About Arlene Schulman Expertise I have been a stage director, actor and acting coach for over twenty-four years and am happy to share my expertise in actor/director training; education options; when to join Equity; what a career in theatre means - what are the financial, personal and creative benefits, and what are the downsides.
Experience I have been a director, actor and coach (acting and directing) in the NYC/NJ area for over twenty-four years. I have worked with both amateurs and professionals and have friends and colleagues in all areas of the theatre industry.
Organizations Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers - associate member
Shakespeare Association of America The Shakespeare Institute - MA candidate "Shakespeare & Theatre"
Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of America - associate member
Question Hi Arlene. I'm not sure if are able to answer this question but I was very impressed with your previous answer concerning comedic timing (and what it is) that I really want your insight on this.
In a few select movies (Original Sin, Basic Instinct, The Lover, 9 1/2 Weeks), the sex scenes look very real. Could it be possible that they look real because the actors are having sex for real? I would imagine that pretend sex would be difficult to make it look convincing.
For the record, Arlene, I'm not an actor myself...I'm a movie watcher who tends to watch movies from a critical standpoint and wonder 'how do they do that?'
Thanks in advance for your expertise. If you cant really answer this question, simply let me know too.
Answer Hi d,
I know how real those love scenes look, but you can be sure that, even if the actors were actually in love and sexual partners, it would be practically impossible to make love in the context of the filming of a movie.
When you see a love scene in a movie, you see two actors seemingly alone in a room (or wherever), perhaps in a darkened, romantic atmosphere, mood music playing in the background... However, film is an illusion and the actual filming conditions are much different from what you see. What is actually there is a VERY well lit room (lighting for filming is very intense, even when it simulates a darkened room), filled with lots of people (even when it's a "closed set" as is often the case with love/sex scenes). The two actors may be completely nude, but often only as much as is necessary to the reality of the scene as filmed (if they are in bed and covered, they may very well be clothed from the waist down). There is the director, the cinematographer and/or camera operator (maybe more than one, depending on the number of cameras being used to film the scene), the lighting technicians, assistant directors, stage hands. In a closed set, some of these may be absent, but there are still a number of observers to the scene. And those observers are not at a distance as would be the case of actors on a stage in a theatre with the audience out front. In filming the camera may be only a few feet or less from the actors - as little as a few inches for close ups. Not exactly optimum conditions for making love (or even "just" having sex).
And then there are the multiple takes... In filming a movie each scene is filmed a number of times, depending on how close the camera needs to be, how much the director wants to show in each part of the scene, and what angle the camera needs to be shooting from. Think about the movie scenes you refered to. In each scene there are long shots that show the whole room or perhaps the bed from a distance or from above; then there are what are called "two-shots" which show both actors from enough of a distance to be able to see both of their faces and upper bodies at the same time; then there are close-ups of each of the actors as they say their own lines, and as they react to the action of the scene and to the other person's lines. Well, each of those shots usually has to be done separately in order to make best use of the cameras and to prevent one camera from being in another camera's line of sight. So each scene is shot over and over and over and over, so that each of the necessary shots and camera angles can be filmed for editing later into one continuous scene which appears to have been shot continuously in one take. There are some special cases in a particularly intense scene when they may be done in a single take using, for example, a hand-held camera, but those are the exception rather than the rule. In most cases each scene is shot and reshot in short segments of from as little as a few seconds to many minutes. The same scene may be shot dozens of times.
Can you imagine trying to make love, stopping, starting, doing it over again, and again? And then going back to specific moments in the scene and reshooting just those few moments, with the same passion and intensity (not to mention in the same positions) as the first time so they can get the close-ups? It's simply not possible.
And you're right. It IS difficult to make it look convincing. Acting is not anywhere as easy as it looks on the screen. It takes talent and lots and lots of training to make what is essentially an illusion look real to the audience. Actors learn how to access their own emotions, to connect with each other each time they do the scene, to understand their characters, to make the best use of the cameras and lighting, to MAKE it LOOK real when it's not. That's really hard, and it's why so many bad movies look bad and fake. It's only the best that can do it with the skill to make you ask the question you did! :-)
Hope that helps... If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them for you.
