Acting Techniques

Ralph Richardson once quoted ”The art of acting consists in keeping people from coughing.” If you succeed in entertaining a cough-free audience, Benjamin Franklin would certainly hold your acting skills in the highest of regards. Nevertheless, many are bewildered by whether acting abilities are innate or inculcated. Everybody harbors the secret desire to act and rise to fame in the booming film industry. However, not everybody makes the cut! The competition is outrageous. Although, striking looks and voluptuous body catapults one’s career in the glamour industry forward, it’s only impeccable acting that creates a permanent mark of one’s name in the movie world. Master the complex art of acting as you rely on numerous techniques and walk in and out of a different character’s shoes every day. How do you dazzle the casting director during the much anticipated audition? Whether you wish to star in horror film, a romantic comedy or an Oscar winning potential drama, this article does its best at elucidating a couple of acting techniques that can help make your dreams come true. 

 

Method acting focuses on the principles of sense memory, substitution and emotional memory. Through this nifty technique, actors are better predisposed to connect with their character roles and maintain that authenticity even beyond the termination of the performance. The actor soon is rewarded with the ability to live life as two separate personalities and alternate his/her emotion or reaction. The purpose of this self-manipulation is to ensure that the actor’s performances arise from the character’s motivations as opposed to the written directions.

 

Cold reading encourages actors to act impromptu from a given script that he/she has never had chance to read or study beforehand. This technique captures an actor’s spontaneity and helps him/her battle with stage fright. Caught in the moment, the casting director judges and evaluates the actor’s ability to accustom to brand new scripts and affix appropriate emotion beats to them. This method is ideal for last minute auditions where contestants barely have five minutes to whiz through the script.

Derived from method acting, the Meisner technique entails a series of exercises, whereby actors learn to explore the emotional life of their characters and make valid improvisations. This enables them to conjure a response that matches the traits of the character. A huge chunk of the Meisner training deals with repetition of lines to get the hang of the character’s lingo and articulation.

 

When you’re auditioning for a comedy character, your options vary from imbroglio to pantomime or black comedy and so on. If you don’t immerse your heart into the scene, you are bound to kill the essence of the comedy and disappoint humor-starved audiences. Irrespective of how impeccably hilarious the script is, you have to stay focused on the scene and your partner; and not step out of your character’s shoes. Don’t try too hard to be funny and deliver the funny line spontaneously. Pretend to be living in the moment and let your creative juices flow. You can also evoke humor by capitalizing on physical comedy and communicating with your body. You could fall or flap your hands around. As long as it’s genuinely funny and plausible, you’re in it to win it!

 

Drama Role Techniques

A drama role certainly isn’t an easy one to crack. You have to compromise your actual reflexes and concentrate in the overwhelming theme of the script. Do not drift away from the plot and character. Let the drama unfold and flow into your veins, as the role becomes an indispensable part of you. Crying and expressing your deepest emotion comes from practice and passion for drama. If you are a drama queen by nature, auditioning for a drama role shouldn’t be half as hard. Keep reciting the emotion that the character is supposed to be experiencing so that you can deliver a natural performance. Moreover, leave your personal issues at home

 

Horror Role Techniques

You don’t have to dress up as Frankenstein to scare the casting director. Just be convincing. If you are the killer, be enigmatic and implicit. If you’re the victim, act petrified and tremble without any exaggeration. You might need to master certain looks such as the “OUCH OUCH, a man in a mask just stabbed me in the right thigh.” You need to visualize yourself in the same horrifying situation as the character. You need to portray the “eerie” effect depicted by the quintessential protagonist in a horror film, which stimulates the audience to anticipate a shocking scene right after a calm one. Count your breaths and remember that you can ruin a scene by overreacting. Always pause and concentrate on your face’s portrayal of utter terror. Let your imaginations run wild and scream out of your wits!  Take a deep breath through the nose, fill your lungs, lower your diaphragm, open you jaw, and exhale from your mouth. It works!

 

Are you ready for the big audition now? After employing the mentioned acting techniques, you should be!