5.1.15 - ACTING ON CAMERA

"The stage is like an operation with a scalpel knife and acting in front of a camera is like an operation with a laser."

We started talking about type casting and film acting in a bit more detail today. Film acting is mainly naturalistic, after the US became the biggest producer of films in the 1940's. Yet, there is a lot more into it, than just naturalistic acting, for example cheating your body towards the camera.

   Types casting, as bad as it sound, is a part of being an actor. This is when you are cast on the base you look like, and it often might follow you throughout your career. This is because people have certain visual expectations of certain characters and so it is important for film makers to withhold that, to meet the audiences expectations(of course there are exceptions). By type casting, the film maker will also be quite sure of the fact that the actor will do their part well, since they have done something similar before. 

  

   Continuity is making sure that the shots of the one scene do not look different  but follow it continuously. For example, if a pen is on the table, when taking another shot the pen should be on the same spot. 

   We also learned about the different kind of shots there is to take of an scene. The first one, is the Master shot, also known as the Establishing shot. This shot shows the audience where we are, who is in the scene, but also is good for editing, since it shows the scene as a whole and is a place look back to when trying to get continuity right in the more detailed shots. In this shot, you can either see the actors from head to toe, or most of them. 

   Shot A and B show two different kind of shots, focusing on either actor. The first one is called Medium shot, or sometimes Over the shoulder medium shot. This shot usually focuses on on side of the scene, showing the reactions and expressions of a certain actor. The extreme of this is the Close up, where the shot is focused on one actor and framed very very close to their face to see the smallest of changes in their expressions. The Cover, is called the basic shots needed to take for the editing to have a good amount of footage to work on.

  

 TYPE CASTING SHEET

    

   We started also looking at our own type casting. So, Andy divided us into groups and gave a sheet to fill out with our partners. The task was to figure out, what we could be typecast as , after answering a series of questions:

• What is your full name?
• Where are you from?
• Tell us something funny or embarrassing about your childhood
• What is the difference between acting for stage and acting for camera?
• What is your favourite film and why?
• Tell us a secret about yourself...

This is how I was typecast as:

• What is their age range? : 18-25
• City or Country?: City
• Upper class or working class: Working Class
• Where in the world?: Anywhere
• What roles could they play?: Lawyer, therapist, teacher, a really troubled person who builts up their emotions before exploding
• My reaction: I do not really see myself as a lawyer, but I have been typecast before as a therapist and a teacher. I feel that I have been often typecast with caring and somehow motherly characters. I would have wanted to know details about where int he world I could have come from, since the answer I received wasn't very specific! Also, I thought I could have passed as a little bit younger than 18. 
• Anything else? one of my partners said this as a reason why I could come from anywhere: "you have a certain openness that makes everyone be comfortable around you, like someone who travels the world."