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Amateur acting. Help !

Question:

We want some good and acceptable result in the end so i was wondering : What we should know so we can perform best? Are there any tips that can help a normal guy to talk normaly and have a natural dialog in front of the camera?..

You will get nowhere asking for on-line acting lessons, Dennis. Speaking as an acting teacher, I can tell you that such a request is even mildly insulting.  Acting is an art, like music and sculpture. It’s not something that can be taught in alt.acting.   You can read books like "Meisner on Acting" or "Respect for Acting." That would help, but you STILL won’t know how to act.  As I’ve said in other posts, reading books about acting is a bit like reading sex manuals.  If you’re going to get anything out of them, you have to actually try it.<g My best advice is that you find some local actors who will do this for you.  Hold a casting session.  You’d be surprised at how little a decent non-union actor would charge.  Many people would do a thing like this just for the experience and screen credit. Where do you live? Ed Hooks

Response:

We are 4 crazy guys here and we plan to make a computer game that’s going to be something like an interactive movie(adventure game). Due to lack of funds we plan to put ourselves like actors. We want some good and acceptable result in the end so i was wondering : What we should know so we can perform best? Are there any tips that can help a normal guy to talk normaly and have a natural dialog in front of the camera? We don’t want to win an award for acting. Just an acceptable result is appreciated. Thanks in advance. Dennis Nikolaidis

Response:

You will get nowhere asking for on-line acting lessons, Dennis. Speaking as an acting teacher, I can tell you that such a request is even mildly insulting.  Acting is an art, like music and sculpture. It’s not something that can be taught in alt.acting.  

OK, OK, I have a hunch that Dennis is maybe just a kid who wants to make a movie with his friends for fun. I think there is no harm in saying, "What’s up, just give me a tip so I don’t look like a total fool for this one-time thing that probably only my close friends and relatives will ever see." I could be totally wrong. All I gotta say is maybe you could kinda chill, Ed.  You give really awesome advice, so wouldn’t it be natural for any schmoe, who just needs a little advice and has some sense, to ask you? "Poor slob, he doesn’t even have a name."   – Breakfast At Tiffany’s

Response:

. All I gotta say is maybe you could kinda chill, Ed.  You give really awesome advice, so wouldn’t it be natural for any schmoe, who just needs a little advice and has some sense, to ask you?

The fellow is living in Greece and is a young computer animator.  I’ll send him a private e-mail. And while I appreciate your advice that I chill, I wonder how Pavarotti would respond if someone posted a message in alt.opera: "Recording a CD next week.  Any on-line advice about how to sing?"  I don’t mind giving advice, as you know.   Ed

Response:

And while I appreciate your advice that I chill, I wonder how Pavarotti would respond if someone posted a message in alt.opera: "Recording a CD next week.  Any on-line advice about how to sing?"  I don’t mind giving advice, as you know.  

Hahaha, I see your point.  I guess I am oversensitive to people who take acting sooooo seriously as to get offended when anything tarnishing is said about it. Acting is a form of entertainment, correct?  Entertainment is not a necessity, it’s something people do for FUN.  Fun. I hope that Dennis and his friends have fun doing their movie or whatever, no matter how amatuer.   Thanks for the reply, Ed. Sara "Poor slob, he doesn’t even have a name."   – Breakfast At Tiffany’s

Response:

[...] My best advice is that you find some local actors who will do this for you.  Hold a casting session.  You’d be surprised at how little a decent non-union actor would charge.  Many people would do a thing like this just for the experience and screen credit.

Acting is one of those vocations where even good actors will work for free if they can’t get a paying gig. Unless they’re in the big-time, and even then they’ll sometimes work cheap on interesting projects. —     *                Daly City California:                *     *       where San Francisco meets The Peninsula       *     ******* and the San Andreas Fault meets the Sea *******

Response:

Hahaha, I see your point.  I guess I am oversensitive to people who take acting sooooo seriously as to get offended when anything tarnishing is said about it. Acting is a form of entertainment, correct?  Entertainment is not a necessity, it’s something people do for FUN. …

I agree with you completely.  Acting is fun; it is STORY TELLING, after all.<g  I am more than willing to teach folks who don’t know what to do, but it bothers me when a person suggests that any fool can act.  At its best, acting is an interpretative art.  Fun, yes, but an art.  And for that, it deserves respect.   Ed Hooks

Response:

I agree with you completely.  Acting is fun; it is STORY TELLING, after all.<g  I am more than willing to teach folks who don’t know what to do, but it bothers me when a person suggests that any fool can act.  At its best, acting is an interpretative art.  Fun, yes, but an art.  And for that, it deserves respect.   Ed Hooks

True dat. Sara "Poor slob, he doesn’t even have a name."   – Breakfast At Tiffany’s

Response:

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