Voice: The Cinderella of the Film Industry Overview: Voice is little regarded in the film business, either by actors or directors. Sets are dry, smoky, unhealthy places. Unlike theatre, many actors don’t see the need to warm up or cool down for screen. Directors hope to ‘fix it in post’. Yet voice is vital for […]
Category: Screen Acting
Because they are talking to themselves… Because they are on learned lines which is highly unnatural… Because they are embarrassed by the script… Because the new lines came under the hotel bedroom door at 3am Because THEY came in the hotel bedroom door at 3am… Because it’s a night shoot – the night after a […]
@MelChurcher – Thinking Like An Actor: It’s not WHAT your characters say; it’s WHY they say it. And the way they say it depends WHO they are, what they WANT and the LIVES they lead – the speed of their thoughts, their dreams, passions and predicaments. There is no such thing as dialogue – only […]
(This was first published in ‘The Great Acting Blog 2011 but links were invalid..so updated.) Actors are often obsessed with sub-text and when they find it, they want to share it. But what is sub-text? Literally it is what lies beneath the words. But we deal in sub-text all the time, even when we are […]
How do You Solve a Problem without Knowing what the Problem is? When you first start screen directing, you know there’s a problem but you can’t put your finger on what it is – so you can’t solve it. Here’s a little check-list to help you identify what the problem might be… Symptom: The actor […]
When you are fighting to get auditions, change your agent, fix your showreel, cope with earning enough money in a job that lets you off for castings – it’s easy for the joy to go out of the work. ‘The world is too much with us…’ as Wordsworth put it. But there is a joy! […]
‘Subtext: Any meaning or set of meanings which is implied rather than explicitly stated in a literary work…’ (Oxford Reference) I did a blog a while back called Concealing and Revealing about what lies beneath words (what doesn’t! We’d all get arrested or ostracised from society if we couldn’t hide our thoughts…) and I’ve […]
Time for those resolutions… Instead – think of it as dusting off the cobwebs and letting in the sparkle… Some quick thoughts for basking in that sunshine that will grow brighter as the weeks go by: 1. Step out of your own shadow. Allow yourself to believe that you are worthy of doing what you […]
More and more of us are being asked to self-tape these days. It’s supposed to be greener – it certainly saves producers money – but it puts an extra burden on actors. On the plus side, it probably means you try for more opportunities overall. So look on the positive side – this is a […]
I’ve just spent 16 weeks of my life coaching on the forthcoming mega TV series Marco Polo. Before anyone from Netflix, Weinstein or the Marco Polo production office reads this – let me assure them, the following holds no spoilers. I quote the blog on Metro: “Filmed in Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Italy with a budget […]
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