Working with Actors is one of the top Directing Skills. Actors play the characters who the audience relates with. The better the performance and the star quality, the more relatable the actors are to the audience.

Performance:

This is a key area that the Director has considerable influence on. If the director is weak at directing actors, this can lead to much below par, performance from the actor.  So how can a Director help the actor  to get to his or her highest level.

Cast well. Please check out my article on Casting. If an actor sees that you have cast well, he or she will have considerable confidence in you as a director. If they have been through 3 rounds of  casting before he or she gets the part, the actor will know that the part has been earned. They will also see you in a more professional light. So Cast well.

Rehearsals: Actors love rehearsal time. They love to discuss and analyse the script.  They want to rehearse the main scenes in the film and feel that they have a strong input into the part. You will also have your costume designer and wardrobe person present at some point in the rehearsal. It is at this point that you will make decisions on the costumes.

On the Shoot:  Actors love to collaborate with Directors on the performance. They love to get honest feedback on how they are going. As a Director, I will always be at video village, an area with monitors of what the cameras are seeing. Along with my continuity person, I watch the screen like a hawk.

I watch for truthful performance and I work take by take, shot by shot.  If I am not getting what I want from the actor I express this and push the actor for the very best. I do notice with first time directors, they can be lost when it comes to directing actors.  This leads to actors not giving their best.

There is only one way to get a feel for acting and that is learn screen acting from an acting course.  We do have a Directors Actors workshop in late January. We only take 10 people and it takes place over two days. Please email me on business@australianfilmbase.com if you are interested

We also have our next 3 month film course starting Tuesday 21st February in Sydney and in Melbourne.

Star Quality:

There are many actors who are exceptionally talented. Very few of them have the very special star quality X factor. When an actor has Star Quality, they usually are very photogenic. They look better on screen than in real life. There eyes have something special, an intensity and the camera loves them.

This is what you hope for when you cast. There is nothing better than casting a future star or for that matter, if you budget is big enough an actual star

Have a great holiday break and make movies in 2017.

Colm O ‘Murchu  Director Australian Film Base