Actor Growth

Another day took place of the acting workshop. This week we did the exact same scene as last week except we recorded it on camera. This was a session that was mighty conflicting and confusing in many ways for me. Fortunately I am not the type of person that takes advice and criticism personally as I could have easily seen a person taking offense to how the day went between myself and the acting coach.

It was kind of funny too as before the workshop started I was talking to a lady about different acting coaches. She was telling me how she despises coaches that specifically put people down as to them it is more of a power trip as oppose to helping people. I didn’t experience any of that thus far with this program though.

So the first thing that happened was that the reader that helped me in my scene last week wasn’t present. Therefore, when it came to my turn I just turned around in a playful way asking if anyone wanted to read for the 17 year old girl part. A lot of people smiled and I got some volunteers.

Afterwards, the acting coach made this comment about how we need to keep it together when transitioning to the next scene (In an aggressive way). He threw in a comment implying that what I did was being disrespectful to others who paid money for this course as well and that I should keep the humor to outside of the workshop.
So I guess that kind of started the tension.

Later on he mentioned that if I did that in an audition I would not be considered. It’s kind of conflicting too as many people including casting directors have told me that they want to see the fun and cheerful side of you before you do your scenes. Example, nice smiley slates, seems down to earth to work with, etc. Ironically too, most people told me that I should lighten up more before going into the audition room.

I did my scene and for the most part I believe I did pretty much the same thing that I did last week. There was a lot of feedback about my general body posture which a lot of people have told me about before. But the most conflicting comment which kind of turned it into an able to hear a pin dropping in the room scenario was beginning.

Essentially the acting coach was implying that I tend to show a funny and goofy side of myself too much and wants me to be more serious and sincere which he mentions is what I need to do to make it to the next step. He was saying it in a rather harsh and what could easily be taken in an offensive manner I thought. That was so confusing to me too because that is the only acting coach or film industry professional who has said that to me.

It was confusing as normally dramatic and serious roles are the main types of work I do. Example, guy having to deal with a very stressful situation, in an extreme conflict with another or say having to morn over the death of a loved one. I was trying to get some clarification about what he was trying to imply too because of this. However, I think he mistakenly took it as “Your comments are useless” type of scenario.

Such an interesting situation I thought and many people in the class thought I took it harshly or something too. Was just extremely confused. lol. After the workshop there was a lady that approached me too and tried to discuss with me about the coach’s feedback and that hopefully I would really consider what he said as she went through a similar situation.

I was then explaining to her about my confusion and how it was just weird as I have to factor in what he told me as well as all of the other advice and feedbacks that I have ever gotten. It was like everyone’s feedbacks would simply contradict each other. Then one lady commented how it is about getting the right coach who can find the right words to communicate to you on what they really mean as everyone is different.

So true I thought. But in general I understood the gist of what this coach was trying to say and what to improve on. I guess the bottom line is that you just have to hear what everyone has to say with the utmost open mind and then make a decision what you think is the right thing to do.

So yesterday was day three of the acting workshop and as mentioned before it began with a Yoga class. Coincidentally enough, there seemed to be less people in the workshop today than usual. It was pretty standard I thought from what I read and heard about Yoga in general. Basically, you are trying to relax your mind and become more aware of your body energy, strength and flow.

We were also asked to do things like handstands as well with the help of a partner. How did this exercise class relate to acting? Well, the theory was that you need to really loosen and open yourself up when it comes to doing scenes and this is suppose to help you with that.

After that we went on to perform our scenes. There was an interesting twist to yesterday’s class though. When a person was brought up, they were asked by the acting coach, Andrew Mcilroy, to establish the scene with objects and other actors who would act as a clay for you to mold and you would have to explain everything as if you were that character watching yourself.

For example, in my scene it basically revolved around two high school kids. So, I had to choose a girl to bring on stage and as well a guy who was standing in as my character. While explaining to everyone else in the room, I had to explain the background and details of the world in character while molding the other actors and also the stand in as if that was the character too. Almost like a time freeze of a guy walking around in his own memory. These sessions and scenes weren’t filmed though this week.

Now here was the thing that was absolutely new to me and to virtually all the other actors in the room. Essentially once you are done explaining the scene you then tap out your stand in and go ahead with it. Now my scene happened to dealt with a guy trying to apologize to a girl who didn’t want to hear it. In context of the scene in terms of actions, this was all improvised and the actress literally began to walk off the stage.

The acting coach was like “chase after her if you have to. We’ll follow”. Literally, she walked off stage and out of the studio room and I was literally going after her outside to the office admin area as the scene kept going. The whole class was running out of the stage room too to watch it unfold. Was actually really entertaining and a unique experience I thought. Imagine that happening in an audition. Too bad it wasn’t filmed.

That made me think too on how the scene would have been really great if I didn’t hold back. It was just kind of a conflicting moment for me as the class is suppose to revolve an audition style setup. One thing I was taught in auditioning is how people have their own “bubble” meaning you are not suppose to get near or touch the reader. In this situation, my inclination for the character was to eventually just run up to the girl and then lift her up to stop her from running in a funny desperation type of setup.

One more interesting note of the day. The acting coach couldn’t remember my name. At first he kept calling me Jimmy and then afterwards he kept calling me Calvin. It wasn’t until he complemented me and then I just gave him that funny confused look where he asked me why I was doing that and I mentioned that wasn’t my name. I was then going to refer to him with a different popular Vancouver acting coach’s name as a funny joke, but thought that may have been taken the wrong way.

That was a longer workshop than expected yesterday. It started about an hour late as the acting coach was asleep apparently at home. The reason being we were told was that the third week of the workshop we were suppose to do a Yoga exercise class of some sort and so he thought he was able to take time off.

As you may know though, we missed last week’s workshop as the instructor went to the US and so this was technically just our second time still. So many of us just practiced our scenes while we waited and I got to mingle around with some of the other actors. When the coach arrived, there were also two other people that came in to audit the class it seemed.

I did perform my scene and got some interesting feedbacks. One thing the coach did was that he mocked me as the scene was supposed to start off with the person waking up in a bed. Keep in mind that this is an audition style class and so all we had was this chair and a big blue studio space. He was saying how it looked like I was in such a lazy esque positioning which made it look like a model posing or something. Hilarious and fun way I thought as a way to get one’s point across.

The other interesting comment was that after I performed my scene he gave me a direction about really thinking about a certain line and to try it again. I then did it with the feedback and he was very enthusiastic saying how he gave me such a very difficult yet complex direction and I managed to pull it off perfectly. That was interesting too I thought.

It was interesting because on the same day there was another lady that did a scene and ended up accidentally crying. I know that sounds odd to many people. Basically what happened was that she was doing a scene and when she said her line it seemed like she accidentally said those words based on her own life experiences which she felt was a bit emotional.

A good example is say you having a loved one pass away in real life and then you performed a scene that dealt with that type of situation. When you speak those lines, you accidentally cross reference it as if you are saying those lines during the day your loved one passed away.

I say it is interesting because like for the direction I received it came down to personal real life experiences too to a certain extent to enable you to get into a particular emotional mood. In the moment it doesn’t feel complicated or difficult at all which is the funny thing despite how it seems to an outside party.

It is going to be interesting next week. Not really sure how this Yoga class thing is going to turn out as I didn’t expect it at all. I was just joking with another fellah too that I guess I will treat it as another day attending a martial arts class. My assumption is that this is done to show you a possible way for you to relax yourself before doing a scene afterwards.

Alright, so Wednesday is going to be the second day of that acting workshop and out of the scripts I was given I chose a scene a few day ago. The only problem is that the character description in terms of his physical presence isn’t exactly in my look range. Example, it says that the character is overweight which I’m definitely not.

So I was thinking of just changing some of the dialogue in the scene to suit me more as I kind of like the scene. However, I remember last time when I tried to make the other small scene my own I ended up mostly reverting to what seems was the original vision of the script.

The class is done in an audition style process and so maybe it is better for me to just keep it as it is. Maybe I’ll just use this as an example on how the coach said if you are called in for a role where you don’t exactly fit the physical description of the character that means they see something in you that may be workable.

I guess that is what I’ll do. The lines aren’t difficult to memorize.

Alright, so recently I was looking for an acting workshop to take and based on some suggestions I have decided to try out a place called second avenue studios here in Vancouver. The program they had was dubbed as a 6-Week On Camera Scene Study Course costing about $500.

The person conducting the course is a local working actor named Andrew McIlroy who seems to have a good reputation amongst the film community as well. This was interesting as they requested that you send them your resume first for consideration to enroll into the program. While I was on set yesterday I got an e-mail from them expressing that they were enthusiastic about having me join the class and to phone in to register.

I did do so today and the sessions won’t start until a few more weeks. This will be the first time I have went back for a prolonged training period other than the time I was enrolled in a film acting program through a traditional school setup.

So why go for more? One person was telling me that he thinks training is useless and a waste of money as continuously working on independent films during a downtime is just as good to build your skill and not to mention your portfolio. Agents and casting directors often say it is very good to be continuously training as it helps to brush up your skills and will help you to stand out in terms of being taken seriously that you really want to be a professional.

My thoughts? I’m doing both because I’m genuinely interested in acting and the film business. Therefore, training or being involved with independent films is something I will continually explore. The only drawback to things like formal training in my mind is the money factor as even I know this industry is one of the worst in terms of getting aspiring artists to drain away their life savings in hopes that it will bring success and opportunities to them.

Will this workshop be worth it? Obviously I don’t know yet. Again, I am one to usually judge value based on the results afterwards. Example, did it really do much in terms of helping me achieve my goals? Did more opportunities appear as a direct result of that?

Recently I was talking to an older gentlemen who happened to be an actor and I was telling him where I received my training and all as I thought he could give me some advice since he was experienced in the field.  My very first acting training was from high school and the theatre program was run by a gentleman named Jim Crescenzo at Templeton Secondary.

When I mentioned his name, the person immediately knew who he was and mentioned that he saw him all the time at auditions that he was in as well.  I was a little dumbfounded by that response as I remembered that during classes Crescenzo would often tell us that he gave up his attempt to work full time in the film industry as an actor as he really wanted to teach and inspire kids to be their best which personally made me respect him more and work harder.

I distinctively remember that there was also a news report about it as well where the media actually came into one of our classes and interviewed some of us to talk about the theatre Temp program and his dedication to the students.

So what I did was that I went to the IMDB site and found this listing for a James Crescenzo.  It looks like the same person too based on the bio I read on the site.  Afterwards, I looked at his filmography and sure enough it looks like he has done a lot of roles well throughout the time I was attending that school and beyond.

That was just so weird I thought…..I feel so deceived now…….kidding of course.  I learned a lot from the program and was glad to be one of the first Asians to really push the envelope.  He definitely didn’t take it easy on me either as he had one heck of an expectation from me.  Wouldn’t that be funny if I actually bumped into him one day on a set.