If you have a stage background, you know all about "justifying" your blocking: If the director tells you to cross downstage left on a particular line, you figure out a good, logical reason why your character needs to do that. But in film acting, you may find that hitting your marks, while similar in concept, is harder: It's not just a matter of crossing downstage left; you also have to end up in the exact right spot, which is marked with tape in the shape of a T during rehearsal (and, if it's out of camera range, during the take). If you don't hit that precise spot, you'll be out of focus, you won't be well lit, and the director won't print the take.
So how do you walk into the frame and arrive precisely where you need to be, and then go on to your next spot, and your next, without actually looking at the marks‹and also maintain your concentration?
Veteran film and TV actor Steve Carlson has published a no-nonsense, nuts-and-bolts book called Hitting Your Mark, which covers much more than that; in fact, it covers everything actors need to know about working on a set: jargon, etiquette, protocol, the works. I gave him a call to find out why he was inspired to write this book. It turns out that when his dancer wife, Mary Ann Carlson, got a recurring role on the TV series Sisters, she came home from work every day complaining that she didn't understand what was going on.
"An actor is supposed to know it all from the first day on the set," Carlson told me. "We all hope we don't embarrass ourselves too much at first." His book should go a long way toward saving face for first-time-on-the-set actors.
Hitting Hints
Here is a drastically abbreviated version of some of Carlson's tips on how to hit your marks without‹to borrow from Spencer Tracy's definition of acting‹bumping into the furniture.
1. Use your peripheral vision. That way, you can see marks without eyeballing them. You can practice this skill by looking straight ahead, walking to the edge of a rug, and stopping right at the end of it. I just tried it. It was surprisingly easy.
2. Weave a web. Carlson uses this spidery metaphor to describe how he gets a feeling for his spatial relationship to stationary objects: walls, props, windows, the camera if it's close enough, even other actors in the scene if they're not moving.
"Build a web of eyelines around you and put yourself in the middle," he writes. "Practice going from mark #1 to #2, etc., many times. Count how many steps it takes." He told me, "I automatically look around me and get three or four reference points." He gives an example in his book: "If it takes three steps to get to your next mark and it's about a foot away from the corner of the sofa, line yourself up with the lamp on the end table..." By the way, can you count and act at the same time? Yes, said Carlson. He's right. It's amazing how many things you can do while mindlessly counting. I just read this paragraph while counting! Practice makes perfect.
3. Look at the marks. Here's where justifying comes in. You can, at least some of the time, make up a reason for glancing at a particular spot; after all, our gazes naturally wander. (And by the way, if the marks that the camera assistants place don't quite meet your visual needs, you can add your own additional marks‹a bit of tape here, a little dot there‹as long as they're not in camera range.)
4. Feel the lights. Lights are hot. With a little practice, you should be able to feel when you're in them.
5. Use Mother Nature. If you're shooting outdoors, writes Carlson, place a twig, even a few blades of grass, or something similar to mark the spot.
6. Use sandbags. Carlson recommends this trick if you're filming an extreme close-up, where it's important to not move a millimeter. He says grab a sandbag, of which there are usually plenty around the set, then place the sandbag right where the tips of your toes should be when you're at your mark.
7. Lean in. This is another tip for close-ups. You can plant your feet in position, lean back a few inches, and then rock into your spot rather than walking into the frame. (Bay Area TV actor/teacher Ed Hooks has his film students move into the frame for a tight shot by positioning one foot on the mark, placing the other foot behind, then bringing the rear foot into position on "action.")
Dance Steps
"Think of [it]... as choreography," advises Carlson in his book. "It really is a dance with you, the other actors in the scene, and the cameras." For Carlson, who has been acting in front of the camera for 30 years, hitting his marks is now effortless. "It's like any other muscle or awareness," he told me. "The more you use it, the more you get used to it. When I was on soaps, my mind got used to memorizing 30 or 40 pages of dialogue a day. Once you're aware of the concept [of hitting marks], you let it go, you don't worry about it. Things will come to you as you work. You don't have to keep the concept in the foremost part of your brain."
I asked Carlson how to hang onto the feeling that you're acting when you're worrying about technicalities like hitting your marks. "It's the same as doing a play for two years and having it appear fresh on the 200th performance," he said. "Can you imagine someone like Robin Williams, who has to rehearse, shoot, do close-ups, make the same quirky face on the same punchline‹and have it be funny?"
The truth is, of course, that a good part of acting is always technical, whether onstage or in front of a camera. Actors are the ultimate multi-taskers. "There's always a portion of your brain being used onstage," agreed Carlson. "Are you projecting? Are you following the blocking? Are you upstaging someone? It's the same with film: Am I in my light? Are my footsteps too heavy? Am I blocking the light?" In his book, he estimates that a film actor spends 70 percent of the time acting, 30 percent dealing with technicalities. That's for master shots, he amended when we talked; in close-ups, the ratio might be 80/20; in extreme close-ups, your awareness can be totally on your performance.
In his book, Carlson also discusses how to hit your marks when shooting sitcoms as opposed to films or commercials; the differences between master shots and close-ups; even how to hit your marks when you're driving or on horseback! Clearly, he came to plenty of these solutions by trial and error, and by being creative. Think of it this way: The imagination that you rely on to make believe when you're acting can also be called upon to invent creative solutions to technical problems.
By the way, you can order Hitting Your Mark in paperback by calling the publisher, Michael Wiese Productions, at (800) 833-5738. BSW