How do film stars earn their millions?

Finding decent movie actors is hard. Even among the professionals those who give the camera that special buzz, who excite audiences, who ignite the cineplexes ... they are so few and far between that hard-nosed producers offer them millions of dollars.  What hope have we who can only offer instant coffee and ginger biscuits?

The chances of finding a Sandra Bullock, Johnny Depp, Minnie driver or Leonardo di Caprio hanging about the club rooms are remote indeed.  So what do you do?

Looks Are Everything

No, not as a general principle for life, but for your movies they may be.  Cast people who look right.

That sounds simple but it isn't.  Few of us see our friends and relatives objectively; we know them too well.  Try getting into the swing of it by playing games: guess the occupation of fellow passengers on a bus or train.  Watch a tv programme you do not usually see but with the sound turned off.  What would you imagine each character to be like?

Examine your script and try to picture the characters.  Then go out and look for people who match the appearance.  At this stage do not worry about acting ability or even their voice.  (Remember that  in Star Wars the dreaded Darth Vader was played by Dave Prowse a gentle giant whose West-country voice might even be called effeminate if he were not so very big and strong.  His dialogue was performed by James Earl Jones.)

Just to make it harder: imagine people with wigs, beards and different make-up. It can transform them completely.  Take one example: Uma Thurman made a huge impression in Pulp Fiction with a back wig ... Sorry to be sexist but you may find most women better at playing this imagining game than men.

It's What You Do With It That Counts

Having found a cast that looks right, how do get performances out of them?  Start by studying body language, there are lots of good books about it.  Prepare a script in terms of what each actor has to do from moment to moment.

Don't just let the script say: "He turns to her and smiles."  Make it: "He turns his whole body towards her, lets his hands fall onto his thighs palms upwards, leans slightly towards her, lets his glance drop to the floor for a moment and slightly bows his head, then with head still bowed looks up into her eyes and smiles."

You could go further and script an internal dialogue for each actor ... "He feels an attraction to her so powerful that he can hardly speak, scarcely dare move in case the spell of this moment together is broken.  Without intending to do so he turns towards her (see above) and in doing so feels a jolt of fear, will she feel threatened and leave? But he agonises, if he says nothing she will never know his love for her. Shyly he looks up, catches her eye and finds his tongue frozen so he smiles ... at first a slightly artificial grin and then in the warmth of her gaze an open, full-hearted smile."

If you are shooting without dialogue the director can actually talk the performer through a scene this way.

Always remember that movie acting needs to be underplayed.  There is no audience in the balcony to reach.  Audiences get so close to movies that they have an intimate relationship with actors and sometimes seem to sense what they actor/character is thinking.  Luckily for those of use who act like wooden planks audiences also project those feelings onto fairly blank faces.

Shoot Mute

We have become so besotted with the ability to shoot lip-synch dialogue that we forget there are ways of working without it.  Having found the right faces you also need the right voices.  The easiest way to audition voices is to tape or telephone people.  (Phones distort but you can still get a sense of what the person at the other is like.)

Then all you have to do is put the two together.  Record the voices in locations similar to those of the visual performers so that the ambience is correct.  If you use non-linear video editing it is fairly simple to marry up the sound track with the visuals.  Programs such as Sound Forge even let you stretch or shrink a piece of dialogue so you can adjust if the two performances are not exactly the same pace.  Other editing systems need more care.  Short phrases are easier to marry up than long monologues.

You can often shoot so that the visual actor's lips are not seen, even by tricks such as having them put a hand, newspaper or scarf in front of their mouth.  Shoot from behind, from the side, show close-ups of hands, feet, eyes, the listener ... reduce the number of times when the synch has to be spot on.  Of course it helps if, like Darth Vader, your character wears a mask!

In any case look and action usually means more than words in telling a film story.

If you really must have your visual actor speak try whispers or shouts - they reveal shortcomings less than normal conversation.

Oscar, Oscar!

Never forget that the movie world's accolade for best acting takes the form of a dumb statuette of a figure standing to attention and holding a sword.  Anyone can do that ...

- Dave Watterson

Page updated on 21 March 2008

Authors' views are not necessarily those of The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers

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