Although not part of the brief for assignment 3, I have spent some time reflecting on the experience of working with non-professional actors. For this assignment I asked some of my work students if they would be willing to act in the film. Given that it was primarily a party scene and I said I’d provide the food and drink, there were no objections raised. In addition, friends/girlfriends joined the filming so I met some of the characters for the first time on the day we filmed.

The actor that I made sure to speak with early during the project, was the chap that would play the suicidal student. I wanted him to understand what I was doing and what I would be asking him to do and then I gave him some time to think about it and if he would be willing. He agreed and I believe he played his part remarkably well.

Since I knew fairly early who would play each of the main roles, I was able to adapt the script to suit the real characters of the actors. Although I realise that this approach does not work for all projects, I wanted to make the acting as natural as possible for them.

Nonetheless, since the actors are not professional, I believe that the way you work with them needs to accommodate their level of skill. Very early on in the filming, we decided that the actors could make slight adaptations of the dialogue to match how they would naturally speak. For example, the original script had Joe referring to Ahad as ‘mate’, however Joe was more comfortable with ‘dude’ and so we went with that. In the first exchange the script called for Joe to say ‘Ahh… still hell-bent on drinking tea, I see. That’s your problem mate. One of these and you’ll be fine’. In the end, he was more comfortable with ‘Hey dude, this is your problem man, you’re still on tea. Have one of these and you’ll feel much better’. In the end the message was the same and so we stuck with what Joe felt comfortable with.

We also realised that although it is worth filming the first couple of takes, usually the acting starts to become more natural after the third or fourth take. In addition, there needs to be a certain acceptance that the actors are not going to repeat their lines/actions in the same way as they did for previous takes – which makes editing a bit more difficult. For this reason alone, it was worth thinking about where the cuts would be and how long the actors could sustain a single take.

During the filming, I needed to film the ‘celebratory’ scene first because of where the sun happened to be in relation to the kitchen window. This was challenging because everyone walked in cold, some of the people didn’t know each other, it was the first time we had worked together and now we needed to film a shot that called for the actors to be drinking and celebrating together as friends who had just spent the last 3 years together studying. For future projects I will try to avoid this situation and start filming with some less-complex, less high energy shots so that the actors can ease themselves into the roles.

Although we had blocked the celebratory shot first, the first few takes were extremely artificial and lacked motion. So, we stopped filming and walked through the shot together again, talking about who was going to say what, who was going to do what, who was going move and how. We practiced a few times and then I said I would track the camera through them as they practiced to get my part of it right as well. In fact I was filming at this stage and managed to get a decent take.

The revelation came, and I will definitely do this in later exercises, when I showed everyone the take. They were able to better understand what I was trying to achieve visually and we could talk, using the take, in more detail about what they needed to do. When we did the next take it was remarkable how the performance and the energy had improved.

And lastly, in Amy Delouise’s book Real People on Camera, (2016:83)which deals primarily with filming for interview type situations, she makes a point about the interviewee’s that I believe is equally appropriate for non-professional actors. She tells the story of moving from New York to Maryland when she was nine years old and how, on arriving at her new school, everything was so new to her and how vulnerable it made her feel. Fortunately the teacher patiently encouraged her to participate and make new friends.

She compares this experience with what it can be like for people who are not used to being in front of a camera, don’t know the crew and aren’t familiar with the filming process – they can end up feeling extremely vulnerable and then you may not get their best performance. As the director, it is your job to connect with these people, make them feel welcome, introduce them to the others and explain the process. In this way you are most likely to get a sincere and genuine interview. In the case of new amateur actors I think we must not forgot how exposed they may feel and take steps to help them relax into their roles.

 

Bibliography:

Delouise, A. (2016) Real People on Camera. New York: Routledge.