Posture, Gait & Stance
Part of the modern actor’s problem with posture arises from the fact that we live in a very casual era, particularly in South Africa. We spend most of our time in easy-fitting clothes and shoes. Social egalitarianism permits us to behave relatively casually in most social and business situations. As an actor however, you need to be aware of how to use your body to portray the character’s emotional state or attitude.
Perhaps because “Movement” training gets too little attention at Drama Schools, perhaps because simply getting the words down during a busy audition season is such a preoccupation, too many actors forget the importance of Posture, Gait & Stance, even given the limited movement available in the audition studio.
Making an Entrance
I like to give actors a “lead in” to an audition scene if the script allows for it. Usually it is as little as walking two or three paces to “enter” a room or come upon a “situation / circumstance” described in the script. I’m astonished at how many actors simply tramp in and start talking. They completely ignore the fact that they have two or three extra seconds of screen time in which to establish their character and their attitude to the unseen person or circumstance in the scene. An entrance is an ideal time to employ micro-beats. Your character could enter with one Intention, but may be deflected for a moment either by something said by the off-screen character or by discovering unexpected circumstances. Both the moment of deflection and the moment the character is able or unable to execute his original intention are micro-beats – they need to be thought about and planned during your preparation.
Gait
While Gait – the way you walk – may not be as evident or useful in most auditions, don’t disregard it completely. You may only have three paces, but how would that character take those three paces under the given circumstances. Even three paces can convey urgency, boredom, laziness or dread at the situation you are walking into. Practice conveying a mood simply by the way you walk in only five, four and three paces; experiment with shortening or lengthening your stride; try each at different speeds; explore changing the speed and type of walk within five, four and three paces. You’ll be developing a useful on-set skill too, given the fragmented and repetitive way story and character is captured on camera.
Posture
Posture is certainly evident in the MCU (Medium Close Up), the shot in which 99% of auditions are recorded. The MCU is also the most commonly used shot on television and a very powerful shot when used in the cinema. Even though only your head and shoulders are visible in the MCU, it will reveal a lop-sided or too casual a stance. You also need to consider social, cultural and period factors with regard to a character’s posture and general bearing. Obvious examples would be the difference in posture between a soldier and a beggar, or between a wealthy socialite and a drug-hazed prostitute.
Stance
If you constantly shift your weight from one foot to the other, you will wobble from side-to-side in the frame. Consciously incorporating nervous movement into your delivery to convey a shifty or insecure character is one thing, but unmotivated movement as a result of “nerves” is very obvious as such and distracts from your performance. If you have a problem with nervous fidgeting, once you’ve hit your mark, place your feet flat on the ground about half a metre apart and don’t move them until you have a reason to!
Always bearing in mind that we need to see your face and your eyes in an audition, your stance in relation to the off-screen characters in a scene can also convey subtleties of attitude, status and relationship. Is your character open / honest / confident / superior / engaged with others in the scene? If so, spend most of your time square-on to the camera, and dead-ahead of the camera, not the Reader as a rule. (The Reader may be too far off the camera line. Sloppy and inconsiderate, but it happens!)
Is your character closed-off / dishonest / awkward / isolated / intimidated by others in the scene? In that case you can turn your body away from camera and avert your face and eyes slightly to just the other side of camera to break eye-contact with the Reader / other character, but not so far off that the viewer cannot see your face.
In a nutshell, Posture, Gait & Stance boils down to understanding and using “Body Language”.
Yes, even in MCU for an audition.