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REEL EDUCATION The Craft By Kelly McCarthy
Recently Reelwriter.net spoke with Taylor about her work with students.
Kelly McCarthy: What differences are you finding between your undergraduate and your graduate film students? Denise Taylor: The college juniors I'm getting have very little film exposure because most of their training has been in theater. And the student film majors are not used to being on the other side of the camera. Even though the graduate students have a little more experience doing things on tape and working with a camera, I'm finding with both it's the detail that's missing. McCarthy: In what way do you mean? Taylor: It's about dealing with the camera and not dealing with themselves differently for the camera, which has been an incredible eye-opening experience for the graduate students. For the juniors it's just about getting them up there. I stress understanding what point of view means. They do have it for theater, but not for film and it's a real different animal. McCarthy: You said many of these students are coming from a theater background. How do you instruct students as to the differences between the two mediums? Taylor: The biggest difference is the amount of space you have to work. In most camera situations you are working in tight spaces, probably from the middle of the chest up. All you need to do is raise an eyebrow and it speaks volumes. That's the biggest adjustment that they are all making. The graduate students are realizing that so little can say so much. McCarthy: Which film actors do you think typify that kind of ease? Taylor: With the graduate students we've had lots of discussions about actors. In his early days I think one of the champions of that was Al Pacino. The scene that I tell students to look at is in the Godfather where Diane Keaton tells Pacino that she's had an abortion. And if you watch his face it almost doesn't move. Robert De Niro is another one, in his early days. They (Pacino and De Niro) are both brilliant, but now they are doing different things. McCarthy: Can you talk more about that? Taylor: Robert De Niro has done so many films at this point. When he did Analyze This (1999) and Analyze That (2002), there are things missing in his performance. Not that he isn't good at comedy. He's brilliant. But I think he's not as consummately precise. Al Pacino is just getting too big. He's doing big things. He's yelling more. He's doing physical things with his face that he didn't have to do before. But the precision of their early work, I mean, today anybody that looks at their early films can see a big difference. McCarthy: What actresses do you admire? Taylor: One of my all time favorites, who I still think is an amazing actress is Sally Field. McCarthy: And yet she's somewhat of a reactive actress. Taylor: But she's not overly reactive even when she's doing comedy. Soapdish, (1991) was just a farce. It was big and huge but underneath it there was this truth that you really felt for her at the end. It was a little bit melodramatic but it was truthful. McCarthy: Is that something you stress with your students, to remain truthful in whatever character they are portraying? Taylor: You have to be truthful. You have to believe every word. McCarthy: Do you find that your students who have a theater background are more equipped to make the transition to film or do they find it more difficult because it's a different way of working? Taylor: It's easier for someone whose had theater experience than someone who has had none. Theater actors understand some of the terminology, the meaning of what's going on. Some of them have a hard time with it. It's a matter of transferring the intellectual knowledge to an organic knowledge. McCarthy: When you put a student in front of the camera for the first time and give them ways to tap into their emotions, what response are you getting from them? Are they having difficulty with the process? Taylor: The main thing I'm hearing from them is that everything seems so far away because they are up there all alone. And they have lights in their eyes and the camera. But then there's the crew and in the class situation students are standing all around them. So then everyone is also watching them and they are trying to be real. I make the analogy for them that it's not that much different than being on stage: having private moments in public. That's what acting is. It's just focusing all of that energy into one place, the camera, which is a huge adjustment. McCarthy: What advice to you give them about working in a scene when the other actor could be absent for the reaction line? Taylor: Usually you will have a rehearsal with the other actor. You know how they are going to respond, in which case you can adjust what you are doing by the memory of what they did. I have my students take the script apart. They have to do everything they do ten times out loud. They have to memorize the first line and the last line, if they aren't memorizing the last scene. You have to find two transitions. In every scene there is at least one transition and that transition means that something has changed. You are moving from one part of the story to the next part of the story and in that transition reactions usually come. And they have to find that reaction. They have to feel that reaction. Let it land. They need to respond based on what they got and based on what the next line is. So the line sits on top of the emotion. Action doesn't mean talk. What happened after you said your last line? What did you see? Are you trying to figure something out? Then I ask them why they are telling this person this? I try with all of my students to give them a sense of confidence. They can take these tools anywhere and never be lost. Some of the theater schools give students reams and reams of copy but they don't tell them how to work it, how to take it apart, how to dissect a scene. And once they start doing it they will begin to develop the technique that works for them. This just gives them some place to start. McCarthy: When you discover a student who really has a talent for film acting, what would you say is at the core of what they are doing? Taylor: It's true concentration. They are living fully in that moment. They are relaxed underneath it and they are free to respond. It's giving yourself up totally. It's being totally without any inhibition, the willingness to screw up, the willingness to make mistakes because that's where some of the genius really lives. Be free in the moment. And you don't have to be married to every step and every word. In your head you have to be married to the words but feel free enough to let it carry you. Allow the emotion and the interpersonal relationships, the conflict, the love, whatever emotion it is to drive the scene more than the words just lying on top and anything can happen. You can't explore unless you feel free to make mistakes. McCarthy: Which is probably a big reason why you are good at directing actors. Taylor: I do have a talent for being able to talk to actors. It's an incredible feeling what goes on between directors and actors. It's beautiful when it works. © Reelwriter.net 2004 |
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A gifted actress in her own right, Denise Taylor is imparting her craft by teaching film acting at Temple University in Philadelphia. Her credits include theater, television and film. She's had leading roles in Steel Magnolias, Jake's Women and Born Yesterday. She has appeared at Broadway Playhouse, Walnut Street Theatre and Mum Puppet Theatre. Television credits include: Touched by an Angel, One Life to Live and Arrest and Trial. In 1993, Taylor was directed by Robert De Niro in A Bronx Tale. |
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