"Acting For The Camera"

I started reading Acting For The Camera by Tony Barr yesterday. The first half of the book is about the actor's craft of acting for the camera, the second half is about the pragmatic aspects of technically working with and acting for the camera.

The chapters are short, I read through Chap. 4 (pg 26) but even just that--what an eye opener! Half of it, I was thinking, "Yes! Exactly!" The other half I was thinking, "Oh, it's not that simple. Crap. I've still got a lot to learn." Barr writes that acting for the camera is as simple as listening with all your senses to the other actor and reacting. But when you get to Chapter 4: Acting Defined, that's when it starts loosing it's simplicity bit by bit, as pieces are added on to the "definition of acting". Barr writes that we need to be aware of the dynamics of our reactions, the rise and fall, the interchange between actors. So, by the end of the chapter, the full definition Barr has reached is this:

"Acting is responding to stimuli in imaginary circumstances in an imaginitive, dynamic manner that is stylistically true to time and place, so as to communicate ideas and emotions to an audience."

In order to do this, Barr writes, we need to be aware of all stimuli, be able to absorb all stimuli without blocks or rejections, and be emotionally free to respond to all stimuli. One of the analagies Barr uses is this: "In virtually all instances, an actor begins his training with an instrument that can be compared to a piano that has at least twenty or thirty inoperative keys." That phrase really hit home with me, because I had slipped into an old habitual belief I have that I need to be perfect coming out of the gate. This reminded me it ain't gonna happen, I still have a lot to learn, a lot to work on.