A FILM ACTING CLASS
WITH CHRISTIAN SPIRIT AND MORALITY
By Daniel Rabourdin
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A personal and professional development course through the actor's craft.
« With our production team, we realized the need for an acting course imbued with Catholic ethics and spirituality. »
Daniel Rabourdin, director and acting coach
« What made all the difference, compared to the other courses in acting, was the Catholic faith ingrained in your teaching. I particularly loved when you spoke to us about the prophet’s call by God (note: and the actor’s humility)”
Marine Desjars , Ile de France, a student in acting college.
CLASS OBJECTIVE
At the end of the course, the student is better able to:
· Express himself in public.
· Be hired as an actor.
· Connect with an audience for professional presentation, homilies, or political speech.
· Play his character without being affected by the cameramen, sound engineer, etc.
· Work on the set of a professional film.
ACTING, ETHICS AND FAITH
Personal and spiritual development emerges from the course.
All aspects of the course are in accordance with the Catholic faith and ethic.
A spiritual analysis based on the scriptures and anthropological information from the De Anima of St. Thomas Aquinas are applied to the actor's process.
GAMES AND IMPROVISATION
· Group games take around 30% of the class. They develop spontaneity, receptivity to others' presence, articulation, confidence, authenticity, consciousness of one’s emotions, quick wit, memorization, shedding of shyness, and awareness of social dynamics. They are also fun!
· Improvisations on a given basic story by a group of two.
· Interpretation of a two-minute dialogue for two actors taken from a present-day film.
· Spontaneous monologue.
· A once-a-month character class where each student comes clothed in character and stays in character for 60 minutes.
· At the end of a class cycle, each student’s performance is produced in high-quality film and made available to present for casting interviews.
FAITH SUPPORT
Tthe following Christian values are analyzed.
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The prophets in the Bible:
At the request of God.
Fear and danger in front of the ruler or the people.
The message priority.
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Humility for the message.
Letting the Holy Spirit speak through him.
The Holy Spirit chooses a son of God with his weakness, sensibility, training and life’s experience.
The Pharisee and the faith filled:
True talk and false talk.
Inner life versus appearance.
SCRIPT AND CAMERA
· Group exercises leading to a demonstration video that trainees can present to film castings.
· Film set etiquette. The proper actor’s behavior vis-à-vis the other actors and the crew.
THE CORE METHOD
Film actor training teaches how to work from one's inner dispositions (psychological background, past experiences, aspirations, or fears) to shape one's outer presence.
This in-depth rooting is a sensitive area where a grounding in the true faith and a healthy Christian ethic are vital. This grounding benefits to the next steps of the method.
In film, the successful actor cannot pretend as the eye of the public are a few feet away and can read accurately what the actor feels inside. So, the actor must not work on how he looks. He must live in-depth what his character is supposed to feel, think and want.
Then, for the close eye of the camera (and the viewer), his appearance almost automatically reflects his inner disposition. Only in this way, will an actor's screen presence express with credibility what his character is and his place in the story.
The key to believable acting is to be as natural as possible while speaking a memorized text.
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CHRISTIAN FORMATION IS UNIQUE
Unlike typical acting classes this training is provided by a director and not an actor.
Indeed, Daniel Rabourdin has directed hundreds of actors and has coached around 30 public speakers for TV at EWTN.
This course is therefore taught more from the point of view of what a director and a production need from the actor. Many tips are given to work with the production’s camera, light and sound.
And it is known that during a casting interview, all other factors being equal, it is the actor most able to work in harmony with director and crew that will be preferred.
Never the less, Daniel Rabourdin is also trained in film acting in order to understand the actor's internal process (Debby Gaudet's Screen Actors Studio, LLC in New Orleans.)
REGISTRATION
Maximum student number: 12
Check payable to: HISTORIA, INC
Address: 6309 Paris Ave - New Orleans, LA 70122-
Free for major benefactors and volunteers of the film OATH. 20% discount for groups of two or more.
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Make an appointment for a video interview with the teacher (Daniel Rabourdin) before your payment here: catholicfilmacting@gmail.com .
Phone: ​985 255 1509
Organized by ISTORIA, INC, taught by Franco-American director Daniel Rabourdin, author of The Hidden Rebellion (Silver Medal, Houston International Film Festival) and Oath, a film in production.
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BIOGRAPHY
Originally from Cannes, France, Daniel Rabourdin currently resides in New Orleans, Louisiana.
He was a producer for 18 years at EWTN, the largest religious television in the world located in Alabama.
For 6 years, he has been an independent director.
During his career, Daniel was the coach of about forty televised homilists at EWTN Eternal Word Television Network. He directed over 150 actors and extras in the production of the docufilms St. Joan of Arc, Catherine of Siena and Catholic Reality Television series (Mission Amazon, Pilgrims across France).
Daniel graduated in philosophy from the IPC (Institut de Philosophie Comparée) and the Sorbonne, studied television at the University of Southwestern Louisiana and University of San Francisco, was Scout of Europe, and trained as an actor at the Debby Gaudet's Screen Actors Studio, New Orleans, USA).
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