If you’re an actor, first, let’s work on your craft. Get acting lessons.
You need to watch a lot of old movies. Take notes. How did Charlton Heston portray anger? Jealousy? Sadness?
How did Cary Grant do it? How did John Wayne do it? Don’t laugh about the Duke… watching the Searchers with my father will show you the Duke was actually a better actor than we give him credit for.
Okay, next…
Go to the shooting range. Learn to shoot.
You’re going to shoot 100 rounds a week for a year. Until you learn not to BLINK.
Frustrating for me to see an actor portray a soldier and see that soldier BLINK while shooting.
Why’s that bad? Blink = miss.
As your eyes close, your arms involuntarily pull in slightly. Hold something in both arms, arms out, extended, elbows lock. As you blink, you’ll either begin to bring it to your chest, or you’ll slowly dip your hands down.
If I was the camera director of “We were soldiers”, I’d have called “CUT”, and re-filmed one scene. Mel Gibson loads his gun, fires, and blinks. The first two rounds would have missed, and yet we see the enemy soldier drop at his feet.
And last night I was watching “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly” and saw one scene were Eastwood blinks shooting.
Most war movies call Dale Dye and have him put everyone through a two week boot camp. really, not enough. They need a week shooting real guns at real targets. DO NOT BLINK.
The only way to fix the blink is TOT – Time on Trigger.
If you think you’ll EVER play a character that shoots a gun, you’ll need to go and spend a year shooting. And you better believe, that should be on your acting resume. “Can shoot a gun accurately without blinking.”
If that’s on your resume, you’ll sooner or later end up in a movie like Band of Brothers or We Were Soldiers. That’s a career making role.
Learn to act. Learn to shoot, men AND women – because odds are good you’re going to shoot a gun in a movie at least once. And for crying out loud, approach movie watching like you’re a Monday Morning quarterback. take NOTES on what’s good acting. Watch a LOT of good acting.
