Film and Television Acting, 2nd Edition

 

3

Blocking and Business

 

 

 

Definition

I’ll begin by defining what I mean by blocking and business. Blocking is determining where you physically move during the scene. It is the choreography of acting. Business is what you do in the confines of the blocking. For example, an actor walks to the desk, picks up the telephone book, and rifles through it. After a pause she puts down the phone book and takes up a picture frame.

The blocking is the walk to the desk. The business is the picking up of the phone book and the picture frame. Simply put, blocking is where you go, and business is what you do when you get there. When you apply this to the real world, it translates to this: The director can tell you were to go, but it’s usually up to you ...