Emotional Memory Is Useful, But Only Up To A Point

If you have studied those two great theorists of modern theatre, Konstantin Stanislavski and Lee Strasberg, you will know that both of them set great store in actors using their own emotional memories to help them express their emotions in parts they are playing. Many actors find this helpful, but some drama training treats it as if it were holy writ and my contention is that it is only useful up to a point.

In fact, appreciating the extent to which it is useful requires little insight. It's blindingly obvious that, if you think about something sad, you will feel sad and you will probably look sad too. The same with happiness, fear, anger and all the rest of the emotions. And that's as far as it goes.

You see, when you're playing a part in a play, you want to concentrate and focus on the part itself and you don't want to be distracted by the memory of something that's not in the play, particularly if it's something you find personally distressing. Also, the play is not about you, the actor, it's about an imaginary character (and others) that may resemble you to a greater or lesser extent. Everyone is different: thank about the mix of emotions you have when you are frustrated in reaching some goal: you are angry, depressed, resolute, we laugh it off, we blame someone else. Everyone is different, so why should the actor be the same as the character?

You can learn a lot by looking inside yourself, but a great deal more by looking at the world around you and also by using your imagination and drawing from the text you are working with. To be fair to Stanislavski and Strasberg they both favour an all round approach like this, involving the actor's imagination. It is some of their followers who have promoted a lopsided view.

Some drama teachers have treated acting training as if it were some intrusive form of psychoanalysis and subjected their unfortunate students to a process of 'breaking down' before building them up again in a form the teacher prefers. (That is if the student, having paid their fees has stayed around to be so mistreated.) Why such institutionalised sadism could be considered either ethical or useful is a mystery to me.

So: emotional memory is useful, but only up to a point.

Being 'funny'; isn't funny

The shortest Words of Wisdom: being 'funny' isn't funny: play comedy straight.

At this season there's a lot of comedy on the box: some of it's funny, some of it isn't. This is one reason why.

Make your showreel work for you

The Words of Wisdom this week are Make your showreel work for you.

There are probably few areas in the acting business where you can more easily waste your money than in getting a showreel made. A brief search of the internet will reveal an enormous number of companies that offer showreels and, I hate to tell you, many of them will charge you a lot of money for a sub standard product which will do nothing to advance your career.

So, if you approach, or are approached by, one of these companies, the first thing you will want to see are the links to several examples of their work. Not just one, which might be cooked up for promotional reasons. Click on these and have a look.

What will you be looking for? You will be looking for something of a high technical standard, beautifully cut. It's no good having a mate do an edit as a favour - unless that mate is a professional film editor. If it's not up to standard it will reflect on you. It should be clips from actual professional work, or indistinguishable from it. Four or five, demonstrating your range, is enough. They should be recent ... and short. Just a few seconds. The decision whether or not to see you for a part will probably be made on the first thirty seconds of material, so that's what really counts. You want them to want to see more of you. The sole purpose of a showreel is to make a casting directot or director say "Let's get that one in to read for the part." That's all, so show them the best of you and nothing else.

Make your showreel work for you.

The gun and the whistle

The Words of Wisdom this week are 'Action' is not the starting gun, but 'Cut' is the referee's whistle. That's a couple of sporting analogies so let's explain them.

When a film is being shot there's a little routine that is run before every take. It's a dialogue between the director, or first assistant director, and the camera operator. It goes like this: "Quiet please! Turn over." "Running" "Action." The magic word for the actors is 'Action.' And at the end of the take there is another magic word: 'Cut."

How should actors handle these two magic words? 'Action' is not the starting gun. At the start of a sprint race, the instant the runners hear the bang, they hurl themselves out of the starting blocks and hurtle down the track. When you, as an actor, hear the exciting word 'action' resist the temptation to do something similar. If you have the first word, or the first movement, of the take, never initiate it until you are sure you are in character and in mood. Run in your head what has happened to your character in the few seconds before where the take begins, something said or something that's been done, and then, when you're ready, start. It's not a race.

And 'cut?' What's that got to do with the referee's whistle? Well, when you learn to play football you're taught 'Play to the whistle.' You may believe that the ball has gone into touch, or that a foul has been committed, but you might be wrong, so you keep on playing until you hear the whistle blow. So, similarly, when you get to the end of your lines in the scene, don't stop, remain in character and in mood until you hear the word 'cut.'

Why is this important? Because you're giving the editor material to work with. Next time you're watching a movie, notice how it's cut and how the editor has used the beginning and end of shots, often to effect by transmitting a mood that the audience will absorb unconsciously. If you don't provide editor with the material with which to do this, it can't happen.

'Action' is not the starting gun, but 'cut' is the referee's whistle.

Don't Aim for Fame

The Words of Wisdom this week are Don't Aim for Fame. This may seem strange in a business in which people may become extremely famous, in a world that worships celebrity as never before. But fame - don't aim for it.

For one thing dreaming of success doesn't help you to attain it. You may be sure that the medal winners at the 2012 Olympics are not daydreaming of standing on the podium. Thry are too busy visualising their next hard session on the track. We have all heard angry X Factor parents complain to Simon Cowell "You've destroyed her dream," but that's all it was - a dream - and dreams disappear when you wake up to reality. Focus on the work, not the reward.

Of course, if you do well and are successful, particularly in the performing arts or sport, this tends towards your being known to a lot of people, but I can assure you that this is not a blessing but a curse. It's the penalty you have to pay for being successful.

Think what it's like: you can't go anywhere you want without people recognising you and bothering you. Any new person you meet may just want to be part of the glitter of your fame and that's why they're smarming up to you. If anything happens in your life the paparazzi will be on your doorstep and you won't be able to step out of your house without being mobbed. If you're in a soap, people will confuse you with the character you play and give you unwanted advice about what should happen next in the plot. You will have to put up with the same jokes and catchphrases repeated again and again and again.

Some members of the public believe they are licensed to be as rude to you as they like: "It's us that put them there" they reason. Wherever you are in the world, someone will come up to you and ask you for an autograph, a donation, an opinion or a favour. And if your fame depends on public taste, it can disappear like turning off a tap. Some people will hate you.

Worse still is to use your family for publicity. Talk about your marriage, or your home, or your child's illness and you will have made it public property and created public interest. When your marriage goes wrong there will be no hiding from the attention of the red-top tabloids.

Many people who seek for fame have a narcissistic tendency and confuse the love of an audience with the love of a person. If they are successful this tendency is reinforced. See the rage of a TV personality when his or her show is axed. It's not just the loss of money or opportunities for achievement: they feel it as a cruel withdrawal of love. Hell hath no fury like a celebrity scorned. Do you want to be at the mercy of the uncaring audience?

The lives of celebrities are governed by fear: the fear of loss of celebrity. Don't Aim for Fame.

Storytelling is important

The Words of Wisdom this week are Storytelling is Important. Storytelling includes the production of tales, myths, books and, importantly for us, plays and films. Anything with a narrative.

The human mind has a very strong tendency to perceive pattern, even where none really exists: we see the stars forming constellations, we see a face in the froth on a cup of coffee, we make a choice of lottery numbers although the machinery is designed to make every number equally likely to appear. It's the way we organise our thoughts and also our actions. Pattern.

Events in a real or imaginary life are thus turned into a narrative that makes them have meaning for us. That is story. And the remarkable fact is that every single culture on Earth has story as part of its inheritance, story told or acted out, often at great cost. It must, therefore. be of great value to a society to have this, because otherwise cultures not spending so much on story would take over from those burdened by its cost and the energy involved in producing it.

So what is the advantage of having story? It is surely because story enables us to transmit values, morals and customs and to handle change. Without it and its continual renewal, our society would fall apart and decay. That's why plays and films (and music incidentally) are important and a life devoted to them is not a waste of time.

Finally, there are two other phenomena which appear in every culture on Earth, despite their great cost, and which therefore must be of great adaptive value to us. They are religion and sport. Every culture has religion, of one sort or another, and every culture has sport. We'll try and explain this in a future post. Meanwhile, Storytelling is Important.

Turn off your mobile phone

The Words of Wisdom this week are very simple: Turn off your mobile phone. There are a few things which are important in an actor's life: one is auditioning. An actor is being auditioned by an important director for a major part; they are getting on rather well - then his phone rings. The spell is broken. What the ringing phone tells the director is that the actor has left his phone on because he considers that there are other more important things in his life than this audition. The director feels offended and the actor doesn't get the part.

Worse still would be for the actor to actually answer the call. Believe me, it has happened!

As well as in an audition, the same rule applies when rehearsing or taking a class. It's simple good manners to give your full attention to the task in hand and, in the age where we all have 24 hour connectivity, it's a good principle to make your phone your servant, not your master. Use it when you want to use it, not when it wants to use you. Turn off your mobile phone.