Comment Re:"Acting is all about honesty" -- not. (Score 1) 441
I think you are partially correct in your analogy but it's not facial muscles are learning to control. I am an actor and I don't know any secret techniques of face muscle manipulation. An actor's toolset is his emotions and and being able to access those are what makes some actors better than others. The "honesty" comes from trying to put yourself in a different situation and react emotionally as you would if the situation were real. And since we are social creatures who constantly reading each other's feelings this is probably the hardest part of a film to pass off as real. It's a lot easier to do though if you have a script where the characters behave like real people would.
That being said, I freely admit that we aren't trying to duplicate reality in movies. But in order to not alienate your audience, you should have enough reality in it so people can relate to it. This means following the general laws of physics (unless you give the audience a reason for them to suspended) and having your actors resemble people.
I think another aspect of the issue here, which I saw briefly mentioned below, is the collaborative aspect. You bring in a cinematographer that will use his visual sense in helping tell the story and you bring in actors who have an understanding of the character. You need to bring in competent people and then trust them to do their respective jobs. It will show in the end product. Compare a more collaborative director like Clint Eastwood is reputed to be who gets nominated for Oscars year after year with someone like George Lucas who needs to control everything.
I guess more on the direct topic, it's kind of frustrating as an actor to have so little control of how your end performance will turn out and this just furthers that feeling. This isn't something new. I'm a relatively inexperienced actor but I after the first feature I did I was pretty annoyed with the director after he repeatedly chose less then stellar takes of my performance in favor or more technical aspects when he cut together the movie. One of the latest shorts I was in was Red Seven which I am linking to solely as an example. (Who am I kidding? I'm an actor which also means shameless self-promoter.) In the scene in the coffee shop, my character, the one with the beard, smiles and laughs at something the other character says and it bugs the shit out of me because that wasn't my reaction to that line but to the line of dialogue after that. It's a little thing and I guess it might work for the story but it bugs me because it isn't what I wanted to do with the character there.
That being said, I freely admit that we aren't trying to duplicate reality in movies. But in order to not alienate your audience, you should have enough reality in it so people can relate to it. This means following the general laws of physics (unless you give the audience a reason for them to suspended) and having your actors resemble people.
I think another aspect of the issue here, which I saw briefly mentioned below, is the collaborative aspect. You bring in a cinematographer that will use his visual sense in helping tell the story and you bring in actors who have an understanding of the character. You need to bring in competent people and then trust them to do their respective jobs. It will show in the end product. Compare a more collaborative director like Clint Eastwood is reputed to be who gets nominated for Oscars year after year with someone like George Lucas who needs to control everything.
I guess more on the direct topic, it's kind of frustrating as an actor to have so little control of how your end performance will turn out and this just furthers that feeling. This isn't something new. I'm a relatively inexperienced actor but I after the first feature I did I was pretty annoyed with the director after he repeatedly chose less then stellar takes of my performance in favor or more technical aspects when he cut together the movie. One of the latest shorts I was in was Red Seven which I am linking to solely as an example. (Who am I kidding? I'm an actor which also means shameless self-promoter.) In the scene in the coffee shop, my character, the one with the beard, smiles and laughs at something the other character says and it bugs the shit out of me because that wasn't my reaction to that line but to the line of dialogue after that. It's a little thing and I guess it might work for the story but it bugs me because it isn't what I wanted to do with the character there.
