Fourteen Years of Filmmaking, Inspiration and Discovering the Truth Behind the Performance.
There is something rather extraordinary about spending your younger years watching actors on a screen, admiring their performances, studying their characters and wondering what it must be like to exist in their world.
And then, one day, finding yourself standing behind a camera, directing those very same people.
Life, it seems, occasionally writes a screenplay more remarkable than anything we could imagine.
For fourteen years, my journey as founder and director of The Film Actors Academy has been one of discovery, ambition, enormous challenges and, above all, a fascination with the human condition.
What began as a passion for storytelling evolved into an Academy dedicated to understanding one of the most complicated, vulnerable and rewarding professions in the world: acting for the camera.
Over those years, I've coached actors from complete beginners to experienced professionals. I've witnessed the uncertainty of a first audition, the excitement of a first film role and the extraordinary transformation that takes place when an actor finally stops performing and starts believing.
One of the greatest lessons I've learned is that the camera doesn't ask an actor to demonstrate emotion. It asks them to experience it.
And that simple distinction has shaped almost everything I've done.
Paul J Lane Principal Editor
LEARNING FROM THOSE WHO HAD ALREADY WALKED THE RED CARPET
My first movie, C.O.O.L.I.O. Time Travel Gangster, brought an invaluable opportunity to work with two established British character actors, Geoff Bell and Brian Croucher.
Geoff's remarkable screen career has included Steven Spielberg's War Horse, Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla, Green Street, The Business, Kingsman: The Secret Service and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. His performances possess that unmistakable quality of lived experience, often bringing an extraordinary sense of authenticity to tough, complicated characters.
Brian Croucher brought an equally impressive body of experience, including Fool's Gold: The Story of the Brink's-Mat Robbery, EastEnders, Blake's 7, Doctor Who, and Out. A performer whose career stretches across decades of British film, television and theatre, Brian represents the kind of professional longevity that every aspiring actor should appreciate.
For someone directing his first movie, working with actors of that calibre was both exciting and educational.
There is a moment when you realise that the characters you've admired on television and cinema screens are no longer distant figures. They're standing in front of you, reading your screenplay, discussing your ideas and trusting you to guide the story.
The screen that once separated us had become the very thing that brought us together.
I found myself observing not simply how experienced actors performed, but how they approached the work. Their understanding of timing, character, discipline and the often-unspoken relationship between actor and director gave me lessons that no textbook could ever fully explain.
I began to appreciate that the director's responsibility wasn't to impose a performance upon an actor, but to create an environment in which something truthful could emerge.
The experience of making COOLIO helped bridge two worlds: the filmmaking ambitions I'd carried for years and the practical reality of creating something with people who had already established themselves in the industry.
It also gave me something incredibly valuable to bring back to The Film Actors Academy: first-hand experience of how professional actors work when the cameras are actually rolling.
There is a certain poetry in that transition.
To find myself directing Ian Burfield and Gary Webster on Full House wasn't simply another professional achievement. It represented a personal crossing of time, ambition and memory.
I had moved from being influenced by their work to collaborating with them creatively.
The names that had once appeared in television listings and opening credits were now appearing on my own production paperwork.
The people I once watched deliver dialogue were now watching me too.
WHEN THE PEOPLE ON THE SCREEN STEP INTO YOUR STORY
If COOLIO represented an education in directing established performers, my later project Full House provided something even more personal.
The opportunity to work with Ian Burfield and Gary Webster brought with it a wonderful sense of life coming full circle.
Ian's extensive career has included V for Vendetta, The International, Criminal, The Selfish Giant, City Central and EastEnders, where his detective roles became part of a long and distinguished television career.
Gary Webster, meanwhile, was familiar to millions of British television viewers through his portrayal of Ray Daley alongside George Cole in the iconic series Minder. His other notable work includes EastEnders and Family Affairs, in which he played Gary Costello.
Both actors were influences on me as a younger man.
I remember a time when films and television dramas were worlds I could only observe. Their characters lived behind glass, their stories illuminated by the flicker of a television screen or projected across the darkness of a cinema.
They belonged to an industry that, from the outside, could seem almost impossible to enter.
And yet, the years passed.
The young man watching became the filmmaker writing.
The filmmaker writing became the director preparing.
And the actors once framed by somebody else's camera eventually stood before mine.
Yesterday, I watched them tell somebody else's stories. Today, they were helping me tell my own.
I don't think that particular feeling ever entirely leaves you. Of course, when you're directing, nostalgia must eventually give way to the practical business of filmmaking. There are scenes to construct, performances to shape, decisions to make and stories to tell.
But somewhere beneath the concentration and responsibility, there remains a quiet sense of wonder.
The distance between the audience and the screen had disappeared. And in its place stood a director, an actor and a shared imagination. That is something I continue to treasure.
THE ART OF BEING THE ACTOR
Working with established professionals has influenced my approach to coaching throughout my fourteen years at The Film Actors Academy.
I've come to believe that many of the greatest performances arise not from what an actor does, but from what they allow themselves to experience.
The camera is a remarkable observer.
It recognises hesitation. It notices uncertainty. It finds the truth hiding behind a smile and hears the emotion contained within silence.
I've often explained to actors that trying to demonstrate sadness is entirely different from experiencing loss. Pretending to be frightened is not the same as believing something genuinely threatens the character.
And sometimes the most powerful moment in a scene is the one in which the actor appears to do almost nothing at all.
The audience doesn't need to see you acting. They need to believe you're living.
Every actor brings something individual to a performance: their personality, memories, fears, imagination and understanding of the world.
My responsibility as a coach is not to manufacture identical performers. It is to help each individual discover the qualities that make them interesting and teach them how to communicate those qualities truthfully through the camera.
Fourteen years of Coaching have also convinced me that confidence and talent aren't necessarily the same thing.
I've coached confident actors who needed to learn vulnerability, and exceptionally talented but uncertain actors who simply needed permission to trust themselves.
Some of my proudest moments have come from watching those transformations unfold.
FROM THE ACADEMY TO THE INDUSTRY
Throughout its history, The Film Actors Academy has sought to bridge the gap between acting lessons and the realities of professional filmmaking.
Actors need to understand far more than dialogue and character motivation. They must appreciate camera angles, continuity, blocking, technical restrictions, rehearsals and the importance of developing a working relationship with their director.
Our work has contributed to an impressive record of achievements, including 38 IMDb-listed awards, four National Film Awards nominations and more than 70 awards associated with the Academy and its productions.
Academy actors have progressed to projects connected with BBC, Sky, HBO and Netflix, with some working alongside internationally recognised performers including Rebecca Ferguson, Timothée Chalamet and Jodie Comer.
Naturally, I'm proud of those achievements.
But the real reward has always been more personal.
It's the actor who arrives for their first lesson believing they have nothing special to offer.
It's the nervous performer who finally understands the camera isn't an enemy.
It's the person who discovers that being believable is considerably more important than trying to be impressive.
And it's the wonderful moment when an actor delivers a performance that surprises both of us.
THE CAMERA HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY GREATEST TEACHER
Looking back, I realise that much of my own education has taken place while directing other people.
Geoff Bell and Brian Croucher helped shape my understanding of professional experience and discipline.
Working with Ian Burfield and Gary Webster reminded me of the extraordinary way in which the people who inspire us can eventually become part of our own creative journeys.
And the many actors I've coached at The Film Actors Academy have continually reminded me why I started Coaching in the first place. There is a beautiful symmetry to it all. I began by watching actors.
I progressed to directing actors.
And somewhere along the way, I discovered that Coaching actors was also teaching me how to become a better filmmaker.
The relationship between director and performer is something I've grown to value enormously. It requires mutual respect, imagination, patience and the willingness to explore ideas without fear of making mistakes.
Perhaps that is why, even after fourteen years, every new scene still feels like a first scene.
There is always something more to discover.
FOURTEEN YEARS LATER AND THE STORY IS STILL BEING WRITTEN
Today, my creative journey continues through filmmaking, music and the development of new stories under World Revivalists.
My experiences have taken me from teaching the fundamentals of camera performance to directing established actors whose work helped inspire my own ambitions.
But I have never forgotten the younger version of myself, sitting in front of a screen, absorbed in the performances of people who seemed to inhabit another world.
I sometimes wonder what that younger man would think if he could see me now.
Would he believe that one day he'd be directing actors he'd admired on television and big screen?
Would he imagine that his own films would become part of other people's creative journeys?
Or that he would spend fourteen years helping aspiring performers discover their own place in the industry?
Perhaps the most satisfying thought is that somewhere today, another young person is watching a film, admiring a performance and quietly imagining the possibility of becoming an actor or filmmaker.
They may not know it yet, but their story has already begun.
Because the remarkable thing about cinema is that the people who once inspired your dreams can eventually become part of the dreams you bring to life.
Fourteen years have taught me that acting is not about pretending to be somebody else.
It is about discovering the truth of another person's existence within yourself.
And directing is not about controlling that discovery. It is about recognising the moment when it happens.
When the actor forgets the camera. When the performance becomes the experience. When fiction becomes believable.
For a few extraordinary seconds, the actor disappears and somebody else comes alive.
And somewhere behind the camera, I still feel exactly the same excitement I felt when I first fell in love with the movies.
Only now, instead of watching the story unfold, I have the privilege of helping to create it.
Click on the picture below to see some of the work that's flourished to cinema and festivals.
