Micro Features - Performance

STAR:

In the silent era, both male and female stars were archetypal and easily readable.

With the introduction of sound, male stars became more complex and their roles diversified, often in a way that the male star was the site around which a genre was defined (i.e. Clint Eastwood for Spaghetti Westerns).

Stars are constructed by the film industry but stars have role in how their status is perceived. 

Stars reach the spectator principally through their appearance and bodies.

The star consists of three component parts:

• The real person 

•  The 'reel' person 

•  The star's persona

The star-image has four parts: 

•  What the industry puts out 

•  What the media says (including critics) 

•  What the star says or does

•  What we say                                  

Stars could be considered as: 

a deviant - controlled by the studio
a cultural value/sign/fetish - shifting signifiers; a mediator between the real and imaginary world
as an object of star-gazing - oftern objectification; spectator's view on the star is often mediated through the diegetic audience

Method Acting:

Examples include:

Robert de Niro
Christian Bale
Daniel Day Lewis

In which the actor lives as the character - they are permanently in-character - means they can confidently improvise performances

Casting:

Stars sell films; they can also help secure financial backing to get a project off the ground.
Films are also vehicles for stars, allowing them to demonstrate their skills.

Stars might be associated with, and help fashion the nature of, a particular genre.
Sometimes actors might disassociate themselves from specific genres.

Stars can help develop a director's status as an auteur.

Non-verbal communication:

Can be as important as verbal communication
Often used in conjunction with other micro features to generate meaning
Links with films of the silent era and some cinema from the far-east
This prevents exposition and places the production of meaning to the spectator

Vocal performance:

See actors such as Al Pacino, Marlon Brando and Christopher Walken.

Interaction between actors:

Dynamic and chemistry between actors is reliant several factors such as bringing together actors considered to be the finest of their generation - it could also be to do with sexual chemistry.