Arts & Entertainment
Film Acting Technique, Part 1
Lesson time 12:15 min
For Helen, mastering on-camera technique allowed her to find freedom in her roles and to have moments of pure, out-of-control inspiration. She shares how she found inspiration in this vein from a surprising source: an abstract painter.
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Topics include: Stage and Film: Different Technique, Same Essence • Francis Bacon on the Necessity of Technique, Part 1 • Francis Bacon on the Necessity of Technique, Part 2 • Find Freedom Within the Technique
Teaches Acting
In 28 lessons, the Oscar, Golden Globe, Tony, and Emmy winner teaches her process for acting on the stage and screen.
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There is such a huge difference between acting on stage and acting on film. And yet, ironically, it's actually the same process that you go through. You're going through the process of imaginatively putting yourself into a situation that you are manifestly not in. On stage, you know, you're playing-- I don't know, I played Phaedre, for example, on stage. A Greek queen who is in love with her stepson, and you're in ancient Greece. But I'm not in ancient Greece, I'm on the stage at the National Theater and in front of me is an audience. But we are all engaging in this wonderful, miraculous active imagination together that is going to take us on this journey, the journey of telling a story, that we all want to go on. Likewise, when you're on a film set. Here you are, I don't know, Excalibur. I'm Morgana the enchantress. But I'm not. I've just struggled into my costume and my makeup is hot, it's falling off me, and my hair is uncomfortable. And there's noise on the set, and many, many people. You're manifestly not where-- so anyway what I'm saying is the central essence of what you are doing is the same. You are engaging in an act of imagination, profoundly, in order to tell a story. Having said that, there is a world of difference between acting on stage and acting on in front of a camera. The wonderful advantage that you have on camera is you have the closeup. And you can tell-- you don't need a three page speech if you have a close up. You can do it all here if you are allowed or if that's required. What happens in film and television is that you're edited. Your performance is created for you by the editor, by the director, by all the other elements that come in in post-production. On stage, you are editing yourself. You are in control of the editing. You can bring the attention to yourself if you want to. Or you give it to the other actor when the moment is right. You can choose when to be still. You can choose when to be fast. You can choose when to do this and not look at the camera at all. Or the audience. The back is a very important thing for actors, I think. So there is an absolute world of difference between the two techniques. And both are highly technical and you have to learn the technique for both formats. But as I say, in the absolute essence of what you are doing, which is going on this imaginative story, its the same thing. This is a book called Interviews With Francis Bacon. I can't find-- I can't find the bit that I will tell you about. It's a wonderful piece. He talks about-- he talks about the necessity to learn technique. And it is something that I have come to understand. And he talks about it in terms of painting. He says all five-year-old, six-year-old kids are brilliant painters. They're brilliant because they're painting purely out of instinct and they're not concer...
About the Instructor
In her first-ever online acting class, Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren shares the techniques she has learned through the course of her international career that has spanned stage, screen, and television. Her powerful and versatile performances have earned her numerous awards, including the Academy Award in 2007 for her performance in The Queen, a Tony Award in 2015 for her performance in The Audience, and four Emmy Awards.
Featured MasterClass Instructor
Helen Mirren
In 28 lessons, the Oscar, Golden Globe, Tony, and Emmy winner teaches her process for acting on the stage and screen.
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