Micro-beats
One often hears actors discussing the “Beats” in a scene, but I’ve seen very little attention given to “Micro-beats”. Admittedly this may be because as far as I know I’ve invented the term. Perhaps other acting coaches teach the same thing and call it by another name.
Beats are set by the author, who determines the way story incidents or inter-action between characters deflects the direction of the narrative.
Micro-beats are chosen by the actor and have two components: The actor chooses when a story element impacts or “dawns” upon the character within a scene, and the actor decides how he will depict that impact upon the character. When is obviously determined by understanding the script. In screen acting, the how may require as little as deciding what the character is thinking at that instant, then simply trusting that the right thought will evoke the right emotion from the character, which will in turn inform the way the character moves and speaks.
To illustrate Micro-beats in practice, let’s eavesdrop on a fictitious Theatre rehearsal:
An actress walks onto stage, gasps at seeing an old flame engrossed in her bookshelf, exclaims “Harry!” and launches into her speech, but the Director stops her halfway through the first sentence, saying “Darling! Why did you come onto the stage?” Flustered, she replies that she heard her cue and didn’t want to let the pace drag.
“Wrong answer, Darling! You came to fetch the post from the hall table, or to water the pot plants – I don’t care, but you definitely did not come on stage to be surprised by bumping into Harry! You’re marrying dependable old stick-in-the-mud James in a month, and suddenly here’s the guy who disappeared after taking you on an exhilarating, romantic hike through Italy… That’s a lot to deal with before you utter a word! We need to see that!”
Of course, the moment the young woman – let’s call her Penelope – bumps into her old flame is probably a major “beat” in the script, but within that beat are several possible micro-beats:
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There’s a person in the room – she wasn’t expecting ANYONE in the room.
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Eek!
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Who on earth?
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Ha-ha, it looks like that swine…
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Nah! Haven’t seen HIM in ages…
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OMIGOSH! It IS Harry!
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BASTARD! / Well, is he in for a surprise! / Ohmigosh, No! Not now, just when…
All of this before Penelope utters the miscreant’s name. Most of it even before she “Gasps”. An experienced actress would probably ignore the rather Am-Dram “Gasp” instruction in the stage directions altogether, because these micro-beats are the reason she “Gasps”, and if they are played correctly they are far more interesting than a rather meaningless Am-Dram “Gasp”. Depending on the set-up earlier in the script, an experienced actress could elicit either a knowing chortle or an “Ooooh, here comes trouble!” murmur from the audience simply by the way she delivers the word “Harry!” to start her speech – but only if the micro-beats have been identified and clearly portrayed.
That was a broad example of micro-beats in the “set-up” of a scene, but don’t miss the micro-beats within a scene, either within your character’s dialogue or while listening to another character. At the most elementary level, before one character can speak to another, he has to at least “see” that person and adopt an “attitude” to him, however minimal or understated.
A final word of caution: Don’t “milk” Micro-beats. They are essentially fleeting thought processes triggering an emotion which inevitably informs a character’s attitude within of the scene. Micro-beats are not an excuse for ages of “Expression Acting”! In the example above, notice that almost all the Micro-beats are written as snippets of dialogue – the character’s “internal dialogue”. You may find it useful to write that dialogue within square brackets into your Audition Sides at the appropriate moments.