Richard Brestoff - The Camera Smart Actor

The CAMERA SMART ActorThe CAMERA SMART ActorRichard BrestoffA Career Development BookSK A smith and Kraus Book A Smith and Kraus Book
Published by Smith and Kraus, Inc.
177 Lyme Road, Hanover, NH 03755
www.SmithandKraus.com Copyright 1994 by Richard Brestoff
All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America First Edition: October 1994
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that the material represented in this book is subject to a royalty. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, and of all countries covered by the International Copyright Union (including the Dominion of Canada and the rest of the British Commonwealth), and of all countries covered by the Pan-American Copyright Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention, and of all countries with which the United States has reciprocal copyright relations. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproductions such as information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and the rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved. All inquiries should be addressed to Mary Alice Kier, Cine/Lit Representation, 7415 181st Place S.W., Edmonds, Washington 98026. 64#8 as a feature entitled The Actor Unprepared. 1993 by Educational Theater Association, 3368 Central Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45225. Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Brestoff, Richard. Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Brestoff, Richard.

The camera smart screen actor/Richard Brestoff. p. cm. -- (A career resource book) Includes bibliographical references (p. - ) and index. ISBN 1-880399-76-8 : $14.95 1.

Motion picture acting. I. Title. II. Series. PN1995.9.A26B74 1994
791.43028--dc20 94-34487
CIP This book is dedicated to my wife, Deborah, my daughter, Jenny, and to the voice in my head, Mr.

Peter Kass. Special thanks to Stephanie Ogle and her wonderful store Cinema Books in Seattle, to Pat and Jim French, Michael Korolenko, Mark Elliott, Nate Long, Adele Becker, Dr. Barry Witham and Jacqueline Mok for their belief. To Mary Alice Kier and Anna Cottle of Cine/Lit Representation for having such faith in this book and for their perseverance in finding the right publisher. To Marisa Smith, Eric Kraus, Julia Hill and everyone at Smith and Kraus, Inc., the right publishers, for their dedication and hard work, and to Olympia Dukakis for her kind words and insight. Biography RICHARD BRESTOFF has spent eighteen years of his working life in front of the camera. Biography RICHARD BRESTOFF has spent eighteen years of his working life in front of the camera.

He has acted in over a dozen feature films, including My Favorite Year, The Entity, and Car Wash, and more than thirty Network television shows, including Northern Exposure, thirtysomething, Night Court, Twilight Zone, Hill Street Blues and had a reoccurring role on Tour of Duty. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from University of California at Berkeley, he went on to receive his Masters of Fine Arts degree in acting from New York Universitys School of the Arts. In addition to his film expertise, Mr. Brestoffs experience in theater and radio drama includes the 1976 Broadway production of Hamlet and a part with the KIRO Radio Mystery Theater in Seattle. He is a three-time Prime time Emmy award judge, a member of the Performers branch of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and currently lives and teaches in the Seattle area. Preface In 1975, I graduated from New York Universitys School of the Arts with a Master of Fine Arts degree in my hand and three rigorous years of actor training behind me. Preface In 1975, I graduated from New York Universitys School of the Arts with a Master of Fine Arts degree in my hand and three rigorous years of actor training behind me.

I was soon lucky enough to land a part in a PBS television drama. I was nervous, but said to myself, Im ready, Im trained. I was pretty keyed up when I arrived at the location for my first day of shooting. But when I got on the set, I settled down to the task at hand. I put everything into the shot, and was quite spent when the director finally said cut and print. Satisfied that Id survived my first day of camera work, I went back to my trailer and changed into my street clothes.

A few moments later, the second assistant director knocked at my door. When I opened it, he stared at me, looking stricken. I asked him what was wrong. After a long silence, he asked me what I was doing in my street clothes. I said I was going home. Now he looked worse and asked me what I was talking about.

I explained to him that Id just finished todays scheduled scene so I was leaving. I picked up my keys. Wait, he said. Weve only shot the master. What is a master, I asked. Slowly he came up the steps and sat on a tiny seat across from me.

He asked me if Id ever worked before. Yes, I said, in the theater, but this was my first camera job. Taking a deep breath, he told me he didnt have a lot of time to explain because they were ready for me on the set, but, he said hurriedly, in film, scenes are shot over and over again from different angles and later edited together. You mean I have to do it again? I asked. All day, he replied, adding that hed tell them Id be ready in a few minutes. The rest of the day was one of the worst of my life.

I was completely unprepared. For the stage, I was a Master of Fine Arts. For the camera, I was an illiterate. I was thrown by the demands of film style, and my performance was an embarrassment. This book is the result of spending the next seventeen years trying to make up for that awful beginning. Richard BrestoffIntroduction For the Newcomer, the camera is usually intimidatingin my case the camera fixed its eye on me and within me all impulses, instincts, and thoughts raced to some secret, safe spaceall the while I continued to talk and move about. Richard BrestoffIntroduction For the Newcomer, the camera is usually intimidatingin my case the camera fixed its eye on me and within me all impulses, instincts, and thoughts raced to some secret, safe spaceall the while I continued to talk and move about.

I came to the sound stage totally uninformed, a stranger in a foreign land, unable to speak or understand the language. The customs eluded me, the people were unrecognizable. And so I learned to dread, to fear, and finally to hate that eye that way through me to my secret hiding place, to my fears, to my inadequacies, and so forth and son on and all the rest of it to quote Chekhov. Eventually I learned, thanks to director Jules Dassin, who saw through my sham, recognized my dread and determined to teach me what Richard Brestoff is also determined to teachwhat they never told us about acting for the camera. This book is more than terrific, its needed. Olympia DukakisIllustrationsForewordA Better Way Youre sitting in a theater as a play is about to begin.

Everyone is buzzing with excitement. Soon, the lights dim, talking stops, and the house is plunged into darkness. Your heartbeat quickens with expectation. But before the lights come up again, a voice speaks from the blackness. Ladies and gentlemen, were going to try an experiment tonight. Something unusual and different.

Instead of watching our performance from the restricted confines of your reserved seats, we are going to ask you to move about the theater anywhere youd like to go. Feel free to wander around as the show is going on. We invite you to come up on the stage and stand next to, or behind the shoulders of, or even between the actors. You may lie on the stage if you like, or take advantage of the clear Plexiglas platforms we have built above the stage for overhead viewing. You may run from one spot to another, walk around slowly or pick a spot and stay there. Please change your viewing position as often and as little as you want.