Actor Growth

Art and film is usually one of those very subjective topics where one person could think something is the best in the world while another would say the opposite. Recently I was reading some comments on a short film that I acted in where people commented mostly on the direction and technical editing work.

There was this one critic that sounded like he directed dozens of films and was an authority on the subject. While some would say you should ignore those and critics in general, I think from an acting point of view it is interesting to get feedback about your work regardless if it is negative or positive.

I think the key is ignoring the emotional rant that the person may have but rather really focus on what they are really trying to say. Actually, it’s a lot like doing a good scene where you want to focus on what they really mean and not necessarily the lines they are saying.

I guess it is kind of like networking or meeting new people too. Sometimes people are just complete jerks to you for no reason. In actuality it can end up being that they just don’t know how to approach people and are afraid of rejection. Or a person bragging about their expensive jewelry could really be saying they are poor and need to look rich.

So with that in mind I always try to listen o every type of criticism as even if you feel it helps you in any way artistically it can be useful marketing information if you are trying to target that particular audience.