On Camera Scene Study with Séamus McNally
Seamus McNally is a New York/Berlin-based filmmaker. He coaches/teaches actors and advises directors for Feature Films and Television worldwide. Recent projects include : Orange is the New Black, The Night Of, Roots, Black Mirror,
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, American Rust, Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (Guy Ritchie), Book of Clarence (Jeymes Samuel).
Seamus co-directed the feature film Intet (Nothing) with Trine Piil, nominated for two "Roberts" (Best Youth Film and Best Adapted Screenplay) by The Danish Film Academy.
His short films including: To Paint the Portrait of a Bird, The Hypnotist, Sketches of Honey, Good Old Days, Exchange Place, and an excerpt from Mike Leigh’s Ecstasy, have premiered at Cannes, Montreal, Woodstock, Mill Valley, and won Best Short Film at the final NY/Avignon Film Festival.
He is currently in post-production in Berlin, with both a feature film he's written and directed, called: Tour One (cast primarily with actor's from his workshops), and a documentarywhich he's been making for seven years, called: Kokorev's Trial.
Séamus is almost on a daily basis called upon to serve actors (and directors) at the top of their field in delivering some of their most convincing, nuanced work, often with very little time to prepare.
NEW DATE!!!!
APRIL 15-16 and 18-19 2026
10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
lunch break 2p-3pm
Friday, 17. February 2026: Open Studio Day — an opportunity to practice together with your partner or simply to let the work of the past two days sink in. filmschool vienna will make both of its two studios available from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Active Participants max. 8
Costs
Active Participants EUR 599,-
Observers EUR 129,-
Level
ACTIVES - professional actors or actors with theatre or film experience or students (at least 1 year)
OBSERVERS - open to everyone
Language ENGLISH
All footage will be deleted after the workshop.
THE WORKSHOP
Séamus' on-camera scene study intensive is designed and proven to provide working actors with an effective, clearly defined system for creating specific, high-stakes, inspired scene work. This objective is achieved with great economy to meet the challenging demands of today’s industry.
With his unique approach to script analysis, Seamus helps actors explore Stillness, Presence and a highly evolved, technique for inhabiting Beats and Actions. Ultimately, actors participating in this workshop leave with a solidified and elevated connection to their craft, refreshed confidence in their ability to deliver exceptional work within the audition process, and ultimately on the working set.
Active Participants explore this effective technique by taking on a carefully selected role, from first read to a fully realised scene on camera.
Observers are not just passive onlookers, but are actively engaged in the text analysis, practical exercises and feedback sessions.
Actors are first guided through the scenes which have been carefully chosen for them in advance, applying a complex but accessible system of script analysis with an emphasis on psychological actions. We then move into "inhabiting the analysis," further exploring character thinking and motivations, through the vigorous process of sinking into the individual "causal thinking" beneath each action which defines each beat. We also begin applying a working tool known as pic-pressions (pictures, infused with sense-data), which participants are trained in using to fortify their choices, often with profound results.
Ultimately actors participating in his workshops leave with a solidified and elevated connection to their craft, and a refreshed confidence in their ability to deliver exceptional work on set.
With the first two days being as dense as they are with new, layered, detailed input, participants are given a chance to work privately on Day 3, processing all they've taken in, often meeting with their scene partners or synthesising their new working tools with those they already have. Upon return, on Days 4 and 5, the scenes are rehearsed as the group strengthens and further elucidates these new working elements. The actors' ever-deepening understanding of the stories and each character continues, but now with the added element of the camera and monitor. The scenes are captured under Seamus' direction and then played back for the actors' to receive constructive, incisive feedback on their work.