Bryce Harrison PETER VALENTINO ACTING STUDIO Key student notes: observations and analysis 6/12/2016 – Everything in acting stems from an acknowledgement and a response. The acknowledgement resonates with the word “yes.” The response follows the word “and.” The improvisational game of “yes and” can be universally applied to all aspects within the acting proximity. The Actor must always agree to the improvisation and try their best to avoid questions within the game of “yes and.”
- As people, we’ve been trained to fight each other. So our Actor training must then be a quest to unravel and revert back to our primitive grain of loving evolution.
- The Actor must have a big heart, it must be open and ready to contain the extreme emotions that the character demands.
- Don’t listen to yourself while you’re acting, instead listen deeply to your scene partner.
- Keep your eyes locked and concentrated on your scene partner. Avoid blinking obsessively. The Actor would be wise to watch Michael Caine’s masterclass for on camera acting; YouTube it.
- The Actor must start to experience everything they are saying.
- You must have a firm grasp on the dexterity of your actor training vocabulary.
- The Actor is always blending 2 or more emotions into the physicality of their character; blending, or coverage.
- Acting is a blend of a psychological and physical experience. “Acting is conscious psychosis” – Peter Valentino.
- Learning requires a deep understanding of the fundamentals and foundations of the craft.
- The Actor must internalize the rules of the game.
- The Actor must get off book as soon as possible.
- “We are aiming for naturalness.” – Peter Valentino.
- The Actors mark must be articulated efficiently. Know your physical marks, then don’t hit them in a deliberate fashion. Hit them through organic movement.
- The Actor must be efficient with diction.
- Try doing less for the camera, for it loves you and will reward you for posing more stillness.
- The intelligent Actor doesn’t read to their script in a cold read. Read to your scene partner, for you are a direct channel for the truth of life.
- You must be willing to go through the rough patches of drudgery. The path to excellence can be lengthy and tedious, it comes down to your level of desire to be excellent. There are no short cuts to excellence. Surrender to your Acting teacher and let them guide the way. They see it objectively, don’t take anything personal. Internalize the laws that govern your field in as efficient manner as possible.
- Keep the bottom right pages of the script peeled up so you can easily flip to the next page.
- The little things matter, no detail goes unaccounted for.
- The Actor must be firing on all cylinders in all aspects of their life.
- Watch out for excessive feet movement: watch out for the nervous actor dance.
- Read to your scene partner with your eyes. Discover the proximity with your imagination.
- You are an Actor who articulates action through the expression of thought and feeling.
- Hitting the emotional marks extremely are a part of the Actors code.
- Refine your physical blocking. Feel the space with your imagination. Deliver your articulate lines. And never miss your mark.
- Every day is another chance to surpass your previous mark. Concentrate your mental forces. You will gain way more satisfaction from an obsession than from distractions and social events. “Keep going, go deeper. Stay in the proximity, stay in the character and get to the core of the emotion.” – Peter Valentino.
- It is about letting go. You’ve internalized the script and it’s time to perform. Often we see the script in our minds eye and we reference to it. The Actor must reverse this tendency. The Actor must become so off book that it must fall out of them at any time, on the drop of a dime. While performing, allow the text to intuitively and instinctually fall out of the body through the physical expression of thought and feeling.