The Great Acting Blog: “Some Thoughts On Self-Producing”

The Great Acting Blog: “Some Thoughts On Self-Producing”

I’m often an advocate on this blog, of actors being their own bosses, creating their own productions, the reasons for doing so are too numerous to mention here, but in the modern era I would say it’s essential rather than an option. Having recently produced Phone Box Gun, a short film noir, I would say one of the toughest parts of self-producing is ensuring that the quality of your own performance doesn’t diminish due to multi-tasking. Typically, on productions where I am the actor only, what I would do going into the take, is relax, and let my mind rest onto the action I was about to perform, then go for it. However, on those productions where I am director aswell as actor, I may go through my usual routine but at the last minute, some problem with the shot may crop up, which I as the director need to address, so I have to turn my thoughts away from my acting action and onto the said problem. Once the problem is sorted, I then have to let my mind find my acting action again, and go into the scene – not easy to do, especially if fixing the problem has flustered you in any way, and some other detail may have entered your thoughts in the meantime. In order to keep making this adjustment, the actor needs to have total confidence in his technique, and the will to forget about everything else, and trust that everyone around him is doing his job, and focus only on doing his action in the scene, and doing so with total commitment. I have self-produced on stage and in cinema, and would have to say that stage is easier. Why? Because it’s simpler. Assuming rehearsals have done the job, you just have to step on stage and do it. Whereas in cinema, there’s all those nasty bits of technology which don’t always do what you want them to do, and, if you’re shooting on the streets of London, the general public don’t always behave in a way that’s best for your film – on Phone Box Gun, one scene was set in a public park, but we only had to get one very simple shot there, unfortunately, a dog decided to join us, and started barking at us to throw the ball he had just dropped at our feet. My relief at the arrival of the dog’s owner quickly turned to despair, as the owner thought it was very cute that his little doggy had interrupted our schedule, he was proud, and he seemed genuinely bemused when it dawned on him that we did not share his sentiment. A small issue, for sure, but one which caused a little bit of anxiety, especially when spots of rain began to appear, and suddenly, what had appeared on the shot list to be a very simple task, had infact sent the mind off in all sorts of directions – I never thought I’d find myself in negotiations to get a dog moved. So yes, actors self producing requires; total confidence in what you’re doing, iron discipline, and enormous mental strength.

Woof!