On the 24th of January, we had Screen Yorkshire come in to give us a workshop on Screen Acting. They started about giving us a talk about the experiences they’ve had picking out different location for multiple shows and movies, and told us how it usually goes on set. Shooting days usually start at 8am, and finish around 7pm. After the set up for camera’s, lighting, and sound as well as the actors finished in hair and makeup, they have a quick rehearsal that lasts between 10-15 minutes before they get straight into the scene. A lot of scenes are actually done in the first take, but directors will take another in case they missed anything that they discover in production. There is also retakes to get different camera angles, similarly to what we had to do on our filming day.
After he spoke with us, he handed out some scripts. The first one was a couple, and one of them was moving away to Chicago. We got into pairs and started rehearsing the scene. I worked with Lucas, and I played the character that was going away, Alex, Lucas playing the character wanting them to stay, Jordan. After rehearing, we got up to perform. Originally the camera was on an angle on the right, to get both of us in frame but focus primarily on my character, Alex. After the first take, he asked to do another, this time only on a close up on Alex. This part was a bit more difficult as any actions I made in the first scene I had to do again on the same lines to keep with the continuity. It was also difficult for Lucas as he had to keep his head in a certain way as to not block the camera off, which he did at the end, which if we were filming for a show would’ve been a retake, however, as it was only Lucas’ back in the shot, he didn’t have to worry too much about continuity as he wouldn’t be seen.
We were then given a different script, this time working in a group of three people. The storyline was a meeting with Alex and Jordan’s manager, Darryl, as they work at a well known plumbing company. For this I worked with Lucas and Alex, this time I played the character of Jordan, while Lucas played Darryl and Alex played Alex. When it came to filming this scene, we shot it with the camera primarily focused at Lucas, only showing the back of mine and Alex’s head to give a more intimidating affect. We performed a second time, this time as a close up on Lucas. We were taught that if they need to retake a shot, and not all the actors are available for a reshoot, they will often get stand ins to read the other lines and zoom in the main actor for them to redo their scenes, and edit the different takes together in production.
I found this workshop extremely helpful is it taught us a lot of different things about the industry on the TV side of things, like finding locations, how to get in to the industry, sometimes it’s luck and sometimes auditions work, or even running for a director or any of the crew can get you into the industry. It also gave us more knowledge on what it’s like on set, and how stressful getting the perfect take can be.