Acting - Make Believe

Actors get quickly into character of the script during shooting. When in character, his performance is assured. Words, emotions and actions will flow naturally unimpeded.

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As much as it is important for the actor to get into character, it is also important for him to get out of the character.

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During one of my recent film shoot, I played the tough army warrant officer during the day, running around the tracks and collapsing upon an excruciatingly painful torn ligament on the right knee. And as in film making, this collapse had to be repeated many times (at different camera angles), during each time which I was to demonstrate more and more convincingly that I had collapsed due to a right knee ligament injury.

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Then when the shoot ended at 7pm, I had to rush down to another production studio for a rehearsal where I played the sobbing taxi driver father during an emotional separation from his daughter. I managed to get out of the warrant officer role and immediately became a caring sobbing taxi driver father.

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I thought I did well transitioning from one character to another, until the next morning when I woke up with a painful right knee. Apparently, my repeated auto-suggestions the previous day had resulted in a painful right knee manifesting. In other words, I had managed to bluff my sub-conscious that I had a right knee injury and finally really got one!!

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Our mind is powerful. It can believe in something and make that something manifest. So be careful with your thoughts, as positive thoughts manifest, but so do negative ones.

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ps. The pain faded after one day. I had to wish it away!

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Amid The Haste

Today, I was in a hurry on my way to my acting audition. Actors are usually a tad more nervous before audition, as they don't know what to expect and also (ironically) their need to remain calm so that it is conducive to remember the lines and get into character. On top of that, I was lugging a camera, a tripod and a spare laptop as part of the logistics for a talk on "Learning Difficulties" that was to start right after the audition in another venue. Rushing and finding my way around for the correct exit in the subway amid the crowd, the tropical heat and humidity was thus very daunting.

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Amid this whirlpool of rush and haste, my phone rang. It was John. John seems to have the habit of ringing at the wrong time and wrong place. What's worse, I could hardly hear him as the signal was poor and he mumbles his words, this despite him being an English language teacher. To make matter worse, John was bidding around the bush as he talked and there wasn't any coherence.

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Frustrated and now even getting angry, I retorted, "John, can you get to the point and get on with what you want to say?!"

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There was a pause of silence. Then John softly replied , "Mike, I just wanted to speak to a Singaporean whom I can relate easily to, to say how lucky and grateful am I to be in Singapore alive and well, as if I had been in Christchurch, where I was born and grew up in, I might have been dead by now or had my house completely destroyed, as one-third of buildings there have been destroyed by the earthquake."

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At that point, it was my turn for the pause of silence. I was embarrassed. Amid the haste, we often forget... Haiz.

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Education Therapy: Learning Difficulties

Education Therapy: Learning Difficulties: "Speaker: Mr Pang Kong Eng Date: 25th Feb 2011 Time: 7-9pm Venue: International Plaza, 10 Anson Road Here are some of the video clips I capt..."