Thursday, April 29, 2010

Camera Class

It's exhilarating acting in front of a camera.  What gets me "pumping" is knowing that the camera is on an extreme close-up and there will be nowhere to hide.  All extraneous gestures will be seen, every time I "send the line up" instead of really and truly asking the question and every time I say the words instead of speaking them, I get called out on it.

Most likely for all of the reasons above, I find that acting-wise, I am on my best behavior during camera class.  Why don't I always pretend that the camera is there?  I should hold myself and my acting to the highest of standards all of the time, not just when I can see my mistakes after the fact.

I equate acting to cooking.  Both are crafts in the sense that if you have a bit of natural skill that always helps, but it's really about who puts in the most work.  As a line cook I took an immense amount of pride in ALL food that came out of the kitchen.  This included the "family meal", which is a term for a meal that all members of the restaurant would eat before/after a shift.  I worked in a place where the chef would make the biggest pile of slop for the help.  Overcooked penne with oil, grilled beyond recognition chicken drumsticks and an iceberg lettuce salad.  It was atrocious and it was the same thing every effing day.  And guess what?  The servers did a bad job, and, I think it's because they were fed bad food.  So I made it a point to make family a great one.  It was still done on the cheap (sheet tray pizzas, meatloaf, lasagna etc) but it was always done well.

As an actor I need to take that much pride in my work.  I need to make sure that every single word that comes out of my mouth when I act is the best I can do.

Over and out.

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