Studio Shoot #9: Acting Workshop with Stephen North

 2nd Dec. '20

In this workshop led by Stephen North, he taught us how a director should work and build a relationship with the actors, the etiquettes of working on set with actors, what to look for when casting and how to identify good actors. We began by defining what makes a good actor and a bad one:

- Good Acting is the ability to use personal experience and attributes of your self towards making and playing the role of a character. The ability to understand their mindset and feel connected to their character.

- The acting is believable or not: whether you believe

- Bad acting is some one who isn't convincing, natural, glazed over and isn't present in the story and don't believe it them self

- Bad acting can really kill the shot even if it is beautifully set up and shot.

- Acting is behaving 'as if'. This was entailing the Stanislavski's theory of 'The Magic If' where you give the actor a situation/circumstance which encourages them of believing what they are doing making it more realistic and convincible to the audience

To highlight what good and bad acting is even further, we looked at the acting in series, L.A. Takedown original (1989), particularly at the coffee shop scene vs the remake in to a feature film, Heat (1995) both directed by Michael Mann. 

 L.A. Takedown 1989

Michael Mann

The acting in the original series coffee shop scene wasn't very good because the man who plays the gangster/criminal has a very dead pan face; he doesn't react to the cop who he is talking to and has a glazed over face and doesn't seem to be very natural. Furthermore, he doesn't seem to be engaged with his surroundings as well. 

Heat 1995

Michael Mann

    This scene between Deniro and Pacino is an example of amazing acting. this is because they are both listening to each other and their environment. Dinero, who plays the same role of the gangster/criminal, adds more to this scene as he reacts in conversation, looks around, and is more natural portraying that character.

Pacino also displays his technical knowledge as an actor as we see him move closer to the edge of the shot when things get more tense between the two men. 

    This was really useful to identify what we should look for when casting for this project and for the future. We discussed that when casting, as a director you want to fine some one who captures the role you are looking for, but also some one who can take feed back and criticism well and can quickly adapt and apply it to their acting. As on set it will be mainly with the director they are communicating with.     

    Stephen gave us tips on how directors should actually direct actors and what is appropriate to say to them and what isn't. One thing that he said was key not to do was called 'Result Direction'. Result Direction is just telling the actors exactly what to do, therefore having the result spelled out by you. This should only be used as a last resort by the director. Otherwise, the best way to approach a director is to give them the clear backstory and explain what has gone on right before each scene and give them an 'as if' scenario.

We also watched an acting task that Stephen instruct Miso to do where he demonstrated the impact of the 'as if' on actors. He made Miso do an action which was brush his teeth multiple times. However, each time he changed the circumstances. For example, he told him to pretend as if he was in a new place he hadn't been before or that he was late to go some where or as if you wanted to get. Each time Miso changed the way he went about brushing his teeth, adapting his acting to the changed. This was the same for the acting task Flora and Reagan did where they pretended to be blind and find keys. However when they actually did the task with their eyes closed, they moved around more quieter and not as much.

When casting:

- look for an actor that can take criticism well and quickly and adapt it to the scene there and then 

- an actor who can work well with a director and have a good, professional relationship

- communicates thoughts and ideas

When Filming:

- don't confuse or overwhelm the actor with lots of technical issues, keep that for the crew. 

- break your directions down and don't overcomplicate those too.

- crew must create a respectful environment for actors that is friendly, relaxed yet professional.

- Just before filming a scene, give actors a reminder of what happened the scene before and what feelings the character had as not all scenes are shot in order.                  

Overall, this workshop was extremely useful as there are lots of ways I wasn't