1/28/09

Wednesday, January 28

Voice
Technically, I am still on Vocal Rest, but my status has been upgraded. My Voice Professor says that I may now use "Limited Voice". What she means by that is that I'm allowed to talk if I deem it necessary during the workshops this week (noise production during Stage Combat moves, and lines during On Camera). But I'm sort of using my own definition (because being silent sucks, and is really hard to do with people all around). What I'm doing is: no whispering, no speaking loudly, no trying to talk over other sounds, and no leading conversations. I'm still hydrating heavily, taking some cold meds (the kinds my Voice Professor approves of, that is), and generally taking it easy.

I also got an e-mail from my Voice Professor with some notes on things to work on. She says that during the David Brunetti Musical Theatre workshop (you may have seen the video I posted of myself singing) that my "s" sounds again became overly sibilant (they're much better now when I'm speaking, but apparently singing makes me do them the wrong way again). She wants me to drill my "s" sounds when singing, concentrating on forward placement.

She also wrote that I did an excellent job on my Sending & Landing exam, but that I need to keep paying attention to my "L" sounds. I need to make sure that I'm bringing the tip of my tongue up to my alveolar ridge. (This was a problem I already knew about... I know HOW to fix it, but I've been doing it the wrong way for so long that I often do it incorrectly without thinking about it.)


Stage Combat Workshop
I actually have some experience with stage combat, but pretty much all of my history with it involved weaponry. Here, we are being instructed only in hand-to-hand combat (which is probably the most useful thing to learn anyway... particularly for women). In your 2nd-year, you go through the "recognition exam" with someone from the SAFD in order to get certified (which just means that you can do hand-to-hand combat without hurting anyone; it does NOT qualify you to be a fight director). It sounds like the certification is one of those things that probably won't actually get you work, but is a good thing to have under your belt (and it won't hurt your résumé).

The goal of stage combat is to create the illusion of a fight without anyone ever actually being in any danger of getting hurt. We want the audience to fear for the characters without ever being worried about the actors.

Our instructor is a pretty funny guy, and he's good at instructing things from multiple angles (showing us a couple of ways to achieve the same goal, explaining what this would do to the body if it were an ACTUAL kick/punch/slap/etc., saying the common mistakes people make that result in injuries).

Our first day (Tuesday) was falls, pushes, shoves, slaps, and punches. Our second day (today) was kicks (including groin kicks), choking, a grab, and some floor work. We have one small bit of choreography that we do in pairs.

It's amazing how stage combat moves are sold through acting. By establishing a relationship between the characters and telling a story through the movement, it becomes something more than just the choreography. It's really very neat.


On Camera Workshop
Yesterday we got into groups of three and wrote 1-minute screenplays. One person in the group was the director, and the other two were actors. The director had to work into the script ways to get the actors to "hit marks" into close-ups (i.e. no zoom), and to have the camera pan (move side to side) and tilt (move up and down). My director was Thrill, and the other actor was 2nd-year AG. Our scene was about two roommates who were arguing over which one could have the dorm room with her boyfriend that night.

It was interesting to see just how different all the scenes ended up being. One involved a funeral, one involved a divorce, one ended in murder. They were seriously all over the map.

Today we screened the scenes from yesterday (each scene filmed two takes) and discussed them from an acting perspective. Some things work on film that do not work on stage, and vice versa. For example, it seems like we can put down a lot of what we learn in Voice class when it comes to screen (microphones pick up volume without us using our powers of projection, and crisp enunciation occasionally sounds out of place). Also, close-ups pick up everything on your face, whereas shots from far away really only get body language (not that we should wear bags over our heads, but there's not a lot you can get from faces).

We started getting in pairs to do monologues. The scene was filmed with the two people sitting in chairs, and the camera showing the back on one person's shoulder with the other's face. The actors were filmed one at a time (the one delivering the monologue and the one reacting to the monologue). I'm paired with 2nd-year KFH, but we'll be going tomorrow.

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