Film, Camera Work, and Improv

They brought us in, in groups of 10 or 12, so I had the rare pleasure of watching other people perform their monologues (something I truly love watching -- one of my goals is to work as a reader for a NYC casting director: it shouldn't be too hard to find the time and opportunity to volunteer, and I'd learn allot, but about how to do monologues, and castings). Anyway, as usual, the rate at which I usually see people who really know what they're doing is about 10% (and I DON'T include myself in that 10%), but for some reason, when I see someone who is really REALLY good, I get determined to get that good myself.

I didn't think I did a good job, but, with practice, I have been noticing that my monologue auditions have getting slowly better, so I looked at this audition as yet another opportunity to for real-world practice.

About two weeks later, they called me back in, this time for a cold reading -- really cold: you didn't get to see the sides until you showed up, and then they give you a few minutes. I arrived on time, and I told myself to take all the (reasonable) amount of time I needed to read and understand the sides, and while I reading, one person went ahead of me, and I noticed how quickly he rushed through the reading, as I often have done, and I told myself, 'OK -- just slow down when you do this.' And I did. I've been also working hard on my cold reading skills, and the work seemed to pay off because I was quite pleased with how I did (which is my main objective -- I want to be remembered for doing a good job whether or not I get cast).

Well, they remembered me, and I got cast last Thursday, they called me and said they wanted to book me in a small scene, in a small role of an " film producer," and they wanted to know if I was available to shoot the next day. I said yes, and then asked about the script, and they side the scene would be improved, and the director would work out the details when I arrived.

Now, this is interesting. It's been a long time goal of mine to study improv -- not because I'm so taken with this type of comedy -- but because it seems good improv has the basic elements of great acting -- spontaneity and great listening skills: it seems like it's essential stripped down acting, and I find that fascinating. So just this week, I signed up for a beginning summer improv class at The P.I.T.

Improv -- it's harder than it looks (and I'll be writing about it elsewhere as I go along in the class). Suffice it to say that while I basically "got it" right away after Tom told us what it was, learning to really do it well is going to take ALOT longer. Nevertheless, what little I learned came in handy on Friday doing the shoot -- mostly it's helped me to understand what went wrong.

Improv can be hard, especially if you're new, and working on camera can also be hard, again, especially if you're new. And trying to do both at the same time is . . . well, twice as hard.

I think I did OK, the director seemed reasonably happy, we did a lot of takes, so I'm hopeful that she'll be able to piece together something that will make me look good, however, I want to note here what I thought went right and what went wrong, and why.

The scene was a three person scene, and while I'm fairly experienced on the stage, I don't have much experience with improv and film work -- actually, I have NONE, and I suspect the director may have underestimated how challenging it would be for a newbe actor, like myself. First, you've got to pay attention to the camera and the frame volume so you're not wondering out of it, blocking yourself or someone else, or letting them block you. And you have to do this without letting it distract your concentration and work.

Add on top of that the "rules" of improv -- yes, improv has "rules," or at least strong constraints, and if you don't follow them, an improved scene will go nowhere fast and grind painfully to a halt, and the camera will pick it right up. So, it was all much more challenging than I anticipated, but I did learn this: the main 'rule' is "yes - and," and "don't ask questions" and all that means . . . well, it's too much to go into here, but they are a couple of technique to keep the scene moving forward, and it takes some practice to learn how to do that.

After each take, the director's main complaints were that the rhythm was uneven and there were dead spots, and all of that on top of all of us running into each other, forgetting about the camera, etc. However, with each successive take, we settled into a blocking that worked for the camera, and then I started, finally, to doing more "yes-and," and that -- that helped keep things moving more forward. Early on, I was just making stuff up, stuff I thought was funny and clever, but the scene kept coming to little stops, and we had to pick up back up again, which killed the take, and I think it was because we just were not practiced enough with "yes - and."

My other problem was that I was too big and too character-"ee", but when the director said smaller, I was able to take that adjustment, and that helped to improve things quite a bit.

In short, I was in over my head, unfortunately, but, it's definitely helped point to the way for me. In addition to classes at The P.I.T, this summer, I'm also going to find a good on-camera commercial class (that will highly complement what I'll be learning at The P.I.T.), and then -- I need to get some good commercial head shots and then find a good non-union commercial agent.

Booking commercials was (and is) my primary goal with these classes, but -- I was quite surprised how handy these skills can be on a serious movie set . . . but you gotta really know what your doing to pull it all off well.

I am burning now to learn how to do that!

. . . and I'm watching a lot of TV!