From Stage to Camera

Consider how an actor might perceive the value of his work in a film or video environment as opposed to live stage. A personalized experience?  A unique performance?  How does the actor estimates his relationship to the not present audience, when playing only to other actors, the simulated environment of the sound stage, mechanical devices that record the performance and the, technicians necessary to the apparatus?  How do these mediated spaces affect the perception of our own experience of reality?

Compared to a live performer on a stage, the screen actor, which is presented by a camera, has many different things need to notice when he perceive the value of his work in a film or a video.

First of all, instead of facing live audience, or say real people, a screen actor is performing in front of a camera lens. Despite the first strangeness or weirdness facing the camera, the “film actor lacks the opportunity of the stage actor to adjust to the audience during his performance”. However, the screen actor is facing the real public eventually, so he has to response to real human emotions when he’s doing performance. On the hand, the extant of “acting” is kind of tricky in contemporary film criteria, since in today’s film industry “the greatest effects are almost always obtained by acting as little as possible”.

Secondly, compared of doing a linear and continued performance on stage, a screen actor’s work can be several separated shootings that may take hours inside a studio, which provides various lighting conditions and fancy effects. Now in a film or a video, what audiences see are the reflected images that become separable and transportable.

Another thing that is very different from doing live performance is that “the camera that presents the performance of the film actor to the public need not respect the performance as an integral whole”. Compared with a stage actor that has fully control of his body and play, the imagery or performance of a screen actor is controlled by cameraman. By giving a different camera position and another angle, a film actor can be manipulated by a certain expressing reason. So besides thinking about how to estimate his relationship to the not present audience when playing, the screen actor also need to response to the cameramen, to other actors, to the simulated environment, as well as to the mechanical devices that record the performance.

Moreover, with the improving mechanical reproducibility and other fancy techniques, it is very easy for modern cameras to capture the smallest facial movements or little noise made by the screen actor or other objects in a film or a video. The mediated images about time and spaces definitely affect the perception of our own experience of reality. “By close-up of the things around us, by focusing on hidden details of familiar objects, by exploring commonplace milieus under the ingenious guidance of the camera, the film, on the other hand, extends our comprehension of the necessities which rule our lives; on the other hand, it manages to assure us of an immense and unexpected field of action”. Therefore, a screen actor must be aware of that capacity brought by modern technology and make adjustments to that. “Hence, the performance of the actor is subjected to a series of optical tests”.