She’s a very lovely person and I’m sure she’s a great lab assistant and mechanical engineer… but KAREN CAN’T ACT.
A couple things about actors. Even the worst ones have some experience with stage direction and reading from a script which makes the process while not intuitive to video at the very least manageable. I know what to expect and how to get the actors to a place consistent with the vision of the client.
Karen tried to prepare for the project the best she knew how. Two Years of chorus and Lead Tree in the Lord Of the Rings (march of the ents sequence) as adapted from the movie for the stage... have instilled in her a confidence and fondness for being the center of attention. However, she forgot to memorize the blocking and for some reason picked up a Georgian accent (country not state).
The actor shows up on time. Introduces herself and takes a seat to wait to be called… making careful not to trip over the audio cable and address’ the crew when walking in front of the camera to make sure they aren’t rolling… just to be safe. When called up she tiptoes through the lights and requests a moment for her eyes to adjust and catch up on the blocking and line changes.
Karen, shows up late with a bizarre accent. Leaves stage left… not right. Also, Karen decided to wear a Red scarf (we screen tested blue) and a striped thin silk blouse (which we can’t put a microphone on so instead need to use alternate equipment to grab clean audio). And because Karen is late she wasn’t kept up to date on a script rewrite from earlier and has committed to memory the wrong line which she keeps saying instead of the corrected line.
The actor has now completed her scene and asks if we will be needing anything else. The director asks her if she could stay the rest of the day for some possible changes and she obliges and enjoys the lunch we provided. KAREN HATES THE TUNA SANDWICH.
Karen has decided that she hates the craft services we made available and then requests that we ‘wait a minute’ while she goes to Little Italy for a coffee and baguette. Putting the shoot behind schedule and increasing costs.
Now, while editing we have fewer good takes with Karen and she flubbed the last line so we had to hide the edit which stretches the next frame over but we can’t use that because the other actor is moving slightly and it was distracting which is why we didn’t use that shot in the first place and are now forced to use a substandard cut.
Thanks Karen.
The actor was efficient. Knew how to move around a set. Made herself scarce when not needed and extremely malleable while in front of the camera. While not being a terrific actress she was perfect for this and her professionalism saved a half day of editing and increased production value.
Hire an Actor.
Karen can’t act.