Acting in Columbus will Screen 'DRAMA!' at the Gateway Film Center

ACTING IN COLUMBUS presents the Acting for Teens Spring Production of 'DRAMA!' a Disney Style TV Show at the GATEWAY FILM CENTER - May 20, 2012 at 6:00pm. Tickets are $6.50 and available at the door. Call 614-455-0881 for more information.

Acting in Columbus will screen of 'THE JURY!' at the Gateway Film Center

ACTING IN COLUMBUS presents the Advanced Acting for Film Spring Production of 'THE JURY!' at the GATEWAY FILM CENTER - May 20, 2012 at 6:00pm. Tickets are $6.50 and available at the door. Call 614-455-0881 for more information.

CASTING ALERT!


AUDITION FOR MUSIC VIDEO


Jeffrey Moore from Axtravaganza Films.  I am currently casting for another music video in the Southern, Ohio region. The shoot is May 19th and 20th that is a Friday and Saturday, times are currently not set in stone but we will more than likely be shooting over night. This music video is for a Metal group from Pittsburgh called Unbodied. The script is very eerie and creepy so I need actors who are very open minded. I am looking to cast 3 parts for the video:

A fit/athletic built male between the ages of 18-30


Two beautiful females between the ages of 18-30, both must be comfortable wearing revealing clothing. 
  
This is non-pay but I can compensate for travel expense and food will be supplied the day of the shoot. If interested email Jeffrey Moore Jeffrey@axtravaganza.com and I can get you more information http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q89Yd_OyQzg


Jeffrey Moore, Axtravaganza Films
https://www.facebook.com/AxtravaganzaFilms 
Producer/Director
407.883.1143


AUDITION NOTICE!


Ember is a short film about a young woman facing the demons of her past. Following the death of her grandfather, Hallie returns to his eeking closure for childhood abuse.


Hallie: Female, mid-20’s, Caucasian. Non-confrontational and stuck in a desk job. The death of her grandfather is a relief, but returning to the house is traumatic.


Sarah: Female, mid-20’s, any ethnicity. Hallie’s live-in girlfriend. Confident and assertive, she supports Hallie unconditionally.


David: Male, 50’s, Caucasian. Hallie’s uncle. Distant yet caring. May or may not know about Hallie’s past abuse.


Helmer: Male, late 60’s, Caucasian. Hallie’s grandfather. Calculating and usually restrained, Hallie was his dirty little secret.


Mr  Meyer: Male, 40-60, any ethnicity. Friendly and well-liked, he has lived next door to Helmer for years.


YOUNG HALLIE: 7-9. Caucasian. Seen in flashbacks, young Hallie is a frightened little girl. But she is also strong enough to keep her secret.


Please contact: Ellen Swisher (Producer) (937)631-5742 or swisher.ellen@gmail.com


No prepared monologue needed, sides will be provided at the audition, or available by email ahead of time. Please bring resume and head shot.


Monday May 7th from 6:15 to 8:30
Cincinnati Public Library Main Branch
800 Vine Street Cincinnati, Oh 45202
Audition located in Meeting Room 2A


Audition for Short Film

 “A Day and a Night” is a short thriller about a young headhunter who takes on a contract to hunt down an unknown creature/person who has been terrifying a settlement, hauling away many residents under the very noses of everyone who lives there.   This short film is produced by Mike Anderson and directed by Adam Rawls. Filming will begin late May 2012 and is expected to be completed within three weeks.  This is a non-SAG, unpaid, student film. Food, transportation and a copy of the film as well as credit in the film will be exchanged for participation.


If interested in auditioning, please read the brief character descriptions below and then contact the director at ahrawls@gmail.com to schedule an appointment at the Art Institute of Ohio – Cincinnati (located at 8845 Governors Hill Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45249). Please indicate which part(s) you are interested in auditioning for in your correspondence.


Lead Roles
Darim: Male Any Race Age 28-35
He is the main character of the story.  He is very self centered, quick to hold a grudge, defiant, and a bit anti-social.  He is the type of person that doesn’t hesitate to twist a situation to his personal benefit regardless of the consequences to those around him.  Due to an injury however, he is rendered almost a clean slate.  All the aforementioned characteristics have been reduced to disjointed fragments.  Almost as if the personality side of his brain was figuratively reset.


Supporting Roles
Arin:  Male Any Race Age 18-26
The youngest of the victims held captive with Darim and the son of Patts.  A psychological wreck unable to take much more hardships he has been forced to endure. He is very insistant, frustrated, and desperate.  These traits are not personality driven, only through unfortunate circumstance.  Before this, he was a confident and brave fellow, never one to hesitate defending those he cares about.


Patts: Male Any Race Age 45-55
The father to Arin, Patts is considerably more stong-willed as well as experienced, able to exude an upbeat and positive as well as professional atmosphere for the sake of everyone else.   He is simple and old-fashioned, a commoner’s man.  It is important that all actors interested in him have a dynamic range of acting emotion.


Avrielle: Female Any Race Age 18-26
Another captive of Psycho, she is educated, literate/well-spoken, as well as kind hearted.  She can also be very observant when she wants to be. 


Psycho: Male Any Race except African American Age 25-35
The antagonist of the short film, he is an embittered soul who has dedicated his being to making those he deems guilty to pay the ultimate price.   Since this character has only two words of dialogue, the actor must be a good physical actor, able to carry weight and atmosphere through his actions alone.

The 48 Hour Film Project



The 48 Hour Film Project is a wild and sleepless weekend in which you and a team make a movie—write, shoot, edit and score it—in just 48 hours.

On Friday night, you get a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, all to include in your movie. 48 hours later, the movie must be complete. Then it will show at a local theater, usually in the next week.

In 2011, nearly 60,000 filmmakers made 4,000 films in 96 cities on 6 continents. This year, we're even bigger, with filmmakers around the world taking the challenge to make a film in just 48 hours.

Our Mission

The 48 Hour Film Project's mission is to advance filmmaking and promote filmmakers. Through its festival/competition, the Project encourages filmmakers and would-be filmmakers to get out there and make movies. The tight deadline of 48 hours puts the focus squarely on the filmmakers—emphasizing creativity and teamwork skills. While the time limit places an unusual restriction on the filmmakers, it is also liberating by putting an emphasis on "doing" instead of "talking."


Don't Be Left on the Sidelines

Whether you can't convince your cousin to form a team or we're no longer accepting new teams in your city—sign up here to volunteer for a team.

Just enter your name, email and skills/job desired. Your listing, along with all other volunteers will be stored in a database by city, and available for filmmakers to view. If someone is looking for help, they just may call YOU!

The 48 Hour Film Project is providing this networking service free of charge. By submitting your information you acknowledge that: the 48HFP does not guarantee placement with a team; individual filmmakers may or may not contact you to invite you to be on their team; 48HFP does not screen its filmmakers; your information will be available on the World Wide Web and accessible to many people.

Click here: http://www.48hourfilm.com/join/?city=columbus&fb_source=message


Acting in Columbus asked KC Allen what's the best way for local actors to get involved:

"Go to MOFA mixers, go to any 48HFP get togethers we may set up, post on the various Facebook groups and pages as well as your own wall your interest in gettig on a team, and be sure to sign up to volunteer to be on a team here: http://www.48hourfilm.com/join/?city=columbus.."

Columbus 48HFP Links

WEEKEND ACTING BOOT CAMP


Friday/Saturday/Sunday June 1-3, 2012 $350


Weekend Acting Boot Camp is designed for the beginner who want intensive training over a short period of time or the rusty actor who needs to get back on top of their game. Boot Camp will give you a strong foundation in acting techniques as well as a firm grasp of the nuts and bolts of scene work and audition skills.


Your Boot Camp will consist of no more than eight students who will discover together that acting is probably the most challenging and thrilling thing they have ever done. You will learn that if indeed this is for you and you stick with it, you will not only acquire a skill, but you will do something quite extraordinary with your life.


FRIDAY 7-9:30pm: Orientation Students will learn how to actively pursue objectives, creating character, and making choices based on the Super-Objective of the character.


SATURDAY 10am-6pm: Acting for Film/Scene Study - Begin work on subtext and objectives, gaining an understanding of the basic mechanics of playing a scene truthfully.


Audition/Cold Reading Techniques - Learn audition techniques that will help you get the part. Understand the audition process and learn what a casting director is looking for in an audition.


Getting a scene "cold", making powerful acting choices, listening and answering in the moment as you fully commit to your acting partner and your objective in the scene. Your auditions will be filmed and you'll receive feedback from the instructor.


SUNDAY 12-8pm: Acting for TV Commercials - Learn how to audition for and break into the local commercial and industrial industry. Experience with the actual audition process: You'll work on-camera all day doing both prepared and cold readings, and receive plenty of feedback from your instructor.

This class is limited to eight (8) students.


Click here to REGISTER

CRAFT NOTES by Ed Hooks


Pursuing Objectives 

You can't learn how to act by reading a book, not even one by Stanislavsky, Meisner, Adler or Hagen. How-to acting books make for interesting reading, but a cerebral understanding of acting is not going to do the trick. You learn the art and craft of acting by actually getting up on stage and doing it, the same way you learn how to ride a bicycle or fly an airplane. Acting is a hands-on, direct experience kind of thing, which is why doing it is thrilling and frightening simultaneously. You learn how to swim by jumping into the deep water, not by messing around in the wading pool.


Having said that, I am now going to try to explain what an "objective" is and why it is important to you as an actor. When you are acting in a scene, you should have an objective 100 percent of the time. Think of it as a destination or a task that you want to accomplish. An objective should be provable. If you want to fly to London, getting to London would be your objective, and you would know whether you got there or not. An objective should not be vague. "I want to be a happy person" is an admirable sentiment, but it is not a viable objective for an actor in a scene because happiness is too subjective to measure. Will any of us ever get to a place in life where we figure we have achieved the apex of personal happiness? I don't think so. But let's say, for the sake of argument, that having a family might be a significant ingredient to your happiness formula. If so, then getting pregnant would be a good objective. Unless you aren't married yet, in which case a better objective would be to get a date.


One problem I have noticed is that acting teachers are not consistent in the way they (we) use the word "objective". I recently read the manuscript for a new text on acting, written by an experienced actor, and he talked about how you should "play your objective". That isn't correct. You play an action in pursuit of an objective. Getting to London is the objective; buying a ticket on British Airways is an action in pursuit of that objective. Packing your clothes for the trip is an action in pursuit of that objective. Taking a taxi to the airport is an action in pursuit of that objective. You may have countless actions, one after the other, all in pursuit of the same objective. The idea is that you pursue the objective until you either achieve it, or until another objective takes its place. Your pilot has to land your airplane in the Hudson River? The heck with London, now you just want to get ashore without getting your laptop or Kindle wet. That is your new objective.


This would be a good time to review the craft notes from last month's newsletter. I wrote about how actors use conflict differently than normal people do. Action in pursuit of an objective is part of the equation of acting, but you need conflict (obstacle) in order to make the equation theatrical. You play an action in pursuit of an objective while overcoming an obstacle. Theatrical reality is not the same thing as regular reality. Regular reality is what you get at the spa or the mall. Theatrical reality has structure, form. Ideally, a director should be able to freeze frame actors on stage and ask each one what he is doing. The actor should be able to answer in theatrical terms - action, objective, and obstacle. This is, however, easier said than done. If stopped mid-performance and asked that question, an actor might reply for example, "I am listening to Leslie." "What's your objective?" "To hear what he has to say." Sigh .... To hear what the other character has to say is not a viable objective. Listening is an action, but the conversation between this fellow and Leslie presumably has some point to it. Words are just a tool, and acting has very little to do with words in the first place. "Why are you listening to Leslie?" "Okay, I want him to admit that he has been secretly dating my girlfriend." Bingo! That would be a viable objective. Either he will tell you, or he won't. See what I mean?


All of which brings us back to my original point. You can't learn how to act by reading a book. Now that you thoroughly understand what an objective is in acting, you need to get on a stage and start playing scenes. Soon enough, you will discover that it is not enough to just be truthful and natural and spontaneous. You are going to have to pursue objectives. With actions. While overcoming obstacles. Take it to the bank.

BOOK OF THE MONTH

AN ACTOR PREPARES by Constantin Stanislavski

So much mystery and veneration surrounds the writings of the great Russian teacher and director Stanislavski that perhaps the greatest surprise awaiting a first-time reader of An Actor Prepares is how conversational, commonsensical, and even at times funny this legendary book is. After many productions with the Moscow Arts Company, Stanislavski sought a way to introduce his new style of acting to the world outside of his rehearsal hall. The resulting book is a "mock diary" of an actor describing a series of exercises and rehearsals in which he participates. He details his own emotional and intellectual reactions to each effort, and how his superficial tricks and mannerisms begin to disappear as he increasingly gives over his conscious ego to a faith in the creative power of his subconscious. Rarely has any writer on the theater achieved the sort of lucid and inspired analysis of the acting process as Stanislavski does here, and his introduction of such now-standard concepts as "the unbroken line," "the magic if," and the idea of emotional memory has laid the groundwork for much of the great acting of the 20th century. While much excess and nonsense was to follow in the steps of Stanislavski's writings, his original texts remain invaluable, and surprisingly accessible, to any actor or student of drama. --John Longenbaugh
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