Acting/Directing for Dummies

Anybody know of a good resource for very basic acting/directing tips?

My actors are neighborhood kids, aged 9 through 11. We've been practicing daily so we can be ready when the real shooting begins. They tend to be really self conscious when the camera is on, which results in breaking into laughter mid-scene and/or overacting like crazy. Most of my direction so far has been just "don't try to act, just play it straight, don't make any facial expressions [they do anyway, but it's usually more subdued if I tell them not to], just say your lines" and that's yielded usable results (combined with cutting around laughter and such). I also try to catch them when they are rehearsing, so I can show them how much better it looks when they aren't trying so hard, but I'm not sure what feedback helps and what is just going to make them more self-conscious.

So I'm looking for some simple acting rules-of-thumb, and some exercises we could do to improve, as well as basic tips on directing. Any info/links/etc. would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Eric
 
You have to alter your directorial style to suit the needs of your actors.

Bad news is, children are the hardest performers in the world to get good performances from.

However, here are some tips for directing children:

1) Assume children can't act, so when in doubt rework your script to give them something to do in that is natural to them.

This means more rehearsal time, where you figure out what you need in the scene (in terms of your story) and then get the kids to figure out what they would do in that situation. The good news is children have great imaginations and you may find they come up with answers better than your scripted version.

2) Cut your dialogue to an absolute minimum... basically children work best on film when you give them a physical task to do, because they can concentrate on that, instead of trying to act.

I read a good example of this kind of direction in DV Rebel,

basically he describes the difference between asking an actor to "look suspicious as you move across the room" and "get across that floor without making a noise"

Even if you've got dialogue to deliver, give the kids something to physically do whilst they talk to each other... so, for instance, instead of getting them talking about their parent's divorce standing about, have them have the same conversation whilst they are cleaning out the guinea pig cage.

And, finally, sorry to pimp my own site, but I'm going to anyway... here are a couple of my articles on directing (some of it is aimed specifically at working professional adults, but I think it's worth a read anyway)

Active Blocking To Fix Performance

and

Connection and Conflict in Direction


hope this helps
 
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