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