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Home: Video University Forums: Marketing & Business:
Good Video bad actors..what to do

smithgalltv
Novice

Nov 4, 2005, 12:02 PM

Post #1 of 7 (1067 views)
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Good Video bad actors..what to do	Can't Post

We made a video for a law firm that came out pretty well. It was kind of a training skit that showed a client dealing with teh firm in a typical manner. It was shown at the annula seminar and It served it purpose well and the client as well as the guests were very happy with it. The problem is that the client wrote the script and the "actors" were his fellow attorneys. They tried but they were lawyers not actors. So now I have a pretty good video, well cut and shot but with bad acting

my question is should use this as an example of my work. Im afraid that a new client will not see past the acting to see the quality of the video. In fact one could argue that the quality of the video is dependent on the acting and therefore is not a quality peice. it want to do more corporate video so i hate to not be able to use my first one as a reference.
Michael Smithgall

DVXGalt
Veteran

Nov 4, 2005, 2:37 PM

Post #2 of 7 (1057 views)
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Re: [smithgalltv] Good Video bad actors..what to do [In reply to]	Can't Post

Can you post it for an objective opinion? It might not be as bad as your think, especially if you say it did it's purpose and everyone liked it.

smithgalltv
Novice

Nov 4, 2005, 3:03 PM

Post #3 of 7 (1054 views)
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Re: [DVXGalt] Good Video bad actors..what to do [In reply to]	Can't Post

i migtht be able to post some of it. The client and the seminar guests all knew the lawyers were the ones playing the roles, in fact they actually played themselves just with funny dialogue. So because of that I think people gave the acting a pass. But another potential client with no understanding of that would find the stilted delivery a bit underwhelming. I guess I may be a bit harder on it because I am also an actor and have done many training video and industrials so I have a standard that i would try to meet.
Michael Smithgall

granball
Novice

Nov 7, 2005, 1:40 PM

Post #4 of 7 (973 views)
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Re: [smithgalltv] Good Video bad actors..what to do [In reply to]	Can't Post

If you use this...I would put a disclaimer on it saying that these are not actors, but lawyers playing the roles.

Depending on who you are showing this to, you may want to avoid it. Had you gotten the lawyers to act fairly well, it would be a plus for you as a director. But if they are acting porly, it shows that you couldn't get more out of them, and will come across as a poor quality "amateur" video.

DVXGalt
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Nov 7, 2005, 10:20 PM

Post #5 of 7 (961 views)
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Re: [smithgalltv] Good Video bad actors..what to do [In reply to]	Can't Post

Well, without seeing it I don't know what to tell you. But you could always just cut it into a highlights reel with some other prjects and no dialog. That would negate most of the "bad acting" and just show off camera work.

smithgalltv
Novice

Nov 8, 2005, 9:17 AM

Post #6 of 7 (948 views)
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Re: [DVXGalt] Good Video bad actors..what to do [In reply to]	Can't Post

Thank you both for your advice. I hate to scrap it I was watching it again last night and since there were 8 different attorneys some of them did a fairly decent job. I found that the less lines they had the better their delivery.

In fact one thing i am proud of is that last years video (not done by me) was basically one wide shot of the conference room and the scene played out in full. As an actor i knew that one of the hardest things to do is pick up your cue line when its your turn and to look interested when your not speaking. Most new actors will litterally just stand there going over their lines in their head while they wait for the other actor to shut up. This of course ignores the principle that acting is reacting. When i shot this video I did one wide wide and stayed with mostly closeups of varying degrees so that the attny could give me their lines as casually as possible. Of course that is standard camera technique but it was more time consuming to shoot that way but some of them did give decent delivery.

Another thing that is good technique but came in very handy when dealing with non actors is getting inserts and cutaways. One attny that had a particularly long set of lines and was an "um and er" kind of guy. Each time we had that we coudl cut away and get a wide or a reaction, snip out the offending filler word and then cut back to him. He now looks like a better speaker.. still dry and lifeless but atleast he doesnt soound wishy washy and insecure.
Michael Smithgall

DVXGalt
Veteran

Nov 8, 2005, 9:23 AM

Post #7 of 7 (944 views)
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Re: [smithgalltv] Good Video bad actors..what to do [In reply to]	Can't Post

Sounds like you have some good material for "Why you shoudl pay to hire professional actors". Just do a before and after editing segment, and you can explain to prospects that they can pay actors or they can pay you for extensive editing.... In fact, Can I have some of that footage??? Cool

I am slowly building a "How to do good video" video...