In theater, the performer depends upon an audience for attention and reassurance. A true performer feeds off of an audience. In real life, we each notice the reactions of others to what we say and do. This socializes us into an often unconscious understanding of what conversations and actions are approved by society. In film, the director is the only audience that can give such approval to an actor. In fact, before production begins, each member of the crew that will be present during performances should be informed that they are not to communicate with the actors on issues of performance, story, or the production itself. No issue should be of any concern to the actor but what is occurring in the current scene of the story. To the actor, there is no one else on the set but he and the director. The actor must have a one-on-one relationship with his audience and believe that he can depend on that audience, and that single audience alone, to give honest and consistent feedback so as to point him in the right direction. Such feedback should always be encouraging, even when critiquing.
Learn more about directing actors, casting, rehearsing, and staging scenes, method acting, improvisation techniques, and the "eye-line." Order "The Old School Film School" today.
