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ACTING IN THE REAL

WORLD
The Film Professional’s Guidebook
to the Job of Acting

By
D.L. White

1
 Copyright © 2007 by D.L. White.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form
whatsoever. For more information go to www.actingreality.com.

Notice of Liability
The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis, without warranty. While every
precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, neither the author nor Actors
Concentration Publishing shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any
loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions
contained in this book.

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 To Jamie
For her friendship and support - D.W.

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 Preface: A quick ‘Hello’

I originally moved to Los Angeles from a ‘fly-over’ state way back in

1991, right after the riots. I came out here to pursue dreams of rock-
stardom with a guitar in hand and not much else. It only took me the
better part of a decade to realize that my song writing was clichéd, my
singing was terrible and that I couldn’t play guitar very well. Ahem…
Fortunately for me, I had stumbled into a job in post-production (even
a ‘rock-star’ has to eat) in 1992 and continued in that capacity for many
moons. Although I had never wanted to work in film or television,
there I was! During the next 14 years, I was fortunate enough to work
as an editor or assistant editor on literally dozens of network shows
including Frasier, Seinfeld and Reba. I have also worked in one
capacity or another on literally hundreds of feature films from
Paramount Pictures, MGM, Touchstone and Warner Brothers to name
just a few.
I have also directed or shot a dozen or so music videos, commercials
and short subject material. As I got more into directing, I decided to
study acting after one of the television producers I had worked with
suggested that it would ‘greatly benefit’ me as a director. Now, I had
never, and probably will never, want to be an actor! But, I sucked it up
and completed the two-year professional acting program at the Sanford
Meisner Center in North Hollywood. The program was wonderful,
because it was difficult. Between twice weekly classes and rehearsal
time, we logged an average of 25 to 30 hours per week, and that was in
addition to my full time job!
During that time at the Meisner Center, I found myself giving ‘work’
related advice to many of the young actors in my class. Because I had
never considered my occupation anything more than just a job, it never

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occurred to me how much information I really had floating around in
my head. I had always taken my knowledge for granted, because it
didn’t seem valuable outside the realm of doing my job correctly. It
wasn’t until I started working with actors outside of the industry did I
realize how much they really didn’t know about working in this
business. Several of the students suggested that I should put all of this
information to good use, and after a couple of years worth of
procrastination, here it is.
While I may come across a bit gruff in the following text, please know
that it’s done with the kindest of intentions. It really is my hope that
you will find happiness and success in this most trying of industries.
And, always remember:

You can’t fail if you don’t quit!

D.W.

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 Contents
Introduction
What this book is, what it isn’t and what you will learn…10

Chapter One
Acting is NOT a dream, it’s a Reality!…14

Chapter Two
Your Co-Workers and Common References…20

Chapter Three
The Actor’s Job Defined…26

Chapter Four
Knowing your lines…35

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 Chapter Five
Physical Continuity…43

Chapter Six
Emotional Continuity …50

Chapter Seven
Hitting Marks…56

Chapter Eight
What is Expected of You: Set Protocols and the
Audition…61

Chapter Nine
What is Expected of You: A Typical Run on a Film Set …67

Chapter Ten
What is Expected of You: A Typical Week on a TV Show…74

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 Chapter Eleven
Acting: Craft and Art Form …81

Chapter Twelve
The Realities of the Business: Getting ‘Discovered’…88

Chapter Thirteen
The Realities of the Business: Overnight Success …93

Chapter Fourteen
The Realities of the Business: Getting a Gig …100

Chapter Fifteen
Acting Classes and the ‘Peripherals’…104

Chapter Sixteen
The ‘Lottery Ticket’ Mentality…111

Suggested Reading and About the Author…116

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ACTING IN THE REAL
WORLD
The Film Professional’s Guidebook
to the Job of Acting

9
 INTRODUCTION

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I have been working in the Film and Television industry here in Los
Angeles for close to 14 years now. In that time, I have done just about
every job there is to do before, during and after a film is shot. Having
said that, I’ve also managed to screw up every single one of those jobs
at some point or another! I may not be the brightest bulb in the box,
but I sure learned a lot by being a little dopey.
Please note that I am very aware that this is a relatively small
community and I am most definitely not trying to offend anyone here
(whether offense should be taken or not!) I tend towards the succinct
and the direct in my day-to-day life, and I see no reason why my
writing should be any different. Now that I’ve (hopefully) covered my
bases here, let’s get on with it.
I don’t know if the problems I address in this book are getting worse, or
if I’m just becoming more of a curmudgeon. My best estimate says
‘both’. The lack of job skills is hardly limited to the actors I meet and
work with – it’s as widespread an annoyance as any other that I can see
in this industry. Like I said before…I’m not sure if it’s gotten worse in
the last ten years, but it sure seems like it. My irascible nature aside,
it’s probably been exactly this bad for as long as filmmaking has been
around.
Let’s start with what this guidebook isn’t. This is not a ‘survival’ guide
for Hollywood or the entertainment industry in general. The idea of
needing a ‘survival’ guide is actually quite absurd when you think
about it. Los Angeles is a modern, major American city and the
entertainment industry is just that…an industry. Imagine if someone
were to pen a ‘survival’ guide for living in Detroit (well, maybe on that
one) and how to navigate and avoid the pitfalls of working for the auto
industry. Seems pretty silly, doesn’t it? But, the analogy still fits…15
million people call the Greater Los Angeles area home and a very large
percentage of them work in the entertainment industry.

It’s hardly the African Serengeti.

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Here is all the ‘survival guide’ you’ll need to live and work here. If it
sounds like a scam, it probably is. Trust your instincts, pay your rent
and do all the other stuff that you do wherever you happen to live right
now.

Done.

This book is not a guidebook on how to get the best headshots,

acquiring an agent, finding acting schools or getting into the Screen
Actors Guild. Those are all things that are peripheral to the job of
acting and don’t really have anything to do with actually doing the
work of a professional actor. Like the aforementioned auto industry
example, if you wanted to get a job for Chrysler, you might read a book
on what clothes you should wear to the interview or how to scan the
classified ad section of the paper more efficiently or even how to get
into the United Auto Workers Union. I would, however, suggest that
you learn how to actually do the job that you want to do.
Unfortunately, most books on acting are written by people who don’t
work in any meaningful capacity in the entertainment industry.
Generally, that makes them very well versed on things like headshots,
getting agents, finding training and how to get into the Screen Actors
Guild. In my experience, those are things that with a little thought and
effort you can weed your own way through. In fairness, it can be
daunting to figure that all out on your own, so by all means read one
(or all) of the numerous books on those subjects if you like. But,
ultimately I say that’s not what the job is all about.

Believe me, there’s no shortage of amateurs that have all that crap.

This book is not about the emotional or preparation aspects of acting

either. There are many fine books on that subject as well and
wonderful schools all over that teach those techniques. My suggestion
to you is to find one that suits you and pursue it with all your passion
and vigor. As it is a highly subjective realm, I will try to forgo any

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recommendations in that arena, but as I said earlier, I did train for two
years in the Meisner technique myself. If you can get out of your own
way, it seems to produce pretty solid emotional work and (at least at
the school I attended) they make a real point of pushing the
professionalism.
If you are interested in learning more about the Meisner technique,
there is now a wonderful DVD available that is the only known footage
of Sanford Meisner teaching his master class. I highly recommend this
to anyone who is interested in acting in general, as Sanford Meisner is
arguably one of the best acting teachers there has ever been. Check it
out here; the link will take you to Amazon.com.

Sanford Meisner's Master Class DVD

This guidebook is about the job of acting. What it entails, what is

expected of you on set and why. I give real life examples from real life
professional situations that I have seen and / or dealt with in real life.
No B.S. or hype, just the facts, as it were. You might not like what you
read, but it’s the way it is…if you don’t want to believe it, you’ll find
out sooner or later. Maybe.

Hopefully not after wasting a lifetime chasing a ‘dream’.

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 CHAPTER 1

Acting is NOT a Dream, it’s a Reality!

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1

The entertainment business is real. It is a multi-billion dollar industry

that employs hundreds of thousands of people around the world. And,
right now, the best of the best of those people are here in Los Angeles.
Having said that, make no mistake when you set out to be an actor…

The professional actors and actresses in Hollywood are the best in

the world at what they do.

Now, usually when I make that statement, the first rebuttal that
inevitably comes flying out of someone’s head goes something like
“well so and so is a terrible actress, and she made it” or “Actor X
couldn’t act his way out of a ticket, but he’s working all the time”. To
which I usually reply, “You may not like their emotional work, but I
guarantee you their professional ability is phenomenal”. That is
usually followed with a snide “Professional ability? *Scoff* What

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‘professional ability’ do you need? Acting is easy, the hard part is
getting discovered.”

Keep telling yourself that pumpkin…oh, and I’ll have the steak…
medium rare please.

I’m going to dive into a subject here that I just love when talking about
acting to the uninitiated. And that’s baseball. Now, don’t fret if you’re
not sports minded, neither am I…but I do love baseball, especially for
the acting analogies. Baseball is a game that nearly anyone can play.
I’ve seen 70-year-old men out on a softball field having a grand old
time. I’ve also seen children as young as 3 or 4 playing the same game
with the same basic set of rules. Within that age range, there are
literally hundreds of thousands of people playing baseball in this
country at various levels. The same can be said for acting and as such,
I’ve seen children as young as 3 or 4 acting on stage as well as people
well into their dotage doing the exact same thing. In between the
young and the nearly infirm, there are literally hundreds of thousands
of people acting in this country at various levels as well.

This is where it starts to get funny. I can watch people act or watch
people play baseball on the same little TV set that sits in my living
room. Neat, eh? As for the baseball games, people watch them for
many reasons, but I sincerely doubt anyone would be watching them if
they weren’t the best players around. We know what the amateurs look
like (anyone who’s been to a company softball game can attest to this)
and it’s not nearly as much fun to witness.

In fact, it’s usually pretty embarrassing for everyone involved.

The same can be said for acting…would you go and pay money to see
a feature film that had the talent level of the last school play you saw?
I sincerely hope not…but hey, you never know. Some of you might
not even be able to tell the difference in either case.

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The bigger point is this: The entertainment industry, especially the
acting portion of it, is the only industry I know of where someone can
merely claim to be one of the players and be treated as an equal (by the
public at large) regardless of experience, ability or skills.
Imagine if you will…a man walks into a bar and states to the first
pretty young lady he sees “Hi, I’m a major league baseball player”. To
which she replies, “Ooh, how nifty…what team do you play for?”
“I don’t really play for a team yet.”
“But you have though, right?”
“Not really, but I did play varsity baseball in high school”
“…Oh, then how are you a major league baseball player?”
“Well, it’s more like a way of visualizing myself, you know. I mean I
do go to the batting cages twice a week, and I found this amazing
hitting coach there. I also play softball with my friends at the park
every other Saturday. I watch baseball games all the time and I read
the sports page every Sunday. Right now, I’m working on networking
with other major league baseball players to help me find baseball jobs.
It’s tough but, it’s my passion you know…something in me just tells
me it’s ‘right’. It’s more like a calling, I always knew watching
baseball as a kid that it’s what I’m supposed to be doing with my life.
Hey, I just got some new baseball cards made up, they look really
professional, want to see one?”
And then she says in all seriousness, “Oh, cool!!! I’d love to see one
of your baseball cards. I totally know what you mean; my roommate is
out here doing the major league baseball thing too. It is tough, but you
just have to hang in there. You never know when you’re going to get
your big break, right? I mean it’s just a numbers game after all.”
If you heard this conversation for real, you’d probably fall over from
thinking how stupid it all sounded. But, I actually hear that same
conversation about acting everyday in this town and watch smart
people just eat it up.

It never ceases to amaze me.

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Acting at the professional level in Hollywood requires at least the
same amount of work, skill, dedication and perseverance as it takes
for a baseball player to play at the Major League level.

If you think it takes anything less, you’re fooling yourself. You’ll

kindly notice I didn’t use the word ‘luck’ either.

There’s a saying in the industry that goes, “We are the creators of hype,
never the victims of it”. Don’t allow yourself to be a victim of the
hype! Understand that your television set is very misleading. The
images you see on television and in movies are illusions. Don’t make
career or life choices based on those illusions. The monsters in ‘Lord
of the Rings’ weren’t real, people aren’t really getting shot and aliens
aren’t really invading. But, Hollywood is so good at creating those
environments, those illusions, that they are nearly seamless. And,
that’s a big part of the problem. If you saw how hard the actors were
really working and what it took to even be there to begin with, the
show would be a flop! They have to make the difficult or impossible
seem natural or there is no illusion. Like a ballet dancer balancing on
her big toe with a smile on her face…

The illusion of a natural, lack of effort is essential to visual story

telling but it’s still just an illusion.

The illusion of the screen even carries over to the baseball world (or
any professional sport really). Even though you can actually see how
hard a baseball player is working on screen and compare yourself to
that, the players are still making incredible plays seem routine. That’s
because the work they’re doing on the field is a mere fraction of the
work that’s occurred off the field.

Don’t believe me, try and turn a ‘routine’ double play sometime.

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Take a moment here and honestly look at yourself. With your current
skills in baseball (I know you’re not a baseball player, just play along
here for a second), what do you imagine the bare minimum effort
would be to get you personally to a level to merely not be embarrassed
playing in the majors?
Well, let me help you out here…I believe (depending on your general
physical health) that if you put 2-3 hours a day, 6 days a week for the
next 2 to 3 years, working out with professional coaches, hitting
instructors, fielding instructors and playing the game with other
professional baseball players, you’d probably get pretty close. Tack
another 4-5 years of regular time on the professional field in
competition and you may begin to get comfortable and actually start to
look ‘ok’ out there. Seriously.

Now, are you willing to do that for your acting?

Because that’s exactly the level you say you want to play at and that’s
exactly what it will take. Bare minimum. Do more, be relentless in
your pursuit and you’ll get better faster. Do less and you won’t even
garner a second glance in this town, because there are literally
hundreds of thousands of people living here already doing just that.

And most ‘actors’ in town are doing much less. Still here?

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 Chapter 2

Your Co-Workers and Common References

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2
Before we get into the meat and potatoes of the job of acting, let’s take
a few quick moments to introduce you to your (future) co-workers and
the terms that they use and / or refer to themselves by. I will endeavor
to expand on any ‘lingo’ when I reference it in later chapters, so there’s
no need to memorize this stuff. It is merely to get you acquainted in
the short term.
First off, let’s cover the various jobs that people do on a professional
film set:
Producer: This guy (or gal) is the big boss. Generally speaking, the
person with this title bears overall responsibility for the production.
However, the bulk of their time is spent dealing with ‘above the line’
issues. ‘The line’ is the divider between what are considered ‘fixed’
costs (below the line costs include things like the crew, non-starring
actors, locations, food, equipment, travel and the like) and ‘variable’
costs (the above the line stuff like the screenplay, the principle actor
salaries as well as the producer and director’s salaries.) They can hire
21
and fire everyone on set and are in charge of both the ‘front office’ (the
room where the administrative functions of the shoot are handled) and
production (the actual physical production of the movie or show.)
Unit Production Manager (UPM): This person generally oversees
the ‘front office’, and their focus is usually on the ‘below the line’
expenditures. They are basically the accountants of the show and as
such, their primary job is to say ‘no’, or ‘find a cheaper way to do it.’
Seriously. They report to the producer.
Director: This person is in charge of ‘production’ and their duty is to
actually make the movie. Part of their job is to constantly ask the unit
production manager for money, to which the UPM will say ‘no’. See
previous example. Seriously though, they hire the production crew and
oversee all aspects of production before, during and after photography.
Assistant Director (AD): For all intents and purposes, they are traffic
cops. The AD is responsible for getting people where they need to be
on set. This includes doing the daily ‘call sheets’ (the list that breaks
down what actor needs to be where and when) and keeping track of the
shooting schedule. They report to the UPM when they are not yelling
at someone.
Director of Photography (DP): Sometimes referred to as a
‘cinematographer’ (it’s a point of contention that I won’t get into here)
this person is in charge of the camera crew and reports to the Director.
They are responsible for actually ‘shooting’ the movie.
Camera Operator: They are responsible for the technical aspects of
using the camera equipment, and as such, they actually run the camera.
He or she reports to the DP.
Focus Puller / 1st Assistant Camera Operator: This person maintains
all of the camera equipment and it’s associated accessories. They are
also responsible for ‘pulling focus’, which is to dynamically set the
focus on the lens when a camera or subject is moving.
Clapper / Loader: Sometimes called a ‘2nd Assist’, they load the film
and keep records on all the film stock, whether exposed or not. They
‘mark’ (place reference markings on the ground to tell an actor where
to stand) actors and ‘slate’ (an audio / visual reference board that
details the broad production information and features a ‘clapper’ at the
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top which makes a sharp noise when closed quickly) scenes. The 1st
and 2nd Assists report to the DP.
Gaffer: Sometimes called the ‘Chief Lighting Technician’, is in charge
of the electrical department and implements (and sometimes designs)
the lighting requirements of the shoot. They oversee the Electricians
and report to the DP.
Lighting Technician: Places all of the lights and fixtures that will be
utilized during filming. Responsible for the generator and providing
electricity for all work lights on set and in support areas (like the
catering area, or your trailer.)
Key Grip: This person is in charge of the grip department, which is
responsible for ‘rigging’ (mounting a camera or lighting equipment to
stands, poles, cars, people…whatever lights and cameras need to be
attached to) lights and equipment. They too report to the DP.
Grip: Under the supervision of a Key Grip, the Grips are basically
responsible for rigging equipment and on-set safety in regards to things
falling over. Many specialized grips will operate cranes, boom arms
(stationary camera platform used to elevate a camera), and dollies
(mobile camera platform on wheels.) It is of some note here that the
grips may set up the rigging for the lights, but only the lighting tech or
the gaffer will actually place and / or focus them.
Script Supervisor: This person is responsible for the script and
ensures that everyone on set has a current copy. They are also
responsible for maintaining physical continuity (ensuring specific
physical conditions of the actors and / or set are recorded and thus, able
to be repeated) on set. They coordinate with the 2nd Assistant Camera
and the Production Sound Mixer (see below) to ensure accurate slate
information as well as producing the ‘line script’ (a version of the
script which denotes what film rolls have covered which portion of the
script.) They are also responsible for the daily reports to the ‘front
office’ regarding what material has been shot, the actual times and
breaks during shooting and any ‘wild’ (without any specific
synchronous relation to the film) tracks. They work mainly with the
Director and are somewhat of a liaison between the director and the
front office.

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Production Sound Mixer: Responsible for recording sound on set,
including all dialogue, wild tracks and sound effects. They run the
sound equipment and monitor for problems in the sound recordings.
They report to the Director.
Boom Operator: Assistant to the Sound Mixer, this person is
responsible for microphone placement and will sometimes use a
manual ‘fish pole’ type device to place the microphone at a distance, or
a larger, mechanical version called a ‘boom’.
Sound Technician: Generally responsible for running the cabling on
the sound equipment, they will often be called on to perform the tasks
of the Boom Op or the Sound Mixer.
Production Designer: They are in charge of the overall ‘look’ of the
production. The Production Designer establishes everything from wall
color to costume design.
Costume Designer: Designs the costumes (not to be trite.)
The Art Department:
• Art Director: Supervises set construction and all associated
people in that realm (painters, plasterers, landscapers, sign
makers, greens people, etc.)
• Set Decorator: Is responsible for choosing interior set
decoration including things like furniture, wall hangings, light
fixtures and the like.
• Set Dresser: These people actually ‘dress’ the set by setting
up the furniture, wall hangings, light fixtures and the like.
• Property Master: Is in charge of all ‘props’ used during
production. They provide most items an actor will interact
with during a shoot, including magazines, food, sports
equipment and even firearms.
Location Manager: This person is primarily responsible for locating
(sometimes known as ‘location scouting’) and making arrangements
for the use of any ‘off the lot’ (not on a property under the Studio’s
control) locations.
Production Assistant: Not to be disparaging, but basically a gopher.
As in, ‘gopher this, gopher that…’ Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. They
24
carry out basic administrative functions and do little odd jobs around
set. Be nice to them, it’s good karma!
These are the bulk of the people you will be interacting with on a day-
to-day basis. There are (obviously) many more people that factor in
making a film come to life, but they aren’t generally people you will be
interacting with regularly as an actor. Some of those jobs are the
editor, sound designer, and sound and dialogue editors.
Bear in mind here that most of these people work on film sets on a
regular basis. They know their jobs inside and out and have (probably)
been doing them for years. They will (rightfully) expect the same from
you. Don’t forget that…

So, now that I’ve loosely defined their jobs, let’s precisely define
yours.

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 CHAPTER 3

The Actor’s Job Defined

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3
The job of a lead actor in a feature film is…

To deliver a physical and emotional interpretation of a screenwriter’s

work, in line with a director’s vision, while maintaining long-term
physical and emotional continuity.

You’ll notice I used ‘lead actor in a feature film’ to pen the example.
The same general requirement exists for all film and television actors to
varying degrees, but the lead in the feature film will, in my opinion, be
taxed the furthest by the aforementioned job requirements.
When I say ‘feature film actor’ I mean an actor that is one of the
principle characters portrayed in a marquee attraction motion picture.
By feature, I mean a picture that is or will be widely distributed,
nationally or internationally, to play in movie theaters. The film part
refers to the fact that, despite any claims to the contrary, 99.9% of
feature films are distributed on film, regardless of acquisition format.

27
I only pause to define it because of the preponderance of ‘wannabes’ to
declare any 90-minute long film or video a ‘feature film’, which, they
are not. These are ‘feature length videos’ at best. As in, they are the
same length as a feature film and they will be distributed on video only
(again, regardless of acquisition format.) Likewise, the actors in such
pictures are not ‘feature film actors’.

Just so we’re clear.

And, yes, I am aware that some major productions do end up going

‘straight to video’, but that still doesn’t change the definition. Movies
of the week, television shows, low budget foreign releases and your
best friends ‘indie’ just don’t count. Sorry.

Feature film acting is the most difficult because of four things:

1- Feature films are long.
2- They are generally shot single camera.
3- They are shot ‘4-wall’, which means all four walls of a set can
or will appear.
4- The environment in which the audience sees the final product is
very controlled and unforgiving.

Allow me to elaborate. The average film shoot for a major motion

picture takes 60 days. Each day a film crew captures enough material
to equate to about 60 to 90 seconds of screen time. You read that right;
out of a 12-hour (usually longer) day they cover a minute’s worth of
material.
The level of precise physical and emotional continuity required by the
actor is extraordinary and it has to remain consistent. You will do
scenes over and over and over again in rehearsal, blocking rehearsal,
camera rehearsal, during photography and all the associated resets and
‘coverage’ that that entails. Not to mention the fact that most scenes
are shot out of sequence and many locations will require multiple
28
emotional and physical states that will need to blend seamlessly with
footage that could be shot a month later.
Here’s a simple example: A man eating in a restaurant sees his wife
with another man in a restaurant across the street. Angered, he charges
out without paying, blustering past the wait-staff who try to restrain
him. He pops out onto the street and tries to cross, but the traffic is
heavy. Infuriated, he ducks and dodges his way across, actually getting
bumped by a car hard enough to fall on the hood. After brief words
with the driver, he scrambles to the other side of the street, peers in the
window of the restaurant, but his wife has left. He goes into the
restaurant and asks the waiter her whereabouts, but the waiter doesn’t
know.
In the real world of film production, that scene could be filmed on three
different days, during three different weeks at three different locations
and the viewer would never be the wiser. The actor, meanwhile, has to
match his emotional and physical state perfectly, for each segment,
after he may have filmed hundreds of other scenes in between. And
that’s just one part of his job, but I’ll cover that later.
Now then, just think about the number of ‘set-ups’ in the
aforementioned scene when you only have one camera. I’ll be brief
here, but just to properly ‘cover’ (get all the necessary footage of) the
man at the table seeing his wife across the street would entail a full
shot, a medium shot, a close-up, an extreme close-up, close-ups on the
man’s hands, on tableware that he’s playing with, his feet shuffling,
playing with his tie, anything the director felt would best convey the
man’s ‘condition’. And that just covers him sitting there. That doesn’t
count the shots around the room that he may or may not be in, of other
diners that he might see, food passing by, waiters serving people etc.
Each time the camera moves is another set-up, which can vary greatly
in time, but the actor has to look the same on every single one.
The difficulty with shooting ‘4-walls’ is not to be dismissed either. For
one, screen direction becomes a major issue when the camera ‘turns
around’, i.e., crosses the line of action. Screen direction in a nut-shell
is the means of determining which direction someone on screen should
move or look in relation to a person, place or thing that they are
interacting with. Strictly maintaining those lines of action is very
29
important in helping audience members remain spatially oriented while
viewing a film. Sudden shifts can be jarring and ‘pull’ people out of
the film experience, which as you will see in a moment, is a big no no.
While screen direction is usually well covered between the script
supervisor, the director and the camera people, most experienced
feature actors will know the ‘lines of action’ and be able to point out if
something is amiss. Also, you must remember that the number of takes
required to get proper ‘coverage’ is already extensive, now we have
one more direction to shoot in as well, which only adds more.
The reason for shooting ‘4-walls’ and the extensive coverage is due to
the need to immerse an audience into a visceral experience. To put it
simply, when you watch a good motion picture, you become part of
what’s on the screen. In contrast, when you watch television, you
watch something happen on the screen.
The conditions under which the motion picture audience sees the film
helps add to that immersion. It’s dark, the screen is huge, the sound is
loud and the outside world is shut off almost completely.

Anything that happens on screen that makes the audience aware that
they are an audience is not tolerated in professional film production.

What is the audience going to do if you lose them? Sit and be bored?
Bad. Leave? Bad. It’s not as if they can go make some spaghetti, feed
the cat and come back in a few minutes after they make a call to Aunt
Sue. If you lose the audience, you lose money and at best filmmaking
is a calculated risk anyway.
It takes an actor of exceptional dedication, skill and most importantly
experience under those specific filming environments to pull that job
off well. That experience takes years to accumulate, which is why
nearly all of the young ‘stars’ of today have been acting since they
were kids. That’s how they learned their trade, but I’ll expand on that
in a later chapter.

30
By comparison, television simplifies the matter greatly for actors,
although it adds it’s own complications. Things that make television
less demanding are:

1- The shows are generally shorter.

2- They are generally shot multi-camera.
3- They are generally ‘3-wall’ sets.
4- The story lines generally run to completion week to week.
5- The environment in which the audience views the final product
is much more forgiving.

I say ‘generally’ for most of these examples, because truth be told,

television is much more sophisticated than it was even 10 years ago.
There are many more shows that are shot ‘single-camera style’, usually
two-cameras on Steadi-cams (a mobile camera platform attached to an
operator that allows stable photography while in motion) and many are
doing ‘4-wall’ style production.
The big differences still remain though…just by the nature of the
production schedule, television shows can’t shoot the same coverage as
a feature film. A typical four-camera sit-com will shoot an entire
episode in one evening. Even accounting for rehearsals during the
week, it’s still nowhere close to a feature film. Within that rushed
schedule, having multiple cameras always covering the action on only
three walls creates what amounts to a sloppy product. Not that they set
out to create shoddy work, it literally can’t be helped under those
conditions.
The only thing that makes it tolerable to watch for any length of time is
the home viewing environment. Unlike a theater, you have commercial
interruptions, traffic sounds, the dishwasher running, people talking
and just the general din of modern life. Coupled with the small screen
in well-lit conditions and the sound coming out of a 4-inch speaker, the
audience just isn’t as focused on what’s going on.
Glaring errors that would jar an audience member out of their seat on a
40-foot screen can go unnoticed on the small one. The way television
31
gets around most of these mistakes (as well as acquiring a lot of
footage quickly) is by shooting multi-camera. The effect of having
multiple cameras running enables the editor to ‘cut around’ physical
and emotional mis-matches much more easily. Plus, on each take they
are getting all of the principle actors on set doing their thing all at once.
This gives the editor a lot of room to find the principle player’s
dialogue and reaction footage to tell the story with.
As far as physical and emotional continuity are concerned, television is
far more forgiving and there is almost never a need to maintain that
continuity over great lengths of time and through many disparate and
incongruous shooting conditions. That is primarily the reason that
most feature film actors can work easily in television, while many
television actors struggle to go the other way. Don’t get me wrong,
television folk are working hard, but it’s a different kind of work.
Here’s a simple example of the difference between the way a feature
film and a television show might approach a scene. Let’s say it’s a
scene where Fred and Mary are going to have an argument. Fred is
already home working on some papers. Mary is going to come in; they
are going to have an argument and then Mary’s going to leave.

In the television show, we would most likely see:

A wide shot of the exterior of the building (the establishing shot). Cut
to a close up of Fred working on his papers. Either pull back or cut to a
wide shot of Mary entering the apartment. Mary crosses to Fred and
we cut again from wide to a medium two-shot (a shot of both of them
from about waist up.) They start to fight and there is a succession of
close-ups showing Fred being mad at Mary and vice-versa. Cut back to
a wide shot as Mary storms to the other side of the room. Toss in a
couple more close-ups as they argue across the room. Cut back to wide
as Mary gets fed up and leaves, then back to a close-up to see how
upset Fred is over the whole mess.

In the feature film, we would most likely see something like this:
A wide shot of the exterior of the building. Cut to a shot of a picture in
a frame showing Fred and Mary, followed by a perfectly still shot of
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the empty dining room with the sun coming in through the window.
We can hear the clock ticking in the stillness as the camera trucks down
the hallway and around the corner to the living room where Fred is
working on his papers.
Cut to a close-up of Fred chewing on his pen, then a close-up of some
financial statements he’s working on. Cut to another close-up of Fred
rubbing his head in consternation. Fred (and the audience) hears Mary
call from the front room. A medium shot of Fred trying to compose
himself, followed by a quick close-up of him hiding a document under
the pile in front of him.
Cut to a shot over Fred’s shoulder of Mary entering the room. Mary
removes her scarf and walks over to Fred. Cut to a quick shot of Mary
tossing the scarf in a chair, followed by a close-up of Mary’s finger
running along the back of the chair that Fred is sitting on. Now, cut to
a tight two-shot of Mary putting her arms around Fred. They start to
argue. We stay tight on Fred as Mary gets mad and storms across the
room.
Cut to a close-up of Mary retrieving her scarf from the chair, followed
by a full shot of Mary taking her place across the room. We then see a
close-up of Mary twisting the scarf in her hands, followed by a
succession of interspersed wide, medium and close-up shots as she and
Fred fight.
A medium shot of Mary getting fed up cuts to a wide shot of her
departure. Cut back to a close-up of Fred showing how upset he is over
the whole mess.

I think you get the point.

As you can see, the footage requirements between the two situations
are going to be wildly different. Four cameras, in just a couple of
takes, would cover the entire scene filmed on the television stage. One
camera would be rolling to capture the scene from the feature film
point of view and would require dozens of set-ups and probably three
times as many takes.

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At the end of the day, the television crew is already wrapped and
getting ready for the next week. The film crew just covered a two-
minute scene. The demands on the actor are commensurate, I assure
you. So, now that you know a little more about what the job is, let’s
get to what it’s all about in a practical sense.

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 CHAPTER 4

Knowing Your Lines

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4

Okay, this may sound silly to some of you, but I don’t care. The
Number One thing an actor has to do is know their lines. And, by
‘know’ I mean KNOW YOUR LINES!!!

Backwards. Forwards. Inside. Outside. Upside-Down and Sideways.

Get it? I’m willing to bet that you don’t. In fact, I’ll go a step further
and say that even after you read this and scoff to yourself that you do
indeed learn your lines when you get them, I still say you don’t.

Why you ask?

36
Because I’ve seen it not happen too many times. At auditions, during
rehearsal, even during photography! It’s inexcusable under the best of
circumstances and downright insulting under the worst. Look at it this
way, on a major motion picture shoot, the average cost is $700.00 per
minute! The three minutes you spend goofing a line once is more than
enough to pay your rent for the month!
I personally feel that the cavalier attitude towards learning lines
correctly comes from the increasing availability of ‘out-takes’ and
‘behind the scenes’ footage. This type of footage invariably portrays
some fun loving cast member repeatedly screwing up seemingly simple
lines or horsing around to make the crew giggle. For me, it seems to
give an image of a fun loving, loose environment where people are all
kicking back, having fun and they just happen to be making a movie or
a TV show at the time. While true, the production environment isn’t
usually as serious or crazy as the floor of the New York Stock
Exchange, sometimes it can get pretty close.
The most important thing for a new actor to realize is that while those
out-takes may seem like a normal occurrence; the truth is that they are
quite rare in fact. Out of an entire season of a sit-com, you may have
20 to 30 minutes of ‘gag’ reel material and most of that isn’t funny
enough to bother with when it’s edited together. It’s roughly the same
amount of material generated over the course of an entire 60-day
motion picture shoot. You may further notice that the gag material is
almost exclusively of the principle actors on the show or film. No one
giggles or has fun when the guest stars goof off or drop lines.
Everyone quietly gets through the trouble and the offenders don’t come
back to that crew’s show or film.

Ever.

In reality, it is very uncommon for the ‘day players’ (non regular cast
member, usually hired just for the day) to screw around. I’ve actually
only heard of one ‘day player’ actively goofing off on set. Truthfully,
they’re usually so terrified of screwing up they practically walk on
37
eggshells. However, dropped lines are another issue, that while
admittedly infrequent on set, it still happens more than it should.
By way of example, I was working on an unfortunately short-lived (in
my opinion) sit-com where the lead actress had to get through a
security checkpoint at an airport, but was detained for reasons that
escape me at the moment. The actor that detained her had one line in
that particular scene and flubbed it. And then flubbed it again…and
again. And again, all the while assuring the director and the crew that
he ‘knew his lines’ and then flubbed them again.
You blow one line over and over and you are toast. Test the results if
you doubt me, but rest assured this actor knew in his heart he ‘had’ it.
He actually looked indignant at the suggestion that he didn’t have his
lines down pat, but truth be told…when the chips were down, the
cameras rolling, he boffed it. Repeatedly.
You want a shot at working as an actor in this town for more than a
couple of years? Be sure to remember the aforementioned tale, as well
as the advice that follows, because your career will go ‘toodlepip’
quicker than you can say ‘Sorry, I messed up’.

YOU CAN NEVER DROP LINES. EVER.

You, as an actor, under the pressure of cameras rolling with a crew and
potentially an audience watching, have to say your lines PERFECTLY,
VERBATIM, EVERY SINGLE TIME, REPEATEDLY, until the
production has sufficient coverage to ‘move on’.

Think I’m pressing the point too much?

Just so you understand the statistics a little better, a one in a thousand

chance of something bad happening is considered safe for medication.
You have a one in ten-thousand chance of ‘making it’ as an actor. The
38
odds are stacked heavily against you, and you cannot afford to make a
mistake when you get an opportunity.
Always remember that this whole process starts at the audition. Most
auditions (I say most because some barbarians still maintain the
practice of ‘cold reading’) are what we call ‘prepared readings’. That
is, the actor is generally given the sides in advance (usually 2 or 3 days)
and they are expected to memorize them fully, interpret them fully and
deliver them emotionally filled to the best of their ability.
Now true, some auditions are going to be cold reads. That is, you are
given the material a few minutes before going in to read for the part. I
myself find this a most ridiculous method of ascertaining suitability for
a job, but it does happen, so I will cover it briefly. First of all, cold
reading is a skill! The basic idea is to ‘pick up the line’ (read it to
yourself quickly), lift your face OUT of the page and ACT it. React to
whatever line you hear in return and then rinse and repeat.
DO NOT read lines with your face buried in the script. The casting
people want to see your face, not the top of your head. Get the entire
line first, and then deliver it. Stay focused on, and engaged with
whomever you happen to be reading with. Only when it’s your turn to
talk again will you look at the script, and only long enough to pick up
the next line. No ‘half-reading, half looking at your partner’ kind of
crap here, it doesn’t work and it reeks of ‘amateurism.’
DO NOT just read the script! Like Sanford Meisner would say, “if
acting were reading, I could get the doorman to do it.” You need to
bring the material to life, not tell a story like a narrator would.
DO Practice this daily!!! You need to train this ability extensively,
because it is very difficult to do well. If the bulk of your focus is on the
script instead of your reading partner, your performance is going to
stink. I guarantee it. Stinking is no fun, so work on this.
Like I said, I hate cold reading. Me personally, I want to see how well
an actor can understand and interpret material, not how well he or she
learned how to cold read. They really are markedly different skills, but
I digress.

39
If your audition is going to be a prepared reading, be thankful and be
prepared. Makes sense, no? Just taking the time to understand and
memorize the material will put you in the top 10 to 15% of candidates
every time. I’m not exaggerating in the slightest, as you’ll see here.
On a recent film I was casting for, the audition notice went out stating
that it would be a prepared reading and it was suggested that the actors
‘be off book’, i.e., have their lines memorized. Eighty percent of the
‘actors’ that showed up did not know the lines at all! They were
reading straight off the page. Of the twenty percent that did know the
lines somewhat, only five percent truly had them memorized. And of
those, only two percent looked right and understood the material well
enough to consider. Guess who got the gigs?
By way of a loose comparison, eighty percent of the Screen Actors
Guild members earn less than $10,000.00 per year. Of the top twenty
percent of earners (over $10,000.00 per year) only the top five percent
make more than $100,000.00 per year and the top two percent make as
much as the rest combined.

Weird, eh?

I don’t think that is a coincidence at all, and you would do well to take
note here. Knowing your lines verbatim is the bare minimum effort
you need to undertake to work as an actor. And I mean know them
verbatim! Referring back to the sit-com I was talking about earlier, the
actor that kept flubbing his lines didn’t forget them, he just said them
differently every time. Changing the order of the words around a little,
or dropping a couple of words here and there. I imagine he figured that
it was such a small gig he could just ‘wing it’ and get by.
‘Winging it’ (if that’s in fact what he did), my friends, became a
potentially career-ending mistake for that poor soul.

40
Look, I am aware of the difficulties that most people have memorizing
things. It’s tedious, time-consuming and not very much fun. Not to
mention if you have some sort of learning disability, like dyslexia. But
it doesn’t matter. You have to do it to be an actor. That is your job!
Think about it, on a sit-com, you’re going to have to be able to
memorize 40 pages of material a week, not to mention all the re-writes
and little things that get tossed in during shooting. If you can’t bother
to get a few lines down for an audition, how on earth would you expect
a production company to hire you as a full time player on a show?
Fortunately for you, this is an easy fix. Memorize your lines. If you
don’t have lines to memorize, memorize an article in the paper. Go
over it at least one hundred times until you can repeat the words
perfectly, every time. You should be able to wash the dishes, fold your
laundry and have the TV going and still be able to say your lines
perfectly, or you don’t have them. If you cannot have a friend say one
line at any point in your dialogue and have you be able to start from
there perfectly, you don’t have them.
That last bit is incredibly important, because you will be called on to
start and stop often during a shoot. Those starts and stops happen at
very random places, and occur at a fast pace. You had better know
your lines as well as your A,B,C’s or you’re going to get stuck. You do
not have time on set to not be able to ‘pick up’ a scene in the middle. If
you don’t have your lines perfect, I guarantee you those pick ups will
hose you. And once you are ‘hosed’ I further guarantee you that your
future employment prospects will plummet.
Just know that your memory will get better, but like any other workout
you do for your body, you actually have to work at it to see
improvement. Work on your memorization skills every day! Get plays
and memorize scenes, do whatever you have to do to hone that skill,
because if you can’t get that part of your job down, you won’t get any
parts at all.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget the cold reading work while you’re at it…

41
 CHAPTER 5

Physical Continuity

42
5

Physical continuity…what is this all about? Simply put, your physical

body movements must match from take to take in precise relative time.
To give an example, if you deliver the line: ‘And then I told Joe to go
jump in a lake, and then he did!’ and during that delivery, you pick up a
coffee cup after you say ‘lake’, guess what? The next time you deliver
that line you have to pick up the coffee cup at the same exact time
again. And again. And again. With the same hand and the same
motion until the production crew has enough coverage to move on.

Sounds easy enough, right?

But, oddly enough, once the cameras start rolling the amateurs seem to
come out of the woodwork. Remembering the coffee cup is pretty
43
easy, but all of a sudden, hands are going all over the place, the actors
change which leg they cross, they tilt their head different directions,
and they lean in when they should be leaning out. Think about how
much you move when you talk to someone. Now, reflect on the fact
that it’s all being recorded exactly as it happened. Now, further reflect
on the fact that you’re going to have that same conversation thirty more
times and you have to duplicate every movement, every time, and at the
same time.
It’s really funny to me that I have yet to meet an inexperienced actor
that didn’t tell me immediately (upon questioning) that he or she had
their action matching down pat. Even funnier still, I have had to ‘cut
around’ (editing footage to hide an error) literally every single one of
them, without fail.

I can practically set my watch by it.

Look, if you have a conversation during filming, and in one take your
hands are on your hips and the next they’re up scratching your head
and then the next they’re crossed at your chest the editor can’t use it.
The first thing the editor will try to do is cut you out. If what you
happen to be saying is really important, he or she will cut out as much
of you as they can. If they can’t do that, they will leave footage in that
looks like you are some sort of crazy chicken with his arms flapping all
over the place. The producer and director will get upset and ask why,
the editor will show him your shoddy work (because he likes his job)
and they won’t call you back.

Ever.

Many times I hear an actor say, ‘well, making sure of the action
matching is the script supervisor’s job, my job is to act.’ I say that your
job as an actor is to keep track of your own physical continuity. The
44
script supervisor is there to record on the script all of the actions that
have been performed by the actors, the physical condition of the set,
the costumes, the lens selection for the shot, the screen direction at the
time, which scene and take the crew is on, and which camera
movements were employed. This includes such minutia as whether or
not your top button was done or undone, where all the dishes were on a
table, whether or not a glass was full…you get the idea.
The script supervisor has a ton of stuff on his or her plate already, and
they are keeping their eyes peeled for big stuff that will get them fired.
You are expected as a professional actor to make an action during a
take and repeat it. Period. The script supervisor should be able to note
that action once and only make additional notes if there is a mistake in
that established action. It is not the script supervisor’s job to keep
track of you flailing around like a crazed monkey on steroids.
A script supervisor friend of mine once told me a story about a young
man doing a fairly emotional scene in a movie. In the first two or three
takes, the actor was waving his hands all over the place and moving all
around like a putz. The script supervisor quietly mentioned to him that
he couldn’t write action matching notes to keep up with him and if he
kept it up, the actor would get cut out of the picture, or at the very least,
lose all of his close-ups.
So, like most actors who want to stay in the picture (and get their close-
ups), the actor went stock still as a board right after the script super’s
‘note’. The director yelled for cut and asked what the problem was.
The actor relayed the script supervisor’s advice, at which point the
director yelled at the script supervisor! The director chastised my
friend for interfering with the actor’s work and told the actor to carry
on as he had before. With this, the crew resumed shooting.
Now, our poor actor was in a conundrum. On one hand he had a
director saying what he was doing was fine and to carry on. On the
other though, was a crewmember telling him that what he was doing
was going to cost him screen time, and they both sounded right! So,
our poor actor wisely split the difference, calmed his actions down
enough to make them repeatable and still kept enough emotional
content to drive the scene.
45
The director yelled cut, and sent the actor on his way with praise for a
job well done. Once the actor was out of sight, however, he pulled the
script supervisor aside and thanked him for what he had done! He told
my friend that he hadn’t known what to do about the actor flailing all
over the place! He said he didn’t want to bring it up himself because
he didn’t want the actor to become self-conscious and end up wasting
more time.
Now, there are a couple of lessons here. First, you have to consciously
choose and utilize actions that are easily repeatable and then train to
make sure that they look unconscious and natural. I’ll give you a
quick example of what I mean. An acquaintance of mine worked on
the remake of The Manchurian Candidate with Denzel Washington and
Meryl Streep. He said during filming Meryl Streep was in a ‘talking
heads’ scene and during the conversation, she reached down and
adjusted her skirt. A little unconscious shifting of cloth that he just
happened to notice. He said it was so subtle and natural looking, he
assumed it was a genuine, subconscious gesture. And then she did it
again, and again, and again. For close to 40 takes, she put that same
little motion in at the same exact spot, and she was so good at it, it
hardly seemed noteworthy. That, my friends, is a PRO.
And second, no one is going to take the time to ‘train’ you on set.
Technically speaking, no one but the director is supposed to give
performance notes to the actors. Even then, a good director knows that
if an actor becomes overly self-conscious about what he’s doing, they
may as well pack up for the day. If you are in a small part and don’t
know how to action match properly, have your lines down pat, miss
marks or anything like that, they will simply work around it and you
will never be the wiser. You’ll get a smile, a handshake and wondrous
praise for your effort.

And then you won’t get hired again.

Just like learning your lines, you need to learn how to perform your
action matching. It has to be second nature for you to move in this
calculated fashion, or it looks terrible on screen. Get a couple of your

46
acting friends together; work out a little scene from a play or a movie
and then practice action matching. Have one of the players sit to the
side and take notes. Be sure you get all of the actions perfect every
time. Just like learning to memorize, do this everyday and you’ll get
better at it. Don’t do it and you won’t, it’s just that simple.
One other thing while we are here. And, that’s movement and speaking
on screen. As a general rule, it goes action, then dialogue. That is to
say, you walk, stop and then talk. Likewise for actions, you pound the
desk with your fist, stop, and then you speak. Make sense?
This does two things. First, it means that when you’re pacing all
around like Perry Mason, when you stop to talk they can shoot a close-
up of you standing still and it will make sense. You do want your
close-ups, right?
Second, you not pounding on the desk like Perry Mason while you
speak will give the sound guy and the editor ‘clean’ dialogue to work
with. You do want to be heard, right?
A quick note here on dialogue and close-ups. When you are in close-
up and especially when you are acting across from someone in close-up
(as in you are not on camera) DO NOT overlap dialogue. Even if the
dialogue overlaps in the two-shot or the group shot, make it a point to
have clear, distinct separation in the lines. The editor can tighten it up
and make it work if he has clean ‘stems’ (dialogue recordings), but
editors tend to get frazzled when they have to screw around to
manufacture a ‘clean’ close-up.
As you work on action matching, be aware that any activity you are
doing that makes significant noise will interfere with your dialogue.
Think things like rustling a newspaper, chopping food, closing a door,
etc. Here’s this word again, practice getting out of the habit of doing
noisy things while you talk.
Realize that this is not a natural way for most of us to speak in our day-
to-day lives, but it is imperative that you make it seem completely
natural on screen. It’s easy enough to practice, just do it every time
you’re talking with someone. Find a way to chop your vegetables (or
whatever), carry on a conversation with your friend like normal and
47
never have the two happen at the same time. You can avoid having the
sound guy grief you constantly (not to mention the producer, director
and the editor) by following this very sage advice, but don’t forget that
you have to PRACTICE it!

EzPz Lemon Squeezy.

Also, don’t forget to practice the separation of dialogue. Take a scene

that you know really well and act it out with a friend, but be sure you
put defined gaps in the dialogue on some of the runs. Practice as if you
really were doing close-ups! Trust me, training like this adds up fast,
and the closer you are to being a ‘true’ professional, the quicker you
will become a true professional.
On television shows, this stuff is not going to be quite as critical to get
perfect, and this is probably where your first gigs are going to be
anyway. Don’t allow yourself to become complacent! The action
matching and ‘clean’ dialogue requirements are not nearly as strict in
television. On a feature film, those things become hypercritical
(remember that viewing environment!) and if you always work at the
highest level possible, you will be giving yourself a much better chance
to excel in this industry.

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 About the Author:
D.L. White is a film and television
professional who currently resides in
Sherman Oaks, CA with an excessive
number of cats.

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