21 Oct New to the Technique
Celebrate the small victories. Linger in the moment. Find the emotion, but don’t show all the cards at once. An actor is there to solve a problem. Being the one who solves the problem is great, but drop bread crumbs instead of offering the entire piece of bread.
Hook the audience with something that catches their attention. Book their attention, and let them see snippets of the work.
If everything is laid out on the table entirely, there is nothing to wonder about. The audience discovers everything in one moment, and the emotional journey is lost.
Leaving a trail, dropping hints, or selecting Easter eggs makes for a much more invested journey for the audience than dumping the entire picnic basket in one place in the middle of the woods.
Let the audience go on the journey that the character is going on. Let the audience discover the emotion with the character. Let them discover the choices with the character as the character makes those choices.
One of the great elements of acting is the unexpected turns, the surprising twists of discovery, and the exhilaration of often not knowing where to go.
This leaves the audience wanting more. When the audience wants more, the bread crumbs start to build to an entire loaf. And that is what the audience expects.
Small ingredients lead to the final product. In this case, the metaphor is specific to breadcrumbs and a loaf of bread.
Creating those moments that a character lingers in, celebrating a character’s small victories, and releasing emotions a little bit at a time help create a character’s arc.
It also creates suspense for the audience in many different ways. If all the emotion, all the story, and all those truthful moments are given away at once, there’s nothing left for the audience to want more.
More of Brad’s thoughts here for both expert actors and actors looking for beginners acting classes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFt6laLFIGo