"Acting for the Camera Certificate Program"University of W Extension, Session 3

INTRO:
Third Class for "Acting for the Camera Certificate Program", at University of W Extension

The first part of class was a review of a few terms and disucussion of a number of new terms and snippets of advice for working around shooting sets. Then we moved into doing a mirror shot with a line from our monologues.


TOPIC: Terms
STRIKING -- Warning a light is going to go off.
FLASHING -- Warning a light or flash is going to be illuminated
CROSSING -- A warning to let camera know you're crossing -- this should be very, very rare for an actor -- so people know the blur is not caused by a camera issue needing attention. Should be called in rehearsal only.
BIBLE -- Where the character is now, is giong, story continuity, for growth of the story and/or episodes.
SET ETIQUETTE/PROTOCOL (4 jan handout).
ABC -- Animals, Boats, Childern. Unpredicatable

TOPIC: Monologues
Great review!!
Who are you?
What is your relationship?
What is you objective?
What is the moment before?
What is urgent/necessary? The stakes?
What are given circumstances
- Present circumstances
- Future circumstances
- Imagined circumstances (hopes/yearning)


NOTES:
Get crew work, classes for production to understand the other side of the lens. Cinematography appeals to me for several reasons.

Offer to be a reader.




HOMEWORK
1. Get props/idea for Private moment in public exercise.
2. Find private moment examples
3. Think about a moving master setup.

REFERENCES
?Foreground/Background; Denise Gibbs


REFLECTION
We filmed a line from our monologues, and at that point I decided which of the monlogues to use. "What the fuck are talking about," is the line I chose. Later on it turned out I should have picked something from the middle, and this was the opening line.

I volunteered to go first, and it was like a trip back to my very first acting class, when time seemed to get terribly long. "Aren't we done yet?" was the chorus of my internal voice. I still need to get my voice out there for stage, and it took countless tries for me to tone it down enough, and the same with the movement.

It wasn't a bad experience, though I did feel like a dope. It's always hard to make a correction when someone else is on their feet. If I'd remembered that while I was up there the feeling of floundering would have diminished, and I wouldn't have worried so much about wasting everyone else's time.

I would like to thank (most of) the rest of the class for struggling too!

When Katherine suggested working crew and such the ideas which appealed to me were a cinematography class and offering to be a reader. My interest in photography and desire to get better with cold reads are the added incentives.

[Post Date: 07Feb10]