Introduction
Why is ScreenSkill Different?
What Do Actors Learn About?
What Do Directors Learn About?
What's the Difference Between Acting for the Stage and the Screen?
Introduction
We specialise in training for film
and television professionals.
(ie. professional development for screen actors, directors and writers).
Our teachers are industry practitioners with years of wide ranging experience
in all aspects of screen
production - especially acting, writing and directing.
We run a range of short specialist courses with modules covering:
- Acting for the screen
- Directing for single camera production
- Directing & acting for multicam production
- Screen language for Writers and Directors
- 'To-Camera' and Voice-Over skills
- Joint Workshop sessions for actors and directors
- Location shoots for actors, directors, designers and crews (i.e. professional in-service)
The current range of courses is upgraded regularly. See: Upcoming
Courses
Our courses cover all forms of screen production including television, film,
multimedia, educational, promotional, commercials and multi-camera drama and
presentation.
Why is ScreenSkill Different?
As training providers we believe
that Australian actors could be more flexible, creative and capable on the
screen if they were more appropriately trained. They could then sustain a
more viable career path as actors within the screen production industry.
ScreenSkill teachers are industry professionals. (see CV’s) We have taught
at the highest level both here and overseas, (NIDA, AFTRS, VCA, WAAPA, QUT
etc).
What Do Actors Learn About?
Workshops Cover...
- Scene work on camera with critical feedback
- The range of abilities required by a screen actor
- Developing self-confidence
- How to work both technically and intuitively
- How to use subtext - finding a scene's critical incident
- Scene analysis, using subext to identify 'actions, references and beats '
- Improvisation for screen actors
- Screen acting, improvisation and rehearsal
- Understanding and sustaining staging for shots, also continuity during rehearsal and filming
- How editing works and how it effects acting
- Understanding what skills directors and casting directors look for in an actor.
What Do Directors Learn About?
The main focus is on developing the key techniques used by a screen director, and working with actors.
Workshops Cover...
- On camera scene work with actors with critical feedback from tutor
- Script analysis
- Scene analysis using subtext to determine actions and devise staging and camera coverage
- Structure: identifying a scene's obligatory moment
- Coaching actors to sustain their intuition
- How to use mise en scene.
What's the Difference Between Acting for the Stage and
the Screen?
Clearly there are similarities, but that's about it... you might 'wing-it' on screen but how do you improve?
The difference between stage and screen acting is mostly to do with notions of audience and their proximity. On stage, acting is for a 'live' audience - their presence is incorporated in the choices you make. But who and where is the audience when you act in front of a camera with its omnipresent 'eye' ... observing deep inside you? Does the camera see a nervous, self-conscious actor 'acting'? Or behaviours reflecting the intended character... behaviours which can be altered via the actor's conscious process? What if the camera causes you to be self-conscious...? How do you modify your acting choices to reveal what you intend... to look real and spontaneous? How do you make improvements as you proceed... for each take, and maintain continuity?
Acting for the screen is different. See below.
| THEATRE | FILM AND VIDEO |
| Every member of the audience has a different view | Every member of the audience has the same view…. The best seat in the house. |
| The pace and playing of the scene’s structure is totally in the hands of the actor | The Director may alter the pace, structure and the dialogue with the editor in post-production outside the actor’s control. |
| The actors move logically from one action to the next from beginning to end. | The actor may be called on to play out of chronological sequence, and have the skill of sustaining the intended character continuity. |
| The audience may see the total space continually. The Director and actor must draw the audience’s eye to detail by movement, placement and lighting. The audience can easily miss or be distracted from the detail. | The Director can change the audience’s view of the space through 360 degrees. Their attention to details can be controlled by the size and selection of information within the frame and via montage. |
| The actor must have considerable stamina of concentration to play completely form beginning to end - sometimes up to two hours continuously. | The actor needs to be able to concentrate quickly, then to remain relaxed, but remain knowingly attuned between takes and in the long periods of inactivity between set-ups. |
| The stage is a limited space and the actor has to create a ‘reality’ with sets and with props which are often only symbols of reality. | Film and video have infinite choice of locations. The actors can be set in the actual location and handle real props. |
| The actors can build their performances over a long concentrated rehearsal period. | Actors are generally given little time to rehearse and develop their character. They bring a lot of themselves – psychophysically – worst example is type-casting. |
| The actor has to reveal his or her actions large enough to be read by every member of the audience. | The actor can ‘adjust’ the size of the action they play to suit the shot size. |
| The stage script seldom deals with continuous visual narrative and tends to deal more with relationships expressed through dialogue. | The film or video script is realised using visual narrative and is less dependent upon dialogue. Via montage and mise en scene it can easily infer meanings. |