The Great Acting Blog: “There Is No Security”
I was piqued recently when in an interview, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch offered the following...
Read MoreAuthor: James
The Great Acting Blog: “Why Actors Fail To Speak About Their Work With Confidence”
Many actors find it difficult to talk about their careers. There is often this sense of pressure that if you're not famous or not working on something famous then you don't count. A lot of actors too, feel within themselves that their careers should be further...
Read MoreThe Great Acting Blog: “Do What You Want To Do”
In Italian cinema during the 1950s, film actors' voices were dubbed with those of theatre actors. There was nothing wrong with the way they spoke, they were dubbed because film acting at that time was not considered to be respectable, and film actors were...
Read MoreNoirish Project Blog: “What Is Neorealism?”
http://vimeo.com/68514760 We consider Noirish Project to be a work of neorealism. We define that as holding the length of the shot longer than is required, so that the viewer begins to perceive more than just the literal plot. The video essay about quite brilliantly explores the nature...
Read MoreThe Great Acting Blog: “Don’t Let The Negative Drown Out The Excellent”
Whenever we go after a difficult goal, there will inevitably be periods of great stress - if there wasn't then the goal wouldn't be difficult. By the same token however, in order to accomplish the goal there must be great moments where we excel ourselves. The tendency...
Read MoreThe Great Acting Blog: “The Compassionate Actor – Ralph Richardson In The Fallen Idol”
In Carol Reed's 1948 film, The Fallen Idol, Ralph Richardson plays Baines, a butler charged with taking care of the French ambassador's 10 year old son. Richardson is trapped in an unhappy marriage while he carries on an illicit affair with an employee from the French embassy,...
Read MoreThe Great Acting Blog: “Invest In Your Work”
When we're first starting out, we're mostly happy just to be given a chance to exercise our craft. Doesn't really matter what the work is or who it's for so long as we get the chance. We are extremely accommodating too, because we're just relieved to know...
Read MoreThe Great Acting Blog: “Keep Working”
We toil away day after day, but our increments of improvement can be so small as to seem imperceptible. But they are there. The only way to properly reveal our progress, is by placing ourselves under extraordinary pressure and seeing how we respond. Our ordinary day-to-day...
Read MoreThe Great Acting Blog: “Undedicated Actors Are Frightened”
If you're like me, you may occasionally come across people who pride themselves on having no acting skills whatsoever, and yet put themselves up for acting work. They love the fact that they put so little effort into it, and believe that the dedicated are...
Read MoreThe Great Acting Blog: “Have A Strategic Vision For Your Work”
A strategy is the overall idea and vision for how to obtain your goals. Your ambition may be to become a great Shakespearean actor, and strategy for this may be to get into the Royal Shakespeare Company, work your way up the ladder and eventually...
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