HOW TO START A
DRAMA SCHOOL or WRITERS CIRCLE in your living room.
Imagine a COMEDY WORKSHOP in your living room or in a church
basement. Imagine a FREE ACTORS’ CO-OP that you and your show biz oriented pals
ran. Among your chums are people that have been to the best, Strasberg, Garfein
at the Actors’ Lab. If any of your actor pals have seen a good coach at work,
they could lead the group. Actually nobody needs to lead a group. Students can
critique one another, just remembering the rule, critique the believability of his
choices and not the choices. Nobody is expected to be Sir Robert Bolt.
Of course you can invite writers to participate and instead of improves,
rehearse their scenes.
The ball will get rolling once you start. HOW TO START? This is
so easy. First, I would make a killer flyer. Have graphics of actors
if you want to do the actors’ co-op, just Xerox movie stars from PEOPLE MAG. If
a writers’ group, Xerox Shakespeare, writers with recognizable faces,
Hemingway, Fitzgerald, make a WREATH of faces, then put words in the center. ACTORS
GROUP NOW STARTING! Or ATTEND FREE WRITERS’ CO-OP, Have tear
offs at bottom with phone, or an EASY WEBSITE or EMAIL.
If you’re handy with PC, you can get better graphics online,
B+White, high contrast, create the wreathe, then SET WORDS in there, print your
own master, or all the flyers.
PUT these FLYERS at UNIVERSITIES, THEATRE ARTS dept, English
Dept, then at public LIBRARIES across entire town, barrio TOO! Barrio or inner
city writers are frequently GENIUS HOT PISTOLS!
WRITERS are found in USED book stores. They’re usually poor and
can’t afford new book stores. LUCKILY used book stores will hang your
FLYER! BORDERS won’t! Health food stores have smart clients. NO BOZOS eat
health foods! Their bulletin boards are the BEST!
NEXT, the reasons you might want to have such a group? To get everybody
in town who loves films, script writing, books or television writing or even
cinematography ---together as a team to befriend one another. Did you know
CHICAGO had at least four dozen little theatres once? Mostly comedic. These
created the BELUSHI epoch.
AS A TEAM, you not only can run a
commercial group, by that I mean where people pay, although MAYBE FILMING
COMMERCIALS is a great idea, too. See, with such talent you could as a group
create an ad hoc ad agency! SHOOT commercials for corporations in town! (That
in itself is a script idea!)
What is more, you can all ACT doing
roles in those commercials This accomplishes several things: A.) You get the
film on yourself, necessary to get real jobs, later. B.) ACTING ON A SET will make you more focused in the
future, either when on stage or film, or shooting commercials.
Stanislavsky taught that FOCUS was the
most important thing in acting. To have a mind like a lser, focused on the
action going on ….on stage. The ability to shut out the audience, to entirely
fasten on what is happening in the scene with belief. Your belief produces the
audience’s belief. Those kind of horse blinders on the actor would create the
“third wall” and would make the actor relaxed, make him MORE himself, --
therefore MORE INTERESTING to watch.
You might also do this to start a FILM
LOCATION OFFICE so that when FILMS shoot where you are, you guys can do
character bits in the flick. OR A FILM
COMMISSION which helps HOLLYWOOD film companies use your area. The Chamber of
COMMERCE loves when people do that. You have city hall and all the local
hostelry at your feet!
Now, WHEN YOU NEED A DRAMA CLASS, the
going rate is 150$ a month for four classes, in L.A. is 175, ... These teachers
really STICK it to the hungry wannabes, don't they? Well, if you're in LA or
not, let's do ourselves a BIG favor. START YOUR OWN GROUP. SERVE THE COMMUNITY.
DO IT OUT OF A LIVING ROOM, TOO. If I
lived in LA I'd do it, as I went to classes for years, years on end. So have
most of the actors in town around you who NEED the FREE ACTORS' CO-OP, so get
them to assemble in your living room. I needed a writing group, I started my
own, the L.A. Free Screenwriters' Co-Op. In my living room. I let it be known
with an ad in DRAMALOGUE magazine that we were starting this group, and a free
ad in some magazine that's in every healthfood store in L.A. can't recall what
it is, the WHOLE LIFE JOURNAL or something. Go to WholeFoods and find out what
it is. They put your ads in for free if it's a free group. YOU WILL HAVE MORE
PEOPLE THAN YOU CAN HANDLE. CALL YOUR group the L.A. FREE ACTORS' CO-OP.
BEFORE you put out flyers, make
certain one of your group has a nice sized
LIVING ROOM. Everyone leaves their shoes at the door, in the entry hall so the
carpets don't get old. Serve punch and cookies. First month or so, do improvs
only. You know what an improvisation is? If not, don't worry. The other actors
will and you'll be doing it sooner than you imagine.
Then, when 'you're all pals,' start on SCENES FOR ACTORS, you know THE RAINMAKER, OUR TOWN, the usual suspects. $. (You can train the group to be SPY SHOPPERS with the smaller version spy camera or ipod, and they can each make l00$ a day.)
THE GROUP itself plays the part of the
teacher and cooperatively 'critiques.' Most of us have been in some drama class
and know 'games to play' and what a 'sense memory' exercise is. We do not need
a teacher to critique us. The group can usually do it charitably enough. And
members of the group will 'show up' who can direct a little. EARLY in the game,
remind them, that if you want to be a director one day, help out by directing
other actors. Remember the rule, never criticize what they did. Only how they did it, whether believably or not.
Whether third wall was up, whether concentration was absolute. And maybe most
important, whether the actor was relaxed. OR SEEMED relaxed. And the last….DID
HE HAVE ENERGY??
Everything actors know is summed up in
four words, concentration, belief, focus, relaxation and ENERGY. The
concentration is about focus. Everything comes out of that, the listening, the
not being up in your head (a terrified actor who is planning, but a REAL
PERSON, really in that situation doing some genuine reacting, genuine feeling.
When you concentrate there is no audience, there's a third wall there. There is
no camera. Getting free to be alone on stage when there is an audience or a
camera is what it's about. so FOCUS is FREEDOM.
NEXT, ENERGY. That's almost totally
conferred by diet and exercise. Stars are energetic people. They are healthy.
They don't mumble. They're intense, alive. THEY STICK OUT. You can learn to
have energy though, and practice SHOWERING the room with energy when you're on
stage, and when you get free, you'll learn to work BIGGER. But mostly filmwork
or tv doesn't require REAL BIG, energetic work, so don't worry about this one.
NEXT, the directors who have video shoot the actors doing scenes they've
prepared so you have FILM ON YOURSELF for auditions at studios. Directors want
to see you on film. They can't imagine what you're like just in person so FILM
is good. Video is super cheap too. So these are things we can create, do
practice and all without paying $175 a month to some coach.
INSTEAD use your hard earned money for
good B&w headshots, photographs, If you don't have to work so hard and long
earning $175, right away you free up some time and money to go to agents, to
get signed. Then the interviews come. If you're in LA.
In another city, you could even start
a FILM BUREAU and let all the studios know what your town looks like, so they
can use it on locations. Digital graphics of the rocks in forest, the river,
the factory, every salient feature.
GETTING UP AND FUNCTIONING with VIDEO
could lead to doing a student film. Here are some NOTES ON using VIDEO from
SONY 'STYLE' MAGAZINE. Sept l999 issue.
Condensation of the article. "German documentary maker Ulrike Koch shot
SALTMEN OF TIBET in 1996. It was filmed on a SONY DCR-VX 1000, the first
digital video camcorder, edited on a desk top computer and transferred to 35mm
for theatrical release. Director Koch was able to shoot with only three other
people on the crew, check the sound and image by simply playing back tape. Cost
was not a problem.
Small size, weight was a help in
TIBETAN locales. Philip Dolin has done music videos, just did B MOVIE using VX 1000. A tale of two park rangers who find a Hippie
Community. 12 days, l7k cost. DV is fast, too.
Bennett Miller used one for THE
CRUISE, showed it LA INdie film festival, and got distribution. Camcorder gives
flick an intense, graphic quality, Director said "I over-exposed back
(fill?) adjusted aperture on camera, enhanced contrast to emphasize effect.
(Edges of this article are torn, as I ripped it out of a magazine that I didn't
buy. I destroyed COVER so no one else would buy it, either.
Danish director Thomas Vintererg did
THE CELEBRATION with a SONY DCR PC7, pocket size predessor to today's PC1.
Budget 1 million. Star Wars Episode 1 utilized some DV. Karen Weissman did
'LOVE IS DEAD, a low budget zombie movie with VX 1000. Lance Weiler and Stefan
Avalos did LAST BROADCAST, with a VX 1000 and with a 50$ Tyco child's video
camera. This can be viewed at http://www.tebweb.com/lastbroadcast/
Weiler was asked to re-do it on film and refused.
A basic set up for an hour of film is
SONY DSR-PD100 DVCAM camcorder for 3k, an hour of profes. DV tape, 30$, desk
top computer, editing software, 7k, then transferring the final edited video to
35mm is the studio's cost, maybe 40k. l0k is artist's cost to make the video
film. Never worry about transferring it to 35mm film, it's the studio's cost.
They buy your film, they do it.
COST OF VIDEO SET UPS. Cameras. PD
1000 is 3k, VX 1000 is 4k.
Last, when we started THE LOS ANGELES
FREE SCREENWRITERS' CO-OP we advertised it in freebie ads as "the place
where you will learn "How Absolutely Anybody Can Write and Produce a Movie
EVEN IF you THINK you CAN'T WRITE!"
(Today, I’d have put this ad at CRAIGS LIST!)
Ad said " Attend one meeting and you
will be convinced. Meetings are inspirational. They will show you that you can
write and sell. Meetings will keep you at it. These are an "O.A. meetings for
screenwriters" where you will meet writers who persevered and made it,
struggling artists like yourself.
WRITERS on every step of the ladder
visit THE WRITERS' CO-OP as guest speakers. There are execs from the business:
Baby moguls, agents, studio execs, famous screenwriters, D-girls as well as
beginners just like your who've wedged one foot in the door and who are
starting their climb. From all of these 'experts' you'll get tips on how to
start, and how to persevere, ways others have made it, tricks, tips and
industry needs NOW.
THE WRITERS' CO-OP teaches the
'Writing from the Unconscious Method' that does not require great knowledge of
the so-called 'craft' of writing.
The CO-OP feels that everybody has
seen a million movies. Everybody unconsciously knows what the film media
requires of us, and what a movie plot entails. What we teach is HOW YOU CAN
pull an interesting, convoluted PLOT from your own unconscious in one session.
The techniques are part psycho-dynamic, part metaphysical, and easy to learn.
See, we believe a great film story is in there. IN YOUR UNCONSCIOUS. You just
have to know a few, easy techniques for drawing it out in sequential fashion.
THE WRITER'S CO-OP teaches
producing, too. Yes. As you wrote that maga opus, you own the script's rights
& YOU can be included in the studio deal with an on screen credit as
PRODUCER and producer's fees on top of your script's sale price. And, if you
turn out good scripts regularly you could get yourself a production deal with a
major studio. Studios have learned that 'the play's the thing. So don't think
there are limits on what you can do. There are not. So ask yourself, do you
think you're feeling lucky?" We got loads of people. Then we started our
own “LITERARY AGENCY”, and got the HOLLYWOOD FILM COMMUNITY book, with a
list of every studio, indie prod in LA and NYC. And we submitted scripts to
studios and books to publishers. We found 99% of the studios would read scripts
we submitted without considering if we had a bonded agency. WE COULD get
submissions in. They were that hungry to read every script in town!
THERE IS POWER IN NUMBERS. SO get
those flyers out at libraries, used book stores, on craigs list. Create your
ARMY! Orson Welles did this (Mercury Theatre) and it worked for HIM!
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