UNIT 3- silent movie project

Unit 3- Silent Movie Project 

3\11\16

We started the lesson with an introduction to a the new assignment (The silent movie project). My initial thoughts of this project is that it is going to be very difficult as we are not allowed to talk or use dialogue to develop a story, and the acting has to be over the top almost in the style of 'commedia dell arte' instead of being naturalistic. That is why being self conscious and caring about what people think will not make you successful in this project.
Then we continued to do a isolation exercise this warm up was well suited to the workshop as it made us conscious of our bodies and really helped me to focus on each body part at a time.
After this we carried on to do a mime technique exercise where we had to mime an iron bar. During this exercise as an actor I found it useful to imagine the bar was actually there, for this I recalled techniques from Stanislavsky's sense memory strategy, that I have briefly studied outside of collage.
Next we was put in pairs and instructed to allocated roles of either a waiter or a customer in a restaurant, for this exercise I was a customer. No dialogue was used, the waiter had to simply mime serving a drink and I had to drink it, imagining the glass was really there. however me and my partner took on the challenge of elaborating by the waiter spilling the drink. I found this exercise difficult as i had to be aware of my physical movements and how they would look to the audience.  
To conclude the lesson in the same pairs the created a 30 second performance that  was influenced by music (the strangler- turn the centuries turn). After hearing the music we both agreed that the scene had to be very action packed and dramatic. 

6/11/16

Today we started with another isolation warm up this built awareness of our bodies. Then we did a miming exercise where we had to clean our teeth. I found this difficult as we had to do it in front of the class. People who used facial expressions and believed the mime where successful at this task. After this we completed a task where we had to make a short comedy based mime piece. To conclude the lesson we researched videos of Charlie Chaplin and Nosferatu. This gave me a better idea of what a silent movie actually is and what we are aiming to create.

7/11/16

We started with an isolation warm up. Then we put into groups and given a title. Our title is 'The Missing' we had to make a 5 minute performance based on our title. We performed our pieces with dialogue. The next day we removed the dialogue and then re-performed them. it was interesting to observe how the other groups became a lot more physical as they could not speak, and used their facial expressions to express emotion.

My first movement lesson included a lot of stretches which helped me warm my muscles and focus on my flexibility. I also learnt a few short motifs that we spent time learning properly and keeping the rhythm. This was my first dance lesson with Mandy, then there was a fire drill so we did not get to finish the lesson.

9/11/16

Our teachers didn't turn up to our lessons today.

10/11/16

Today in drama we started our silent movie story boards. This required us to work as a group and for everyone to commit and contribute. Our silent movie had to be based on the given title 'cops and robbers'. We didn't finish our story boards, however we had writing for all the boxes, we just needed to draw pictures.

13/11/16

Blog session

Finished our story board

14/11/16

We started with a full body and vocal warm up this helped our bodies and minds to focus,
we then continued to do a improvisation game called 'this is not a book'. This helped improve our improvisation skills as it required us to think on the spot, and made us more confident with taking risks. To conclude the lesson we completed an activity where we was given the beginning of a script and was instructed to learn it, and then improvise a scene and add a story behind it that related to the script.

16/11/16

Working in the dance studio for a change, we were given scripts to develop on with our partners, after we were done performing what was on the script, we then had to add onto it based around what we thought the script was originally about. For example me and my partner decided that it would be about adoption and the visitation of the sister to her birth parents, the brother disagrees with her choice and begins to get defensive because he had 'protected' her all her life. Once the sister has left the brother kills himself and the sister finds out that her mum has died, after rushing back to him to tell him that their mum is dead she then finds her brother also dead on the floor. This was really fun to create and act as it was all very emotional and dramatic. 

17/11/16

-Blog session

-Today in our acting lesson we worked with Rob and he helped us develop our silent movie story boards. Our group had difficulties agreeing with what should be included on the story board.

20/11/16

- Blog session

- We developed our story board into bullet points, to make it simpler and easier to understand. As a group we are finding it difficult to work together as a group and agree on a story line as we all have different interpretations of comedy.

21/11/16

- Acting lesson 

- We started a lesson with telling a partner about our morning, then we got into bigger groups and mimed out the events of our morning. This was difficult as we all had different mornings so working in groups on this activity was a good challenge. For this we used cross-cutting, and we all acted our own individual mornings at one time, but different groups found other ways of over coming that problem.

-Movement lesson

-We started with a full body warm up then we got separated into groups and created a simple 4 count walking pattern to music. I found this quite easy to do on my own but getting the whole group to co-operate was a difficulty.

23/11/16

- I was absent

24/11/16 

- I was absent

27/11/16

- Blog lesson

- Completed personal achievements on Pro Portal

- Acting lesson

- We spent the lesson getting our silent movie on our feet. We also thought about what props and costumes we might need.

28/11/16

- Acting lesson

- We started with a vocal warm up repeating the consonants of the alphabet this helps warm up our voice and helps pronunciation, we then completed a series of activities that focused on eye contact and status. 

-  Movement lesson

- We started the lesson with a physical warm up. Then continued to do stretches, this helped warm up our muscles so we didn't hurt ourselves while dancing. After this we were separated into groups and made walking patterns. This meant we was focusing on interesting ways to walk and move in time to the music as a group.

2/12/16- 

Acting lesson- To start today lesson we learnt a tongue twister 'which switch miss, is the right switch to Ipswich miss?'  We then continued to an improvisation activity where we where given an environment and to improvise a scene based on the location you was given. For example me and my partner where in a jungle. This was fun as we had to think on our feet, and just go with the first thought that came into our heads and not fear judgement. 

3/12/16- 

- Blog lesson

- Worked more on blogs

- Acting lesson

- We started with a vocal and physical warm up. We all wrote a short phrase on a scrap of paper. Then a pair would chose a scrap of paper and would have to incorporate our given line into the improvisation. This was interesting to watch as well as perform, as I could see the thought process of a lot of the actors. We did this activity till the end of the lesson. 

6/12/16

- No lessons

7/12/16

- No lessons

9/12/16

- Had no lessons as we watched the 2nd year level 3's Peter Pan pantomime. I was very impressed with how well the stage was lighted and the props where interesting and relevant to the story the actors where telling. I think all the characters where presented very well by the actors, this made it very easy to follow the story line. The cast seemed to work as an ensemble, as everyone committed to their character so they can play off each other when things went wrong. It was good to see the actors portray their characters physically and vocally extremely well. Especially with the character Captain hook, he acted so well that we could start to the characters thought process which made the audience laugh. There was a very good sense of comedy to the show and a nice verity of singing and dancing too. The costumes where great and everyone looked the part.

10/12/16

- We had no lessons as our teachers were working with the level 3's on the pantomime.



20/1/17-  we created a live silent movie performance for the show for my cops and robbers group as we didn't have enough time to film ours as rob was busy working with the level 3s for their pantomime

Tuesday 28th Feburary

Today we had our final silent movie performance at the Camdens peoples theater, the audience got to enjoy a showcase of our silent movies and also some live silent performances where we collaborated with the music students. I t was lots of fun and very rewarding.