Screen Acting, Thursday Afternoon
Daisy was quite unhappy with being doomed to teach. At least the school seemed to have a decent budget for it. She perched on the edge of a table at the front of the class with a glass of water, an arrangement of handheld cameras, tripods, boom mikes, and other sorts of film things behind her.
"Right. Let's get this thing going, shall we? I'm Daisy. Daisy Adair. This is Screen Acting. In case you were wondering, yes, I'm an actress. Yes, I've been in movies, and no, you probably haven't seen those movies. Moving right along. Let's do that little introduction thingy that all teachers seem to love. Tell me your name, first and last, and a middle initial, please, as well as why you're taking this workshop, and what your favorite thing about movies is. Heck, I know, grab a camera and a partner, and take a shot at filming each other's introductions. Might as well dive right in, right?"
Once that was done with, Daisy set down her glass. "So, screen acting. What is it? How is it different from acting on stage? Well, the first and most obvious thing is this: the camera is much closer than a theater audience. Sometimes so close you think it's going to whack you in the head, but I assure you that very seldom happens, and when it does, it's usually not fatal. What that means is that everything you do has to be that much more real. Think of it as lying really well, if that makes you happy.
"There are a few basic rules to screen acting. Always remember exactly what you do, and I mean exactly, when you're in a scene. Never look at the camera unless the director tells you to do so. Be prepared for long, boring hours standing around on your feet, and always make sure that you know where the food services table is. Which we don't have for this class, sorry."
Daisy picked up her glass again. "The only rule for this class is no divas. I'm the only diva allowed. We're going to be working on producing short films, with everyone working behind and in front of the camera. At the end of the course, we'll show them off, to each other or to the school or something, I don't really care. So let's get started, shall we? Let's make a scene. Don't worry about shots or angles or anything like that, just yet, let's just figure out what our movies are going to be about."
Daisy started writing things on the chalk board. "Right. First you'll need characters. Who the hell is in the scene? They're going to want something. Have some motivation. If they both want the same thing, that's boring. You need conflict. You need a setting. Are they in a park, a classroom, at war? Figure these things out in a group of two or more, then play around with it. Pick a character, and see where your scene takes you. Next week we'll start going more into the mechanics of it all."
[ooc: wait for it, OCD is up. If you want interaction from Daisy, it'd be best to ping in the evenings Eastern time, though I'll try to catch anything any time.]
"Right. Let's get this thing going, shall we? I'm Daisy. Daisy Adair. This is Screen Acting. In case you were wondering, yes, I'm an actress. Yes, I've been in movies, and no, you probably haven't seen those movies. Moving right along. Let's do that little introduction thingy that all teachers seem to love. Tell me your name, first and last, and a middle initial, please, as well as why you're taking this workshop, and what your favorite thing about movies is. Heck, I know, grab a camera and a partner, and take a shot at filming each other's introductions. Might as well dive right in, right?"
Once that was done with, Daisy set down her glass. "So, screen acting. What is it? How is it different from acting on stage? Well, the first and most obvious thing is this: the camera is much closer than a theater audience. Sometimes so close you think it's going to whack you in the head, but I assure you that very seldom happens, and when it does, it's usually not fatal. What that means is that everything you do has to be that much more real. Think of it as lying really well, if that makes you happy.
"There are a few basic rules to screen acting. Always remember exactly what you do, and I mean exactly, when you're in a scene. Never look at the camera unless the director tells you to do so. Be prepared for long, boring hours standing around on your feet, and always make sure that you know where the food services table is. Which we don't have for this class, sorry."
Daisy picked up her glass again. "The only rule for this class is no divas. I'm the only diva allowed. We're going to be working on producing short films, with everyone working behind and in front of the camera. At the end of the course, we'll show them off, to each other or to the school or something, I don't really care. So let's get started, shall we? Let's make a scene. Don't worry about shots or angles or anything like that, just yet, let's just figure out what our movies are going to be about."
Daisy started writing things on the chalk board. "Right. First you'll need characters. Who the hell is in the scene? They're going to want something. Have some motivation. If they both want the same thing, that's boring. You need conflict. You need a setting. Are they in a park, a classroom, at war? Figure these things out in a group of two or more, then play around with it. Pick a character, and see where your scene takes you. Next week we'll start going more into the mechanics of it all."
[ooc: wait for it, OCD is up. If you want interaction from Daisy, it'd be best to ping in the evenings Eastern time, though I'll try to catch anything any time.]