Result Acting

tommyinla said:
What are you working on right now?
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i'm overseeing post-production on a feature we (Sabi Pictures) shot last fall called White Knuckles.

i've got a feature i'm writing, directing and producing in september called "Heart of Now" [dvxuser thread] [official site]

and next week i'm resuming regular meetings with Unica, the collaborative of artists who produced Blue in Green to start developing a second project for 2008.
 
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i'd love to. but i'm also a freelance producer/editor of dvd content with a business to run. we're expanding from two bays to six next month. really wanted to be a part of dramafest, but i just don't have the time, you know? and not to diminish short form filmmaking in any way, but the audience for shorts is too limited. i'd much rather put all my focus and resources into producing features in the hope that one of them breaks through to a larger audience.
 
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I might do something for spyfest. I know someone who's a 16mm guy and I'm going to ask him if he'd be interested in doing something...
 
Zak Forsman said:
i'd love to. but i'm also a freelance producer/editor of dvd content with a business to run. we're expanding from two bays to six next month. really wanted to be a part of dramafest, but i just don't have the time, you know? and not to diminish short form filmmaking in any way, but the audience for shorts is too limited. i'd much rather put all my focus and resources into producing features in the hope that one of them breaks through to a larger audience.
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That's too bad Zak

I really admire your opinion and taste in film. :beer: But ....

Totally understand the responsiblities :(
 
Zak Forsman said:
granted my approach is far from conventional, but i don't give a script to my actors. we develop the characters during the rehearsal period using guided (by me) improvisations. i take what's borne from those sessions and rewrite the script. but again, here's where i differ from the norm, i do not write dialogue. so the cast has this blueprint of the story's structure. and in place of dialogue, each scene has notes on motivations and thematic relevance, clear objectives for each character and playable actions. i wouldn't even call it a screenplay. it's a structurally ordered collection of information for each scene. i suppose they could study that as its a guide for the path the story takes. but by that point, they know their characters better than i do from the improvisational work they did.
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Woody Allen never lets the cast see the script, only the scenes they are in and Sometimes not all. Say what you want about his films, he gets some of the most natural performances on screen. I don't think it is a bad idea to not show an actor a script. Anything that keeps an actor from thinking externally is a good thing and sometimes knowing the twists and turns or outcome of a story, an actor may start artificially externalizing in anticipation (its human nature).

With a good actor you need to be less worried but its not a bad or good idea. just another choice.
 
I think this is the best thread on this whole site, and it's a shame I didn't know about it until now! It's true that everyone is different, every relationship is different, but these techniques are all tools that will make you stronger, if you can choose between them. It's true what they say: producing a movie is a lot like going to war. And just like in war, you have to have a strategy and a plan, but you also have to be able to adapt instantly when your plan catastrophically fails!

Whoever mentioned that you need to lose the word "don't" from your vocabulary: yes. Great advice. It's a hard thing to do. But essential. It's hard work, and time consuming, to figure out how to go from just saying what you don't like to instead suggesting ideas you DO like, but once you do that you're a long way towards having far more productive relationships with your actors.

I like to do my auditions, when time allows, as half performance, half job interview. You can get someone who can give an absolutely stunning reading of a page, but if it turns out their process is totally alien to you, that might be a real problem when you're trying to get through five pages a day on set. So I do like to just sit and talk honestly to an auditioning actor for a few minutes about their process, how they work with directors, what their strong points are. Like I said, though, time often doesn't allow for this. But if you've got time, DO it. I think you're better off with a good actor you can work easily with than a brilliant one you can't.


PS Zak - yesterday I auditioned Barbara Kerford for a film I'm preparing to do. Nice girl. Just thought I'd mention that!
 
Interesting thread. I am Directing my first feature length film, working with some new actors and 2 weeks ago I had to tell an actor to "stop acting"

Not very good direction. LOL
 
Or maybe, "Try it from the top and don't suck so bad or I'll have to call John, who, honestly, is a much better actor than you are and had a much better audition but wasn't available for the shoot. Thanks."
 
I like to keep the cast off balance, so every morning i'll say something like: "Oh, it's you? Came back for more, eh? By the way, what you did yesterday wasn't very good. Oh well, let's keep shooting."
 
What I recently did on an extremely small shoot basically just for my friends to have a laugh was I bought about 15 DV tapes and just kept popping them in and hitting record. It was all dialogue (or static-camera character driven action indoors), and we only had to move our setup something like 4 times.

Anyways, we just kept the camera rolling.

We took a simple make-the-character-look-stupid line and ran with it for ten minutes.

The line was "That doesn't make any sense!"
<with the camera rolling I said, "Now give me a Dirty Harry version of it">

"Well... mister... you don't make sense...punk."

<Okay do a valley girl now>

"Like, you're not making any ***** sense, jerk!"

<Okay same thing, but IQ of a doorknob>

"You like, don't make a cent."

<That's it, say that, but say it how you said the first one!>

"You aren't making one cent!"

So we came up with a pretty funny line just through stream of conciousness like boom boom boom reset kind of stuff.
 
Zak Forsman said:
I like to keep the cast off balance, so every morning i'll say something like: "Oh, it's you? Came back for more, eh? By the way, what you did yesterday wasn't very good. Oh well, let's keep shooting."
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This was a joke, right? :Drogar-BlackEye(DBG
 
I started off as an actor, and I'm glad to have run across this post...

First I agree, every actor is different and needs to be treated differently... However using results oriented directing is almost always a no no. Not only will it make the acting fake, it also can be very demeaning to the actor. Time and time again, even if they are not giving you what you imagined in your head, telling them what to do, will make the performance worse.

BUT... There is one big exception, it is fine to give an actor results oriented direction if there is a technical reason behind it, and please tell the actor why he needs to do it this way, don't just give the results oriented direction and leave it at that.

Example,

"At the end of that monologue, I need you to look over towards that direction, and give me a sigh of longing... I need this, because It will make the edit smoother into the flashback."

or, something like

"I need you to say the line like this, we already filmed your scenes as a child, and this is a story line situation, where we need to show that the child and adult still have some of the same traits that they refuse to grow out of."

The worst thing that can happen to an actor is he can get stuck in his head, if you treat him with respect, and explain things, this is less likely to happen. But don't use these methods too liberally, or else you'll lose his trust.
 
Jmtasu said:
First I agree, every actor is different and needs to be treated differently... However using results oriented directing is almost always a no no.
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Well, right. We've talked about it. That's why the action verbs can help.

If I give you a direction to "be happy" there's such a generic... slop that you're gonna get. You've just poured molasses into your actor's head.

If I give you a direction to "smile with your body", you're gonna look at me weird, and then I'm gonna get an original performance that is more genuine.

It doesn't work all the time, but it works with my friends who aren't actors.
 
I have found the most effective way to get great results from actors is to study acting theory and speak in the language their already familiar with.

I don't think an actor should have to adapt to me. It's my job to be The Communicator on set, so it is my responsibility to adapt to them. Therefore, I've studied Stanislavsky, Meisner and Strasberg and Mamet (yes, Mamet is an acting theorist as well as a writer.)

When I speak with an actor, I talk about their character's goals, the perceived obstacle in their path, how it relates to a real event from their own life and what emotionally manipulative tools they should employ to overcome the obstacle.

I strongly recommend reading A Practical Handbook For The Actor. The writing is a bit pretentious, but it is a manual for how to talk to actors. Even more importantly, take a Meisner class.

Here are some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_Meisner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Strasberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Adler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Stanislavski

I understand that giving a direction like "Smile with your body" can be a useful shortcut with a non-actor. I personally find this dangerous, because it is focusing on externals. It is far more original than most people's uninspired direction. I worked with a director who literally told actors "Do better" and felt that was adequate. Clearly, your pushing yourself far beyond such terrible, useless direction. However, I'm concerned that "Smile with your body" is still focusing on externals. I don't like to tell an actor how to behave...I prefer to focus on how they feel and what they want. Realistic, unpredictable and inventive behavior will naturally emerge from a focus on internal forces and motivations.

And if that sounds like a bunch of artsy fartsy talk, let me say it more simply. If I ask an actor to "freeze with fear and panic" I'll get just that...they'll freeze with fear and panic. Maybe it will be somewhat realistic, but I doubt it. More than likely, it will be a characature of freezing with fear and panic.

If I ask an actor to think about a time when they were terrified and relive that moment honestly through the imaginary circumstances of our screenplay, their body will instinctively do things none of us could have planned.
 
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