2. Moment by Moment Flashcards
How to helo the actor to be in the moment, how to deliver himself to his impulses.
What do you get when you master MOMENT by MOMENT?
You will know how to STIMULATE actors and INSPIRE them. They will seem not to act, performances will be LIKE THE REAL THING.
Define FEAR AND CONTROL in acting.
If the role is important to him, sometimes the actor is AFRAID his performance is NOT GOOD ENOUGH, so he starts to CONTROL HIS PERFORMANCE, CENTERING HIS ATTENTION ON HIMSELF. And paradoxically, his performance decreases in quality.
How can you begin a collaborative work with the actor when you have the first meeting to discuss the script and the character?
To talk about how she works, what are her methods, her preferences and choices when interpreting characters.
Why can an actor refuse to REVEAL his methods when you ask for them?
because he’s afraid he they will not work anymore because know the director knows, and he will be self-conscious. (So let him be)
What does it mean to “play the result”?
To PRETEND to have feelings, reactions and attitudes (to show the audience those fake feelings, reactions and attitudes).
What causes an Actor to PUSH or INDICATE (play a result)?
Self-consciousness (Auto-percepción)
What can result direction cause?
It’s possible to make the actor feel Self-conscious
What happens inside the actor when he is self-conscious?
He gets uncomfortable when he is being watched.
What’s PUSH or INDICATE in an actor?
It’s when the actor demonstrates a false feeling, reaction or attitude (often called “false note”).
What’s the antidote to an actor PUSHING or INDICATING (Playing a result)? (who can even be self-conscious)
To place his concentration somewhere else. It has to be something powerful enough to “grab him”, to be “gripped by”.
What’s the mantra of a self-conscious actor?
“How am i doing?”, “ Am I saying this right?”, “Does the audience get it?”, “Does everybody like me?”
What’s the mantra of an actor placing his concentration on the other actor?
“Is he angry with me?”, “Did I make him angry?”, “Can I make him cry”, “Did I get her to do what I wanted her to do?”
What’s the most common symptom of an actor placing his attention on him self? (or worst, a self-conscious actor)
He asks or talks about his performance: “Is this the right amount of anger?”, “Did you like it like that?”, “Should I do it more like that? or should I tune it down a little bit?”
What should the actor be talking about, instead of his performance?
His feelings. (emotion) The moment. (experience) The other actor (His current progress on getting what he wants from the other character.)
What does the director has to understand about the vulnerability of the actor when she’s up there?
Acting can be frightening. It’s painful to hear criticism, and it’s easy to doubt oneself.
What is exposed of the actor? (that makes him so vulnerable)
His face, body, voice, thoughts and feelings.
What does the actor in his vulnerability expects from a director?
An existencial reassurance and validation. WHEN GOOD: Honest praise is necessary to him as water. WHEN BAD: Also necessary is forthright, accurate and constructive criticism.
What happens when the actor suspects the director is NOT giving honest and competent feedback?
Trust is lost and he becomes cautious.
What happens when actors act cautiously?
We get actorish performances. Fake emotions. Fake moments.
Why does cautious acting give fake moments?
Because they stop taking RISKS.
Why is RISK important to get real performances with the texture of real life? (-and edge)
RISK lets room to mistakes, serendipity, isiosyncrasy, surpruse, danger. (It makes drama mor moving. Comedy mor surprising. Adventure more thrilling. Mystery more suspenseful)
What’s a good qulity of GREAT ACTORS who take RISKS?
They allow the world to watch their deepest, most private self, transformed by the created reality of the script.
What’s the unfairness of taking risks?
If the actor takes a BIG RISK, and it doesn’t work, it looks much worse than cautious acting. And he is revealed. (That’s why it’s a risk)
What’s the difference between actors who take risks and those who dont? (because they are affraid it wont work, and reveal themselves in vain)
The difference is: They trascend the story, they get to be remembered, they change lives, they inspire people, they win awards.
What’s the secret enemy to an ACTOR’S CREATIVIY?
Success.
How can the secret enemy to an ACTOR’S CREATIVIY affect her?
She now has something to loose, and can easily fall into a protective, rather than a risk-taking stance.
What can cause an actor to resist a role?
- Fear of hurting his self-image with the audience, or
2. Reluctance to find disagreeable behavior truthfully in himself. (Or plain squeamishness.)
What’s the example of Shelley Winters resisting a role for “A PATCH OF BLUE”?
She had participated in civil rights marches and had to play a racist that included a line in which she calle Sidney Poitier a “nigger”
What is “SENTIMENTALIZING A CHARACTER”?
Inyecting an awareness of guilt in to the character’s behavior.
What was the solution for Shelley Winters?
Director Guy Green, together with Poitier convinced her to take a bigger risk of facing and finding truthfully the behavior of a person WITHOUT SELF-AWARENESS and WITHOUT GUILT. –She won her second Oscar for that role.
What’s the enemy of RISK?
The pressure to do it “right”
Where does the actor put her concentration when she is NOT TAKING RISKS? (HINT: career)
She puts her concentration in TRYING TO IMPRESS the director or producer, rather than taking CREATIVE CHOICES.
In contrast to the BAG OF TRICKS… when does the actor’s best work happen?
when she’s caught in unguarded moments of simplicity and truth, giving simple, genuine response to a question or remark or event. BE A LIVING PERSON.
What is what Glenn Close calls “Disturbing the molecules” in the air around her?
Turn off the Automatic Pilot. When they get below their social mask. When they become a LIVING PERSON instead of an actor faking a characterization.
How do you prepare disturb the molecules? (Or “rawing yourself up” as Sally Field calls it)
With a process of disobligating yourself to the social realm so you can enter the creative realm. And go through her emotional and imaginative storage banks to get connected to whatever is basic about life to you. (separate from telephone, facebook messages, etc.)
What’s THE MOMENT OF TRUTH for a director to establish good actor-director relationship?
After a performance (usually an amazing) when the actor needs the director to acknowledge his psychic nakedness, when he is most unguarded and raw.
What happens when you give an insensitive response to the actor in THE MOMENT OF TRUTH?
You kill your chances for trust and collaboration.
What’s the correct thing to say in THE MOMENT OF TRUTH?
No one can know in advanced. That’s why you need good intuition. This is when the director too, takes a risk.
What’s the popular belief about ACTING?
Acting is about pretending or faking
What should you as a director SEEK from an actor in a performance? (HINT: something to recognize)
You should seek for HONESTY.
Describe the Sandord Meisner’s Excercise about listening.
He put a group of actors to listen to the enviroment for 1 min (traffic outside, people chatting in the next room, etc.). Then he asks, “Were you listening in character, or were you listening as yourself?”.
What’s the point of the Sandford Meisner’s Excercise?
To prove that listening as yourself, with your own ears is a simple task, relaxing, centering. “Listening as the character” adds strain, and kills honesty.
From where does the ACTOR has to START to begin a characterization? (the character or himself?)
He has to start on himself. Hear with his own ears, see with his own eyes, touch with his own skin, feel with his own feelings.
What happens in the characterization after the actor has used his own ears, eyes, skin and feelings to enter the world of the character?
If he did his homework (study the script, character development) IMPULSES (even FEELINGS) and understandings will start to bubble up from inside him.
What is what is called “to BECOME THE CHARACTER”?
Is when the actor is inhabiting his “own skin”, is “in the moment” but has brought choices and understandings to the role that create impulses that make the script be like a real event, something happening in real life.
What’s the bigger risk for an ACTOR when doing a performance?
To do simple, honest acting.
Why is simple, honest acting the biggest risk?
Because it means he has to use himself, make his work personal, reveal himself in front of everybody.
What does “be more (angry, fun, sexy)” really means most of the time? (talking about honesty)
Means to be more simple, more honest. Find his deepest resources and get something from there. (And not put more “energy” or “emphasis” on it).
What does it mean “to act with CAPTIAL A”?
To “ACT THE RIGHT WAY”. To indicate. To give actorish performance.
How can the director help the actor to “GO TO PLACES” he needs to go? (HINT: allow)
By giving direction in the form of permission.
Give examples of Direction in the form of permission.
INSTEAD OF: Stand there. SAY: You could stand there
What’s the RISK but also the ADVANTAGE of giving direction in the form of PERMISSION?
You are not giving orders, you are givin suggestions. RISK: He could disagree. ADVANTAGE: You are stimulating him to be HONEST. WORK ORGANICALLY. (Letting him have other ideas, and letting him acces his DEEP RESOURCES)
What’s the advantage of letting him give ideas?
You encourage TEAMWORK.
How do you STIMULATE the actor to be HONEST?
By giving direction in the form of PERMISSION.
Define: WORKING ORGANICALLY.
Letting her OPEN HER MIND to let DEEP RESOURCES and INVENTIONS to start coming to her (that she didn’t even know).
What are the two ways that some actors take to FIND THE ORGANIC CENTER OF THE SCRIPT in script analysis.
- Inside Out
2. Outside In
How does the actor find the CONNECTION to the script INSIDE OUT?
By connecting in a RELAXED WAY to whatever they get from the script, with HONESTY. They have to honestly find themselves inside the character.
How does the actor find CONNECTION with the script OUTSIDE IN?
They do SCRIPT INVESTIGATION via their intelligence and then find and fill their ORGANIC CENTER (Try to find what the script really means, and then after evaluating, they try different ideas until they find the ones that they feel the HONEST CONNECTION)
Define ORGANIC CENTER OF THE SCRIPT.
The HONEST CONNECTION between the actor and the script, its images, text, subtext, events, behaviors. (The honest truth of themselves in the characters, in other words: What they are going to reveal of themselves through the character)
Once you are willing to find an HONEST CONNECTION with the SCRIPT. Can you instantly connect with all the lines?
NO. Some lines are VERY HARD to connect to.
What did JUDITH WESTON did with an ACTOR who COULDN’T SAY - “I love you” with honesty?
- She got him to be with her in private
- She aske him to say what HE FELT for her (He respected her, and thought she was a good director)
- She asked him to say what he felt, but saying the line “I love you”.
What do you do with an ACTOR who is SHOWING OFF his BAG OF TRICKS?
Ask him to be honest. To connect with the moment. Stop thinking on his tricks and focus in the other actor or the situation. (Is better to aim for emotional honesty than emotional pyrotechnics).
Define - TO BE IN OUR HEADS.
When something painful or upsetting happens, we don’t really feel it, or we don’t let ourselves feel anything. We intellectualize feelings and sensations. We watch ourselves, calculating the effect of our behaviour in others to meet social expectations.
Define - TO BE IN THE MOMENT
Is to be free of social concerns of the consecuences of our acts. No obligations. No social “rules” to follow. Only impulses, only our deepest and most private truths.
