Directing Actors Workshop: (2)

Wednesday 12th November 2014

Today Nigel had another actor with him he brought along a female actor so that the two actors he had brought with him could act out a scene but in different ways. to show how instructions and terminology from the Director can make such huge difference to the mood and impact of a scene and making sure as the Director your clear in what you want from the story.

Nigel had us do exercises as well to get us stimulated and active, and for us to gain a better understanding of how directors and actors work with each other.
the first exercise was we were split up into two groups, each group forming a circle and we had to count from one onwards, and whichever number we were on the same amount of people had to walk into the centre of the circle. For example, at the count of one, only one person would step forward to the centre and at the count of four, four people would have to step forward. If more or less people than the exact number we were on stepped forward, we had to restart the game from the count of one again. The key aspect of this task was to rely on each other about getting timing right, so basically about trust between actors and the director. the other task was Nigel took two pupils and told the pupils to act one being a thief and ther other a guard protecing a cup imaging that this cup was a gem the theif had to take thiss gem wihout being noticed, this task was done with pupils eyes opened the first try and the second eyes closed the aim of this task was how to get more of a realistic performance from our actors.

we had then done another exercise in this one Nigel had made us walk in only straight lines before telling us to change directions and had us walk in curvy lines. the benefit of this was to get us to notice how sometimes actors in films use these techniques straight and curvy walks in films to show how the two walks within films and real life can portray different emotions and moods.
we were also taught about the hierarchy of characters in a production. Each person was given a character to represent from the movie 'Out of Sight' and every time a character's social status was put down in the particular clip we watched, the person representing that character would make themselves lower by bending their knees.

here is the Out of Sigth trailer as i couldnt find the specific clip we had watched.

we had also wacthed and analysed this clip from Heat by Micheal Mann where we had to analyse the shots between the DiNero and Al Pacino and how the use of MCU & CU used in the proper way can add dramatic and intense moods to create a dramatic scene, and how the acting methods and techniques we had been shown and taught work well together displayed in this film clip.

Nigel also just before ending the workshop gave us recommended books to read on how to direct actors the proper way.

a Judith Weston Book 1999


a Keith Johnstone Book 1979
 

I will take these books to read as i want gain a further understanding on how to direct Actors on future films.