Contrast the differences between stage and screen acting, and identify why those differences make film “the director’s medium.”

Differences between stage acting and screen acting

Differences between stage acting and screen acting
a. largely determined by the differences in space and time in each medium
i. the live theater medium for the actor
ii. in films, it’s the director who is the artist
b. the stage performer
i. to be seen and heard clearly
ii. a flexible trained voice
iii. must be believable, even when reciting dialogue that’s highly stylized and unnatural
iv. it helps to be tall, for small actors tend to get lost on a large stage
v. helps to have large and regular features
vi. actors can play roles twenty years beyond their actual age
vii. must be able to control body with some degree of precision
viii. theatrical acting preserves real time so the performer must build—by scene— toward the climactic scene near the end of the play
c. the screen actor
i. can get along quite well with a minimum of stage technique
ii. the essential requisite is “expressiveness”; that is, he or she must look interesting
iii. almost totally dependent on the filmmaker’s approach to the story
materials
1. the more realistic the director’s techniques, the more necessary it is to rely on the abilities of the players
2. the more formalistic the director, the less likely he or she is to value the actor’s contribution
3. through the art of editing, a director can construct a highly emotional “performance” by juxtaposing shots of actors with shots of objects
iv. the close-up allows the film actor to concentrate totally on the truth of the moment
v. not so restricted by vocal requirements because sound volume is controlled electronically
vi. doesn’t have to be tall
vii. features don’t have to be large, only expressive
viii. actor who moves clumsily is not necessarily at a disadvantage in film
ix. because the shot is the basic building unit in film, the actor doesn’t have to sustain a performance for very long
x. the shooting of various sequences can be out of chronology
xi. the screen actor doesn’t “build” emotionally as the stage actor must
xii. the film player must be capable of an intense degree of concentration—turning emotions on and off for very short periods of time
xiii. most of the time, the player must seem totally natural, as if he or she weren’t acting at all
xiv. because acting in the cinema is confined to short segments of time and space, the film player doesn’t need a long rehearsal period
xv. a film actor is expected to play even the most intimate scenes with dozens of technicians on the set