Acting Class: Week 6

This was sadly our final acting lesson, in which we were able to present and apply what we have learned over the course of these lessons. The lesson began with our final few rounds of ninja (somehow I won each round) which was followed by us setting up a scene in a western saloon, with everyone assigned characters and roles by Dan which we would swap over each turn, where we applied a great amount of tension, as one person would enter the room, the whole room would go quite, all of us in fear and defensiveness of this 'baddest gunslinger in the west'. Once the gunslinger had left the saloon the whole room returned to normal of piano playing, gambling and drinking.

Our final exercise was that we were split into two groups in which we were to apply everything we've learnt from the last few weeks into a performance of something that has happened in our life. These scenes featured mostly retail, where a complaining woman asks for a refund on a jacket and while waiting for the manager to appear, in fact bites the zip, and a Sweet shop where a crazy chicken ran into the shop after the shopkeeper's glasses fell off, followed by the local naked hipster appeared looking for the chicken. A very crazy story inspired by a collection of dreams in our groups lives.

I've really enjoyed taking part in these acting classes and feel sad that we won't be partaking in these lessons anymore, but I will try to apply everything that I have learnt over these weeks to creating status, tension, and more characterful and readable animations.

Acting Class: Week 4

This week the class began with a few rounds of ninja, and shortly followed by the whole class walking around the room, making exaggerated movements, and when Dan would clap we would have to stop in our pose, and then act out an action based upon our frozen stature. I ended up becoming a ballet dancer and a flamingo prancing around the room.

After this exercise, one of us would move into a position, and another member of the class would have to react to this pose, and once Dan clapped again, we would freeze and another person would have to pick up from that pose. Many of the scenes included a day at the beach, taking a selfie, finding a dead body.

The final exercise in this week's class was that a variety of random objects were spread across the floor, one person would leave the room, and the remaining class members would have to think of an action from a certain item for the performer to perform, and to lead them into these actions the audience would use clapping in a type of 'hot and cold', more clapping for how correct the person is with each object, the height of being held, how the object is held, and the action. These involved using a hat to beg for money, a dustpan for a tennis racket, and a wig for a pet.

Acting Class: Week 3

For our third class we explored the idea of high and low status reflected in body language, such as wide and open, with more slower movements, taking time and full of power for high status, whereas for low status would be quite twitchy, out of place, shorter posture and more closed together. We selected a card from a deck and the number reflect how we would act walking in, sitting down, introducing ourselves, and then walking back out of the room, the higher the number the more high status, whereas the lower the number the more low status. We then had an exercise where one person in the room would be the one and only high status, ordering all the low status servants to do their bidding. Finally we were paired up and performed an improvised scene in which we were each given an objective with an opposing status position than the partner, such as a high status mother and a low status daughter, with the positioning of the two contrasting each other greatly reflecting their status, such as a low status being on the floor to emphasise how high status the other would be.

Acting Class 1 & 2

For our first lesson we introduced ourselves and after a few games to introduce us to movement and action we were put into pairs and told to mould our partner into several roles such as 'lion tamer', 'army cadet' etc to demonstrate how to make clear poses that show the role without action, and how tiny details such as how a person's hand is positioned can be all the difference in showing the audience if the person is holding a pair of cards or smoking a cigar. To finish the lesson we were put into small groups of three and did a similar task but instead of just one person posing for one scene, we were all posing in three scenes to tell a short story. The clarity of poses in big gestures as well in the tiny details such as a slight movement of a wrist or the fingers will help in posing characters as well as animating them to show the audience exactly what is happening.

For our second lesson we took the clarity in posing and put that into actual acting to show the audience exactly what is happening. We were put into pairs to practise our performance of our morning routine which we then performed in front of the class, being put into pairs helped us in developing our morning routines into a performance by helping the other with small details, such as instead of just switching the alarm off the phone, but instead actually turning the alarm off and then playing around on the phone for a few moments before waking up for the day, or such as when washing in the mirror adding the detail of wiping away sleep in the eyes.