Acting
for the Camera!
Yes, there are technical differences: There are things
like hitting marks and matching action, but the main difference between acting
for the stage and acting for the camera is really just one of logistics.
In Theatre, you go out on stage and for the next two hours or so you do your job. And if you act well, or you act poorly, you’re done at the end of the play. You have to live with your performance as does the audience who has just seen it.
In Film, there is a lot of waiting around and doing little snippets, sometimes miniscule snippets of your performance, snippets which will be edited into the final product – a feature film. So while the process of acting is largely the same, you are doing it with sometimes hours of waiting in between, and often out of sequence, meaning that you are not portraying events in the order in which they happen in the story. Also, there is something else in film, which is called “take two”. Meaning that if your director doesn’t like what you did for whatever reason, and it is often not your fault, you go again with your snippet of acting, until he is satisfied, which could mean in some cases, many, many takes.
Moreover, on camera actor's character thought process needs to be even closer to authentic life than in theater, because the audience (the camera) is right in front of the actor, and can see any flinch or moment of uncertainty. When your face is blown up 100 times it’s normal size on screen, the microscopic expressions of the muscles in your face are huge, whereas on stage – only the first few rows can see the very hint of them.
In Theatre, you go out on stage and for the next two hours or so you do your job. And if you act well, or you act poorly, you’re done at the end of the play. You have to live with your performance as does the audience who has just seen it.
In Film, there is a lot of waiting around and doing little snippets, sometimes miniscule snippets of your performance, snippets which will be edited into the final product – a feature film. So while the process of acting is largely the same, you are doing it with sometimes hours of waiting in between, and often out of sequence, meaning that you are not portraying events in the order in which they happen in the story. Also, there is something else in film, which is called “take two”. Meaning that if your director doesn’t like what you did for whatever reason, and it is often not your fault, you go again with your snippet of acting, until he is satisfied, which could mean in some cases, many, many takes.
Moreover, on camera actor's character thought process needs to be even closer to authentic life than in theater, because the audience (the camera) is right in front of the actor, and can see any flinch or moment of uncertainty. When your face is blown up 100 times it’s normal size on screen, the microscopic expressions of the muscles in your face are huge, whereas on stage – only the first few rows can see the very hint of them.
A final word of advice by Eugene Buica acting coach from University of Pennsylvania:
Acting is acting, so spend your time learning to do it
well, on or off camera, because the rest is just icing on the cake!
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