A THREAD: #Actors - Let's talk Script Analysis! This is an important skill that often gets overlooked, but is crucial to nailing your auditions. Remember all that annoying reading comprehension you studied in school? Same basic principles apply here...
Here's my thesis statement: Being able to understand a scene as a whole versus as only a character will give you much more insight into how to portray that character...
When you start with a wider understanding of the scene and its purpose, you can then narrow down into your character work and how your character fits into this particular world, moment, environment, relationship, etc...
If you know the viewer is supposed to be surprised by information, or there's a reveal, you'll have a clearer idea of how to play or set up that moment. If the scene confirms the audience's suspicions about something, you can play into that as well...
When you get sides, it's important to first read the sides as a whole. READ EVERYTHING. The scenes or text that might be crossed off in your sides? READ THAT TOO. It will tell you the mindset of the previous or next scene, or might have other nuggets of useful information...
The page numbers of the sides can be equally important. Is it page 2 of a procedural? Then a crime is surely about to happen! The tag of a multi-cam comedy? That's the final joke of the episode that can often be a callback to something that previously happened...
If you read the scene objectively first and understand what the point of it is as a viewer or audience member, you will be able to more effectively tailor your performance to get that point across...
If you don't have an understanding of what is happening in the scene or why it is there, how can you play the emotion of it? How can you understand your own intentions as a character? And worst of all, you might miss something important in just looking at your own lines...
Writers work hard, and all scenes have some purpose to move the story along. Understanding screenwriting and structure will also give you huge insights into how you can best service the story at that moment...
Act breaks, scene breaks, and all these other formatting components are purposeful. If you don't understand why they are there, it's time to get familiar! Arming yourself with this information will only help you. Information is your greatest tool and ally...
If you're trying to put a puzzle together, you need to know what the final picture is supposed to look like. If you don't have any idea of where the pieces are supposed to go, or what they are supposed to make, it's going to feel disjointed and messy...
Everything is on the page for a reason. If you come up with a question about it that isn't answered by what's already there, then it might be up to you to fill in the gaps with your performance and your choices...
Don't just look at and read your own lines when you get sides or a script. (Yes, obviously your lines are important) But if that's where you start, you might miss the bigger picture! You got this! (END RANT)
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