Silly Screen Skills
Almost a decade ago
I was doing a play
I was playing Valentine in Stoppard’s Arcadia for Sydney Theatre Company at the Sydney Opera House, directed by Richard Cottrell, with the most ridiculously wonderful & skilled cast.
Dream case scenario
But after sixty-ish shows
I had the opportunity to audition for another play which would mean going straight from one theatre show to the next
Something didn’t sit right in my gut
Despite feeling like I absolutely should go for it
I had an itch I desperately wanted to scratch
For years I had thought about screen
“what if I went all in with screen?”
“What if I really tried?”
When I thought about all the examples of acting and artists that I adored at that time in my life
The performances that kept me up at night
They seemed to all be in the style of screen acting
I knew different styles of acting required different skillsets
And so trying to get better at screen acting by continuing to only doing theatre
Was a bit like an athlete trying to get better at sprinting by training shot-put
Didn’t make much sense
So?
Time to follow some curiosity
The examples that came up for me when I slowed down and listened to what work I loved most?
(After applying 80/20 - this relates to last weeks article “Skills”)
I had two bloody clear examples of what I loved
The “I have abandoned my child” scene from There Will be Blood with Daniel Day Lewis, directed by PTA
And the “I like cools” blooper from Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master with Philip Seymour Hoffman & Joaquin Phoenix
Three Actors
All giving leading work
All in the style of naturalistic drama on film
So I began obsessively researching those three actors to understand which skills would help me most to make moving in that direction a reality
When I looked at their work, I tried to make it as simple as possible (For my small little brain)
All three had the technical ability to have an honest conversation in front of the lens
AH!
This was a big turning point
I wasn’t able to have an honest conversation in front of the lens
I was so busy trying to be interesting
That I skipped the most fundamental steps when it came to screen acting
Time to start again
Lets look at the fundamentals of screen acting
What does it require?
With the least amount of essentials as possible
Screen Acting
Screen
Acting
Two words
Lets break it up
What are the requirements of SCREEN (an environment with cameras, lighting, sound, set)
If I just vomit everything onto the whiteboard
I can get 50/60 things that I might think are requirements for working on screen
Everything from animal work to working with microphones, to Michael Checkohv’s psychological gesture, etc
But
In an ocean of technique
There will be a few key techniques that will apply to the majority of people in the majority of circumstances - these are the ones I’m trying to find.
These are the ones most worth investing in.
When pressing myself to distill everything down to what I believe is actually NEEDED for screen?
Three essentials keep coming up
One
Hitting a mark
Technology (lighting and camera) has still not evolved to the point where I don’t need to hit a mark
In a close up
If I am an inch off
It could mean the difference between pickups in 9 months time, or an easy process for editor.
Two
Eye access
I don’t mean looking at the other character the whole time like a psychopath
I mean allowing your eyes to accessed by the camera
Is the audience getting the opportunity (at some point) to see what you’re going through internally?
And three
Nothing
This is SO important
Slight detour
If we want to give leading work on screen
We need to be able to do 3 things bloody well
One
Ownership of darkness - the shadow, all the parts of ourself that we judge as bad, ugly or wrong
Two
Ownership of light - love, vulnerability, the willingness for our softness to be seen
Now
Those two things
Darkness and light
Only make up a tiny portion of what we will be required to give in leading role work on screen
And we will only get those opportunities to release the darkness and light in leading roles If we can spend the majority of time doing the third and most important skill…
(This skill is the most valuable and yet least practiced area in screen training)
That skill?
Nothing
Can you technically do nothing?
I’m being a smart arse
What do I mean by nothing?
Can you simply breathe as yourself in front of the lens
You are the most valuable currency in this industry
Not who you think or feel you should be
If you can breathe
You can become present
If you are present
You can be interesting
That makes you a bloody dangerous actor.
For example
Let’s look at an actor who is the most celebrated character actor in the western world
Daniel Day Lewis
If you watch all his films
You will see a glimpse of him smiling or laughing in the same way in all of them
He was asked about this similar mannerism all his characters possessed
His response?
“If there isn’t me in all my characters then they wouldn’t be my characters”
The greatest character actor of all time is stating the importance of giving a piece of yourself
That no matter how much you have to play with in terms of costumes, makeup, accents etc
All your work starts from the same place
Your breath
Even working with Mel Gibson on Hacksaw Ridge - I watched him give some of the most beautiful advice to wonderful human who was just starting out their acting career
“Acting is just breathing” he would whisper in his ear
It all starts with your breath
So
In summary
Requirements for screen?
Hit your mark
Give the camera access to your eyes
Breathe as yourself
Wanna be working on screen?
Become great at those 3 skills
Stick to those 3 skills and they will take you the majority of the way.
Sounds too simple?
Great!
Amateurs try do lots
pros do less, that’s why they do it better
Bloody smart idea to become a monster at those 3 skills before doing anything else.
Next
What was our second word again?
Screen ACTING
Acting!
Let’s breakdown the requirements for acting!
Again, trying to distill it down to its most basic parts
What does an actor do?
Reminder here
An actor helps share meaningful stories which helps humans connect which helps the tribe survive
Yes… But what does an actor do?
What do they provide to the story?
Well
An actor plays a character - a living breathing human being
Who has relationships - human beings don’t exist outside of relationships. We are always attached or connected to others in any given moment.
Within a specific context - a moment in time
Mmm
A human
Who has connections
In a moment of time
Therefore
An actor provides moments of human connection
Now…
Obviously
We can keep going here
Breaking down each one of those 3 requirements for screen
And those 3 requirements for acting
We can keep building entire systems for
Creating a living breathing human
For building attachments/relationships
And for honouring the context
Breaking each one down to most simple iteration that we can then sustainably practice 2-3 times per week
But I just wanted to give an example of how to scratch that itch of identifying skills for you to advance in whatever field you’re most curios about :)
The point is to get you thinking about the direction you actually want to make progress toward
(what’s the work that inspires you most / makes your body feel most energised?
& how you can identify the skills you need to actually do that.)
We really want to let go of the shoulds here
I have boxes of acting books in my garage telling me hundreds of ways I should prepare for a roll
Or what I should focus on when it comes to screen
Its exhausting and unsustainable
What’s most important here:
ONE
Run it through the inner child filter - is this actually enjoyable?
It might be way more enjoyable for you to simply put on a costume and go walk around in public rather than sitting with a script and writing down everything you should like you’re doing homework at school
And for other artists it might be the reverse
Listen to your body
what’s energising for you?
TWO
Do less, better
Boil it down to a few simple things.
Becoming great at those few things will take you so much further than spreading yourself thin.
No one walks into the gym on day one and tries to lift 500kg.
But suddenly when It comes to acting, many actors think that’s a great idea
“I’ll just read this book and do everything it says in the next 30 days”.
Nope
Keep it simple, stupid
If you can instil a culture of excellence by doing just a few things very well in the next 6 months
You will normalise those skills, which means in another 6 months you can advance yourself further by moving onto the next few things
And after letting the wonders of compound interest run its course
You can reinvent yourself as an artist in a few short years.
So
Slow down in order to go faster
Hope this helps
X