Tuesday, February 20, 2007

For Real


This article on digital manipulation of actors in films is funny if only for this one line:

“Acting is all about honesty, but something like this makes what you see on screen a dishonest moment,” said a leading technician. “Everyone feels a bit dirty about it.”

Acting is about honesty? Since when? Acting is about faking it. Emotions, action, sex - all faked.

I can understand the anxiety of actors, but that is just a dumb statement.

3 comments:

Chill said...

Acting isn't ABOUT honesty per se, but that doesn't mean it's all faked. The situation or narrative might be fake, but Emotion may or may not be real, the Action may or may not be real (in Asian movies for example a lot of the actors ARE doing what it looks like they're doing, or something close to it) And well, in porn, the actors ARE having sex so, I understand where you're coming from but saying that it is all faked is a bit disingenuous.

Anonymous said...

Are you sure disingenuous is the correct word? You think I'm lacking in candor or sincerity? Or were you only saying that you thought my statement was flawed?

Acting is all about staging a situation. That's what I mean by it being faked. To me, digital manipulation of a scene is no different than any other kind of staging - makeup, direction, choreography. There is fakery involved. Even if the emotion is felt (the ol' Method) it comes because of direction. I suppose there could be a long argument about what then constitutes fake.

I used hyperbole because to pretend that the purity of acting is somehow sullied by digital alteration seems ridiculous to me. That and I wanted to mirror the quoted technician, who said acting was ALL about honesty.

CaptPoco said...

"Everyone feels a bit dirty about it"

Hear that? That's the sound of someone's profession becoming obsolete.