Acting in Film

appear newly minted, not preprogrammed. In life, we often pick up the thought that provokes our next remark halfway through someone else's speech. Thoughts don't leap to the mouth automatically. We don't interrupt at every occasion when a thought formulates itself; or, if we do, we don't have many friends. Similarly, in a film script, your internal thought processes might well start articulating themselves long before you get the chance to speak. The script sometimes directs you to interrupt, but if it doesn't, your thought may start well before you get a chance to respond. There may be a key word that triggers you during the sentence the other actor is saying. So pick up on that; form your thought and be ready to speak. For example:
Other Actor: I've got to get a bus to Clapham-I'm already late for my date.
You: You won't get far. There's a bus strike.
    The other actor doesn't stop talking after he says "bus," so you can't get in and say your line at the actual moment of thought recognition. But when you hear the key word "bus," from that point on you know what you're going to say directly after he stops. You can show this by your reaction. And that bit of acting can only come from serious listening.

    Or you can bring new life to an apparently mundane reply by planning a thought process based on a key word and then never voicing it:

    KIDNAPPED
    Directed by Delbert Mann. AIP, 1971.

    Other Actor: Would you like some tea?
    You: Yes, please.
    "Tea" is the key word. The simple word "tea" can open up so many responses. Let's say you would have preferred coffee. The minute the other actor says "tea," your eyes will change because you'd really like coffee. Or maybe you're allergic to tea. Then you answer politely, but with a bit of anguish, knowing that you won't really drink it. The camera thrives on niceties like that; yet you often see actors missing out on these little presents that can open up whole realms of possible reaction. "Tea" could be an indication that he's too poor to offer you booze, or that he regards you as an alcoholic who shouldn't be offered a drink. Take the script and explore these possibilities because to pick up key words opens a repertoire of potential response that can lift a scene off the page and into reality. Don't make a fetish of it or you will complicate things unnecessarily. You'll seem a maniac if everything sets you off. But take it to reasonable bounds and you'll find that your performance is more interesting to you and more believable on the screen.
MINIATURE GOLF
    There may or may not be rehearsals; it depends entirely on the director. So you must do as much as you can to construct your role before you get on the set. The director always expects you to bring a fully formed characterization with you, and this without your seeing the set or meeting fellow actors. Make the decisions about your character's physical mannerisms, practice themand keep it simple. Once you get on the set, you will have to repeat those mannerisms and actions accurately for a variety of shots.

    We'll deal with special problems of continuity later, but basically you usually need to repeat a sequence at least three times on film: once for the long shot, once for the medium shot, and once for the close-up. The long shot is the wide-angle shot taken at a distance. This shot reveals all the ingredients of a scene. If there are three actors practicing their golf strokes on the office carpet, in the long shot you will see all of them plus the carpet. This shot is also frequently called the "master shot" because it shows the whole scene. It is the best guide to the placement of the camera for the other shots and it is the reference for inclusion of other shots when the scene is edited. The medium shot is a closer view of selected ingredients. The close-up is a very close view of only one element. If you were one of the golfers, the close-up might be of your feet on the carpet or of your face.
    When you prepare your character's physical mannerisms or actions at home, keep them simple, so that later, on the set, you can repeat them accurately for each type of shot. If you fiddle around with your golf club during the master shot, you must fiddle in exactly the same way for the other shots. Initiating a movement that you cannot repeat will often mean that scenes will have to be shot again. If you are holding the putter on your left side for a particular line in the master, but you shift it to your right for the medium