How To Develop The Skill Of Concentration For Sure Success

The art of focus and concentration for an actor

How To Succeed In Auditions And In Scene Performance

The Art Of Focus And Concentration 

You are standing before the Camera. Settings are arranged. People are moving around. The Asst cameraman is checking the light intensity with some instrument, right close to your face and calling cinematographer loudly while you are still recollecting your lines. The director is instructing loudly to the crew. Sound technician is adjusting lapel mike on your body breathing on your face.

Suddenly  there is a shout "Ready?" 
Followed by "Sound"..."Lights"...Camera"....a...n...d..."ACTION"
Tensely you start your lines...and you stop! 
There is a block. A total mental block!! You have lost your CONCENTRATION and FOCUS
The director shouts..."CUT"!  

• Everybody looks at you...director,  crew and your Co-stars!
• What a pity! The shooting is stalled because of your mess up!
• Tension builds up affecting your performance and the portrayal of your character when you notice a chaos around you on a set before a "Take". It further aggravates when you see the crowd watching you.

How to overcome this mental block?

5 Ways To Concentrate

• Select an object on the set, say a lamp. A small table, a picture on the wall or anything and keep your focus on it. Even if the shot demands you to look somewhere else, keep looking at that object mentally. You don't see anything else or hearing anything. Just keep focused on that object.
• Go on giving an auto-suggestion that you are "The Character". Go on repeating this in your mind again and again. Say to you "I will do well", "main bahut achcha karoonga"  "yes"! "It will be a great performance!"
• Don't repeat your line now. You have done enough. Repeating just before the "take" may create a mental block
• Take a deep breath and release slowly. Do this 11 times.
• The best is to create a "Wall". Think of your bedroom or any room with a blank wall. Mentally put that wall in front of you, blanking out all the chaos on the set. You are now focusing on the wall, but are not aware of it. Your mind is active and aware of what is happening around, but not seeing it. 

Have You Got It?

Good!

Finally, when you hear "ACTION", go into your "character' and shoot!

Congratulations! You have just given a great performance!

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2 Reasons Why Learning "Method Acting" May Ruin Acting Career

Hollywood film: A method acting performance

Is "Method Acting" Technique Is The Best To Be A Good Actor?

Here Are The Analysis And Reasons For A Big NO 

Is Method Acting A Dangerous Form Of Acting Technique?

A.

Yes, because it has the actor use real life trauma's and puts it into the character which has been what a few people have mentioned, but it also can cause the person to have physical and mental breakdowns from the emotional toll it puts having to relive past experiences over and over again. This can also cause the majority of actors to feel this way even after filming because the emotions linger to the person because it's like digging up your ghouls from the basement and putting it in the life to relive it.

B.
The actor using Method also can be "extreme" and need real life weapons to get into character VS. Props. So real knives or loaded guns which can obviously turn sour very quickly by accident.
Bonus Info: From what I know all other acting techniques involve the imagination which can bring out the same quality of acting but keeps the actor safe as their training and tools can remind the actor that what they're going through is not real and the emotions don't hang onto the actor for that exact reason.

C.
The other explanation could be when you try everything to become the character you are portraying.
You put effort into experiencing what the character would actually feel and you may start making changes to your life so you can more intimately connect with the character and understand what the character would think and feel in different situations.

D.
You're not just pretending to be the character and putting on a fake act, you're attempting to assume the actual personality, thoughts, and behavior of the character not only during filming but potentially in the outside world / at home.

E.
If your character is supposed to be sad, you're not pretending to be sad, you're learning to empathize and become the character to the point where the character's sadness is your own sadness and you truly feel sad when you are 'acting' as the sad character. Sometimes you may achieve this by linking your own emotional memories (e.g. of a loved one dying) to the sadness in the character's life, in order to better appreciate what the character would be feeling.
F.
It really comes down to putting yourself in the shoes of the character. You're not just following directions and 'acting' as you're told. Instead, you're actually taking on the life of the character and you're personally identifying with that character so you can understand the character's thought processes, feelings, and then the 'acting' should, theoretically, come naturally without explicit instruction (because you implicitly know, for example, how the character would respond to and feel about certain situations etc.).

2 reasons why to be careful in learning Method Acting

1.
In our fast-moving film, television, and theater industry, we actors are continually asked for "quick results." We must be emotionally available, learn our lines rapidly, and fill our characters with the objectives and desires of a multilayered human being—all without much preparation time. Now more than ever, the deciding factor in a successful audition or performance is the actor's ability to call upon focused inspiration at a moment's notice. After all, inspiration leads to real, organic, surprising, fresh performances. How is such focused inspiration readily achieved?

2.
 A lot of press has covered Method acting over the last several decades, and they often get it wrong. A few things it is definitely not: gaining or losing weight for a role, insisting everyone call you by your character name whether you're acting or not, doing dangerous or questionable activities to be more like your character, avoiding modern stuff when you're in a period piece, etc.

My Conclusion

Every actor is a human and therefore, has his/her own essence, an archetype. The best would be to learn different acting techniques, discover the self and then create his/her own unique acting style This would be under his/her total control and would be flexible to suit the character created by him/her.

Join us to learn all top acting techniques of the world and create your own unique acting style to be a guaranteed Bollywood actor 

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15 Types Of Laugh For Camera You Must Learn | How To

Learn The famous laughter style of Navjot Sidhu

If you are acting for the camera, there's good news and bad news. 

The good news: you can create many different takes and an editor/director can choose the one that works best.
The bad news: film crews are expensive, and time equals money. The director will grow impatient if you can't come up with a right realistic la. Depending on the scene and your fellow actors, off camera interaction, can often evoke genuine laughter. Also, surprise moments between actors can work wonders -- as long as the director appreciates!

Studying Laughter

• The sounds of laughter are similar around the world. Most laughter consists of H-sounds: Ha, ho, hee. Other bursts of laughter might contain vowel sounds.
• In fact, there's an entire field of science dedicated to the study of laughter. It's called gelotology. 
• Learning about the mental and physical aspects of laughter can help actors become more adept at producing laughs on cue. 

Facts On Laughter

1. Females laugh more often than men.
2. Men are more likely to attempt to make others laugh.
3. Speakers (joke tellers) laugh almost 50% more than their audience.
4. Laughter often occurs at the end of a sentence.
5. We laugh more when in the company of others than when we are alone.

What can motivate your character's Laughter?

If you can laugh spontaneously and sound believable, you're ready for your audition.
If the laugh sounded forced it might be because you have no idea why your character is laughing. The more you emotionally "Feel" with your character, the more you can feel like her and laugh like her.

How To Laugh

For some actors laughing on *cue can be just as difficult a task as to cry on *cue. Here are a few tips on how to laugh effectively:

• First and foremost, keep your attention on the scene and on your partner. If you are truly engrossed in the moment of the scene, the laugh will come organically.
• Think of the kind of laugh required for the moment. What size or type of laugh is an appropriate reaction to the situation? Sometimes a little chuckle is far more effective than a belly laugh. Although a seemingly inappropriate laugh may work as well, particularly if you are acting in a comedy.
• Be aware of the what the mood of the scene is and decide how your character would honestly react. After that, forget about it. Let the moment carry you through.

When To Stop Laughing

• You cannot continue laughing until eternity unless of course, your character is a maniac. This would depend on the character you are playing. If the role is comedic then an abrupt end and remaining still may work.
• For example, you are playing a character of a subordinate and your boss slips while sitting or mispronounced a word or drops something, which has evoked a laughter in you (natural). You have to stop suddenly and froze realizing that your laughter may be insulting to your boss.
• In a second situation, you are sitting with friends and enjoying jokes. Here laughing belly out may be okay

Watch How Others Laugh

As an actor, you are probably a people watcher already, and if you haven't taken up the pastime of carefully watching others, it's time to begin. Spend the next five days observing different categories of people how others laugh.

• Do they giggle in a high pitched spurt?
• Do they do a courtesy laugh just to please others?
• Are they intoxicated?
• Maniacal? Childish?
• Are they laughing sarcastically? Uncontrollably?
• Are they trying (but failing) to hold it in?
• Take notes if you can.

Here are some of the contemporary laughing style for actors to learn. Few of them are never taught in any acting school and are great to surprise a casting director or a Bollywood director. You can find these laughs in the live video attached below: