As many of you probably already know, filming began on Noirish Project recently, and, generally, it went very smoothly. We all had worked together before, and we all wanted to work on this material, which created, despite the early start on a cold February morning, a very happy, productive camp. It was also my first opportunity to try out my notion of “poetic acting” (which I outlined here). In a nut shell, poetic acting requires austerity on the part of the actor, aswell as simplicity and discipline, rather than forcing things, he simply allows moments and expressions to “pop out” of his performance, as a by-product of his attempt to do his action. Poetic acting also requires pared-back camera work, and minimal editing, as this clears the way for those organic moments and expressions to become significant – such subtleties would be lost without this minimalism. The object of poetic acting is to offer the viewer the chance to interpret the behaviour of the characters they see upon the screen, using those momentary expressions created by the actor as signs. This invites the viewer to engage more intensely with the scene, and witness hidden truths, witness that which is not manifest in the script. This does require the viewer to pay acute attention to what he is watching, and clearly the minimalist filmmaking helps by offering the minimum of distraction.
The script is very gentle and slight, which requires the acting to be likewise, and again, this is in order to give precedence to small moments. Ironically however, I find this gentle form of acting enormously challenging, it’s more natural for me to play high drama or (sometimes) high comedy. If I don’t feel as though I’m hurling my very soul at a brick wall as forcefully as I can, then I don’t think I’m doing any work. However, when I reviewed the scenes we had done, the little moments, which are so important to the film, were certainly present, and shockingly so at times. This has certainly re-enforced my belief in the aesthetic we are employing, and hopefully, we will see it strengthen and produce even more vivid results as the production progresses.
Next up, Billy and Jimmy get lost in the woods, which should be a lot of fun to do. We will be taking a slightly different approach this time, as the scenes are only sketched out in the script, and we will, on the day, improvise specific tragi-comic events, and then, the week after, we will be back to fully scripted scenes.
"a drifting actor (Ananda Everingham) splits with his model girlfriend (Cerise Leang) while filming in a desolated coastal resort."
Production on my new feature film, Noirish Project, will continue through March and April.
Meanwhile, a free download of short film, Prelude (To Noirish Project), can be got here.
We fully rehearsed scenes last month, only for the shooting of those scenes to be postponed due to snow. This week, we are in the odd position of having to re-rehearse those scenes, as we are shooting those same scenes next week. It’s odd because our original rehearsals had been rigorous, and we had reached the point where we were ready to do the performance proper. Now, all actors have a creative metabolism, which is to say that each actor has his own rhythm of work and knows how to time his development in rehearsals so that he peaks when the scenes are to be done for real. So when you reach that peak but the performance doesn’t happen, it creates an odd feeling when you have to come back to re-rehearse those scenes. Usually, once I’ve performed a scene and it’s done, I can let it go, and put it behind me, but these recent unperformed scenes still linger at the back of my mind, as I haven’t been able to go through the process of discharging them. As I approach this week’s rehearsals, there is a feeling of history in the air, there are ghosts, and they need to be exorcised.
How to approach these new re-rehearsals of old scenes then? Well, we do not need to go through the script analysis process, as that has already been done, and it will be just a question of re-focusing and reminding. After that, I think it is a question of forgetting about how we did it before, not re-heating that old work, but instead, just create afresh, using the same analysis to support and enable that. My feeling is, that once we’ve broken the seal as it were, the creative energy within us will be unlocked, and something new will emerge. Cobwebs will be blown away, then that sense of the old work still hanging around will dissipate.
Well, that’s the theory. Either way, we’ll find out soon enough.
Commitment is a tricky thing. At the moment just before we need to commit, our minds suggest all kinds of alternatives as preferable to the thing we are about to commit to. One of the reasons commitment is so hard, is because we are putting our good opinion of ourselves on the line: if it all goes wrong then there are no excuses, and it hurts. Note how distraught elite sportspeople get when, despite giving absolutely everything, they lose a big match. Rarely do we see them shrug during such a moment, they would only shrug if they didn’t care, and hadn’t spent themselves. However, when we fear failure, we don’t give a proper effort or we don’t try at all, so as to avoid the pain failure may bring. The trouble with this approach is, the failure becomes self-fulfilling, because our lack of effort ensured, from the outset, that we would fail.
Commitment is a tricky thing. At the moment just before we need to commit, our minds suggest all kinds of alternatives as preferable to the thing we are about to commit to. One of the reasons commitment is so hard, is because we are putting our good opinion of ourselves on the line: if it all goes wrong then there are no excuses, and it hurts. Note how distraught elite sportspeople get when, despite giving absolutely everything, they lose a big match. Rarely do we see them shrug during such a moment, they would only shrug if they didn’t care, and hadn’t spent themselves. However, when we fear failure, we don’t give a proper effort or we don’t try at all, so as to avoid the pain failure may bring. The trouble with this approach is, the failure becomes self-fulfilling, because our lack of effort ensured, from the outset, that we would fail.
"Presently, we are divided and conquered by a system that preys upon our dreams of success, encouraging us to squander collective progress on false hopes of personal enrichment. We follow the herd and only lead reluctantly."
Read the full article here
Noirish Project was always going to be a different experience for me. This is my third film Collaboration with writer/director James Devereaux. For me, having the back story prepared for my role is always a necessity. It is this part of the creative process I enjoy the most, thinking like my character and working out his personality, right down to what he would wear. It may sound strange but I have always given less thought to the actual script. Obviously I would read and memorise the dialogue, but I would approach it with less energy. So when James told me our first rehearsal would consist of a script analysis, I was eager to become the student. Breaking down the scenes gave me a different understanding of what was happening to both the character and the story. We began with the obligatory first few rusty line readings. It always takes a few times to adapt to another actor saying the dialogue that you have only been hearing in your head. Once we were comfortable with the words, we filmed the scenes and watched them back. This was something I’d never really done before, working mainly in theatre I do not get to see my performance at any stage, so I was intrigued to see how this would influence my execution. Watching the playback it became evident I had given my safe, maybe lazy soap opera style acting. It was still honest and had some nice moments and maybe any other Director would have been satisfied with it, but Devereaux wanted to take me out of my comfort zone and delve deeper. To help me realise an action choice for the scene we used improvisations from my own past experiences to create a truth I could mirror within the character. I was confused by this new method at first and tried to fight it going in and out of my safety net, but once I relaxed and didn’t over think, Devereaux’s wax on wax off style training proved to deliver the goods. When we recommenced with the scenes I had a new confidence and began to enjoy saying the dialogue which also enhanced my performance. Why had I not been taught this way before? The difference on screen was incredible, I was already so proud of the film and this was only the rehearsals we were filming, roll on the shoot. Unfortunately due to severe weather conditions the filming had to be postponed. I was so disappointed, never before had I ever felt this ready and prepared for a role. As we were not filming James asked me if I would still like to shoot some footage and make use of our hard work. My first instinct was to play it safe and go back to bed, it was cold outside and I was feeling let down. This moment passed and I began to like the idea, I wanted to learn more about these characters. The first scene was an interior and it involved Billy arranging to meet Jimmy on the phone. The improvisation was a success, we shot it in one take. I was very comfortable with the character of Billy, the words oozed out with ease. I felt I knew everything about him and this was of course due to the intense rehearsal period. We continued to film throughout the day and I enjoyed every minute of it, sometimes with the pressures in the acting world you forget it can be fun. I was glad it snowed that weekend because we would have never created Prelude To Noirish Project. I am so pleased with the result and proud of what we have accomplished so far. I’m looking forward to filming Noirish Project, learning more and developing my craft even further.
