Filmmaking Performance Language Techniques

Author: Wu Zhen Guo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: Language skills are the foundation course for film and television acting majors, and also the basic skills for theater actors, program hosts, announcers, and commentators. The revised and reprinted edition of Film and Television Acting Language Skills has made necessary additions and deletions, and will undoubtedly offer readers more practical and engaging content. Performance art aims to portray all aspects of the vast world, so artistic language should also encompass diverse content and forms. The language of characters in film and television works is similar to that of theater dialogue, including dialogue, monologue, and narration. We can generalize it as dialogue. The object of speaking can be a character, the audience, oneself, imaginary deities, or someone represented by the camera. Film acting evolved from theater acting, and theater dialogue is similar to the daobai (narrated speech) in Chinese opera stages. The progress of art, like the development of science, draws inspiration while also differing. Whether it's daobai, dialogue, or the dialogue in film and television works, language, as the fundamental tool of performance, plays a crucial role and presents significant challenges.
Regarding opera daobai, there was once a saying, "A thousand jin of daobai is worth four taels of singing." Among the four core skills of opera (niàn, chàng, zuò, dǎ), niàn (speech) is considered the most difficult to master. The Qing Dynasty dramatist Li Yu once remarked, "In the (theater), out of ten skilled singers, there are usually two or three, but only one or two out of a hundred excel in speaking." This clearly shows that language is a critical challenge that actors must overcome.
As a tool for exchanging human thoughts and emotions, language is indispensable in film and television and theater. Even in the helpless era of silent films, subtitles were used to convey characters' dialogue. In the past, people often referred to watching a play as "listening to a play," highlighting the importance of niàn (speech) and chàng (singing) in theater. Radio dramas, relying solely on language and sound effects, can evoke the audience's emotions of joy, sorrow, anger, and happiness, demonstrating the immense charm and power of language.
We can confidently say that language, like action, is a vital means of shaping characters and embodying their personalities. As an essential element of actor performance, language can even convey more complex and profound, as well as more intense and rich thoughts and emotions than action. Film and television actors must transform the written words of directors and writers into vivid, lifelike language to fulfill their performance duties. Without language, how can one portray a character? Relying solely on action is merely dance or mime, and the content expressed in dance and mime is limited.
Since the advent of feature films, actors' performance areas have expanded to any corner in front of the camera—perhaps mountains or seas, or even the vastness of space. In this sense, film and television dialogue does not allow for a stage-like feel or restriction, requiring actors to speak with a highly natural, lifelike tone, without the slightest exaggeration or artificiality, sometimes even more restrained than in real life. This is the opposite of theater stage requirements, where dialogue must reach the farthest corners of the audience, even requiring special techniques to convey whispers to everyone. Film and television dialogue demands naturalness and spontaneity, yet it is a controlled form of artistic language, not raw naturalism. It is like a lighting technician in a studio striving for the effect of natural light—using many lights without leaving a trace, demanding even higher technical skill.