Tv and Screen Acting

Acting with TV and SCREEN:

We were shown a documentary on acting and these are the notes I took down during, and what I considered when filming scenes and shots.

Notes:
-hide pain behind eyes
-its the bravery that moves us
-focus on surroundings and where you are
-environment
-eyes think about your eyes
-less is more
-who you're talking to
-don't tell the story of the plot, just be the character
-more emotion in the face, lighten face and make it brighter.
-Use of imagery (imagine what you need to see in your head)
(for example if you are acting where someone is talking about a ex that cheated, imagine him there, this allows to locate that pain on your face when you actually think of him.
-Being specific to who you're talking to.
-Breath on the impulse
-Replace characters name exercise
-Look around, be aware where you are.
-Don't always have to look fixed on the person we are talking to all the time.


During the Tv and Screen acting lessons, I have realised how different it is to acting on stage or in theatre acting. Stage acting is all about feeling and TV is a lot more technical. Everything from the angle of the camera, the eye line of the actor or the expression on the actors face all needs to be taken in a different perspective. First of all we watched a documentary where I took notes as the ones listed above. The documentary showed us studying actors listening to the directors notes and then taking them on board. Examples were where the actor was given a scenario and they had to be aware of their surroundings, environment, and who they were talking to. They were given exercises like swapping and replacing names in order to create a more realistic reaction to what the other person was saying.

First thing we did was experiment with the camera in lesson 1. We first looked at Joe who took a few lines from a monologue and then spoke them whilst being filmed. His eye line wasn't on the camera, he was looking at Alicia who was stood behind the camera and he was talking to her. His eye line looked different on the camera when we watched it back on the screen. By watching it back on the screen it was easier to pin point when Adam had a suggestion of what to try differently or improve on. I was asked to go next, and I did a few lines from my monologue from 'Like A Virgin' from Gordon Steel. We did a take for rehearsal and then we went for a take. I used less emotion with my face and just focused on my eyes and how i used them, I didn't always focus on who I was talking to and I smiled a lot to try and take away the tension and the pain which is what I felt I needed to use when taking on quite a dramatic piece of text. My eye line was based on Zac who was sat at about 25 degree angle right from the camera. After getting a chance to actually try a few shots, I realised how different I looked on camera, and how the camera picked up a lot more. We tried over the shoulder shots and took in turns to shoot our shots and up close shots.

We learnt about a technique this week where it's like 3 weeks rehearsal in three minutes. Basically you take a line and try it in a different way every time you say it. It was really interesting to watch because you had more time to experiment and decide what worked and what didn't and if more than one of them worked which one felt the best or looked the best when you said it. When the man was saying his line to the lady, the lady naturally gave the line back in the way he delivered it. I liked this exercise and I plan to do this because I think it will really help me get the right mood and emotion when delivering my lines. Or even with partner work it could help me when having to deliver a line to someone and try and get the right connection/feeling between the characters and what they are saying.

Learning about physical metaphors interested me. Being able to match what you are saying with an actual action was quite difficult because it seemed like I was being over the top and it felt forced. But doing the exercise opened up new ideas where I could actually take away smaller element from this action and make it more personal and realistic.

We worked on a script given to us today, which was American and so it tested our accents today. I struggled a little bit on the accent though as it's not something I have really introduced before. This scene would have gone better for me if I hadn't of 'Under Acted' which was my feedback for me today. I held back on some of the actions and I could have afforded to be a little bit more bold and go for it. I learnt that it's better to go for it and get pulled back than to not go for it at all and hold back.

We did a spontaneity exercise. We paired up and learnt a few lines each and then got up in front of the camera and improvised them. We were to be completely spontaneous and do every take differently.

Don't Underact, go for the cringey bits. It's better to bring stuff to the table than to play it safe. Accidents by nature are organic. If something is spontaneous, it's unplanned which means making it original. Sometimes it doesn't always work, but a lot of the time it's creative something completely new and authentic. Accidents within speech bring a level of realism to it. You don't plan it, but this is what makes it what it is. A fortunate accident, so by being bold with accidents this will be picked up by the ear of the listener, and I can use this to my advantage to be noticed.