Director's & Producer's Pet Peeves

Video Transcript

"SCOTT DUPONT: Hi, Scott DuPont, a working actor, producer of the DVD Acting 101: How to be a working actor and on behalf of Expert Village, this is--this little segment here is pet peeves that directors and producers have when you get onset. You really don't want to upset these people especially when they're hiring you and they're paying your pay check. One thing you don't want even the perception that you didn't learn your lines or either not prepared for your character. If you're getting paid a lot of money and even if you're not paid a lot of money if it's an independent project, they're spending a lot of money on lights and cameras or sound and crew. You better know your lines and you better be prepared. Okay. Because, otherwise, you will really peeve the director. Now, another thing you don't want to do is you don't want to be onset and once again, a lot of this is perception. You don't want to the director to have the perception that you're over on a corner when you're scene is not up, you're over there talking and talking and talking to all of these people because they're rolling the sound, when the camera is rolling, the microphones are so sensitive. They will literally, pick up whispering in another room or they will pick up very, very soft talk like this. They -- the microphones are so sensitive and you don't want to be the guy with the director keeps looking over and they think that you're the guy causing problems. Okay. You just gotta understand that. Another thing is you don't want to have the perception of you're the guy that's costing the production money whether you're taking your sweet time moving to another location or moving to another set or whether you're eating too much food. Let me give you an example. They will feed you like kings on any set. I was on a job yesterday, Corporate Gig, happen to be at the Hyatt Orlando. It was a live convention gig that we're doing and I'm not going to mention the guy's name because he's a good friend of mine but we had salmon. We had steak. It's that - we had all kinds of great food. After this guy had two plates of food, he breaks out his big Ziplock baggy and starts putting food in the baggy and I'm like "Oh, my god!" If the producer who's paying for this foods saw this, he would go nuts. So, anyway, don't do that. Anyway, that's enough of my pet peeves. I've -- I just wanted to fill you on in a few and we'll be back for another topic on Expert Village. "