MOMENT BEFORE

MOMENT BEFORE

Guiding the new crop of NIDA grads over the last two months has been… glorious

I have watched them develop & gain more screen craft specifically in the last three weeks 

Than my NIDA year group did over their full three years (back in 2010)

The secret?

They have been practicing being on set 

Without actually being on set

Replicating the on-set processes

And taking the time to slow down, make mistakes and debrief afterwards

They have been thrown in the deep end

And have quickly realised that what is most valuable in a self tape format

Doesn’t necessarily translate to what’s most valued on set

I have adored watching their growth

One of my favourite moments

Has been our weekly Monday debriefs

We sit down

We analyse the footage

We identify the strengths (what’s working well)

And we identify the most important areas for improvement. 

At the end of one class

A student asked me

“What are you seeing that’s working well for us?”

My answer?

“Three key things

One

When I see you focussing on breathing as yourselves, I see better work

Two

When I see you using the questions in the text to simply ask the person standing in front of you that question, I see better work

And three

When I see you taking responsibility for the moment before, I absolutely am seeing better work

Let’s discuss 

Breath

You are the most valuable currency you have in this industry 

Not who you think or feel you should be

And the key to getting good at giving yourself to the lens

Is to practice

Literally practice breathing in front of the lens 

So much of generic acting training is about stretching young artists to their full light (love) or full darkness (fear)

Which results in plenty of pushed shouts and cries

And tension in the artist = tension in the audience 

It’s icky

And more importantly

When you watch any performance that you love

Those extremes usually only make up a tiny fraction (lets call it 2-5%) of the protagonists journey

The majority of the work which is required in order to get to those scenes where you release those extremes

Is made up of simply breathing, listening and having honest conversations 

So why is the majority of generic acting training focussed on the tiny 2-5% of screen craft?

Well

It’s damn more interesting to stand a kid up in class and make them cry in front of everyone than it is to practice breathing.

But my focus is to make actors actually get better, so they can give the most generous work they can when it counts most. 

A pivotal moment in my own growth

Was when I realised I was trying to do incredibly complex things 

And trying to achieve gigantic results 

At a time when I couldn’t even breathe as myself in front of the lens under pressure 

It took a lot of effort to flip the equation around

To understand that pros do less, better 

Let’s clarify

As a professional working artist 

You won’t get employed consistently to release those extremes of light and darkness

Until you are technically able to consistently breathe as yourself in front of the lens under pressure

So focus your training on getting great at what is actually most valuable

Breathing as you. 

Next.

Questions.

Almost every scene you do will have a question in it as some point.

Some text with a question-mark after it

I can hear the great Kevin Jackson in my head right now

“THE WRITER IS GOD”

Over and over again

I see young artists treat question-marks as if they are full-stops, commas or ellipses.

They are not

They are question-marks

And they are their for a reason 

It means one human being is standing in front of another 

Asking them for some information

Which they don’t know the answer to

Information which carries repercussions

Information which can change their life

I know this is something very simple

But it’s almost like a cheat code in acting

A technical way of jumping back into the present

And a present actor is bloody delicious to watch 

Simply ask the person standing in front of you that question

That one action will take care of the majority of the work required in that moment

So

When there is a question-mark

Ask the question.

Next.

Moment Before.

At some point

Hundreds of extras and crew will stop what they are doing

Everyone will look at you 

And there will be silence

You will hear the words:

“Final checks”

The hair and costume department will scurry around you and start trying to make your hair and clothes look identical to the take before

When the checks are completed

The first AD will say:

“Quiet on set”

The camera and sound department will then confirm they are ready to go

“Camera’s rolling”

“Speed”

Someone with a clapping board will then go between you and the lens

And say a few words which will help the editor in several days, weeks or months time with the organisation of this take

And then

The director will say 

“Action”

Yikes

What a time 

The moment before you are to give your best work

Is FILLED with chaos

So much possibility for distraction, head noise, fear 

This moment in time

In between “final checks” & “action”

Roughly speaking

This is usually between 10-60 seconds 

This is your moment to focus 

You have done all of that preparation

Spent hours working on this scene

Spent hours warmup up 

Spent hours travelling to set

Spent hours In hair and makeup 

Spent hours waiting in the trailer

It would be a shame

To do all of that work

To then throw it all away because of the chaos that comes just before your take

Everyone else is getting paid take ownership of their work

So take ownership of yours

In those 10-60 seconds

What do you need to do

To get where you need to get

So you can give what you need to give

So can contribute the work you want to to the tribe 

Clarify the one or two most important things for you to do in that moment before

Clarify what you need to take care of in that time

So you can simply release your work on cue

Remember

It’s more valuable and sustainable for the camera to simply catch you living

Than it is for you to manufacture effort or boil up fake energy on the word “action” 

Make it easy for yourself :)

The goal is not pushed/controlled effort 

The goal is free flowing self expression

Hope this helps 

X

Sheasby 

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The Actor’s Blueprint Podcast

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