Acting Styles

Okay, I can't sleep. So I thought now's as good a time as any to write this particular post.

I've been thinking a lot about acting for stage vs acting for film/tv. That night that I went to the theatre there was an actor there in the Conservatory production, I'd seen him before, he was actually in my improv class at the college several years ago (but I never got to work with him in that class). I remember being impressed with him then, and I was still impressed with him when I saw him a few weeks ago. I love watching him on stage, he is just so alive and relaxed and creative.

But then, I imagined watching him on a movie screen, watching the same acting he presents on stage, and I suddenly got the difference between stage acting and film acting. I mean I logically understood the difference before now, but it suddenly hit home. This guy's wonderful theatrical acting would become massively overstated and melodramatic on the big screen. So I completely understand what is meant by you have to act bigger for the stage. You have to act with every part of your body at every moment, your movements have to be bigger, your reactions have to be bigger (but no less honest.)

So film acting. You just have to be real. And if anything more subtle in your reactions than you'd be in real life even. And I haven't ever had the opportunity to attempt this type of acting.

It's true that I've taken a class that was called "Acting For The Camera", but really it was a commercial acting techinques class. We did not learn how to be subtle or real for the camera for dramatic acting. We did not learn the technicalities of working with the camera. We learned how to act for commercials. And now that I've discovered the difference between theatrical acting and acting for film, I realize that acting for commercials is very theatrical. Your acting has to be bigger, more energetic perhaps than for dramatic film acting.

Learning, learning, learning...