The actor comes with his own acting teacher, the audience questions but the director supports?
Wen | Xiaoyu
When preparing for the movie "Jinling Thirteen", Zhang Yimou specially selected a group of newcomer actors to play Qin Huainu, including those who studied broadcasting and art, as well as accountants and shopping mall sales. In order to give them basic acting skills and temperament that is more suitable for the role, Liu Tianchi, a Chinese opera performance teacher, was invited to do group training.
One year of training was successfully completed, and the simple and ignorant newcomer actor took a big step towards the beautiful fireworks woman on the screen. The film routinely has to be signed by the staff, but Zhang Yimou has never thought of how to call Liu Tianchi's position appropriate. So Liu Tianchi said: "With a director of photography and art direction, why can't there be a performance director?" "It was probably at that time that this position first appeared on the credits of domestic film and television dramas.
In the past twelve years, acting directors have become more and more well-known inside and outside the industry, and their appearance on the credits is nothing new. But more often than not, they are positioned to serve the entire crew, rather than individual actors. Some time ago, the end of "Heart Protection" marked the respective acting teachers of the male and female protagonists. Yang Mi also revealed that he filmed his new play "Harbin 1944" and brought an acting teacher into the group.
For the phenomenon that actors bring their own acting teachers into the group, some people recognize, "Young actors have begun to pay attention to acting skills, which is a good phenomenon." Some people also complained, "Take the teacher to copy, it turns out that the examination room is still allowed to take the teacher." ”
Which view is closer to the real situation? Performance guidance as the "party" (hereinafter referred to as "table" reference) may provide part of the answer.
The inviting party is poor, and the guiding actor is not bad
Mr. Xiang Jin, who works in Liu Tianchi Performance Workshop, believes that the work of the table is more to face the crew, but it is not uncommon to receive personal invitations from the agent team or actors. In any case, their guidance is on the actors, and the workflow is basically the same, except that there are differences in the framed objects.
"If it is invited by the crew, it should be taken into account by the entire cast of the group." When Mr. Wang Chunzi, a Nortel performance teacher and the head of Wang Chunzi's performance studio, served as the director of the movie "Samurai God's Order", although he mainly focused on young leading actors such as Qu Chuxiao and Wang Yueyi, he was also responsible for controlling some group actors.
At the same time, not all crews will invite the table, after all, it requires a lot of money. Teacher Wang Chunzi told Bone Duo, "Generally, the crew with higher requirements for all aspects of production, or with more newcomers and young actors, will invite the table. A big part of our job is actually helping young actors do their homework and prepare. ”
For example, in the "Fengshen Trilogy" that is being released, the newcomer actors selected at that time will first undergo high-intensity closed training, and there are three cousins and groups after start-up, and Teacher Xiang Jin is one of them.
"Before the start-up, it took half a year to train the actors in acting, equestrianism, motor skills, etc., during which there was a careful training plan and strict assessment indicators, which was a bit like customizing teaching content under the academic system." Teacher Xiang Jin believes that this is a practice that is biased towards the industrialization of film and television, suitable for large-scale projects with sufficient time and funds. Under the current film and television ecology, there are few such projects; More of the projects he was exposed to were "putting together actors one to two months before the start of the film." ”
Usually, Mr. Xiang Jin will first meet and communicate with the director to listen to his requirements for the overall creation of this play, including the positioning of the performance style, the character characteristics he hopes the actors present, and the areas where the actors need to improve. The significance of this is to eliminate the differences in understanding and cognition between the two sides in the first time and ensure a high degree of unity in the creation of both sides. Then he will talk to the actor about the creative ideas of the character, how he hopes to present it, and whether there are specific creative problems. They digest these questions one by one, and at the same time develop and implement rehearsal plans for the heavy scenes.
The preparation before the actual shooting allows the actors to have a more comprehensive and clear understanding of the script and characters, and have detailed rehearsals and multiple sets of role processing plans for heavy scenes. In the actual shooting scene, the work of the table is based on the director's approval, and then make some improvised adjustments to the actors' performances according to the scene situation, so that the performance is more accurate and the character texture is stronger.
It may seem like the cycle is getting longer, but in fact it makes real shooting more efficient. "The run-in between actors and directors has almost no consumption problem, but it can save time and capital costs." Teacher Xiang Jin said.
Teacher Wang Chunzi also mentioned, "Unlike the rehearsal run-in of stage performances, film and television actors should integrate with the characters before shooting, and cannot delay the progress on the set. ”
Similar to "Fengshen Trilogy", the movie "Dream of Red Mansions: Golden and Jade Liangyuan" directed by Hu Mei is also a project in which Episodic was involved earlier, and teacher Wang Chunzi participated in the audition and training actors. However, she said, "Actors in more projects, especially well-known ones, may not be able to enter the group particularly early, but we still basically require at least a week in advance to prepare, because familiarity with the script, including building character relationships, basic training in front of the camera, etc., cannot be re-run-in on the set." ”
Entering the filming stage, the table means to cooperate with the director, responsible for dealing with various issues related to the actor's performance.
On the set of "Fengshen Trilogy", Mr. Xiang Jin will study where is not accurate when the actor is on the spot, and form a coherent and clear suggestion to the director at the first time, and the director should consider scheduling, scenes and other factors, and then output with the actor. Or like Wang Chunzi on the set of "Lang Jun Unsatisfactory", it may be that the director first feels that there is a problem in a certain scene, and she will find a way to solve it.
"During the actual shooting, the actors may have various unexpected situations, and some will cause the crew's progress to stagnate. Just like firefighters, they have to quickly find a way to respond on the spot. ”
Table refers to work, not blunt copy-paste
It can be found that the work of the surface is fully surrounded and penetrating, and they can affect the actor's play just like the director. But this influence is not necessarily to let the actor copy and paste, but more to flexibly tap the actor's potential.
Taking germinal training as an example, the table refers to the fact that after fully interpreting the script and characters, it will create a living environment for the characters outside the script. The scenarios assumed here are reasonable, but they don't appear in the script description. For example, imagine how the character would react when they encountered something. Xiang Jin said, "What we want to do is to help the actor fully enter the world of the character, so that he can naturally express some instinctive expression of the character, so that the audience can feel real through the lens." ”
"In the words of performance theorist Steinney, all acting training is to provoke subconscious reactions through conscious action, and the more subconscious there is, the better the actor." Therefore, the young actor's self-proclaimed experience and the tweaking of the table are actually not contradictory.
"In addition to stimulating a knee-jerk response, the table should be integrated with the character according to the role and director requirements, combined with the actor's personality characteristics, which will be very helpful for young actors who do not have rich life experience." Teacher Wang Chunzi said.
In addition, "the 'trinity' is one of the characteristics of the performance industry, that is, the creator, the creative tools and the creative results are the actors themselves. The importance of the actor's state in real shooting is self-evident, and the presence of the table can also help the actor stabilize his state. ”
Actors who don't see their performance when performing, they may develop bad feelings of complacency or hesitation. Professional directors and cousins represent an authority, and the advice given is convincing. Everyone is working in the direction of making the characters and actors better, so the actors will go down the way. Teacher Wang Chunzi shared that when filming "Lang Jun is Unsatisfactory", the male protagonist Chen Zheyuan felt that he had a watch finger sitting in front of the monitor to check and give feedback on live performances, which gave him a sense of steadiness.
From the perspective of working mode, the table finger is still a bridge connecting the director and the actor.
"Film and television shooting is a director-centric system, and all departments need directors to control and worry about it. Directing an actor itself is the director's most important job, but sometimes he really can't keep busy. "Teacher Wang Chunzi took the movie "Samurai God's Order" as an example." A mass scene like "Sacolyte Order" with hundreds of people, the director cannot stare alone. This is one of the reasons why the crew needs to be represented, and as for the rest, it is related to the respective experience backgrounds and working positions of the directors and actors.
Different directors have different professional backgrounds, and some directors may have no exposure to the acting industry at all. Teacher Xiang Jin said that when such directors communicate with actors, there may be incongruities in the context of expression, resulting in poor shooting. On the other hand, there are often communication barriers between rookie actors and senior directors, which directly affect the quality of shooting.
Previously, a crew only invited Mr. Xiang Jin to be in charge of the work in the middle of the show, because there was a big difference in creation between the director, producer and several leading actors, and it was difficult to continue filming. After he joined the group, he was like a translator, first clarifying the demands of the director and producer, and then communicating in a way that the actors could accept, so that the two sides could reach an agreement again.
In other cases, some directors' expression ability is relatively average, and it will be smoother to have the assistance of the finger during shooting. In general, this also puts forward high requirements for the professional ability of the watch, which requires not only actor thinking, but also director and teacher thinking. Teacher Wang Chunzi added, "The table finger must not only be familiar with the actors, but also understand the style of the work and the requirements of the director, in order to resolve the various contradictions of understanding in artistic creation." ”
Director supports actors with their own fingers?
When an actor brings his own acting teacher into the group, in addition to public opinion, he also needs to be concerned about the views of the director and crew.
"By following the actors into the group, we will try to avoid causing trouble to the crew's work." Xiang Jin said that when he accepts an actor invitation alone, his cousin will have more time for him to prepare. Before joining the group, not only will the characters be carefully constructed with the actors, but also rehearsed each scene as a heavy scene.
After the official start of filming, sufficient preparation in the early stage allows the actor to basically shoot one to get the director's approval, so the table points out that the frequency in front of the director is very low now. But if the director puts forward requirements for the actor's performance, the table finger will quickly give the corresponding solution. If it goes smoothly, the director is supportive of the actor's own watch. After all, this not only did not interfere with the normal work of the crew, but also greatly improved the efficiency and quality of on-site shooting.
On the other hand, everyone's unanimous goal is to better complete the role, so even if it really accidentally interferes with the rhythm of the crew, it is not too serious a problem. When Mr. Xiang Jin followed the actors into the group in the past, he never had an unpleasant relationship with the director and other members of the crew. Teacher Wang Chunzi also believes that "artistic differences in filming are normal, and as a watch, you must be good at communication in order to quickly adjust the plan so that the actors' performances meet the director's requirements." ”
Due to the hidden risk of public opinion, young actors rarely talk openly about the existence of the watch finger, let alone put the name of the watch finger under their own name. But Xiang Jin believes that actors need to constantly improve their skills, and it is not surprising to invite teachers to guide them. "Given the fact that some young actors have different circumstances, they may not have had systematic acting training. But as long as they are willing to put it into action, whether it is daily acting lessons or asking for instructions for a play, I think it is understandable. ”
Some mature actors will also hire teachers for their shortcomings, or have higher requirements for performance, so the invitation table refers to. For example, in the cooperation with senior actors, teacher Wang Chunzi learned that the drama bone also has "high participation" behind it: "The watch finger is not only with training, but also more like a friend after tacit cooperation." When you receive a role, you can work together to enrich the actor's performance and polish the role more brilliantly. ”
Teacher Wang Chunzi believes that the emergence and development of the table refers to the increasingly detailed division of labor in the film and television industry, and the essence is that the industry is developing in a more professional direction. According to her experience, many young actors have indeed improved in a short period of time after her original "going" performance in front of the camera rapid training, but they still need to be consolidated and improved by continuous practice in practice. After all, the process of young actors maturing is not achieved overnight, and the index that stands taller, sees farther and has stronger professional ability than them can lead them to progress, thus making up for the gap in the industry that left art school to continue studying.
"No matter what kind of profession you are in, it is inevitable to encounter a jerky stage, maybe you can give young actors more tolerance." At the same time, teacher Xiang Jin also said that for the cousin, "as long as we see that the actors' performances are more realistic, the roles are more moving, and the audience is more recognized, our work is valuable." ”