I told her. Do you know what Nadja’s doing now?
CARL I think she’s still working as a journalist. Video, that sort of thing. But other than that, I’m not really sure anymore.
MAX Did you ever manage to charm her?
Carl gives a small, embarrassed laugh.
CARL I guess I don’t even know.
Max studies him for a moment, sensing more than Carl has said. Then he makes an offer.
MAX Angelica and I are taking the night train to Hamburg next Friday. Two friends are coming. Come with us.
CARL What’s the plan?
MAX Hamburg first.
CARL And after Hamburg?
MAX We’ll find out.
CARL We’ve got a release that week.
MAX On a Friday night?
CARL I’ll see.
MAX Sure.
Max walks on. After a few steps he turns round.
MAX Ten past ten! Under the departure board!
Carl watches him go. Then he looks back down at his phone.