The Great Acting Blog: “DIY – Part 1”

This week, and by a curious chain of events, I ended up editing my new short film, Man Crossing Street, myself. Now, I hate computers and I know almost nothing about editing, so this was a decent little challenge for me, and so using the Chicagoan philosophy of “lets figure it out”, I managed to put together a provocative little film, and I had hoped to share it on here this week, however, I have still some work to do on the sound.

I have always thought that actors should create their own work, producing my own plays and films in years gone by had a profound effect on me as a man and as an artist. It’s not about money because you probably wont make any, infact, you’ll probably lose money by producing your own work, but the benefits are artistic and psychological, and in this particular blog, I’ve written about the psychological impact only, the artistic benefits I intend to write about at a future date, I have plenty to say on a subject that will form part 2 of this blog.

One of the greatest causes of anxiety among actors is the lack of control over whether they work or not, and this lack of control is brought about by a lack of completion, which the mind craves. A completion of what? Well, the actor’s goal is to obtain his next acting job, and completion takes place once the actor has obtained that job, which in turn creates a feeling of control and causes the anxiety to dissipate (the inability to cope with this anxiety in between jobs is the primary reason why so many actors become demoralized and quit), and further, the work itself is a state of equilibrium for the actor. An actor must wait for someone else to give them an opportunity to perform – they can do the action steps to get work perfectly, but ultimately, someone else will make the final decision, someone else will decide if completion is brought about – all actors experience the agony of this position. However, by creating their own work an actor can write and produce their own film or stage their own play (and may not even produce the script, simply writing one can be enough), and cast themselves in the production, which will ultimately bring about that completion – remember: writing a script is fully within the actor’s control, grabbing a camera and shooting a movie is within the actor’s control, as is staging a play, it is simply a question of going through the steps. Sure, this is not a substitute for anything, but at the very least the actor will be able to go through the creative process and experience completion by finishing a new piece of work, and moreover, it will be work the actor can take pride in because the aesthetic is his alone, and work which will bring forth feelings of self-respect because the actor has taken control of his work, and, at the very least, by creating his own work, the actor can prevent himself from going bat-shit.