Audition for Your Career, Not the Job by Tim Phillips

Author:Tim Phillips
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: hollywood, performance, tv, acting, screenwriting, director, film, actor, casting, audition
Publisher: Tim Phillips

On companion DVD 2 to this book, you can watch actors demonstrating clichés. Go to: TimPhillipsStudio.com/dvd.

Now that we've identified a bunch of clichés, let's take a look at how to apply them in your work, starting right in the first moment of a scene.

Give Your Scene a Title

Every scene represents a universal human dilemma, which, at its basis, is either about love or power. This dilemma must be crystal clear to you (and, through you, to your audience) from moment to moment. If you don't show how you feel about what's going on, if you don't have this clarity, it's hard for anyone to take in your performance on film. As a rule, it's better to be wrong and be specific rather than right and general.

Clichés are specific. A twenty-something actress came to class with a scene from an actual audition she'd done for a bit part in the movie Limitless, which would be played against the lead actor, Bradley Cooper. His character, Eddie Morra (more intellect, more sex appeal, more everything, get it?) has taken a drug that makes him mesmerizing. In this scene, he picks up a woman up in a bar. He's accomplished, handsome, and smart—presumably everything a woman would want—and also successful in seducing her with minimal effort. So the title of scene we came up with for her was the cliché "I'd do him." As a rehearsal, I had her scan the reader from head to crotch once, and then stay fixed on his eyes. This, in combination with simply thinking the cliché, made her blush.

Please don't make the mistake of trying to play too many choices at once. Make one solid choice! Don't worry about being "too simple."

By its essence, a cliché is something universal that many different actors could play. But don't worry about coming across the same as someone else. No matter what cliché you choose (and despite its universality), that cliché is going to come across differently in your performance—in your body and voice—than it does in anyone else's. You can trust your own natural, very human and unique complexity to read on camera.

Song titles often make good scene titles. Just scanning Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the top 500 songs of all time, you could pick up a few possible choices, including: "She's Gone," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "God Only Knows," "That'll Be the Day," "You Send Me," "I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry," "Born to Be Wild," "I Can't Stop Loving You," and more. Whenever you find a song title suitable for your title of scene, it means you've also found yourself a theme song or an anthem for an improvisatory rehearsal. Music is a great entry point to memory and emotion. They're hardwired into the history of our bodies.

Another place in popular culture where we find clichés is in standout lines from movies. What was the advertising for Jaws 2? "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water." That comes with

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.