It's common belief that stage acting is more complex than acting on-screen which makes stage actors to be regarded as more talented than their on-screen counterparts, which is not true.

They both have their technicalities and complexities. As for stage acting, the actors must have good grasp of their lines, good voice projection, a little bit of over dramatization to get the attention of the audience and must have perfected their roles to near perfection because there is no second take on stage!

As for on-screen, actors are not saddled with the responsibility of having very good grasp of their lines without a second take and improvisation is allowed with the permission of the director. But overdramatization is not needed on-screen. Actors should give real actions and not 'overact' or should say their lines as real dialogue and not as 'shakespearean lines'. Also, most scenes in movies (particularly hollywood movies) are not shot sequentially as arranged in the final cut. This could be due to availability of funds or some particular places to be used as location. So, the on-screen actor is saddled with the responsibility of getting into his/her character at that moment of the plot, without necessarily comprehending what fully led to such emotional state while the stage actor flows with the story as it is presented on stage.

For example, in the movie 'The Departed', the opening scene at the Police Academy was the scene shot last as at production.

There may also be other technicalities I'm not aware of; nairalanders should pls contribute.

I do also believe that stage acting is more complex than acting for the screen for the very reasons you mentioned. A relevant question could be "Why is 'Nollywood' screen acting generally terrible?"
Our society, culture, traditions, way of life, mentality and so on probably contribute to why 'screen' acting is so hard for us. We are naturally extra loud, extra brash, perform extra gesticulations and 'extra' in everything we do which is what makes us very natural 'stage' actors - we Nigerians all do this in our daily lives; we are such 'attention' seekers and as it is 'normal' for us we transfer this 'normal' behaviour to the screen and that is where it fails.

Stage actors are simply loud and extra everything in order to carry the message all the way to people sitting right at the back that can't see them up-close (the general gist of it, there are other reasons). With the screen none of this is needed as a flutter of an eyelid is seen, the trembling of a lip is seen, a wry smile, a squint of the eyes... these minute movements are exaggerated by the lens... so the trick becomes how to 'tone down' these things so they do not look exaggerated but natural for the medium.

How many of our actors, directors, producers all say they studied 'Theatre' at one uni or another? That could be one of the problems... remember we are also very much the "I cannot be told" people. Where are places that strictly teach 'acting for the screen'? Both types of acting are difficult and IMHO both types of these actors, especially in Nigeria, need to be trained. With us, when it comes to the screen, it is not enough to say one is a 'natural' as our 'natural' is already soaked in our 'staged' (pun intended) way of life. Pick anyone off the street and put them in front of a camera and immediately the 'extra' comes out; mostly starting with an over acting of the dialogue that turns into a sing-along-song in a weird accent. It goes downhill from there and those that need to carry the blame are the directors & producers...

Kpa, kpa, kpa productions can never be all-round good. I've been on sets where actors were learning there lines then and there - so no rehearsals to iron out these problems. Can we make movies in which EVERY single role is good & convincing? Yes... but producers need to make sure that there is way more time for pre-production & rehearsals. Good thread Sholay, hopefully it becomes an interesting debate with varied views.

PS - By the way stage production performances in Nigeria blow Broadway out of the water. We are simply amazing!!

Simply put I would say on screen acting is acting as though you do not know you are being filmed.In stage acting all actions have to be increased.Most Nollywood actors act like stage actors...they over do!...always over reacting!

VillageBoi: I do also believe that stage acting is more complex than acting for the screen for the very reasons you mentioned. A relevant question could be "Why is 'Nollywood' screen acting generally terrible?"
Our society, culture, traditions, way of life, mentality and so on probably contribute to why 'screen' acting is so hard for us. We are naturally extra loud, extra brash, perform extra gesticulations and 'extra' in everything we do which is what makes us very natural 'stage' actors - we Nigerians all do this in our daily lives; we are such 'attention' seekers and as it is 'normal' for us we transfer this 'normal' behaviour to the screen and that is where it fails.

Stage actors are simply loud and extra everything in order to carry the message all the way to people sitting right at the back that can't see them up-close (the general gist of it, there are other reasons). With the screen none of this is needed as a flutter of an eyelid is seen, the trembling of a lip is seen, a wry smile, a squint of the eyes... these minute movements are exaggerated by the lens... so the trick becomes how to 'tone down' these things so they do not look exaggerated but natural for the medium.

How many of our actors, directors, producers all say they studied 'Theatre' at one uni or another? That could be one of the problems... remember we are also very much the "I cannot be told" people. Where are places that strictly teach 'acting for the screen'? Both types of acting are difficult and IMHO both types of these actors, especially in Nigeria, need to be trained. With us, when it comes to the screen, it is not enough to say one is a 'natural' as our 'natural' is already soaked in our 'staged' (pun intended) way of life. Pick anyone off the street and put them in front of a camera and immediately the 'extra' comes out; mostly starting with an over acting of the dialogue that turns into a sing-along-song in a weird accent. It goes downhill from there and those that need to carry the blame are the directors & producers...

Kpa, kpa, kpa productions can never be all-round good. I've been on sets where actors were learning there lines then and there - so no rehearsals to iron out these problems. Can we make movies in which EVERY single role is good & convincing? Yes... but producers need to make sure that there is way more time for pre-production & rehearsals. Good thread Sholay, hopefully it becomes an interesting debate with varied views.

PS - By the way stage production performances in Nigeria blow Broadway out of the water. We are simply amazing!!

Lol. God bless you for your contribution. I agree wiv u. I hope I'm nt guilty of the 'extra' or "overacting' sef. God help our craft.

Originalsly: [b]Simply put I would say on screen acting is acting as though you do not know you are being filmed.[/b]In stage acting all actions have to be increased.Most Nollywood actors act like stage actors...they over do!...always over reacting!

Exactly @ bolded... but naturally we put 'jara' into our acting.

sholay2011:

Lol. God bless you for your contribution. I agree wiv u. I hope I'm nt guilty of the 'extra' or "overacting' sef. God help our craft.

Hahaha I tried it once, hopefully never, ever again will I inflict such pain on the world; highest I'll ever do na to 'waka-pass' quick, quick lol. It's best I stick to being on the 'other' side of the camera.

The good news is 'good' acting can be taught - for example we all know the Brazillian film 'City Of God' used complete non actors... and was good enough for four Oscar nominations.

semid4lyfe: On-Stage vs On-Screen Acting. . .what exactly is being debated (abi na discussed) here? The harder of the two?

Not fully sure yet hence my initial post asking "Why is our screen acting not very good?" But do throw in anything you want. The more, the merrier

semid4lyfe:
Before that time, I had always viewed Theatre Arts as one yeye course and the students as a bunch of un-serious people who play through out their time in school (cos even their rehearsals be like sey dem dey play) but now I see them differently and I've got enormous respect those actors/actresses who strut their stuff on stage. E No Easy, I tell ya

Hope this makes it merrier

Hey, thanks for that insight. For real... theatre is HAAAAARD! I so respect theatre actors big time. Like Sholay said they have no 2nd takes, they step out a nail it then & there.
One very interesting thing you said "cos even their rehearsals be like sey dem dey play", that is a key point but we don't even know how important 'play' is. Watch any documentary on wildlife and you will usually see how many animal youngsters learn by 'playing'. Even we humans do too.
The theatre students you mentioned spent a lot of TIME rehearsing their roles. They did it so much it became like a fav game; a second nature. That 'TIME' is what I think we don't put into filmmaking.

Nothing spoil... e go better.
And yes your post did make this merrier.

Nice contributions from people. But no one is giving kudos to the on-screen actors...I mean the 'serious' ones oh...who go through a lot to get into their roles...make researches...change lifestyle (especially method actors).

sholay2011: Nice contributions from people. But no one is giving kudos to the on-screen actors...I mean the 'serious' ones oh...who go through a lot to get into their roles...make researches...change lifestyle (especially method actors).

Hahaha, I thought we were talking about Naija/Nollywood