Using Untrained Actors

1. Rehearse so that the actors are familiar with the script and know how they are going to say/act the lines.

2. Make sure they don't act as though on stage, ie. over the top gestures, facial expressions etc (although some of that could benfit a comedy if that's your chosen genre? )

While they're acting, watch the screen you've attached to the camera and listen through headphones... You'll get a better idea of how "over the top" they are. Every take is a good take, but you'd like to see it a little different or want to try something just a little bit different, something didn't feel quite right for the character/story/edit/to go with that other take you did from the other angle. If dialog, you can spend more time on the singles and dial in their performances more tightly. This will also allow you to adjust the timing of the dialog more tightly to get a more natural flow as what you get in the master will be the actors searching for the next line and laughing at the process alot.

If you have shots where they're driving, you can read the line with the inflection you want off camera and have them parrot it back to you, have them listen to you, these will end up being reaction shots to the other side of dialog.

I have a cat toy that is a yellow stuffed star with eyes on a tall spring. I set this where I want the actor's eyeline to be so they have something to look at instead of the lens. Have them keep acting until you say "cut" or they will constantly look to you for approval the second after their last line is delivered. When shooting singles, have just the essential crew and the actor (singular) in the room so the stress level is lowered. Non-actors tend to let stress get to them more when the set is full of people than when it's just the necessary people to get the shots you need.

I treat it like I've heard pros talk about shooting love scenes, minimal staff means less inhibited acting. Stress is the killer with non-actors. Shoot fewer takes of the master, more of the coverage and allow your actors to pause and backup in the singles if they want to try a diffferent reading of a line.

Editing this is a chore, if you can get them to memorize the lines, great. If not, you'll have to piece meal them together, make sure you get footage of them delivering each line well in response to someone delivering the previous line off camera...and then have them wait til after the next line is delivered to cut and wait. This will give "acting handles" to your footage so you can J and L cut your footage to give the impression that the actor is carrying on a conversation with the other person in the room.

If you are shooting action, give them a destination, not just actions. If they have a goal, it'll force them to figure out how to achieve that and the "acting" will be more honest for the camera.

"Bring actor B the green pen from the table at the far side of the room" Will get them to walk to the far side of the room, approach the table, rifle through a drawer looking for the green pen (which may or may not be in there ) and reverse the process. Asking them to do all these steps individually will get them to "Act" walking to the far side of the room, "act" approaching the table...etc.

if you have character development for the characters give it to your actors...if not try and go over charater development with them...it will help them to step into their roles if they know something about the type of person they are, what makes them tick, why they react to things the way they do...if a character has a tendency to have an underlying attitude or anger or sadness that they carry with them it may help them to understand why that is...now some of your actors may have the ability to make their own character breakdown based on your script while some may not understand how to do that which is where you may need to help. But they should know that though knowing this will help them understand it they shouldn't hold onto it...when filming or rehearsing if they know and understand their character they need to stop thinking about it and listen and react to the other characters within the scene.

as like others have said they will likely need to rehearse downplaying reactins and their vocal projections if they come from theatre...the camera and mic will pick up so much more than even the person in the front row of a theatre could possibly expect to pick up on

Thanks for all the responses, very helpful for someone who hasn't done this before. I am hoping that they will memorize the lines, since one of them memorized Hamlet a 10 minute short shouldn't be too hard. I probably won't have any crew besides myself and a sound guy if I can talk someone into it, so they shouldn't be too nervous. I am amazed at what you learn on this forum, thanks again.

If you get a sound guy, you (director) listen for dialog and delivery, the sound guy listens for everything else that would make the dialog sound bad (content should be irrelevant to the sound guy in this setting).

Get a scripty too, so you can concentrate on performance.

Don't ask your friends to be actors... either cast them in roles that are similar to who they are... or write roles that will seem natural to them.

Rehearse them before you get on set... get them to learn the scene and perform it... them get them to improvise the same scene only acting and talking the way that seems more natural to them... or in other words, get them to put the script into their own words.

Then adapt the two versions into a scene that works for both you and them.

By the way, there is an incredibly long history of award winning films being made with "non" actors... some directors only work that way... so don't see what you're doing as less than or second rate, just because these people are your friends.

I forgot how hard it is to convey age over the internet so I'll tell you I am going to be a senior in HS and I really don't have the money for actual actors or a "real" sound guy, and I live in a relatively small town so unless I can find some actors who will drive an hour for no money I am stuck with anyone I can get for free. I am not a writer but I have a friend who is writing a script that we will both work into something we can use, I think he is going to write with people we know in mind. I would love to get some actual actors but finding them for free in a small area is going to be very tough.

Then just do what you can and chalk the problems up to learning, but push through anyway!

knightly said:

If you get a sound guy, you (director) listen for dialog and delivery, the sound guy listens for everything else that would make the dialog sound bad (content should be irrelevant to the sound guy in this setting).

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Yep, I can attest to that. I don't really listen to the lines. I listen to the quality of the audio that's fed back (not to be confused with feedback) to me from either the recorder or the camera. I never listen to the direct feed from the mic.