Getting into Character

Acting can be very challenging to the actor and their body as far as getting into character. Many professional actors have to gain weight, lose weight, learn new skills, or many other strategies to get into character.

I have been in three real projects in college and I've tried my best to get into character. On the first shoot I was told that I needed to be depressed and had no other direction. So I worked my way into a depression. Two weeks later I needed to pretty much have the same thing for one of my own projects. This one was significantly more difficult. I listened to the most hope sapping songs I knew, slept less than I should, and ate less than I would have liked to. And the toughest part was I was really excited for the shoot, so being depressed was difficult.

The last shoot I did had a 4 am call time. Luckily I needed to be a zombie, so staying up all night made it easy. What made it difficult was that I started getting the loopy loops. Not only did not getting sleep take an impact on my health, but eating only unhealthy food, running around and other things just took a toll on me. I had a leadership retreat and had a film shoot later where I was crew, and everyone was entertained or annoyed with my lack of comprehension on social standards and comprehension.

Look I'm a zombie!

Underestimating The Time Required For A Shoot

We all do it. We make a set schedule, list all of the shots out, time perfectly when talent is showing up, making sure things are set up just the way you want them, then you actually check your watch. Even last year helping friends out with ACP and Senior Thesis films, the time estimate is always completely shot once production actually starts. I'm guilty of this myself. Our shoot in the cabin took about 2 hours longer than we thought, and while shooting for my P&D project, my shoot ran 2 hours longer as well. Last year, a friend's senior thesis shoot ran over by 5 hours. While I understand how this could almost be expected in a professional project, I see time and time again projects getting screwed over because people have time commitments, people need to leave by a certain time, plans get pushed back, and people get impatient. I think we all need to re-evaluate our abilities to stay focused and plan for technical errors, because let's face it, something always comes up, so why not plan for an hour or two of cushion when telling people production times? And even if your shoot gets done earlier than you thought, more time to get extra shots in, and even when those are done, it's spare time to just relax after a long day of work. Just something to keep in mind :)