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Casting Details
Bar Exam
Short Film
Short Film
Bar Exam
Late one night at an upscale bar, a composed bartender meets a charming stranger who tests her moral limits in a game that blurs truth and illusion, forcing her to choose between love, survival, and her soul.
Bar Exam is a contained psychological thriller about power, choice, and the illusion of control.
When Nia, a composed but quietly disillusioned bar owner, closes up for the night, she encounters Lucian, a charismatic stranger who claims to be waiting for a client. What begins as small talk turns into a dark game of confession and manipulation, a test of how far she’ll go to protect the people she loves.
As Lucian’s stories blur truth and fiction, Nia becomes trapped in a deadly moral exam involving her husband, a federal witness, and her sister Layla, the unknowing leverage. What follows is a tense, cerebral unraveling where every choice is a test, and passing may mean losing her soul.
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Format: Short Film (Runtime: ~30 mins)
Setting: Modern-day/ upscale southern city
Primary Locations: Macon/Warner Robins, GA – boutique hotel room, a modern cocktail bar, and a suburban home.
Estimated Shoot Dates: Dec 2025/Jan 2026 – 5 days total – Exact dates TBD
Casting Deadline: Dec 1, 2025
Director: Flip Archie
Production: Innovizual Motion Pictures
Film Festival Submission: Yes
Anticipated Public Release: Jan 2027 (Upon completion of film festival run)
- Intimate and dialogue-driven, with bursts of shocking violence and moral tension.
- A world of late-night neon, conscience testing, and moral ambiguity.
- The cinematography blends Cooke S4/i warmth for realism with Atlas Orion anamorphic compression for the psychological moments.
Lucian (Lead)
Male | 27–40 | Any ethnicity (Black preferred)
Type: Controlled, articulate, charismatic, dangerous.
Occupation (cover): Attorney / “cleaner” for high-profile criminal cases.
Description:
Lucian speaks with precision and intellect, never raising his voice unless he intends to. His calm is unnerving, his presence magnetic. He tests people: morally, emotionally, and psychologically, under the guise of conversation. He believes in narrative control as the highest form of power.
Arc:
Starts as an elegant mystery, evolves into a manipulative puppet master, and ends as a teacher… testing Nia’s ability to lie, to choose, and to survive.
Comparable roles:
Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler), Denzel Washington (Training Day), Mahershala Ali (True Detective), Christian Bale (American Psycho).
Nia (Supporting Lead)
Female | 27–35 | Any ethnicity (Black preferred)
Type: Grounded, intelligent, repressed, emotionally layered.
Tone: A moral center unraveling under pressure.
Description:
Nia is the owner and bartender of an elegant lounge, refined but unfulfilled. She has integrity, but it’s been worn thin by the monotony of life and the quiet resentment of her sister. When Lucian enters, she becomes his unwitting subject, tested through escalating psychological games.
Arc:
Begins rational and skeptical. Ends complicit, changed, and terrifyingly calm… a mirror of Lucian’s own poise. Her transformation is the film’s spine: from innocence to corruption.
Comparable roles:
Rebecca Hall (The Gift), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Surface), Nicole Beharie (Miss Juneteenth), Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl).
Layla
Female | 25–33 | Any ethnicity (Black preferred)
Type: Empathetic, confident, emotional, impulsive.
Tone: A bright personality thrust into darkness.
Description:
Nia’s younger sister. Outspoken, stylish, emotionally open, the opposite of Nia. Her relationship with Lucian (unknown to Nia at first) makes her collateral in his manipulation. When she appears at the bar late at night, her jealousy and confusion ignite the story’s explosive midpoint.
Arc:
Begins as an innocent outsider, becomes the emotional casualty of Lucian’s psychological game, representing “grace lost.”
Comparable roles:
Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country), Tessa Thompson (Sorry to Bother You), Kerry Washington (Scandal season 1 energy).
Mark (Nia's Husband)
Male | 30–40 | Any ethnicity (Black preferred)
Type: Intelligent, grounded, emotionally unavailable.
Occupation: Federal witness / Accountant.
Description:
A man trying to do the right thing in a corrupt world, unaware that doing so could destroy his family. His morality indirectly sets off the chain of events that Lucian exploits. Appears in only two scenes but his presence drives the entire story.
Arc:
The symbol of “truth under oath.” His silence at the end represents the death of integrity.
Mike
Male | 30–45 | Any ethnicity
Type: Working-class guy, regular at the bar.
Description:
Friendly, warm, occasionally cynical. The moral witness to Nia and Lucian’s conversation before becoming Lucian’s victim.
Arc:
Serves as the audience’s moral compass until his death redefines the rules of the game.
Other
-
Businessman #1 & #2 (2 Males, Ages 28-40): Two slightly drunk, middle-aged professionals; one cocky, one responsible. Appear in the opening bar sequence for tone and pacing.
-
News Anchor (1 Male, 1 Female, Ages 28-40): Calm, professional voice delivering neutral exposition that contrasts the chaos beneath.
-
Bartender (Female, Age 21-27): A young, sharp-tongued coworker who senses trouble before anyone else and exits just as the night turns dark.
- Bar Patron (Male, Age 30 & up): A familiar neighborhood customer whose small talk later reveals how thoroughly Nia has learned Lucian’s ways
- Tommy Raines (Male, Age 21 & up) No Dialogue – A rugged, blue-collar landscaper with quiet intensity whose calm after violence reveals more than guilt ever could.
Tommy’s Business Partner (Male Age 22 & up) No Dialogue – A slick, image-driven money man whose charm masks greed, becoming the corpse that haunts Lucian’s story.
- Bar Extras (30-45 people, ages 21 & up)
Audition
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