Every film starts out as an idea in someone’s head and it just takes a bit of hard work to have that idea materialize. There is no shortage of people wanting to work on an independent film project, from film school students to aspiring actors and directors of photography. You can even start with a crew of your friends if you feel so inclined. By creating your own project you can learn so much about yourself and about the industry even if it is on a small scale with a tiny budget. It is about quality of work and one project will lead to another and to another. By taking creative control you can even decide what characters you would like to play.


I recently had a wonderful experience working with my dear friend Mike Villiani on his short film Dear John that he wrote, produced, directed and starred in. He has always been very proactive and I am so proud of the fact that he doesn’t just hope and dream, he just does it. Mike is brilliant when it comes to writing. He will write himself into every film because he can. He has the ability to cast himself or he can hold auditions until he finds an actor perfect for the role he has in mind. He can choose the crew he feels he will work best with. He finds the editor and chooses the soundtrack. He also has to raise the money in order to be able to pay for the production costs. He makes every decision so in the end the film is his baby. He will look back on it, probably with slight disgust because he is always trying to improve on what he has done. He can investigate his performance as an actor and decide how to grow for future projects. If I had the ability to wear all of Mike’s hats I would but I am not quite that talented. I was just lucky he cast me in the film to play opposite him.

I cannot tell you how easy it was to act with a friend. We had so many laughs and we could decide which lines were working and which weren’t. There was no rush so we learnt constantly along the way. The entire project went swimmingly but I had no idea how the movie would turn out. I have faith in Mike so I know whatever he creates will be interesting to say the least. He is going to enter Dear John into as many festivals as he can, cross his fingers and hope for the best! It was an amazing experience not to mention a ridiculous amount of work but in the end it feels so good to say I just did it! So don’t be scared, get off the couch, call up your industry friends and decide to own your career. JUST DO IT!!!

Hooray! You have arrived in Toronto, one of the great Canadian acting hubs. Home of the legendary Second City, Toronto has been home to some amazing actors such as Martin Short, Sarah Polly, Eugene Levy and Rachel McAdams.

It can be a bit daunting to a new actor when they first arrive in the city. The very best place to start is to get an agent. Make sure you choose an agent that is recognized by Actra. This list can be found on the Actra website. Make sure you have your professional headshots and current resume ready. You can submit yourself online but it is also a good idea to mail in hard copies to the office as well. Agents can be particular about whom they want on their roster but as an actor you have a right to be just as picky. Try to find an agent who best understands your acting goals. Have a plan for yourself and decide which venue you would like to pursue whether it is musical theatre, commercial, television, film, or all of the above. Once you do find an agent you should be on your way to auditions in no time. Remember when it comes to auditions you must always be completely prepared and on time. An audition is like a job interview and in order to nail a gig you have to blow away the casting director. Remember you will not get every role you go out for so try not to take anything personally. Just be happy for the experience and move on to prepare for your next audition. Also be sure to sign up online for the Casting Workbook, which lists auditions, posts sides and gives you a chance to apply for auditions online.

If you would like to gain more acting experience there are some fabulous places to study such as the Actors Studio, Ryerson University and Second City. Toronto is also a great place to find independent film projects. There are many young directors and writers who are eager to get their projects off the ground. Check out Craiglist.com and Mandy.com to submit yourself for short films that may be of interest to you. However if you do use these websites just beware and use your street smarts. Unfortunately there are those who are more than happy to take advantage of inexperienced actors trying to make it. Be sure you are paid for your work on any independent project. Acting is an extremely difficult career choice to pursue but if you are determined, patient and professional you should find success. Good luck out there!

An AD on one of our short films suggested I read a book called Directing Actors by Judith Weston.  Initially I took offense at that because “I knew how to direct actors.”  So for 3 years, I rejected the idea of reading that book.  But after directing my first feature film and learning a lot, I realized I had a lot more to learn.

I’d like to go through just some of the main points and take-aways I got from this book.  Please remember this is only my interpretation of the information so if I spin it or embellish the points, don’t get upset.  If you want it word for word, go buy it and read it.

The first and main thing the book talks about is the enemy or opposite of good direction – Result-Oriented Direction.  And I think all directors are guilty of it.  It’s looking at an actor after a take and saying, “Can you be more angry next time?”  The problem with directing the result, from what I can tell, is that this makes the actors focus on their performance rather than the life of the scene.  They are constantly wondering, “Am I being more angry?”  Plus, they don’t know exactly how to be more angry.  The good actors can take that result-oriented direction and process it to be more playable, but that makes them have to work a lot harder.

The book outlines 5 tools to shape performances.  And let me tell you, these are awesome.  How many times have I wanted an easy way to shape a performance, but the words failed me?

1) Verbs – The book points out the importance of using playable action verbs rather than adjectives (like angry.)  Instead of asking an actor to play it sexy, ask the actor TO FLIRT with the other actor.  This encourages the actor to engage with the other actor, rather than be focused on being sexy.

And the best thing about verbs is you can play with the intensity.  If you want more energy or intensity, give a stronger verb.  If at first they are playing “to complain” about something and you want more, ask them “to warn.”  If that isn’t enough ask them “to punish.”

2) Facts – Don’t explain a character.  Give the actor facts about the character.  Give creative back-story.  Instead of saying, “She’s a bitch,” invent a back-story.  Say, “She poured paint on the windshield of her ex-lover’s car.”

This is where the magic “What if” comes into play.  If you have a scene where a boss has to fire someone, ask “What if the boss’ father was fired from his job when the boss was a child?”  This creates subtext and texture.  A result-oriented direction of the same scene could be to say, “Act nervous.”  Not nearly as effective.

3) Images – Use images that evoke emotions rather than asking for emotions.  You can use an image from the actors past to create an emotion that is needed in the scene.  Maybe recalling a time their father yelled at them to create the result of being “hurt” or having their feelings hurt.  This gets into the psyche of the actor.  (And it seems they love this kind of thing.  Go figure.)  But it doesn’t have to be so heavy.  It can be simple.  Just any kind of image that evokes an emotion that can be useful in the scene.

You can use the magic “as if” here.  Maybe take an actor aside and tell them to play the scene “as if the other actor has bad breath.” Another example from the book is playing a business meeting “as if” it were a children’s sword fight.

4) Events -  “Instead of telling the actors that the scene is supposed to be poignant, tell them that the scene is about a fight between two people who used to love each other (an event.)  That helps the actors rally the personal and imaginative resources they need to create the poignancy.”

5) Physical Tasks – The book says, “The simplest thing a director can ask an actor to do would be a physical task.”  “A Physical task takes the actor’s concentration off the lines.”

We had one scene in Dangerous Calling that was a pretty tough scene involving 3 actors.  It could have been a stand and deliver kind of scene but we ended up giving one actor the physical task of making French toast (as it was written) and giving another actor the task of pouring glasses of orange juice for he and his onscreen wife.  The life in that scene is so amazing just because we had that simple bit with the fridge and the orange juice.  One of the best and most natural scenes in the movie.  They weren’t thinking about it – just living the scene.

This brings me to the next thing I learned from the book – the importance of listening.  The book says this is the most important thing an actor can do is just listen to the other actors in the scene rather than focusing on their performance and remembering their lines.  It says that listening to others is the opposite of being self-conscious.  And this is true in life as well.  When I’m worried about what I look like or what I’m saying in public, I’m not listening to others.

The book gives several suggestions to get your actors to listen.  It warns not to tell them they aren’t listening because they might take offense to that.  Here are a few examples:
“Keep it simple”
“Stay with each other”
“Communicate”
“Let yourself hear what she is saying”
“I like it when you play off each other”
“Just talk and listen”
“Watch her eyes”
“Don’t say the lines until you feel like it”
“Its okay to relax. Let yourselves connect”

The book points out that this is language of permission rather than enforcement.  That seems to be the best way of working with actors.  Permit them.  Don’t order them. (I didn’t like it when I was playing Marty.)

Substitutions – Apparently substitutions are a pretty common thing with actors.  And if we can get on board with that idea, we can help them out.  It’s basically the idea of substituting real things in the actor’s life for what they are talking about in the script.

If an actress mentions her ex-husband in the script, but this actress doesn’t have an ex-husband, she needs to substitute someone.  Maybe the ex-husband in the script is selfish so she finds someone in her own life that is selfish and pictures that person when she says the lines about the ex-husband.  Pretty cool.  This can work with all sorts of elements in the script.

So if you feel the actor isn’t getting the emotion of a line, maybe ask them who or what they are substituting for that element of the character’s life.  If nothing, suggest something.  If they have something, ask for a stronger substitution.

Adjustments – “If you feel the need to discuss the character’s emotion with an actor, you make the direction less result-oriented if you connect it to a metaphor-type adjustment.  So you might say, ‘It’s not like the rage you would feel if a drunk driver killed your child.  It’s more like when the phone company won’t come out to fix your service until next Thursday and insists that you be there all day.”

I just lifted that entirely from the book because it is brilliant.  Adjustments seem to be a great way of saying “bring it down” without saying it.  Brilliant.  I wish I had this tip on our feature.

There are many more lessons in the book and it goes into much more detail than I have here.  And as I said, this is how I interpreted it.   The book encourages practice in order to master these techniques so I’m planning a time in the near future to get together with some actor friends and experiment.  That should be helpful and a lot of fun.

Go out and pick up a copy.  Directing Actors by Judith Weston!

I’ve been involved in filmmaking since I was 8 years old.  My first experience was playing “Marty McFly” in re-creation of Back to the Future.  My older brother was the director/camera operator.  His directing style consisted of telling me and the other actors what to say and yelling at us if we got it wrong or misunderstood his “eloquent” direction.  But he was only 11 and he was a first-born and an older brother.  It’s their job to yell at us younger brothers.

Flash forward 20 years and now we direct together.  We just finished our first feature film, Dangerous Calling.  Over the years I’ve directed dozens of short films (both with Josh and without him.)  I got a B.A. in film (by going to three different film schools).

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten was from Sterling Van Wagganen, co-creator of the Sundance Film Festival.  (He isn’t affiliated anymore and that’s probably why it’s not “Independent” anymore.  But I could be wrong.)  I’ll call him Sterling because I don’t want to type his last name again.

Sterling told my brother and me that if we want to be directors, get out there and direct.  A lot.  And he said it would eventually click.  So we went out and directed.  A lot!  We made about 8 short films over the period of a year and many little video projects.  Each film and project, we’d focus on one aspect of filmmaking – the shots, the sound, the screenplay.  After that year was over, we started focusing on doing all those things well in one film.  And after 3 or 4 really good (and longer) short films, we made the leap to our feature.

But the one thing that has taken the longest time to “click” is working with actors.  We worked with our first “professional” actors while I was in my last year of film school.  Up till this point, it had been friends, relatives, and ourselves playing the roles in our films.  And let me tell you, hiring professional actors is the best thing you could do.  If you are a filmmaker that is still using your friends after several years and you can’t understand why your movies don’t get any better – news flash.  Your friends SUCK at acting.  You SUCK at acting.  Sorry.  But you do.

So we used real actors for several projects.  After the first few, we stopped getting excited when they showed up and knew their lines (something our friends NEVER did) and we started to notice that some actors are better than others.  And I think we developed an intuition about actors.  This probably has to do with what Sterling said about it all clicking.

Now, let me go back and lay down my experience with acting.  I took one acting class in college.  A woman who had done some impressive movies in the 80s taught it.  You’d probably recognize her face but not be able to name her movies.  Also, you might recognize her body from some of the magazines she appeared in after her movie career died.  (Though I never saw them.  She was my teacher and a sweet lady who probably regrets it.)

I really enjoyed the class more as insight into what actors do.  I never had an interest in becoming an actor myself.  I acted in several short films directed by my fellow students.  They liked using me, probably because I could memorize the lines and I fit the roles that most student films are about – the nerdy, skinny, college student.  I also did a monologue from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which I think was pretty good.  (My acting teacher said I have Jimmy Stewart qualities.  Cool.  He’s my favorite actor!)

All this being said, my experience with “real” acting wasn’t much.  Having done a feature and several short films and video projects, I think we’ve gotten pretty good at feeling our way through directing actors.  But after being in certain situations while directing our feature where I felt I was unable to help our actors get to where they needed to get, I wanted to look into getting better at working with actors.  (Let me just say, the actors in our film did an amazing job and got to where they needed to but in some scenes, they did it without our help.)

I also took a couple of directing classes in college.  These were EXTREMELY helpful in working out blocking – which includes working with actors.  On this end of things, we do really well in talking to actors.  We work together with the actors while rehearsing a scene to figure out the best blocking.  And I’ve been really pleased with how our films are blocked and the flow of the actors through the sets.

During these classes, my professor gave her take on directing actors.  She said that each beat of the scene should have a new Objective and Emotion.  So for years, I’d go through the script and write out the Objective and Emotion for each new beat in the scene.  Basically every couple of lines.  And that is to be done for each character.  As you can imagine, that makes the script very cluttered.

As you can also imagine, using this as a directing technique for actors isn’t very useful.  We tried talking to our actors for our film Reading Time in terms of these objectives and emotions and they didn’t respond well.  It felt like I was micromanaging their performance.  And essentially that’s what I was doing.

Once we found that didn’t work, we took a more relaxed approach, still figuring out what the character’s objective and emotion were but just keeping that in the background.  And it has worked for the most part.

So that’s where I was going into Dangerous Calling.

Stay tuned for the second part of this post coming up in a few days!!