If you live and breathe in the low-to-micro budget production world, using non-professional talent is something that you have to get used to.  The trick is to get the best performance as possible so that you end up with a commercial, short film, or feature movie that you can be proud of and put on your reel.

So how can you accomplish that when your “talent” has no acting training?  Here’s some simple advice that I received from one of my college professors:  ”Acting is about Action”.    Give your “actors” a physical task.  Something that they know how to do.  This action takes them out of the realm of pretending to do something and places them into a real situation in which they have to perform a do-able task.

I’ve used this simple technique numerous times and I’ve always been pleased with the results.  So the next time that you’re tasked with making a non-actor look good on camera, give them an action.

This kidorable spot is an example of the above technique in action.  In this example, I was able to get a nice performance from preschool age children.  (Be patient - it takes a couple of seconds to load on your browser.)