Now, You Must “WOW” Us To Work in Acting!
Now the audiences, agents, producers, casting directors, and the industry in general, are not satisfied with seeing a great or excellent performance. No, now when they meet and see you perform, act, sing, or dance, they want to be WOWED. That is because now we are constantly bombarded and overwhelmed by talent coming in from all over the globe.
You must bring the WOW FACTOR! There is no other way!
Sometimes they don’t want to use you in their upcoming projects, but you’re so talented they have to use you. For example, the producers had a different vision in mind for a certain part in a movie, but after seeing your work, they changed the gender, ethnicity, and color so you could play that role. You now have to be spectacular to get a job, prepare yourself.
Wow is an involuntary sound reaction to an experience that is so profound, surprising, emotional, and unforgettable.
Getting a wow out of people is not very easy. To attaint that you will have to leave your comfort zones and become a world champion artist
12 Things That Wow Us!
2. You travel to the best teachers/ mentors/ coaches to train, learn, and transform.
3. You have the courage to be your authentic self. You make your soul visible to the world.
4. You “Love Your Life”. You don’t complain about things you are not willing to change.
5. Your commitment to your dream, craft/ gift /talent is never-ending. You need no motivation to create.
6. You are so truthful and vulnerable in your performance, we no longer see you -the actor.
7. You make an artistic choice that no one else would have made. You laugh where it says cry and you are still when the script says yell. You bring your creativity to your work.
8. Your performances go beyond everyone’s expectations. They are full of nuance, unpredictability, and depth.
9. When you are working with someone, you have researched who they are and acknowledge the artistry of others.
10. You are grateful and thankful to everyone for helping you grow. You inspire and bring value to all you meet.
11. You arrive early to appointments and bring passion, love, and humor to whatever you are doing.
12. You listen with your blood and see with your heart!
To learn more tips like this and to practice them with other actors join our amazing online acting classes.
Online Acting Classes – 7 Tips to Ensure Success
ONLINE ACTING CLASSES ARE MORE POWERFUL!
It’s a whole new world. When I started t0 give my acting classes online, I wasn’t sure how beneficial or successful it would be.
It turns out that doing classes online has made the actors pay more attention to my techniques and methods. It’s true.
You see being on Zoom has made the actors have to focus a lot more. Concentration and comprehension have gone way up and therefore the online classes have been even more transformational.
Now anyone can be part of this special event by joining us from anywhere in the world. Online studying and training is the future. The personal growth the actors have experienced has been a phenomenon. For the first time, from their homes, actors are given a chance to meet the top Hollywood Agents, Managers and Oscar-Winning Producers and Directors, notably our amazing April Webster, Casting Director of “Star Wars,” who works with and coaches all the actors.
One manager who saw the actors perform, signed 2 clients.
The online acting class will change your career and life! Guaranteed!
7 Things You Must Do To Ensure A Successful Online Class.
- Use your COMPUTER ONLY not a smartphone/iPhone. The picture quality is better on the computer and we will be able to see you more.
- Very Important – Setup good lighting in front of you. You are in SHOW-BUSINESS! Make sure we can see you clearly. Please test it prior to the start of the class. Get lights, lamps, or a flashlight, whatever you need to light your face from the front. Don’t sit with a window behind you during the day. It will steal the light from you. Test everything before you go live online. We always have very important industry guests attending who need to be able to see you. No one will care how well you are acting if they can’t really see you. Make a GREAT 1ST IMPRESSION!
- Make sure you have good SOUND, that we can hear you and you can hear us. Choose an area that isn’t noisy or distracting. Use HEADPHONES, microphone headset, ear pods, a separate MICROPHONE, or computer mic if necessary. The class is a PROFESSIONAL SETTING and an amazing OPPORTUNITY for you – Prepare!
- You MUST have your computer on a DESK or TABLE. You must raise your COMPUTER CAMERA – EYE LEVEL. Use books or whatever is necessary. Professional people have the camera eye-level. Get ready to work.
- Sit close to your COMPUTER. Don’t look down. WE NEED TO SEE YOUR EYES!
- Have your NOTEBOOK AND PEN AT THE READY. Place WATER or a refreshment next to you. We have many working artists who are producing upcoming projects. If you appear disorganized, they will not consider using you.
- MOST IMPORTANT – Sit UP STRAIGHT, BE HAPPY and BRING LOTS OF ENERGY! Don’t touch your face or look tired. 85% of communication is nonverbal. IF YOU LOOK TIRED – NOBODY WILL WANT TO WORK WITH YOU. When you are online we see every move you make. Please keep your focus and concentration and most importantly, enjoy the process!
To learn more tips like this and to practice them with other actors join our online acting classes.
What You Need To Create an Unforgettable Performance
“The Better The Technique, The Better The Actor.”
Find An Emotional Objective!
The reason a scene starts is because you have two strong needs that have to be satisfied, NOW, by the other person. The other person, in the scene, is very important to you in some way. You enter the scene with a hunger that needs to be urgently resolved by the other person, Right Now! There is something very specific that you NEED the other person to DO (physically) and specifically, you NEED the other person to SAY (exact words). The needs you choose must make you EMOTIONAL if you did or did not get them. BE SPECIFIC!
Ask yourself, “Is what I need from the other person so important that it’s making me vulnerable?” You must only go after primal instincts, such as LOVE, SEX, MONEY or POWER. People are willing to die for these things. Now, the more difficult it is for you to attain these needs, the better the scene. ALL SCENES ARE LIKE EMERGENCY MOMENTS – PLAYED OUT CALMLY!
Imagine you’re running into an emergency room because someone you love is there. When you called the hospital, to get information, and asked what’s going on, they wouldn’t give any information. So, you go to the hospital and up to the doctor, and you say, “Doctor? What’s going on?”, but underneath your heart is pounding, you’re confused, you’re terrified. That emotional, physical, and psychological state you’re in – is perfect for acting. Uncertainty, fear, loss of control, and the gravity of the situation drive the best scenes.
The Moment Right Before
Where are you coming from? The character has had a life up to this point. You can’t just start from nothing? All scenes start in the middle. You must come into every scene loaded, with a physical, emotional, and verbal need.
Obstacles – Yours and Theirs
Know that when you enter the scene – the other person feels and thinks totally opposite from you. That’s your outer or external obstacle. You have to convince them, in every way possible, to give you what you need. The situation must feel like it’s never happened before. The greater the obstacle, the better the performance.
You must also have an internal or personal obstacle as well. Such as a feeling of loss and confusion. You should feel as if you never know what to do or say. A powerful acting choice is not being as good at the task or role people are expecting you to play. For example A lover, lawyer, doctor, teacher, mother – any role you can think of, and you’re just not any good at it. But, of course, you’re hiding the fact that you’re not competent with a sense of over-confidence. Those inner struggles are captivating to watch.
The other person is not interested, in any way, in giving you what you want or need. You want them to love you and say loving things to you, but they don’t like you at all. Without inner or outer obstacles, there is no scene. Always ask yourself, “Where is the conflict in the scene?” “What am I trying to overcome?”
Tactics
These are different ways in which you are trying to get what you want in a scene. What are your ways? Are you using sex, intellect, humor, sadness, anger? Are you a manipulator or trying to guilt others?
Observe a teenager trying to borrow the car from his parents, and you will learn all about tactics. The more interesting the tactics, the more compelling your performance will be. Tactics keep changing all the time.
The WHY
You must know why you need what you need in the scene, but never the how. Don’t ever plan on how you’re going to do it. If you plan the how, you will give a superficial performance. Find your emotional why, and it will be exciting to watch because you don’t know what you’re going to do and how you’re going get it done. Your WHY is the burning desire to do something. The WHY must engage your heart, never your head. Having an emotional why makes you give an unforgettable performance!
The Stakes
So, what you have to lose motivates the scene. When the stakes are very high, every moment means something. You must be able to lose big, to win big. The higher the stakes, the more interest the audience has in your scene. The loss must be very personal to you. High stakes give excitement to any scene. If the scene is not so exciting, it is because the stakes are not high enough.
Personalize
Personalize your emotional objective and the scene. It must be something you can understand or be able to relate to. The more personal you make it, the more meaningful it will be to others.
Words Are Not The Truth
What you say is never the whole truth. Find the true meaning of your lines. Such as, “I never want to see you again?” could mean, “I cannot live without you.” Getting to the fifth level of truth will reveal what is really going on. Be sure to read that section.
I always tell my actors, “Never play the scene that’s written. Play the scene the writer should have written but didn’t. Remember, the plot plays itself.”
It’s important to remember, that what your partner is saying is 25% true. This way they are affecting you. We only argue and fight for something because it’s meaningful and truthful to us.
History
Remember, you’re playing a human being, not a character. Find your historical and emotional connection to every word you say. Create a history. Why are you saying or acting this way now? What is the history of you and of the other person in the scene? Did you answer the 25 questions in the previous chapter? If so, then just BE that person. You don’t have to ACT anymore. Audiences are dying for the real thing, which can only happen when you are in the state of being.
The Arc
Where is the ARC in the scene? You must start in one place emotionally and end somewhere else. There are also physical arcs as well. Perhaps, you start off tense, and then you become calm. For this to work, you must flow from one thing to another, seamlessly, to keep the scene interesting.
The Event
You must figure out, “What is the event?” What is happening in the scene that has never happened before or never quite like this? Find the uniqueness of this moment, and we won’t be able to stop watching.
Inside – Outside Acting
On the outside, you show one thing, but on the inside, you feel totally different.
Like a pressure cooker or a volcano, calm on the outside and boiling on the inside. The inside wants to express itself, but it doesn’t. That is what people do every day. They learn to hide their true feelings and emotions, and our job is to act like people, not actors.
Instincts
React with your instincts! Your body is a beacon of responses. Let your gut lead you, and don’t be logical because no one ever is. Instincts create accidental moments in a scene, that are the most remembered moments, in film history.
Point of View
It’s very important that you promote your character’s point of view. You accept and understand what your character wants, acts and believes in. You never judge your character because every person in the world always thinks that what they are doing is “right” at the moment they are doing it. Your job is to promote their point of view in the most positive way possible. You must actually fall in love with your character’s needs and wishes.
Activity
You must physicalize what your feeling at all times. Actors must also be in action. What are you doing when that person enters your space? What would you be doing if that person didn’t come into your room? Activities reveal to the audience how you are really feeling and thinking because the body never lies!
Acting Is Reacting
Everything you do is a reaction to the other person – what they say and do. Take your partner’s behavior and dialogue extremely personally. When you’re just concerned about your own performance or what you are saying – you’re disconnected from the scene. Also, find the trigger words in the scene – these are the words that set you off. React to everything you can. Uta Hagen said, “What will help you’re reactions is to expect the other person to say and do the opposite of what they actually doing. You react strongly in life when someone says or does something you didn’t expect.” Stella Adler – “Listen with your blood!”
Not Knowing What To Say
You always have two thoughts, that the character is thinking, come at you at the same time. For example, someone says to you “You want to go out?” and your thinking “Yes!” and “No…”, and at the last moment you choose one. When you’re lost and unsure how you’re going to answer, that creates interest and tension.
Winning
How are you trying to win in the scene? We love to watch winners, not victims. The better actor is also the one that drives the scene and tries to achieve his goals, even under the most impossible of circumstances.
I always tell my actors:
“There is power in silence. Some of the most impactful moments, in our lives, are in the silence.”
Acting actually happens when you’re not talking.
“Don’t speak unless you can improve on the silence!”
To learn more tips like this and to practice them with other actors join our online acting classes.