Motion picture acting (1947)

Page scan 00088 from Motion picture acting

Record Details:

Title:
Motion picture acting
Date:
1947
Publisher:
New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co
Volume:
Motion picture acting
Leaf #:
00088
Language:
English
Contributor:
Internet Archive
Sponsor:
Internet Archive
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Date Added:
July 19, 2022
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MOTION PICTURE ACTING nigh automatic approach to emotion, unrelated to actuality. "Mother is dead! How can I bear it?" And the reasoning faculty, the objective mind, argues back, "She isn't, either! That's a ghoulish thought, any- way. . . . Can't you think of something else? . . ." And all the time, the dreaded moment when they will be called onto the set is getting nearer and nearer. And the nearer it gets, the more frantic and dry-eyed they become. My aim is to teach them to rely on something much surer and far less wearing on the nervous sys- tem. And this is it: A few seconds before you start the scene, turn away and repeat some phrase which you have, through practice, tied up with an emotional pattern. Don't fool around with any nonsense as I do in teaching, just to show how easy it is. Use some short, really pathetic phrase, such as a murmured prayer. Remember, spoken words help you hold your concentration and increase its spell. Put the heart-break into your voice that you have learned to associate with those words. Mood-pat- terns and voice-patterns! Think of nothing concrete, no harrowing pictures, because if you do, the dram- atist in you will start writing a plot and dialogue for you. And this is no time to be turning author! 62