Crash Course : Becoming Someone else in a couple of days.

I met a friend today. They have to prepare a role. Shoot starts in 7 days.  I said, fear will not save you but change in outlook that you can; will. so here it is.

Dear Friend,

There are two ways to go about it.

The first one is simple. Believing that you are entitled, you deserve this. just going through the whole shoot that you can. Get the lines. every emotion is  in you. Your conviction will pull you through. in the end your confidence and believe, will make people believe in what you are doing. If you doubt while you do it. People will go back unconvinced when they see the film. CONVICTION is the key to anything done well. (Majority of actors use this first step successfully)

The second one takes some work to be done. We all know one thing. Your thoughts make you. you're the sum total of the thoughts you have in your head. This is why it is said, change your thoughts and you change yourself. If today I start thinking thoughts about how a person must be feeling who works in a hospital as a night guard. . After  a point i will be behaving like that guard. Because i would have imagined their life and after a while believed it to be my experiences. When you are saying a line. If you have the history and dreams about the future of that person. Your performance will be genuine and strike a chord with the viewers.

A simple thing I believe about getting into a character is that you must know as much as you can about the person. Who they are and why they want what they want.

The first step is : What they want? 
This will tell you everything you need to know about that person. What we want is who we are. This regulates our behavior. Think about yourself and the mechanisms, how you make decisions. The way you function is the way your character will function. If the character you are creating is someone who is a real living being and not dead wood just saying lines  without feeling anything and pretending  through emotions.

When you create a life for the character. A life lived in your imagination using your life references and experiences. Then your experiences will support the characters imaginary life with real feelings and emotions. It is important to link your characters experiences to yours. The helps  life draw on life. Life lived.

It is said, a person is defined by their fear. Fear does most of the work of making who you are. As we know there are three emotions which drives us, LOVE, GREED and FEAR. Among which usually fear takes our decisions. Make a note of this as we progress as you know the reality of the person you are playing.

The second step: Read the script as many times. Write down Given facts and inferences. 

Read the script.  A good script should usually have every thing you need. Some actors just read and re- read their scripts all the time. If they have enough time. But since you don't have much time, you have to start marking in the script for cue's that tell something about the character. On a piece of paper make two columns. One given. what is given about the character. their age, locality, religion, marital status etc. Anything that tells you about who they are. If the other actor says, "Why do you get angry very easily?" this is your cue to write that down in given-. short tempered. It is for later you ask why they behave in such a way.. Once you have figured out what is given. you write down inferences on the other side, i.e. your interpretation, assumption, supposition of what you understand by the given circumstances. this is called reading between the lines.

From an article about making inferences.

"An inference is a conclusion you reach by applying logic to the evidence you are given. Making inferences while reading is a strategy that will help you learn, remember, and apply what you have read. When you make inferences you are “reading between the lines.” This tactic is similar to what Sherlock Holmes does when he sees that Dr. Watson has a tan and makes a conclusion about where Watson has recently traveled. You already make inferences all of the time. For example, if you go over to a friend’s house and they point at the sofa and say, “Don’t sit there; Candy came over with her baby again,” what could you logically conclude? First, you know there must be a reason not to sit where your friend is pointing. Further, you know that the reason to not sit there is related to the fact that Cindy just visited with her baby. You don’t know what exactly happened, but you can infer enough and don’t need to ask any more questions to know that you do not want to sit there."

The Third step : History.  Who is your character. 

To know anyone truly you need to know their history. Because past experiences and it's reflections make your present behavior.

Read this article about this woman who accidentally killed a boy in a car accident and how it impacted her life. 
http://www.bbc.com/news/stories-42309681

A simple way to know as much about you character is through 5 W's the journalists use to check if they are missing out on any fact they need, to give out a round factual story and that they have not missed any points. Take out a newspaper article and check it's 5 W's you will understand. They answer all the basic questions that you need to know your character.

WHO personal history -  they are
WHAT happens (conflict)
WHEN time of the day, season, historical period
WHERE place location
&
WHY motivation

Also Before every scene ask yourself these questions and write on the other side of the script.

• Who are you talking to ?
• What was said before your character answers. 
• What do you want from that person? 
• Why do you want it ? 
• What will you do to get it ? 
• What will you do when you get it ?

The Fourth Step : Creating Memory. About Incidences mentioned in the script. 

Now you know a whole lot about your character.  Every incidence that you refer to in the script or your co-actor mentions. For example, If your co actor says "remember that day on valentine's day when I proposed and you had slapped me. Who had thought you will fall in love with me." Your responsibility is to create memory of that  day you had slapped your lover. A vivid real memory will make your reaction here in this scene genuine. Don't you observe, how we think in pictures. Any reference to our past events, and we go there and visit that moment.
Make it real. Make memories for the character like you have for yourself. And on the day of shoot you will not be acting but living. 

The fifth Step : Corner Stones. 

We all have 8- 10 incidences that have brought us to who we are today. Take a note from that BBC article. Through everything that you have this is one of the last steps, where you are breathing life to the information you have. Your character will become alive after this step in your head and at will you can switch from yourself to that character. You will become them. You are not pretending to be someone else but you are actually living that life in your head. 

What are corner stones. An incident in your childhood or till the present moment that defines you. A person whose trust was broken by their parents before the age of 5 will struggle with trust issues all their life. In Psychology they say, a person struggles to undo the complexes given by their parents intentionally or unintentionally. 

When you look at your life up close you will know what is running you. Same way, your character is run. So, Figure out those incidences take help from the writer and ask what and why.. how and why this person behaves this way. Why are they shy? or Confident? or crazy? Whoever we are. Behavior is the sum of our experiences and our reflections about that. We make a decision after every disappointment or achievement. And  this  shapes our behavior. 

Find out the corner stones for your character using the script and their behavior and personality written on the paper.   

It is through detailing and in depth work that the words on paper will come alive on your lips and body language. 

Remembering and delivering your lines with charm will keep you among the millions who want to impress. 

Be someone who wants to Express. Because it is your responsibility to reach the audience make them feel what your character is feeling. And it can only happen when you genuinely understand the character as you understand yourself. 

And I tell you, it is not that difficult you just have to be interested in knowing. Everything is out there. Ask questions. 

The biggest question is What do you want? 

If what you want is to give an honest performance, then all you have to do is look. Look closely and you will find your answer. 

All said and done, You thoughts make you, Change your thoughts and change yourself.. Fill your head with the thoughts and beliefs of your character. 

You will become that.

Write everything down in a notebook and keep referring to that. Your notebook should be like a memoir written in first person by your character. And by the end, you should know the details like you know your life.

The Last step. Listen 

After jotting down every detail and having prepared the character. When you are on set. Listen to your co-actor. Listen and emotions will come to the foreground on it's own. You won't have to act because you will be living.

To end with a quote from the master of acting Stanislavsky.

"When the inner conditions are prepared and right, feelings will come to the surface of their own accord".

This is why, Fill yourself with the reality of your character. Then all you would be doing is living that reality.

Enjoy your shoot and gives us a performance to remember.

-Love
  SA

Blocking or Not ???

PS. Blocking is discussed in the last three paras in bold. Rest is build up you can skip.

Recently, I made a decision.  That I will not go with the stupid flow. I took a decision. I always knew what i wanted but you don't get what you want but you get what you think you deserve.

I know my passion and interest towards acting as a profession is the only connection i have with the world. So, if  something defines your existence then it means, there is no where else for you to be man.

So as  a career choice, I would be doing roles in theater and wherever I find them and for the money and financial assistance. i write. The decision was taken in October.  This January, I'm doing quite a handful of plays, that keep me confused which character to think about. So the rule is after you know your character. you don't think about them. You think about that character on the way to the rehearsal.  It has worked quite well for me.

On Stage, I am feeling more and more confident and at ease. A sense of belonging is seeping in.  Though It's just been 6 shows in 2 months. Getting there.

Writing,  I have a paying project and a few potential ones. My situation may be scary for people who get nervous because of lack of money but not me, I am always looking at my lighthouse and it brings me to the coast usually.

So this is how my life is floating these days, but this is not what i sat down to write. After My first show in November, I felt lost. I faced the reality that the actor I am in front of camera has to adjust himself  on stage. I have found a way to work for camera. Giving my full attention for a shot of 2 minutes. to only think thoughts of my character in those moments was convenient. It was easy to be in the zone. But when for an entire duration of the play it was needed. I felt limited in my approach. I realized to give performances note worthy, it will take time. The actor I am in my head and in the eyes of my friends is not seen on stage. On stage, I was struggling to stay in character all the time. I was finding it a task to navigate. I felt like a beginner all over  again.

They say, Once you have learnt driving You can do it even after a few years. but I feel I stopped when I was getting good at it. I couldn't handle a lot of things then. I would get upset over small things. i was too sensitive then. that I stopped working with people if something happened.  I couldn't deal with altercation. Now as a actor I feed on them. Any situation is not a bad situation for me. they are all learning and storing option of emotions. It may  sound weird but I am glad these days by everything that I made to feel. whatever they maybe.

The more weird people are in my life, the more complicated they are, more chances of storing emotions experiences.

Also, I have changed my attitude. I don't judge people according to my standards and code. I accept them for their being. You are what you are. I accept you. You maybe be the biggest jerk or the sweetest person. But that's what you are. I see you and accept you. Why, it speeds my maturity. My friend recently said, you understand yourself more through interaction, good or bad. So, the point here is to interact more and more.

One thing, that bugged me about my performance was my reluctance to accept blocking. I believed If I understand the character and know who i am, I should be able to navigate on the stage. But in one of the shows, i felt constrained. I should not be thinking on stage while responding to my partner where i should go. It made me feel my believes about blocking were absolutely wrong. I called my senior Shubro sir (Shubrojyoti Barat) and asked for his time. He generously met me at Prithvi before he had a show.  I asked him this question, shared my experience. 

His response was that it is absolutely important. You cannot trust you sub conscious to come to your aid all the time what if it leaves you then you will be lost, like I was. Blocking is not just actors walking here and there on stage. Their positioning and gestures represent inner thoughts of the character, they add to what the words don't convey. Blocking & lines give the audience the complete picture of what the character is feeling. Like the script is written, on stage we don't say random lines. same goes with blocking. The director blocks you in such a way that the audiences gets you more. In the end it is about conveying, sharing the story with the audience. 

In a play, every thing should be sketched out before hand. On the show day, If blocking is as locked as lines. All you got to do on stage is be in the thoughts of your character. No distraction. When you know the way back home you reach home. Same goes for a performance.. The pathway should be drawn. If so you will reach home i.e, touch the audiences hearts. Make them feel what you are feeling. 

connection & the actor

I always wondered about connection. How important it for us to be connected. Recently a friend told me. Meditation, solitude, reading. looking inside yourself and all is good. but you understand yourself when you engage with others.

 I agree. 

you get to know yourself by absorbing everything connection brings to us. by secluding yourself you will have one dimensional view of yourself which is mostly not true. no matter how brave and uplifted we feel we are we all are pulled by those basic emotions(fear,greed & love). it is only by engaging in a dialogue or association that you learn bout the blind spots you have. which may result in you rectifying or something. 

As an actor too i have felt it is important to feel the ups and downs as much as we can. so that when  we are emoting them for the character it is something you have lived and not borrowed  from someone else. 

though, i agree we can't experience every possible permutation and combination but our experience will be richer and this results in using our experiences to built, to check if we are on the right track. 

if we seclude ourselves completely. growth is not possible in life or art. connection is very important. 

for the fear of fall we can't stop walking. we can only learn through our ups and downs and grow. 

We may feel we understand certain things and situations but we are mostly blind using our assumptions. let it hit you. grow through the hurt, through the betrayal, through the love, through every thing possible. 

bottling things inside will only make you crazy. 

so open up. you will fail, you will win. but you will be moving. that is important. 

stagnation is death. assumption that you know it all is death. 

the biggest fact to understand about our life is that  we are clueless. let life work through you. 

rather than letting your blocks work through you. which will give you the same results over and over again. 

Open up and connect with life. 

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the last talk.

Tu woh nahi jo mujhe pahli dafa mili thi.
Mai bhi woh nahi jo tujhe pahli dafa mila tha.

Har pal jaise  badal raha
Waise badal rahe hum

Kal hum kuch aur the.
Aaj kuch aur hai.
Kal kuch aur honge.

Hote hue bhi kho rahe hai hum

Batoor lo kuch yaddon ko inn panno pe.
Kuch nahi toh ek ad  aa muskan toh aa hi jayegi.