Acting Classes Los Angeles – David Kagen’s School of Film Acting

Many actors say their lines in the same way they “look” in the script.

Visually, when you look at your lines as printed on a page of your script, it will appear to you that you should say every speech without pauses and always stop at the periods unless otherwise written.  And, that your “character” knows exactly how he wants to respond to everything the other person says and does.

That’s not the way it is for us in life.

Recently I was watching DON JUAN DE MARCO with Marlon Brando and Johnny Depp with the English subtitles on.   I strongly suggest you do this.

What you’ll see, is how Marlon Brando breaks up his lines into thoughts based on his emotions and not on the rules of English grammar.  He might turn a statement into a question or vice versa.

That’s what we all need to do… to talk the way we really talk, bunching ideas together based on our emotions and not as dictated by the written form of English (or any language.)  The way we speak is very different than the way our native languages are written.  The written form is much more formal, and the spoken language is more informal.

As actors we need to learn to “translate” the written form of a script into real talking and reacting, while saying the text the writer gave us to say.

Best wishes,
David Kagen

Copyright David Kagen 2007
All rights reserved

The following is an excerpt from an email to a student who was struggling to act from his instincts:

I can empathize with your concern that you’ll never be able to overcome the blocks you’ve described in your email, but you haven’t really been in the class long enough to know that.   Remember, this a long-term process. It’s not instant.  It takes most students at least a year or two to really be able to do it consistanly in their work.

What I see your real obstacle/problem is, is the wall you’ve built up around yourself which keeps all of your personal feelings hidden.  We talked about this 2 weeks ago when you revealed that your mother died a couple years ago and you still haven’t dealt with those feelings.  You told me that you have kept yourself emotionally insulated from others for a long time and that’s probalby why you are emotionally detached from your scene partner.  At that time, I made suggestions about what each of us needs to do to get through our key blocks to being sensitive and expressive as actors.  Perhaps you might look at that tape again and listen to my comments once again.  Also, it’s probably a good time for you to watch and listen to your interview tape again.

If you’ve read the Meisner book, you now know that there is no “character;” that it’s YOU in the scene, reacting instinctively and revealing your most private, personal feelings.  “Self-betrayal.”

That’s the core challenge for almost everyone.  And few actors are willing to take it on.  It’s too scary and uncomfortable.  Most of us would rather do a performance that’s comfortable, controlled, and hide our true selves and true feelings, even though it’s not satisfying for the actor or the audience.

You must not rely on understanding the plot of the scene when you perform it in front of the class.  Otherwise,  you’ll be predictable in your acting work, as you are now, and not revealing anything really personal and interesting.

When actors don’t reveal their emotions on a regular basis, they resort to doing their idea of a scene, which doesn’t get them anywhere worthwhile in the profession.

Copyright David Kagen 2007
All rights reserved

Many times scenes require us to express emotions we feel are wrong or improper to express, or that we simply don’t want to express.

However, being a good and successful professional actor requires us to be able to express all emotions FULLY and FREELY regardless of our personal opinions.

Best wishes,
David Kagen

www.davidkagen.com

Copyright 2007
All rights reserved

When you go to a movie or play, the story may be very interesting.

Too many inexperienced actors focus only on “acting” the story as expressed in the dialogue.

However, what’s really compelling to the audience is how the each person in the story DEALS with their situation. That’s not fully expressed in the dialogue. That’s in YOU. Your behavior. And it’s what you’re hired to express in your performance. Anyone can act dialogue.

Not everyone can be compelling unless they bring all of themselves to each and every moment in their scenes. That is personal and unique to each of you, and it’s why you love certain performances and remember them for years.

I asked Tim Glenn, a writer and actor who teaches at our school, to give his perspective about this issue.  I think it’s very helpful

“Writers concern themselves with the whole story and the characters and their relationships.  As an actor you are concerned with your character’s journey; his experience as he experiences the events of the drama.  Your job is to take it deeper, to take on the mantle of the imaginary person, who is you.  So the more freedom you allow yourself in experiencing what the writer has imagined for you and what the other actors are doing to you, the more you will fulfill the potential in the character.  Since you are the character, and all the character will ever be, never rest in you quest to be affected and effective as deeply as possible.

Another truth; in film and tv you are providing the raw material for an industrial product.  So telling the story is not as important as most people think.  Find something fresh and different in each scene, in each moment and the editor will love you and favor you whenever possible as they assemble the film.  Be shut down and the same and mild and the editor will cut to more interesting and alive actors.”
TG

Best wishes,
David Kagen

Copyright 2007 David Kagen
All rights reserved

It’s very important to get emotionally alive before you act.

To discover how to do that, you need to experiment with inventing and doing different exercises to feel what you’re feeling before you begin your class each week.  Find what works for you!

One suggestion is to bring a notebook to class and write down exactly what you’re feeling before the start of each class.

For example, write “I feel _____,” and fill in the blank without censoring what you write. Do this exercise for at least 15 minutes before each class.

Your goal is to let your feelings bubble up to the surface, feel exactly what you’re feeling deep down, and to let your feelings take you over physically and emotionally.  Don’t write what you “think.”  Write what you “feel.”  Don’t be cerebral.  What you write is for your eyes only, so be ruthlessly honest.  That’s the only way to benefit from the exercise and get underneath your social mask.

In addition, you can listen to music at home and let it get to you emotionally.  Or watch a documentary about something important to you and let yourself get emotionally and passionately involved.

Discover what you do that causes and allows your emotions to come to the surface.  Do you relax certain muscles?  Do you breathe in to your emotions?  What exactly do you do when you let your feelings take you over?

The goal is to overcome whatever emotional detachment you customarily practice in your everyday life.  And, oddly enough, it takes a lot of practice.

There’s no one way to do this. And, even though there are times to cover up your emotions to some extent, it is important that you do something to break your habitual detachment from your emotions.  Otherwise, you’ll be detached when you act and your scene partner and the imaginary circumstances won’t be able to affect you instinctively and spontaneously.

Your goal in your acting is to NOT be detached, but to express your instinctive, spontaneous responses to everything that your scene partner says and does!

Copyright 2007  David Kagen
All rights reserved

Here are 2 quotes which apply to the core issues of acting.

“As difficult as it seems, you can be sure of this: At the core of the heart, you have the power to move beyond the old issues that are still hindering your freedom. The hardest things—the ones that push you up against your limits—are the very things you need to address to make a quantum leap into a fresh inner and outer life.”   Doc Childre and Howard Martin

“The past is for inspiration, not imitation, for continuation, not repetition.”   Israel Zangwill

One of our current students just sent me this email about his latest job and his experience on the set.

His email will give you an idea of what you really need to be able to do on the set and in the audition, and helps you see the connection between what we are teaching in our classes and what you need to do in the workplace.

Best,
David

Had fitting today and worked with the director. Already a completely different experience! I get to play an Indiana Jones character AND a dad—-wife and 2 kids! The set is amazing! I get ”to play” in a pharoah’s tomb they built for the commecial! I get to play! And this director really lets me play . . soooooo nice. I feel like a kid in a sandbox. We talk about the need to “act stupid” in front of the camera. That’s what got me the job and truly believieng in my imaginary circumstances. Full commitment with no questions. Last week in class was the ramp that led me up to the audition. Again, thank you for the safe “playground” to nurture and develop these skills.

best,

Andy

Coypright 2008 David Kagen
All rights reserved

There are well over a thousand acting teachers and coaches in Los Angeles. How do you choose the right one?

Rule #1 – Trust your gut. If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. If a school sounds too good to be true and is promising you everything, don’t believe it. You’re just going to get a lot of slick marketing hype, false promises, phony gimmicks and naive formulas.

There are no gimmicks and there are no formulas. There is just putting in the time and hard work to learn the skills you really need to do professional-level performances. That’s just as true in acting as in any other profession. If you don’t understand that, you’re going to get hurt.

Any school that promises to teach you everything you need to know in a weekend or 4 weeks or in a 10-week casting director workshop just isn’t being honest.

What percentage of students who attend short-term acting or casting director workshops actually get a career-changing job – or any job? How many of those jobs lead to a real breakthrough in film or television? You know the answer. If it were that easy, everyone would be a big success.

Would you want to have a surgeon operate on you who had taken a worshop in surgery??? If you were a producer or writer or director with your whole career and millions of dollars at stake, would you want to hire someone who had only taken some short-term acting workshop, bootcamp, intensive, or the like?

Also, please remember that no school can fulfill the promise of getting you work – and it’s illegal to do so.

The actors you admire have been working on their acting for years. They didn’t do “intensives” or study short-term and become stars. Leonardo DiCaprio started acting when he was 9 years old. Angelina Jolie (with all her beauty and contacts via her Oscar award winning father Jon Voight) studied acting. So did Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep (Yale grad), Kevin Spacey (Julliard grad), Robin Williams (Julliard grad), Anthony Hopkins, Ben Kingsley and on and on.

We’d all like to find a bootcamp or 10-week workshop intensive that would give us everything we need to be a big success. But, we really know better. There is no such thing. Don’t become part of that vast number of new students who get taken in. There is no instant!

Look for a class taught by seasoned professionals from the top acting conservatories in the world (Yale School of Drama, Carnegie-Mellon University started in 1915, New York University Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Program stared in 1966, and Julliard are the top acting training programs in the United States) who have worked in the industry frequently and have been teaching for a long time.

Find a school that’s real and down-to-earth.

Don’t waste your money (which you can replace) and your time (which you can’t get back and is your most precious commodity) enriching someone else other than yourself.

Copyright 2008 David Kagen
All rights reserved