tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25895692.post9178846726124812589..comments2023-10-15T05:01:43.528-07:00Comments on Bamboo Killers: Emily declares her love for actors againEmily Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02163221455899041141noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25895692.post-51937565821580354532007-09-06T16:14:00.000-07:002007-09-06T16:14:00.000-07:00Keanu is terrible in that movie... and it probably...Keanu is terrible in that movie... and it probably could have been much better with direction. KB is an actor, so his direction "style" is basically to set up the camera and let actors act. That's kind of non-direction. He doesn't use the camera to tell the story, he uses the actors.<BR/><BR/>If he used the camera to tell the story, Keanu (who is the luckiest man in Hollywood - look at how many hits he's been in *and* how many great indies he's been in) would have seemed as if he were not a hunk of wood. <BR/><BR/>- Billwcmartellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18075242897910568801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25895692.post-73048042485687259182007-09-06T14:31:00.000-07:002007-09-06T14:31:00.000-07:00This post made me think of you and your students.This <A HREF="http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=2404" REL="nofollow">post</A> made me think of you and your students.Tavishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10931940066917820034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25895692.post-68582522957509248722007-09-06T10:07:00.000-07:002007-09-06T10:07:00.000-07:00Good luck with casting -- it's a toughh part of th...Good luck with casting -- it's a toughh part of the process. Hard to really tell in casting sessions what's gonna happen in the infinitely more complex experience of the film shoot. <BR/><BR/>One thing though, keep your head clear and then trust your gut.japhy99https://www.blogger.com/profile/02757172931221738380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25895692.post-62023392384781585042007-09-05T20:26:00.000-07:002007-09-05T20:26:00.000-07:00Also, acting and actors have changed over the last...Also, acting and actors have changed over the last forty years. I'm not about to say that actors pre-1950's weren't extremely talented, because they were. But it wasn't until guys like Brando, Dean, Clift, Newman, and later Nicholson, Duvall, Pacino, among others came along that actors stretched themselves all that much. Back in the older days, even the big name actors really were stuck in a box of playing certain types of roles over and over again. Only the really great ones (such as Bogart, Grant, Stewart for a few examples) were really able to stretch as actors.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25895692.post-35624463334524506492007-09-05T19:13:00.000-07:002007-09-05T19:13:00.000-07:00In Hitchcock films the actors were not the main ch...In Hitchcock films the actors were not the main characters. The camera was the star. The way he used the camera to reveal to the audience a hidden world was genius.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25895692.post-72483483089453399172007-09-05T18:35:00.000-07:002007-09-05T18:35:00.000-07:00My problem with actors is they seem to think they ...My problem with actors is they seem to think they are the most important thing about a movie. <BR/><BR/>It's true that they could be the most important part of getting a movie made, but that's different. <BR/><BR/>A lot of actors want to come in and change dialogue, and character quirks, and all kinds of other things simply for their own vanity, or to create a bigger challenge for themselves (or to make a part potentially less challenging in some cases I've read about). <BR/><BR/>At the end of the day an actor needs to realize it is not all about them. Sometimes, all they need to do is show up, say the lines as written, act as directed, and go home. It's not improv class, it's a movie.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25895692.post-36899719810058772572007-09-05T18:28:00.000-07:002007-09-05T18:28:00.000-07:00I'm not denying that direction is vastly important...I'm not denying that direction is vastly important. Good heavens no. It's the attitude expressed in those quotes that bothers me.<BR/><BR/>Take the film version of Much Ado About Nothing. There are brilliant actors and then there's Keanu, who blows the whole film because it's a terrible role for him.<BR/><BR/>You can't possibly tell me that's all camera angle.Emily Blakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02163221455899041141noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25895692.post-72658885228654097312007-09-05T17:23:00.000-07:002007-09-05T17:23:00.000-07:00Whether Hitchcock was an ass or joking, this all c...Whether Hitchcock was an ass or joking, this all comes down to the basics of film direction - that "acting" can be created through choice of angle, camera movement, and editing. <BR/><BR/>The Kuleshov experiment - where a *still photo* of an actor with a completely blank expression was edited with other images... and the audience believed that the actor was smiling and crying and angry and... well, all sorts of things he just was not doing. By adding a context to that still image of the actor, the audience *saw* the actor emoting.<BR/><BR/>Hitchcock replicated the experiment in REAR WINDOW with... Jimmy Stewart. You know how he kind of leers at Miss Torso and the Newlyweds and smiles warmly at the couple with the pully and... well, it's all the same shot of Stewart looking *without any emotion*. <BR/><BR/>What's interesting is that the Kuleshov experiment was done entirely with neural camera angle and no movement... add those two elements and you can make the audience *see* all kinds of "acting" from someone just standing there with a blank look. <BR/><BR/>Most actors who worked with Hitchcock enjoyed the experience (Stewart and Grant worked with him again and again) because as long as they "hit their marks" Hitchcock would allow them to experiment and do what they wanted to. But there were times when you had to be in the exact position for the shot to work.<BR/><BR/>- Billwcmartellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18075242897910568801noreply@blogger.com