Method Madness

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meghpant
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Method Madness

Post by meghpant »

Some times i think this is the most commonly used term by everyone and actually no one knows what it means for me it means nothing

What is method acting?

Method acting is not an acting tool nor is it a book it does not involve growing beard, loosing or gaining weight, living like the character or becoming a character. The most misunderstood term, misused by everyone and it spells nothing but ignorance about the craft of acting, to who ever use it without knowing what it actually is now a days it is used more in a derogatory context to undermine the effort put by actors towards the craft of acting.

IN FACT There is nothing like method acting it is a wrong term to use.

What is “the method”?

Method is a school of acting, a philosophy towards the craft of acting. Better know generally as the American school of acting and specifically to the work done by a pioneer a legend of acting education lee Strasberg.
Method is the step wise approach to the craft of acting developed by lee Strasberg over a period of 45 Years at the actor’s studio in New York and it is only for actors who have been trained under his banner and by him over a long period of time who can be called method trained actor.

THERE IS NOTHING LIKE “METHOD ACTOR”, THE TERM WHICH IS ACCEPTABLE AND CORRECT IS “METHOD TRAINED ACTOR”

Method training is a training procedure which has nothing to do with an actor’s performance in a specific play or film it is the effort put forward by the actors to imbibe and practice the various acting tools developed at the studio by lee Strasberg.
It is more about doing Laboratory Behavior work and Practicing in private than with coming on stage and blowing the audience away.

What are the techniques?
Developed over a period of more than 50 years it would be better to practice those techniques than to talk about it, it is something that has to either be learned over a long- long period of time or be taught by a guru who has been trained in the method.


METHOD IS NOT A TOOL IT IS A TRAINING PROCESS… METHOD TRAINING IS A WORD THAT IS ACCEPTABLE.
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Re: Method Madness

Post by stalker »

excellent post, megh!
I have oten heard people talk about 'Method Acting' without me understanding exactly what it was! i shal now start learning more about this term, which as you correctly mention, is quiet 'loosely used'
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Re: Method Madness

Post by admin »

Hi Megh! Love the post. I moved it to the relevant forum!
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Re: Method Madness

Post by Paramvir Singh »

adding to Megh's excellent post, from WikiPedia
Method acting is an acting technique in which actors try to replicate real life emotional conditions under which the character operates, in an effort to create a life-like, realistic performance. This can be contrasted with the technique of the actor putting him/herself into a strong "imaginary" circumstance which then induces an emotional reaction parallel to the amount of mental immersion the actor puts him/herself into.
"The Method" in method acting typically refers to the generic practice of actors drawing on their own emotions, memories, and experiences to influence their portrayals of characters.
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Re: Method Madness

Post by meghpant »

the same thing was also in "the system" generally refered to the emotional memory which was later replaced by "given circumstances" and finally by "Physical Action" ...
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Re: Method Madness

Post by stalker »

Method and the Actor

an old post in The Telegraph, here
When comedian Ravi Baswani mournfully says, using that tired but evocative clich?, that they don?t make them like that anymore, the coordinator of the revived acting course in Pune?s Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) is not talking about films. He is referring to actors like Naseeruddin Shah.

There were many who would have echoed Baswani on Thursday when Shah ? once the face of Indian arthouse cinema ? walked up at the seventh International Film Festival in Mumbai to receive an award for his contribution to Indian cinema. The award, appropriately, was given away by director Shyam Benegal, who gave Shah his first break by casting him as one of four oppressive zamindar brothers who rape the village teacher?s wife in Nishant.
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Re: Method Madness

Post by vashybhoot »

I agree with Mr. Pant, but in parts and in parts I differ ABSOLUTELY!

METHOD, could be anything, just as the word suggests, there's isn't a particular METHOD, every ACTOR worth his salt, MANUFACTURES his/her own METHOD.

METHOD TRAINED ACTOR, a term difficult to read, speak, learn and remember, because there isn't anything like that.
You disagree? Alright, for all I care you might call an electron a proton and still associate negativity with that, Its all welcome, but just by you and only in your world ( I will never visit you ... lol ).

TRAINING is a super set, the sub set of which are the METHODs 1, 2, 3, ... Well, and TRAINING itself is the sub set of CRAFT, both of which might be loosely called as sub sets of a super set called ACTING.

An Actor might TRAIN, in some xyz way (METHOD) and thus bring his BODY, MIND and SPIRIT, in a state of AWARENESS - An Actor's Awareness, which accepts more and rejects less; but rejects; selectively!

An actor might go complete bonkers with his IMAGINATION, or may built upon MEMORIES; he/she might MIX them BOTH or develop something from FACTS, which might be someone else's MEMORIES or HISTORICAL RECORDS...or whatever helps, to come as close to the character as possible; or may be as far, depends!

Whatever an ACTOR does becomes his/her METHOD...There is no GENERIC METHOD, and no pill at any chemists' or alchemists' will have "ParaPerformancamol TetraActracine Salt." An Actor discovers his own STONE, better than the OLD PHILOSOPHER's!

I mean, a Actor might just invoke a sneeze, for all we know, to get close to the character! THAT'S METHOD. Its quite quirky...all this talk!

Birth, Historical references and usages of this word, must be known to Mr. Pant, better than me, but there is another word which might be useful in our context ... and that's EVOLUTION.

The News is that METHOD has EVOLVED and is going to get you; be it CLOWNING or RASKOLNIKOV ... I'ud say...
ITS ABOUT TIME Mr. PANT...Lets Loosen up... :)
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