Notes For Actors

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Notes For Actors
COLOUR

COLOUR

SHADES OF MEANING

Miranda Harcourt's avatar
Miranda Harcourt
Jan 28, 2022
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Notes For Actors
COLOUR
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I have worked many times with brilliant Australian director Garth Davis who often talks about colour in performance. Colour to Garth means emotion, the shape of a scene, the shift of the journey through an exchange. His training was at Art School, not Film School. He often uses art exercises and provocations in his rehearsals — and will talk to actors about the colours he perceives in their performances. This does not just mean red for angry and blue for miserable. He means all the different shades of blue and the way each can make you feel differently:

Periwinkle, Ultramarine, Egyptian, Neon, Picotee, Midnight, Klein, Blurple, Baby, Powder, Celtic, Delft, Duck-egg, Sapphire, Teal...

Our response to colour is where the phrase “shades of meaning” comes from.

REHEARSAL

Often I find a lot of rehearsal techniques are all in the head and intellectual and I just don't enjoy that. I want to try and find ways to loosen up, find a more profound way of making a connection with their characters.

— Ga…

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