Monday, 9 April 2012
Friday, 23 March 2012
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Basic acting advices 5; Break your boundaries
This article is less about “Acting advices.” Per say, and a little of a look about how I see the world, what you would need to do to get as much as possible out of doing performances.
We life in a world, where we are tied down very early in life and the boundaries are sat.
We are told how to think, we are told what is right and what is not right. “You don’t walk down the street dressed as a clown, that is indecent.”
This I find to be kind of sad. What is a creative mind? A truly creative person.
We tend to connect it with people whom makes small things, things you can see like small clay bowls, but knitting a scarf is not creative, at least not as long as you are merely following the recipe in front of you, then you follow a recipe you don’t think around the stuff, you are not thinking in new ways.
Some people may think they are creative, but in reality all they do is just copying.. damn huh?
A truly creative mind is the mind which comes up with new ideas, new ankles to all ready existing things, find solutions no one else would have come up with.
And these are the minds having the hardest time existing in our modern society.
I love people with such a mind, it’s the most brilliant people on earth, but unless it goes well for them they are bound and put down by society. The school needs us to give them the right answer not the creative new one, the universities which are the very places meant to create geniuses often either wont accept the creative thinkers because their new ways aren’t compatible with how the schools does it, for every-one or they can end up down-right strangle the gift.
You know what my theory is of why Einstein flunked math? Because he was one of the most brilliant creative minds that ever existed, it was not because he was dumb and suddenly became smarter, he was always smart, he just thought differently than any-one else, and first as he had a definite product you can take and feel on, people around was forced to acknowledge that he wasn’t an idiot.
Without minds like that, we would never have gotten any-where, it was a very creative mind inventing electricity, inventing television, computers. Just.. everything.
And when doing Drama, being so much bound down and tied to your upbringing, it hurts you, it hurts your performance.
That’s right, I am blaming society, it keeps you bound and thus sets you back.
Breaking your own boundaries is hard and it will take a hell of a lot of work, it’ll feel weird and wrong because you have been told it’s embarrassing. I still have that feeling now and then! I actually did feel embarrassed stretching out my arms and sing. “Just keep swimming.” In my top ten wackiest women video.
But I did it any-way, I did it to try and break my own boundary, I try as much as possible to break my boundaries, it’s the only way I can ever get out the performance I truly want.
Every-one, every-one in the entire world feel stage angst, and it take great determination and courage to over-come it, to even try. I have deep respect for any-one whom just goes for it.
When you stand on a stage, sit in front of a camera, what-ever, you expose yourself, you are at your most vulnerable, it feels weird, it feels uncomfortable, and that’s the emotions you would have to fight and ignore, you would have to break your boundaries.
Some people eases this natural un-ease by playing a character, by dressing up, it’s okay to walk around looking silly and talk silly at a big comic con. Why? Cause you are dressed up and every-body around you are dressed up to, that makes you much less vulnerable, that feels like stepping out of real society for a while and into another worlds where the usual rules doesn’t entirely apply.
Most people do kind of want to jump around and be silly while having fun, but only the fewest dare to.
And well… it’s all about taking a deep breath, acknowledge you feel this unease, and take the leap regardless.
My Drama lectures are actually not about making any-one better performance, that is not the goal at all.
The goal, with the drama games I put up, is to let people experience, to let them break boundaries, to let them explore reactions around them, to give them knowledge about how they feel inside and what you can do, for them to have fun and laugh in a different way. That is the true goal with what I do, and what I hopefully will work a lot more with in future now when I am also taking the education to be qualified drama social worker and all.
I love this web-internet video community, it allows people to be creative and develop their creative minds, it makes people break their boundaries, it brings people together, people whom without the internet, may would have been stuck in a small room and a dull every-day job.
Who the hell cares if you become famous or not!? Really!? You can be creative, you can do what-ever you want to do, you can explore yourself and your boundaries, hopefully break them gradually.
It’s tough, especially in the beginning, but in the end, I promise it will be worth it.
It gives you confidence, surplus, a better overview of the world around it, and most importantly, no one is happy when they are trapped, be free.
Monday, 12 March 2012
Basic acting advices 4; Emerging with a character
When I am working on a drama course, whether it’s for children, young people or whatever. I usually try to withhold this section for as a long as I can. And then yet use it when my students has run completely dry and tired in the other games.
That would be because the general reaction for me to say “We are going to do characters.” Are that the people I announce this to will start to jump up and down in pure excitement clapping their hands yelling. “Yeas finally, real acting!”
To which I must keep back my groan, take a breather and count to ten before continuing.
Yeas of cause playing a character is an important part of acting, but if you don’t have the other things in check, your awareness, your feelings, your manipulative skills, character study is bloody useless. It’s only the cream on top of the cake.
But let me try and be an adult about this, and just approach it with an even mind and tell about all the greats about this.
So, question one, how does this apply to us as video producers?
Answer is obvious, you all have an answer on the tip of your tounge, just admit it.
But the interest part is here, that all of your answers are probably kind if different.
Some will point to Cinema Snob and say. “Well, he plays a character! And uses this character to do jokes he couldn’t do as himself.” True.. but to an extent I think you can say that about just around.. every-one who sits in front of a camera upstaging themselves.
We all wants to project a certain image thus will all become a character, to an extent.
“Well then.” You might say. “How about the guys whom does several characters? Like Doug Walker?” SO GLAD YOU ASKED!
Yeas, the gift is indeed being able to play more than one character. That is what we want to work with.
And well, all ready now we have a lot of sub categories, how to create a character, how to utilize and build upon that character, how to become a character.. it’s a whole sub section in itself, and I just kind of write this as I go along.
I do like to point to the fact there are two different kind of characters out there. “Dramatic.” Characters and “Caricature.” Characters.
One is the three dimensional characters with an inner life and struggle which develops and results doing a time-line, the other is what comedians uses in their sketch shows, characters you see and recognise within a second and just know whom they are the moment they open their mouth.
But! These two kind of characters over-laps more than you should think at first, the best sort of character would be a mixture of both. A character whom is immediately recognisable, do certain things you recognise and you’ll know what he is about at ones (that is the caricature part.) but also have an inner life going on, an inner struggle which will eventually be exposed then resolved (The dramatic part.)
Characters with a life of their own which is a caricature aspect of you.
There is a saying out there, what-ever character you play, how-ever you dress up, it will always end up a self portrait.
……. I really don’t have any idea whether that is true or not.
But I do know people often end up restricting themselves an awful lot. Having a mentality “I can never play this kind of character.” “I would never be able to convey that.” “I can never appear this way.” Oh yeah, says who?
No really, who told you that? Who’s not to say that if you become aware enough of your motions and movements, becomes good enough at controlling what you protect, basically “Acting.” That you can’t do it?
Becoming an character means you become some-one else, you may don’t know it, but you do in fact act in a certain way in your every-day life, you respond to things in a certain way unique to you only, you talk in a certain way, you walk in a certain way, and it’s all you, and it’s what you want to chance in order to become some-one else.
One of the things I did ones in a while, while studying performance, was becoming… a stalker.
Yep, I was a stalker for a few hours, fortunately I am not the worst stalker in the world, the task was simple, I had to go to town, pick out one of the many people passing by, then stalk him or her while imitating every-thing this person did.. imitate the walk, the stand, how the person held his or hers bag, stopped up.
And yeah.. I did end up doing things completely different than I used to, and it helped me become more aware of my own body image, and if I turned the person I stalked into a character.. which is exactly what I was assigned to do, I would have to work dress and talk like the person.
“Did she just ask us to try and stalk some-one for a few hours….” Yeas.. yeas I believe I did, I know it’s probably breaking your boundaries, but hell, drama sport is about breaking boundaries, and it’s what you will want to keep on doing to improve your acting abilities.
Just make sure to always keep a certain distance so the person you stalk wont notice you, and do it at a crowded place.. any-one would notice if you stalked some-one down an empty street for an hour.
If the person end up noticing you, you have just failed the assignment, but if you are lucky have all ready collected data enough.
Then go home, put ten minutes aside to really explore how that person behaved and walked differently from you, and practise it.
Perhaps you can pick up fictional characters and play them out in your living room, explore and experience how they move about and how they move about differently from you.
You can even just imitate actors performances and ones again, just explore how you talk differently than usual, what they do and how it feels.
Then as you experience how you can become different persons, you’ve just achieved another level of self awareness and thus became a slightly bettor actor, job well done.
Saturday, 10 March 2012
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Basic acting advices 3; Status in relations to others
Last time we talked about the status you project with your body language.
What people will receive and experience from you based on your basic stand.
If you project low status you’ll become a target for criticism and appear like you have no control.
If you try to hard you’ll become static and all over the place, also appearing like you have no control.
If you are “The boss.” You become intimidating, and you will get the respect, but you wont be pleasant.
The golden ticket was the person in the middle, the relaxed, open welcoming on top person. View previous article for details.
So that is the status you project by yourself, when you are just standing alone.
To discuss Status in relations I want to introduce a new word to you.
Like the word “Acting.” You have all heard the word before, but do you know what it means?
“Drama.” To create drama you by the very least need two people, drama is what happens when there is a conflict. Drama means “A conflict happening.” And can very simply happen if two people or two characters comes to each other from different places, feeling different things.
When you walk around in your every-day life, your own status changes automatically according to your situation, who you are talking to, and how you are feeling at that given time.
If you are talking to your school teacher, your own status will automatically become lowered, and you talking in a certain way. That is also a conflict.
You will come with this lowered status and the teacher will have a higher status.
If there is some-one in front of you, you don’t like and don’t respect, chances are you will archive higher status and tell this person off very quickly.
If you stand in a shop taking in costumers, it’s your job to have “Equal status.” In order to be as pleasant and welcoming as possible.
Again, this is also what you want to archive as a spokes person, you don’t want to set yourself in a low status, you don’t want to be a boss and thus imposing, you want the middle ground where you are equal and pleasant.
As a drama teacher to kids, this is definitely the fun part and the part to tug into.
We practise drama very easily, and it is indeed a lot of fun.
What we simply do, is setting up a situation. Like for an example.
I have four people in front of me, which I am supposed to teach.
What I will do is simply set up a scenario for them to play out.
For instance, I have decided we are inside of a prison, two of the players are prisoner and two of the players are prison guards.
The prison will soon throw a party for the prisoners in order to make their stay more comfortable, I appoint one prisoner whom is on good terms with the guards and is open, even looking forward to the party, the other prisoner thinks the party is insulting and hates the idea, wanting to boy cut it.
One prison guard is a friendly person, is on good terms with the prisoners and looks forward the party, loving to set it up. The other prison guard thinks of the prisoners as lower creatures and thinks this party is the dumbest idea ever, looking forward to it with sheer dread.
The scenario is sat up, each character views this situation in completely different terms, and the status to each other is very different. The prisoners may be equals but have lower status than the guards, or prisoner nr two thinks guard number one is silly, thus act as if he has higher status in his presence, but is scared of guard two and thus have lower status with him.
You can easily apply more characters expanding this scenario, maybe there is third prisoner whom is planning to use this party as an diversion to his prison break? How then will he react to the other characters and how would the scenario play out?
This is completely up to the players, each time will be completely unique and depend on how people play it
.
This also helps to raise awareness of how you speak and why you do it. By being away, you can manipulate and use it to manipulate your audience.
How can we use this in Internet videos?
Very good question, and I am still figuring that one out.
Obviously this some-thing best applied to cross-overs or when you use additional characters.
What I can spot is that every-body making internet videos is that they will treat cross-over partners and additional characters as “You have lower status than me, thus I am better.” And the new comer will have…. The complete same attitude straight back.
This is of cause done for comedy effect, or sort of “We are all losers thinking we are awesome.”
But to spice this up a bit, try to decide for the relation, the status relation.
Maybe one just have the higher status through the other review, and the other one have placed himself in the lower end becoming a sucker up. (Try Film Brain in Kickassia and Suburban knights.)
Maybe some-one will have hidden attentions through out the review, making a fresh different kind of dynamic.
Maybe one part think the two are the best friends ever, and the other clearly just views the partner as nuisance, this is clearly also setting number two in higher status.
Maybe we can also spice it up by just having the two characters be good friends, and thus can do a different kind of bander (Watch my next video, yeas this is petty commercial.)
Most comic acts will have two people with different status, the most classic example being the "Funny-man - straight man." duo where the comic arrives from the different point of views and the clash in the middle, another cliche is that "One is the imposing leader and the other the more quiet awkward but in reality clevere person." that would be people as "Laurel and Hardy." or even. "Timon and Pumba."
Funny how difference in status are never really used in reviewer duos isn't it?
I think some-thing like this happened kind of un-intentionally in I an Mr. Mendos cross-over of "Batman Returns." I became the energetic fun and Mendo became the down to earth straight man.
People commented calling our chemistry refreshing and wonderful, when in reality I think the refreshing but just was we had a "Funny man straight man." act all of a sudden, maybe we should expand on that one day Mendo?
I can’t give you a definitive answer to this, I can’t give an definitive answer to anything, all I can do is trying to make you aware of what you are doing. And when you are aware, maybe you can play more around with it.
That is all I can give you, play around with all of this, have fun.
Your stage (In this case what is in front of the camera.) is your play ground and you are the playing child, it is your job to make this game as fun as possible by simply using your imagination and be free.
Only you would react as you do in certain situations, only you can write your kind of video and act it out in your way.
Next time; emerging with a character.