Understanding and Developing a Scene

Many actors try to gain insight into the character they are playing by writing reams of backstory and character description. For me, being a triple Aries and terribly anxious to get on with things, that approach is a struggle.

Here are David Mamet's thoughts on understanding and developing a scene that I've found very helpful in adding immediacy and specificity to my role. In fact, I printed this out and carry it in my wallet because it's especially useful for cold reads.

A Moving Performance from Michael Shiflett

Actor friend Michael Shiflett, who played my husband last month in Andrew Evans' short film, Anna and Thomas, plays the Vietnam vet in this video.  I had to share it as it's a lovely, understated performance. Michael often plays tough guys, but when a tough guy dials it down it can be so moving....

Two by Otto Friedrich

I don’t think one can work in film without being in love with the movies: their long and glorious history, the trends and techniques that create them, and the actors and actresses – great stars and contract players – who bring them to life.

Since starting down this crazy path as an actress, my shelves have become filled with books about the film industry and the availability of many wonderful old books on Amazon, some of them out of print, means that I always have one in my bag to pick up between scenes or devour in my easy chair during those weeks between jobs.

I’ve just acquired two by American journalist and author Otto Friedrich: City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940’s and Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920’s, the second of which provides back story on many of the European actors, writers, and filmmakers who fled to Hollywood prior to the second World War.

Friedrich is a terrific writer who captures the big picture and then enriches it with the stories (and scandals) of those who played a part. Fascinating reading.  The errands can wait.

Actor Marketing: Send Postcards!

In this era of digital marketing and social media, why send paper postcards you may well ask.  Here's why: A photo postcard puts your name and face in front of casting agents repeatedly, keeps them up to date on what kinds of projects you're booking, and is more likely to be successful than other kinds of contact.

Send in an 8" by 10" glossy and a resume and it goes on the "Intern pile" for filing.  Send an email and it gets lost among correspondence more important to agency business and may be deleted without being opened. Telephone? (NO PHONE CALLS!!!)

A postcard is brought in and put with the casting agent's personal mail. The agent will read it when time permits and they're not distracted by other business (during coffee breaks, for example). If you're tracking the agent's projects, a postcard gives you an opportunity to make a positive personal comment and build a relationship.

Not all casting agents like receiving postcards, but most do and especially veterans in the business do.  It's their job to know who's out there and who's booking what.

My standard postcard is my headshot with my name and union status. On the back (which I design myself) I list where I'm based and where to find agent contact information (never put direct contact information on the card.)  I get them through Vista Print at $20 for 50 (4"x6" cards on matte recycled paper) and they look as good as some I'd purchased from a specialty printing site that cost twice as much. (Note that larger cards require extra postage.)

Postcards got me on the radar at several casting agencies after more than a year of updating "profiles" on their respective websites had produced no results.  So don't forget to include  postcards in your marketing campaign. It's old school but it works. 

Finding Story Ideas for Film

About 3,500 films are made each year, not all of them great obviously. Is it my imagination or were more great movies really made back in the 1930s and 1940s, during Hollywood's Golden Age?  Certainly they had a system down for identifying plots that appealed to the public and maybe that made all the difference.

I just finished Thomas Schatz’ book The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era, which was a fascinating read.  Schatz says that in any given year in the early 1930s, MGM staff readers alone filed reports on more than 1,000 novels and original scripts, 500 short stories, 1,500 plays, and 1,300 works in foreign languages...all in the pursuit of stories the studio could turn into hit movies.  One assumes a similar output was seen at all of the other major studios as well.

At MGM they followed “The Ten Commandments for Studio Readers” laid down by head of production Irving Thalberg, and most of it sounds like good advice for struggling filmmakers, even today. Looking for a film idea? Consider this:

1. Your most important duty is to find great ideas. You’ll find them buried under tons of mediocre suggestions.

2. Read at least two newspapers daily.  Photoplays (scripts) sell best when they’re based on timely topics.

3. Analyze all material on the basis of the players who are working for us.

4. Remember, you are dealing with a pictorial (visual) medium.

5. Make a close notation of all books you see the public reading.

6. See at least two full-length motion pictures each week, one by this company, one from a competitor.

7. Everything else is secondary in your work to the finding of a strong dramatic situation, an interesting clash between the principal characters.

8. Prove your ability to recognize creative material by writing and submitting to us stories of your own.

9. Be proficient in one language besides your own. The competition for good stories is so keen that the supply written in English was long ago insufficient.

10. Above all, train yourself to recognize sincerity in a story. Talking pictures, particularly, have made the public very sensitive to false notes in plots.

Treated to a Wisconsin Supper Club.

Just back from shooting my role as the Grandmother in "The Book of Birdie." Wonderful cast and crew. It's going to be a terrific film. Plus, Saturday night, British actress Suzan Crowley and I were treated to a delightful evening at the Hob Nob Supper Club in Racine. What an experience!

Wisconsin has some 350 supper clubs, many of which began as roadhouses during Prohibition and then continued as establishments "outside the city limits" that serve alcohol. Public TV even did a special on them.

Hob Nob has these amazing white diamond-upholstered booths that look like a setting for the Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin "Rat Pack." Food was amazing and a pianist added to the atmosphere by playing the theme song from Billy Wilder's "The Apartment," which I've never heard played except in the film. Felt like I'd gone to Heaven. Many thanks to our hosts. It was such fun.

The decor looks like a movie set.  I love the upholstery.

Our table was here in the bar, which looks out onto Lake Michigan.

Filming The Book of Birdie for London-based Melancholy Star

As the New Year begins I am inundated with new film projects and feeling happy and fortunate. This week I'm heading out to Wisconsin to film my scenes for "The Book of Birdie," a feature-length psychological thriller from the London-based production and special effects house Melancholy Star. Wonderful locations. Terrific cast, including British actress Suzan Crowley.