Follow the basic TV acting guidelines:

• Look near the lens

• Be still

• Don’t …

Once you’ve done your preparation, and the scene is about to begin, you just start.

Actors prepare differently. There’s no one way to prepare to begin a scene. That’s true.

But, you might find yourself waiting for inspiration and it might be a divine kind and it …

They say the close-up is the money shot.

In television it certainly is the size we see most. Talking heads, they call it.

Learn to use the time of rehearsal, blocking, master and medium shots to choose what you’ll do in …

As you’re reading this you may notice that your foot is swinging regularly.

Mine is.

Or that your thumb is rhythmically rubbing your middle finger. These aren’t actually tics or twitches according to definition, but this is the best way to …

One of the best directing notes I ever received was from Peter Bogdanovich who said to me, ‘Think quickly.’.

I’ve repeated that to many actors over the years since.

It doesn’t mean speaking quickly. It means moving forward doing what you need to do in the scene …

If you have blocks as an actor explore different ways to loosen them.

A gay actor I worked with had a block about playing masculine roles. Any character described as tough, good-looking, macho, war veteran etc. would send him into an anxious state. 

He knew he looked the part, but his mental block made him freeze when he came to …

How do you work on a screenplay?

Breaking it down into it’s first, big parts helps. Those parts are the scenes.

As actors, directors, writers, producers we work on plays and films scene by scene. They’re the units of work.

You shoot scenes out of order, so you must work on each scene as a …

The event is what the 2nd AD writes in the call sheet for each scene.

For example:

‘Josh nervously divulges his …

You have to learn how to be still on camera. 

Observe how you’re still in life. 

Often, while acting your moving because you’re resetting or dropping out. It’s you, the actor, and not ...