Applications close tomorrow, November 23, for the International Screen Academy Sydney (www.isasydney.com.au) and here’s the good news – thanks to an unnamed millionaire, there are two full scholarships available.

I’m talking to the founder and director of the ISA, Tony Barclay, and he can hardly suppress his excitement. He’s done the hard yards, several years ago having written and made it  through the demanding criteria for registration under the Australian Skills Quality Authority, (ASQA)Australia’s national regulator for vocational education and training (formerly known as VET).

Now it’s time to audition.

Barclay has been planning this for a long time. Deriving from “conversations in the industry he asked himself, “why don’t we  directly teach screen acting?”

As anybody associated with NIDA, the National Institute of Dramatic Art (and Barclay has taught there) knows, screen acting is relegated to a couple of weekends or sessions at the Australian Film Television And Radio School, not much more.

“So I spoke to actors, casting agents, cinematographers, directors in TV and film and theatre,” he says, “they all said the same thing – if you try to get into the film sector straight from theatre school and you go to a casting agent as a lot of graduates do, you find yourself at the end of the line.”

At this point Barclay decided to try and put a curriculum together. “As I started, I wanted not to throw away classical theatre training by just hitting them with technology, that’s not in everyone’s interest.”

As it turned out, he discovered that three of the top professionals in the industry, acting teacher Kevin Jackson, voice teacher Bill Pepper and movement teacher Julia Cotton, were all available to provide a classical acting training. These, paralleled with training in all aspects of the technology of film and television, became “the ideal combination.”

“All the trust worked at the building up of an actor will be there, but in addition to all that there’ll be a chance to immerse themselves totally in the technology, working from the outset with cameras, microphones, lighting—all very complex.

Barclay’s plan is to start with film because we can go “down to TV”.

His acting students will be able to get a complete immersion in studio experience but also learn about employment opportunities—not just voice-overs animation, narration and many other things they will never have thought of.

Among the people he talked to were former Australia Council and CEO Max Bourke and theatre industry veterans David Throsby and Ross McGregor. The acting profession, says Barclay, can be like an exclusive club but then, “if you both a TV and a stage actor, that creative bubble hits a wall.”

“If an actor comes without much technology, we’ll  bring in an editor who can show the difference between un-cut and polished works or a technician who can show the implication of different lenses of what the difference is between close-up as opposed to each offer a long shot.”

But he stresses that it’s not just as if an actor is going to suddenly become a technician. As the actor Jeremy Sims told him the other day, looking back to  when he had his first job, it was about knowing how he came  across on camera.

Finally there is a huge difference between stage, film and TV. A four to five week rehearsal process where you can hone in on a character and be part of an ensemble is almost entirely absent from screen work.

What is more, actors often dismiss the talents of the people who are behind the cameras, people who are “massively creative individuals: and it can cause conflict “if actors are looking down their noses.”

So to his first classes. Barclay is planning two  groups of 16 and he is thrilled to say that  there’ll be two $40,000 scholarships for the whole five-semester course.

The International Screen Academy Sydney is now open for auditions. Application close November 23 and are open to all Australian residents. For info, visit www.isasydney.com.au