It was a Tuesday evening in Cheam, Surrey, and the parish hall felt less like a community space and more like a small studio. Cables were taped neatly to the floor, a camera sat on its tripod facing a table and two chairs, and a semicircle of actors were quietly running lines and sipping tea.
This was Sutton FilmMakers’ screen acting workshop with Sara Jordan, built around a deceptively simple idea, give each actor a single line and see what happens when the camera and the audience decide what that line really means.
Sara opened the screen acting workshop with a brief introduction to her own journey. She started out as an actress, spent time in the corporate world, then returned to filmmaking as a writer and director of short films doing well on the festival circuit.
She summed up her interest quite neatly, explaining that she is fascinated by “the difference between screen acting and theatrical acting, because there is a difference.” That difference is what the whole screen acting workshop was designed to explore in a hands on way.
Step one, one actor, one line
Contents
- 1 Step one, one actor, one line
- 2 Setting the scene, the table and two chairs
- 3 When intention and impact do not match
- 4 Listening and the power of the moment between lines
- 5 Part two of the screen acting workshop, bringing the camera in close
- 6 Watching the close ups back
- 7 What the actors took away
- 8 Why this screen acting workshop matters for Sutton FilmMakers
Sara kept things practical from the very start. There was no long theory lecture, no handout about screen technique. Instead, she split the actors into two groups and handed each person their own line of dialogue, just one line on a strip of paper. No character description, no guidance on tone, no hint about whether the line belonged in a comedy, a breakup, or a thriller. Some lines sounded blunt, some sounded tender, some were ambiguous enough to go in several directions.
The first task was not to perform, it was to decide.
- Who am I when I say this.
- Who am I talking to.
- What has just happened that makes these words necessary.
- What do I want from the other person.
Around the room you could see people testing different versions under their breath, shifting posture, trying on possible backstories. Within a few minutes, each actor had built a private world around a tiny fragment of text.
That quiet inner work is something that usually happens out of sight, in rehearsal or on the way to a set. Here, the screen acting workshop brought it into the centre of the room so everyone could see how those private decisions show up once the camera is rolling.
Setting the scene, the table and two chairs
Once everyone had a clear sense of what their line meant to them, it was time to see what those choices looked like on camera. In the middle of the hall, the team set up the first playing space, a table and two chairs facing each other. The camera framed them in a simple two shot. No elaborate lighting, no dramatic angles, just a clean, neutral view of two people in conversation.
Patrick & Dawn
Jonathan & Peggy
Pairs of actors were called up in turn, each bringing their own line and their own imagined situation. They sat down opposite each other, settled themselves, and the scene began. One actor delivered their line, the other answered with theirs. Two lines, a few seconds of interaction, then cut.
It sounds very slight written down, but in the room those few seconds were enough for everyone watching to start forming ideas. After each take, Sara did not immediately quiz the actors. She turned first to the rest of the group and asked the same question, what did you think was happening there.
Caroline & James
James & Lisa
Comments came back quickly. They seemed like colleagues. That felt like a couple in trouble. That sounded like siblings. That line came across as a threat. That one sounded like an apology that did not quite land.
Only once a handful of people had shared their impressions did Sara turn back to the actors and invite them to explain what they thought they had been playing, and what they had actually been thinking about while they said the line. Sometimes the stories matched neatly. Other times, the gap was striking. An actor who believed they were showing concern might discover that everyone else had read the same delivery as irritation or dismissal.
Mark & HuiHui
Gary & Martin
When intention and impact do not match
Those gaps between intention and impact were where the real work happened. Watching the playback on the monitor, Sara picked out specific moments, a glance away at the wrong time, a tight smile that undercut the seriousness, a hand movement that looked like impatience rather than nervous energy.
She asked very simple, precise questions.
- What were you thinking here?
- What did you want them to feel at that moment?
- Does that match what we are seeing?
Rather than diagnosing people from on high, she encouraged the room to join in, gently but honestly. If an actor said, I was trying to support them, and three people instantly replied, it felt more like you were judging them, that told you a lot. It showed how easy it is to believe you are playing one thing while the camera and the audience are reading something different.
To explore that further, several pairs repeated their short exchange, but with one clear adjustment to the inner life of the line. Imagine this person is your closest friend. Now imagine they are your ex. Now imagine you desperately need them to stay. The words did not change, but the energy between the two actors did. In the monitor, you could see the scene shifting in front of you.
Throughout, Sara kept returning to the core of good screen work. As she put it, it is about…
“going smaller, but really, it is about connecting with emotional authenticity and thought for camera.”
The camera, she reminded everyone, is not interested in generalised acting, it is interested in what you are genuinely thinking and feeling.
Listening and the power of the moment between lines
Another constant theme was listening. On stage, actors often get away with treating dialogue as an alternating pattern, my line, your line, my line, your line. On camera, the most interesting moments are usually in the spaces in between, when you are simply taking in what the other person has said.
Watching the table scenes back, some of the strongest moments were entirely silent. You could see someone truly hearing their partner, rather than waiting for their turn. A breath held a fraction longer, the eyes widening just a little, the jaw tightening, all these tiny shifts were more compelling than any amount of external “acting”.
Sara reminded everyone that humans are incredibly good at reading body language, especially in close frames. As she said, when you have a camera up close, it is “really micro expressions that we are all picking up.” The table work was a gentle way to let people see how much those small internal shifts already register, even before the camera moves in.
By the time the last pair had taken their seats at the table, the group had a shared sense of how much meaning sits underneath a single line, and how sensitive the camera is to those underlying choices. Then it was time for a breather, tea, biscuits, and a chance to compare notes on what it felt like to be examined so closely for such a short moment on screen.
Part two of the screen acting workshop, bringing the camera in close
If the first half of the evening was about discovering what your line currently does, the second half of the screen acting workshop was about refining it under a tighter frame.
When everyone returned, the set up looked almost the same at first glance. The table and chairs were still there, the playing space had not changed, but the camera had moved in closer. Instead of a two shot covering both actors, the crew now set up a close up on each person in turn.
The brief was simple, and also slightly uncomfortable. You are going to deliver exactly the same line as before, with the same basic situation behind it, but this time you have to really believe it. No hiding behind a general mood, no commenting on the line from the outside, just sit in the thought and let the words come from there.
Caroline
James
Dawn
Peggy
In a close up, there is nowhere to hide. The frame holds the face, the shoulders, perhaps the top of the chest. Any tension in the jaw, any darting of the eyes, any sign that part of you is worrying about how you look rather than living the moment, all of that is magnified.
The difference between saying the line with a rough idea in your head and saying it while actually feeling the thought became very clear, very quickly. When someone really committed to the belief behind their line, everything got simpler. They moved less. The face did not become blank, but the expressions were no longer decorations, they were the natural result of what they were thinking and feeling.
Watching the close ups back
After each close up take, everyone gathered round the monitor again. Sara ran the clip back, often pausing just before the line itself and asking the actor what they were holding in mind at that point. The most revealing frames were often in the moment before they spoke. You could see the belief land, or not, in the way the breath changed, the way the eyes focused, the way the muscles in the face either let go or locked down.
Where there was time, when some of the actors were given a second go, with a single change in focus.
Believe the apology more, even if it hurts. Allow yourself to be wounded by what they have said. Own the power in the line instead of trying to soften it. These tweaks felt tiny from the chair. On screen, the difference between the first and second take could be surprisingly strong.
Lisa
Patrick
Mark
Nisha
Gary
Jonathan
Several practical lessons were reinforced again and again. One was that less really is more for screen work. Gestures that were perfectly acceptable in the wider table scenes suddenly looked busy or mannered in close up.
When actors trusted that a clear thought and a simple focus were enough, the work looked calmer and more truthful.
Another was the importance of the moment before. In the early part of the evening, people sometimes rushed to their line, almost falling into it. In close up, when they allowed themselves an extra beat to feel the situation fully before speaking, the line took on a different weight. That small pause carried history, tension, care, whatever the imagined backstory required.
Paul
There was also something quietly encouraging about seeing that the camera does not demand perfection, it demands honesty. A slightly uneven breath, a tiny stumble that fits the emotion, a flash of feeling that is not completely smooth, these details drew the viewer in. What jarred was not imperfection, it was pushing, those moments when you could see someone adding extra behaviour on top of the real thought, instead of letting the thought itself generate what was needed.
What the actors took away
By the end of the evening screen acting workshop, most of the actors had gone through the full cycle. They had received a bare line on a page, made it their own, tested it in a simple shared scene at the table, discovered what the room thought was happening, then taken the same line into close up and found a cleaner, more believed version of it.
Along the way, they had experienced a very direct feedback loop. They could see, with their own eyes on the monitor, how different inner choices changed what the audience received. Sara’s emphasis on presence and real feeling came through again and again. She talked about how easy it is, on a long run in theatre, to “dial in” a performance, to rely on technique while thinking about something else. On camera, especially in a close up, that lack of presence is immediately obvious.
For many people in the room, the big shift was realising that screen acting is not about doing more, it is about doing less and thinking more clearly. Connect to a specific inner reality, stay present with the other person, and let the camera do what it does best, capture tiny, truthful changes in thought and feeling.
Why this screen acting workshop matters for Sutton FilmMakers
For Sutton FilmMakers, this screen acting workshop was more than an isolated activity on a Tuesday night. The club is already working on a number of short film projects, and many of the people in the hall will appear in those films as the anthology develops. Giving them an evening to explore how a single line reads in a two person scene and then in close up is an investment in every shoot that follows.
Directors will have actors who understand how small adjustments make big differences on screen. Actors will feel more comfortable with the lens only a few feet from their faces. The shared language that developed in the room, about belief, listening, and the moment before, will feed directly into rehearsals and performances on future projects.
Seen all together, the footage from the night tells its own story. The early table scenes show actors exploring possibilities, feeling out what their line might be. The later close ups show the same lines, stripped back and lived in more deeply. The comparisons between the two make the central lesson very clear. Screen acting is not about tricks or clever poses. It is about aligning what you intend, what you believe in the moment, and what the audience actually sees when the camera is rolling.
And all of that grew from that simple starting point, on a Tuesday evening in Cheam, Surrey, a room full of actors, one line each, a camera waiting, and a screen acting workshop designed to show them what their work really looks like.
