Working in commercial film

I'm working with one of the lead actors for an upcoming commercial. Trying to get a stage actor with no film experience more comfortable in front of the camera. My view is that if you involve yourself with your character emotionally and you are so absorbed with that, it becomes much less nerve wracking. While waiting for the shoot, occupy your time with positive self talk, deep breathing, relaxation exercises and concentration on learning your lines. Follow that up by practicing your emotion range and testing how it feels. Make the emotion show on your face and body. Try making it larger than normal then tone it down and learn to make your feelings come to the surface subtly. Work on your emotional range and what your character must do to control feelings as the story develops and finally just interact and REACT to other actors. Remember, even in a commercial, it's all about personal relationships and how we feel about the situation we are involved in. Know what emotion you're supposed to be feeling and play that until something happens to change the emotion. Make your character interesting so that you are an empathetic character or fascinating one to watch. Fully commit to all actions and stay inside his/her head to the exclusion of all else. Don't try to act: try to live in the moment.

Emotion: The life blood of acting

How many times have you gone to the theater and seen people going through the motions, making big expressive movement with no feelings behind those actions? To make it real, there has to be something more. Real feelings are produced by an actor who has trained sufficiently and when they fill their movement with emotion, it becomes art. I have come to believe that all acting is merely an expression of emotion based on your character's personal ability to control his/her emotions, pitted against obstacles and simmering with conflict of some kind. That is what produces good drama and comedy. Each individual controls emotion differently, It is not enough for the actor to feel emotion, they must also describe that with facial mannerisms and appropriate actions, but it certainly has to be deeply felt by the actor, drawing from personal experience or imagination. It is also no where near enough to simply feel emotion. It has to be acted upon and even dramatised. An actor's movements or actions can be very large in a huge auditorium, but it has to be filled with appropriate emotion or it falls flat. People relate viscerally to emotion deeply felt and this brings empathy and naturalism to your performance.

Directing a play--The Tarentino Variation

So we have our first rehearsal. I have my work cut out for me. Three relatively untrained actors that need to begin to perform like professionals in just a few months. We are a million miles away from ready. We go over some basics. It's a spoof for God's sakes. A Farce. A satire of Reservoir Dogs. Come on guys, get real. Don't worry about accents I tell them, or objectives, or character back-story at this point. Just make it real. Bigger than life emotions. Your all holding guns to your friends head; you should be terrified, panic-stricken. Show me something! Be Seinfeld-ish if you like. Show me some physical improve with some high stakes feelings...All your actions should be the simple physicality of trying to suppress the emotion "fear" while you hold your partner at bay.... Three guys with squirt guns holding one another hostage--a Mexican Standoff if you will. We rotate the circle a couple of times then we reverse it. All these characters are trying to do is out-macho one another and trying to hold up their end of societies bargain. They're frightened, they're confused, they're trying to fit into the stereotypical roles they've been given and doing an abysmal job. In the end, they all go out for hamburgers and a salad bar, but never break free. It's just that simple. Now I'm beginning to ask myself... Is this show really about my directing this the show....is that what it's really about?? I begin to wonder....All I'm asking is 8 minutes of insanity. Come on guys. Show me some funny.

acting naturally: Shadow emotion

acting naturally: Shadow emotion: "This blog will be an ongoing discussion of acting basics and ideas. The first one I want to talk about is shadow emotion. It is a random nam..."

acting naturally: Objective

acting naturally: Objective: "Objective is one of THE most important things to remember as you develop your character. Without it the scene can fall flat. Why? Peopl..."

Objective

Objective is one of THE most important things to remember as you develop your character. Without it the scene can fall flat. Why? People instinctively empathize with that basic human characteristic. People who doggedly overcome their obstacles to achieve something. Even the bad guys. You have to have wants and desires and go after them with persistence. It is within the core of "conflicting interests" where we find conflict and tension and this helps create all the drama and comedy. When I perform, I'm thinking objective, feeling some emotion and responding to what is happening around me in the scene. But it is the OBJECTIVE that I seek, realizing that I may have to use various strategies (based on the script) to go after that objective. I may play it coy, or might get right up in some one's face and make demands, but I will be trying to get something that is desperately important, simply because all people are selfish. We have self interest in everything we do. So going after something that is very important to us brings realism to the character. You must have objective!

Shadow emotion

This blog will be an ongoing discussion of acting basics and ideas. The first one I want to talk about is shadow emotion. It is a random name I chose to help explain the importance of bringing the subconscious mannerisms of our character into our physical action while acting. Sometimes brought out natually, these actions are manifistations of the subconscious mind. They appear like shadows of what we are truly feeling on a subliminal level. Since your character may be very different than yourself, they sometimes have to be contructed by the actor, but made to look completely natural. So I'm tackeling the toughest part of an actors tool chest first. It's tough because it has to be done naturally to be effective. For it to be done properly it should be done subtly enough not to be noticed most of the time. But it is part of the telling of the story of your character. It is like making shadow puppets on a wall. The image you create with your shadow puppets becomes magical as they come to life on the wall...