Sundance Film Festival

Acting for the Camera is a scary and funny indictment of a person that many theater students know too well—the overzealous acting teacher. Whether the instructor is trying to get personal frustrations out or is simply on a nonstop powertrip, most acting students will admit that the seemingly arbitrary rules set forth in a bad acting class would get most employees at any other job fired for emotional or sexual harassment.

That’s part of what makes director Justin Nowell’s 2009 Sundance short so frightening. One can assume that he and his brother, writer Thomas Nowell, have been through their fair share of these moments. The 14-minute short film, shot on HD Cam, takes place in one room in a beginner-level drama workshop and was shot in one single day.

Stage and screen veteran Joseph Urla plays the teacher, who is starts his class off with—what else?—the fake orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally. What may look like a harmless little comedic showcase on the outside for two students sitting across a table from each other soon turns into a revelatory psychodrama as he refuses to let the female student off the hook. “Make me believe it!” he screams.

Acting for the Camera is shot in a crisp, unadorned style by cinematographer/producer Grant Greenberg. The frequent use of close-ups partially comes from the two cameras shooting the scene in the classroom, but Greenberg also keeps things in extreme close-ups to amplify the personal nature of the teacher’s lessons/attacks.

The short is a perfect showcase for economy in storytelling, breaking down the layers of being in its characters to reveal much in its short timespan. Thomas Nowell has also filled it full of priceless awful-acting-teacher quotes. After baiting and berating his student, he forces her to admit an awful personal secret, then responds to her reluctant admission with “Stop right there. This isn’t a place for your neuroses, OK people?” This is precise, laser-sharp filmmaking.

Justin Nowell is a 2006 New York University film school graduate and he and Thomas were in last year’s Sundance Short Film program with Sick Sex. Sundance is offering Acting for the Camera as a free iTunes download through Jan. 25.