Here’s a quick tip I employ for remembering blocking during marking rehearsal.

Backstory

I coach long-form improv.  In long-form improv, actors solicit audience suggestions.  Then they use those audience suggestions later in their improvisations.

The trouble some actors have is that they forget the audience suggestions later in their improv.  It’s interesting to me that this is less likely to happen if the actors repeat the audience suggestions outloud after hearing them.

How I explain it, repeating an audience suggestion “gets the suggestion more in-the-nervous-system” than simply hearing it does.  Essentially, in repeating the audience suggestion, the actor uses more of her body and has a larger sensory experience of the audience suggestion than if she simply heard the suggestion.  As a result of having a larger sensory experience, she has a better likelihood of remembering the audience suggestion because the experience of the audience suggestion is more vivid.

Self-Narration

Relating this lesson to standing in, I sometimes narrate to myself what I’m seeing going on with my first-team actor as I’m watching a marking rehearsal.  That way the experience of the marking rehearsal becomes more vivid to me than simply a visual experience or an aural experience.  Also, self-narrating helps me remember the timing of blocking in a scene better than my quick notes on blocking jotted on my sides might help me.

Self-narration might go something like this (below).  Of course, I’m not saying this so that anyone can hear me.  I’m just actively phrasing what I’m seeing rather than simply observing or jotting down observations.

He knocks.  He comes in.  He closes the door with his right hand, takes a step in.  She counters.  He then takes another step in.  After she’s done talking, he crosses to the gurney end and turns slightly to her.  He says his line about being a loser.  She leaves and he takes step toward her.  He bends down with feet slightly apart and picks up the magazine card with his left hand.  Stands.  Looks at it, then at the door.  He exits.

The implication here is that there is so much activity in the scene in a short amount of time that it would be very hard to jot it down on my sides in a way helpful for me.  Self-narration helps me to remember a bit better what I saw.

Using Self-Narration

After the marking rehearsal, I might then jot down in more detail what I saw in order to better crystalize my memory of the scene.  It usually is easier for me to remember things like what hand an actor used when I self-narrated a marking rehearsal.

Give it a try!  Read the passage outloud and then ask yourself some questions about the blocking.  You might find that you remembered it better than when you simply read the passage!

Have you given self-narration a try?  If so, share your results below!

Where to Study Your Principal Actor

When you are studying your principal actor, you will want to avoid being in the actor’s eyeline when the actor is rehearsing or doing takes. This typically means that in order to notice changes in the blocking, you will need to watch your actor from monitors behind the scenes.

Any given set will have a number of monitors available to the crew. There may be dedicated monitors for the DP, for the director and script supervisor, and for the rest of the crew like hair, makeup, and wardrobe. The sound department will typically have their own monitor(s) on the sound cart as well.

While the situation may vary from set to set, usually it is best for stand-ins to watch takes from the monitors used by either hair, makeup, wardrobe, et al., or the sound department. If this is not very practical, you might watch from the director’s or the DP’s monitors, but you would usually do this from afar where you can’t obstruct the view or interfere with their work.

Ben’s Tip #1!
Given the importance of everyone’s job, as a stand-in you want to be mindful of others’ views of the monitors when you are watching. If you stand with your chest facing the monitors, your full body may be blocking the view of another crew member behind you. When the monitors are crowded, if you stand with your body sideways to the monitors and watch the monitors from over your shoulder, you make it easier for more eyes to view the monitor.

When you are doing background work at the same time as standing in, it may be physically and practically impossible to watch your actor’s blocking, in which case there’s not really much you can do; the camera department may clue you in to changes when you return to standing in. In the rare event a crew member gives you a hard time about not knowing changes in the blocking, quickly and politely explain you were working background in the scene and couldn’t watch the takes. If it helps alleviate any problem, also inform an AD or the background PA of the conflict of interest in doing stand-in work in the scene in case the directing department wants to swap you out of background to let you watch your actor’s blocking.

What to Watch For During Takes

As you are watching the monitors, you will want to watch what actually happens onscreen. While blocking may stay essentially the same from take to take, often enough little changes in the blocking crop up that may be meaningful to the camera department. Of course, significant changes in blocking can also occur. A few examples of changes include:

• The actor may add a movement during a take that was not marked in marking rehearsal.
• The actor may add a look or body position that was not rehearsed.
• The actor may sequentially handle particular props, or even handle props in new sequences from take to take.
• The actor may add texture to the performance by cumulatively adding blocking details from one take to the next.
• The actor may adjust timing and blocking off of the lines and blocking of other actors in the scene.
• Whole chunks of blocking may be added or omitted after the marking rehearsal or the second-team rehearsal.
• Etc.

When you are asked to step back in to stand in, having knowledge of these changes will keep you up to speed with the camera crew and DP, since they will already be intimately involved with these changes from the takes they’ve just seen and filmed.

Ben’s Tip #2!
As you are watching the monitors, it may aid you as you watch each take to go over the blocking as it unfolds during a take. Sometimes I will softly pantomime during the take the actor’s specific blocking so that I can develop my muscle memory of the blocking. Other times I will play prediction games with myself, telling myself a “play by play” of what blocking the actor will do next. (“He’s going to close the door, sit down, pick up the phone, dial a number, …”) Both of these silent methods help me to develop my expertise over the principal actor’s blocking.

The Monitors Don’t Tell All

When you’re watching from the monitors, you can’t see everything that actually happened during the shot. From the monitors, you may have trouble distinguishing actual marks the actor lands on, depths the actor travels, or changes in the actor’s eyeline. Blocking may have shifted or morphed but you might not have noticed it.

Try your best to come with the knowledge of what you saw on the monitors when you step back in as second team. However, don’t hesitate to ask a blocking question or two if something was unclear to you from the monitors. While you are the expert on your actor’s blocking, you aren’t omniscient. The camera operator may politely clue you in to changes you didn’t catch. Your relationship with the camera department will probably be better if you regularly demonstrate that you keep pace with the actor’s changes in blocking without their having to tell you every change.

So You’ve Seen Enough?

While technically it is important to watch every take your principal actor does to note changes in blocking, as you do more coverage and angles on the same scene, blocking tends to change less and less. This may mean you come to a point at which you’ve basically got the scene down pat. In such a case, you probably can relax … keeping in mind you could be called back to set at any moment and asked what the actor did blockingwise in the scene.

Even the shortest scene with a cross or two can amount to a number of blocking notes you may need to take.  To give you a sense of the number of things you may have to recall from a marking rehearsal, below is a list of some of the things I’m watching.  You aren’t just watching the blocking from point to point; there are a number of other things you’re watching, too!

• Number One: Watch where your actor walks.  A camera assistant will place marks, but it’s important for you to note what path your actor took to get to those marks.
• Watch where your actor stands relative to the other actors.  Again, marks may determine this orientation, but when your actor is walking, those positions may be less obvious.  Was your actor following the other actor? leading?  Were the actors staggered or walking in a straight line?
• Listen for the timing of the blocking with the lines.  That is, know on what lines your actor enters, moves, gestures, leaves, etc.  This can be especially important if you’re on a set that has you do the lines.
• Note what hand your actor uses for handling props, opening and closing doors, etc.  I write in my notes “rh” or “lh” to designate whether to hold a prop in my right hand or left hand.  And don’t forget: Sometimes props can change hands!
• Similarly, note which doors your actor uses when entering and exiting.  Sometimes your actor is walking through double doors and favors one door over another.
• Note the speed your actor does the blocking.  Relative speed may be more important than actual speed.  That is, it may be more important to know that your actor walked faster than the other actor in the scene, as opposed to knowing the actual speed your actor walked.
• Watch your actor’s posture.  Your actor may sit slouched or posture-perfect, with leg crossed or arms folded.  Note these things.  If you’re lying in for an actor in a bed, it may be helpful to note where your actor’s head hits the pillow so that you can best match the actor’s actual position.
• Similarly, note your actor’s height.  Sometimes the camera department will want to know how close in height you are to your actor.    (I often try to figure out my actor’s height before marking rehearsal.  Sometimes I ask other stand-ins for what they can tell about any height differences.) 
• Watch how high, low, wide, etc., your actor gestures.  Sometimes these things will be important.
• When your actor hugs another actor, pay attention to where your actor’s head goes.  Does it go to the right or to the left of the other actor’s head?

Sometimes I’ll pay attention to color cover, noting what buttons may be buttoned or unbuttoned on a piece of clothing.  I also might make note of when my actor drinks, how he pours a drink, and other tiny business.  Usually I refine my understanding of these tinier details after the setup is complete and my actor is in first-team rehearsal.

In takes, blocking often changes and evolves, so I watch the monitors and take notes as to what is now going on so that when I step back on set, the other crew don’t have to tell me what is new or different.

Lots of things to watch!  Is there anything you watch in marking rehearsal as a stand-in?  How do you take it all in?  Feel free to share in the comments below.