New York Acting and Film Academy Workshop

We were honoured to welcome Roger Del Pozo from New York Film Academy for a Drama workshop focusing on the reality of the highly-competitive film industry.

Mr Del Pozo explained that most actors have the wrong attitude when auditioning which is ‘I need to get the job’. In contrast, he advised that actors should focus on the moment and show the casting director the best of their acting abilities in those two minutes with the incentive to impress the casting director. Roger also stressed to us the importance of perseverance. He stressed that the odds are against you, and if one defeat will utterly crush you, then the film industry is not for you.

As part of the workshop Roger asked a volunteer to come up and simulate an audition scenario. I happened to be the first one to raise my hand. I was given a short monologue and, as an amateur actor, made many mistakes which would result in me not getting the role in real life. I delivered the monologue as I would normally if I were in theatre. However, Mr Del Pozo made it clear that we need to understand the differences between film and theatre. Everything is on a much smaller scale because the actor is supposed to get intimate with the camera. Even though it is a ‘monologue’, it is in fact a dialogue as my character is supposed to be talking to someone.

Overall, Roger gave the audience very solid advice that amateur actors should follow if they want to make it in the film industry. The mini lecture was extremely useful and interesting. Everyone involved talked about how Mr Del Pozo stated all the things that they would previously have done in an audition scenario, and how they would now re-think their approach to auditions.

Narmin Aligulova, L6