Acting School of Feel, Think, Do

Feel, think, do technique.

An actor must accept the world of illusion. On entering a dream, an actor must stay in the dream.

(A normal view of people in dramatic situation.)

Main thrust of Drama is to move people.

Emotions are the life's blood of acting.

Objective is the conscious intent of the character.

The first thing you must learn is getting into imaginary world.
If I were teaching a person how to swim and if they right off feared the water I would make him or her eventually get into the pool and teach them how to swim until it was second home to them. It is the same with acting, people start out not wanting to leave reality to do scenes in the imaginary world. So, having them do scene after scene after scene, the imaginary world will eventually become like a second home to them. Tiny Ron Taylor

The second thing you must learn is how to talk to somebody with the wire (the little electrodes) between the two actors.
Do not try to reach other actor by leaning or distortion of yourself, just reach other actor with will, brain and feeling,

Acting is eighty percent feeling and twenty percent all the rest.

Acting on the stage and for the camera are the same, the difference is proportions.

No ultimate truth in theater. Theater is a series of effects. Audience will make their own truths. Make the right choices as the actor, can it be accepted as true. Audience believe the character.

Every part is not what the actor does easily. If acting is being other people, you don't carry from part to part whatever worked for you the last time. You have to make a human being, you have to make somebody recognizable and acceptable to an exact person.

This is the feel, think, do technique:

The three basic questions are:
'who am I?', 'what do I feel?' and 'what do I want?'
(The character is asking these questions, not the actor.)

Absolutely the finest acting in the world.
1. feel: emotion
2. think: objective
3. do: talk or act

Emotion has to be strong, but reduced, must not look like acting.
Your objective in not just what you think, it's what you do.
We must memorize our lines so that we don't have to think about them.

You have talent, see what it can do!
In order to control an audience you must first learn to master yourself.

BREAKING THE BARRIER OF ACTING

The acting experience is what we are trying to accomplish, what it feels like to act. We are trying to BREAK THE BARRIER that is made up of the actor being clever and thinking it through as they act. This all leads up to looking like acting, it has no resemblance to life.

We're here to study acting, and in the end, it can't look like acting.

Principles of Acting

Your choice of material can be unusual and startling, but then you go at the acting obeying all the best principles of acting.

The secret: Give up the controls, hardest thing to learn in acting.
In acting in the movies a lot of big star actors are always there, they are a pain in the side. They are all over the place. But rich good acting, that is not what happens. The actor disappears, and that is what the actor should do, you work up closely to your character and then you step back, step back, step back and leave the character alone. You give the character your mind, your body and you buzz off. All you do is collect the check.

Modern acting begins with honesty. Audience knows when people are lying. Just be honest as actor, play out each moment and find things.

Actors are humans reacting to reality, where dancers try to be esthetic. So, don't make pretty pictures as actors.

AN ACTOR NEEDS TO LIGHT THE STAGE WITH THOUGHT AND FEELING.
Author gives the words, as an artist you can do things, invent all that happens. Don't do words literally. Make words visual.

The actor only has to juggle three things when they act: feel, think and wire...
and not the umpteen things an actor has to try to juggle in Method acting with each line being a beat with a new objective and with each emotion having the actor trying to think up past events in the their life's to achieve that emotion. In Method acting an actor is trying to juggle so many things, that he or she is concentrating on everything except the characters own thoughts and feelings. The Method actor is only creating a solo performance with no connection to the other actor and not being real to the audience. It leads to actors who love complexity and can't seem to get out of character instantly.

Watch good acting that is dramatic. Just stand still and maintain emotion.

Art is not reality, art is selective reality.
It has nothing to do with you, the actor is not the character.
Idea of who your character is, not just using yourself.

Acting is 'being' other people.

The actor starts with a clean canvas.

The actor is the material in creating another person with the character's who am I, what do I feel, what do I want, attitude and mask.

No awareness of self is good acting.

If you go back in your past, you are aware of self. You must have total abandon from yourself as the actor. Your instrument (body) must instead be vibrating with feeling and your mind thinking just the objective of the character.

Acting is the work of the imagination.
Acting is self-illusion, not just costume, has to come from inside.

How to do instant acting on the set with the
feel, think, do technique...

Start with the three steps shown below in getting ready to act in front of a camera, because you only have about three seconds to get into character as the clap board is put in front of you.

Step one:
Who am I?

Who the character thinks they are.

Give 'Who am I?' a triggering tag name to the history you have given your character... "doctor, policeman, nurse, lawyer, housewife, killer, etc."

So, when you say who am I? "a doctor", it triggers the life history you have planned for your character... "he is married, is a great lover, but is unhappy at his job, etc."

Step two:
What do I feel?

Then start body with emotion.

Breathe in, then out with emotion you have picked for the character, "desire, grief, joy, greed, regret, awe, anixety, disgust, horror, etc."

So, you say to yourself, what do I feel? "grief." You only do the emotion once, don't keep repeating the emotion to yourself. You have trained the body, it will take over.

Step three:
What do I want?

With emotion going, next comes objective.

Start thinking only the objective over and over. Always think of a selfish objective for the character, "to keep the money, to get the girl, to win his confidence, to stop the pain, etc."

Then you say, what do I want? to win his confidence, to win his confidence, to win his confidence, to win his confidence, to win his confidence, to win his confidence, to win his confidence... Exclusion to everything else.

ACTION !!!

When the Director yells C-U-T !, you are no longer the character.

When you do things like feeling emotion and thinking objective you don't even have to think about doing it. It all becomes subliminal in your acting. Don't be conscious of all the principles of acting once you learn them. Trust your body, your body can do many things for you. Your body remembers.

Actors are in the business of creating illusion, so it's behavior more than what actors say.

Simple, simple, simple.

If you present reality as reality, it doesn't entertain.
People go "to see a movie", they don't go "to listen to a movie".
All good acting looks like it was never rehearsed at all.

Resemble life: don't answer all answers all up front, feel emotion and do objective. Let talent take over, less the better.

An actor can only control their conscience for acting purposes, they can not control their sub-conscience. What the sub-conscience does is it does things to the actor.
Forget armchair psychology used by many actors and directors. To the actor a director says, 'I want this result, do it however you do it', is a better way instead of all that psycho therapy stuff in Method acting.
You don't have to work at what you are. You are already good at it.

One of the cardinal rules is you stay with one emotion and one objective until something occurs to change it. (You don't drift off because of the dialogue.) You only change because of new information or a new event.

How to find emotions?
Emotion is a feeling large enough to change your life or destroy it.
1. Always start with emotion first... feel, think, do.
2. Don't act. Just feel. Stay honest.
3. We know what words mean: anger, envy, horror, anxiety, joy, etc.
4. The emotion like "anger" is all the times you had this emotion in life, not just one instance in your life.
5. Acting is having the emotion that best fits the scene.
6. Emotion no matter how tense cannot effect muscles. Stay loose.
7. Approach your work with body relaxed so the emotion can take over.
8. Science fact: all emotions are all the same in physical signs with heart rate and electrical impulses.
9. An emotion isn't a constant, an emotion goes up and down, it goes all different ways.
10. Avoid compassion or pity as your character's emotion.
11. An actor can not try to play effects of scene. If actor works without emotion, it will look like acting. An actor can't lie or do it without passion.
12. The whole idea is to see how much emotion and inner life actors can give their characters. The actors must give themselves over to the moment, they must soak themselves to be real.
13. Actor can't pretend things, it has to be emotional experience.
14. Don't act without an emotion, more important than words, even the objective.

Definition of an objective:
Objective is the conscious intent of the character. (he needs a woman to give him trouble.)
1. Objective should be simple, active phrase, starting with the word "to"... to win his confidence, to get the girl, to keep the money, etc.
2. Objectives must always be difficult to attain. Difficulty is the fuel that lights our acting fires.
3. Objective must always be in the language of the character, limited to his own background and education.
4. There's no one correct answer when you're looking for the objective. Pick the one that seems best for the character and one that 'turns you on' as the actor.
5. Human will is great, you can hypnotize yourself by just mesmerize yourself with thinking of one thing your objective.
6. Actor must think of character's objective over and over to be oblivious of everybody; crew, director, etc.
7. When you act you should concentrate on your character's objective and nothing else. Your discipline has to be complete, that is how you stay in character.
8. The discipline in your mind is not to think, 'how am I doing' or the words, because you'll forget. Instead, it is to concentrate on the character's objective. Thinking just that is controlled obsession.
9. Objective is not just what you think, but what you do.
10. Think objective - the body knows what to do!
11. People tell you to focus, but never tell you what to focus on. Focus on your objective.

Chose emotion and objective, your body will behave in the character.
It is about true feelings and true objectives: do not to be artificial, but be real.

It's not just about objectives and emotions. It is knowing all of the tricks of holding the interest of the audience, telling the story well and making the right choices. You got to know all that. The audience is extremely sentimental, so play the value, not the dialogue. Approach a part with humility, not black and white. Don't make a direct appeal to audience, they won't go for it, you have to lead them into it.

Turn your acting into something to watch. Recognize the moments, they are the lifeblood of drama.

Theater is never life.
Storytelling and reveal character, that is what it is all about.
We are storytellers. I'm not talking about logic, I am talking about the skill of telling a story. We all try to act with our intellect, you can't do it, acting is an emotional experience. It's only a partial mental experience. Don't look for psychological conclusion as an actor. A good actor knows when to do it, how to do it and make the right choices. Use all the resources you've learned from life and then you say, this can work in terms of the audience. You have to be theatrical. It won't work if you don't have no smarts. Consider the material in depth. What is the reading in it that will interest an audience. That is what they are looking for when they hire you.

Don't love your performance, love...

The acting experience is what it feels like to act in the imaginary world.
The World of Imagination is also known as having the actor stay inside the imaginary fourth wall of illusion.
Actors are spell binders and entertainers. To act we are talking about skills, you just don't throw yourself into it.

An actor must be trained in the skill of acting. It is a craft with a toolkit full of tools.
The individual tools are acquired through the learning of the art.

Work as an actor is to be an entertainer in the
House of Entertainment

For the audience: they are there just not to listen, but watch. Give them moments, so they can use their imagination.
For the actor: the more normal place for actor is inside the imaginary world, than outside in the real world.

Outside in the Real World

Great Performance
1. I am good.
2. It feels like giving a great performance.

Judgmental
1. God, I look awful.
2. What happen to my talent?
3. What does the director think of this?
4. Did the audience love me?
5. I'm so stiff, that sounded terrible.
6. What the hell am I doing?

Inside the Imaginary World

Experience of Acting
1. Not knowing what is going to happen next.
2. If feels like not being there.
3. You come off and you don't know exactly where you were.

When you are very good in a scene and you come off and you're not sure exactly where you were, that is when you are good. When you come off and say, "oh, was I terrible," you weren't in the scene. If you come off and you say, "boy, was I great," you weren't in the scene. If you can step off into space and not know where you are for a moment and trust your talent to take over and everything you have learned to date and allow that to propel you, then you come off in doubt, you come off like, "where was I?" That is when you are very good in the scene. That is what really acting has to feel like. It is like taking a trip. It is being somewhere else and being someone else. As long as you stay you, it is never going to happen. That is the trick you try to achieve.

Teach your body the discipline of being other people in a world of illusion.

Obey a natural law: keep thinking objective.
Beautiful acting is when the actor isn't there, just the character is there.

Learning How to Listen in a Scene
An actor can't try to make their own mind a 'blank' in trying to listen to another actor, because 'mother nature' hates a vacuum and will try to fill the void. Therefore, an actor must keep thinking an objective and stay with the emotion of the character, then they'll hear the way we do in life.

When you act, you have to act not just with your will, not just with your thoughts and feelings, you have to act with your whole body.

Don't get ready for the next moment.

In life, we have no idea what's going to happen in the next instant,

The Moment Between the Trapezes

\ /

state of disconnected

Audience goes 'aw'...

that's what makes your acting resemble life.

Actors must learn the scene, then you don't know what is going to happen, the lines and staging are almost like amnesia. You are in a state of disconnected from what is rehearsed. There is a sense of urgency between the two trapezes. There is no recall, everything is unknown after rehearsal.

In thinking the OBJECTIVE of the character creates the staging.
And feeling the EMOTION of the character creates the imagination.

To make acting look real through the quality of the accidental.

Walk
to the
edge
of the
diving
board and step off into space...

Acting natural won't get you anywhere. You have to be above the mob. You have to have fire in the belly. If you carry dullness, you're doomed. Stand up there and vibrate. Forget reality and just look for the theatrical.

talent will take over.

Your talent will work, how advanced you are will show.
Leave your body (talent) alone, it will do all the right things.
Things you find come out from your talent, not your brain.

Stay with the truth of the story.

The actor's brain is limited, their impulse is unlimited.

Feel, think, do technique is the way the actor wants to act in the imaginary world.

The answer is you have to make everything that happens meaningful; an attention getter. You have to keep the audience awake. Your first job is to keep them interested. You're not teaching them about humanity, you're entertaining them. You must keep them interested. So, if the director says to you, O.K., sit down over there and you sit down over there and there is nothing going on... make something go on that is important to the story and the character. That is your creative job. That is what you get hired for. If I'm a director and I hire De Niro, I know that he isn't just going to bog down. He is going to do something interesting. That is why he is worth all that money. That is why they hire him, they don't like him. Nobody likes anybody in this industry. They hire you because you are necessary, because you do something that is interesting that will sell tickets. Do you know why your basketball player makes so much money? People pay a lot of money to see him. That is why he makes more money than a brain surgeon. Brain surgeon only has one client that needs him at a time. Right? But a basketball player has a multitude that need him at a time, that's why he makes more money. And the Stars that make more money are the ones who can do something interesting. The way to be interesting is to find out what is going on in the story, who is your character, what does he want, what does he feel and dramatize it. Don't just think about it, but do it. Your objective is not just what you think, it's what you do. And you have to do it physically. It is not just a question of finding a place to settle yourself where you are the least target. An actor doesn't sit down because a character sits down, an actor sits down because he is half the target seated than he is standing. You fight your heart out to get in front of the camera, you want to be hidden when you get up there? It doesn't make sense, it is illogical. Why be an ostrich?

Order of Importance

Descriptions

1. author

Author is the star: play of words. Author gives story, character and dialogue. Actor gives it life.
_____________________

Truth of the author. Remember not to act dialogue.

____________________

2. audience

Entertain the audience. Key to play. Most important character is the audience.

_____________________

The wonder of acting is to present a human being to other human beings, so the audience get glimpses of themselves.
_____________________

3. actor

What does it have to do to the audience, what should it accomplish? Actor has all the judgment, not the director.

____________________

The actor must be simple, honest, and vocal: you will learn how to do it and then you will trust that you know how to do it and leave it alone and just do it.
____________________

4. director

Does scene do what the story requires? Director is an observer. A series of variations from actor. Director picks one.

The director turn actors loose on set, then lock it in for camera. Director's job is to make a scene work. If it works, it works, don't worry about the logic.

Theatrical sense, not psychological conclusions.
Don't think up clever things.

Do all acting on impulse.
Use your sensitivity from your heart.
Body vibrating with feeling.
Acting brain to brain.

Tiny Ron as Lothar in "The Rocketeer".

The Purpose of film today
is to play each moment fully. Don't over simplify in just dealing with plot.
First reading of screenplay is to enjoy the story. Second reading is the time to think of an individual character and to start making choices.

Acting is the only art you cannot be caught doing.

Everything I have written at this site on acting came out of the mouth of my late drama coach Don Richardson.

Yes, this Acting School of Feel, Think, Do website and the other website of Acting a Better Way w/ Actors Globally www.abwag.com are from the same online acting teacher Tiny Ron Taylor. Both websites delve into the same list of Principles of Acting.