A Performance Reflection

Acting on film has been an exciting unit that I’ve been looking forward to and last lesson we were able to get a small taste of what it’s like. We performed our monologues in front of the camera several times, while taking direction for each take. As someone who has previously studied film, being in this situation is not unknown territory for me. Being equipped with the fundamental skills of setting up a camera for recording and how to operate in this environment definitely assisted me. The experience of acting on screen may seem a little terrifying for some but I personally find this to be a very comfortable place to work in. Because I started out working in film before learning how to act, the theatre was a whole new world for me. On film very little acting is required, yet it needs to be grounded on truth and honesty for it to be captivating which is what I find very compelling. And the camera was able to capture and see when this occurred.

During some of the performances, you could see when people felt relaxed which gave an effortless feeling to their acting. Others were quite tense in the beginning but after several takes you could see them getting more comfortable with their piece. As for myself, performing in front of a camera is not as frightening as you would imagine, but having to remain still and be mindful of your framing is what becomes the main concern. After looking back at the clips, it was quite fascinating to see how the camera is able to capture all the subtleties that an actor gives in their performance, and when it was clear when the shifts in thought occurred. One thing I noticed was how many times I blinked throughout the monologue which became quite a striking feature after watching it again. When comparing this to others who may or may not have been conscious about it, but had little attention drawn towards the action.

Aside from this, watching a screening of all the monologues in class was a very insightful lesson. Some of the main notes to take away from this is to carefully analyse each line of action and take some beats for thoughts to sink in. This will deliver a much more naturalistic performance from the actor and be very engaging for the audience to see.