blog prompt 3

3. What about your character do you think is the most interesting? What are you most excited or concerned about portraying about your character? How can you use the physical inventory to help you develop your performance?

I think it’s pretty interesting that Cindy is the secretary for the CEO of a successful shoe company at age 25.  It seems pretty young to have made it that far in life, and is something I think she should be proud of.  Right now, at age 20, I work at a grocery store and a library, at the bottom of both jobs.  I can’t imagine working for the CEO of any successful company in just five years.  One thing that I thought was interesting when Carlos was describing this character to me, was how much she reminded me of my old assistant manager when I used to work at Payless.  For some of the questions that I didn’t quite know how to answer as Cindy, I just guessed what my assistant manager, Shannon, would have said.  I think it is kind of fascinating to see how the final product of Cindy will be made up partially of what Carlos had imagined, and partially of a former assistant manager that I had to work with.

I think the thing that I am the most excited about portraying this character is that the character reminds me of someone who I used to know, and somehow that seems to give me a feeling that I know this character slightly more than I would without knowing someone in real life.  I think the thing that I am the most concerned about portraying this character is that I do not completely understand how to portray the voice of Cindy.  When I speak normally, It’s usually quite clear that it is a man’s voice.  I also do not want to do the generic female voice where a man just lazily talks in a high pitch.  I am hoping that I will somehow be able to find a happy medium of speaking in a slightly higher pitch than I normally do, and finding an accent that somewhat correlates with this proposed Cindy character.

Using the skills from the Physical Life Inventory to help develop my acting practice can be extremely handy as it nicely displays each side of representing a character.  A lot of these I would most likely overlook.  Reading some of the Physical Life Inventory questions reminded me of how we acted during our first silent performances in class.  I still need to focus on all of my movements when trying to play a different character.  However, I am sure with time and practice, it may just come to me more naturally than it does right now. 

blog prompt 2

How can you use the skills from your Physical Life Inventory to your acting practice? How would it help you as an actor more generally? How can you use it for a specific character?

When I was first handed the Physical Life Inventory, I figured that I would already know the answers about myself, having been myself for 20 years.  I was actually thoroughly surprised to find out that I needed to stand, walk around, and sit down and think about what I was doing to actually answer a good amount of the questions.  This especially applied to questions like the active motion questions, such as “Is your pattern of movement fluid and effortless or jerky and labored?  How obvious is the changing of gears as you accelerate or change direction?”

Applying the skills from the Physical Life Inventory to my acting practice can be very useful as it truly breaks down every single aspect of portraying a character, many of which I, and many other inexperienced actors would probably easily overlook.  I, myself, have never acted in any performances on stage, but I have seen many throughout high school as I worked backstage or lights during the performances.  Between watching the official shows with an audience, and the numerous rehearsals during tech week, I saw many of the performances several times over. I believe I saw footloose on stage a total of 11 times.   From witnessing these official performances, and numerous rehearsals, I did notice that the actors tended to be much more animated than they were when they were just at school during our classes.  Reading some of the Physical Life Inventory questions reminded me of how the actors would act during the shows.  For the time being, I really need to focus on all of my actions when attempting to portray another character, although I am sure over time, it will perhaps come to me more naturally than it does now.  

One might be able to use the Physical Life Inventory for a specific character the way we did for our performances in class on Wednesday, January 14th.  For the assignment, I had observed my sister.  I figured I had been mocking and imitating her for years just to annoy her, so I was probably somewhat decent at doing it for school purposes.  The Physical Life Inventory helped pinpoint certain aspects of how she acts that I otherwise would not have thought to have considered when portraying her.

Blog Promt 1

How would you describe "good" acting? What experience have you had as an actor? What skills would you like to work on this semester? What kind of feedback about your acting would you like from me as we move through the semester?

I would describe good acting as someone who can play a variety of roles that are completely different from one another. One example of someone who I think can be good at playing different roles is James Franco.  I do not believe he is the greatest actor, but he does play humorous roles well such as Saul, the drug dealer from Pineapple Express (2008), or parodying himself in This Is The End (2013).  However, James Franco is also able to pull off more serious roles such as Will Rodman, the scientist looking for a cure for Parkinson’s disease in Planet of the Apes (2011).  Will Smith also applies to this, in my opinion.  He started off being hilarious and incredibly animated in Fresh Prince of BeI-Air (1990-1996). He then went on to do more serious films like I, Robot (2004), I am Legend (2007), and Seven Pounds (2008), while reminding his fans that he can still be funny in Hancock (2008).  I would also describe good acting as someone who can truly convince me that they’re actually going through whatever their character is going through.  This is kind of related to action sequences such as the actor really just got shot, or is actually jumping out of a speeding car, etc.  However, this is mostly related to psychological things, such as the character really is scared or in love.  If an actor appears to be faking it, it’s not very good acting.

 
The only acting I have ever done has been in front of cameras, I have never acted on a stage before. 

 However, I did work on many theatrical productions in high school, so I definitely have been exposed 

to acting that’s good, at least to a high school’s standards.  Certain skills I would like to improve on is 

knowing how to act in front of people, since it seems like it's harder than acting in front of a camera. 

 Helpful feedback would probably be to tell me what I'm doing wrong, and how to do it right.  That 

may sound a little basic, but I suppose I mean to tell me how to improve, rather than just telling me 

what I am doing wrong or telling me that I was bad.