KITFR Acting Class

Hello and welcome to the Kid In The Front Row acting class. Take a seat and don't chew gum!

1. Watch every single film you can find that stars RICHARD JENKINS. Watch every frame he's in. He's not a 'movie star' like Brad Pitt, but he's an actor who every director wants to work with. EVERY MOMENT is true. I just watched 'Flirting with Disaster'; it stars Téa Leoni, Alan Alda, Ben Stiller, Josh Brolin and Patricia Arquette. But it's Jenkins who TOTALLY steals the show. You can't take your eyes off him.

Find the earliest stuff you can find of him then trace it forwards, see the evolution of his career. Jenkins is precisely what acting is about, he is the reason you want to do it. He's rarely a lead. He's that guy that turns up after 40 minutes and blows you away. 'Dear John' was a vehicle for Tatum and Seyfried but Jenkins was transcendent. He reached right through to your frickin' soul!

And you must see him in 'The Visitor' - a wonderful indie movie in which he plays the lead.

2. Watch 'Inside The Actors Studio' with James Lipton. You get to see the journeys of all the greats. I know you all watch this when you can, but it should be your RELIGION! I watched the Jim Carrey one this morning. You realise just how much incredible work he's done, and when you hear him speak you can really see WHY. He spent his whole childhood in front of the mirror pulling faces. He made huge decisions all throughout his career. He had crazy self-confidence. There are more lessons in that 35 minute episode that a whole year of drama school.


3. Linked to the point above, you need to stop seeing the stars as something different than you. They're just people. They have children, they have bodily problems, they have arguments with their parents. They're exactly like you!

4. Listen to the 'WTF with Marc Maron' podcast. I recommend the interview with Michael Cera. Maron is the king of asking mundane questions about everyday life, but it's FASCINATING! And he asks Cera things bluntly, like what will he do when the hype dies down and he can't sustain the career? They go off into tangents, but they're tangants that you can relate to, because you're EXACTLY LIKE THEM!

5. Make decisions about your characters. DECIDE something. Bring it to the table.

6. Re-watch the actors that inspire you. When you were 15 you got OBSESSIVE, but then at some point it seemed uncool so you branched out. But you need to go back to that now. You need to see every single frame of the people who MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE YOU. There's real JUICE in that! Find out EXACTLY what makes your heroes tick. 

7. Stop moaning about auditions or a lack of auditions, no-one gives a shit and you sound like a moaning idiot! You think you're the only actor to suck at an audition? There are 20,000 actors in L.A. with a sob story. There are millions all round the world. Be one of the view who just gets the hell on with it.

8. Don't do acting classes just to feel better about yourself. Just do the ones that really matter. Most short term acting classes are just a con!

9. Get your showreel together NOW. NO EXCUSES.

10. Listen to actor interviews on the commute. Read autobiographies when you're in the passenger seat. Everyone else is too slack. If you have three unfinished autobiographies by your bed, you're doing it wrong. You're meant to finish them. You'll get better acting work when you finish what you started.

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Your Kid In The Front Row Reading Habits

I'm intrigued! Are you a regular? Is it your first time here? Do you have it bookmarked? Or do you subscribe by email? Or do you only read articles when you see my tweets or Facebook links?

Do you have a certain time of day you like to read the blog? Do you have certain types of articles that you prefer over others? Does the title of the article influence whether you'll read it?

Would love to know more about how you got here, why you're here, and how you read!

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New Visitors..

This blog was chosen as a 'Blog Of Note' by the Blogger team a few days ago, and since then, there's been an incredible amount of new visitors, which is amazing to see! I'd really love to know more about you all!

What is your favorite movie? 

What is the movie that you secretly watch five times a year even though it's way too cheesy/terrible?

What inspires you? 

What do you want to know about me? 

Welcome to Kid In The Front Row - I hope you all stick around!

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Kid In The Front Row Online Screenwriting Competition 2010

It's time to do some writing! Yes, it means we have to get off Facebook, stop flicking through blogs, and stop telling everyone about the projects we're going to be writing soon; because instead, there is one to write NOW! It needs to be written now because:

The deadline is in two weeks.
and
If you win, it gets made! In fact, it gets made many times!

The winner of the KITFR 2010 Screenplay Competition will have their script made by everyone who enters the upcoming KITFR 2010 Directing Competition! So it's a great chance to see your writing not only made, but made many times! And it will be SOON! I hope that's a great incentive!

This competition is for writers of all levels. Whether you're a pro, or whether you're just starting out, or even if you're interested but worried because you've never written a script and don't speak English very well--- I want you ALL to give it a go. Be creative! Have some fun! Write something!

Here's the rules:

• Your script must be no longer than FIVE pages (six including a cover page)
• You must write in industry-standard format. If you don't know how to do that, please read this. If you're still confused, email me, and I'll help you with the formatting.
• The DEADLINE for the competition is THURSDAY 21st OCTOBER 2010. No exceptions.

Those are the technical rules, here are the STORY RULES.

• You must have these THREE characters: Margaret, Abdul and Regina.These are the ONLY characters you can have.
• Your story takes place at the Headquarters of: 'The Equal Rights Committee.' The only locations (within the headquarters) are: Meeting Room, Kitchen, Secret Shelter.
• You must include this line of dialogue somewhere in the script: "Who the hell is Mark Flamstein?"

If you have any questions, please put them in the comments. Also, feel free to take the banner and share the link on your blogs, websites, Facebook's, etc. I am genuinely excited to read each and every script that is sent to me!

The competition opens NOW!

Send Entries To:

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The Writer Who Never Wrote About The Things He'd Never Written.

There was a writer, a great writer, although he never wrote, because he didn't have time to. This is what he wrote about in his memoirs, or at least he would have, if he had found the time. You see, the writer was unfortunate in that every time he went to write he would have something more pressing to do. Like pressing clothes, pressing a button on a microwave and pressing people's patience.

The writer's creativity was a strange and complex thing. His imagination would create wonderful ideas, which he would then sit down to write. As soon as he did - another wonderful idea would enter his mind, meaning the other one seemed less important, meaning he returned to pressing.

The depressing nature of his natural inclination to press, rather than write, was repressed and oppressed, causing much stress, a complete mess. Often, he would be just about to write his masterpiece when he would get an unexpected call at the door. On days it didn't happen, he would call up friends and demand they call round unexpectedly. When they did, he would curse at the Gods for making him so busy.

The writer was a remarkable fellow in that he could never find the time to write but he could always find the time to Google the symptoms of his ever changing illnesses. And when truly frustrated by his inability to find time to write, he would shoot off a ten thousand word email to friends moaning about how busy he'd been. He couldn't understand why all the successful writers weren't busy, when he was extremely busy. He thought he got to the bottom of this when he got two extra shifts tending bar and two extra nights tending a hangover but unfortunately this failed to materialize in the written word.

Many nights he pondered over why he had never made it in the industry and why nobody had ever noticed the genius of his writing. For years, he struggled to figure it out. This struggling made him consider writing his first novel but he felt bitter about all the times the works he had never written had never been published. The bitterness grew and grew, until it was the size of a small goat which is actually quite big in terms of bitterness. The bitterness grew and he got angry towards all the publishers he'd never met and all the readers who had never enjoyed the work he had never written.

He finally decided to quit after many years of not achieving what he wanted with the books he'd never written.

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Reader Poll.

I am interested to know why it is you come back to Kid In The Front Row. When there's a new post, what are you hoping to read? I think I can be somewhat erratic in my style; sometimes writing in depth about director's, sometimes rambling nonsensically about a trip to the cinema, sometimes interviewing film professionals, etc.

I don't know whether you like this style, or whether you dismiss 90% of posts and hold out for the 10% you like. Whatever the answers, please take the poll on the left-hand side of the webpage, and if you have any additional comments - please leave them here.

Thanks!

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A 2010 Bloggies Nomination, and Dreaming On A Bigger Scale.

I was never totally sure anybody would read this. But here you all are. And it's gotten me thinking and dreaming about the film industry. Let me try and explain without sounding completely insane.

This blog, Kid In The Front Row, has really been about me filling a gap I've found growing in recent years--- the gap of the story. The gap of the character with good intentions. The gap of writers who write through inspiration rather than set guidelines on how to sell a screenplay. I have been wanting, for a long time, a community of people who just want a good story, and who want to be inspired, and who want to write stories from their hearts. And it was then I figured, well I can try and start that myself. And that's what this blog was, and is, it's about finding Jimmy Stewart in the modern era. It's about writing from the heart again.

This blog is one of the five blogs nominated under the 'Best Entertainment Category' -- and of course, this is immensely exciting and unexpected for me - I never knew that people would be so interested in this. Through google followers and networkedblogs, this site has some great, active, readers-- not to mention the people on the film blogs groups and the lurkers who show up on my stats but I have no idea who you are. I'm glad you're here.

And the fact that this little blog where I ramble about Chaplin, and ramble about finding and nurturing creativity, the fact it's been nominated at all --- it gives me belief and hope that, on a wider, bigger scale, this is still what people want. And maybe, just maybe, on a big cinematic scale; maybe the return of Jimmy Stewart is near.

Okay, I don't actually mean the return of Jimmy Stewart. It's unlikely he'd be available and let's face it, he'd be worth a bigger paycheck than anyone else in Hollywood right now. But maybe people are yearning for a bit of heart and soul again. It's a tough one because upcoming writers are taught all these stringent guidelines now on what a film is, and what's marketable. But occasionally; someone ignores that and makes 'Once,' or 'Funny Ha Ha' or even 'Juno' - and it just hits you that, yes, this is what a movie should be about. This is why we love the movies.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm saying. I just know that I get some really wonderful emails from people and that people have gotten a lot from the interviews with professionals and from the inner-critic and writers block articles, and it's good to know that people do care - that they do love a good story and expression, it's not all about films like the one where Megan Fox's boobs flap about and big metal things collide with each other for hours.

Thank you for the nominations, and you can still vote for me for the next day or two to make me a finalist out of the five nominees in the 'Best Entertainment Category' http://2010.bloggies.com/. But bare in mind, if you do vote for me and I become a finalist, I will then ditch my love for cinema and instead become a fame-hungry, explosions-and-sex-scenes blogger, with predictable endings. You've been warned......

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Thought Of The Day.

nobody will believe in your work if you don't.

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I was just a kid and that's what I miss.

Go with me on this one, I'm writing it in a bit of a dream-like, meditative state; trying to remember my childhood - and the path from Kid, to Kid In The Front Row.

I remember, I remember--- I used to rush to school for 8.45am, even though school started at 9.20am. I only did it for the one year. I was 10 years old. I'd get there because I had this little group of friends who I loved being around. And there was a girl, of course. I don't really remember anything, except we'd laugh. And I'd make them laugh. There was a real connection.

And I remember in class assembly, some teacher would be rattling on about something uninteresting, but somewhere near the back row, as we sat with our legs crossed--- I remember. I'd tie my shoelaces up again and again, until they were knotted as many times as possible. And then I'd pretend they were characters, like in a play or something. These little tiny shoelaces. And all my friends around me, and whatever random kids were nearby. I'd do these little plays. They consisted of the left shoelace fighting with the right shoelace. And maybe silly discussions. I remember one of the shoelaces had the nickname 'Putt Putt' -- and everyone liked the character the most. He was the funny one. He was the Chandler Bing of primary school shoelace comedy.

I remember walking out of an assembly thinking It'd amuse people if I put my left arm in the right-arm-sleeve, and the right in the left--- but I remember my arms getting stuck the wrong way round. And I couldn't do anything about it as I left the assembly. I remember being pulled out by our head-teacher who had a big go at me for being so stupid. I agreed. But I was still stuck in my jumper, unable to untangle. I don't remember what else happened.

I remember being excited by Roald Dahl.

My wrestling figures were often, I'm sure, confused by my experimental storylines. Hulk Hogan often had interesting back stories, and the Ultimate Warrior was undefeated in three years.

I remember playing football with my brother in the garden. But we'd pretend we were the managers of our favourite team. I remember we'd play out a whole season, over many months. I would make up stories of players getting injured, of players being sold-- we'd give interviews after matches, we had this whole imaginary football league, played out between the two of us in our garden.

I remember starring in my own imaginary TV show called 'Man' - it was a bit like the A-Team. I was a cop/general all round awesome guy. In most episodes I narrowly avoided getting shot. In one episode, I shocked the enemy when they thought they had finished me off --- What the enemy didn't know what that I had a Ghostbusters proton pack, which took them by surprise as they were expecting me to attack with my He-Man sword.

Me and some other Kid used to spend break times sat up against this battered old brown shed. We'd sit there and we'd talk for the whole of break time about the last repeated episode we saw of 'Steptoe & Son.' I'd do my impression of the son. It wasn't very good. But we'd laugh. We'd laugh at how funny the show was and how funny we were for liking such an old show.


I am in the business of making people laugh by telling stories, created from my imagination. I realize now, I've done this all my life.

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Recurring Film Nostalgia

One of the best things about this blog has been finding many other people who are just like me. It turns out, I'm not the only Kid In The Front Row. There are a lot of us, and we're filling up the isles. So it gives me great pleasure to be able to hand over the writing reigns today to a guest author, someone who truly embodies the spirit of being a Kid In The Front Row. He writes about something close to my heart, nostalgia.

'Recurring Film Nostalgia' - by Jack Wormell

Film sneaks into our lives in different ways. I grow fond of a film not just for what it is, but because of how we met. Associations sit so strongly in my head that a movie becomes entwined with certain occasions or periods of my life, and a select number of films maiden voyage into my heart was through television. Seeing them beamed out to me from the TV screen for the first time has left them intrinsically connected with a certain period of my life, and, for some strange reason, has reinforced my love of them.

When I was younger, before I owned any DVDs, and only a few videos stood on my bedroom shelf, there were certain films that seemed to be broadcast regularly, as if, after looking at the calendar, the broadcasters exclaimed, ‘We haven’t shown Jaws in three months! What can we free up on Friday night’s schedule? Pronto! Pronto!’ My nostalgia, whether correct or not, tells me these films were always on the weekend, no earlier than Ten PM and usually on BBC 2. They were films of varying quality, but always immediately gripping, films where you could jump in halfway through and grasp what was happening with no trouble (although perhaps this was because I’d seen it about 3 months earlier on the same channel).

Catching Goodfellas a quarter of the way through, round about the Copacabana tracking shot, or finding the opening credits of Undersiege reaching an end, and with a thrill settle in for guns, cooking and Gary Busey cross dressing (Busey, by the way, featured heavily in my childhood, as the king of the supporting part in dubious 90’s films: Underseige, Point Break, Predator 2). Yes, Undersiege seemed to be on TV almost every weekend when I was 14.

So anyway I present to you my little list of films, which repeatedly came into my life through the medium of television, now something I hardly watch, plagued as it is by mediocrity. When I was younger TV acted as a trusted friend, one who exhibited exciting, reliable films for me time and again. Films that, when I look back on it now, I just had to see. I think I would have grown up a different person without the knowledge that every Friday night I could sit down in the comfort of my own home to be further educated in the violence that one giant shark can do in a weekend, or why you must never say ‘Candyman’ five times in front of a mirror, or why the future of mankind rests upon a lippy teen with a knack for breaking into ATM machines (in my memory Terminator 2: Judgement Day was actually on every week. I will stand by this).

Everyone has their own selection, with films of varying quality, as well as those films on video bought by your parents, but that’s a whole ‘nother recollection entirely! Anyway these are my childhood TV films, in no particular order:

Jaws
Goodfellas
Undersiege
Candyman
Midnight Run (Bit of a cheat, I think I was a little older when this started recurring on TV, but it was, and is, always on.)
Terminator 2: Judgement Day

I was drawn to these films because of their violence, their dramatic dialogue and their phenomenal music (Terminator 2’s mournful industrial clanging is still one of my favourite movie themes). Since those tender years I may have watched subtler and more intriguing films, films which have become my all time favourites no less, but whenever I find one of the above on TV, I still have to sit down and watch it, hypnotised. I may have it on DVD but I still have to watch it, then and there, because it is being broadcast to the public. And even though there are more obscure films I love which are rarely broadcast, it’s still a special moment when Undersiege or Candyman invade my living room. And I’m pretty sure it has to do with me at the age of 14, sitting in the television’s electric glow.

--Jack Wormell is a filmmaker and writer with a degree in Film & TV. You can also read his poetry at http://hitthegroundweird.blogspot.com/

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The Cinema Week.

Yes I love movies and yes I love going to the cinema-- but do I do it enough? No. So over the next week; I'm doing it as much as I can. Yes, I have work to do and things to get done-- but any second not spent doing those will be spent watching films in various places around London. It starts on Monday. So I'll see you all in the front row.

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