ACTING FOR THE DRAMA GENRE

ACTING FOR THE DRAMA GENRE

ACTING IN SOAP OPERAS

In the old days, soap opera acting was synonymous with cheesy acting. Crying women, brooding men... Some soap operas do still hold that honor, but most have begin to hire actors who can bring a bit of reality to their roles.

Think of a soap opera as real life with the intensity knob turned up a few notches. In a moment of conflict, don't go overboard with your emotion, but simply intensify it. Audiences thrill at living through their favorite characters vicariously. The more vivid your emotions, the more you give your fans something to experience and enjoy.

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DRAMA SCHOOLS

Drama schools focus on the development of acting technique, usually focusing on work in the theater. Although the work is performance based, students typically also learn about stage craft. Classes on set building, lighting design, and even dramatic writing are often offered so that students get a well-rounded education.

Because they are so specialized, they tend to have a highly competitive admissions process. Applicants must submit to an audition process before they are granted admission. Previous school transcripts can also be taken in to consideration, as well as any previous professional experience in the field. Take time to prepare your audition materials as well as your curriculum vitae in order to present a professional package to the admissions board.

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EXERCISE: PLAYING FOR STATUS

Status is a huge part of acting technique. Much of human interaction can be broken down in to shifting issues of status. During the course of a normal conversation, a person's status may shift from high to low, and back again, depending on the topic of the conversation.

Be conscious of your body language. What kind of status is your body projecting? You should also take note of the timbre of your voice. Is it clear and confident or low and quavering? These factors help determine your status in a scene, and thereby establish your position and goals within it.

Try this: You and your scene partner take one card each from a deck of cards. Do not share the number you have. Begin a scene you are working on. The higher your number, the higher status you should play. Once the scene is finished, compare numbers to see how accurate your portrayal was.

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MANTRAS IN DRAMA

A simple strategy for creating honest drama is through the use of mantras. This is often referred to as the subtext in a scene. In other words, it's not what you're saying to the other character(s), but rather what is going on in your mind behind the words , as it were.

In order to make subtext work for you, while you are acting in a scene, recite an appropriate phrase over and over again in your head. For example, if you are playing in a scene that involves a fight, you may want to try reciting, "I hate you," in your head during the scene. This subtext mantra will subconsciously affect your performance, making it seem more natural.

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THE ELEMENTS OF DRAMA

The primary elements of drama are theme, plot, and character.

Theme: The central idea of the work, or the message the writer wishes to impart on the audience. The theme governs the progression of the plot.

Plot: The storyline, or the "what happens" of the piece. Plot governs the characters actions and emotions.

Character: The players in the piece. They move through the plot's conflicts, thereby helping to further develop the theme.

Other elements such as irony and symbolism can be added to lend more subtle touches to the drama, making it more human and accessible.

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WHAT IS DRAMA?

The definition of drama is a piece that involves plot and characters that are governed by a certain overriding theme. Your job as an actor is to investigate and understand this theme. Work within the themes of the drama and let it flow through you and the relationships that you build with other characters. Once you have thoroughly read the piece, discuss the stage- or screenplay with your fellow actors, the director or the dramaturg, if one is available. Developing a sense of unity concerning the motivations of each character will help round out the production as a whole.

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YOU ARE NOT YOUR CHARACTER

There is a saying in drama: Leave your personal problems at the stage door. In other words, don't let your current mood affect your performance. You are not your character.

While on stage or in front of the camera, you are the character you are playing, not the other way around. Although you and presumably your character are both human beings, your feelings must be put on hold in order to give precedence to what your character is feeling. When you are no longer in character, try to patiently observe your own feelings so that you can call upon them to breathe life into your future roles.

ACTING FOR THE COMEDY GENRE

ACTING FOR THE COMEDY GENRE

COMEDY IS HARD WORK

Acting in a comedy is harder than it may seem. One of the key elements of comedic acting is not to "milk the audience" for a laugh. You may have a brilliantly funny script to work from, but if you play the scenes as though a laugh is going to come at any moment, you will certainly kill the spontaneity of the world you have created.

In order to avoid giving the joke(s) away too soon, actors need to stay focused on each moment as it unfolds. Trust that the playwright has orchestrated his/her scenes so that the humor will be seen (and heard) in them.

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DON'T BE FUNNY

How do you deliver a funny line? Don't be funny.

We've all seen actors trying too hard to squeeze very last bit of humor out of one line just to be sure s/he gets the laugh. Or worse, an actor delivers a line then waits for the laugh s/he is positive will follow. (You can almost hear the crickets chirping in the silence.) You can avoid this by staying true to the world of the scene at hand.

Rule of Comedy: If you believe it, the laughs will come.

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HOW TO LAUGH

For some actors laughing on cue can be just as daunting a task as crying on cue. Here are a few tips on how to laugh effectively:

First and foremost, keep your attention on the scene and on your partner. If you are truly engrossed in the moment of the scene, the laugh will come organically.

Think of the kind of laugh required for the moment. What size or type of laugh is an appropriate reaction to the situation? Sometimes a little chuckle is far more effective than a belly laugh. Although a seemingly inappropriate laugh may work as well, particularly if you are acting in a comedy.

Be aware of the what the mood of the scene is and decide how your character would honestly react. After that, forget about it. Let the moment carry you through.

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IMPROV COMEDY

Improvisational comedy is often a misnomer. When acting in Improv comedy, actors don't set out to come up with the wittiest line or out-joke his/her scene partners. In both short- and long-form Improvs, the basic idea is to take a subject or scenario (often given by an audience member) and create a scene based on the reality of the moments that unfold once the scene has begun.

Much like real life, actors do not approach the scenes with the desire to make everyone around them laugh, but if the scene is played organically, humorous moments do arise more often than not. The goal is to play the scene with honesty.

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PHYSICAL HUMOR

One of the oldest comedic traditions is physical comedy. Here, not only language is used to make audiences laugh, but the body is used in ways that evoke humor. Sadly, this often involves some unfortunate event for the comedian such as falling down or sustaining some other bodily mishap.

Vaudeville comedians were masters of this type of humor. Film comedians of note like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd were masters of physical comedy. Today, physical comedians are not as prominent, but actors like Jim Carrey have carried on the tradition.

If you choose to study physical comedy, be aware that learning the skill effectively is as complex as learning stage combat. Looking like you've been hurt (or blinded by a cream pie) without actually being that way is a fine art that takes years of training and practice.

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THE MUSE OF COMEDY

Everyone loves to laugh. It's no wonder then that in the line-up of the original Nine Muses of the arts and sciences was Thaleia (or Thalia), the Muse of Comedy. That's how important comedy is!

Thaleia and her sisters were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (the Titan goddess of memory and language). Thaleia herself appears with the comic mask, a shepherd's staff, or a wreath of ivy. The Muses are said to be inspiring nymphs; writers and performers called upon them to give them strength and inspiration to create their art.

Today, the Muses are still worshipped, if only in general invocation! Still, if you're a comedian, Thaleia may appreciate some special attention. She's a fan of offerings of water, milk, and honey. Put some out before your next Neil Simon production.

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TYPES OF COMEDY

The word “comedy” comes from the Greek word komos which means celebration or merrymaking. It may or may not imply that a situation is funny. Mostly, it focuses on a conflict that escalates, but which in the end has a happy ending. When you study comedy, there are several subdivisions you may encounter. Here are a few:

Farce: A high-energy dramatic-comedic piece with improbable situations, exaggeration, and oftentimes playful roughhousing.

Imbroglio: A comedy that grows out of a character's attempt to solve a specific problem. Typically, the journey toward the solution becomes a comedy of errors that leads the hero into deeper entanglements, but the conclusion ends up happily.

Black comedy: Comedy (usually a social commentary) that tests good taste and moral tolerability by juxtaposing dark elements of human nature with comical ones.

Pantomime: Mainly designed for children, this musical drama dance, mime, puppetry, slapstick, and melodrama are combined to produce an entertaining and comic theatrical experience. In Europe and the UK, these “pantos” are performed around the holidays.

Going from Good Acting to Great

  

Unfortunately the word “great” has become so trivialized from careless overuse that it’s lost all its energy. However, to me it still means splendid, awe-inspiring, and beyond talent and into genius. Therefore moving into “great acting” is the equivalent of climbing Everest–difficult, but it can be done.

While clearing out paleolithic e-mail I unearthed this note. Six years later, the content is still intriguing, an attempt to define something we may only sense:

“Something wonderful happened in my audition. Remember you said you felt I was holding myself back? Something snapped and I couldn’t stuff myself back in the box if I wanted to. It feels great.”

Fast forward six years to this month. “Bob,” an adult newcomer to acting, is reviewing his monologue with me. “I know I can do better. I just can’t seem to let go,” he says.

Bob’s “letting go” equals the 1999 e-mail reference to “holding back.” When asked what he would do differently if he “let go,” Bob’s answer showed profound self-awareness: “I’d quit thinking about myself. In the middle of my monologue I started thinking, ‘What I am doing here? Do I really think I can be an actor? Am I crazy?’”

What is “Holding Back”? Or its opposite “Letting Go”?

How many times have we said, “That didn’t feel quite right”? Perhaps “not quite right” was the result of holding back.

It’s difficult to describe what holding back feels like–maybe like a cocoon separating you the actor from total you the actor. Or perhaps it feels like a self-imposed barrier separating adequate, OK, competent from mesmerizing, volcanic, meteoric. In simple terms, perhaps it is an awareness that you can give more in a line or even in the entire role.

How do you know if you have more to give? The inner being, the performing self knows. If you ask yourself the question, “Am I holding back,” the answer will most likely be “Yes, indeed.” The question is the answer!

If you say, “I know I can do better,” you are right. The actor himself recognizes his own holding back. Trust your intuition. In this area do not rely on friends’ and family’s ego stroking. Rely on the still voice of your internal talent, which is demanding to be loosened from your self-imposed limitations.

Why Do We Hold Back?

There are numerous reasons why we do not let go, why we are stuck in good and cannot move into great.

One of the main causes is precisely what Bob described. We lack focus. We allow the mind to doubt, question, and wander while in the middle of saying a line. Acting requires focus and focus requires discipline and discipline, ironically, is the beginning of letting go.

Holding back has many other causes: fear, lack of imagination, lack of respect for acting as an art, laziness, cowardice, not knowing that there is such a thing as “letting go,” willingness to “settle” for good or mediocre or competent or embarrassing rather than demand the totality of your talent. Lack of pride. Willing to be so-so rather than the best. Dilettantism.

Examples of Those Who Never Held Back

In order to let go, you have to know that letting go exists. Perhaps you need to see someone who did not hold back. I was lucky to have seen the greatest example at age 17.

Maria Callas, a controversial opera singer, was once the most famous singer in the world, scorned or adored, but never ignored! Her daring theatrics while singing sent shivers up your spine. She performed way out there at the edge. She dared and occasionally fell on her face.

As a voice student I heard her in Lucia di Lammermoor. Lucia (Callas) descends the wide curving staircase in her blood-splattered white gown, clutching the knife she used to kill her bridegroom. Callas gets to the final high E flat of Lucia’s famous “Mad Scene,” the one note the audience has waited for the entire evening. The cadenza ends. The E flat looms. Callas goes for it.

Her voice cracks.

Some of the audience boos. La Diva Callas steps to the edge of the stage, flays the audience with a look of utter scorn, repeats Lucia’s final cadenza and blasts out an E Flat that toppled buildings in Nevada. That was my introduction to the alpha and omega of not holding back. What was behind that rescued E Flat? PRIDE. COURAGE.

Remember the hypnotism of those old-time traveling preachers who could turn sensible people into hollering praise-the-Lord converts? Those preachers–charlatans or angels–did not hold back. Neither did Louis Armstrong going for that top note, Van Gogh swirling in a madness of color, Tina Turner strutting energy, Janis Joplin’s ironic gutsy raspy self. Letting go is controlled uncontrol. These are masters.

Steps in Letting Go

First comes courageous self-examination of your potential. A director may order louder, faster. But loud/soft-fast/slow relate to variety, not to letting go.

Variety, in all its variations, is a technique. Letting go is an attitude.

Next comes the courage to want to give more. We must dare to go from OK to better and then after better must come the courage to make the Grand Canyon leap into “best.” Having embraced the need to let go, next comes a grocery list of basics:

(1) have a polished technique,
(2) intelligently and imaginatively explore the script, remembering the powerful word “variety”
(3) diligently over-memorize the lines,
(4) discover a “competent” (believable) delivery that does not sound actory.
(5) search for every possible line reading and opt for the most interesting delivery, given the context of the scene.
(6) over-prepare and tune yourself up into a bundle of energy.
(7) insist that you have the right to be great but that right is not given–it is earned.

A major step in letting go involves Bob’s need to “focus.” He logically asked, “So what do I focus on, myself? The character?” No, no and another no. Focus on the words. If you focus solely on the words you are speaking and the pictures they create then it is impossible to start questioning your ability!

In other articles we have written about not focusing on character or on your own feelings. That focus perpetuates the self-doubts. Focus on the words. The words do the emotional work for you. They bring up remembered pictures and pictures bring up the emotions, leaving you focused not on you but on the words and pictures. My sports fan husband says it is called “in the zone.”

The final step in letting go requires common sense. Just go for broke. What is there to lose? If you are over the top, your coach or your director will pull you back. “Go for it” creates another way to break out of the self-created cocoon.

Before you perform or audition, picture something full of energy and light. My own favorite is the brightest star in the heavens: Sirius. Some actors envision a comet or meteor, some a sun spot, some the July 4th fireworks–whatever says “energy” to you.

A HUGE CAVEAT:
Letting go does not mean self-indulgent, uncontrolled, chaotic solipsism. In time, your intuition (or your director) will find a balance between giving all and going nuts.

The Reason to Let Go
Letting go is what performing is about. Being a “great actor” is not merely the thrill of being in the spotlight or on camera or the applause or the recognition or even the money. It is about the joy of being totally alive during performance.

There are two lines from a Yeats’ poem that come closest to describing-if not defining-my point:

O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?

The dancer and the dance, the actor and the role. Try it. But only after all the preparation, the analysis, the studying, the experimentation, the control, the technique–all of these things, plus the still silent center — these are part of you as an actor. They are all necessary in order to let go and be a great actor. Not good. Great.

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Do You Have What it Takes To Be An Actor?

  

Many readers have e-mailed variations of “How can I tell if I have what it takes?”

First, a warning: be very clear not to confuse this question with “How do I know if I will be a success?” “Have what it takes” refers to ability to act. Ability may or may not lead to success.

A story before we dive into “what it takes” vs. “success.”

A young child raised in the rural south dreamed of singing opera. Life just didn’t quite work out that way. But the dream persisted and the self yearned to sing its song. Then, years later all alone in a spotlight on a darkened Off-Broadway stage, sitting on a “boulder” night after night, she sang an exquisite song about the birds in Ireland. The dream was filled. The self was filled. No, not Casta Diva or Lucia’s Mad Scene. But her song. The idea of “success” was not compromised. It was just allowed to change. Let the self dictate the meaning of success. Not money and fame but the joy of the action.

The simple truth is you can’t tell if you have the ability. To repeat what has been said in these articles a dozen times: talent is not the sole element that determines success. You may have enough talent to be an actor, but even great talent cannot guarantee success.

Success is a fickle mistress. There are many working or even wealthy actors who really cannot act. There are many brilliant actors who never get work. The most anyone can say is that there are basics that are usually required in order to be an actor.

If this sounds like hedging, you are absolutely right. Why? Most of us are not going to make the Fortune 500 list by acting. Statistically the odds are stacked against anyone becoming a star, or even making a good living in this profession. Yes, we all know inspiring success-against-all-odds stories. But we know those stories precisely because they are the exceptions.

Wisdom dictates that if there is anything else in the world that interests you, then do that instead of acting. If on the other hand, acting is a passion, something you must do, then you almost have no choice. Let the joy of acting be the payment, if you never sign a million dollar film contract. Money almost doesn’t matter if the passion for the art is a volcano.

After all that tip-toeing, let’s now look at what I personally think it takes to be an actor. (Remember, this is just one person’s opinion.)

1. A GOOD EAR
Yes, to me this is the most important requirement. In order to make a sentence that someone else wrote sound real, an actor must be able to hear what people sound like when they talk naturally.

A good ear will eventually pull you up and whisper, “Hey, that sounds actory. This line needs to be said in a different way.” Yes, yes we all know about dipping inside oneself to search for emotions. But some of the best “dippers” do not sound real.

Sounding real demands a good ear and the good sense to know when what you have said doesn’t sound “right.” The minute a student says to me, “That didn’t sound right,” then I know there is hope that that person has the ability to become a good actor.

2. THE ABILITY TO READ, AND AN ACTIVE IMAGINATION
No, no, no–not read “Pat the Fat Cat” or “War and Peace.” The reading referred to here consists of seeing implications when you read, of seeing what a character is really like–based on evidence from the script, text, book. Learn to read!

Become dedicated to reading the words, phrases, the text and mining them for the gold that is there. Too many times we bump into an unknown word in the script and do not bother looking it up. Too many titles or even the names of characters are not Googled.

Subtleties are lost because a reader/actor without a knowledge of plays, poems, myth, novels, satire, allusions, themes, imagery, language connotations cannot deliver a line with all the undercurrents in his voice. Something as basic as parallels and opposites are missed, leading to misdelivery of a line. The inability to read/understand a line inevitably leads to a superficial line reading. Every day you hear on TV, on film, in rehearsals, in performances, an emphasis on the wrong word, the direct result of not knowing what is being stated in the text. Learn to read. Learn to research.

The very best undergrad training for an actor is to major in English and minor in drama. Your advanced courses in literature will both teach you about people and about feelings AND teach you how to read the undercurrents of what is not being written. Poetry will heighten your sense of language and rhythm, two essentials for an actor. The imagination, loosened by lots of reading, then helps you to see new possibilities in the meaning and delivery of a line in a script. Reading for implications, reading beneath the surface, stretches the imagination.

3. THE ABILITY TO HANDLE REJECTION
Depression, rejection, and insecurity reign in this profession. We do not get up every morning and have a secure job to go to. Some people thrive on that freedom and luxuriate in that insecurity. Most of us don’t.

So we need to have or to be taught to find a still, solid, total belief in self. Ego. Confidence. Self-assurance. Presence. Call it what you wish. But to survive we must have some shield to protect us from the constant rejection. The difficulty is to stay in touch with the inner self while protecting that inner self from attack in the form of rejection.

We have written many times of the need for energy, joy, vitality–all these find their roots in a solid ego. That ego, that belief in self, is the third element in the triad which determines if one has what it takes to be an actor.

GRAB BAG REQUIREMENTS:
These are almost self-explanatory, but deserve mentioning.

Be reliable (on time for appointments, interviews, auditions, rehearsals).
Be responsible (memorize your lines).
Learn to control your temper. In other words, be pleasant in spite of…
Don’t be “high maintenance.”
Take care of your health.
Eat and sleep properly.

Get out of relationships that drain and destroy. If your parents are sore spots, get over it.

If there are physical things about yourself which you don’t like, fix them or learn to live with them gracefully. Get in touch with your intuition and learn to trust it. Get good training and if the class or teacher makes you feel awful, get out of it!

Surround yourself with people who have hope and happiness.

Develop the traits mentioned above and you increase the possibilities of being a success because you have what it takes.

Well, as the great American philosopher Porky Pig said, “That’s all, folks!” Now who would have thought a stuttering pig would become a star????

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Lighting films

Film Production - Lighting Equipment & Techniques

Filmmaking is all about capturing light. A bright light draws the viewers eye. A scene can be lit by available light (the sun, moon or existing light sources) or using powerful and expensive artifical light. The way a scene is lit influences how the audience will react emotionally to your movie.

The angle and direction of light gives your audience clues about where and what time of day the scene is taking place. Painters have long understood that the quality of light in a scene can hide or reveal things and influences the viewer's reaction.

In feature films the lighting is a high priority because how well the movie is lit influences how the audience perceives the production values of the movie and therefore the quality of the movie. Badly lit images can do more to make a film look amateuric than any with the possible exception of bad sound.

In documentary films the light is given much less consideration because it often isn't possible to control the light and audiences are used to documentary movies having a "news footage" look. A feature filmmaker can choose to use documentary lighting to create a sense of realism.

Product Reviews Disclosure: I am an affiliate for some products I recommend and may receive some compensation if you buy them through my links. Regardless, I only recommend products I have personally reviewed and/or own and believe them to be worthy of your consideration.

Matters of Light & Depth The author, Ross Lowell, is the founder of Lowell Lights, which is an industry standard. Not only does he make great lights but has produced some amazing work as well. In this book he covers all the basics of lighting as well as many advanced techniques to help out every level of filmmaker. The book is simple and to the point. The perfect book if you want to shoot your own movie, and need to learn the basics to great lighting. The illustrations and format of the book are amazing. Just buy it! Reflections: Twenty-One Cinematographers At Work This is one expensive book, but what a joy! Personal techniques of some of the very best cinematographers of our time, described by them in their own words. Lighting diagrams for many amazing shots and explanations of exactly what made them look so good. Footage examples galore, with many what-if comparisons. Haskell Wexler on lighting interiors. Vilmos Zsigmond talking about what makes for great portraits, and why "key-to-fill lighting ratios are an important stepping-stone for students but he rarely uses them in his shooting. Laszlo Kovacs talking about the dangers of video assist. Allen Daviau on "why we hate multiple cameras: because we light differently for close-ups." And much more... This book was put together with love by ASC Press and this also shows in the great color printing and gorgeous paper. Painting with Light Few cinematographers have had as decisive an impact on the cinematic medium as John Alton. Best known for his highly stylized film noir classics T-Men, He Walked by Night, and The Big Combo, Alton earned a reputation during the 1940s and 1950s as one of Hollywood's consummate craftsmen through his visual signature of crisp shadows and sculpted beams of light. No less renowned for his virtuoso color cinematography and deft appropriation of widescreen and Technicolor, he earned an Academy Award in 1951 for his work on the musical An American in Paris. Painting With Light was the first book on cinematography written by a major Hollywood cameraman. Published in 1949 and now put back into print, it is one of the best references in the field. Written with good humor and full of helpful diagrams and photographs, it is certainly the most entertaining. Painting With Light remains relevant because its primary focus is on light itself and the many complex ways the camera crew can manipulate it. The Filmmaker's Basic Library has all the top-rated filmmaking resources.

Quality of light

Light can be classified in several ways including:

• How sharp is the shadow?
• What is the angle of the light?
• How bright is the light?
• What color is the light?
• How many lights are there and how do they contrast in all the ways just listed?

A hard light, coming from a single small source such as the sun or a spotlight, creates a harsh appearance. They also create harsh shadows on the background as well as on the face and features of your actors. The prettiest actress can look homely in hard light.

A soft light, coming from a large area of lighting or many small lights, creates a soft, gentle or romantic look. It generally takes much more power to create the same amount of soft light compared to hard light. Many old films had to use hard lighting because the film was so insensitive to light.

The direction of light effects the audiences perception of the subject.

A film is rarely lit with a single light source. There are usually a minimum of four sources in a professionally shot film.There is a key light that provides most of the illumination on the subject and is typically at a 3/4 position. Next a fill light from the side fills in the shadows to soften them.

Key light only

Fill light only

The relative brightness of these lights is referred to as the contrast ratio of the lighting. Low contrast, where the two light are close to equally bright is a soft light. High contrast where the shadow fill light is much dimmer creates a harsh, hard light that is appropriate for villains and used much in film noir.

A third small, direction light illuminates the back of the actor. The light may be to the side or above. This light outlines the actors form giving a some three-dimensional appearance. It also puts a gleam on the actors hair and is therefore sometimes called the hair light. If the back light is the brightest light you get a dramatic silhouetted look which makes a great dramatic entrance for the hero or villain, or a very romantic look for the leading lady.

Back light only

These first three lights--key, fill and back--are sometimes referred to as three-point lighting. It consitutes the most pleasing and common way that people are lit, whether for films or formal portraits. Having an understanding and mastory of this three light combination will handle about 95% of the artificial lighting situations you encounter.

Complete 3-point light setup

At least a fourth light source is usually aimed at the background behind the actor to illuminate the setting. Otherwise the actors might look like they are floating in space.

You can also change the vertical angle of the light. Normally the key and fill lights are slightly above eye height. The back light in a studio would be above and behind the actor as they face the camera.

Top light creates deep eye shadows and is almost always unattractive. Unfortuneately that is often the only existing light angle you will find in many locations such as offices and stores. Low light creates the classic, and overused, monster lighting.

The lighting contrast ratio can be very misleading if you try to judge it visually. Both film and video cameras can't see the range of brightness in a scene that the human eye can see. The contrast ratio that is recorded on film or video always appears much higher than what you eye will tell you. You need to get very good with an exposure meter for film, or use a good video monitor when working in video to see what the lighting is really going to look like in the final image.

Shadows that appear to have detail to the eye will end up as totally black. Highlights will completely wash out, especially with video, to a very ugly, detail-less blob like glaring snow.

Are Top Film Schools Worth It in 2012? Surprising Film School Secrets!

Lighting Instruments

Generically movie lights are called units, heads, luminaires or heads. The light bulbs in them are referred to as lamps or globes. There are many additional names you will hear them called by experienced gaffers based on tradition or specific names given by manufacturers. I'll list them while I'm describing the various kinds of lights.

First a little bit of physics.

Lighting units are classified according to their color temperature. The sun has a color temperature of about 5000 degrees K. A typical tungsten light like you would have in your home would have a color temperature of about 3200 degrees K.

The "K" stands for Kelvin, a measure of temperature in celsius starting at absolute zero. You don't need to know that last part. Just remember that any lighting unit with a color temperature of 5000K or higher will match to sunlight and will be referred to as "daylight" balanced.

Any light unit with a color temperature of 3200K to 3400K will match to room lighting, but look very orange next to something that is lit by the sun or a 5000K unit, and referred to as "tungsten" balanced.

Lights are also classified by how much electricity they consume. While a typical room light consumes 100 watts of electricity a typical small spotlight might consume 1,000 Watts of electricity. Such a light unit would be called a 1K tungsten spot. (The "K" in this case is shorthand for one thousand.)

One more thing you need to understand is how light loses intensity at a distance. If you use a light meter to measure the light from a bare bulb hanging in a room at a distance of 1 foot, then measure it again at 2 feet you will discover that you only get 1/4 intensity reading as you double the distance.

Even putting a reflector behind a light source may increase the light intensity at any distance compared to the same light source without the reflector, but the light still falls off to 1/4 the brightness every time you double the distance. There are several lessons to learn from this experiment.

One is that you need to get light sources as close to your actors as possible. Another lesson is that if you want the object on your set to appear to be illuminated equally you will need to light each part of the set with lights that are very close to the same distance from what they are being used to illuminate.

As a safety precaution realize that most artificial light sources get hot and movie lights get extremely hot. The beam from a large spotlight can set fire to flamable objects and if shown through a household window will shatter it. Never touch a light instrument unless you are wearing heavy insulated leather gloves. Even if the light is turned off it can stay extremely hot for some time.

Movie lights also use a lot of electricity. Working with electricity is always potentially dangerous if you don't know what you are doing and work very carefully.

To use many of the kinds of lights I'll be talking about requires a special portable generator that you will need to rent. The typical household wiring can't begin to handle large movie lights. A 1K lamp draws about 10 amps of electricity. That as half as much electricity as a single circuit in modern houses is designed to handle. A single 10K spotlight would need all the electricity that the average house has available on all the circuits put together.

Most of the kinds of movies the typical independent filmmaker does will not require anything like this amount of lighting, especially with modern video cameras.

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Type of bulbs

Common household tungsten light bulbs can be used to light your film but the color temperature is typically around 2900 degrees K so the light will still look a bit orange compared to a true photo bulb. The slight color cast is often not a problem. With filters or by color balancing your video camera you can adjust the color to look right.

Special photo bulbs that are usually 250 or 500 watts are sold that have correct tungsten color balance. They are inexpensive but have a very short life. After about 25 hours burning time they become badly blackened, lose much of their brightness and should be replaced.

Photo bulb may be either photofloods which are typically used in domed reflector units, or reflector floods which have their own built in reflector.

Tungsten-Halogen bulbs are designed so they don't blacken with age. They also are usually 250 or 500 watts and are very small and rather fragile. A good bounce will usually destroy a burning halogen bulb. They are available up to 20,000 watts. The quartz glass is damaged by oils so you should always wash your hands and/or use a clean rag to touch or change a halogen bulb. Halogens are daylight color balanced.

HMI (Halogen-Metal-Iodide) Bulbs are about four times as efficient in their use of electricity as tungsten-halogen bulbs so they are both brighter and slightly cooler for the same amount of electricity. They have the added bonus of being balanced for daylight (5600 to 6000 degrees K).

They use standard AC current but require a heavy ballast unit to control the lamp. Although they have a very fast flicker it is typically timed to be the same frequency as film and video cameras and is not noticeable. HMI's would be a very good source of light except they are extremely expensive and far beyond the budget of all but the best heeled indie movie makers.

There are two types of Fluorescent bulbs as far as filmmaking is concerned.

Conventional fluorescent lights, as commonly used in public buildings, are terrible as a light source. They cast a flickering, greenish light that makes anyone look terrible. The light they produce does not contain equal amount of all the basic colors so no amount of color correction can make them look natural.

Of course if this is the look you want for you movie then you're all set. Remember that the human eye adjusts to the quality of flourescent lights and film and video cameras don't.

Fluorescents for film and video are available. Kino Flo makes light units for their daylight balanced fluorescent bulbs with special ballasts that make them flicker free. You can also buy Optima 32 bulbs for tungsten balanced lighting, and for daylight balance use the Vita-lite and Chroma50 tubes.

Reflectors are another category of lighting instrument that are priced right for low-budget filmmaking. Use them to fill in shadows as you use the sun other other natural light sources for you key light.

Crumple aluminum foil then straighten it out and paste for tape it onto large sheets of cardboard. Buy foam core boards from art supply stores with white, silver or gold foil coatings. You can also get fold up reflectors that work like the round foldup sun screens people put in their car windows to block the sun, but YIU reflectors work just as well and cost a lot less.

Lensed spotlights

The most contollable lighting units are the focusing spotlights which use a fresnel lens (pronounced fruh-NELL, silent "s"). They emit a bright, focused light in parallel rays that travel over a distance with less fall-off of brightness. They will cover a rather wide area with a 30 degree spread or focus down to as little as a five degree spread.

These are the type of instrument traditionally most used in filmmaking. The units are relatively heavy and expensive and may be out of their league for many low-budget filmmakers.

Open-faced spotlights don't use an expensive fresnel lens. They are able to focus the light beam by using a carefully designed reflector shape and moving the actual light bulb forwards and backwards. They are less expensive than fresnel spots, lighter but don't have the same crisp hard light.

For low-budget filmmaking they are a good choice.

Nonfocusing lights include the lowest cost lights available for filmmakers.

PAR lamps look a bit like automobile headlamps. They have a built-in reflector and come in variety of wattages and coverage angles. Open bowl shaped reflectors are available in many sizes that take standard tungsten or photo tungsten bulbs.

For the very lowest budget you can use clamp-on reflectors from your local hardware store. Also very inexpensive, but very bright, are quartz-halogen work lights from lumber stores.

Umbrellas and softlights give very soft and attractive light. Umbrellas are just umbrellas made with a white or reflective inner surface. Shining any light into them reflects back a very broad, soft coverage. Softlight or softboxes and large cloth boxes on a metal frame with a light source inside. They also give a very broad light.

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Lighting accessories

Barndoors use metal flaps to cut off the light from falling on part of the set.

Scrims are pieces of metal screening that lower the amount of light without changing the angle or color.

Cookies are sheets of material with holes cut out. When placed in front of a light they created a dappled appearance to the set, much like when light filters through tree leaves.

Century stands, or C-stands, are the stands most commonly used in the industry. They are very strong but a bit expensive for low-budget filmmakers.

Sand bags are cloth bags full of sand to weight your light stands so they aren't pushed over by accident. Use Them!

Gels are filters made out of a thin, heat resistant material to alter the color of your light instruments. They are available in a large range of colors and sizes.

Count Down Party 2013 (+playlist)

Count Down Party 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yrtuHSnOLw&feature=share&list=UUqO1bImC-w5TiJ30LyEQXBw

The Qualities of a Great Entertainer

by Chris Miksen, Demand Media

Confidence makes your act look natural and effortless.

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Enthusiasm

There's not a whole lot of entertainment to be had without enthusiasm. Your deliveries rely on enthusiasm, and not in just over-the-top, boisterous deliveries, but the low-key ones too. Picture an actor playing the role of a depressed and apathetic person. If the actor is not enthusiastic about the role, it's going to show. He won't appear convincing or pull the audience in. Enthusiasm also spawns commitment. Commitment, which consists of a willingness to improve, breeds talent. Some people are born with natural talent, but if they don't identify their weaknesses and improve upon them, they'll hit a wall quickly. Talent is specific to each type of entertainer. A career as a stand-up comedian, for instance, calls for a vastly different host of talents than career as a musician.

Confidence

Great actors bubble with confidence. Confidence enables you to put on a believable act. It makes your delivery convincing and makes whatever scene you're in entertaining. Without confidence, your movements seem stiff, your words drip with nervousness and uncertainty and you're unable to really tap into the talents you have. Confidence comes partly from practice and knowing that you have the talent to entertain and partly from a mindset that pushes away doubt and worry.

What Makes A Good Entertainer?

What Makes A Good Entertainer?

One of the things I've noticed lately is that there are a lot of artists performing but very few are TRUE entertainers. There is a misconception that just being able to do something well will get you over. Let's face it good musicians and singers, sad to say, are a dime a dozen but truly great entertainers are few and far between. What makes a good entertainer? First of all I believe that entertainers are born not made. In most cases either you have it or you don't but there are some things that can raise every one's entertainment game. Being able to sing or sound good is important but your stage presence is actually a bit more important when it comes to a live show because people can stay at home and listen to your CD if all they want to do is have a listening experience. A good entertainerunderstands that people want to hear and see something special. You must always engage the audience by making them a part of the show. This can be done by simply talking to them in a relaxed and natural manner and putting yourself in the midst of the audience. Don't ever let the stage confine you especially if you are in a small club or venue. Make the entire venue your stage and be daring. People love to see amazing things. Do your homework! Study the things that all great entertainers have in common. Energy, presence, timing and intuition. A great entertainer can never be lazy. Most artists don't fully connect with their audience because they just refuse to work for it. Some nights are easier than others but great entertainers do what they do no matter what. Your performance should not be based on the size of the venue or audience. Great entertainers put 100% of themselves into every performance and the audience appreciates seeing someone give all they have. This is the secret to building a true fan base. This also sets up how you are perceived. For example, if people consider you a good local guy then you are probably good but you are not anything unique but if people consider you a great entertainer then you are a star to them. You are a star that just happens to reside near them or that they have close and personal access to but a star none the less. A great entertainer is also ALWAYS paying attention to what's going on around him/her and finds a way to make those happenings a part of the show. The key to being a good entertainer is just being honest and passionate about whatever you do. Just be YOU and your audience will be entertained. Now go have a GREAT SHOW!

How to be Good entertainer

How to Be a Good Entertainer

Edited by Layla Garcia

The entertainment industry in Nigeria is now more than ever over crowded, everyone has a talent and trust me most are really very talented. So if you are in the industry and you want to beat the competition, be u a singer, an actor, a dancer, in order to get the greatest attention you have to be able not just to sing, act or dance, you have to be able to entertain the best. Everything else falls into place. Follow these simple steps below and you are on your way to being the best entertainer ever;

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Steps

1. 1
   Dare to be different. Its simple logic. If everybody does things the same way and someone comes and does it somewhat differently, people will remember that someone. So watch your competition closely and try to outdo them. Remember this can go both ways, it’s either people like it or they don’t. So whatever you decide to do to be different, make sure it’s a step ahead of your pairs and even if it’s stupid, let it be the best stupid thing ever. Deliver it with grace and confidence and finesse. Gather around you people who believe in you and can spur you on. A good example is D’banj, he didn’t know how to sing, so he sing –talked his way through on a great beat by Don Jazzy and had the best team ever to spur him on. Mo’hits. They made him feel like the best till he became the best entertainer in Nigeria.
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2. 2
   Build a brand.Let your attitude, costume, mode of talking and carriage speak of your brand. Do not form it…no, create it and grow into it. Live it. Its better when your brand stems from something already in you. It becomes your skin. If you can’t figure it out by yourself get someone to figure it out for you. Entertainment business is not a joke, you need a good working team. Example: Olamide is known as the voice of the street. That’s his brand. His attitude and everything portrays that.
3. 3
   Work on your talent and improve on it. If you want to be an entertainer, let your focus not be on being the best in your chosen field, let your focus be how to best entertain your audience. Because if you are the best and yet they don’t enjoy it, all you get is respect from your pairs who are in your field (because they are the only ones who will truly understand what magic you performed) but you don’t get to have their fame and riches. So learn your audience, focus on them, find out what they love most about you and build on it. If a less technical or crazy error will get them entertained, put a lid to your thoughts and beliefs and get them entertained. Learn from Miley Cyrus. In an interview with E after her crazy weird 2013 MTV awards performance, she told E that she wasn’t trying to be sexy on the show contrary to what people think, if I was trying to be sexy, I can sing better than that she said, I can dance better than that. Her aim was not to be the best singer/dancer or performer that night, her aim was to wow the crowd, so if she had to be less of a singer or dancer to do that, she had it done!
4. 4
   Sometimes it’s good to stick to a winning formula, but watch your crowd diligently, know when to take the risk and change. You have to be careful though a change not well executed can cause you your career. So be careful and figure it all out to the end before you execute. In other words you must have a solid laid down strategy on the change that is suitable for your brand.
5. 5
   The audience does not know what they want but they notice the slightest change somehow without knowing what it really is and just begin to fall away.Never ever take your audience for granted . Every step or change must be in the right direction, every error must me creatively done.