How An Actor Can Transform Into A Convincing Character

How to develop Mind and Body for a convincing performance

How To Boost Body And Mind For A Convincing Acting Performance

The Beginning

What's an acting

It's a fine art of performing fictional roles in  plays, films, or television.

Who performs?  

A person who portrays a character in a performance. The person is called as an "Actor"

How?

By using his/her power of imagination and living truthfully as an imaginary person and circumstances

What are an actor's tools? 

 Body and Mind

How to use and develop further these tools for a convincing performance as an actor?

The fact:

We all are a common individual and trying to be a good actor hopefully, as per its definition above.

The dilemma 

• We as an individual has a profile, an essence or an *archetype which either is inherited at the birth  or developed as a habit and we display this without being aware of it. This gives each one of us a distinct label of Mr./Ms. "X personility with Y attitude and Z emotions". 
• If we want to be a good actor, this personality of our's will always be the greatest hurdle in creating a new real character and then 'living truthfully as this imaginary person' .  The harder an actor tries to be convincible as a character, more difficult it beomes for viewers to accept him/her as real
• How can you re-fill a glass when its already filled? It will get spilled. Or, how can you write new on a paper or a slate aleady full?  You jst can't. The solution is, empty the glass first, or clean the  paper or slate first. 

So, what an actor should do? 

The Solution

1. Observe yourself keenly- everything you do, your mannerism, how you behace in the diffent life situation and note down
2. Learn how to neutralze yourself with mental exercises. Then kick out "You" making yourself a 'blank' to allow a new character substitute  you. This can be achieved by practicing at least for an hour daily- weird movements, gestures, speech, posture, voice changing all those things whch has created a 'self' in you
3. Apart form learning Sanfords Meisner's acting technique, I strongly reommend to learn Michael Chekhov's acting technique (Join us to learn)

How an actor can develop body and mind?

Developing Body

Starting from the head

• Speak any one liner dialog using eyebrows left, right and then both to express a particular emotion
• Use eyes differently making them large and popping out, narrowing, single eye closure, squent, curious etc
• Make different faces
• Move neck in the different directions while speaking
• Different positions of shouldrs while talking and walking
• Different posture and walking in the different styles
• Creating new mannerisms of hand and legs
• For each of the above there are exercises or you can create your own and start practicg at home

Developing Mind

• The most important single factor for an actor's success is 'A well developed power of quick imagination' to transform him/herself into any character or into a situation
• The power of 'Observation and 'Fucus'  is the second essential factor to learn for a creative actor to give a credible performance
• Make a time table to visit places like garden, bus stops, local markets, museums,zoo, nature to observe and. watch keenly what you see. 
• Note down details and then dream stories on these observed people and things
• Be a dreamer which will definitely help you to practice and develop above mentioned essentials. Read fiction, stories, children books, drama, comedy, action and,  conflict. While reading start imagining as you read
• Transform people, animals,  things in nature, objects into something else and create may be a weird story and dream yourself as one of the characters in that story

(Appology: There are many exercises to develop the above traits. To give the details of each one of those is beyond the scope of this post) 

*Archetype: An inherited display of an  idea, pattern of thought, behavior, etc., universally present in individual's soul, spirit, or mind

What Are 15 Qualities To Be A Bollywood Actor? How To Meet

Arshad Warsi, once a struggler now a Bollywood actor

Though not easy, the success factors mentioned below can be developed with planning and training

You should have 15 qualities

1. You are a close relative of Bollywood top superstar, producer or a director
2. Good looks will definitely help you (especially in TV serials) 
3. Hot body and its maintenance.
4. Good voice. You can develop by various vocal exercises
5. Good acting abilities. You can learn from this blog,  by joining our courses or with online free help!
6. A pleasant and agreeable nature  
7. A graduate, good command on HINDI and an ability to speak well in ENGLISH
8. Excellent ability to memorize and that too, quickly. This is of paramount importance, especially in TV serials where you get your lines just before the shot! There are memorizing techniques available
9. Dancing abilities for an overall development into a good actor
10. Good networking capabilities- building up contacts online, offline with industry people.
11. The tremendous amount of patience and to be ready for a prolonged struggle 
12. Must have sufficient and regular inflow of money to live and for various necessary requirements needed for a success
13. Emotional stability:  Must be thick skinned to accept failures, criticism, and neglect
14. Must be able to build up your psychological self to be able to stake anything to be a successful actor. Nothing else should matter till you achieve your goal
15. Should be ready to learn till death

How Should You Develop Yourself the above?

• Learn professional acting either by carefully selecting a good school or if in doubt, the best option could be a personal and professional acting coach. with whom you may learn and develop many of the below-mentioned qualities
• Take care of your face by daily working on it like cleaning, protecting it from a  harsh weather, dust, excess moisture and infection
• Join gym or work at home, work on your body and develop a good figure. Take care of your diet to maintain it. To shape your body, a high protein diet is essential like pulses (Dals), beans etc for vegetarians and chicken, eggs, and fish for non-vegetarians
• Improve your mental health and be strong. Join yoga classes to learn relaxation and mental balance.
• Learn dancing by joining a good dancing school
• Make a professional portfolio of about 5 to 10 pictures, to begin with, where you look exactly as you are. No dark glasses (Let casting directors see your eyes!).
• Complete your graduation because it's a long struggle with financial instability. Being a graduate and having the additional skills like IT, Marketing, Teaching, etc. may help you to support financially to fulfill your dream to be an actor. 
• Knowing spoken English well  helps you to network with cine industry and creates a favorable impression, apart from being comfortable with  script dialogs in English for a film / TV serial 
• Start building your contacts in the industry by networking through creating and updating of your profile/ page on a regular basis on social sites like facebook, twitter Linkedin, emailing your profile, monologs, your website, a video introduction and showreel to casting directors and other relevant people.
• Register yourself with at least 3 to 4 good coordinators 
• Do not restrict your efforts only to one field, e.g. Bollywood films. Enter in modeling, TV serials, commercial ads, and print. Just hit all opportunities available to train yourself, initially, Remember, you can not be highly selective and dictate your terms in the beginning.Dictating own terms is the privilege of stars only
• Remember, you are a "product"  in a highly competitive market and therefore, acting is a business. You have to be a good businessman or a woman. You can't live in emptiness without money or on a charity of your parents / relatives / friends!
• Finally, have confidence and faith in yourself and go on struggling, at least for 3 years

If you really want to implement the above and find it difficult to do it yourself, Join a good personal acting coach

What Are The Tools To Develop For A Good Acting

Tools for acting
Your Acting Instrument

Body and Mind

An actor's tools are unusual among artists.  Whereas a painter's tools are his  watercolors, brushes, and paper, and a guitarist's tool is her instrument, an actor has no tools but him or herself.  An actor uses voice, body, and mind/spirit to create a character.  Like the pianist or other performing artists, the actor is usually an interpretive artist, meaning that the actor is part of an interpretation of a primary artist's work -- in this case, the primary artist is the story writer and screenplay writer of the film.  Because an actor is usually interpreting a role written by someone else, the play text is also a tool for character creation.

Analysis of the Script and the Character

The actor usually begins with an analysis of the script:  he searches for all clues about the character's past life, present actions, relationships with other characters, and function within the plot.  From there he can begin to create the character.  Anything not supplied by the screenwriter directly is up to the actor's imagination.

Body

The actor then uses her own body, voice, and mind, adapting aspects of herself to become the character.  The actor may alter her voice by varying her pitch range, dynamic range, timbre, and tempo or by speaking with a dialect.
The actor will also use his body in ways specifically chosen to express his character.  He will select gestures, postures, and movement patterns that may be different from his own.  Some of these physical aspects, Hindi, and gestures of the character may be determined by the customs of another historical time;  for example during  Ashoka's, Mughal dynasty or during Mahabharat period

Mind

The character's mental processes are also important;  these include thoughts, emotions, and psychological traits.  Analysis of what a character says and does in the script of the play will be an important beginning for an actor in finding her character's "inner life".

Therefore, it's absolutely essential to develop body and mind to portray a character convincingly. And it's here that a training is required. In the case of a beginner, preferably by a sensitive and highly skilled acting coach