Studio Shoot 6- Nigel Bristow's Acting Workshop (Part 2)

During day two of the workshop, we looked at several things and took part in some interactive games to put us in an actor or actress' shoes.

Second Day of the workshop:

. We firstly looked at Performance and how Tone can change the meaning of a line/situation. The situation was the Male character was trying to get rid of the female character, by making her 'disappear'. The situation would escalate depending on the male character's tone when delivering the line. When the male character aggressively asked her to "Disappear' she was more close up and open with her anger, whereas when he had a softer tone to his voice and delivered the line, she reacted less aggressively. This intrigued me as it goes to show how the littlest of tone/tempo changes in the performance given by an actor/actress can give off a completely different mood and change the situation completely.

. We were then split into two groups of 10 and we played an interactive game were made to stand in a circle and one by one each person would walk into the center and say a number (starting from one, so one person walks into the center, eventually leading to 10 people walking into the center of the circle at the same time). If two people for example walked into the center of the circle and said 'One' then the whole game would restart. I felt the game was a trust exercise/teamwork building exercise to keep us on our toes, which played with Perception, and how focused we were on peoples movement/performance.

. The next exercise was another interactive game that required two volunteers (Molly and Ulysses, Nick and Rob took part). The game was simple. One character was the protector of the 'Hampshire Stone' who stood still protecting the stone, holding a sword (A roll of Greenscreen paper). The other was a thief, trying to steal the stone from the protector. Firstly, Ulysses and Molly had to pretend they had their eyes closed, even though they didn't, which was the same for Nick and Rob who followed. This brought out the performance element between the two characters as they had to act like they couldn't see anything and put on a performance. This made for an interesting performance by Ulysses, who used dialogue to try and shake Molly off. This was the same for Nick and Rob's performance. They then were made to do it again but actually close their eyes. This resorted in the character's listening closely for movement, as before they could see each other. This made for a much more interesting experience as it was funny seeing both sets of characters wander completely away from where the 'Stone' was. This also made for a tenser experience as none of us were sure if the protector would hit the thief with the 'Sword' because they couldn't see each other so they had to guess their movement.

. We then were told, in groups, to stand with enough space to move our arms, and walk in only straight lines in the space given to us. This resulted in few collisions. We were then however made to only move in curvy lines, which resulted in a more interesting and crazy experience, as people were less in control of their movement, resulting in collisions and a funny experience.

. We then looked at character importance, and how high each character was in the 'chain'. The film we looked at was 'Out of Sight' (1998) starring stars such as George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez Steve Zahn. The four characters all varied in importance and the scene involved a Two vs Two situation, with the leader and there accomplice. Me, Nick, Rob and Ulysses volunteered and I played 'White Boy Bob', one of the character's who was easily teased for being so big. We were made to stand depending on how we were being represented in the scene, so for example my character was being made fun of at several times in the sequence, so I had to crouch down and 'Lower' myself depending on the level of respect and importance I had at the time. A lot of the time I was crouching and 'Glenn Michaels', played by Ulysses at the time spent a lot of time laying down almost as his character had little/no respect being given to him. This gave me an interesting insight to character performance and social status of character's, which is something I didn't think so much about when it comes to making a film.

. We lastly looked at the delivery of lines, and how that can change the outcome of a situation (Similar to what we looked at the beginning of the lesson) and a combination of everything we'd learnt was put into this sequence at the end of the lesson. The actor and actress were made to re-enact a short part of the sequence we read previously, and would mix in Performance and Tone (how they deliver their lines) with the previous game where we moved in straight lines/curvy lines. They would do this depending on their character's social status (looked at in the previous game) so when one character was being overpowered by the other, they would begin to move in curvy lines and only stop if their character gained control of the situation. This was interesting to see this be performed.

Overall I feel I learnt a lot from the workshop about directing actors/actress' to get the best possible outcome. The interactive exercises helped me understand what it must be like for an actor/actress, so I feel I have more of an understanding when it comes to performance, so I can be more verbal with the actor/actress I am working with to get the performance I want.