Irish Film Board Response To Budget 2012

http://t.co/3uTzro9J

Really quick response form the IFB to the budget – have a read – very important. x Nick

Relaxation For Actors

Relaxation-For-Actors

If you’ve ever sat in front of the TV and not noticed time pass, or ever got out of an elevator on the wrong floor, or driven past a turning you know like the back of your hand, you have been in a state of deep relaxation. You just didn’t notice. Almost hypnotic…

Now as you read this, your eyes moving across the words, you can become aware of certain sensations in your body…you can feel your heart beating if you focus inward…and notice the in and out movements of your breath…and you can notice that you can slow down that breath… as you take a moment or two to focus on your breathing…noticing how gently your breath goes in and out…as your eyes rest on each word…noticing nothing, taking it all in…with each breath that you take…

See how easy it is to do…It’s easy to just relax and let go when you know how.

Simple Relaxation-For-Actors

Before you begin, tell yourself in a very comforting voice, remember how important TONE is…that you are just going to relax for five minutes and you will come back refreshed, relaxed and ready for what’s next.

First read these words so that you understand how it works and then you can go ahead and do it for yourself.

1. Find a good place to sit and adjust yourself for maximum comfort. Squiggle about till it’s “just right…”
2. Go through your body relaxing every single piece of you. Start with the top of your head and finish with your lovely toes.
3. As you focus on each area of the body, tell yourself to relax the muscles of that area, noticing any tension and then softly breathing into that area, saying, “…I’m relaxing the muscles of my [legs etc...]….”

Start by reading this through and then notice how it feels. First start to breathe gently in and out and begin to read.

Personal Recording Session – Portability Personified

You can record this on to your iphone/smart phone/mobile and play it back on the subway, tube, metro or Dart…wherever you are in the world…Really encourage yourself with the words, “That’s right..” Say them in a very soothing tone…feel the words…imagine the relaxation happening right now…

Ok, ready…now…relaxation-for-actors…

As you sit there hearing these words, you can become aware of your breathing…in and out…that’s right…you can notice how your body moves as you breathe in and out…and now you can place your attention on your head, your lovely head, and just start to slowly relax the muscles of the top of your head…and as you feel the relaxation spreading down to your forehead, you can allow the muscles of your forehead to simply relax…gently letting go of any tension…and as you do so you can begin to notice how your ears can just relax…and go quiet while the little muscles around your eyes begin to let go and relax… slowly spreading gentle relaxation into your cheeks and jaw, as you simply relax the muscles of your jaw, dropping it gently as you continue to breathe in and out… that’s right...and as your jaw muscles slowly let go, your tongue can begin to just hang loose, as you breathe in and out…and then the relaxation spreads through your neck, noticing any areas of tension, slowly noticing the muscles of your neck relax and loosen up as you feel the tension dropping and your shoulders just relax…that’s right...and feel any tension moving out of your body…as your arms relax…and notice how your forearms just begin to relax as your hands loosen and let go…and as you continue to relax your body, noticing how your hips and thighs just relax and let go, and the muscles of the shin and calves soften and relax…that’s right….as your feet sink gently into the earth, feeling them on the ground, relaxing slowly as your whole body just relaxes even more…and the more you begin to relax, the more your breath goes gently round your body filling you with relaxing energy…that’s right…bubbling energetically now… to the beat of your own heart…spreading gentle soothing relaxation through every part of your body…and you can just let go…knowing the next time you do this you can go even deeper, even faster…that’s right….

This kind of relaxation is great for reducing stress or to have a quick few minutes meditation.

Take five minutes a day to do this and notice how much more relaxed you feel.. because the more you relax, the more relaxed you are about life and what’s next…and now everything is OK, isn’t it?

Might be good to do before an acting-audition.Just an idea. Keep it in mind.

Stillness on Screen

In the moments before the camera turns over take three slow deep breaths Then place the tip of your tongue just behind the back of your front teeth. Press gently as if holding a tiny drop of oil utterly still in that position. This focuses the mind and quietens your internal mind chatter. I use this all the time. It’s from a Yoga teacher. Brilliant. Try this now and post how it helps…

Recommended Reading List For Actors

A Few Recommended Books On Acting

A Personal Reading List – Chosen by  Nick Dunning

Acting

Towards a poor theatre – Jerzy Grotowski

Different Every Night – Mike Alfreds

(A summary of all the techniques I was trained in and still use to this day – awesome book – especially POC – Point Of Concentration)

Acting in Film – Michael Caine

On the Technique of Acting by Michael Chekhov

The Art of Acting – Stella Adler

Sanford Meisner on Acting – Sanford Meisner

On the Technique of Acting – Michael Chekhov

Challenge to the Actor – Uta Hagen

Respect For Acting – Uta Hagen (My all time favorite)

The Acting Business

Self Management for Actors-Bonnie Gillespie

How to Be a Working Actor-Mari Lyn Henry and Lynne Rogers

Acting is Everything: Gold Edition-Judy Kerr

An Agent Tells All-Tony Martinez

How To Book Acting Jobs in TV and Film-Cathy Reinking

Improvisation

Anything by Viola Spolin

Theatre Games – Clive Barker

Auditioning/Cold Reading

How to Get the Part Without Falling Apart – Margie Haber

Audition – Michael Shurtleff

The 15 Guideline Map to Booking-Amy Lyndon

The Best of You-Craig Wallace

Secrets to Successful Cold Readings-Glenn Alterman

Go for it – Kind regards,

Nick Dunning

http://www.peak-performance-for-actors.com

http://www.facebook.com/peakperformanceforactors

Begin With The End In Mind

If you set a goal as an actor but make the mistake of not activating your Unconscious Mind to align with your intention, it’s likely to either not come to pass at all or to be extremely short lived.

Remember, it´s your Unconscious Mind that’s responsible for all your results (both positive and negative) that you have ever achieved or will ever achieve in your life!

Here’s how…

Begin With The End In Mind

Get in touch with the feeling you will have when you have got your goal. Say a feeling of confidence and satisfaction at nailing that job or landing that role.

Now ask yourself: “How will I experience myself when I have fully achieved this goal?” See yourself in the picture having got your result, feel the feelings of success in your body, listen to any self talk inside your mind, really hear the enthusiastic words you use to tell yourself you have made it, you’ve got there, they may surprise you delightfully.

Now as you’re feeling this sense of accomplishment and fulfillment as yourself “What’s the next step I can take right now that leads toward the fulfillment of my goal? What can I do right now?!”

And then do it. Right now.

You see, those steps that pop into your awareness while you’re feeling the results of your imagined success are always the best steps to take.

As the man said, follow your bliss – yes that’s what it is…it’s how your Unconscious Mind responds to your directed energy. That’s how you know you’re on the right path. It’s how you know you’re heading in the best direction for you.

Baby steps are good, they build on each other. One step in front of an other. The journey continues, doesn’t it?

Agree, disagree? Post below.

Actors. Goals Setting.

Write your goals. Write them down.

In 1953, Harvard decided to conduct a survey of all the students at the university that were leaving that year. There were lots of questions in the survey asking about things like religious and political preferences and financial ideas etc. One of the questions was: do you have your goals written down?

It turned out that just 3% of the students answered ‘yes’ to this question.

20 years later: the university decided to run another survey. Originally, they were going to repeat the same study, but someone had the bright idea of using the money differently. They decided to contact all the students that had left twenty years earlier and see what they were up to. It was a massive research project.

Some of the students had died, but they found all of the remainder. When they analysed the data, they discovered that the 3% who had taken the time and trouble to properly quantify their goals were worth financially more than the other 97% put together.

Post any questions below or on the facebook page…

Cheers,

Nick

David Leveaux 5 Time Tony Nominee – Broadway/West End Theatre Director

How good directors perceive the audition process. What one question does David ask himself every time?

Stage Fright

The truth about any fear is that it is simply a construct inside your mind, there is a “pattern” to the way that you do stage fright. And the good news about that is that if you can do it you can undo it.

I like to think of it as a building, and the best way to demolish a building is to have a go at the foundations.

This habit that you have created is a series of ideas, pictures, sounds and feelings that happen in a particular order, so now we start to interrupt the pattern. This is my version of a technique I borrowed from NLP…it works for anything, so it will easily and effortlessly work for any kind of stage fright. And it will work for you right now…

A “pattern interrupt” causes the unconscious mind to become more aware of the problem and start to disrupt the foundations.

How to interrupt the pattern of stage-fright

• First off think of a time when you do that thing you know as stage fright, make sure it is an automatic time, when you are doing it automatically, without thinking.
• Notice how the pattern starts. Do you see something first, do you make a picture in your mind of an upcoming performance? Is it filled with scary images of people doing bad things or you screwing up? It’s OK to think about this for a tiny second because very soon you are going to change it..
• Now create a pattern interrupt that has absolutely nothing to do with the behavior. Suppose in your initial picture you imagine forgetting your lines in the audition room…the pattern interrupt might be to jump up and down screaming at the top of your voice “Holy cool bananas batman!” , or you might rub your knees vigorouly and imagine yourself eating a bowl of ice cream with your nose.
• What you want is an interrupt that will jolt you like a huge tree falling in front of you as you drive your car.
• When you notice the pattern running, use your pattern interrupt repeatedly.
• Observe what happens as the pattern starts to change easily.

In my experience what happens is that you start to break the pattern up into smaller pieces and over time the mind gets the idea.

If you would like further assistance write to me at the site at

nick@nick-dunning.com

You may like to go to part two of this article where I teach a way to create a positive outcome to end stage-fright once and for all.

Da Vinci’s Demons

At this moment in time I am shooting DVD in Abergavenny in Wales. The most stunning part of the country, well worth a visit if you havent been.

Pretty little market town set amongst the most amazing countryside and filled with great shops and great people.

Contrast that with what I had to do yesterday, I had to set fire to a medieval Italian infirmary filled with about 40 writhing squirming moaning nuns. Yes Nuns. All possessed by the devil, well that’s my story anyway. Cant show pictures – we’re under an embargo from Starz US and BBC Worldwide. When you see this show you’ll see why, it looks…amazing.

I am so often struck by the support given by people in our business and yesterday was no exception. In extreme temperatures of over 27% C and with the main cast dressed in leather, chains and fur, sweating buckets and generally distressed, I looked around a few times and saw runners fetching chairs so elderly exhausted actors could sit peacefully in the shade. I saw a young stressed out actress who was doing her first job, be made to giggle a lot by the leading actor, (Tom Riley – watch this space – he gonna go far!) which totally relaxed her and made her feel at home and I saw a lighting camera grip put his arms around the clapper loader who made a tiny mistake.

Just saying, sometimes it’a a privilege.

xx

Nick

Audition Ease

Here’s a technique that dissolves performance-anxiety rapidly. I use this before every audition. Just before you go into the building…you’ve been there right?

Before you enter for your acting audition try three long deep breaths. Simply breath in through the nose and then sigh out, make sure the sigh is elongated, really lengthy. There is a purpose to this, so really make them long. You need to feel the effect of this.

Then take the next breath and this time as you let it out, sigh even deeper, really get in touch with the sound and the effect the breathing has on your nervous system, you can feel yourself relaxing more and more can’t you?

Really hear the sound relaxing your body, imagine a wave of the ocean going out if you like, allow the body to totally relax. Picture your body relaxing and feel it happening as well.

Then take the third breath and this time as you let it out sigh even deeper.

Three times is all it takes. And you can do this as often as you like. I do this before going on stage and before going in front of a camera or whenever I need to. The great thing is it’s fast and happens in a flash.

Then add…

Tip of the tongue Behind The Teeth.

I learned this at a yoga class and it’s great.

To really calm and centre your mind place the tip of your tongue just behind the back of your front teeth, pressing very gently on the point where your teeth meet your inside gum area. This has a calming effect and stills the mind. Imagine you are holding a drop of very expensive olive oil on the tip of the tongue up against the teeth.

You can put all your attention into this spot just before you go into the room and your mind will be alert yet still

It concentrates your mind  instantly. How useful could that be?

Oh and it makes you look focussed on camera. As another added benefit.

So…post about that!