Course in Acting for Film

The majority of students enroll in the Acting for Film program to launch their careers in film and television. Students get invaluable access to local casting directors as well as opportunities to audition for professional jobs. The founder of the Acting for Film program, Nancy Bishop, is an Emmy-nominated casting director and has cast over 100 projects. Nancy Bishop Casting continues to offer Prague Film School students precious access to castings for international productions coming through Prague – and every year several students earn their first credits in major big-budget films.

Acting for Film Year Program

The Prague Film School Acting for Film Program helps actors recalibrate their performances for the screen and provides students the skills to embark on a successful career in film and television. Students rigorously train in on-camera acting, voice, movement, acting theory, and the business of acting. The program makes use of a variety of techniques ranging from Meisner‘s behavior-based method to technically oriented exercises designed to hone performances for the camera.

Acting for Film

Acting is both an art and a craft. This course will focus on craft, emphasizing the technical demands of screen acting. Students will learn to calibrate their performances specifically for the camera frame, adjusting for close-ups and wide shots. Since the camera photographs are thought, students will develop an active and varying inner monologue and understand the nuances of acting, thinking, and listening with the eyes. A scene study unit will underscore how to break down a scene and play it effectively for the camera.

Voice

The vocal cords are a muscle and must be exercised and strengthened. Students will work with a voice coach to expand vocal range, develop vocal control, and work with developing select accents. The course also includes singing classes and performances.

Applied Acting Theory

Applied Acting Theory will explore acting techniques applicable to both ensemble work and film. Students will start with basic acting exercises and projects, progressively integrating more complex principles. Students will practice approaches to developing a character and analyzing text. Because film is primarily a naturalistic medium, the main emphasis will be grounded in the teachings of Konstantin Stanislavksi and Meisner. Actors will train in the basics of naturalist acting techniques such as pursuing an objective, breaking scenes into beats, playing actions, and overcoming obstacles. Through a rigorous application of Meisner, students will build the foundation for listening and responding truthfully in character.

Improvisation

The skill of improvisation is essential to any actor. For the year, students are trained in the art of listening to impulses and taking risks, as well as building storylines and developing their imagination. This is a high-energy class, which culminates with a live performance at the end of the year.

Audition Techniques

Acting skills are of very little use if they can't be put into practice on a professional set. This course will teach actors how to prepare for auditions in a casting studio and how to make a self-tape. Actors will learn strategies to tackle cold reading and how to make fast choices in an audition. Actors learn by doing, cooperating with local casting directors on recent scripts, and getting personal feedback on their performances.

The Business of Acting

Students will learn specific marketing strategies and confer about how to navigate their careers and attract professional representation. Specifically, actors will learn how to organize a professional CV, choose a winning headshot, organize a successful website, and best take advantage of the internet for actor marketing. They will also learn how to produce and edit a professional reel, a film actor’s most important asset.

Film Production

It is an imperative part of the training process for actors to work on an actual film set. Therefore, each student will be expected to participate in many short films produced by Prague Film School directors. Other legitimate film work that an actor may obtain while in Prague might also be used toward course credit. Students will be encouraged to combine this material with scene work to produce a marketable showreel. This class will also instruct students to use basic editing programs and provide an introduction to screenwriting, namely how to write characters for oneself.

Movement for Stage and Screen

The actor must be physically fit and flexible. Each class day will begin with a strengthening warm-up regime, preparing students for the physical and vocal aspects of the craft. Units in this class will include yoga, dance, physical acting, and stage combat.

Workshops

Throughout the year, students are involved in several workshops that provide further training in various disciplines. These have included such topics as acting for mocap/virtual reality, Shakespeare, and makeup techniques, to name a few.

Guest Lecturers

Every year we bring inspiring professionals from around the globe to offer students insider information about the film industry. Most notable is Nancy Bishop, the founder of PFS Acting for Film Program, and a CSA, Emmy-nominated casting director. She teaches film acting and auditioning techniques several times throughout the year. We also offer a workshop with Francisco Medina, a life coach and acting coach, who teaches internationally and works alongside acting teacher Bernard Hiller from Los Angeles.

Other notable guests include Oscar-nominated actress Rosamund Pike, Oscar-winning screenwriter, director, and actor Taika Waititi, producer Judy Levine, actress Rachel House, film director Bruno Coppola, and Guy Roberts, the artistic director of Prague Shakespeare Company.

The faculty at Prague Film School all work in the film industry in Prague and are constantly in contact with professionals working on international projects. We try to create as many opportunities as possible for students to meet and learn from industry professionals as the possibilities arise.

Acting for film students will also be expected to enroll in one elective offered in the general Prague Film School program. These include Directing Actors, Comedy, Lighting for Film, Writing, acting and shooting, Writing the Feature, Art Direction, and Central and Eastern European Cinema, among others.

Acting for Film Semester Program

The semester program at Prague Film School is the first term of the year program. Those who don’t have the time or other resources to invest in the longer format course can take the semester course as a first and substantial step in training for the screen. The course involves students in a live-and-breath film acting experience, occupying them 8 hours a day in intensive studio work - and up to 7 days a week on set!

Students enrolled in the semester course follow foundation courses in Acting Theory (Meisner and Stanislavsky), Screen Acting, Film Production, Movement (Yoga, Dance, and Stage Combat), Voice and Speech, and Alternative Techniques (Improvisation and Ensemble Strategies). Students also take one elective course offered school-wide.

In addition to daily sessions in front of the camera and weekly scene work, acting for film students will participate in 3 film school student projects – involving them in up to 20 productions during the first four months.

By the end of the semester acting for film school students will have developed deep skills in acting for various shot sizes and in honing a realistic portrayal of characters employing Meisner and other techniques introduced in the fall. They will have mastered many dances and combat moves applicable to historical and contemporary roles. They will have received training in film production itself – in lighting, camera, editing, and sound. Perhaps most importantly, acting for film students will return home with substantial experience on set and with a body of work to prove it!

The semester program is the first semester of the year course. It is possible to enroll in the semester course and then prolong one's studies to the second semester of the year course while studying in the semester program. However, doing so incurs higher fees than enrolling in the year program directly.

The semester curriculum of the Acting for Film program covers the below-listed obligatory courses and optional elective courses.

Foundation Courses (obligatory)

• Meisner
• Stanislavsky
• Screen Acting Craft
• Film Production
• Dance
• Yoga
• Stage Combat
• Voice
• Speech and Dialect
• Improvisation

Elective/Specialization Courses (each student takes 1 course) – 2 credits total

• Aesthetics of the Film Shot as a Component of Film Language
• Acting Styles
• Advanced Cameras
• Central and East European Cinema
• Directing Actors
• Directing the Camera
• Documentary Theory and History
• Film Industry
• Film Comedy
• Film Analysis
• Lighting
• Photography for Cinematography
• Post-production effects
• Post-production workflow
• Visualization
• Write, Act, Shoot

Student Films (obligatory)

Acting for Film students will integrated into three school-wide film projects first semester: a three-minute scene from an established film; a 4 minute short and a five-minute end-of-semester film. Acting for film students may be requested to act in many student productions for each of these projects.

Acting for Film Summer Workshops

This intensive four-week screen acting course is designed to immerse students fully into the film acting process from beginning to end. Students work the first 2 weeks on camera in the classroom, exploring scenes, auditions, introductions, interviews, and improvisation. Each day includes a movement class (dance or stage combat), group exercises, and acting theory, as well as several hours of individual on-camera work. Students learn to craft performances for various frame sizes, as well as to develop skills to create characters and respond to other actors.

Week 1

• 9:00-10:00 - (Monday-Friday) - Dance / Combat
• 10:15 - 13:00 - (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) - Improvisation
• 10:15 - 13:00 - (Tuesday and Thursday) - Voice and Body
• 14:00 - 18:00 - (Monday - Friday) - Film Acting: scene work in front of the camera

Week 2

• 9:00-10:00 - (Monday-Thursday) - Dance / Combat
• 10:15 - 13:00 - (Monday and Wednesday) - Improvisation
• 10:15 - 13:00 - (Tuesday and Thursday) - Voice and Body
• 14:00 - 18:00 - (Monday - Thursday) - Film Acting: scene work in front of the camera

Week 3

Production

Week 4

• 9:00-10:00 - (Monday-Thursday) - Dance / Combat
• 10:15 - 13:00 - (Monday - Thursday) - Improvisation /Character Creation
• 14:15 - 18:00 - Audition Techniques / Marketing Seminar / How to generate work for yourself / Visit local casting directors.

What makes the PFS Acting for Film Program so special?

Focus on Film Acting

While acting courses can be found virtually everywhere, very few offer a live-and-breathe total immersion experience aimed at re-calibrating one‘s performance for the screen. Film acting requires a different set of skills than theater acting – and Prague Film School guarantees the acquisition of these skills.

Production-Work Heavy

More than 400 films are shot per year at Prague Film School and actors in the year program participate in as many as 30 productions. Acting for Film students then learn the specific skills that make up the craft of film acting but also leave the program with substantial material for a quality showreel. Actors are also trained in production – writing, operating the camera, and editing.

Praxis-oriented

Students are placed in front of the camera from day one of the course and receive rigorous training in class and on set. Monologue and scene work daily develop students' ability to hone their performances for the camera – both habituating students to the specifics related to acting for various shot sizes and blocking arrangements but also developing their skills to be able to deliver believable and compelling performances.

Intensive

The type of student who chooses Prague Film School comes to us because he or she has essentially only one year in terms of time or financial resources to cross from where he or she is in life at the moment into the world of professional filmmaking. We then have only one year to bring these students to a level of competence where they can operate professionally. As such the program is highly squeezed.

Prague and access to roles in big-budget Hollywood productions

Not only is Prague a beautiful historic location with an active student life, but hundreds of international productions have been shot in the city including Bourne Identity, Casino Royale, Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Carnival Row, and Jojo Rabbit, to name a few. Prague Film School provides access to the top local casting agencies and directors and several students from the Prague Film School Acting for Film program annually land roles in big-budget productions coming to town.

International

Students in the course come from all over the world. This both enriches the course with a diverse palette of acting traditions and also provides students with an invaluable network of international contacts to access upon graduating.