Jon Shear Creative

Music Tech Café

This on-camera TAKE ACTION workshop explores how actors & filmmakers can best collaborate to create Everyone participates in all sessions.

The collaboration between film directors, actors, & screenwriters is the art of give & take, with members improving their individual skills by learning to work more effectively with others. Sessions take place once a week through the fall, with members committing on a month-to-month basis. Each scene is rehearsed, then shot with an aim of capturing it at peak performance. A technical challenge wil

l often be added, to mirror on-set issues. The resulting footage will be edited for further examination. Performance is the key to a successful film, yet directors often go years without working with actors, waiting until their next film gets a green light. Weekly sessions with a wide range of actors enable them to speak most any actor's language. This proves invaluable in quickly establishing a strong connection during initial meetings, rehearsals, and on set. During each session, Jon will offer input and lead group discussions on practical topics, such as what actors can do when they disagree with a director's note or how a director can help keep a performance fresh over time. Members learn that the key to a constructive collaboration is understanding what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes - whether that's the character in the script or the person on the other side of the camera. Actors, writers, and DPs get a chance to direct. Directors, writers, & DPs act. Theater actors and directors learn how stage experience can be an effective basis for working intimately and expressively with a camera. Documentarians and DPs see how their ability to frame an event can help them communicate the central meaning of a scene to an actor. For actors, TAKE ACTION has all the benefits of an on-camera scene study class, with significant bonuses. They'll collaborate with a wide range of directors, writers, and DPs, many of whom are gearing up to make a film. They'll also learn to take greater control of the process, with many members expanding into producing, directing, &/or writing their own projects. Writer-directors often use the workshop to develop new material. The weekly session can serve as a constructive deadline for finishing a new scene or sequence. And the actors are assembled with an eye towards balancing s*x, age, and character, forming a loose ensemble ready for most any material. Members are typically highly accomplished, which helps everyone up their game. Participating directors have made theatrically released features, been nominated for DGA awards for episodics, made shorts awarded at Cannes, shot commercials, and helmed their own webseries. They've also directed plays Off-Broadway and other stages throughout the country. Participating actors have been nominated for SAG Awards and recently appeared in studio, independent, student films, and on&off Broadway. They're regulars or recur on celebrated TV shows on broadcast networks, HBO, Showtime, AMC, USA, and Sundance. One of Take Action's best by-products is the formation of sturdy bonds beyond the workshop. For example, a director and actor who started collaborating in class are about to shoot a feature together. And members form a supportive community, attending screenings and stage performances of each others' latest work. The workshop meets once a week in two separate sections, either Tuesday night or Saturday afternoon. The fee is $240 per month of 4 sessions. Periodically, there will be room for guest members, at a pro-rated fee. If you get acting or directing work, you'll get credit for any missed sessions so long as there's 72 hour notice or you replace yourself, on approval. In all other instances, once you commit to a session, you are responsible for payment even if you don't appear, though all efforts will be made to replace you instead, let you replace yourself, or find room for you in the week's other session. If you'd like to express interest or ask questions, e [email protected]. Participation is by invitation, so please be prepared to send links to filmed material &/or schedule a phone meeting.

10/15/2023

Current workshops:
TAKE ACTION for working actors and filmmakers. We meet in 2 separate weekly sections on Tuesday and Saturday afternoons, 12:30-6 in NYC. Each scene takes approx 90 minutes to rehearse and shoot. You're welcome for as much of the duration as you wish.

02/17/2020

My talented MFA student, Kosaku Horiwaki, is casting a lead role in his imminent short, to be shot 3/13-3/16 and one or two days in April.

ROLE: KARMA STANTON.
Early 30's, a graduate film student. Mysterious, dressed in black. A le***an and modern noir shaman who seduces and heals displaced minds.

The film will be operating under the SAG student film agreement with deferred compensation, a copy of the finished film and a travel stipend up to $20/day for principal photography.

Intimate Scenes.
The script features passionate kissing and mild touch over clothes. The production will have an Intimacy Coach on the set so that personal safety and boundaries are maintained.

Let me know if you're interested at [email protected] and I'll forward to Kosaku.

02/14/2020

This is how you don’t need to do coverage.

PARASITE - Storyboard to Film Director B**g Joon Ho storyboards the entire film before he rolls the camera. He does not shoot master shots or any coverage. He shoots his storyboards. Here...

10/05/2019

3 cancellations just came for this afternoon's WORDS TO FEEL IT script analysis class, 5-6, at 890 Broadway, 5th fl. Studio 6. $12. Let me know if you'd like to join us.

La fierecilla domada - (The Taming of The Shrew) 1981 (Raul Julia/ Meryl Streep)

09/08/2019

My parents had good taste in theater. Not particularly high-brow. We didn't go to museums, the opera, or the ballet. But they were middle class Jews who grew up going on dates to the theater. They took my brother and me as soon as we were old enough to stay awake through a show.

I remember complaining on the way to the first Shakespeare they took us to, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, that it was going to be boring. It was hysterical. So I was excited about this second one, TAMING OF THE SHREW in Central Park. One thing I like about this clip is it's as soft focus as my memories. But the pair prove they really were as good as I thought. And the tickling is terrific.

And it shows what we discuss much in the workshop: how the actor's use of "private space" invites us into the character's thoughts, sometimes contradicting the outward action and attitude. It helps us see a scene, or section of it, from their POV.

Watch Streep here. She's the only one of the pair who focuses often on space away from her scene partner. The staging, having her sit in front of him, gives her more opportunity to do this. But Streep always finds a way to usher us into her character's sharp-edged world and make the scene hers.

La fierecilla domada - (The Taming of The Shrew) 1981 (Raul Julia/ Meryl Streep) Teatro - theatre - Shakespeare New York 1981

Universal Opens Submissions For 2020 Writers Program

09/05/2019

Writers, Universal will read you now!

Universal Opens Submissions For 2020 Writers Program Universal has opened applications for the studio’s Writers Program, a new initiative that seeks to identify up-and-coming screenwriters with unique points of view. The paid program lasts one …

07/26/2019

2 MFA film students of mine are teaming up for a thesis project made under the SAG student film contract ($125/day). The dates are most likely 10/9-10/13. If interested, contact me through www.jonshearcreative.com and I'll forward your info.

BELLA
a happily married photographer and marine biologist; she is obsessed with micro organisms and photographs their abstract forms to admire them in blown-up fashion; she loves the sea and is a total fish in the water, but possesses a sort of unrest while on land; Bella and her husband Noah share a special freedom between them that deepens their love; the weekend at the beach where this short will take place, puts that to the test; actor must be comfortable swimming in 5t water and around water/fish; bonus if scuba diving experience (although not required).

CELESTE
a local Long Islander, and grew up way out in the North Fork with fisherman parents; she watches over Bay Avenue during the off season when everyone's summer houses are empty and loves the quiet, empty streets; perfect for long walks with her foxhound. Chato; it is a peaceful life, full of sea salt and farmers market vegetables; she has time to herself to work through whatever is in her head, but although she's a bit of a lone wolf, Bella and Noah's (her summer neighbors) return to town always fills her with anticipation; this summer they find themselves getting closer than ever before - with sudden interest from Bella. Celeste finds herself in the middle of something - of what, she is not yet sure; must be comfortable with seafood, knee deep ocean scenes, and sensual play with cast. 25+

NOAH
has a lot going on under the surface. Engineer by trade, Noah is interested in all things tinkering; he is a natural explorer, safe in the depths of the sea with his scuba gear, carefully calculating how much time he has under water; this summer proves to be unlike the others - when the pretty neighbor seems to have a powerful effect on his wife; Noah is a gentle man, with a deep routed confidence that everything will work itself out; he is not interested in interfering with the patterns of nature, but more so, understanding how they work; he possess a smart, reserved humor, which he will need to survive the growing flame between his wife and their next door neighbor, Celeste; must be comfortable swimming; scuba experience a plus. 30+.

jonshearcreative TAKE ACTION is a creative gym, in which working filmmakers and actors meet weekly to expand their on-camera skill set, try out new material, and explore ways to collaborate more effectively - all in a nurturing, fertile environment. We're in Los Angeles for the summer on Wednesdays, 5:30pm-10:30...

07/15/2019

2 MFA film students of mine are teaming up for a thesis project made under the SAG student film contract ($125/day). The roles and dates are listed below. If interested, let me know. If we haven't corresponded, contact me at www.jonshearcreative.com.

07/15/2019

One of my MFA film directors is looking for a leading man for her new short, under the SAG student film contract. $125/day. Dates are August 4th and 5th.

The role is a masculine but insecure guy who has a history of obsession, possessiveness and jealousy in his romantic relationships. He is deeply sensitive but knows only how to make love or make war. He is verbally abusive and rageful with his GIRLFRIEND, followed by bouts of extreme penitence. His version of an apology is to shower her with attention and affection, and use charm/seduction/distraction to make her forget.

LOG LINE
A couple with a problem go on a date in Coney Island. If we haven't corresponded, e me through my contact page at www.jonshearcreative.com and I'll forward.

‘Escape at Dannemora’ Editors on What Makes Great On-Camera Acting

06/22/2019

"When I’m looking at a performance, all I’m trying to do is find the most authentic, engaging, surprising take. That can be a moment of silence or an extrapolation that goes off-script."

(Thanks to Carolyn Mignini, who's wonderful on the show, for recommending the article)

‘Escape at Dannemora’ Editors on What Makes Great On-Camera Acting What you give them, they will give back to you.

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Los Angeles

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Telephone

+13238392079

Website

http://www.jonshearcreative.com/

Address

Los Angeles, CA

Opening Hours

Tuesday	6pm - 10pm
Saturday	12:30pm - 4:30pm