At Central Film School the first thing I learnt is that in my short film is that would the audience be able to follow it from beginning to end. How do you make the audience guess what happens next. I also learnt the true meaning of originality in film. Originality in film is not something you create directly from scratch but rather the things that you tie into your movies and be creative about it. That is what makes someone creative.
Central Film School taught me that how the actors act and what we see on screen is completely different. In another way of speaking the frame alters all aspects of truth. The frame is what you see and what you interpret from in the film thus positioning within the frame is essential.
If you look at someone from one angle it can show one message however if you look at that person from another angle then they may be showing another message. the angle of the face of the actor matters as well to integrate the emotion perfectly into the film.
This image can be used to show that different angles can show completely different emotions of a characters facial expression.
While on the subject of angle I also learnt that the actor has to face in the right direction in order to make it seem believable. What I mean by this is if you look at a mirror you see yourself correct? Well in film if you look at yourself through the mirror the audience sees the camera so the actor has to adjust the mirror angle to see the camera and act like they see themselves while the audience thinks they are looking at the mirror because the frame shows that.
It is essential that the camera always tracks the characters face when the character has screen time.
One rule that actors use most of the time is to avoid as much eye contact as you can especially during conversation unless the situation demands that you do. If eye contact is avoided it may be seen as any casual talk while if there is eye contact then the atmosphere may become more tense.
Actors react before they speak to show clear signs of their emotions and their intent and this is evident in many movies. It emphasizes on the characters emotion thus creating a dramatic effect.
Take Tom Cruise as an example. In all his movies he takes a long pause just to react and this builds up the anticipation of the audience and in the end it works great in film.
