These are the notes that I took during the Heartland Film Institute Acting for the Camera Seminar last month. It was really informative. I couldn't find the video of the seminar I attended but there a lot of other great seminars you can watch. Click here to see the archives. You can also view my review on my youtube channel as well.
Have a wonderful day and follow your dreams.
NOTES:
Heartland Film Festival Seminar-Acting on Film
Myths about Acting
(teaching with mistakes)
Working with an open script -a script with no meaning.
Film and tv are one of the few career choices that is located in every one's home so people think they know how to do it.
Acting at it's finest is invisible. If I can catch you doing it than you are doing it wrong.
What is acting?
Doing
reacting
What's the difference between good acting and bad acting?
It's tough
It feels real
mediocre acting looks realistic or natural
When moving from theater to screen-many actors forget they have to “act” They just open their eyes and don't move their face
Watch “the hussler”
Monique from Precious
Antov chekov (three sisters)-READ IT!
Theater is a medium of language and then images
Film is a medium of images and then language
Film is good with exposition
Hollywood continuity style: shoot it linearly
Single camera
(get a reader for seems right)
1st shot: master shot-where will you be shot so you can feel safe
Horror movies will start out close up-to make the audience feel uncomfortable
They use very few shots from the master shot
Shots:
The actors need to be closer: spatial relationship
Just watch the “money monitor”
(We watched two actors on film.)
The teacher didn't believe that the two actors had the relationship that they claimed to have of being best platonic friends. They did not greet each other as such.
Charlie Chaplin: Simplicity is no simple thing
Whenever the director asks about your character
Refer to the character in the first person
The actor says that “we are two people WHO” creates the juiciness of it.
Camera
Put actor out of frame
as film actors you always want a moment of discovery-why did the cameras show up today?
The camera likes it when “two actors HAPPEN to each other”
Sometimes actors have to be “done” to
Actors must LISTEN so that it can HAPPEN to you
Set up the scene for failure
Actors set up expectations that WILL NOT BE MET
Camera's show up when today is the day (today is the day that the he tells her that he loves her after all these years)
TWO SHOT
We would come into the coffee shot we would walk in and see two people talking and wonder what they are saying
Bad acting is when the pinch doesn't match the ouch
HAPPEN TO ONE ANOTHER-
Acting is seamless if I can catch you doing it then you are doing it wrong
Really do what you are really doing for real
MISTAKE: don't forget to act when you get your script. You still need your actor training; to make things specific
If you come in as an actor and don't bring anything to the script then the script will bring nothing to you. Take the script and find the nugget-”upon this nugget I can build my character”
Take your script and steep it in the hot water of your soul. So when you remove the script you are earl grey. You can't take earl grey out of you-it has colored the water of your soul. It has changed you and can never take it out of you. (add “who” ex: This is my best friend who...”
Be careful with the pauses. Pause after the bad news not before
The audience will hear your behavior they won't see what you're saying
When doing a cold read remember (pinch/ ouch!) Don't worry about the line as much as listening to the other line, then fishing for the line. Be contact with the reader.
For an audition:
Choose the person who looks the part or acts the part?
ANSWER: it's a combination of both
***subscript and backstory and listening** there is a lot of white on a film script
Taking entries for the heartland film festival
REST OF THE COVERAGE: Close-ups (a chance for the audience to get a close up)
Always stay open to the camera. Look at one of the actor's eyes, keep your face open to the camera
you won't always do the whole scene in the close-up
JUST BE-and listen
****on a close up, the more that you look down and around the more that the audience will wonder what is down there. (Acting is not being closed off, it's being open-on the tight rope. WALK THE TIGHT ROPE WITH THE OTHER PERSON!
****THE actor CAN'T not and smell the flowers*** The actor HAS to stay in contact and keep the tight rope tight. THE ACTOR HAS TO OPEN UP AND JUMP INTO THE DARK UNKNOWN
The actor HAS to look at the person they are telling they want a divorce. It would be easy for the actor to disconnect...but they CAN'T
NEVER stop until the director says cut there might be a gem that the director can find in there somewhere.
When it's your close up- Being hunched over is not pretty and it puts tension into your face
relaxing is not a pushing it's a FILLING UP (it's opening up into contact)
if it happens to you just RESPOND
When the “Juice comes” don't say to the camera (you can't have it)
****There is no such thing as too much contact for an actor****
****Actors take a hit***
Make every script you work on Shakespeare. Treasure it as if it is the best script you have read
We can get coddled by the good scripts and at our peril feel like it's easy.
Franklin Jello great actor of our time
Charlie Rose interview: To be a great actor be profoundly prepared.
