The Corporate Video Spokesperson In corporate video, sometimes it’s beneficial to have a person talk directly to the audience. They look right at the lens to tell the story. This is called being a corporate video spokesperson. In today’s article, we talk about the skills necessary for a spokesperson on camera for your corporate video. In decades past, most people were unaccustomed to performing in front of the camera, looking directly at the camera. But thanks to today’s selfie culture, there’s quite a few budding “spokespeople” at every company. The Non-Professional and the Professional Actor However, this article is not limited to just non-professional actors (company employees). The professional actor can benefit from a review of proper tips and techniques of being a spokesperson. The non-professional actor is one defined as working for the company, has not had acting lessons,…
Actor Auditions from the Director’s POV As a director, I have sat through some really powerful actor auditions. And we’ve discussed important things to do when auditioning, whether for a feature film, corporate video or a commercial. But today, I’m going to mention five things you should never do when auditioning. I could play you some pretty incredible audition videos, but I don’t think I could ever get the talent releases. 5 Worst Actor Auditions Face Covered By Sides – I have one audition tape where the whole time, the actor is covering up. I don’t know if it was his first time, but I hope so. An egregious error like this from someone with any kind of training is a hope killer for new work. Trouble Reading – A real painful to watch audition, is the one where the…
Acting Tips from a Movie Director There are many acting tips from actors to actors. Not much from directors to actors. I have directed five feature films and have worked with hundreds of actors. (My first film “The Keyman” starring Adam Baldwin is available on iTunes and Amazon Prime). Some of them famous, many of them local to the locations and cities we shot the film in. But there are a couple of things I wish every actor knew on the set. Things that could save me time and money in production. Time and money allows me to spend more on areas I need it to tell the story. Director’s Job First of all, let me tell you what my job is as film director: Guardian of the Story. Every decision I make should go through this filer– does it help…
“After the third time this actor approached me, I decided I would never cast him again.” “I got a real inside peek into what this actor was really thinking. She forgot she was still mic’d and I was wearing my headsets.” “This actor was extremely talented. But he hosed me in post with his performance.” These are thoughts of a working film director. You can learn to save time, money and heartache in post, while cementing your reputation as a seasoned, veteran actor. Announcing a new workshop for Acting: A Director’s POV! Join us Saturday April 12, 2014 for a 3 1/2 hours, hands-on workshop, from a director to an actor. Register here. Daniel Millican, writer/director for five feature films has worked with Adam Baldwin, Lou Diamond Phillips, Sean Patrick Flanery, Joey Lauren Adams, Mimi Rogers and more. On casting…
Dallas Event Marketing Video Production Services from S-Films Part of our specialty is covering corporate seminars and conferences. We’ve been asked to do everything from a one camera in the back of the room setup, to a live webcast through Google Hangouts, complete with multi-cameras and a switcher. Conference video coverage usually breaks down into these categories: Simple one-camera record and run; multi-camera coverage; shooting for iMag (image magnification); and broadcast. We have shot and handed footage over to our clients to take back to their in-house department to edit, and we’ve provided turn-key, all the way to finished edit for some clients. The simplest approach is the one person, one camera shoot. The videographer sets up in the room and shoots the speaker. Audio is patched through the in-house sound, or a wireless lav mic from the videographer…
I break the phases of filmmaking into six distinct areas: The Idea; Development; Pre-Production; Production; Post Production; and Distribution. Most new filmmakers spend most of the research and education in the production phases. But the biggest hurdles are in the two “D’s”– Development and Distribution. Development is where you raise the money and build the right team. Distribution is where you make money to pay back the investors and enough for you to keep going. These two areas are woefully lacking. That’s why I started teaching the Greenlight seminar several years ago. Often people have a story they want made into a movie and they either write the screenplay or commission the writing of the screenplay. Then it’s an upward climb to get the script sold to a production company. Then it’s an uphill battle for the production company to…
Next demo reel shoot is June 5, Tuesday, with afternoon and evening times available. Go to the SFilms store to register. The actor demo reel has become extremely important for getting auditions and landing roles. Often times, actors work for little or nothing to get the resume credit and to get a scene or something they can drop into their reel. But time and time again, actors would talk with me about not being able to get the filmmaker to send them the scene to use. The filmmaker just wouldn’t have time or resource. So at that point, I decided to help out the actors– what if we could do an original scene that looked as if ripped straight from an indie film and featured the actor the way they wanted to be featured? Of course there’s some serious cost…
I’ll be sending an email out to all registered students… but thought I would post this first to let you know what to wear and bring to the screenfighting seminar this weekend. (If you haven’t registered, click here to sign up). Weapons Classes (Saturday) First of all, do not bring any actual weapons to this workshop. Our weapons master, Doug Williams will supply all equipment. And especially don’t bring any live ammunition whatsoever. If you have a concealed carry permit, please leave your weapon in your vehicle, locked. Next, you will need to wear pants and a shirt you can tuck in. This includes both male and female students. You will need a solid belt you can clip a holster to. And wear shoes that you can move around in. Think about the role you might audition for– is it…
(This is for all my actor friends… one film director to actors. I see a lot actor to actor, but very little from directors to actor. BTW– we’ve got the screenfighting workshop coming up in a few weeks– click here to make sure you get your seat.) The Quest Constantin Stanislavski– often referred to as the father of modern acting, defined acting as the quest for theatrical truth. I believe this is a great starting place for the craft you’re working in. It all boils down to this– is your performance as close as possible to theatrical truth? Personally, I believe that truth cannot be achieved in a theatrical performance (you’re performing, pretending– it’s not truth, but theatrical truth). Does your performance ring true with the audience? Sure, many factors go into you achieving theatrical truth in a film role. …
If I could say one thing to local actors to immediately help their performance in film and give them a much better chance for landing that role in auditions, I would say this: Big is Bad. My advice to feature film and television actors is to bring it down. In some cases… way down. Now this advice is not without controversy. I’ve had one agent tell they think I’ve got it wrong… that it’s better to be too big than too small… that a director can bring a performance down to the right level more easily than bringing it up. Not in this director’s experience. You see, in the audition room, using a 0-9 scale on “bigness”, I have many local actors coming in at 7, 8 or 9. I’m looking for 1.5. Now we have to go from an…