So, if you happen to be in college, or learning the arts at some other institution (be it film or otherwise), there is one lesson that you should learn and accept immediately. 

Your education doesn’t end when you accept your diploma/certificate/plaque/cupie doll. It’s just beginning. 

Recently, I decided to enter a bit more into the realm of the actor. Having worked in every other capacity on-set and otherwise, I have an insight into the entire production and post-production process. But acting? Acting I didn’t have much experience in, outside of directing a one-act in high school. 

So, I stopped by the Sally Johnson Studio in Manhattan a few weeks ago, and signed up for a month of classes. I’ve been working with Brad Calcaterra, and the experience has been an eye-opener. 

For one, having come from a crew background, there is the tendency to regard the actors with skepticism, and as I am sure that anyone working on crew has observed, sometimes hostility. Actors are regarded as flakey, unstable, and even neurotic. While I have never thought as much, the only reason that I held off my opinions was that I did not understand the actor. Hence the class. 

Actors come from a very emotional front. Prior to the invention of the film camera, actors would have a library of different poses and articulations, designed to convey an emotion to the very back of a theatre. Acting had to reach, to project, to distances that were far away. Now, with film, such techniques no longer are applicable. In fact, on film, they look downright hokey. So, now emotion had to be communicated very subtly. A flick of the eyebrow, a sigh, a dart of the eyes were now (in the world of 35mm projection and close ups) as telling as a piece of dialog. Even more so. 

So, very simply, that is the actor. Someone who has to put themselves into the position of feeling and interacting very naturally with another actor. Someone who is a part of the story. So, they get to set, ready to be a part of the story, to be natural and to feel things naturally, to find themselves groped by wardrobe, wired by sound, bullied by DP’s, snikered by Grips, and treated like meat by the director. 

(Sound abusive? Unrealistic? Keep in mind the term used by producers for actors… “Talent”. A grouped term, not realizing an individuals worth or contribution to the project. The same way people might refer to, oh, I don’t know. Try “Cattle”.)

Now, You can’t really blame the crew for this. They don’t understand. In fact, it’s important for them not to. Everyone is scheduled and assigned, like a military unit, to the set every day. The day is scheduled hour-by-hour. The producer has eighty-three things going on in his mind at the time, the DP is trying to make the scene beautiful, the make-up is trying to make the actor beautiful, wardrobe is trying to make the, well… wardrobe look beautiful. You get it. 

So what does this amount to? Balance. That’s what I have learned the past few weeks. A film shoot has to be a balancing act between the technical and the aesthetic, the natural and the contrived, efficient order versus creative chaos.

I’d recommend this to everyone. Knowing the actor’s world can only make every department, if not better, then at least understanding of the hell we put these poor folks through, just for the sake of telling a story…

(P.S. Check out Sally Johnson at http://sallyjohnsonstudio.com/)

On Wednesday, The Van premiered as part of the New Filmmakers Showcase at the Anthology Film Archives. It was a superb time had by all, and we rocked the showcase with the eternal tale of Ahab chasing down his huge, white nemesis (albeit on a bike instead of a boat, but what have you…). 

Producer Chloe Mantzari was there, as well as stars Hamish Strong, James Warke, and even Tim Schram, himself. 

It was a great chance for everyone to see the final film, and for myself the chance of seeingit on the big screen was too awesome to describe (but I’ll try. Here goes: “Hooooollleee S@&$t…!”). 

More news to come.