Life-coaching Approach to Screen Acting

Daniel Dresner is a leading UK acting coach. He regularly teaches at the Actors Centre and drama schools as well as coaching privately. His clients range from actors starting out to Hollywood stars. His approach has been developed over more than 20 years as an actor, director, teacher and life coach in London, New York and Tokyo. He studied the Method at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York and life coaching with the Coaches Training Institute.

Daniel Dresner sets out to offer the student of film acting valuable support both as a fledgling artist and as a person in his book A Life-Coaching Approach to Screen Acting. I can report that he succeeds … A Life-Coaching Approach to Screen Acting is an excellent guide to truly important fundamental life skills. Life skills such as identifying your values, understanding what fulfillment means to you, how to avoid Imposter Syndrome, how to avoid perfectionism, are grouped with ‘knowing yourself,’ which most film people would call ‘knowing your type’ in the first part … These subjects are treated carefully and well, and then backed up with plenty of exercises. They are also reinforced with links to brief, pithy learning videos created with The Actors Centre. You can read about the work, do the exercise yourself, and watch Daniel Dresner work with students on the same material. This all adds up to an excellent resource for developing confidence in oneself and in the work. It also makes it easy to see why Daniel Dresner is considered a top private acting coach and teacher.

• Acknowledgements ixIntroduction 1PART ONE WHAT IS HOLDING YOU BACK? 51 Get Out of Your Own Way 72 Values and Fulfi lment 11Identify your values 13Fulfi lment 14The wheel of life 153 Saboteurs and Limiting Beliefs 16Saboteur words and phrases 17Limiting beliefs 19A note on your inner critic 20Use of language 21Fear 23Getting help from your captain 234 The Impostor Syndrome 25What can you do about it? 27Some quotes from people you may respect 285 Perfectionism 30PART TWO MOVING FORWARDS 356 Confi dence, Success, Perspective and Reframing 37Confi dence 37Success 39Perspective 41Reframing 427 Learning Something New 44The four stages of learning and creating new habits 44Believe you can develop 45What are habits and how do they form? 46Neuroplasticity 46The theory of marginal gains 488 Trust and Creativity 50Trust list 52PART THREE AS YOU ARE MOVING TOWARDS SOMEONE ELSE 539 Screen Experience 5510 Focus and Concentration 58Milestones and anchors 6011 Emotions 63Pushing and indicating – trying too hard 67Affective memory 6712 Imagination 7013 Listening 7414 Nerves and Nervousness 7715 Lines and Learning Them 80The potential limitations of actioning 84Playing stakes and consequences 85Some ways people learn lines – a non-exhaustive list 8616 Adjusting Your Vocal Levels 88Volume 88Speed 9017 Size Matters 92Less is more 92PART FOUR TOOLS TO LIVE SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE 9718 The Inner Actor and Inner Character 9919 Truth: It All Starts With You (and a Little About Method Acting) 105Method acting 10720 The Senses and Sense Memory 111A sense of place 11321 Thinking and the Inner Monologue 119Thinking and the eyes 120A kaleidoscope of thought 120A third entity 122Inner monologue 12322 Improvise and Personalize 12823 Meet Your Character 13524 Mind, Body and Soul (Thought,Physiology and Emotion) 136The pressure cooker 137Emotion through physical manipulation 138Keep it simmering 14125 Wrapping It Up 142Appendices 143References 155List of Video and Audio Links 157Index 158