Who are they? Screen Yorkshire is production company thats provides support to casts and funding where needed to support production teams and actors to deliver their scenes within the TV and film sector in the yorkshire region for the last 20 years. They first launched their company in 2003 which then resulted in helping in the production of the nationally known film This is England.
What do they do? Their film office team provide crewing and production support services, studios and ground locations. They work towards having a versatile and diverse screen force providing development training and industry programs for film TV and screen. Screen Yorkshire can invest up too £500k into eaho production project.
Why are they relevant? Screen yorkshire are relevant because they were involved in both the productions of Peaky Blinders and Gentlemen Jack. They also work with a variety of different companies throughout Yorkshire or with other companies who want to film in location based in Yorkshire.
Screen Acting
Screen acting is very stop and start in the fact that unlike stage acting if a actor makes a mistake they can just re film it, they can also edit, cut and add to screen acting using technology. When screen acting it is not as important to get your lines or pronunciation 100% correct as you can go back and re-film the scene actors actually tend to go back and re record their lines in a studio and then the film or show/production is edited and the newly recorded lines are added in, sound affects for anything needed can also be added in when recording a scene.
Screen actors can accurately manipulate their emotions by using their own past experiences to develop a character and create a story line for whomever they are playing.
Screen actors can retain numerous actings techniques such as the Chekhov, Meisner and Stanislavski techniques and also method acting by drawing from past experiences and exploring what works for them and what doesn’t, by familiarize themselves with the script and chucking them selves into a role. By being open to interpretation and working well with the director and taking direction.
The process of screen acting in comparison to stage acting is similar in the way of rehearsals, learning a script and having an audience however in contrast a screen actors audience will not see their performance until the whole movie or series has be filmed, edited and has been through production. A screen actor can also re-take a scene as many times as needed to get it right if anything was to go wrong such as forgetting a line, cue, prop or something going wrong where as a stage actors audience is right in front of them during the performance there for a stage actor needs to get it right first time round as has no room for mistakes if a line is forgotten or cue missed they just carry on regardless of what has gone wrong. Screen and stage acting are also quite different in the way that stage actors need to over exaggerate their emotions, body language, facial expressions and project their voices in order to be able to portray their characters feelings or emotions to their audience however screen actors realistically need to tone down their emotions, body language, facial expressions and do not need to project their voices due to the fact that the cameras will pick up on all of the subtle facial expressions, body languages and emotions unless the show or movie was a comedy or such and needed the over exaggerations of the above, a screen actor also doesn’t have the need to over project their voices as all sound is picked up through sound mics and also does not need to reach the audience at the back as their audiences will not be present whilst they record.
It is very important for a actor to be able to replicate past emotions and actions during different takes of a scene so that scenes can be edited together seamlessly during editing and production and matched up, so that the audience believes that what they are watching is happening in real time effectively and that it didn’t actually take multiple takes to create a scene. So that common accidents that happen within the industry such as something being in a shot that wasn’t there previously seemingly to an audience two seconds prior.
Screen acting differs from stage acting in the fact that stage actors are required to over exaggerate every little movement or action whilst on stage and performing, they need to project their voices and engage with the audience especially during pantos where as screen actors do not need to do any of the above however it is important for screen actors to have a good memory and remember what position they may have been in a previous shot due to stopping and starting during take and reenacting something they may have already shot in order to get the next shot of the scene and edit them together.
Method acting and classical acting are different in the ways that actors that use the classical acting try to study their characters from the outside to try and get in to a role whereas method actors will ty to be their characters and act as if they are living their characters lives and are actually their character and are actually being the character. The meisner technique is different from method acting in the fact that as actors that use the meisner method work from the outside using their co-actors emotions and expressions during that scene.
To effectively assess a screen actors performance in regards to their ability to convey believability and emotion I would watch them while they perform and ensure that they are conveying the right emotion and intensity of their emotions, I would closely watch their facial expressions, body language, eye contact and tone of their voice and be prepared to direct an actor where needed in order to have the desired outcome wanted from the scene.
Actors can effectivly create and develop a character through their performance by putting the time in to do research about their character such as the time era, style of clothes, what their character does or doesn’t do for a job, what type of a person their character is based on or is fabricated to be. By doing thorough research and paying attention to mannerisms interpreted from the script dialog and scene descriptions helps an actor to successfully develop a convincing character.
A summary of the process of preparing for a screen acting role is to learn your script, create and develop how your character walks, talks, looks and how they would be in general how your character may speak. To think about the body language, facial expressions and actions of your character. To think what props you may have or need and how that would play into your performance and how you will react to other actors your may be speaking to during a scene. To analyse your script and work from that to create a convincing and believable character that the audience will be convinced by.
Peaky Blinders (1920’s)
The show the Peaky Blinders is based on a group of people from the the late 1800’s early 1900’s. They were a street gang based in Birmingham, England. They operated from the 1880’s to the 1910’s and consisted of mainly younger criminals from low to middle class backgrounds. They carried out criminal activity’s such as illegal bookmaking, racketeering, controlling gambling, violence and robbery. It is a crime drama centered around a mixed gypsy family of mixed heritage Irish and Romani.
Freddie Thorne
Freddie Thorne was a communist activist and none Orthodox Jewish man who’s family were subjected to discrimination and harassment due to their heritage and this led to his family their name to Thorne to avoid persecution from anti Semitic’s. Freddie had fought during World War One and came back to Birmingham after the end of the war. He was born in the 1890’s and died in the 1920’s when he was 32 years old. Freddie served in the first world war as a Sergeant for a tunneling company who dug out tunnels in the trenches, during his time in the great war Freddie saved Thomas Shelby from death but later regrets his decision when witnessing Thomas’s gang activity and violence within the Birmingham community in small heath.