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NEW YORK UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL

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The Cochlear Implant

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How actors remember their lines

How do actors remember pages and pages of lines? Apparently, it's usually not through rote memorization. Cognitive psychologist Helga Noice (Elmhurst College) and her actor/director husband Tony Noice (Indiana State University) have spent twenty years studying the psychology of actors and their techniques. What they found could potentially be used by elderly individuals whose cognitive abilities are declining. The Noices report their latest results in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science. From an Association for Psychological Science news release:

According to the researchers, the secret of actors' memories is, well, acting. An actor acquires lines readily by focusing not on the words of the script, but on those words' meaning -- the moment-to-moment motivations of the character saying them -- as well as on the physical and emotional dimensions of their performance.

To get inside the character, an actor will break a script down into a series of logically connected "beats" or intentions. Good actors don't think about their lines, but feel their character's intention in reaction to what the other actors do, causing their lines to come spontaneously and naturally. The researchers quote the great British actor Michael Caine: "You must be able to stand there not thinking of that line. You take it off the other actor's face."

The key, the researchers have found, is a process called active experiencing, which they say uses "all physical, mental, and emotional channels to communicate the meaning of material to another person." It is a principle that can be applied off-stage as well as on. For example, students who studied material by imagining conveying its meaning to somebody else who needed the information showed higher retention than those who tried to memorize the material by rote.

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Positive Rejection

Slamdance Programming

11/30/05

There's no good to tell you. I could rehash the most volatile moments of the final programming meetings, recounting the gallant attempts to get your film in. I could remind you of the incredibly high number of submissions for the very few amount of slots. Finally, I could offer solidarity, revealing that I got a rejection myself yesterday and another on Friday. But I can assume none of this really matters.

This year Slamdance received more narrative features than we ever have before. We saw such an eclectic mix of films. Thank you so much for submitting to Slamdance. I sincerely hope you will continue to send us any future projects. I wish you the best with your ongoing festival applications.

Congratulations on making a film!

Warm Regards,
Sarah Diamond

--
Sarah Diamond
Director of Programming
Slamdance Film Festival

"by filmmakers, for filmmakers"

Script Excerpt from the Elk Hotel - 2

Life is a circle. A wobbly circle.

Script Excerpt from The Elk Hotel

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