Tuesday, 18 November 2014

Michael Caine - Working with Actors

During one of our scheduled sessions, we watched Michael Caine's video on 'Acting in Film'. After watching the video numerous times and taking notes, I thought back to the advice given whilst we were shooting our piece 'Leaving'.

Michael focuses on many issues:

• Continuity
• Positioning of the camera to the character's eye-line
• Movement within the shot
• Setting markers for close-ups
• The importance of the actor picking an eye to focus on
• Blinking

All of these factors can affect the overall immersion of a piece.

Whilst shooting Jordan's film 'Leaving', I was sure to capture the characters emotions and body language language on-screen. There were instances in which I had to think on my feet to capture Claire's emotions, as certain angles we tried didn't capture her actions or emotions because her eye-line was off at an angle. Therefore I brought the camera around more towards her eye-line to create the affect that the person she was talking to was just off-camera. This off-camera effect helps create a connection between the two characters on-screen and the audience.

There were no severe continuity issues that arose during/after the shoot, and any issues that occurred were documented by script supervisor/overseer Dan Walsh. The documents he provided are displayed in the previous post.

Markers were used in some instances, for example when Claire stepped off the bed and approached the male protagonist. The distance between the bed and the door was significant therefore markers helped myself, the crew and the actors know how far to walk and stop.

Michael Caine's workshop has taught me the importance of working closely with actors, and I will take his advise onboard for future projects.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njs6ZNSoFC0 (Last accessed 03/12/14)


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