Ilan Rosenberg

I am theatre trained.  That means I learned to project my voice, use large gestures and facial movements so they could be seen in the audience of the large opera house I was trained in at college.  When I began working post-college, I always worked in big theatres, Oklahoma tending more to large auditoriums as opposed to the intimate store front theatres here in Los Angeles.  Consequently, I have a big, loud mouth, a rubber face and hand gestures that look like an Italian having an argument.

Needless to say, I was little prepared for the realities of acting for film and television.  The techniques of theatre acting and film acting are polar opposites.  Theatre requires you to be large, to act with your whole body.  Film wants you to be intimate, to act with your eyes and your brain.

My first day on the set at Mighty Morphin Power Rangers would probably have been my last if it hadn't been for a wonderful man by the name of Ilan Rosenberg.  Ilan was the director of photography for MMPR.  For those of you who don't know what a DP does, he is the man who decides on the lighting, helps the director frame shots, and runs the camera during filming.  A DP can make you look good or like a toad.

Having never taken an acting for the camera class, I had no idea what I was doing when I stepped foot on the MMPR set.  Things like not looking into the lens of the camera, making sure you look at the appropriate side of the camera when you are supposed to be talking to someone during a close up, hitting a mark on the floor while talking, doing an action exactly the same way while doing multiple takes of a scene, etc., were foreign to me.  Not only was I clueless, but I was very nervous on my first day of work.  Ilan saved my life and gave me an education on camera work.

From our first meeting, Ilan went out of his way to make sure I looked good on camera and didn't slow down the production.  He would have techies place sand bags at my mark so that I didn't have to look down to see the tape, which is what is used to identify a mark to hit.  Ilan would have a PA stand to the side of the camera I was supposed to be looking for my close ups, he'd remind me of how far up I held an object during a take.  He taught me how to "think" so that my face didn't overdo expression.

To this day, I am not sure why Ilan was so generous to me.  I only know that I am so very grateful for what I have come to call my film acting 101 teacher.  What I learned from Ilan Rosenberg really made it possible for me to continue with career.  I am so grateful and I hope I told him so.