2025

V. Acting for the Camera: Focus Your Acting Muscle

Level: COMMITTED ACTORS WHO HAVE COMPLETED CORE TECHNIQUE
module II workshop: SATURDAYS 13:00 - 17:00, January 17 & 25, February 14 & 21
location: welserstr. 5-7, Berlin-schöneberg
FEE: €500

Sign Up

Refocus your skills for a different medium. On stage, an actor’s performance is shaped through movement, gesture, and vocal energy that reaches the back row. On camera, the frame tightens. The canvas shrinks to a close-up, revealing meaning through a glance, a breath, or a shift of attention. Storytelling moves inward, toward the character’s inner life—their thoughts, desires, and contradictions. As the saying goes, the camera doesn’t lie.

An actor’s work must always be rooted in given circumstances, objectives, and actions. But the lens demands a special degree of focus, precision, and honesty. This on-camera acting course is designed as a two-part progression, guiding actors from foundational skills into sustained, professional-level scene work.

In Module I (Two-Day Intensive), actors are introduced to the fundamentals of on-camera performance and learn how to feel the camera. Through short monologues and scenes, students develop emotional preparation alongside essential technical skills such as focal points, physical continuity, and working within the frame. Emphasis is placed on clarity, intention, and learning how small, truthful choices register on camera.

In Module II (Four-Day Intensive), actors build directly on these principles while preparing, rehearsing, and filming a full-length scene. The focus shifts to sustaining a performance across multiple beats and takes, managing continuity, and offering clear, playable choices that serve both the story and the edit. Actors work hands-on with the camera, deepening their understanding of framing, coverage, and collaboration with the director and technical team. On the final day, edited scenes are screened, creating space to reflect on the process, deepen learning, and share feedback and observations.

Whether you are preparing for film, television, or self-tape work, this course equips you with the tools to meet the camera with clarity, imagination, and honesty—so it can capture your story with precision and depth.

This course is designed for students who have completed Core Technique. Advanced actors may enter by interview. (Photo: Mark Cornelison)

Instructor: Adam Ludwig

The course will be conducted in English. Copies of readings, assigned scenes, and plays will be provided.