Aaron Marcus reflects on his time on NBC's Do No Harm and offers actors one key lesson: expect last-minute changes and accept that editing will cut or alter your performance. It's not personal. Focus on the work.
Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and here is your weekly video blog. The most important thing to keep in mind when working on a TV show— that's what I'm going to be talking about here. And I just had an opportunity to experience this. I worked on an NBC show called Do No Harm that aired last night, so I was able to see the episode that I was in. And Here's what I have to say. The most important aspect of being on a show is be prepared for anything. You know, it's all about the work. You never know how things are going to be edited. When you're on the set, you have no idea what kind of changes are going to be made. For this particular show, I had some lines added. I had some lines changed at the last minute. And when I watched the show last night, I had a couple of different scenes. One of the actors that I worked with was Phylicia Rashad, who was the mom on The Cosby Show, and she was great. And what I noticed was they edited things down. They cut out some of the lines. And basically what you have to understand is They have to condense things, whether it's a 30-minute show or a 60-minute show, to make sure it fits. And so changes take place. And you might be watching one of your performances and you think, well, why didn't they keep that? Or, gosh, they cut out that scene. I mean, there are people who get cut out completely out of scenes, whether it's film or TV. That's just the way things work. And You know, it's easy to feel really disappointed about either having things completely cut out or having some of your work edited out. But the fact of the matter is, I think what is really helpful is focus on the work itself while you're doing it. What happens afterwards, it's out of your control. There's nothing you can do. And what's also really important to understand is that it's not a personal thing. Oh, they didn't like your performance, that's why they cut you out. Look, you didn't get the job on luck. You got the job because you auditioned for it. And in almost every case when I've worked on a feature film or a television show, there were callbacks too. So they saw the performances twice, they saw that I could take direction, you know, they liked what I did. And how they edit it It's nothing personal. It's just business. It's making sure that things fit into a certain time slot, and they always have to overshoot. It's always easier for them to edit things out than to not have shot something and then think, uh-oh, we've got time to kill here. What are we going to do? So anyhow, I just wanted to share that with you. And so if you are ever in a, you know, if you're fortunate enough to be in a situation where you've had things edited out of a film, whether it's an independent film, a feature film, or a television show. It's nothing personal. Just enjoy the process and the work itself, and what happens afterwards is completely out of your control. If you have any questions at all, always feel free to go to my facebook.com/howtomodel page. Please like the page so that way as I update information there, you will automatically have it sent to you. And if it's more of a personal question, just shoot me an email, aaron@howtomodel.com. I'm continuing to build up this great community of people helping each other in the industry, and so please share this information with others, share my Facebook page with others, share this video blog with others as well. So, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I look forward to talking with you again next week.
