(This is a post I had on my other blog, but decided to move it here for keeps sake. Since I’m ‘remodeling’ my writing blog.)
[This is from personal experience, I’m sure other directors have other tips to share]
As a Director there are many ways you can warm up your actors, for you play/film/ or something else. Emotions are a key essential when performing, and some actors need a little warm up before they go out there, or are place in front of a camera. Group activities are great way to place them ‘in the mood’ for acting, and make them give their 100% in a stage or in front of a camera.
This activity is meant to be done in groups. Preferably with the whole cast. If your cast is little, then try a variation of two chairs instead of four. Always try to have at least 5 or more people watching. If necessary, get more people, who are not acting, but are involved with the project, inside the room. Place 4 chairs in a square, facing each other’s back. So that when the actors sit, they don’t see the other actor. Now choose, or ask’s for volunteers, and assign an emotion to a chair. For example, Chair 1 which to it’s back is Chair 2 to it’s left is Chair 3 and to the back of Chair 3 is Chair 4. See the pattern? It’s a square. Anyway Chair 1 will be sadness, and Chair 2 will be Happiness. Now the actors who sit on that specific chair must deliver their lines with that emotion. You can even go wild setting Chair 3 with Anger and Chair 4 with Disney Happy. Or even get more complicated like Hyper and Hypocrisy. It’s all up to you. Or better yet, instead of reciting the script, make them improvise. The results you get will probably help your actor become loose and since the people watching laugh at all the madness going on in the chairs, it helps bond your cast together. This is also useful for quickly telling who is a good actor and who is not in a casting. Instead of going one by one.
This is more of a game than a warmup. But it still helps solidify your cast and helps them get to know each other. Get your actors in a circle, it doesn’t matter if they have the big role or the small one liner. “There’s no small actor, only small roles” Start with someone saying. May I? And pointing to a person inside the circle. That person must respond Yes, Come. In that moment the person who pointed and said May I? starts walking towards the person they pointed to. And before they get to the place where the selected person is standing inside the circle, that person must say to someone else May I? And so on, it repeats. But if someone messes up and doesn’t move before the person walking towards them gets there, they loose and it’s Game Over for them. I suggest doing a practice round first. So that they can get the feel for it. But it’s a pretty simple game, and it show’s you the power of concentration that your actors have. Play this for several days and I’m sure they will be excellent and what they do.
I think most Drama Geeks or Drama teachers know about this one. Create a simple scenario and let your actors act it out. For example it could be.
You come in into a connivence store, someone is looking for a coke but you’re all out of cokes.
It could be as simple as that. And it doesn’t have to be very complicated. Let your actors do the story, from the begging to middle and end. Or maybe your actors don’t want to do a story and simple follow the same premise over and over. Now of course, give your actors an emotion. Preferably something out of their comfort zone. So if your actor seems a little shy, give him a roll that is very extroverted, very loud, and shouts a lot. For example he or she is angry within that scenario. Is that simple. Then of course mix the emotions between your actors. Sadness, Anger, Happiness. Is all up to you as a director. As long as the actors are collaborating together, and don’t take it way to far. Like the one who is angry doesn’t start hitting the sad woman.
As I find more tips through my Drama Class I’ll be adding them to this post, and pushing it to the top of the blog. So ya’ll can see it.
This preparation takes a little bit more time, so only do it if you have about an hour or so. If you have little time, just do it with 30 minutes of anticipation. Anyway, take your actors, and have them choose a category Drama, Comedy, Action. Then have them create their own story, it will not only help them to develop their imagination, but also work their people and group skills. Give them total creative freedom, but only give them 10 minutes to do whatever they want. This way you can not only know who is ‘the leader’ in the groups you have created, but who is willing to take direction from the cast itself. Then of course like any other exercise, have them present their final product to the whole group.
Choose an Actor, place a chair in the middle of the room, or at the front of the classroom. And have them sit on that chair. Then choose 3 more people at random, and have him narrate the story. The narrator will create a setting a time and a place. Then the actors will have to follow that setting. Not only creating a story with improvisation. But, the narrator learns how a story moves forward. Because he is the one moving the story forward. If he is letting the actors dilly dally to long on a specific scene, he will notice. Because in this practice, the actor does not move the story forward, he will only stay in one place of the story, and since it’s improvisation, the narrator has to move the story forward. Otherwise they’ll feel that they just stay in one place as a cast.
Have your actors say only 3 lines. “Hello” “How are you” “Would you like a coffe?” This is a conversation between two people, of course the appropriate repsones are given. But they might vary from actor to actor. Though they’ll mostly be the same. This is an exercise to develop body language, and reading between the lines. Some professional actors might already be excellent at this. Like Robert Pattinson in Water for Elephants. And I think, that if you would like to become a good actor. You need to know the basic rules of body language. This exercise helps them develop that specific skill.
Have two of your actors face each other, and mirror each other. Try to get them to follow each other to the most specific detail. Just like a mirror, make them see that copying each detail is very important. Make them do this for at least 5 minutes. Or 10 if you’re in a group. There are 3 variations to this exercise, one have actor one copy actor 2, have actor 2 copy actor 1. Make them copy each other, so that in the end, they don’t know who is copying who. But of course one is leading, and the other one is copying. But the point is, that the actor who is leading can start copying at any moment. And the actor who is copying can start leading at any moment during the last variation.
Once again, this requires two actors. One being the puppet and the other being the puppeteer. Have one actor stand in front of the other actor. The actor in the back, is the puppeteer, and the actor in the front is the puppet. Make the actor in the back, move your actor in the front, make him actually touch any part of the body he want’s to move. Almost like a movable doll. This forces the puppet to cut loose of all tension. And the one in the back to gain confidence for interaction in play. Because the more your actors get attached to each other, the more realistic a romantic scene might look, or a friendly hand shake between friends, meeting for the first time. Or if this was actually done in the set of Twilight. The chemistry between Robert and Kristen might just actually look realistic on screen. You can also have special moments in which they make a pose, could be a crazy pose or a funny pose or anything you like. Though remember to switch up the roles. Making the puppeteer the puppet and vise versa.
