The “moment before” is a technical acting term which refers to what is going on in your character's life just before you hear “action”. A well prepared “moment before” will catapult you in to your scene like a spring board and will help you and your character become focused. The "Moment After" creates a continuation for your character allowing a "linger" before "Cut" is announced. As a Director this is sometimes the best part of the performance because the character/s are living outside the script and can create a special moment through the innocence of the perceived unknown
Another way of describing this Principle is as follows: We know as Actors & Actresses, it is best to investigate the beginning, middle and end of your moment / performance of the scene. To help establish this in a realer sense, you need to know what has happened just before and what you believe is about to happen straight afterwards
Now of course most people or characters will know what has just happened to them but it is unlikely to know what is going to happen next unless it's connected to their minor or major objective but it will not be factual unless of course the film is about time travel and then it would be played out differently
So we can convincingly establish what has happened before the scene begins and this must be established and practised in development and rehearsal of your performance. This will be the same for "The moment after" with a major difference that you are creating a lie within a lie which is hard to do but completely achievable.
When I say a lie with in a lie, I mean you are lying about the person you are portraying as it being someone else and then lying about not knowing what's going to happen next which of course you do by learning and knowing the script
Here is a simple description which will help you understand the process by breaking down each section of your creativity and execution of performance
Before - You would expect the normal question "what has happened before" but more importantly, what has immediately happened before as in the last minute both physically and mentally, here is an example:
How did you get there, have you just arrived or been there for hours or days, was there dialogue before or just silence with inner thoughts and more importantly "Why!" are you there in terms of how the why effects your status
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A great way of testing your before is when your sitting in a scene - quite often you have found your starting position as an actor turning up to a film set which is totally irrelevant. Work out the sitting position from your characters arrival and connect this to his or hers emotion perceived from before the scene starts
Beginning, Middle and End fall inside your other principles in line with Archetypes / Energy work / Movement / Inner Thoughts / Script Analysis etc, etc. but you should investigate their usage inside the "Before and After" sections of your planning, creativity and execution
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After (The Ambience or The Linger). - is the continuation of the scene where it is not written. Practise at least 30 seconds of continuation as it is common for the Director to say cut a great deal later than you would imagine. Be ready for this, even in audition as you will sometimes be tested to see how good your skill-set is
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So how do you continue? Fall back on imagination to start with, imagine what is next assuming the timeline isn't you walking out of shot as that's something completely different
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