The Great Acting Blog: "The Creative Process by Alfie Black"

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.

Prelude To Noirish Project Is Now Complete. Delighted to share the film with you here...

 

 

We made this short film when the shoot for our feature film, Noirish Project, was snowed off. Noirish Project is a noir about Billy, who steals the family jewels and gives them to low-life Jimmy to sell to a Fence. But their problems begin when the jewels turn out to be fake. Prelude, takes place before the robbery, and Billy is trying to convince Jimmy to help him out.

 

Check-out notes about the film...here 

 

The Great Acting Blog: "Improvising"

Check out this quick teaser I put together. We've still some work to do on the sound, but the film will be completed in the next week or so.

I had planned to shoot Noirish Project in two chunks: the first last week, and the second later in the year.  Unfortunately, I had to postpone shooting the first chunk last week because of the snow, obviously this wouldn't have matched with anything we would have shot in the second chunk when in all likelihood there wouldn't have been snow. However, seeing as everything was set up anyway, I thought it would be a waste to not do anything, and so decided to go out and make a short, using the landscape as a snowy backdrop. I wanted the short to still be connected to Noirish Project in some way, and hit upon the idea of the short film being a sort of "backstory" for the feature, where we would learn a little bit more about the characters and how the events in the feature came about, calling the short; Prelude To Noirish Project. 

In the feature film, Billy has stolen his families' heirloom, some pearls, which they have owned "since before the War", and he gives the pearls to the only person he knows who has even a vague connection with the world of crime, Jimmy, to sell to a fence. Prelude takes place before Billy has stolen the pearls, and is structured around a telephone call, i.e. - Billy ringing-up Jimmy to see if he'd be interested in the pearls. The telephone call is then intercut with imagery of Jimmy on his way to meet Billy in the park. This structure lends the film a sort of fantasy quality, where we are not sure whether Billy is imagining the events we are seeing or not. I'm starting to think that the telephone is perhaps my favourite dramatic device of all - it's just so economical, and it creates plenty of scope for the acting, it's always fun to watch actors trying to express themselves through a phone. Also, I think telephones are very strange indeed (far stranger than email or text message, which seem far more natural), and therefore they possess a mystery which is intrinsically dramatic. It also opens up structural possibilities, and in Prelude, often I use the telephone conversation as a voice-over: we hear the characters talking, but we see imagery from another time and place.

There wasn't time to write a script, so I just decided on subject matter and the overall structure of the film, and we improvised the specific dialogue. We had, however, during the preceding weeks, been rehearsing the scripted scenes  we had already scheduled to shoot, and had arrived at performance level. This work had a strong impact on the improvisation, especially in terms of style and rhythm of dialogue. The actual script has repetitive, punchy dialogue, and we found that to be true of the improvisation aswell, as if the rhythms of the script had lodged themselves in our minds. I also found it easy to access my character's (Jimmy) sardonic intent toward the other character (Billy). The net result is that Prelude feels very much a part of the full Noirish Project feature film, it seems part of the universe of the full film, which is a very pleasant result.

I am currently in the process of re-scheduling the scenes we were unable to do, probably for mid- February. Snowfall has been rumoured, but we'll have to wait and see. 

Prelude To Noirish Project [Stills]

We had to postpone some of the filming for Noirish Project proper, due to the snow. So, we went out and made "Prelude To Noirish Project", using the snowy landscape as a backdrop. We created scenes around the original script, scenes which take place before the original script starts, but which are still very much related to the main action. I hope to re-schedule the Noirish Project shoot over the next week or so, and complete post-production for Prelude.

Drifting Clouds Cinema Blog: "Full trailer for our film noir, Phone Box Gun, is now up!"

 

Vincent and Bob stick up a jewellery store to raise money so Vincent can get down to Mexico, and visit his long lost sister, who he didn’t even know he had.

Written and directed by James Devereaux, and featuring James with Alfie Black and John Giles, Phone Box Gun is a short tragi-comic film noir, minimal and shot in black and white, which looks at the nature of friendship, storytelling and the imagination.

lick here to read "Why The Panic Set In", actor Alfie Black's thoughts on working on the film.

Click here to read about the acting style of the film

Click here to view still images of the film

Drifting Clouds Cinema Blog: "Full trailer for our film noir, Phone Box Gun, is now up!"

https://vimeo.com/44186381

 

Vincent and Bob stick up a jewellery store to raise money so Vincent can get down to Mexico, and visit his long lost sister, who he didn’t even know he had.

Written and directed by James Devereaux, and featuring James with Alfie Black and John Giles, Phone Box Gun is a short tragi-comic film noir, minimal and shot in black and white, which looks at the nature of friendship, storytelling and the imagination.

lick here to read "Why The Panic Set In", actor Alfie Black's thoughts on working on the film.

Click here to read about the acting style of the film

Click here to view still images of the film

The Great Acting Blog: "Why The Panic Set In, by Alfie Black"

Alfie Black is a London based actor.

 

Throughout my career I have never really suffered any panic  attacks whilst performing. That was of course until I filmed the pivotal interior scene from Phone Box Gun. Even though I originally met the writer/director James Devereaux whilst working on a Theatre production some time ago, it is safe to say over the years we have become firm friends and the director/friend line may now have blurred. It was with this wrong way of thinking I approached his latest project. Knowing he had written the role for me, I got lazy and showed up at school without doing my homework. I half heartedly learnt my lines and I did not research the structure of the script. Not being too harsh on myself anyone who has memorised Devereaux’s dialogue, knows this is no easy feat. His tricky wordplay is not supposed to be a breeze, just like the man himself, nothing is ever straight forward. I could make excuses,  blame it on personal problems, lack of sleep and heavy drinking. No excuse in the world will save you when the Mike Tyson of acting comes charging out of his corner towards you. My simple lack of preparation was my major downfall. Once I had the added pressure of the camera rolling, it was fully clear I did not know my lines 100%, which is why the panic set in. When you start to worry about each word not arriving it destroys the flow of the acting. The Director who demands truth from a scene was witnessing a fake performance. I threw myself into the deep end and even though I was treading water, the shore was a long way out of sight. I am a fighter myself and I never give up, I was determined not to quit. With each take my confidence grew and I began to find my balance and fight back.  I managed to use the fear and stress I was feeling and turn it into something real. Battling hunger and frustration we got to the end of what was a difficult shoot. Even though I had disappointed myself with a lack of professionalism, I was proud of what we achieved that day. I will never forget the terror I had during the filming and I know I grew stronger as an artist because of it. 

 

The Great Acting Blog: "Phone Box Gun - Full Trailer Now Up"

 

This blog has become a real fulcrum for me, and I’m very grateful to those who take an interest in it, support it, and offer feedback. As it is, I’m delighted to be share with you the full trailer for our new film, Phone Box Gun. Hope you like it. James.

Vincent and Bob stick up a jewellery store to raise money so Vincent can get down to Mexico, and visit his long lost sister, who he didn’t even know he had.

Written and directed by James Devereaux, and featuring James with Alfie Black and John Giles, Phone Box Gun is a short tragi-comic film noir, minimal and shot in black and white, which looks at the nature of friendship, storytelling and the imagination.

To read previous posts about Phone Box Gun, check-out the links below:

The Acting Style Of Phone Box Gun

Stills From Phone Box Gun

Some Thoughts On Self-Production

Only Worry About Action

To learn about our next film, please visit: Will It Stop Raining In Summer

The Great Acting Blog: "Stills From Phone Box Gun"

 

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