Another short, Henry and Hiroko, that caught my attention recently on bigstar.tv was a film that seemed a little off—great lighting and cinematography, but acting that wasn’t quite professional. It turned out that it was the result of a two-day screen acting class Martin Burns had led this past March in Tokyo, where he lives.
Burns, 41, is a seasoned actor. He began training in his late teens at the Glasgow Arts Centre, in Scotland, near where he grew up. Later he moved on to London and all kinds of acting projects, both on- and off-screen, with the most visible perhaps being The Nutcracker 3-D (which, actually, he hasn’t seen to this day).
I asked him about a formative incident in his acting years, and he mentioned that he had been in a TV version of "Treasure Island" for British TV years ago. Like a true journeyman actor, Burns was trying to suck up as much information as he could. “I hung around on set even when I wasn't needed for a scene and tried to be as helpful as I could whilst also making sure I wasn't in anyone's way,” he remembered.
He thought quite a bit of the director, Ken Russell, and when another actor was fired and couldn’t be effectively replaced, the script was redone. “My character had 'assimilated' the fired actor's character,” Burns said. Later, Burns asked Russell why he had been given so much responsibility. “He said he'd been impressed with the way I had conducted myself on set and that because I knew what I was doing,” Burns recalled. “Ken was a fantastic director for actors, infinitely patient and indulgent but...entirely the opposite with the crew, so I learned how to treat actors and how not to treat the crew, from him!”
Burns is putting another workshop together in Tokyo and will be the lead in a short, 3 Days in Kamakura, to be filmed next month.
What are some things you told the actors to do and not do?
Lots of "dos" and "don'ts": do exactly what you've been directed to; don't look directly into the camera unless specifically told to do so; don't stop acting after “cut”; do start acting before “action”; don't piss people off on set; don't forget your lines or your blocking. All pretty basic stuff, but stuff that is easily forgotten in the heat of the moment on set.
What did you learn about acting yourself?
Through watching the editing process I could see very clearly how important it is to offer up choices to the director in your performance as well as keeping continuity from previous shots. I actually taught this in the workshop, but until you actually get to see this for yourself it remains just a logical piece of advice. I recommend this to every actor—if they get a chance, sit in and watch a professional editor at work. I believe, though, that they (actors) shouldn't watch something they've done be edited as I don't think we are as objective about ourselves or our performance as we are when watching others. You get to see what works and what doesn't and more importantly, you get to see why things work and why they sometimes don't.
What are some differences between screen acting and stage acting?
This is something I get the participants to list at the very beginning of the workshop... and then I prove to them how wrong they are! Basically the generally offered differences are "On screen, do less; on stage, do more"; "On screen, it's all in the eyes"; "On screen, make it more real, more intimate, tone it all down, make fewer facial expressions." I prove to them that, dependent on the size of the shot, the exact opposite is true.
Can you explain why not? It sure seems intuitive enough...
Everything depends on the size of the shot! We need to tailor our performance depending on what the camera sees. For instance, you say that toning it down, it's all in the eyes, etc., is what one should do on film...but what if you're in a long shot, what good is all that internalization going to do if the camera/audience can't see it? Just as we need to be aware that we should project our voice to the microphone rather than the person we are actually talking to, we should also project our performance to what the camera can see and not what we believe to be “real.”
What did you learn about directing?
The biggest thing I learned about directing was how important people management skills are! A director needs to inspire not only the actors but the many different technicians behind the camera, and that can be difficult when you have to communicate with people who know far more than you about their particular job than you do! Everyone has an ego and of course this is an absolute necessity in this business, but getting all those egos in the one place and focused on the one thing is a tricky task. I also learned that if you cast the project well, then you can trust the actors to bring their performance to the screen, which leaves the director more time and energy to focus on the technical side of the production.
I know this is difficult, but it would be nice if you could come up with an example about how
watching editing helps you pick up tricks. Do you have a specific example in mind...an acting technique that makes the editor's job a bit easier?
Watching an edit I can see how good “technical” acting can help the editor in their choice of shots. This also helps in getting the shots with me in them into the final cut! In a script we actors are given x amount of lines and that's it, but generally when we watch a film the camera focuses on the listener rather than the speaker (watch out for this next time you see a film!), because the audience needs to know how the listener feels about what the speaker is saying. We can already deduce what the speaker feels from their tone of voice so we don't “need” to see them. Therefore an actor has many more opportunities to get himself a “bigger part” by reacting well in a given scene, and therefore gets more screen time. Again, in general terms, if we watch a film and the camera stays on the person speaking, we can infer from that that the editor didn't have any better option. The listener didn't offer up any better picture; therefore the camera stays where it is. Editors work with pictures; create a better picture, then you have a better chance of being on-screen more.
