An actor in the talking films is obliged to be incomparably more skillful and technically expert than an actor on the stage, if the requirements of true art rather than routine accomplishment are to be applied to him … Film actors need real theatre training. They should be bred on repertory of the world geniuses like Shakespeare, Griboyedov, Gogol, Chekhov and not on ordinary movie scripts. Film actors are often called upon to play the last sequences in a picture and then the first; they have to die and be born later on. And all this is usually improvised; they rehearse death and then birth.
—Konstantin Stanislavski, Collected Works, vol. VI
Continuity means “an uninterrupted flow.” We want to keep each piece of film from the close-ups to the faraway shots looking the same. We want them to look smooth, not choppy and different, when they are added together. Anything you can do to help will make you look and feel like a star. That might mean using the same hand for certain tasks in each scene. These things aren’t practiced in acting class and probably should not be. Your performance is always more important than details. But when you are good enough to manage both, you can up your game. That might involve remembering in what order you left the room or who was in front of whom when you traveled in the shot last. Knowing this stuff will put you years ahead of your peers and get you work that will reinforce your confidence and help your career.
Think of how much stronger you will feel on sets when you work with your crew to make yourself look better. Is continuity important? Yes. Is it everyone’s job? Yes. But why not learn this stuff and make everybody look good? Many actors take years to figure out these things. But if you follow my advice, you will get this stuff more quickly than other actors, and you will see your work increase. As you make an effort to improve your product, you will get more work. I now understand why a majority of good actors sit in classes and don’t get work. They have no idea how a set works, and it is safer and easier to be in class. I was that way for a long time. Because I was such a good actor, my instructors gave me an assignment to be on sets. But my fear of being on sets stopped me from getting work, and that is when I started script supervising.
I love class. It is fun to learn for a year or two and not get work, but there comes a time to start practicing what will make you better at the job. You will make mistakes, but that is why you practice on student work and on short films. The people making these films are practicing too. But I encourage you to learn on sets because these films may not have good script supervisors or any script supervisor at all. I have talked to several actors about where they got their skills, and they have all said the script supervisors on sets taught them to keep good matching notes on their movements. Not all actors are great at this, and I admire the ones who are.
It is important to know the difference between matching and doing something different in every take. You should match your movements and do something different emotionally in every take if that is what the director is looking for. Editors can still cut the film together, and if they are looking for different emotions they can find them and use them. A director may want you to keep the same performance throughout every take, especially if he likes the way you are saying your lines. Being able to match your performance in every take and to change it at will requires great skills. This is definitely something to practice at home or on low-budget sets.
Charese Mongiello