NEXT COURSES

January 7 - July 1, 2008

2 sessions per week

CAMERA: THE TRUTH 24 fps

Before the first shooting day: Being in the character’s skin, decode the script, traps, naked scenes, script reading sessions alone and with the director and other actors, , costume fittings, making up, the filmed tests, the learning of the specialities (languages, sport, fight, arms drill, attitudes, abilities, familiarization with the animals, stand-in, etc.)

The shooting: the arrival on set, the waiting, the mess of the shooting; the Italian, the sides, the setting up of HF microphones, the chronological disorder of the scenes, the props, the first « Camera ! » and « Action ! »; the concentration off and on set, the confidants, the outside scenes (concentration in the chaos), the inside scenes (concentration though promiscuity), the big role scene – the historical lines, the trivial little scenes with no dialogue; the actor’s performance space, the simple participations, the particular scenes (scenes with children, foreign actors, in uncommon places or with uncommon weather conditions, in cars, etc.); the different shots and their importance, the order of the shots, their importance, the breathing, the focal length, the different camera angles, the distances, the point, facing the camera, the lines, the shots with a multiple-camera setup, the shootings 1,2,3 etc...

The actor’s life: his relation with his agent, with the team, with the other actors, the choices or no, the immediate future.

SHOOTING I

Teacher: Yves Collignon

First filmed texts and improvisations. Studies of the objective and the actions that follow. Free your unconscious thanks to a well integrated technique; allow the camera to do the acting; choose, prepare and commit fully to the character‘s needs and wants; explore all while accepting the script and the director’s instructions; understand the goal of the scene and do everything to achieve that objective.

SHOOTING II

Teacher: Eric Bartonio

First filmed texts and improvisations. Studies of the objective and the actions that follow. Free your unconscious thanks to a well integrated technique; allow the camera to do the acting; choose, prepare and commit fully to the character‘s needs and wants; explore all while accepting the script and the director’s instructions; understand the goal of the scene and do everything to achieve that objective.

SHOOTING  III

Scenes and monologues. Editing of diverse French, English and American playwrights’ texts. choose, prepare and commit fully to the character‘s needs and wants; explore all while accepting the script and the director’s instructions; understand the goal of the scene and do everything to achieve that objective.

AMERICAN FILM ACTING ®

Films are shot from simple ideas, from elements planned in the script and by the director. The actor achieves each of these “play parts” (Bits or Beats) simply. He is member of a team, so he never acts alone. He knows exactly where to focus his energy, so he knows where to direct his gaze, he spots constraints and freedom of movement, still or moving: travellings, shots, sequences, etc. He understands the importance of continuity, and the required sound levels. Finally, he handles props with creativity. The talented actor, who adapts to these tasks actively in reaction to his partners, gets a credible acting in front of the camera. If he’s always surprising, he will be “good”. Efficient, direct and true, 24 frames per second.

Finally, referring to the objective of the scene or the sequence, the actor has to achieve the GOAL one action at a time. This implies the wish and the will to satisfy this wish, to win. The more the actor gets involved in the specific actions that he chose, prepared and rehearsed for the script, the better he … and the film will be.

ACTING FOR TV

Teacher: Yves Collignon

Television regularly produces serials and TV films meant to be broadcasted on television. Scenarii and productions are often compelled to comply with the demands imposed by TV broadcasting. Situations, dialogues, shots often adapt to budgets that impose to hire a rapid and skilful know-how. If this is a recurrent serial, the production is often rapid and can surprise the actor who begins or discovers television, supposing he comes from theatre. He is far from theatrical preparation and from the team that combines its efforts day after day. He may know nobody but when he will act his part, everyone will discover him, and that’s an important destabilising factor. That’s why he has to be more than ready. The director needs him. If the actor knows his role perfectly, he can propose diverse nuances to the director, so there is an exchange and respect of his work.

Taking into account television demands, we will help the actor guide himself, quickly concentrate and know how to use his creativity. A part of the work insists on the actor’s spontaneity, on his proper nature, on how easy he « enters » in a character, on his instinct. Execution of a prepared scene.

Another part of the work is done more rapidly. It aims to cause immediate reactions. Memory, concentration, analysis of the situations and the characters, and finally meeting the partner, this stranger. And finally, execution of a prepared scene.

The last part of the work is a TV/serial scene set up, played and filmed by two cameras like on a TV shooting. This work materializes the efforts of the previous sessions. It stresses their efforts and their achievements.

During the whole session, actors work in front of cameras that regularly film their work and show their improvement.

MEISNER TECHNIQUE FOR FILM

Teacher: Tiffany Stern

Word repetition, independent task, activities.
« The word repetition game » invented by Meisner is an exercise & a work tool that sharpens the impulse, this concrete answer to an inside or outside stimulus. When the actor receives the stimulus –the fact or exciting event- he reacts, moves and « slips » it into his imagination (which must have an effective technique), according to his personal combinations. The actor who plays thoroughly from this stimulus approaches an « impulsive, organic and true » behaviour; he reacts according to the Other « in the moment » - and not with twitches and pre-established behaviour clichés. Meisner declared again and again:

« The exercise eliminates all that “head work”, it takes away all the mental manipulation and gets us to where true impulses come from. »

THE ACTOR & HIS OWN Image

Teacher: Alexandre Velikovski

The approach of the body and soul of the character through what he is saying, what he is doing and how he is doing it. The objective of the first acting training courses can be defined with Stanislavski’s words “on stage, … forget everything : how you walk, how you sit, eat, drink, sleep, talk, watch, listen – in a word, how you act, inwardly and externally. All this, you have to re-learn it on stage, exactly like a child that learns how to walk, talk, watch and listen.”

To create, the painter needs paintbrushes and colours; the architect needs building materials, the musician an instrument… But what does an actor need for his work? The actor needs…himself. He is both interpreter and his own instrument! This means that you have to learn to yourself how to play on yourself! It’s on this acting know-how we will work in our courses.

Of course, all this is the basis of the artistic work of any drama actor, whatever the field and the style. Nevertheless, it is the cinematographer who uses in the most direct way the typical feature of the actor, his appearance, and the particularities of his personality. The actor requires a maximum of naturalness, an organic set… -the camera doesn’t accept any wrong tone, any exaggeration…That means that a film actor must be able more than anyone else to unveil his personality in any situation (given circumstances) proposed by the script.

What can be the I in the different given circumstances? What are « given circumstances »? Looking for answers to these questions, and to many others, is also part of our courses.

The main thing is to realize that without self understanding, without the ability to manage yourself, it is merely impossible to feel joy and pleasure from work… and this what we all aspire to!

CASTING

Teacher: Yves Collignon

During the first two trimesters, the actor discovers film and television work. So here, we focus on his future. Even if his experience is still at its beginnings, he has to find work, he must play, practice the profession he is acquiring. He will answer to various demands and will have the occasion to hold many auditions for a part. Castings are the inevitable intermediaries to access a shooting. But there are many actors and many casting directors. That is why it is important to know how to manage these meetings. They are decisive for the success of the actor’s work. It is indeed important to be yourself, to be natural, spontaneous, but not to the detriment of professionalism. It is important to be ready in order to give yourself during an audition. At this moment, the acuity of the actor must be particularly effective. He has to catch, understand, analyse, restitute and illuminate his character in no time. We are far from theatrical rehearsals where the approach towards the other is progressive and can take weeks.

To improve his capacity and prepare him to these contacts with castings, we work on several lines that contribute to strengthen the actor’s personality.

At first we work on monologues where the actor stands facing himself and alone in front of everyone. Concentration has to be optimal so that the actor focuses on the only goal of his work: managing to affect the other, the one that watches and listens, the one that decides, the casting director. Because even if the actor is good, the casting always is a mere step, he can seduce but above all he mustn’t cheat. If the actor is chosen, he will be free to deepen his work and propose something more subtle, deeper, and clearer than during the audition. These monologues can extend to short one -man shows. Therefore, they can unveil the actors’ nature and comfort them facing themselves.

A performance is only complete when the diction is clear and natural. Actors playing monologues will have to be understood and heard, so it is imperative to work your diction. Directors are always grateful for that.