Thread: Tell me about ACTING

It's a broad subject. What would you like to know? I have a presentation in two days on my entire two year theater course, so when I'm finished writing it up, maybe I'll post it here for you to see if you want.

I'm open for any specific questions you have though.

Originally Posted by Silox

My favorite actors right now are Daniel Day-Lewis, Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Heath Ledger.

Then you need to start watching some real actors like Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart, James Mason.

But yeah, I am something of a thespian too. What do you want to know?

Acting is like lying. You have to decide what your lie is and then stick to it and emphasize it as much as necessary without going over board so much so that it becomes apparent it is a lie. However...sometimes overboard works in acting.

Here are some tips that aren't apparently taught. http://www.actingbiz.com/articles/acting_tips.php

Originally Posted by Sandform

However...sometimes overboard works in acting.

Right, it depends on the style of theater/acting you're performing. If you're performing for something such as Epic Theater, Commedia, or Greek Theater, than over the top fits, in fact it's necessary. However, you're most likely not going to see these types of acting in a movie. These styles are usually restricted to the stage.

Also, overacting can be comedic, so it could be used as a comedic device in a play/movie/whatever.

Originally Posted by Bayside

It's a broad subject. What would you like to know?

Well I just need to know the basics, I'm a complete beginner. I'm taking an acting elective for my high school. We get into groups get some scripts and then act in front of the class and perform them. As of now I just read it with fake emotion and "indicate" the whole thing. I find it hard to really get into the characters thoughts and their motivation and all that stuff. I'm so focused about just reading the script that I can't really worry about what is actually going on in the scene. Basically, I just want to know some good techniques. Like, what process do you go through once you get a script in your hands?

Also, another completely un-related question. I feel like theatre acting is much different than screen acting. I feel like in theatre you kind of are indicating the whole time because everything needs to be exaggerated for everyone in the crowd to know what's going on since they can't read the subtle emotions in your face. I know that actors need a lot of experience in theatre before they can go in to film, but I just curious if it's a whole diffrent experience or if it's hard to transition.
[QUOTE=paragon;1042054]

Originally Posted by Sandform

Here are some tips that aren't apparently taught. http://www.actingbiz.com/articles/acting_tips.php

Good read. Thanks sandform.

Originally Posted by Silox

Well I just need to know the basics, I'm a complete beginner. I'm taking an acting elective for my high school. We get into groups get some scripts and then act in front of the class and perform them. As of now I just read it with fake emotion and "indicate" the whole thing. I find it hard to really get into the characters thoughts and their motivation and all that stuff. I'm so focused about just reading the script that I can't really worry about what is actually going on in the scene. Basically, I just want to know some good techniques. Like, what process do you go through once you get a script in your hands?

Also, another completely un-related question. I feel like theatre acting is much different than screen acting. I feel like in theatre you kind of are indicating the whole time because everything needs to be exaggerated for everyone in the crowd to know what's going on since they can't read the subtle emotions in your face. I know that actors need a lot of experience in theatre before they can go in to film, but I just curious if it's a whole diffrent experience or if it's hard to transition.

Alright. Techniques. Well, for every person it's different, but what I find works for most people, is just get the script into your head first. What does not work for memorizing a script, is just saying the lines with the script in front of your face around in a circle with your other actors. You have to actually try it, you have to act it out, you have to try and go through it without the script. The first thing is to memorize your lines, and this will take a lot of your own personal time off on your own, just reciting the lines to yourself and covering your script until you get it down pact.

The biggest problem I had when starting out, is I would just sit and read the lines with my co-actors, and we'd end up accomplishing nothing. We realized that the time that we have together to work, should usually be spent on brainstorming and blocking. Since you're a beginner, I'm not sure if you know what blocking is, but I'll explain it in case you don't. Blocking is essentially your movement on stage, it's your actions, and positioning on stage. This is essential to the show to know before hand, if you get up there and try to bullshit the blocking and it's your first time doing it because you spent your whole time on the script, you're going to feel uncomfortable and awkward on the stage, and the audience will know it.

So when you're with your other actors and directors, the most important thing to get down is the blocking, and you should be working on your lines by yourself most of the time. It's good to know them as soon as possible though, so you can do real run-throughs of the show with your fellow actors, as it helps the whole performance start to come together.

Of course, with these rules, there are always exceptions. I know one time I had to do a ten minute play, and my co-actor and I just spent the whole day hanging out and reciting out lines to each other, and we got the play so down pact that I think we could still recite it today a year and half later if we had to. But generally, if you don't have that much time to spend with your fellow actors, then you'll be better of learning your lines on your own, and this is generally the case with a bigger crew, because it's harder to get them all together.

Knowing your blocking like this will help you because then you will have your actions planned out, and you won't have to think about whats going on in the scene so much, and can focus a bit more on your lines if you need to. But, you still need to know what emotions to use when you're reading your lines, and for this, you need to have your lines down really well, so you can think about what you're saying and how you would feel when you say it more so than having to think about what your next line is, if you get what I mean. If you don't have a good grasp of your lines, then you're going to be fighting yourself trying to remember them onstage, and you'll forget about other important parts of your acting.

Other little tips are just things like stage positioning, it's very important to cheat out. This is something a lot of new actors tend to forget about, you always cheat out so that the majority of the audience can see you. Even if you're walking along talking to another person onstage, that person would be walking a few feet behind the lead person, and you'd both be turned out towards the audience. It seems awkward, because it's not how we do it in real life, but it's necessary for the stage. Always be facing the audience, unless it's like a key defining moment or whatever for the act. So when you're on stage left, you should be turned out on a quarter to the right, and if you're on stage right, you turn out on a quarter to the left. Most people get the hang of this pretty fast. Basically, make sure your face is always out to the audience, and showing to the biggest portion of the audience possible.

Another thing is using your upstage arm. This is another simple one, but often forgotten. When you're on stage, one arm is always upstage, meaning it's your "back" arm in a sense. If you're on stage right and facing left, then it's your left arm, and if you're stage left facing right, then it's your right arm. This is the arm you will use for props, or interacting with other actors on stage. The reason for this is because if you use your other arm, you'll be putting it in front of your body. If you don't quite get what I'm saying, pretend right now that there's an object to your right. Reach to the right with your left hand. Your left arm is now blocking your body. This is an example of bad blocking. Now, if you reach to the right with your right arm, you aren't blocking anything. This is using your upstage arm. It's really simple, it's just a tad hard to describe in words.

Keep your head up. No matter what you're doing, unless it's a part that is made specifically for having your head down, your face should always be out to the audience. People have a tendency to sometimes let their faces go down for some reason, more often than you'd think, and it just doesn't work on stage. Especially if you're doing mask work. I'm not sure if you'll be doing any mask work, but if you do, remember to ALWAYS keep the mask facing the audience. If you need to walk backwards, do it, but don't ever turn because than the audience can see the seems of the mask, and it ruins the effect. So make sure the mask is always up and out to the audience. You can tilt the mask in many ways for many different effects, the simple tilting of a mask from a slight upward angle to a slight downward angle can drastically change how a character appears on stage, it's amazing to watch. Also, never EVER touch a mask on stage. It shatters the mask effect.

Another important thing is body control. Some good exercises to do for body control are slow-motion fighting, or slow-motion anything really. Keep your body moving at a constantly slow pace, even when you're taking steps, or whatever. You will sometimes feel like you're going to fall, or you'll feel unsteady, but you have to learn body control to keep your movement graceful and tact. Another great activity for body control is neutral mask work. It's amazing how much you can learn from working with neutral masks. Because of the nature of the neutral mask, the audience begins to take notice much more of the body than of the face, and the audience will automatically zone in on the slightest bit of body movement. It's amazing, it works almost like a zoom feature would on film, only it's on the stage. I did a workshop with this guy once, and it was amazing, when he got one of us to go on stage and pretend as though we were watching a fly, you would notice the person on stages every little movement. One person twitched their hand ever so slightly, and it became the focal point from then on, it was literally like your eyes would zoom in on that spot and watch it, and it worked very well for the scene, as the guy pretended to twitch his hand and then swat the fly with it.

Lighting is very important as well, but you might not delve so much into that. Lighting can completely set the tone and mood for a scene, and the way it interacts with an actor can create very cool outcomes for a scene, and completely change the way the audience perceives a scene.

For putting yourself into a characters mind, you should think about the character. Make up their life story if you have to. There's a million different schools of thought on this. Some interesting characters to look into are Meisner, Mamet and Stanislavsky. Stanislavsky believed in sense memory, he thought that in order to play a part, you had to first live the part. You needed to have the exact emotions in your memory as the character would have at any given point on the stage, it's a very grueling and intense bit of method acting that can actually be quite harmful on an actors psyche. I personally hate it with a passion, but it works for a lot of people. Mamet basically says theater teachers are a crock of shit, and there's nothing to it but to go out and do it, essentially. I actually haven't read a lot about Mamet yet, but what I've gotten from him, is that all types of method acting are bullshit, and you should just be able to go out and do it. Meisner is somewhat similar to Stanislavsky, only much more lenient. Meisner believed that to be a good actor, you could simply put yourself into that situation. I believe his quote was "living realistically in an imaginative world", or something to that degree. Basically, his method was that you would memorize a script, and know it well enough to get on stage and perform it, and make up the emotion on the spot as you went. You would literally become the character while you were on the stage. It requires no thinking before hand, and no sense memory as Stanislavsky would have.

I personally find myself pulling from both Meisner and Mamet's takes on it. I put myself in the situation, and think "How would I feel here? How can I display that? What can I relate to this situation?". However, I found it quite easy to get up and just take over the part, and put myself in the situation. I never found it that hard to do. I find the most important thing is, is you have to let go of your inhibitions, you have to let yourself stay backstage, when you walk out on to the stage, you are now the character. You can't really have a dignity/ego when you walk out on stage, I felt like an idiot the first few times I had to do something in front of people, but I realized that if I didn't put my all into it, I'd just look like more of an idiot. So let yourself go when you get onstage, and you should end up finding your character, and your audience will be amazed.

As for the difference between theater and film, YES, there is a huge difference. But you are right, you will almost definitely need to go through stage acting to get to film acting. The transition from one to the other shouldn't be that hard, going from the stage to film. If you went from film to stage, it'd be much more difficult. The way I see it, is that film is just like theater, only there's a lot more that can be conveyed through camera tricks, editing, etc. that can't be done on a stage. This makes it a lot easier for the actors in a sense. As well as that, in film, you can do a thousand takes if want. In theater, there's only one, the show must go on no matter how bad you butcher your scene. On film, things are less over the top generally, because it's much more easily viewable on a big screen or whatever, you know? The audience can usually tell whats going on because the director has the ability to put in all these little revealing shots, like zooming in on an actors face, or panning the camera to where the audience needs to see. So yeah, I'd say it shouldn't be too hard to go from the stage to film.

That's everything I can think of right now, if you have any other questions, or if you want me to clarify something, just let me know, I'd be happy to answer them. I was a little all over the place there, it's after one in the morning and I should be sleeping, aha....

Wow, thanks Bayside. That really helped and was very interresting

I'll definetley look up Mamet and Meisner now.