ACTORS and DIRECTORS and WRITERS

ACTOR’S,  DIRECTORS, WRITERS CHECKLIST

Mark Piper 2009

Who am I? Sift the text for every detail about your character – not just the obvious (age, profession, background etc) but look for everything you can about his/her personality. How would you sum up this person in a sentence?

Where am I? Location What are your surroundings like? Do you have a mental picture of everything around you? Is it similar to anything you have experienced? Try to make a connection from your own life or from observations you’ve made. The richer the detail the more it will help you to visualize where you are.

Is it day or night – time of day

What has happened just before the scene starts? What are the events that have led to this scene? What was said the second before the scene commences?

What is my emotional state at the beginning of the scene? Have you experienced/witnessed anything similar? How would you feel if you were that character in that situation? How high are the stakes for me? What will happen to me if I don’t get what I want in this scene?

Your character’s script super-objective. What is the driving need in your character’s life as explored in the script?

What do I want most at the beginning of the scene? Your scene objective. What do you want out of that other person? What do want to make them do? Answer this with – “I want to…(make them understand my point of view, convince them not to go away, stop them attacking me, fall in love with me, forgive me etc). Does your objective change within the scene?

What expectations do I have at the beginning of the scene? Are you optimistic or pessimistic about getting what you want? How do you expect the other characters to react to you? As the scene unfolds what surprises you?

What obstacles or resistances are in your way? What is stopping me get what I want in the scene? Can be an inner obstacle (eg  I want to ask her out but I’m too shy) or an outer obstacle (eg I want to convince him to give me the job but he doesn’t think I’m up to it).


What tactics do I use to get over the obstacles? Usually governed by the text, but you can say a line in many ways with many different tactics. The boss might present you with an obstacle and say: “I want to give you the job but I don’t think you’re up to it” and you say “ All right. Thank you for seeing me” with different tactics to make him reconsider. Eg  1) You say your line to get his sympathy so he’ll feel sorry for you  2) You say your line as a threat to scare him into reconsidering 3) As a come-on to make him fancy you and you can get your job back that way!

Do I know my subtext and inner monologue? Can I write down or speak out loud my thoughts at every moment of the scene? Do I mean what I say or do I lie to cover up my true thoughts?

Do I know where the beat changes are in the scene? Identify any change of your objective, tactics, action or rhythm. Avoid getting stuck on the one emotional note. Often “pause” written in a scene will imply something is going on under the surface, hence a likely change of beat.

Can I connect with my character’s emotional state? Have I experienced/witnessed something similar? Have I connected with that emotion inside or outside the rehearsal room in a full and honest way, both with and without the words?

What do I look like? What do I wear?

And some other questions…

Am I listening to the other characters?

What is my attitude to each of the other characters?

If someone took my lines away, could I improvise the scene in my own words?

Am I committing to the scene with full mental and physical energy?

Other Notes

What is my relationship to the other characters?

What am I about to do?

How do you feel about the other characters- do you love/hate them

Do you want to get in their way?

Do they want to get in your way

What do you want from them?

What do you want them to give you?

What are you fighting for- goal motivation- the more conflict you find the more interesting the performance

Remember opposites- whatever you decide is your motivation i your scene, the opposite of that is also true and could be in it.

Every scene is filled with discoveries, things that happen for the first time. Take nothing for granted- make and emotional discovery as often as you can.

Remember to ask yourself- am I sending out and getting back feelings or am I just talking?

There are two points of view that every actor should bring to every scene:

1. I am right and you are wrong

2. you should change from being the way you are to the way I think you should be.

Choose in the script what moments are important to your character and remember to play these moments- they are important!

Ask what game is my character playing in this scene?

When you have looked through and done the above then -add to it what you don’t know? Something hidden and unknown to us.

Actions  / Beats

Doings

PREPARE

Contact Director before with any problems

DIRECTORS PROPOSED PROJECT SCHEDULE

DIRECTOR’S SCRIPT MEETING -:
Attendees – Director, Writer, Producer,

Presented – Script, Workflow Doc, One-Line Schedule from Celtx breakdown
Hard Copies circulated, if any changes made, revised versions emailed
-    Discuss script, director’s vision, production methodology incl key concerns & strategies
-    Discuss locations to begin scouting
-    Discuss casting to begin process (any children or animals etc)
-    Diarise future meetings incl script deadlines, loc survey, casting, auditions, rehearsals, etc
-    Decide on deal terms for cast & crew (eg hours, travel, pay, rights etc)
-    Confirm post path (to schedule & book)
-    REVIEWS DOCS & TRIGGERS RELEASE OF PRE PRODUCTION MONEY

==> LOCATION SURVEY – photos required
==> CASTING – shoot video, casting meeting with Producer to finalise

PRE PRODUCTION MEETING –:
Attendees – Director, Writer, Producer (+ Production Manager, 1st AD, Art Dept)
Presented – Revised Script, Revised One-Line Schedule, Celtx Props List
Hard Copies circulated, updated during meeting if needed
-    Finalise locations (view photos etc, to issue & sign location agreements)
-    Finalise casting (view DVD, to issue & sign cast contracts). Cast extras.
-    Confirm to begin rehearsal schedule
-    Schedule any make up & wardrobe tests
-    Confirm and allocate all props/costume/art dept requirements
-    Review post production schedule & any particular sound needs. Post flow chart.
-    Consider publicity – any on set, marketing schedule re festival list etc
-
==> REHEARSALS
==> Assessment re if safety precautions/report necessary

A) TECHNICAL SURVEY / RECCE –
Attendees – Director, 1st AD, DOP, Art Dept, Continuity, Sound
Shooting Schedule circulated and taken on recce

B) PRODUCTION MEETING –
Attendees – Director, Writer, Producer, All Crew, Teacher  Presented – Final Amended Script, Full Shooting Schedule, Shoot Paperwork
Hard Copies circulated, any script amendments from now colour coded
-    ALL READ THRU DAY-BY-DAY SHOOTING SCHEDULE, raise any issues
-    Confirm all equipment & camera tests
-    If Safety Report needed, circulated to all.
-    If shot list, option to give copy to 1st AD/Producer
-    Distribute blanks of shoot paperwork eg 1st Report, continuity, camera sheets, sound
-    Confirm all art dept requirements covered – costumes, props etc
-    To then issue call sheets with maps, advise all re call times/pickups, poss Teacher drop-ins
-    TRIGGERS RELEASE OF PRODUCTION MONEY

==> TONE MEETING  – Director & Producer to discuss any last concerns re script/realisation

SHOOT
All shoots to be based on 10 hour days with 45 min to 1 hour for lunch and travel times for location moves in schedule. Times to must be strictly adhered to – nobody to be late.

POST
- EDITORS CUT 1ST ASSEMBLY
- DIRECTORS CUT
- PRODUCERS CUT

==> SOUND SPOTTING SESSION – Sound Designer, Editor, Director. SOUND MIX.

POST DEBRIEF – on Delivery
Consult with Teacher – analysis of production prep, process, roles, challenges, etc
Present Marketing Plan & Strategy
 The Screen Director

ACTORS NOTES

Its all about the CHARACTER  – below are a few thoughts that may help

THESE NOTES are taken from the outstanding book THE
POWER OF THE ACTOR by leading US teacher IVANA
CHUBBUCK. Ivana?s students include BRAD PITT, HALLE
BERRY, JIM CARREY, ELISABETH SHUE, CHARLIZE THERON,
JAKE GYLLENHALL, JON VOIGHT and CARRIE-ANNE MOSS.

OBJECTIVES, BEATS AND ACTIONS
· OBJECTIVE (Whether it?s OVERALL or SCENE) is your
most important acting tool.
· OVERALL OBJECTIVE is what your character wants over
the course of an entire script.
· SCENE OBJECTIVE is what your character wants over
the course of an entire scene.
· A BEAT is a thought change, sometimes called a “unit
of action”.
· ACTIONS are mini-objectives attached to each beat.
· ACTIONS are the various approaches one takes to
achieve the SCENE OBJECTIVE.
THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE
· Is the tool that gives a script a beginning, middle
and end.
· It defines the journey for the actor as well as for
the audience.
· All the other acting tools must serve and support
the OVERALL OBJECTIVE.
· An actor must learn to use emotions, NOT AS AN END
RESULT, but as a tool to provide the passion to
overcome the conflict of the script.
· Without the purpose of a goal (OBJECTIVE), without
the struggle to win, the purely emotional actor will
simply emote for the sake of emoting, rather than
using those emotions to fuel the pursuit of an
important objective.
· Infuses the action with a sense of urgency.
· Ask yourself, “What does my character want from
life?”, “What is the primal goal?” This is the OVERALL
OBJECTIVE.
· Whether it takes place in real time or over the
course of 20 years, the OVERALL OBJECTIVE is the main
NEED that drives your character.
· Should always be a basic human need, a primal goal
such as “I want to find true love”, “I want power” or
“I need validation”.
· Our emotional lives come ONLY as a result of getting
or not getting our goals. Say, the OVERALL OBJECTIVE
is “to be loved”.
· If you win your goal (OVERALL OBJECTIVE), you?ll be
happy; if you lose your goal (OVERALL OBJECTIVE) then
you?ll be sad and angry.
· Emotions are a reaction to an action, not the other
way around.
· Your pure concentration on accomplishing a goal
makes you unaware of what you look like, and allows
your naturally distinctive mannerisms and quirks to
come forward – generating real behaviour.
· Your character?s OVERALL OBJECTIVE must be worded in
a way that establishes a change in their life that is
necessary for physical and/or emotional survival.
· Good overall objectives that include basic human
needs are: “To find love”, “To get power”, “To be
unconditionally loved”, “To have children”, “To get
married”, “To be loved by my mother or father”, “To
get my ex back in my life”, “To have a great career”,
“To be validated”, “To stay alive (survive)”, “To
protect and keep a loved one alive”
· OVERALL OBJECTIVE is not about plot. We don?t need
an actor?s interpretation to provide plot. The script
gives us that. The audience goes to the theatre, the
movies or watches tv to see human relationships take
place.
· The OVERALL OBJECTIVE should be SIMPLE, BASIC and
ACTIVE.
· Don?t intellectually decide your OVERALL OBJECTIVE.
Instead, decide on 3 or 4 – determined from the
circumstances of the script – and try them all in
rehearsal to see which one feels the simplest and most
effective choice.
· The OVERALL OBJECTIVE has to be a simple,
bottom-line, primal need that will MAKE SENSE
THROUGHOUT THE SCRIPT. It must provide a coherent and
focused “throughline”.
· Read the entire script more than once to get a sense
of your character?s OVERALL OBJECTIVE.
· Never judge your character or his or her objectives.
· Personalize your character?s OVERALL OBJECTIVE.
SCENE OBJECTIVE
· What your character wants over the course of the
entire scene.
· Has to support the OVERALL OBJECTIVE.
· Each scene objective cannot negate the OVERALL
OBJECTIVE of the entire script.
· Each scene is a consecutive link, collectively
building into one chain that completes the arc of the
entire story.
· For eg. If the OVERALL OBJECTIVE for your character
is “to be loved”, each successive scene is going to
shape your character?s path to getting that love. This
means that even if your character asks another
character to marry your character in one scene, but in
a later scene asks that same character for a divorce,
the OVERALL OBJECTIVE is still being served. How?
Because the second SCENE OBJECTIVE is motivated by
your character?s OVERALL OBJECTIVE. Your character is
not getting the love in his current marriage, so his
circumstances have led him to seek love elsewhere. So
the divorce doesn?t negate the OVERALL OBJECTIVE of
“to be loved”. It fulfils it.
· A SCENE OBJECTIVE is the specific drive of
intercommunication between you and the other character
WITHIN a scene, whereas the OVERALL OBJECTIVE is the
broad strokes of what your character seeks THROUGHOUT
THE ENTIRE SCRIPT.
· Your scene objective should be worded in a way THAT
REQUIRES A RESPONSE. Eg. “To get YOU to be my friend”,
“To get YOU to love me”.
· Going after your scene objective should INCLUDE the
other person, which prevents you from talking AT the
other actor – instead it makes you talk TO him.
· Bottom line your needs, taking out the intellect and
wording the SCENE OBJECTIVE so that is BASIC, NEEDY
and PRIMAL. This will allow you to act from your body,
not your brain. Stay away from esoteric or
overintellectualized concepts. No matter how smart or
stupid your character is, primal needs are always the
same – they?re primal. Albert Einstein or the retarded
character from “Mice and Men” have the same primordial
human drives, such as a need to be loved. They just
manifest them differently.
· Example of a cerebral, overly rational SCENE
OBJECTIVE: “I want to figure out how your mind works
so that I can see if we have enough in common to fall
in love”. Much better: “I want you to prove you?re
worthy of my love”
· Another eg. “I need you to understand why I do the
things I do because I was abused as a child and I
wonder if you can relate to that”. Much better: “to
get you to relate to me”.
· You can avoid over-intellectualizing your SCENE
OBJECTIVE by trying 3 or 4 SCENE OBJECTIVES with the
dialogue. The one that seems to make the most sense ,
the one that includes your body and emotions as you?re
saying the words out loud, is the right one. It will
fit like a glove.
· The SCENE OBJECTIVE never changes midway through a
scene – if it changes or feels like it changes
somewhere in the scene, you have picked the wrong
SCENE OBJECTIVE. It has to make just as much sense at
the beginning of the scene as it does at the end in
order to have a beginning, middle and end.
· Examples of good scene objectives – one which
involve your mind, heart, guts and sexuality, and
which are simple human needs like: “To get you to love
me”, “To get you to give me a job”, “To make you
validate me”, “To make you my ally”, “To get you to
give me my power back”, “To get you to have sex with
me”, “To make you wrong so I can be right”, “To get
you to give me hope”, “To get you to worship me”, “To
get you to help me feel better”.
· The wrong approach for the SCENE OBJECTIVE would be
phrased as: “I need love”, “I need a job”, “I need
validation”, “I need an ally”, “I want power”, “I?d
like sex” etc – these are wrong because the way they
are worded DOES NOT DEMAND A RESPONSE FROM THE OTHER
ACTOR. You must phrase your SCENE OBJECTIVE to require
a response.
· Think of your SCENE OBJECTIVE as an affective action
you need to take in order to establish a human
relationship of some kind.
· You have to CHANGE the other person to ultimately
get what you want.
· It can be helpful to think of acting as a kind of
boxing match, with each actor trying to win their
objective.
THE ROLE OF EMOTIONS IN ACTING
· Yes, your emotional life is important. But without
the sense of movement which an OBJECTIVE gives you,
and without using the emotions TO FUEL A GOAL
(OBJECTIVE), your emotions just lay there, a quivering
mass of useless feelings, leading to a self-indulgent
performance.
· Emotions are the reaction to an event or stimulus.
They arise from our need to gain or accomplish
something.
· What you do with these emotions to achieve your
SCENE OBJECTIVE is what creates powerful performance.
· Let the emotions be the impetus, or motivations, to
achieve your scene objective, not the end itself.
· There?s nothing wrong if feelings come up in the
pursuit of your objective, if you are really going
after what your character wants, they will come up.
But your goal is to keep going back to achieving your
objective, not to just cry for the sake of showing
that you can cry. If you cry, how can you use those
tears to INFLUENCE the other character to give you
what you want?
· Incorporate the DRIVE TO WIN in your performances.
MORE ABOUT SCENE OBJECTIVES
· ALWAYS make the SCENE OBJECTIVE about RELATIONSHIP
not PLOT. If all an audience wanted to see is plot,
then we wouldn?t need actors. The audience could just
read the script.
· Actors reveal the humanity of the script during the
process of pursuing their character?s objectives.
· When you are pursuing an objective, what you?re
really doing is trying to establish a relationship of
one kind or another. Even when someone has a gun to
your head, you need to create a relationship to the
gun-bearer or that person will shoot you as soon as
you try and run away. Eg. James Caan had to get Kathy
Bates to trust and like him so that she wouldn?t kill
him in “Misery”.
· SCENE OBJECTIVES give the scene a beginning, middle
and end.
· Find out where and how the particular scene fits
into the entire script.
· Earn the right to get to the end of the script. If
the scene ends with you being together with the other
character, every scene has to be, in some form, about
going after the love. If the end of the script finds
you split up, then you must earn the right to break
up. In this latter case, you might not choose the
objective to “get you to love me” although that might
seem to be the most obvious objective choice for a
love story, you might choose something like “to get
you to stay with me at any cost”. This scene objective
earns the right of the ending of the script (ie. That
the characters split up) because it implies that over
time, the characters may grow tired of each other and
that the “cost” of staying together may be too much.
· Even if your character dies, you must earn the right
to die. In this case, you might choose an objective
like “to make you love me before I die”.
· If your character kills someone, you must earn that
too.
· Don?t judge your SCENE OBJECTIVE. Even if you are
playing a serial killer, you must find the human
reasons that compel you to play that objective.
· Always make SELFISH CHOICES – we always do more to
get something when it involves something for ourselves
Rather than for someone else. To help another
selflessly can make you feel good, but it doesn?t have
heat to it because there?s nothing personally at risk
for you. You can be helping a friend with a problem,
with the SCENE OBJECTIVE of “to make you feel better”.
But what do YOU get out of it? However, the scene
objective “to get you to feel better so you?ll like
me” gives you something in return for all your hard
work. It also gives you the possibility of failure,
which is a great obstacle that you must overcome in
your pursuit of your goal.
THESE NOTES are taken from the outstanding book THE
POWER OF THE ACTOR by leading US teacher IVANA
CHUBBUCK. Ivana?s students include BRAD PITT, HALLE
BERRY, JIM CARREY, ELISABETH SHUE, CHARLIZE THERON,
JAKE GYLLENHALL, JON VOIGHT and CARRIE-ANNE MOSS. I
would highly recommend you purchase a copy of this
groundbreaking book.

OBSTACLES – PAGE 1
• OBSTACLES are the physical, emotional and mental hurdles that make it
difficult for your character to achieve his or her OBJECTIVES.
• OBSTACLES give power and intensity to your OBJECTIVES by making
your goal harder to accomplish.
• If your OBJECTIVES have a risk to them, then it brings physical and
emotional jeopardy and danger to the goal. Climbing Mt Everest is a much
more exciting story to play (and to watch) than walking over a molehill. Mt
Everest has the danger of avalanches, thin air, and a misplaced foot that could
bring death to the player. The molehill has virtually no risk. While they are both
goals, one has much bigger and more compelling OBSTACLES.
• Winning is only satisfying when there is the possibility of failure. The possibility
of failure emanates from OBSTACLES. The possibility you mightn’t get what
you want will always be an OBSTACLE in every script you analyze.
• OBSTACLES are both internal and external, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING
that get in the way of your OBJECTIVES, that create a hurdle, conflict, barrier or
stumbling block to accomplishing your OVERALL or SCENE OBJECTIVES.
• Attempting to overcome OBSTACLES, large and small, to finally achieve your
OVERALL and SCENE OBJECTIVES is what generates heat and the stakes in
your acting and the script.
FIGURING OUT THE OBSTACLES OF YOUR CHARACTER
1) Figure out the OBSTACLES that makes sense to the character in the script and
your OVERALL and SCENE OBJECTIVES.
2) Then you can go back through the scene and personalize them, making the
OBSTACLES makes sense to your life. For eg., if you’re working with a
seduction scene, the character’s OBSTACLES might be rejection, specific sexual
inadequacies, self-worth issues, body insecurities or a history of past hurts from
other mates or lovers. Once you’ve identified your character’s OBSTACLES,
then you must find personal OBSTACLES that correlate to YOUR personal and
unique fears that correlate to your personal and unique history, which might
include rejection, sexual fears, body image. (The part of your body that you hate
most – breasts, chest, legs, arms, whatever. Pick one. The worst one.) Are you
shy, overbearing or submissive? How does it get in your way? Do you have a
small penis, a chronic bladder infection or smelly feet?
USING OBSTACLES CREATES THE CHALLENGE
• The more OBSTACLES you put in a scene, the more harder you must work to get
your SCENE OBJECTIVE.
• OBSTACLES generate the difficulty that make for a more dramatic result.
• Most OBSTACLES fit into one of three categories: physical, mental and
emotional.
OBSTACLES – PAGE 2
PHYSICAL OBSTACLES
• PHYSICAL HANDICAPS: Include broken limbs, limps (Midnight Cowboy),
paralysis (Born on the Fourth of July), palsy (My Left Foot), tics (The Tic Code),
blindness (The Miracle Worker) or visual impairment, deafness (Children of a
Lesser God), impotence (Sex, Lies and Videotape).
• RACE AND RELIGION: Racism (Amistad), religious issues (Agnes of God),
religious rivalry (Mary, Queen of Scots).
• PHYSICAL SIZE EXTREMES: Short (any Woody Allen movie), too tall, fat
(Shallow Hal), skinny, penis too large (Boogie Nights) or too small, breasts too
large (anything with Pamela Anderson in it) or too small, nose too large (Cyrano
de Bergerac).
• APPEARANCE: A burn victim (The Phantom of the Opera), ugly (Beauty and
the Beast) or too beautiful and therefore unapproachable, too old (All About Eve),
too young (Paper Moon), you’re dressed in drag and that’s not your thing (Some
Like It Hot), age differences (The Graduate and any Woody Allen movie).
• FINANCIAL: Too rich (Ruthless People), too poor (Titanic).
• MIND ALTERED: Are you stoned, drunk or high? Do you have an addiction
that needs to be overcome, such as heroin (Drugstore Cowboy), cocaine
(Hurlyburly) or alcohol (Days of Wine and Roses)?
• MEDICAL: Dying (Terms of Endearment) or someone you love dying (Love
Story). Is suicide your only option (Death of a Salesman)? Do you have to
overcome the death of loved one (Lethal Weapon)? Abortion (Loose Ends),
pregnancy (The Turning Point)?
• PROFESSIONAL: Dangerous professions such as being a cop (Die Hard),
prostitute (Klute), secret agent (James Bond movies), military (Platoon), drug
dealer (Scarface), gangster (The Sopranos), bank robber (Bonnie and Clyde). Or
high stress occupations such as high finance (Wall Street), politics (Angels in
America), big business (The Apartment), actor (Bullets Over Broadway), lawyer
(To Kill a Mockingbird), sports player (Bull Durham), student (Ferris Bueller’s
Day Off), salesman (Glengarry Glen Ross), doctor (The Doctor, ER, Gray’s
Anatomy), teacher (Oleana, Dangerous Minds), journalist (All the President’s
Men, The China Syndrome), psychiatrist (Antwone Fisher).
• SOCIAL STATUS: Being an immigrant (Enemies, A Love Story), class
differences (Pygmalion), homosexuality (Far from heaven, Philadelphia), sexual
deviancy (9 ½ Weeks), victim of gossip (The Women).
• PLACE: Haunted house (The Shining), a dark imposing alley, concentration
camp (Schindler’s List), a place that contains a killer (Halloween, et al), a place
riddled with physical hurdles (Home Alone), a place that reminds you of a
traumatic event (Sophie’s Choice), an unfamiliar and faraway locale (The African
Queen, Lost In Translation).
OBSTACLES – PAGE 3
EXAMPLES OF PHYSICAL OBSTACLES (CONTINUED)
• EVENT: War (Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan, The Pianist), giving birth
(Same Time, Next Year), graduation (Dead Poets Society), high school reunion
(Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion), deadline for owing money to a loan
shark or drug dealer (A Hatful of Rain), gang war (Romeo and Juliet), a wake
(About Schmidt), kidnapping (Ransom), unintentional homicide (Thelma and
Louise), rape (The Accused), vengeance (Cape Fear), birthday (Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof), a contest (The Competition), unwanted pregnancy (The Pope of Greenwich
Village), getting married (Honeymoon in Vegas), divorce (Kramer vs. Kramer),
an affair (Unfaithful), the Depression (Waiting for Lefty), dying on death row
(Dead Man Walking), getting caught for a crime (Fargo).
MENTAL OBSTACLES
• BRAIN CAPACITY: Too smart, too analytical (Geniuses), too stupid (Dumb
and Dumber), retarded (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape), overthinking everything
(The Real Thing), simpleminded (Forest Gump).
• POLITICAL BELIEFS AND PRINCIPLES: Fighting the system (Erin
Brockovich, Philadelphia), being true to your ideals, pushing the envelope
(Norma Rae), risking your job and stability in standing by your character’s beliefs
(The Insider), risking your life in standing by your beliefs (Silkwood).
• MENTAL ILLNESS: Phobias (Arachnophobia, Sigourney Weaver in Copycat),
split personality (Sybil), schizophrenia (A Beautiful Mind), depression (Girl,
Interrupted), sane by locked up (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest).
• SECRETS AND LIES: Having a secret (No Way Out), keeping the lies straight
(A Streetcar named Desire)
• FORMAL EDUCATION OR LACK THEREOF: Educational disparity – one
character’s educated, the other is not (After the Fall).
EMOTIONAL OBSTACLES
• RELATIONSHIP ISSUES: Intimacy issues (About Last Night), history of love
going wrong (The Age of Innocence), history of family problems (Hamlet),
history of problems with a friend (Beaches), history of problems in the marriage
(Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), pent-up rage (The War of the Roses), sibling
rivalry (True West), history of problems with the ex-mate (Blithe Spirit, Private
Lives), obsession (Fatal Attraction), racial issues where there is love involved (A
Patch of Blue), jealousy (The Misanthrope, Othello)…
OBSTACLES – PAGE 4
MORE EXAMPLES OF EMOTIONAL OBSTACLES
• RELATIONSHIP ISSUES (cont.): history of parental problems (Mourning
Becomes Electra, American Beauty), incongruent personalities (The Odd Couple,
The Way We Were), history of cheating or being cheated on (Shampoo),
unrequited love (Summer and Smoke), ruthless rivalry with someone of the same
gender (Heathers).
• PERSONAL PROBLEMS: Greed and extreme ambition (Macbeth), shyness
(The Glass Menagerie), self-loathing (Frankie and Johnny), overbearing and
controlling (Ivan the Terrible), feeling like a loser (The Hustler), abandonment
issues (An Unmarried Woman), history of promiscuity (Carnal Knowledge), guilt
(Othello), overwhelming anger (Last Tango in Paris), being a virgin at an older
age (The 40 year Old Virgin, Savage in Limbo), being antisocial (Kalifornia),
loneliness (Marty), history of self-sabotaging behavior (American Pie), paranoia
(The Collector), fear of being judged.
MORE ABOUT OBSTACLES
• When you are breaking down a script and looking for OBSTACLES, FIND
AS MANY OF THEM AS YOU CAN – physical, emotional and mental –
because the more OBSTACLES a character has to overcome, the more intricate
the performance.
• The OBSTACLES you infuse in your work should always be the HARDEST,
MOST DEMANDING, PROBLEMATIC AND CHALLENGING.
• The OBSTACLES give you the DIFFICULTY FACTOR – a challenging
OBSTACLES makes you fight more passionately – they are there to
HEIGHTEN AND INTENSIFY THE DRAMA.
• OBSTACLES produce desperation and desperation produces COMEDY.
Examples: Steve Carell in The 40 Year Old Virgin, Jim Carrey in Liar Liar.
• When we want something badly we often find ourselves behaving in a silly, crazy
and outlandish manner. Think about the date you had when you really, really
liked a person and wanted to impress them. Of course, the slicker and cooler you
tried to act, the more awkward and stupid you became: tripping, bumping into
walls, using the wrong doors, spilling on yourself etc
OBSTACLES – PAGE 5
• OBSTACLES help you better understand the motivations of your character.
For eg. Joy Bryant in Three Way – her character was in love with a man who was
older, a screw-up, secretive to the point of being untrustworthy, possibly
responsible for killing 2 people, had no money, lived in a hovel, was still in love
with an ex-wife, and wanted to get her involved in the illegal activity of
kidnapping. Why would an attractive woman want to be with him? Ivana worked
with Joy to come up with a history that Joy’s character had no family and friends
and was thus all alone in the world – the obstacle she faced was LONELINESS.
This drove her to pursue the objective of “to get you to love me and stay with me”
and made it believable that an attractive woman would try to make this Mr.Wrong
her Mr Right.
• All of your character’s OBSTACLES are not necessarily written in the
script. Some will be obvious and written in b/w in the script, others you’ll find by
conjecture and supposition based on the facts of the script.
• Even when it seems your character has no OBSTACLES, it’s up to you to
find them. For eg. Peggy Lipton in Twin Peaks – Ivana worked with her to come
up with obstacles not necessarily in the script – like she’s dissatisfied with her
life, she’s lonely, she could be next victim of murderer lurking about.
• Once you’ve identified the most challenging OBSTACLES, never give up on
your SCENE OBJECTIVE, even if the OBSTACLES seem impossible to
overcome. The person who gives up too easily is often perceived by the audience
as a loser. Don’t ever admit defeat. It’s not over til it’s over.
• YOU ALWAYS WANT TO ACT FROM A WINNING, ANYTHING’S
POSSIBLE POINT OF VIEW. Look at Charlize Theron in Monster.
OBSTACLES: THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION
• FIND OBSTACLES IN THE SCRIPT: Read the scene with a pencil in hand and
note OBSTACLES as you go along.
• Then you can go back through and add another layer and another.
• CONJECTURE OR SURMISE OBSTACLES based on the script.
• OBSTACLES should be WRITTEN IN PENCIL(which gives you a chance to
erase if you change your mind) directly onto the script.
• Do not solely consider your scenes or your lines when reading for OBSTACLES,
because many of your OBSTACLES will be a result of the actions and words of
other characters.
OBSTACLES – PAGE 6
THE INITIAL ORDER FOR SCRIPT ANALYSIS
1. FIND YOUR SCENE OBJECTIVE
2. FIND YOUR SCENE OBJECTIVE
3. FIND THE OBSTACLES THAT MAKE SENSE TO THE SCRIPT AND
THE CHARACTER ON THE PAGE
4. PERSONALIZE YOUR OBSTACLES BY CHOOSING THE RIGHT
SUBSTITUTION
• These notes are taken from the outstanding book THE POWER OF THE ACTOR
by leading US teacher IVANA CHUBBUCK

SUBSTITUTION – PAGE 1
SUBSTITUTION is ENDOWING THE OTHER ACTOR IN THE SCENE WITH
CHARACTERISTICS OF A PERSON FROM YOUR REAL LIFE WHO BEST
REPRESENTS THE NEED EXPRESSED IN YOUR SCENE OBJECTIVE.
• SUBSTITUTION gives you an immediate history with another character or
problem and all the layered emotional responses that come with it.
• Using SUBSTITUTION enables you to attach emotions – emotions that have
the depth and complexity that usually take years to develop – to another actor.
• You may have only known an actor you are working with for a few days, yet your
character has had an intricate, lengthy relationship with the other actor’s character
in the script. With SUBSTITUTION you can endow the other actor playing, for
instance, your mother, with the involved history you have with your REAL
mother – her love, the certainty or uncertainty of her love for you; and the
memories, both joyful and painful. Working with your real mother as your
SUBSTITUTION will make your interplay with the other actor as nuanced and
complex as your relationship with your real mother – in every line, glance and
gesture.
• SUBSTITUTION creates a truly human relationship, not an acted out
interpretation that’s merely motivated by a cerebral source.
• Different aspects of our personalities are drawn out when we encounter
different people. Each SUBSTITUTION choice will provide different
reactions and stimuli. You act differently around your children, your mother,
your lover, a crush, your husband or wife, your nemesis, your friend and your
boss. A performance can change radically depending upon whom you are thinking
about and responding to (your SUBSTITUTION).
• We have a multitude of emotional responses to each person we come in
contact with. Most actors, left to their imaginations, will take something like a
love scene and just attempt to produce feelings of love. This results in a one-note
performance. Nobody just loves someone. Real-world love has moments of anger,
pain, competition, jealousy, hate and sadness. Few of the complexities and
minutiae of a real loving relationship – the layers of history and emotions – can
emerge by acting a loving relationship from our imaginations. SUBSTITUTION
is effective because we have such unique responses to each individual we come in
contact with.
• It’s important to use real people in your acting work because you don’t know
how you’ll really behave in front of a person when there’s a lot of risk. You
think you do, but you don’t.
• SUBSTITUTION personalizes your work so that your actions and reactions
are from your heart and body, not from your preconceived idea of how the
scene should be (what you imagined and rehearsed at home).
• SUBSTITUTION makes your behaviour real.
• It grounds an actor’s work, providing them with real people to react and
interact with.
SUBSTITUTION – PAGE 2
SUBSTITUTION: THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION
1) Begin by finding one thing about the other actor’s face that reminds you of
the person you’re using as the SUBSTITUTION. It can be anything – the eyes,
eyebrows, skin colour, nose, lips, cheekbones, forehead etc. It’s very important to
use one specific feature, because our minds have a hard time latching on to vague
ideas.
2) Once you decide what it is, then concentrate on that one feature until the
feeling of the person comes to you in your gut. No, you don’t want to look
cross-eyed until you see your SUBSTITUTION. You should simply wait to feel
that person’s essence in front of you.
3) As you do this, remember key events (both traumatic and joyful) with the
person you are using as your SUBSTITUTION while looking at that one
facial feature.
4) This entire exercise should only take 5-10 seconds.
5) Working this way may seem awkward at first, but after trying it a few times,
you’ll find that this process will become as easy and natural as breathing.
IDENTIFYING WHO TO USE AS A SUBSTITUTION
• You must find the person (SUBSTITUTION) who provides the appropriate
emotional and physical reactions.
• How do you find that person? Your SCENE OBJECTIVE. If the SCENE
OBJECTIVE is “to get you to love me”, who is it that you need love from the
most? Your mother, brother, ex-wife, ex-boyfriend or estranged friend?
• Don’t worry about the appropriateness of the script’s character to your
SUBSTITUTION choice. Work from your SCENE OBJECTIVE.
• Try every person that feels even slightly right in answering the question of
who best represents the need expressed in your SCENE OBJECTIVE. In
rehearsal, try each possibility, going as far as the first half-page of dialogue. The
SUBSTITUTION choice that generates the most powerful and fitting emotions
for the scene will quickly become clear.
• Another eg. Your scene objective: “to get you to give me my power back”. An
appropriate SUBSTITUTION might be your demanding boss, a director that gave
you trouble, your unforgiving mother, a wretched in-law, the person who abused
you in some way, that guy who beat you in a fight, an unreasonable teacher or a
team member who ruthlessly competes with you. The issue of power comes in
many shapes. Don’t get stuck in the physical world – make choices that make
emotional sense. The results are much more effective.
SUBSTITUTION – PAGE 3
IDENTIFYING WHO TO USE AS A SUBSTITUTION (continued)
• Don’t be literal about your SUBSTITUTION choice – look at it from an
emotional point of view. Just because the scene is about your lover doesn’t
mean that you have to use a person from your life who is, or has been, your lover.
You want to find a SUBSTITUTION that you have similar emotional issues with.
Eg. Your character’s scene objective is “to make you love me” and in the script,
this scene objective is directed towards a lover. Your first instinct may be to use a
past/present lover. But what if your life circumstances include a father who
abandoned you and your mother when you were eight? For most people, an event
like this has a higher emotional charge than anything that happens with their
lovers. By using your father as a SUBSTITUTION choice for your mate
character in the “to make you love me” scene, you are more capable of finding a
richer, more empowered and more profound emotional base to your SCENE
OBJECTIVE.
• We often get involved with a mate who is, in psychological terms, a parental
substitute. It’s just as legitimate to use your parent in a scene about a
girlfriend/boyfriend situation as it is to use an actual lover.
• Your family members will often be your SUBSTITUTION choice.
• The only way to know if a SUBSTITUTION will work is to physically try it
in rehearsal and performance.
• The best SUBSTITUTION choices are people that are currently important
in your life and are emotionally charged. This keeps you in the present and
from trying to regurgitate something that has already been resolved and that you
have few feelings for or about.
• This doesn’t mean you can only use a person as a SUBSTITUTION if
they’re presently in your life. Sometimes we have strong feelings for someone
in our past, but these feelings remain current because they’re unresolved.
• We don’t always know which relationships are resolved and unresolved.
Often, we feel we’re done with a relationship when in fact, we’re not. The only
way to know if a SUBSTITUTION will work is to try it.
• Don’t intellectually make your choices. If you try it and your feel connected,
it’s the right choice; if you don’t feel connected, it’s the wrong choice – simple as
that.
• Your SUBSTITUTION is not always going to be a linear or literal path from
the character in the script. Eg. Your character has a fight with their mother. But
your substitution may not be your real mother. You have to look at the scene
objective and what your character most wants? Approval? Maybe the person in
your life that you seek approval from more than your mother is your teacher or
best friend – then you’d use them.
SUBSTITUTION – PAGE 4
IDENTIFYING WHO TO USE AS A SUBSTITUTION (continued)
• Eg. Mary Stein in Babe: Pig in the City – her character had to have familial
relationships with animals she kept in her home. Instead of finding best pet
relationship she’d ever had, she used SUBSTITUTIONS that inspired her to
behave and relate to the animals as though they were her human family – Mary
chose people from her life and endowed the animals with those people.
• Not all scenes require a SUBSTITUTION. Eg. When I worked on All Saints,
Libby Tanner was so real in her acting that I didn’t’ need to endow her with
anyone from my life.
• SUBSTITUTION is a tool that you use if you need emotional history. For eg,
for sexual connection you wouldn’t use a SUBSTITUTION, you would use the
actor who’s right in front of you. Why? Because using a SUBSTITUTION takes
away the intimacy. A SUBSTITUTION is there to provide a strong emotional
connection, not a physical one. Sexual connections are what help create
chemistry between two actors – which is essential in making a movie, television
show or play a hit.
• An EMOTIONAL connection is different than a sexual one. If the character
who your character is sexually interested in also includes an emotional need,
then use a SUBSTITUTION as well. What if the actor whose character you are
supposed to be in love with is someone you cannot generate feelings for? Or
worse, whaf if they’re someone you don’t like? In that case using a
SUBSTITUTION for the other actor with someone you have a major crush on, or
who you’re in love with, is an option. But remember: this should always be IN
ADDITION to the “Creating Sexual Chemistry” exercise. Eg. Gay actress who
needed to be boy crazy. She did sexual chemistry exercise with actor playing her
boyfriend, as well as using her own real life gay lover as a SUBSTITUTION so
that she could add a dimension of LOVE to the chemistry. She won an Emmy.
• There are only a handful of people in your life who are powerful enough to
use as a SUBSTITUTION. Families – mother, father, siblings. Partner, children,
employer. Jack Nicholson uses his mother frequently.
• SUBSTITUTION provides catharsis. Acting allows us to do things we can’t
normally do because real events or convention keep us from experiencing them.
Death takes away a relationship, but in our acting fantasy we can keep that
person alive – Eg. Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas.
• BE OPEN TO CHANGING YOUR SUBSTITUTION if a better one comes
along. If, as you are doing a play, a movie or a TV show, something happens in
your life that is more distressing, crucial or more relevant that introduces a better
substitution choice, by all means change your SUBSTITUTION. Eg. Charlize
Theron in Mighty Joe Young: was using a different substitution when a few days
into filming, her brother died in a car accident. Charlize switched her substitution
to her brother as this was more powerful, present and traumatic.
SUBSTITUTION – PAGE 5
IDENTIFYING WHO TO USE AS A SUBSTITUTION (continued)
HOW OBSTACLES IN THE SCRIPT AND IN YOUR LIFE INFLUENCE YOUR
SUBSTITUTION CHOICE
• Take risks with your SUBSTITUTION choices: if your SCENE OBJECTIVE
is “to win your approval and love” and you are trying to decide between two reallife
friends as your substitution, choose the one who would provide huge, risky
OBSTACLES to overcome in winning their love and approval. Choose the one
who you feel you have to try too hard for rather than the one who would do
anything for you.
• There must always be inherent OBSTACLES attached to your
SUBSTITUTIONS.
• When making a SUBSTITUTION choice, always ask yourself:
1) Who do I most need to get my SCENE OBJECTIVE from? And from that
list…
2) Who is most unlikely to give it to me?
THIS BRINGS THE POSSIBILITY OF FAILURE INTO THE EQUATION,
which will create UNPREDICTABILITY for you, the other actor and the
audience.
• When picking your SUBSTITUTIONS, always consider the script’s
OBSTACLES. Eg. When Bonasera has to ask Don Corleone to murder for him,
there are huge obstacles: Don Corleone could reject him, Bonasera fears the
Godfather and knows what he’s capable of, fear of being beholden to the
Godfather, if Corleone doesn’t grant Bonasera’s request, Bonasera will have no
other options etc
• PICK SUBSTITUTIONS from your life that have the greatest OBSTACLES
LOOK FOR THESE REACTIONS WHEN CHOOSING THE RIGHT
SUBSTITUTION:
1) Touches you emotionally
2) Gives you the passion to succeed in achieving your SCENE OBJECTIVE
3) Has inherent OBSTACLES
4) Makes sense to the script itself
Someone may come to mind immediately and you might feel you have the perfect choice.
Even so, YOU STILL MUST COME UP WITH AT LEAST 2 MORE ALTERNATIVE
SUBSTITUTION CHOICES, because we are not always aware, until we try it, who in
your life affects us the most. Don’t assume the most obvious substitution choice will
work – sometimes it’s someone you least suspect who will motivate the most passion to
win your SCENE OBJECTIVE.
SUBSTITUTION – PAGE 6
PERSONALIZING OBSTACLES: THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION
1) Review the SCRIPT’S OBSTACLES that you’ve already listed and defined
that are established by the script itself.
2) Then, with your SUBSTITUTION in mind, determine what similar
OBSTACLES exist within your relationship with your SUBSTITUTION.
3) You want to find a SUBSTITUTION that has OBSTACLES that echo your
character’s OBSTACLES in the script.
Eg. Bonasera’s obstacles in The Godfather:
1. Possibility of rejection
2. Disparity of power
3. Intimidation
4. Fear of the person he’s talking to
5. A history of problems in the relationship
6. The request is extremely important.
7. There are probably severe repercussions if the request is perceived as a sign of
disrespect.
IVANA’S SUBSTITUTION CHOICES if she were playing Bonasera: her abusive
mother, an intimidating studio executive, her daughter’s teacher that gives her gifted
daughter an unwarranted lower grade.
OBSTACLES inherent in Ivana’s substitution choices:
Her mother
• Ivana still has a kernel of FEAR AND INTIMIDATION OF HER MOTHER
(Bonasera’s obstacles – 3 & 4)
• Ivana fears because her mother is a bit mentally unstable that if she pushes her too
hard with her request, she might send her mum over the edge. SEVERE
REPERCUSSIONS (Bonasera’s obstacle – 7)
• DISPARITY OF POWER intrinsic to parent/child relationship (Bonasera’s
obstacle – 2)
• If Ivana wants her mum to keep supporting her mentally handicapped brother and
her mum refuses, her brother will have to go without a roof over his head, food to
eat and the mental health care he so desperately needs. AN IMPORTANT
REQUEST (Bonasera’s obstacle – 6)
SUBSTITUTION – PAGE 7
SOMETIMES THE OBSTACLES IN YOUR SUBSTITUTION WON’T
DIRECTLY PARALLEL THE OBSTACLES OF YOUR CHARACTER
Eg. Macy Gray played a role on TV series M.D.s.- she played a singer who had lifethreatening
cancer that was attacking her vocal cords. She had to choose: have her
throat operated on, lose her voice, but survive. Or don’t have the operation and die.
In life, Macy has three kids, so she would opt for life without a voice but being alive
to raise her kids. Whereas the character Macy played opts to not have the operation,
risk dying but hope that a cure will be found to save her voice. The OBSTACLES are
different but the emotional desires parallel and reflect each other.
THE OBSTACLES THAT NEED TO BE PERSONALIZED ARE NOT
ALWAYS OBVIOUS OR WRITTEN IN THE SCRIPT
Eg. Adrian Paul on TV series The Highlander – his superhero character Duncan had
to help a friend who was a raging alcoholic. Ivana helped Adrian create
OBSTACLES that weren’t in the script to HUMANIZE Adrian’s character. They
invented that Duncan was also an alcoholic somewhere in his history. But Adrian had
never been an alcoholic, so they chose another vice. This infused his characterization
of Duncan, and now he could truly relate to his character’s friend’s obsessive and
addictive behaviour, and profoundly understand his alcoholic friend, making his
performance particularly affecting.
PEOPLE WHO HAVE CHOSEN SHOW BUSINESS AS A CAREER OFTEN
HAVE AN ARRAY OF VICES TO CHOOSE FROM. IT’S NOTHING TO BE
ASHAMED OF. IT’S WHAT MAKES YOU AN ARTIST.
• Dig deep. Look below the surface to those dark, tortured and hidden places
that reside inside of you.
• When you personalize a script’s OBSTACLES, it requires you to look at
YOUR demons – especially those places we’re often in denial about.
• Finding the appropriate SUBSTITUTION and personalizing a script’s
OBSTACLES asks you to be rigorously honest about who you are and who
and what pushes your buttons.
• When you try different choices, it’s sometimes really surprising what works
and what doesn’t. Issues you think you’ve resolved are not. People you think
no longer hold any power over you still prevail in your heart.
• What is effective in your work is the real truth of what you feel.
• That’s why it’s important to try many choices, even the ones that seem wrong.
• Because underneath, in your heart and gut, there may be residual unresolved
feelings – no matter how much your conscious mind may fight it.
• Working this way no only gives you a better performance, it gives you a better
understanding of yourself.
• The SUBSTITUTION you choose colors and changes what choices you make
for all the INNER WORK, including the mental images that are creating by
what it is you are talking about and what it is you are hearing – INNER
OBJECTS.

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