Reddit reviews Michael Caine - Acting in Film: An Actor's Take on Movie Making (The Applause Acting Series) Revised Expanded Edition

Interesting and some good points, but not all are true in all situations, and it would have been a more useful piece if it also addressed what you SHOULD say in these scenarios. Neither directing nor acting is my primary area but I've done and studied both, so I have a few thoughts to add I hope will be helpful to others.

• Withholding info can in the right circumstances be more effective, usually when dealing with reactions that tend to feel contrived without a genuine motivator. Example 1: Hitchcock did not reveal to Tippi Hedrin until the day of shooting the attic scene that she would be lying on the floor with a dozen live birds tethered to her and being flung at her. Example 2: In filming the hotel room scene with Laura Dern in Wild At Heart, Willem Dafoe intentionally freaked her shit by taking a real piss in the set's fake toilet while filming. Hedrin's terror and Dern's panic are made palpable because they're real; their performance is enhanced by a genuine reaction. It's important to avoid harming the actor in the process though - Hedrin had to be hospitalized for a week after shooting the above scene.
  
  
• Specific action and expression direction such as discouraged here is vital when directing mocap or for interaction with an animated CGI character. VFX is my primary area and directing VFX is as different from narrative film/video directing as it is from stage directing, and different rules apply. Be precise with eyeline guides, give greenscreen actors something real to their interaction where you can (see the VFX featurette on Pan's Labyrinth, the girls facial response with the real puppet vs the marker, see also the Sin City Rodriguez flick school, the shooting of multiple scenes between two characters where the actors were never in the same room at the same time.) Direct the action (choreography - action - location of movement relative to where animated character will be) and the expression (facial and body language/stance/reactions) to follow the timing and flow. IME actors thinking about the scene and trying to interact with an imaginary character tend to overdo their expressions and gestures, but if they have a looser outline of the action and are focused on following direction to make certain gestures and expressions, like choreography, the resulting interaction with the animated character is looser, freer, feels less contrived, more real and in the moment. This is the opposite of the article's recommendation, but it's a different type of directing, and acting.
  
  
• He cautions against one dimensionality when talking about judgement, but insists actors, and indeed people, can feel only one emotion at one time. Well, yeah, if you want... a one dimensional character! Has he no familiarity with the word "ambivalent" nor its non-physics definition? Most of the greatest characters on page, stage or screen are fueled my multiple and conflicting emotions. Hatred driven by fear. Fear driven by love. Love driven by revenge. Revenge driven by grief. Grief driven by guilt. Characters are driven by their complex emotional chain reactions, gathered from experience. What directors SHOULD be asking actors is "Why?"; ask of them to examine the character's internal clockwork: Why does s/he react to X with Y? Why does s/he want a specific result from their actions? Why does s/he succeed or fail? Ask actors questions that get them to delve into the forces that are behind the behavior. By discussing these the director can guide the preformance making sure it comes from a place that works with the whole of the narrative.
  
  
• Make no mistake, "production value" is important. Even good acting cannot overcome bad production values. A bad movie cannot be made good with production quality, but a good movie can easily be ruined by the lack thereof. Be sure you consider: Color, Locations, set dressing, lighting (hint: create light sources in the environment for contrast), compositing, costuming, hair, makeup, physical effects... all of these provide visual cues about the character, scene and story. No matter the media, supporting the audience's connection with the story and characters through these visual elements provides a scaffold for the actor's immersion in the scene and makes all the difference between the film's impression as mediocre or exceptional.
  
  
• Michael Caine has published a book on acting for film, as opposed to the stage. Useful for actors and directors alike. URL:
  http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Caine-Applause-Revised-Expanded/dp/1557832773/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278217957&sr=1-1
  
  
  Long ass coment, hell yes. I hope others make long ass comments with their ideas and experiences too. This article makes a good springboard for a very meaningful exchange on directing actors.
  
  
  

He wrote a book on this too. We used it as our class text book in my Acting and Directing class in college.

http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Caine-Applause-Revised-Expanded/dp/1557832773/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381853716&sr=1-1&keywords=michael+caine+acting+in+film

Michael Caine - Acting in Film

I learned a lot by reading Michael Caine's book on acting. I never would have thought to learn about directing from that book, but I asked an acting teacher the same question you've posted here and that was her immediate answer.

To be clear, it's not like he discusses how to direct actors in the book. He just explained what actors go through and what actors tend to need during prep and on set in a way that was helpful to me.

Michael Caine - Acting in Film: An Actor's Take on Movie Making (The Applause Acting Series) Revised Expanded Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1557832773/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_Szf.ub0DNA53A

Edit: sorry for whatever that price zombie bot post is. I'm new here and didn't know that crap would happen if I posted a link.

His book "Acting in Film is brilliant. I am not an actor and do not intend to pursuit acting in any way but a former roommate left it when he moved away and I think I read it in one sitting - it was very interesting. The principles he outlines in that book translate to many life situations. Learned a thing or two about film as well...