What is Your Story? Part Two

Last post I suggested you not bother writing a screenplay and/or toss your already written script.  Here's the first scenario of why:

If you have written a single location dialogue heavy script--
Bad acting will kill your project.  You do not have access to and/or cannot afford actors who can deliver dialogue in a convincing manner.  Unless you hang with movie stars (which if you do, why do you only have $4k to spend on your feature?), unless you are part of a posse, an entourage of those few who are really good in front of a camera--this has nothing to do with theater acting--unless you are hanging with those folks, you need to focus on a story you can tell in images, not actors talking.  And I don't mean using lots of long, filling-time-because-you-didn't-write-enough-story shots of actors gazing into the distance.

Delivering dialogue on camera and not looking like you're acting is really, really hard for a lot of reasons, but mainly because a camera is relentless.  Some people photograph well, others don't, regardless of how stunning they may be in person.  But even if you have someone who looks good on camera, what happens when they open their mouths?  Can they speak naturally?  Can they deliver scripted dialogue naturally?

In my experience, some actors are good at being on camera, but most are not much better than non-actors no matter how famous they are.  Let me repeat: Bad acting will kill your project.  But you really only need one actor to follow around.  You can fill in the rest with non-actors, or semi-professionals.

If you covered yourself shooting you can edit around a modest performance.  But you can't do that with your hero(ine)--the person your camera will follow the most.  Find the best on-camera person you can--it may be a professional actor or it may not--the question is, can they look natural on camera?  Once you identify that actor, talk them into doing the lead and find out what they are planning for the next year--no kidding.  You need a lot of access to the actor you make your lead.  And don't take for granted what they are bringing to the project.