Acting Techniques That Improve an Actor’s Performance

Acting techniques are an important and personal part of being an actor, something acting enthusiast and actor Othman Louanjli can attest to. There are many different acting techniques, all of which have been created with the aim of cultivating a more powerful acting performance.

Classical acting describes an acting philosophy that focuses on expression through the voice, body, external stimuli, imagination, improvisation, personalising and script analysis. Classical acting is a general term that includes the teachings and theories of classical directors and actors, such as Michel Saint-Denis and Konstantin Stanislavski.

The Life of Konstantin Stanislavski

Konstantin Stanislavski is also the creator of the Stanislavski method, where actors use their own personal experiences and emotions in order to find the ‘truth’ in the character that they are playing. Using Stanislavski’s system, actors must understand the thoughts, feelings and motivations of the character, putting themselves in their shoes, in order to find common ground and to perform in a genuine and naturalistic manner. For more information on Stanislavski, please refer to the embedded PDF.

Method acting is one of the most well known techniques in modern acting, and certain aspects are based on Stanislavski’s acting method. Founded by Lee Strasberg, method acting requires the actor to develop a deep and emotional understanding of their character, so that they can personally identify with them. The acting technique by Stella Adler is also based on Stanislavski’s work; however, unlike Strasberg’s technique, Adler believed that it was potentially damaging for actors to have to dig into their personal history in order to identify with their roles.

Other than method acting and the technique by Adler, the Meisner technique was also inspired by the work of Stanislavski. The Meisner technique asks the actor to focus all of their attention onto the other actor, to believe that their acting partner is the only thing to exist in that moment. The technique is based on the idea that genuine responses and reactions between the actors will result in a more authentic performance.

In opposition to the highly emotional and responsive technique by Meisner, the Brechtian Method, developed by Bertolt Brecht, is based on ‘epic drama’ that relies on the audience being detached and reflective rather than fully emotionally involved in the scene.

Bertold Brecht was born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht in Germany in 1898. Brecht was a poet, playwright and theatre practitioner whose plays were influenced by Marxist ideologies. Brecht preferred to call his style ‘dialectical theatre’, as opposed to ‘epic theatre’, of which he was the main proponent.

In dialectical theatre the audience does not experience a climactic catharsis, as Brecht believed that this caused a sensation of complacency. Instead, Brecht wanted his audiences to watch with a critical perspective, recognising how the issues within the play corresponded to those in the outside world. In consuming dialectical theatre, Brecht hoped to inspire and empower the audience to effect changes in the society in which they lived.

Practical Aesthetics combines elements of the Meisner technique and the Stanislavski method, as well as taking inspiration from the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. Created by the playwright David Mamet and the actor William H. Macy, the method is based on an ability to adapt and develop, script analysis, and exercises in repetition.

The Inventors Behind the Photographic Process

In the 5^th Century B.C. the Chinese discovered the basic idea behind the camera obscura, describing how an inverted image was formed on a wall when projected through a ‘pinhole’ - for further information on the camera obscura, please refer to the embedded PDF. From that time onwards, photography has been refined and developed, becoming a quick, easy, cheap and convenient way of capturing images.

Many different scientists, inventors and thinkers have been instrumental to the development of photography, including Sir Isaac Newton, thanks to his discoveries concerning white light and the colour spectrum. Johann Heinrich Schulze was also instrumental in the history of photography, having discovered that silver nitrate darkened when it was exposed to light. However, it is Joseph Nicephore Niepce that is credited with inventing photography in the mid-1820s.

Nicephore Niepce’s images were formed in a small camera. However, the images were negatives, which meant that areas of light were dark on the image, and areas of darkness were seen as light. Nicephore Niepce’s first images were not permanent or durable, as the image would darken all over with continued exposure to light, and so the Frenchman stopped working with silver salts altogether, turning instead to light-sensitive organic substances.

Using bitumen, painted onto glass or metal, Nicephore Niepce invented the Heliograph, which was the first permanent photographic image. The bitumen would harden when exposed to light, and after a long exposure the plate was washed with oil of lavender to reveal the image.

Over a decade later, Nicephore Niepce collaborated with Louis Daguerre, inventing the first practical photographic technique in 1837. This technique remained in popular use until the mid-1850s. The process requires a polished sheet of silver-plated copper, which is treated with fumes to make its surface sensitive to light; the surface is then exposed within the camera, and is fumed for a second time with mercury vapour. After a chemical treatment removes the surface’s sensitivity to light, the delicate image is sealed behind glass in order to protect it against damage.

In 1861, James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist, created the first ever colour photograph by taking three exposures under different coloured filters, and combining the separate images into one colour composition. 1871 was the year that Dr Richard Maddox made the discovery that gelatin could be used instead of glass for the photographic plate, which eventually led to the invention of dry plate photography, which did away with the darkroom tent and was a much less cumbersome process.

George Eastman created the first box camera in the 1880s, which he called the ‘Kodak’. It was light and easy to use.

In 1975, an engineer at Eastman Kodak named Steven Sasson invented the first digital camera, which recorded 0.01 megapixel black and white photographs onto a cassette tape. The cassette could then be played back to display the photograph on a television monitor.

Digital cameras have become more and more sophisticated, as have the technologies behind them. In 1988 static RAM memory was developed which was followed quickly by the invention of solid-state flash memory, which was created in 1993 – and is still used in the majority of digital cameras to this day.

Thanks to continually developing technology, amateur photographers and photography enthusiasts such as Othman Louanjli are now able to capture and document the world around them with ease.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAMERA OBSCURA