Okay, I'm having some issues with some stuff that I don't understand about acting right now, and I'm beginning to panic again that I won't be able to learn this stuff, that I don't have what it takes, blah blah blah. Trying to remember to breathe, to remember that fear is just part of the process.
So, the issues I'm having: Having a physical activity to do while focused on the action of the scene is really awesome. But, I've noticed that in film stillness is more powerful. Stillness is not entirely appropriate for the stage, it seems to me, because who wants to watch someone just standing still? But in film it is entirely appropriate because the director can still create visual variety for the audience through use of close ups and camera angles, etc. I guess the issue I have is the conflict between using a physical activity to help empower the action, and using none to create stillness creates the fear that I'll suck at stillness. However, I remember when I performed Babe's monologue from "Crimes of the Heart" by Beth Henley for my SCR class, I hardly moved at all, and it worked, I could feel the class's tension thick and sharp in the air. So maybe I won't (and don't) suck at stillness.
Another issue: In the first chapter of "The Actor's Checklist", the author writes about breaking down a scene line by line and assigning an action to each moment, and each of these actions relates to the main action chosen. While again, this seems entirely appropriate for stage, I wonder about it's appropriateness for film. I worry about loss of spontaneity in performance, especially since someone (unfortunately I don't remember who) on "Inside the Actor's Studio" said, "Film acting is about capturing spontaneous moments. Stage acting is about re-creating spontaneous moments." And another thing on this topic: When filming a scene, if the director asks you to do it again, you need to bring something different to each take, otherwise you're just wasting film and everyone's time. If you as an actor are locked into a specific set of actions that you created while doing your homework, then how can anything be different? I feel like I'm missing some important piece of information that if I knew it, all of this would just fall into place. Maybe I'm just taking it all too seriously, looking at it as black and white, instead of grey. Maybe the key to this one is to be aware of the main actions for each beat, but to allow yourself instinctively and spontaneously to find specific actions within each beat.
And on a completely different topic: I've decided that since my acting safety zone seems to be playing victims, that I won't allow myself to play victims anymore. Even if the character is a victim of something, I won't play her as a victim, I'll force myself to find something else.
1 comment:
On stillness,
my thought for the day on stillness is that in theatre moments of stilness are really powerful. I find i use it more in styles that break the 4th wall. I'f i'm talking directly to my audience I'm a lot more still, possibly because if my objective is for them to listen and hear me and they can't exactly run away so i'll slow down and tell them the story. But, you can't make everything still or your audience will want to throw things at you, and stilness is always more powerful in contrast to something else.
not sure if that helps, and it's only one version of grey in the land of 'no right only closer and further away from the target'.
I so know how you feel, I think the more I study the less I know about any of this. I hope that the more i get out and perform the less i'll worry about not knowing... we'll see.
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