Why Some Crowd Scenes Need a Choreographer
A convincing crowd rarely moves at random. When large numbers of people move through a narrow area, repeatable patterns reduce uncertainty.
Industry & Career
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Browse acting advice, audition tips, training articles, industry guidance, actor lifestyle stories and film reviews.
The Costume Fitting That Happens Before Anyone Says Action
Before a performer steps onto set, the costume department may need measurements, reference photographs and a fitting appointment. During a fitting, a designer may check...
Industry & Career
When a Background Performer Becomes a Featured Extra
A background performer may be asked to carry out a distinct action close to the principal cast: hand over a ticket, react to an announcement or cross the frame at a...
Industry & Career
When the Weather Becomes an Uncredited Cast Member
A forecast can change a film scene before anyone reaches the location. Imagine filming the beginning of a conversation in sunshine and its ending under a dark sky.
Industry & Career
The Art of Looking Busy in a Silent Crowd Scene
A restaurant scene may appear full of animated conversation while the sound department needs clean dialogue from two principal actors. Background performers often create...
Industry & Career
The Background Actor Who Must Never Look at the Camera
In ordinary life, people glance towards movement, lights and unfamiliar equipment. In a filmed crowd scene, those instincts can ruin an otherwise convincing shot....
Industry & Career
What a Second Assistant Director Actually Does All Day
The second assistant director, often called the 2nd AD, helps turn a shooting schedule into an organised flow of people and information. Responsibilities vary by...
Industry & Career
Inside the Last Hour Before a Film Crew Wraps
Near the end of a filming day, people may be tired and eager to leave, but the production still has to finish the scheduled work, secure the location and prepare for...
Industry & Career
Why a Five-Second Scene Can Take an Entire Morning
A character opens a door, notices something and turns away. On screen, the moment may last five seconds. On set, it can involve blocking, lighting, lens changes, focus...
Industry & Career
The Art of Making a Street Look Like Another Century
Turning a modern street into an earlier century is rarely a matter of replacing every object in sight. A production designer and art department identify what the camera...
Industry & Career
Who Decides When Everybody Gets Lunch?
On a film set, lunch is not simply the moment when everyone feels hungry. It affects working hours, department handovers, equipment use, transport and the amount of...
Industry & Career
When a Location Falls Through the Night Before Filming
A filming location can become unavailable for reasons that have nothing to do with the script: an access agreement changes, a building develops a safety problem,...
Industry & Career
The Strange Geography of a Film Set
A character may walk from a kitchen into a bedroom in three seconds. The kitchen could be on one stage, the bedroom on another and the corridor connecting them a...
Industry & Career
The First Person on Set Is Usually Not an Actor
A call sheet may say an actor is needed at seven, but the location is rarely waking up at seven. A unit base has to be opened, vehicles positioned, power checked and...
Industry & Career
Why an Actor's Day Rate Isn't Their Take-Home Pay
A day rate looks beautifully simple in a casting notice. Work one day, receive the advertised amount. Except that the figure on the notice and the money eventually...
Industry & Career
What an Accessible Audition Actually Looks Like
An audition can be described as 'open to everyone' while still being impossible for some performers to attend. A staircase at the entrance, an inaccessible self-tape...
Industry & Career
The First Conversation to Have With a New Agent
An agent offers representation. It is tempting to celebrate, sign immediately and assume the difficult career questions will resolve themselves. But the first useful...
Industry & Career
What Happens to a Self-Tape After You Press Send?
You finish a self-tape, watch it once too many times and press send. Then comes the strange part: silence. The file has left your phone, but what happens to it now? The...
Audition Tips
Why the Quietest Room Can Be a Sound Recordist's Nightmare
The location looks perfect: a spotless office, closed windows, thick carpet and no traffic outside. Then the sound recordist puts on headphones. Suddenly the...
Industry & Career
The Pocket That Changes How a Character Walks
A coat is not just a coat once an actor puts it on. A deep pocket invites a hand to disappear. A tight cuff restricts a gesture. A bag heavy with imaginary possessions...
Actor Life
The Rain That Only Falls Where the Camera Can See
A storm on screen may occupy just a few metres of pavement. Step beyond the camera's frame and the street can be perfectly dry. Artificial rain is one of filmmaking's...
Industry & Career
Acting Underwater Is Nothing Like Acting on Land
Underwater, even an uncomplicated gesture can become an elaborate negotiation with physics. Fabric floats, hair refuses to stay put, and a character's supposedly...
Training
Why Continuity Can Make an Extra's Sandwich Important
A background performer picks up a sandwich, takes a bite and laughs at something happening off camera. It seems inconsequential. Until the scene is filmed from the...
Industry & Career
What Happens Between the Director Calling Cut and Action Again?
A scene ends. The director calls cut. Nobody applauds, nobody heads home, and—unless something has gone spectacularly wrong—the actor probably shouldn't wander off to...
Industry & Career
Why Trying to Sound Natural Can Make an Audition Sound Less Natural
Suddenly you're listening to your own voice. Was that too theatrical? Would a real person actually emphasise that word? Should you speak faster, overlap the reader or...
Acting Advice
Why Trying to Make an Audition Memorable Can Make It Forgettable
You know casting may be watching dozens of actors for the same role, so it's natural to wonder what will make yours stand out. Perhaps you look for an unusual...
Acting Advice
Why Trying to Control Your Face Can Weaken a Self-Tape
The camera is close, your face fills a significant part of the frame and suddenly you're aware of absolutely everything it might be doing.
Acting Advice
Why Trying to Make Every Audition Choice Interesting Can Backfire
That's good advice. A performance without any point of view can feel cautious and indistinct, particularly in an audition where casting may only have a few minutes to...
Acting Advice
Why Looking for Emotion in the Script Can Make Your Audition Less Emotional
You reach a scene where the character discovers something devastating, and one question immediately appears: how emotional should this be?
Acting Advice
Why an Audition Can Feel Over-Rehearsed Even When the Acting Is Good
There is a point in audition preparation where more rehearsal can stop making the scene better.
Acting Advice
Why You Shouldn't Plan Exactly Where to Pause in an Audition
A well-placed pause can be incredibly effective in an audition. It can create tension, allow a difficult thought to land or make us wonder what the character is about to...
Acting Advice
Why Your Audition May Improve When You Stop Showing the Character's Thoughts
That's useful advice, but it can produce a peculiar misunderstanding: if the camera can see thought, perhaps you need to make sure the thought is visible.
Acting Advice
Why Your Audition Can Feel Flat When Every Line Matters
That's obviously useful. The trouble begins when taking the text seriously turns into treating every sentence as equally important.
Acting Advice
Why You Shouldn't Copy the Performance You Think Casting Wants
Even without a named actor, you may recognise the type immediately. You've seen characters like this before and you have a fairly good idea how they're usually played.
Acting Advice
Why an Audition Can Improve When You Stop Trying to Get It Right
There is usually a moment during audition preparation when you begin searching for the correct version.
Acting Advice
Why Your First Reaction in an Audition May Be Too Fast
The response is clear, emotionally appropriate and perfectly timed. There's only one problem: it can sometimes feel as though you knew what they were going to say.
Acting Advice
Why Standing Still Can Make Your Audition More Powerful
You have a scene to perform, a camera pointing at you and perhaps only a minute or two to make an impression. Standing almost completely still can feel dangerously close...
Acting Advice
Why Your Audition Eyeline Can Change the Entire Performance
Where you look during an audition affects much more than whether your face is visible to the camera. It can alter intimacy, tension, authority and even how strongly we...
Acting Advice
Why Playing the Emotion Can Make an Audition Feel Less Emotional
So you prepare the sadness. You think about the weight of the moment, allow your voice to become fragile and perhaps imagine how devastated you would feel in the same...
Acting Advice
Why a Perfectly Memorised Audition Can Still Sound Rehearsed
Knowing your lines should make an audition freer. Sometimes it does exactly the opposite.
Acting Advice
Why Practising Your Audition in a Mirror Can Work Against You
You practise a scene, catch your reflection and immediately begin receiving information. That expression looks good. That one doesn't. Your head is tilted strangely....
Acting Advice
The Danger of Deciding Exactly Who Your Character Is Too Early
He sits a certain way. He rarely smiles. His movements are controlled. Perhaps you've even imagined the expensive watch.
Acting Advice
Why Your Audition Doesn't Need to Show Everything You Can Do
You've been given two pages, perhaps ninety seconds of screen time, and somewhere in the back of your mind is the knowledge that this may be your only opportunity to...
Acting Advice
Why the Reader Can Change Your Audition More Than You Expect
Suddenly the pauses were different. A line you expected to sound angry arrived almost casually. The reader interrupted you somewhere unexpected, and the carefully...
Acting Advice
Why Trying to Be Likeable Can Make an Audition Less Interesting
There is a subtle pressure in auditions that has almost nothing to do with the script.
Acting Advice
Why Your Best Audition Take Might Be the One You Nearly Deleted
And then, twenty minutes later, you watch them again and discover that take five is somehow the most interesting one.
Acting Advice
Why the First Few Seconds of a Self-Tape Matter More Than You Think
Before the confrontation, the joke, the confession or the beautifully prepared piece of dialogue, there are usually a few seconds where almost nothing appears to be...
Acting Advice
Why an Audition Can Feel Terrible and Still Be Good
One line came out differently from rehearsal. A pause disappeared. You weren't as emotional as you'd expected to be and there was a moment halfway through when you...
Acting Advice
Why You Should Sometimes Rehearse an Audition Badly on Purpose
There is a point in audition preparation where another careful rehearsal can actually make the scene worse.
Acting Advice
The Audition Note That Sounds Like Criticism but Usually Isn't
It's remarkably easy to hear a note like that and mentally translate it into: "That was wrong."
Acting Advice
