Feeling the BEAT! [The difference between taking a beat and finding your beats in a scene.]
Today, we're going to learn about taking a beat in dialogue and breaking a scene down into beats. It might sound like we're talking about making music, but we're actually talking about something way cooler! So, grab your popcorn 🍿 and let's dive into the magical world of television and film acting.
Taking a BEAT
Let's imagine you're an actor in a TV show or a movie (so cool, right?). Sometimes, your character will be talking to another character, and you'll have a lot of lines to say. That's called dialogue! Now, imagine you're in the middle of a conversation, and you pause for a moment to think about what you just heard or to make a dramatic effect. That's called taking a beat! 🎭
Taking a beat is like taking a tiny break in your dialogue. It gives you time to react to what the other person is saying or to let the audience feel the emotion of the moment. It's like when you're telling a funny joke and pause for a second before delivering the punchline. It makes the joke even funnier! 😂
I often see young actors rushing through their lines. Easily ignoring punctuation and almost running sentences together. Sometimes a writer will make an effort to use the word beat in parentheses like this: (beat). Or by using an ellipses […]. They want to make sure those pauses are there. An actor could and should play with their lines by adding a beat, even when it is not notated by the writer.
Picture this: you're watching a dramatic exchange between two characters in a TV show or movie, and suddenly, one of them pauses for a brief moment before continuing. That beat serves a crucial purpose in storytelling, allowing the audience to digest the dialogue and heightening the emotional impact of the scene.
A great example of this can be found in film "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." In the scene where Professor Lupin (played by David Thewlis) reveals to Harry (played by Daniel Radcliffe) that he's a werewolf, there's a moment when Lupin takes a beat before continuing. The pause adds weight to the revelation, allowing both the characters and the audience to process the information.
Finding your BEATS
Now, let's talk about breaking your scene down into beats. While taking a beat focuses on dialogue, breaking a scene down into beats is about dissecting a scene into smaller, more manageable sections, each with a specific emotion, action, or idea. This technique helps actors deliver more nuanced and believable performances.
Imagine you have a really big and complicated LEGO set to build. Instead of trying to put it all together at once (which would be super hard), you break it down into smaller sections and work on them one at a time.
For example, let's say you have a scene where your character finds out they won a big prize, gets super excited, and then accidentally drops the prize, breaking it into pieces. Yikes! 🏆😮 That's a lot of emotions and actions to handle all at once. But, if you break the scene down into beats, you can focus on each part one at a time:
Hearing about winning the prize (surprise! 🎉)
Getting super excited (yay! 😁)
Accidentally dropping the prize (oops! 😬)
Realizing it's broken (oh, no! 😢
Breaking your scene down into beats helps you focus on each emotion and action, so you can give your best performance as an actor. It's like eating an ice cream sundae one bite at a time, instead of trying to eat it all in one go (brain freeze! 🍨❄️).
A good Acting Coach will help you use these tools in preparing for an important audition. Most talent agents and managers recommend using an acting coach for your self tapes if the role has more than a few lines. Eventually you may get really good at doing this on your own and need to use a coach less and less. Although using a coach helps you find unique choices and points out things you may have missed. This can give you greater confidence in your performance for an audition or callback.
Corey has private online coaching sessions for 30 or 60 minutes. Give them a competitive edge.
Remember that tools like beats are here to help us sound more believable as humans in our speech. They also help us understand character emotion and behavior better.
So don’t forget to incorporate beats when braking down your scene or playing with your performance. Wether you are taking a beat in dialogue to create a strategic pause. Or while breaking a scene down into beats to tackle a complex scene with greater ease and precision. Both techniques are crucial for delivering powerful and compelling performances in TV and film.
