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That's it.

NZAG presents: What's My Type? Acting To Your Strengths

What's My Type - Acting to Your Strengths

Quickpost 7

12-13 September

Yesterday, I contacted an acting coach, recommended by my agent. I have my first session with her Friday next. I am very excited!

I've also started working on a scene from Rachel Getting Married with a bit that lends itself as a monologue. I've done a first analysis of the text and it's quite fun!

I'm also back on doing my GenAm practice sentences and reading out loud in that accent.

More work has been done for the NZAG/Peter Feeney workshop in October. It's getting really exciting! Wish us luck that we book out!

Have I mentioned that I have my first audition of sorts in months tomorrow afternoon? Yay!

Acting class with Micheal Caine

I love Youtube. Where else you watch an acting workshop with Michael Cane from 1987?

Here are some of Michael Caine's wisdoms on movie acting from that workshop:

“Once you’re in front of that camera NOBODY exists, nobody except the other person in the scene. And what we do, we actors who are in the movie, we hang onto each other’s eyes. That’s the most important thing in film. Eyes. Eyes.“

On relaxing in front of the camera: “You know that you have no enemies. Everybody is on your side.”

“The camera is like a belt or a net behind you. And someone saying, someone standing behind you and saying, ‘Look, you can relax, it’s okay. You don’t have to push it…’ . Just relax and let it come out.”

“If you’re going to do action and movement, plan it absolutely perfectly, so you do it exactly the same over and over again. You can change your performance but you cannot change the action. Otherwise the close-up, the medium shot and the master shot do not match.”

“You cannot bluff [the camera]… you need to do nothing but you must feel, you must look and you must listen because she will see everything you do. She’ll pick it up and you don’t have to throw it to her. And she will love you even though you ignore her for the rest of your life.”

“In movies the camera is always your best friend.”

“You see, everybody is there to get the greatest performance from you that you’ve ever given. Everyone will help. The electrician up there, he will go scrambling along there and get that light absolutely right, so that there is glint in your eye. Everything is done for you, to help you do it right because it’s bloody difficult and everyone knows it.”

Wanna watch the workshop? No problem:

Lira Kellerman in Home At Last

My blogger friend Lira Kellerman who writes the witty, highly informative and truly lovable blog The Struggling Actress is staring in the new webseries, Home at Last! Out soon. I am very much looking forward to watching!

Check out the trailer here

Quickpost 6

10-11 September

Again, over the weekend my actual actor exercises had to take a back seat. I have done a lot of reading though; some more of Bonnie Gillespie's  Self-Management for Actors and I've discovered, thanks to my actor friend Richard Whiteside, the amazing Larry Moss' The Intent to Live.

Watch this if you don't believe the amazing bit:

You know how some teachers and some methods speak to you? It has been like this for me with Meisner. I just like, I get it. It's the same with what Larry Moss teaches. Only that I feel even stronger about his ideas. He draws from the Meisner technique but also adds other elements like the strong text analysis teachers like Stella Adler emphasised. I'm really excited to delve into the exercises in Moss' book!

The main reason I haven't been able to be diligent with my acting exercises this week is that I worked very hard to get a workshop for the NZ Actors' Guild off the ground. I am very pleased to announce that we will hold a Branding for Actors Workshop in early October taught by the ever awesome Peter Feeney!

It was my first time organising an event like this and I really hope it's a success. The lovely actress/publicist Brianne Kerr is doing the publicity for the workshop, so with that and the fact that the workshop is going to ROCK, I have no doubt that places will sell like hot cakes!

I also have my first meeting about another very cool event presented by the NZAG first thing tomorrow. Back to the acting regiment right after!

The Kid In The Front Row Film Questionaire

I don't do questionnaires, usually but the Kid is pretty darn great, so here goes:

1. What film has been sitting on your shelf for six months waiting to be watched?

Frozen River - I know I'm going to be devastated by this film and just keep putting it off. What can I say, I'm a wuss!

2. What is the one film you know word for word?

Cars - My son makes me watch it with him about once a week... Otherwise I am utterly hopeless, with the exception of thankfully the films I am actually in.

3. What screen character breaks your heart?

Ree in Winter's Bone

4. If you could bring an actor back from the dead, and had to pair them on screen with a current actor (who is no older than 40), what would your combo be?

I'll have to get back to you on that one.

5. How often do you check your phone in the cinema?

NEVER!

6. What film do you love which no-one else quite seems to 'get'?

I have a love-hate relationship with bad romantic comedies and I don't even 'get' that myself.

7. What is your favourite Al Pacino film?
 
 I don't like Al Pacino.

8. Why do they always manage to make us go one size bigger with the popcorn?

I don't know. I don't eat popcorn.

9. Share one memory from a cinema visit long ago.

Some friends of mine made me watch Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses. They wouldn't let me leave the theatre. I am scarred for life.

10. Have you ever used a line from a movie, in your life, without anyone knowing you stole it? Give details.

That would require me remembering lines from films people have actually seen. I shall do my best to make an attempt at being so clever in the future. In the meantime I shall bask in the glory of my son thinking that I am fantastically hilarious when I say 'Pit stop!' in a terrible excuse of an Italian accent.

Quickpost 5

7-9 September

Since you already know about my awesome first  DIY coldreading session, I won't say any more about that. Do read the comments on that post though. Insanely talented Wellington local Richard Falkner has some really fantastic suggestions!

Alas, I must admit that I had zero time for anything much these last two days, not in the acting department anyway. I spent all my time on the phone and email to get a couple of, might I say AWESOME, events for the NZ Actor's Guild off the ground. It's going rather well so far and I am hoping to be able to make an official announcement soon. Fingers crossed!

Cold reading DIY

My god this is f***ing hard!

Here I was, sitting at my desk with a pile of sides thinking, 'How hard can it be, really? It just reading lines, saying the words!'

So, I chose a random scene, read over it a couple of times and off I went into the crappy little camera built into my otherwise trusty computer. And I'm telling you, reading sides with no one reading with you sucks even more than reading them with a crap reader! Especially, when you're doing the whole cold reading thing and have to read not only your own lines but the other character's lines as well.

Totally threw me. So, it is probably the perfect way to teach myself the art of cold reading. It means that I really really really have to focus. It means that I have to decide on and commit to relationships and intentions and all that juicy stuff way faster than I normally would, which incidentally means that there's less chance of me second-guessing myself.

But man, this first cold reading DIY session was hard! One nice thing to see though was that through all the confusion of this first attempt I lost less of my GenAm during the scene than I would have thought. Practice might have not yet made me perfect but I sure have improved a lot. The other good thing about this first session is that the only way form here on out is up! And that's exactly where I want to go. It's a win win situation, really.

Quickpost 4

5-6 September

My focus is still on accent work, so I ran my practice sentences and read out loud in GenAm both days.

I even managed to do my ballet workout both days. I am using muscles I never knew I even had. Painful fun.

I can't seem to bring myself to get stuck into the cold reading exercises. I have sides printed out, I have a big bathroom mirror, I have the ability to read. So, why am I not excited to give it a try? It feels like I'm too scared to. I guess, I'm feeling rusty, very rusty. There is that (irrational) fear lurking in the back of my mind that I might have lost 'it', you know, everything that I've learned and worked for over the past couple of years. Better get over it soon. I want to be performance ready when the drought breaks!

I've also started working on some really cool things for the New Zealand Actor's Guild, being on the board and all. Stay tuned for more info over the next few weeks!

Quickpost 3

2-4 September

Over the past three days I have been concentrating on practising my GenAm whenever I got a chance. Learning an accent, it turns out, is the perfect tool for me to hone in times where I have very little time to myself. I just had to find the right approach and method. With the help of Penny Dyer's audiobook, I've been making really good progress. If I keep it up I'll be able to record a sample before months end and make it available to my agent and post it on my other actor profiles. I am very excited! Have you any idea how much more sellable it makes in NZ me when I have mastered the GenAm? I'm starting with RP this week. Watch this space!

I've also started reading Self-Management for Actors by LA casting director Bonnie Gillespie. She's been writing a fantastic blog, The Actors Voice, on Actors Access since 2004. So, there is already a heap of fantastic information on that blog (thank Richard for pointing me to it!). But I was particularly interested in learning about actor branding and that's what her book provides in a more comprehensive and centralised way.

Since I am just starting out in the industry, I thought it would be a good idea to know what actor type I am and how to use my brand to my advantage. I am not trying to get type-cast. I'm just interested in how to sell best what I have naturally. If I have a clear idea of who I am as an actor, I can bring that essence across clearly in my headshots, in the way I dress and come across. This will give both my agent and any CDs a clear idea of who I am, what I am naturally suited for and of how to market and, well, sell me. 

I cannot imagine anything more tedious for a CD than looking at an actor's headshots or at an actor in person and not knowing who this person is. After all, they are going through stacks of photos and whole flocks of auditionees to find the right candidates for often very specific breakdowns. Even in a comparatively small market like Wellington or New Zealand even, when you are just starting out, you need to get known for something. If that something is something you're naturally good at, that's a huge advantage and a good starting point. It might not make sense to everyone but it makes sense to me.

Playing your primary type over and over is not a limitation. It's a shortcut... There are so many people pursuing acting in Los Angeles that the best shot you've got to ever get cast is to get known for being very good at the one thing folks will most want to see you doing. And the more consistently you provide casting directors with that one thing, the better you brand yourself. The better you brand yourself, the more of a prototype you become. And when you're a prototype for a role, you're the one the buyers think of when writing the breakdown. Heck, if you're really at the top of our list, you're the one whose agent we call with an offer, rather than even writing the breakdown for that role.

Bonnie Gillespie

Now, New Zealand and Wellington are not LA by any means. They are MUCH smaller markets. But I still have the feeling that the same principle applies. I think it might be more of a balance act here between finding your brand and avoiding type-casting but I also think that knowing my type and building my brand is a useful starting point.

What do you think?

Quickpost 2

1 September

Nothing much to report today.  I guess actress-wise days like yesterday are the worst. It was a pretty good day all around but there was just no time or space to do much for my actor's toolbox. I managed to squeeze in a reading of my GenAm practice sentences while cooking dinner though. It felt good to at least have done something. So, lesson for today: Even if you only have five minutes, use them!

P.S.: Congratulations to Toronto Actress, who has just booked a major commercial! And congratulations to my fried V, who has landed herself a gig on a big feature! Well done guys, you're an inspiration! xx