When I watch blooper reels of TV shows, if an actor keeps dropping a prop or messing up a line, and is laughing, they all say something to the effect: “Don’t cut!! Keep rolling!! Don’t cut!! I’ll get it right.” Why do they care so much about this? I can only assume it adds a lot more time to their day if they keep having to “cut” and restart…. But why?
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Drawing extra attention to what is happening only makes it worse, it is easier to try to personally get control of the situation and go again when you are ready.
Musicians are often taught to just keep going if they make a mistake.
I imagine its the same with actors: your mistake might not be noticed by anybody else, or it might acrually suit the scene, or you just want to practice the bit which comes next.
Cutting filming and restarting it takes a lot more effort than you think. There’s tons of people on set all doing different jobs, and they aren’t the subject of whatever comedic thing is going on, so they don’t think it’s as funny and also they get to smile or even laugh quietly while the actor must maintain composure as they are on camera. So when an actor says to keep rolling they are telling everyone they will get it together and not to stop everything while they giggle and get it out of their system.
Also any cut can mean having to recheck / reset lights, sound, camera operations, a general pause in the flow of things. If it’s possible to keep shooting on the same take and get what they need, everyone’s day is shorter.
Most movies are filmed digitally now. There’s no “film” to waste so unless there is a lot of action and moving parts in the set, often it’s better for the actor to just recompose themselves and start over without interrupting the recording. They can easily edit it later. Working through the laughs/goofs can help them relax more in the scene too, and regain their composure. (Edit: and not cutting/resetting for small errors may help with continuity, like mugs not switching hands or hair being tucked behind a different ear)
The actor wants to do what’s called a pickup. Basically, they can reattempt the line, etc without needing to cut and reset. This could be so the actor can maintain their emotional momentum.
Sometimes im prov recovering from a trip up can be better than what’s in the script
See *Blazing Saddles (1974)* “The common clay of the New West. You know… morons.”
When you’re doing voiceovers and flub a line, you don’t stop. You just say “pickup” to alert the sound engineers and continue.
Don’t forget that people like the blooper reels too, and maybe you’ve botched a line and someone is laughing real hard and that would make for a good bit in the blooper reel.
My favorite is one from, I think, *The Cannonball Run*, where Burt Reynolds says “Keep rolling. It’s all crap anyway.”
Acting is 95% waiting around. 5% acting.
Between cameras, lights, sound, make up, and about a hundred other things going on behind the set. It takes hours to get everything set up right.
During those hours the actors are just sitting and thinking. Stewing over their lines again and again. So once everything is in place and you can finally release all the emotional tension onto the screen, it becomes difficult to stop.
Stopping means resetting everything, including your own emotional moment. So it’s easier to fumble through a line than to start at the very beginning
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