Summer 2013 - Merchant Taylors' School

Summer 2013 20 21FilmLukeAikmanLuke Aikman (1995-2002)grew up surrounded byactors and starred in FeverPitch with Colin Firth whilestill in the Third Form. Nowan entrepreneur and filmproducer, he writes of hisacting experiences and thelessons it has taught himIgrew up surrounded by the filmindustry; my dad a stuntman, mumand sister actresses and uncle in SFX.By the time I was six I was doingTV commercials, followed by guestparts in shows like The Bill andthen had the opportunity to lead ineducational dramas (some of whichembarrassingly were shown by myscience teachers!).When I arrived at Taylors’ in the ThirdForm I was still working and fortunately,within a year or so of arriving, I landedthe 3rd lead in Fever Pitch, starring ColinFirth. It was a great experience andsomething I won’t forget in a hurry. Theshoot was roughly five weeks and I wasneeded probably three days per week onaverage. It was quite easy to balance thework with school as at that age there isnothing too demanding. The teachers wereunderstanding, in that as long as I was upto date with the learning, it was ok to leavesome pieces of work undone. It taught mehow to get up at 0530 to get into work,and, most importantly, how to eat a plateof fish and chips identically throughoutdialogue over a period of three hours.I left acting in my late teens. Actinghad been a consideration from a youngage, but I always thought I would pursuea professional career. It was not for me;it’s not a hard or full-on job and there isa lot of waiting around, which doesn’tsuit my character. It also isn’t as creativeas it looks; the industry is small and youget cast in the same roles with differentnames and dialogue over and over again.You need to look a certain way or get verylucky to be cast in a ‘character role’.Acting is merely a manipulation of one’scharacter in order to fit a circumstance.Humans are all inherently similar, butwith a different mix hormones, emotions,afflictions and interests. When acting, youare simply dialling bits and bobs up ordown. This is exactly the skill-set neededin ‘the real world’ to build and maintainrelationships both personally andprofessionally. The idea is not to be ‘fake’but to have a heightened understandingof the character in front of you allowingmore empathy and ultimately moreunderstanding and a better rapport.Rejection is the best lesson available.Auditioning is hearing “someone elsegot the part” repeatedly, until you finallyget lucky. You enjoy the job, then start allover again. Your skin gets hardened andyou learn that persistence is the criticalsuccess factor, nothing else. This, in myopinion, is reflective of personal andprofessional pursuits. Other things comeinto play, of course, but within the realmsof possibility, persistence is usually key.I have worked on a few films in the last10 years, but behind the camera. Thereare not a huge number of individuals thatunderstand the world of film, especially lowbudget film (it’s very strange, doesn’t makea lot of sense, but somehow works andsurvives) and also understand the worldof business. People seem to end up goingdown one route or the other and rarelycross. Having reached a decent level of bigpicture understanding, I’ve helped smallerfilms bridge that communication gap,ensuring that financial and business plansfor films return in palatable ways for nontraditionalfilm investors and vice-versa.Film is a magical world and the cinemais sacred; there are few things better thana great story portrayed on screen. Actingis a precarious career that suits few, but,acting as a child at school, professionallyand in local drama groups, I couldn’trecommend highly enough.