Marc Baylis

He is no stranger to acting and has actually had quite a bit of exposure in England. He applied for the job online and later went for auditions after the short-listing was done. Surprisingly, he was the last person to show up for auditions and he was the best man for the job : beeing DALE (Changing faces, from Faruk LASIKI, Nigeria, 2007).

Marc quite enjoyed the entire process and has no regrets about being part of the production. This does not mean he did not encounter any challenges while shooting the production.

The first and perhaps expected short coming this brilliant actor had was with the language. He got to Nigeria four days before he had to be on set and did not like the fact that he was not comfortable with the accent he had been working on for this movie. Dale had been watching some African movies, (none of which were Nigerian) for accent training. This was not too helpful as he realized different African countries have unique dialects and Nigeria’s accent is perhaps one of the most unique. As a professional actor, he believes that there is nothing that kills a production, no matter how good it may be, like getting the accent wrong. Faruk had sent him some accent tutorial tapes before he came to Nigeria but the four days of interacting with Nigerians before shooting were the best form of tutoring.

Dale and Marc are two very different people. This meant that Marc had to tap into the Dale he needed to be so as not to water down the production, seeing as he had a primary role. He put a touch of what he thought Dale ought to be like in his acting such that he became comfortable with the role.

Even when Marc had gotten under Dale’s skin, there were several aspects of Dale’s personality that disturbed him. He was particularly uncomfortable with the « ass-taping » scenes, as he felt all his was doing was grabbing at women’s behinds. Thankfully, they were short scenes and over just as soon as they started.

The Nigerian locations and sun-sets stood out the most for him. He could not get over how beautiful Nigeria is and especially the areas they used for shoots. He found coming to Nigeria an eye-opening experience that has definitely had an impact on him.

Styles vary with different Directors but the style employed in this production was particularly peculiar to Marc. He noted the fact that, while European productions have longer scenes and lengthier dialogue, the style in this case consisted of much shorter scenes that were tightly focused on the face because the impact of the message was carried in the facial expressions. Marc was a bit thrown off by this fragmentation but learnt to adjust and actually got to appreciate this style as it is a « talk less express more » effective style. He had to learn how to say all the un-spoken dialogue in his head through his eyes, facial expressions and body language. He had to ultimately discard the English style of acting where the Language carries the acting and adopt his actions carrying the story.

Marc hopes he pulled the job off effectively and that he was able to carry the story through. He believes the movie will go further than is anticipated and is looking forward to his next African project

He is no stranger to acting and has actually had quite a bit of exposure in England. He applied for the job online and later went for auditions after the short-listing was done. Surprisingly, he was the last person to show up for auditions and he was the best man for the job : beeing DALE (Changing faces, from Faruk LASIKI, Nigeria, 2007).

Marc quite enjoyed the entire process and has no regrets about being part of the production. This does not mean he did not encounter any challenges while shooting the production.

The first and perhaps expected short coming this brilliant actor had was with the language. He got to Nigeria four days before he had to be on set and did not like the fact that he was not comfortable with the accent he had been working on for this movie. Dale had been watching some African movies, (none of which were Nigerian) for accent training. This was not too helpful as he realized different African countries have unique dialects and Nigeria’s accent is perhaps one of the most unique. As a professional actor, he believes that there is nothing that kills a production, no matter how good it may be, like getting the accent wrong. Faruk had sent him some accent tutorial tapes before he came to Nigeria but the four days of interacting with Nigerians before shooting were the best form of tutoring.

Dale and Marc are two very different people. This meant that Marc had to tap into the Dale he needed to be so as not to water down the production, seeing as he had a primary role. He put a touch of what he thought Dale ought to be like in his acting such that he became comfortable with the role.

Even when Marc had gotten under Dale’s skin, there were several aspects of Dale’s personality that disturbed him. He was particularly uncomfortable with the « ass-taping » scenes, as he felt all his was doing was grabbing at women’s behinds. Thankfully, they were short scenes and over just as soon as they started.

The Nigerian locations and sun-sets stood out the most for him. He could not get over how beautiful Nigeria is and especially the areas they used for shoots. He found coming to Nigeria an eye-opening experience that has definitely had an impact on him.

Styles vary with different Directors but the style employed in this production was particularly peculiar to Marc. He noted the fact that, while European productions have longer scenes and lengthier dialogue, the style in this case consisted of much shorter scenes that were tightly focused on the face because the impact of the message was carried in the facial expressions. Marc was a bit thrown off by this fragmentation but learnt to adjust and actually got to appreciate this style as it is a « talk less express more » effective style. He had to learn how to say all the un-spoken dialogue in his head through his eyes, facial expressions and body language. He had to ultimately discard the English style of acting where the Language carries the acting and adopt his actions carrying the story.

Marc hopes he pulled the job off effectively and that he was able to carry the story through. He believes the movie will go further than is anticipated and is looking forward to his next African project