FILM AND TELEVISION ACTING: Introduction The Maasai tribe of Eastern Africa are arguably the most spectacularly photogenic people on the planet. Yet this tribe believes that if one films or photographs them, one steals a part of their souls that will be lost to them forever. I believe a similar situation exists for the film actor: a part of his/her psyche will be captured on celluloid or magnetic tape for the duration of the specific medium's life. In other parts of Africa the locals will dress up in either their Sunday-best for tourists, or rags for the media, both for a fee. This is not to be confused with the real despair that engulfs Africa, these are not the desperate ones, this is business. The film actor operates somewhere between these extremes, somewhere between giving up a part of his/her soul for the camera, and brazenly selling his/her photographic presence as a commodity. The premise of this study is that film acting is one of the simplest crafts in the world, in the sense that the actor has only to appear natural and believable in front of the camera. On the other hand, this study will show that dealing with all the technical demands associated with the craft makes it one of the more complex crafts to master. This study hopes to help clear some of the bewilderment and ignorance of the new actor to the demands of the film and television media. Time and again it has been pointed out to me that many student actors do not have a comprehensive guide to help them in negotiating the obstacle course of modern film and television. Hence this study. A fairly ideal situation is surmised, whereby the actor will be intelligent, sensitive, persevering, talented and above all, lucky. The serious acting student or lecturer should find that although a lot of the information seems obvious, they may benefit from the more or less logical fashion of organisation. This study has been set out in the following order, covering the typical (if there is such a thing) actor in steps from finding the differences in acting between film and theatre, to dealing with critics after a film is shown. Part of this book is given over to the thoughts and ideas of more knowledgeable and experienced people in various related disciplines than I am. I use their ideas, tips and tricks with respect and refer to the sources wherever possible. Everybody acts Barrault (in Corrigan: 2) is of the opinion that everybody plays. Even animals. He reminds us that the urge to play, which he equates with the urge to act, to pretend, is as old as mankind itself. The history of theatre closely follows mankind's inventions and the development of our behaviour patterns. The fact that all children are natural actors and so few adults, mean that as we grow older, we lose the natural ability to perform. The actor is not the shaman anymore and society has distanced itself from our primeval instincts. In this century there are few places apart from the pulpit and the political arena where the human/actor can freely express him/herself, except perhaps on stage or screen. Tailor (13) differentiates between performers who are impersonators, copying behaviour and actors (who may also be impersonators) who deliver well-thought-out and put together performances. This difference between being and pretending, acting and resembling has been the basis of many acting theories and underlies this study. Some actors are cast and perform nothing more than themselves in different guises, while others actually resemble different humans in different roles. The practice will be examined in Chapter 2. Writing about film generally falls into one of these broad categories: Personality studies; either a) Sensationalist biographies that tend to blend truth, fiction and scandal or b) memoirs and biographies about studios, directors, and actors that try to inform the reader, and serious academic treatises on film, (Gianetti: 1995: 13-17) including c) the relationship between film and other arts and d) Chronological histories of so-called "important" films Buckland (6) adds even more categories: e) Technological histories emphasising pioneers, f) Technique-studies (historically or critically and analytically), This specific approach can often be sub-divided further in the two ways of approaching performance in film and television: 1) Film acting as a performance belonging only to the actor using his/her body, voice and imagination. This performance is then recorded by the camera. 2) Performance as a result of the combination of all the technical and artistic apparatus and crafts-persons involved in production. The "performance" only occurs in the mind of the beholder when the product is screened. g) Film in relationship to important social events. h) Genre studies and i) Film industry regulations such as laws and censorship. Approach f) i.e. technique studies, forms the basic premise of this study. Some opinions and techniques from b) biographies, is covered, and c) relationship studies is touched on in the effect the different media will have on the actor's skill. e) Technological histories are covered only for film acting theorists. But back to f) This hopes to be a practical study of approach to the film actor's craft, to form as it were, a backbone to a possible school of study for film actors. I touch on the important semiological approach so in vogue in many universities, but with the following major pre-condition. Semiology is the study of the process after it has been completed - a pre-existing, completed performance is the heart of the study. For the actor it can be of little practical value in creating performance. After all, the actor can only be involved in acting and seldom has any control over the technicalities involved in the process. This study has taken information from all types of sources, books, the Internet, cd-rom databases and the experience of me both in front of and behind the camera. It tries to overcome the Hollywood cult of personality and sources in greater or lesser ways all of the above-mentioned formats: While trying to be as informative as possible, it hopes to be of some academic value. But most of all, it hopes to introduce the actor to film, its vocabulary and its possibilities. It is about a practical approach to film acting. It is also an attempt to establish and develop a forum where the actor and crew can meet without prejudice and start talking objectively and accurately about the advancement of the art and craft of film acting. The aim of this study is to provide the actor with a comprehensive, if condensed set of tools with which to tackle the specific requirements of the film industry. Because acting is doing, there can be no replacement for actually doing it that is getting the experience in front of the camera. There will therefore be points in this study where I will ask the actor to film him/herself and watch the performance, so as to become aware of his/her image on film and how his/her skills progress. Like Kazan (1978: 142) I believe that no amount of reading about the craft will make a better actor if it is not coupled with training - that is why this study tries to provide the backbone of a practical course in film and television acting which may provide the actor with enough experience to go out and be confident in front of the camera. The last chapter deals with possible training methods and ideas on how to structure a film acting course. Even though this study contains nearly a century of writings and musings by sages and others in the industry, it can never replace the first fumbling steps an actor will take when starting out and as such can only be a guide to a very practical art. Unfortunately the business pressures of time and finances are such that no actor can be expected to learn his/her craft entirely in front of the camera and at the expense of the professional producer. (Rubiga: 1996: Introduction) The accompanying book Language! Camera! Action! ISBN 9781617927355 and the chapter on set etiquette hope to be of use here. To attempt to categorise and make a catalogue of a language describing the changing elements of the motion picture for examination purposes is likely to be incomplete and at best a tool to help understand what it is about. Yet this is exactly what this study, and in essence the extended accompanying book Language! Camera! Action! ISBN 9781617927355 sets out to do: to create a vocabulary, a guide for acting students, teachers and professionals to simplify the process of filming and communication on set or in the studio. This chapter will deal with the film medium, definitions of film acting, semiotics, the relationship between acting media and a short history of film acting and film acting theory. It ends with a lament on current practical courses. This century's theorists are grouped together under the "naturalists", Pudovkin, Stanislavski, Strasberg et al, and the "anti-naturalists", Kuleshov, Brecht and Bresson. Chapter two is about the business side of the actor: that time of the actor's life described as " a brief appearance between being unknown and becoming unavailable." (Schneider in Corrigan: 226). Getting agents, doing auditions and some information on the business side of show business can be found there. Chapter three...
