Take 2: ‘Normal People’

My second screen acting experience is officially complete and, comparing it to the only other experience I have of ‘Sardines’, which we performed a week earlier, I can say, without a doubt, that this time I was much more nervous.

We were performing a two-hander from an extract of ‘Normal People’, and I don’t know if it was the quantity of two whole cameras, the much more professional set up in general or self-expectation that I should now be a top tier screen actor after having done one performance, but I was oddly panicked.

A group of five of us were in the recording room: two groups of two, who swapped roles from performing to recording, and a person to use the clapper board. My group performed first, and I have to say I felt rather intimidated by the cameras and lack of audience at first. However, as soon as I began performing, I felt less afraid. The small group of viewers that had once seemed daunting now added to the intimate atmosphere of our scene. To be honest, the fact that we were performing in a stage space, facing the seating as if there really were an audience sitting there, instead of just rows of empty chairs, did bring some comfort to me, as it felt much more familiar, considering I was much more used to performing on stage.

So that there were more options for editing, we performed the scene twice as a whole –

something I believe, in retrospect, we should have done in ‘Sardines’, because it made performing easier; it simply flowed from one bit to the next, instead of feeling choppy.

Apart from missing out a line in the first take, I think everything went fairly well. On reflection, I will say my eye contact, and what my eyes are doing while I’m performing, needs improvement. Having watched our performance of ‘Sardines’ back, I noticed that I flitted my eyes from one thing to another, without having much focus. Although this does happen to work for that character, it doesn’t work for my character in ‘Normal People’. As stated in the book ‘Looking and Acting’: ‘...it is often important to know who is looking at whom, and eye contact is an essential part of many kinds of interaction’ (F. Land Michael, W. Tatler Benjamin, 2009: 11). Therefore, next time I’m definitely going to pay more attention to who/what I’m making eye contact with and what this could say about my character.

We were then able to switch over and I got to participate in filming the other group. This was useful both for gaining experience on what goes on behind the camera, but also for visualising what my own performance would look like from the point of a screen for an audience, which has made me feel as though I will be more conscious of what I am doing in future recordings. I could also recognise that not only was there a lot of pressure on the actors to perform well, but also on the camera people to get the film right, both to portray the actors’ vision correctly and to make them look their best on screen.

To conclude, this experience has only furthered my knowledge of screen acting, as I am now

aware of more things that I need to do in the future, as well as ideas and tips for screen acting in general.

Reference List:

F. Land Michael, W. Tatler Benjamin, (2009) Looking and Acting, Oxford, Oxford University

Press