SHORT FILM PRODUCTION

PRINCIPONAUTS

All the steps involved in writing, directing and producing a short film – online curriculum.

UPCOMING COURSES

Pre-registration is now open for new students for the fall 2022 school year:

💡 THEME	#️⃣ REFERENCE	⏳ DURATION	📆 2022	⌚️ SCHEDULE	🎓 TEACHERS	☑️ STATUS	🎟 PRICE
MEISNER & SYSTEMIC COACHING	🥇 MASC22C3	27 hours (9 x 3h)	26/09->19/12	Monday 2pm - 5pm	Octave KARALIEVITCH	Closed	3 x 207 €
MEISNER & SYSTEMIC COACHING	🥈 MASC22C2	27 hours (9 x 3h)	27/09->20/12	Tuesday 2pm - 5pm	Octave KARALIEVITCH	Closed	3 x 207 €
MEISNER & SYSTEMIC COACHING	🥉 MASC22C1a	36 hours (9 x 4h)	27/09->20/12	Tuesday 6pm - 10pm	Octave KARALIEVITCH	Open	3 x 234 €
MEISNER & SYSTEMIC COACHING	🥉 MASC22C1b	36 hours (9 x 4h)	28/09->21/12	Wednesday 2pm - 6pm	Octave KARALIEVITCH	Open	3 x 234 €
MEISNER & SYSTEMIC COACHING (🇺🇸)	🥉 MASC22C1c	36 hours (9 x 4h)	28/09->21/12	Wednesday 7pm - 11pm	Octave KARALIEVITCH	Waiting list	3 x 234 €

If none of these slots work for you, you can reserve a place on the next courses by email here

🤝 Commitment for one term of classes, renewable for the higher levels.

⛱ The All Saints school holidays (weeks of 22 and 29 October) and the week of 14 November are break weeks.

🎁 Registering for the in-person course also gives you access to the matching groups of the community space and to self-run rehearsal slots rented by the school. More details below.

🔑 In every case, pre-registering and booking a phone interview are the first steps to join:

TESTIMONIALS

"Paris Meisner Studio is the 3rd place teaching the Meisner technique that I’ve attended... I’m not asking you to believe me. I’m writing these words as a testimony of my experience. In 3 months at this studio, I learnt more than in 1 year with other "meisnerians". More than in 3 years at Cours Florent. You get the idea. I’m very enthusiastic. Long live PMS."

Gaëtan Penna

Actor

"I had just finished a Meisner programme at another studio and wanted to try the different approach of Paris Meisner Studio, (...) I found a sincerity again in expressing my emotions and what I feel. (...) Octave’s precision and feedback made me discover an emotional depth, a real presence on stage and in my daily life."

Sara Novak

Actress

"I was looking for authenticity and depth in my acting, and the studio’s programme completely answered that need. Sometimes I go home "shaken" after a class and, to be honest, I love it. It’s so common to leave class feeling you’ve hit on something and have material to work on for yourself until next time. Our personal pitfalls are quickly brought to light and Octave gives us the right directions to work on. That’s when you realise the acting profession can turn out to be therapeutic... What a stroke of luck!"

Meryl Rakoto

Actress

"I was able to find grounding in instability (...) a revelation for me. I no longer build an idea of the scene or a character, I embody it in the present. Which gives me confidence and more freedom in my acting for castings and shoots (...). The approach is deep and pragmatic. (...). The work done on texts and scenes is coherent and effective (...). This "Meisner and systemic coaching" programme is a solid, "holistic" training. It’s a laboratory for the human actor, one that lets you forge your own autonomy. It’s a genuine revealer of our authentic flow of lived experience. The classes are enriching and supportive."

Puna Prokop

Actress

INCLUDED

- 4 hours a week in small groups led by Octave Karalievitch, 3 weeks a month

- Teaching appendices, regular emails and online community access to make the technique your own by understanding the rules of the exercises for yourself

- The personalised exercises and prescriptions to deepen the work outside class (different for each person)

- The WhatsApp and Circle groups for follow-up and questions on applying the technique outside class

- 2 catch-up classes per term for justified absences

3 three-hour slots a week of studio space for rehearsals, self-run and supervised by Octave (optional, scheduled around the groups’ availability)

OPTIONAL (after registration)

A filmed session at the end of the term, with an introduction to on-camera acting in Meisner (editing not included)
3 Gestalt-oriented group sessions to support this personal work and make it last (one a month)

Become truer and more sincere, in a healthy and effortless way

Build the foundations of your own work system in 12 weeks

PROGRAMME

the 3 approaches to the repetition exercise as they developed around the world, with the different possible “rules of the game”, their consequences, and their links with Ericksonian Hypnosis
a training programme to keep working outside class, and setting up rituals for the actor
physical impulses and the work on the 3 moments
emotions, connection with the body, and meditation
points of view and expressing yourself freely and truthfully
bringing the 3 approaches together and their links with the rest of the work
evolutionary psychology and what it means for the audience’s attention and the actor’s instrument
the “as if” frame from Stanislavski to Meisner by way of NLP; its possible applications to the work, from the repetition exercise to particularisation for text work
the “actor’s faith” according to Meisner and taking the given circumstances into account
independent activity work and exploring core values with NLP
first links with human activities and text analysis in Meisner
advanced point-of-view work to adapt the technique to actor direction
writing and imagination techniques to stimulate the actor’s suggestibility and explore imaginary circumstances
what NLP, Ericksonian Hypnosis and Cognitive Science bring to the work
individual recommendations for each person

Raphaël & Lydia

Eugenia & Zakari

Cyril & Sara

Octave

Meryl

DETAILS & LEVELS

The educational foundations of our Meisner programme

🔍 Taught and understood very differently around the world, the Meisner technique is heir to a long history of research and teaching in acting, whose sources are often little known.

📚 Here we retrace its origins, its developments and its legacy:

This last link is the general programme of this course.

Levels

The next courses shown below are, by default, LEVEL 1.

Re-enrolment for the next levels happens internally, at the end of each term.

The “classic” Meisner programme, traditionally two years long, is largely covered here by the first 3 terms: levels 1, 2 and 3.

The “second year”, levels 5, 6 and 7, covers the advanced work of applying the technique to shooting and directing conditions, already touched on in the first year.

It also introduces the basics of career coaching, production and writing, tied to the rest of the programme.

TEACHER

OCTAVE KARALIEVITCH

After studying science (mathematics and physics in preparatory classes, then philosophy of science and knowledge), Octave turned to psychology and cognitive science, and took an interest in research in 3 areas in particular: creativity, education and therapy.

Interested in the processes of personal development and self-liberation, he also trained in contemporary “brief therapy” and coaching tools such as NLP or Ericksonian Hypnosis, in both of which he is a certified Master Practitioner by the Society of NLP.

Going back to train as an actor, he discovered many Russian and American techniques (among others: Constantin STANISLAVSKI, Stella ADLER, Sanford MEISNER, Lee STRASBERG, Eric MORRIS…) and it was the Meisner technique that caught his attention most, beyond the unexpected sincerity it gives the actor, for its healthy, playful and simple side.

Noticing from the start its links with his earlier fields of study, he also realised how varied its approaches are around the world. He then created Paris Meisner Studio (now called Principonauts) to bring qualified teachers to Paris, so as to keep training the right way while exploring complementary aspects of this technique, its history and its evolution.

Seeking to sharpen his understanding of the Meisner technique, for himself and for the other students, he set up a novel research and development system of which the Meisner & systemic coaching programme is the outcome.

Alongside teaching and running the school, Octave keeps training in related fields to feed this research, having started, among others, a Gestalt therapist curriculum over 5 years at the EPG, a trainer’s qualification (certified) and a training in the Radical Honesty tools of Brad Blanton (rooted in Gestalt therapy and Ericksonian hypnosis, and aligned with the development of point-of-view work in the Meisner technique).

As well as traditional meditation techniques and Buddhist systems of mind-body connection, especially Vipassana.

REGISTRATION FEES

Registration for this course is by term, on the website for level 1, then renewable first for students enrolled in the current term for the next levels, before opening to former students who want to pick the work back up.

Payment can be spread monthly, at €234 a month for 3 months, all included (see the INCLUDED section at the top of the page).

The packages listed under “Optional (after registration)” will be offered at a later stage.