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By Solomon Wood
In this quite special blog, we are not addressing acting tips or tricks but in fact I am writing for parents. In this blog, I would like to address the problem of finding your child’s perfect acting school, and the requirements of NFD as a school.

At NFD, we see many calls come through about children wanting to join, and each child has a different story. But the three main parents to call are these:
1) The Recommended Parent- Can I just say that’s it’s delightful that we get recommended as it shows that we’re doing something right! Now, this parent is happy that the child has a place at NFD and is really happy to do what is required.
2) The Unclear Parent- This is the parent that calls saying “Oh, My DARLING is a STAR! He’s had main parts and is a COMPLETE NATURAL! He loves the stage!” and this is great! But Film and Theatre are slightly different. Parents like this need to research Film and Theatre and see which criteria your child best fits into. You may find that with children like this you need to look for a theatre group, but sometimes NFD is the perfect place to understand the other side of the spectrum and help them persue different type of acting.
3) The “wants the best” parent- This parent is not happy with the school the child is at and wants more for the child. This could be a challenge for the child or to gain more skills, but if I’m honest they usually come to get more auditions. My advice to this parent is to talk to school the child is at and sort things out, get to the bottom of the issues with the school as moving children disrupts continuity and can lead to a very confused child! If moving is an option, look for a place that turns out exceptionally high standard actors (like NFD!)

My advice to all parents is to really research and look at all your options. Also, what are your requirements? If your child simply wants to gain confidence then find a group that does that. Don’t take them somewhere that will push your child so far out of their comfort zone they become negative towards acting. It’s all really about sitting down and really thoroughly researching different classes. It’s also really beneficial if you talk to the people running the school and if your child likes a school enquire about a taster session which is really helpful as your child can find out if it is the school they really want to go to.

NFD requirements:
Apart from the normal “make sure you turn up on time” and those requirements, NFD have some other requirements your child should know, here I think are 3 most important so here we go:
1) Work! Be prepared to work, slacking off isn’t tolerated at NFD
2) Be prepared for criticism- you must be ready for criticism, or else how will you grow as an actor
3) Come out of your comfort zone- don’t worry! We won’t push you into the deep end! But you have to come out of your shell and try everything!

Why choose NFD?
I think this is a really good question, why choose NFD? And what separates them from all the others? Well, at NFD we don’t hide behind a front. We don’t tell you we do all these things and then we don’t do it. Also, some classes charge a ridiculous amount of money because they are “professional”. I’ve heard of one school that wanted £5000 before you could even enter. So, what separates NFD is that we ARE professional. We help students (like myself) really get out there by putting them on the NFD Agency, Spotlight and if they are involved in the films that we make here they can achieve credits on an IMDb page. That leads me onto another reason to come, we make our own professional films! Our last film, Crooked Billet, has won several awards such as an Oscar equivalent from South Korea and has been shown at Film Festivals in London. So our success rate is high!

Another great blog from one of our young acting students

By Solomon Wood

When acting in front of a camera, a big amount of pressure is put onto you to know your lines, know when to move etc. But did you ever stop to think that you need to be e extremely realistic? We want to see YOU and how YOU act, not how you think your character acts. So today, after learning some quite valuable things, I thought I would explain some basic and more complicated things. This way, we can understand everything!

The difference between Theatre and Film

This is something I have to think about constantly. Many of you that take drama in school or are taught drama outside of school more than likely will be taught Theatrical drama. And there is nothing wrong with pursuing theatre! But you can’t really use the same techniques that are used in theatre for film. In theatre, you are expected to be larger than life and as an actor you play a character and you take them on, become them. You become loud and over dramatic and when you come of the stage you feel good about what you did! In film, you take on the characters name but you put YOUR emotions into it, take being sad for example. In theatre you would wail and scream and be really large and dramatic, in film it’s toned down and you act upset as you would if YOU were actually upset. And when you come off set, you should feel proud but drained and even still feeling the raw emotion you made yourself feel. Film acting is all about you!

How to make your film acting more believable

What we worked on in class is something I feel needs to be discussed. It’s the problem of reacting before what is happening to make you react has happened. Take a falling glass, in real life, you would hear the glass shatter on the ground and there would be a split second where your realisation kicks in and you become shocked. But what happens when you are under the pressure of the camera is this: the glass falls and you react before it has time to shatter, breaking the performance. The best way to break this habit is to take a second to realise what has happened. I call it the Shock Second” as it’s that second where your mind thinks What the hell? after this second you begin to speak and assess the situation more, but the Shock Second gives that bit of reality to the piece.

The final thing we talked about was saying your lines before someone else has the time to finish theirs. This breaks the atmosphere that from the beginning of the piece you have been trying to create, the way to combat this is to say the person’s line in your head and then say your line. But this brings me onto an issue tied with this, the issue of pace. Pacing is all about making sure you don’t rush, if you rush then there is no atmosphere to the piece and it makes your group look nervous. Too slow, and the performance drags and becomes boring. So, how do we stop this? The simple way is to think how you would be. If someone said to you I’ve found a dead body” you wouldn’t wait 5 minutes to speak, would you? You would be shocked to hear this and so have one or two Shock Seconds but you would speak quickly to show you are nervous and a little scared. It’s all about making sure your reacting time isn’t too long, but you don’t jump in right after someone has said something. Think about what the person had said, then answer, this paces and slows you down a little therefore making it more believable.

Thank you for reading and a special thank you to Alyson, Richard and Charlie who helped tonight, for I got this information from them. Thank you.

Northern Film and Drama “The STUDIO”

LEEDS, Yorkshire.

Enquiries:- Please contact:-

Tel Office: +44 (0)1977 681949 or email alyson@northernfilmanddrama.com

Pictures of this lesson Wednesday the 1st of November 2017.

 

Play Backs

Another blog by Soloman, covering last week’s lesson

Being in the acting career, you will certainly come across a technique for learning called “Play Backs”. This is the topic for today, and hopefully by explaining this to you, you will be able to benefit from this in the future. (Let’s go, shall we?)

What Is It?
Play back is simply watching yourself back when you have been filmed. When you have been filmed, you may have the opportunity to watch yourself back and see where you went wrong. I will tell you now, you would be stupid if you didn’t take this opportunity. It is one of the only times you will be able to see yourself as if you were someone else. In other words, you get to see yourself how others will see you!

A Play Back and the knowledge it brings
Seeing a video of yourself gives you the opportunity to learn. So, take the time to really criticise yourself, the only way you will learn is through the mistakes you pick up on so you can correct them next time. It helps if you make notes on your acting while you watch. This way you can go back to your notes at a later date and remind yourself of what you need to brush up on. Play backs also help to show you what drama techniques to use to portray your character best. And if any need to be improved, you can see which! Play backs can also give reassurance that you have done well. (It’s not all about negatives you know!) If you think you did bad on a certain piece, a play back will prove you wrong!

Summary
A play back is a tool at your disposal. You should use it if you felt something in a particular piece went wrong or even if you simply want to see yourself in acting. Play backs give you the visual learning of watching yourself and seeing what works and what doesn’t. This way you can chop and change your next piece to better fit you and bring out the best acting you and do. And portray the character you need to portray the way you want to.

Solomon, a student from Northern Film and Drama film and tv teenage class has written the following blog.
We have had a number of workshops recently that covered audition technique in detail. Solomon from his experiences at NFD decided to write about them and put them into his first blog that he has written for us.
Well done Solomon!

The Audition

There are lots of little things you need to keep in mind when you actually go for the audition. These include trying not to work yourself up into a state because, to be absolutely honest, you’ve got this! You have a good idea of what your going to do and how your going to do it. So all you need to do is keep running your lines through your head (ugh, but practice makes perfect!) And going over any bits you particularly struggle with. One important thing to remember: everyone there is just the same as you! Yeah, this may be one person’s fifteenth audition while it’s another’s first. But everyone is the same.

Now, the first thing we need to address is worrying. I know from personal experience that people worry for an audition, and this is PERFECTLY normal! An audition is a big thing that could help you achieve what you want. But worrying will get you nowhere. I once had to audition for a part in a play and I was worried because it was my first audition. I got so worked up that I panicked. As a result, I forgot my lines! So worrying gets you NOWHERE.

Just try to relax and collect yourself, so when you get in there you are the best and most dramatic version of you!

Now, when you walk in the casting director will be sat at the front of the room. There may also be a camera set up so that it records your audition. In a typical scenario, you will never just go in, do it, and walk out. When you walk in, the casting director will ask for your name, where your from, your agency, what character you’ll be performing and possibly your age. Then, you’ll probably have a quick chat about how you feel about the script and if you need to hold the script (it’s better if you don’t). It’s important to be kind and polite, as casting directors also look at you as a person as well as an actor. So remember your manners! (Now I sound like your mum!)

Another thing to keep in mind is that it is perfectly okay to mess up. We’re only human after all! If you do mess up a line, just ask to say it again or correct it. Never just leave it, because the director has a script and can see where you messed up (they know…)

Sometimes, you can even ask the director to point you in the right direction. Don’t be shy about messing up cause we all do it.

Even the greatest actors of all time may have to do a retake cause they said something wrong. It’s natural!

When performing your scene, just make sure that it is flowing how you want it to. If you feel that you and your partner are straying from the guidelines in the script then it is up to you to get you and your partner back on track. Actors can sense what you’re trying to do, it’s part of the job, and they will make sure that they follow your lead. Or maybe, you should follow their lead. You never know! But make sure that everything flows. Don’t jump in too soon if there needs to be a little pause to indicate something like thought. And don’t speak over the top of each other either. Otherwise it ends up being messy and you begin to look disorganised. Another point to ponder is rushing. As your acting, it’s only natural that you want to finish the audition and get out of that stuffy room! But if you rush, it has a feeling that you don’t want to be there and you haven’t studied the script enough. So pace yourself, add breaks when needed and don’t force your lines cause your rushing. Everything should flow like a quiet stream!

At the end, the casting director may talk to you again. They could ask you how you feel it went and it’s important to be honest. If they’re going to hire you, they need to know you first! So try to be honest. Also, prepare yourself for criticism. The director may say “this part wasn’t up to standard” or “these lines needed more work”. Either way, if you can’t take these points then your in the wrong profession, because acting is all about helping each other by constructively criticising their work! So don’t be disheartened if they tell you that certain lines need more work. Cause that is going to help you next time!

That’s That!

That’s all have to says on this matter (which was quite a lot, well done for making it this far!) So I hope you find these tips and pointers useful. Cause surely after all that you can ace any audition. I expect to see you on a major TV show soon. That’s everything from me. So all that’s left to say now is goodbye! Or, in the acting world, aaaaaand CUT!

Welcome to Alyson’s acting tips where I will share with actors around the world my tips for getting the acting role you have always wanted. Please check back frequently to see my posts.