Coming Attraction?

THE floor of any movie set is marked with bits of colored tape. These are called “marks,” and, for the camera to be focused properly, actors must stand right on top of the bits of tape. This is called “hitting the mark,” and an actor who does it saves everyone a lot of time and money.

The “let’s pretend” part of acting is easy: Look sad when you’re supposed to be sad; act scared when you’re supposed to be scared. The hard part is to do all that and hit your mark, too. Without looking down.