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There are many people who love to watch films or mesmerized by the world of cinema. There are many who are obsessed with their favorite stars & directors. There are some who are like a walking encyclopedia of films and know every smaller detail of a film. There are others, who are film buffs and watch movies every single day. There are many who are good film critic. Do these people have, what it takes to be a filmmaker? The answer is no.


Passion for filmmaking and the needed personality traits are quite rare to find. All those people who we have enlisted above are mainly the consumer of cinema or cinema lovers. They not necessarily posses those rare qualities which makes a filmmaker. Hence they are not born filmmakers. You may love the sport of football but not necessarily you have the natural passion and abilities what it takes to to be football player.


"Passion for filmmaking and the needed personality traits are quite rare to find."

Don't misunderstand me. You may have mental capability to learn any specific skill including the craft of filmmaking. Learning can make you capable of using certain skills & techniques to complete certain job or make movies but here we are talking about if you are born with the natural skill sets which are the key requisite to be a filmmaker.


Image courtesy: Creative Bites Film Academy www.CreativeBites.info


Let's figure out what natural traits someone can possess to be considered a born filmmaker. If you find majority of the following traits within you, you are born for the field of cinema.


First trait: A filmmaker is a day dreamer, who very smoothly starts creating imagination in his or her mind. They can pick any situation and start building what if scenarios in their mind. The imagination what they create in their mind start impacting them emotionally and they feel those emotions quite strongly as if those imaginations are real.


Second trait: Filmmakers, they like story telling. They can pick any day to day event which happened in their lives and start narrating it to their family and friends in a more interesting way than it actually happened. They have the curiosity to make people feel those emotions which they felt when that particular event happened to them.


"Filmmakers can pick any day to day event which happened in their lives and can start narrating it to their family and friends in a more interesting way than it actually happened."

Third trait: They have strong point of view on things. At times these point of views are quite different from majority of people around them. Hence they do not want to share these point of views with others to avoid unnecessary confrontations.


Image courtesy: Creative Bites Film Academy www.CreativeBites.info


Fourth trait: They not only love movies & the world of cinema rather they are more curious about the process which is behind making these movies. They find themselves glued to videos and content which somewhere talk about how a specific movie has been made.


Fifth trait: The born filmmakers have an inner voice within them which keeps pushing them towards the world of cinema. They have an inner voice which keeps telling them that they are made for the field of filmmaking.


Sixth trait: They have a great interest in capturing & preserving the passing moments in their lives either by clicking photographs, painting it out, capturing those moments through videos, writing a diary or as simple as reminiscing them several times in greater details.


If you find the majority of the above traits within you, you have all the key ingredients to be a filmmaker. Whether you end up being in the field of filmmaking or not it depends on the level of passion you have towards this craft and if you listen to your inner voice and be guided by it.


As I said possessing most of the above trait is not quite common hence if you feel that universe keeps giving you the signal and somehow pushes you towards making films, you are amongst those people who have been chosen to be filmmakers.


Just remember the best time to make films is now.


Author:

Tanveer Ahmed

Director at Creative Bites Academy

Acting & Film School in UAE

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Acting is the only field which trains you to become comfortable with your vulnerabilities in front of others. As an actor you are required to be happy, sad, angry, nervous, jealous and live many other emotions. In our real life we are quite successful in hiding these emotions or suppress these emotions in front of others.


When it comes to acting, as an actor you are trained to live these emotion to the fullest infront of the audience or for camera. A magical impact what everyone witness or feel after spending few weeks or months into the field of acting is that they feel more calmer and relaxed.


Image courtesy: Creative Bites Academy www.CreativeBites.info


As an actor you are trained to live a scene to the fullest or feel the emotion as if the given scene is really happening. In this process of trying to live a scene, you start to borrow emotions from your real life. Imagine those emotions which you have not expressed to the fullest and have been hiding all these while within your chest and suppressing them for a very long time finally finds an exit point through acting. Once you start living those emotions externally which you had been accumulating over the years it lightens you up big time.


Image courtesy: Creative Bites Academy www.CreativeBites.info


The more you act infront of audience the more your brain gets trained to live the emotions and not to suppress or hide them. The people who learn acting become more expressive over a period of time as their brain starts getting wired more differently than earlier. Hence over a period of time it become more easier for them to express their point of view, talk to people around them, express their love, feelings, likes, deslikes etc.

"Emotions in humans are to be lived and expressed and not be held back and suppressed"

Emotions in humans are to be lived and expressed and not to be held back or buried in their heart. For those who find it difficult to speak their mind, stand infront of audience, laugh out loud, say no to things, talk to people comfortably, or feel certain emotion, acting is highly recommended.


Author:

Tanveer Ahmed

Director at Creative Bites Academy

Acting & Film School in UAE



33 views0 comments

Updated: Feb 9, 2022


Key tips to achieve realistic performance


As a human, we go through varieties of emotions every day. Everyone around us just gets to see a glimpse of our inner emotions until we reach an emotional boiling point where we burst out revealing our inner feelings. These hidden layers of inner emotions make us complex but real. Realistic acting is about living the life of a character on screen the way we live our lives subtly with layers of hidden emotions.



Following are the key tips to avoid overacting and to ensure a realistic performance.


Pre-determine the intensity of the required emotion.

Mark your scene in terms of which emotions you need to portray and what should be the intensity of those emotions. In one single scene, you may be required to portray 2-3 emotions either one after another or all simultaneously. You need to predetermine what should be the intensity of those emotions. For e.g. you may not need to be very angry in a particular scene and just a bit of displeasure is enough. Or no need to forcibly show love, rather a quick glance with your dilating pupils may be enough.


"Micro-expressions are the leakage of your true inner state"

You can not pretend micro-expressions.

The camera sees it all. The camera even notices the micro-expressions which most of the actors are unaware of. These are the quick movement of your facial muscles reflecting your true inner state. If you are not fully living the character, your micro-expressions will leak your true emotional state. For e.g. As a character, you are happy in a scene with a big visible smile but a partially open eyelid or slow winking may reveal that you are sad as a person inside. Unless you truly live the scene you will emotionally leak through micro-expressions.


What you feel inside, gets reflected outside.

As an actor, you may be doubtful that your inner feelings may not be visible outside. Hence you try to spoon-feed your audience through some visible expressions or movements making your performance pretentious. Be assured that your expressions, gestures and body, all are so well connected with your brain that your inner feelings, however, minor those may be, reflects through your body & face. Trust the god’s design & don’t force it. True feelings inside gets reflected outside by default.

Let your own emotions be the yardstick.

Your day to day real emotions is the only yardstick you could use to assess if you are overacting. For e.g., if your character is stressed in a scene, assess how you personally behave in such a situation in your real life. Maybe in your real life, you don’t shout or pull your hair when stressed, maybe you just sit down with horizontal wrinkles on your forehead and look around seeking help subconsciously. Your own emotions guide you as to what should be the intensity of emotion in a scene. Use them to avoid overacting.


"If you pretend, the camera shows you pretending. If you live the emotions, the camera shows you living it" Tanveer Ahmed

Act to express not to impress

Unburden yourself from the pressure or intent to impress your co-actor, director or audience. If you deviate from the objective of living the life of the given character to impressing the audience, you will end up over performing. Hence act to express your character's emotions and not to impress the audience.


All the above points are applicable to a character, script or director’s vision which needs realistic performance. In the business of entertainment, over performances and drama do sell as good as realism. Understanding & achieving realism in acting gives you the ability to regulate the intensity of your emotions which one can also use to overact in a scene consciously and believably if that’s what is required at times.


Author:

Tanveer Ahmed

Director at Creative Bites

Media Production & Training





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