THE ART OF ACTING. (BEHIND THE MASK).

As we sat at tables arranged around the room and the Lecturer sat in the centre. I felt the nerves set in. You know, the dry mouth and sweaty palms. We had all taken a character each in a Shakespeare Play in my "A" level English Lit classes. The girls were natural and one girl performed with such gusto that my feeble delivery seemed all the more timid. I knew I would never be an actor but I did love stories.?

The irony is I did in some ways become an?actor. An "Actor with a pencil". I became a Lead Animator for Walt Disney Feature Animation. With a pencil I could hide behind I could become anyone or anything. We drew but we are not Illustrators, as great a craft as that is, it was a different thing. My dedication to drawing meant I didn't have to think about the drawing , just the performance. I would observe people. Their mannerisms and gestures. To "animate" or bring life to a character meant to instil a believability. An animated performance was much more like an Actor on a stage with an exaggerated performance. On a Stage an actor needs to express themselves in a way that even the people at the back in the "Cheap seats" or "The Dress Circle" could observe and enjoy. As an animator you have to caricature as if it is too like real life it seems somehow fake. This is with Classical hand drawn animation. With CGI this has all changed of course with performance capture. I remember an animator almost having a breakdown as the Director kept asking him to tone down an eyebrow move on a character to the point it didn't read at all. It was clear that the Director was inexperienced in Classical 2D and was thinking in terms of Live Action where you can get really close in on a face and the camera will pick up the slightest of nuances. This I was able to get myself from two great actors in my own films. In the case of "Censure" Connor Wulfric pulls off an extraordinary performance in a dialogue exchange with the one and only Tom Conti!

In fact in my latest film "Confines", the Cinematographer John E Fry had the camera so close to Luke's face that I could see the discomfort of the actor and to great effect! Luke's performance is sublime! Having such great dialogue from Screenwriter Neil Bason was also a huge bonus!

Of course we all studied the greats, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. But this was more for the dynamics and kinetics. And there were Life drawing classes at Disney every lunchtime. What is that to do with acting I hear you ask? The great Walt Stanchfield would read poetry whilst the artists were told to sum up the model and pose in as economic a way as possible and tell the story of what you see. Often the models were dressed in costume and you could then set them in an imaginary scene.?

On Disney's "Hercules" I used Live Action reference for my two main characters, the Earth Parents Amphitryon and Alcmene. For the Actors auditions the two Directors were there but after a few takes they said great and to carry on! I was being thrown in at the deep end but often it was the only way! One Actress came in and ran up to the baby model and picked it up like a rugby ball. I gave some simple direction and felt more relaxed that I had something to say and that I was being listened to so attentively! Another Actress came in and heard my English accent and told me she had many friends at RADA assuming I knew them all! It was a fun experience and my first time directing actors as opposed to animators.

Then there were improv classes. The ones that I dreaded most as you literally had to drop down all guards, not something that comes easily to an Englishman! After Disney, I continued other classes at Warner Bros Feature Animation. One Acting coach had apparently coached Madonna for a part. He had some of his own students there with him. He asked a female student to do a scene from "The Iron Giant". It wasn't bad. It felt a bit flat, he said. Throughout the class he would chat with his own students and this particular one he would ask about her partner. Apparently he had left her and it clearly made her uncomfortable. It felt slightly bullying but something else was going in here. He was pushing her. She was clearly on the edge of tears. He then said now do that same scene. She did and she had us all moved! Now whether it was a set up or whether it was real he had made a point. Tap into feelings that you know and have felt. Then recreate them.?

So all of our Life's experiences are useful when it comes to filmmaking. The dreaded improv classes I feared so much I could now utilize in my own film. We had an immensely great script by Neil in "Confines" but I wanted to add a scene that wasn't there. I am not a fan of heavy exposition. Too many Hollywood Films treat the audience with a lot of disrespect by spoon feeding the obvious. But there was one plot point I wanted to clear and decided the best was improv. Both Luke F Dejahang and Vivien Taylor were up for the challenge. I don't wish to give the story away so what I will say is I briefed them on the situation our main character finds himself in. The reason why he beats himself up and is a prisoner of his own mind. The amazing thing about improv is the sponeteity. Acting is "reacting" so an actor can react to a prompt they didn't expect, therefore reply in a way that is not obviously rehearsed or mechanical. The Actors after a brief confab were able to put out of mind that there was a film crew there and gave what in my mind was a very special delivery. It hit a nerve and I felt tears swell up in my eyes. Vivien needed to step aside to gather herself before the next take which gave me a chance to suck back my own tears before anyone noticed!

Another interesting impact of having worked in animation before moving to Direct Live Action is some of the other aspects that can cross over so easily. I talk about it in the following video and instead of describing it in words here I would recommend going to the video and hearing about it.

Having said all that I must say I still much rather stay behind the camera and have nothing but respect for the bravery of Actors on screen!