Monologue

So far I have seen Jack and Cade's first monologue and both of them are great monologue. For Cade's monologue he can do either angry and aggressive or comedic, so I will aks him to try both ways and see which one he likes better. For Jack I think the monologue will be focusing on pacing, so the audience will truly believe that he is talking to someone on the phone. I read Jack's blog about the background and character, and I want to see how he shows us the awkwardness. And I am looking forward working with them. 

Different Perspective!

This is the third time I take this class, so I have done so many works about silent movie. However, this time is so different than others because I am a director instead of an actor. To be honest, director is much harder than I thought, and it is also much more interesting than I except it would be.  I especially enjoyed three parts of this group project, and they are staging, costuming and video editing. As a director, I could see the show in the audience position, so I can make the change to make it better as soon as I find out there is a problem. And I couldn't do it before as an actor which is helping me more with my staging skills. I also need to find the costume for all the actors which is a pretty fun process because as an actor I might feel uncomfortable or shy to try costumes that I never tried before, but as a director I always have some crazy costumes for them because I know better how they looks when I see them for the audience’s perspective. The last thing is video editing, and I am trying to make it better and better than before.

I used to work as an actor with other classmates, so when we are working together we normally stage it naturally with our own understanding of our characters, so sometimes it looks not so good from audience side. And this is also why we need to video our work and watch it, or we will not know what we do wrong and what we need to work on more. However, I can now see the staging all the time, so I can make all the change i need immediately. For example, in this silent movie, Jaden and Jack kept blocking each other, but they didn't realize because they were focusing on the fighting scene with William. If I was not watching this scene, I would not notice this problem which can cause confusion. I am very happy that I can be a director because I will be more careful in the future acting.

The other thing I really enjoy is costuming, and this is the greatest part of this silent movie project. At the beginning, everyone in my group wants a girl character in the movie, so it wil make it more funny. Then I had the idea of dressing a boy up as a girl, and I was impressed that Cade is a such talented actor who is so brave to try a girl’s dress and make it even more hilarious than my expectation. To be honest, I was not thinking that Cade would wear that pink dress, but as an actor he showed his great ability to handle things that people cannot handle in daily life. Other actors also showed their abilities to make a amazing ninja silent movie.For example, I enjoyed the chemistry between students and master, and they made their props which are swords and cane be one of their best tool  to make the scene such a pleasure.

The last thing and the most important thing is the production which is the video. I used to use only one music for my first silent movie and then I used four different music for my my second silent movie. But this time I used not only musics but also so many sound effects in the movie. For example, I put cheering sound when the master catch the paper flight. I honestly enjoyed the process of editing videos because every time I see people love my videos I feel so happy. And thought this processes I learned more and more so I can make my videos better and better and make audiences enjoy more.

I want to thank everyone who helps me to make this super successful silent movie, and I am looking forward to work more with all of my classmates. Different perspective gives me all new ideas of staging, costuming and video editing, and these ideas are helping me to improve all my skills. So far I'm enjoying all the directing work and I hop it can help me to improve myself and make me a better actor. Hope we will all enjoy this class even more.

Silent movie Kill Sam

http://youtu.be/dNgmxl0wVgI

It's John Again?!!!

Hi this is John again, and this is the third time I take Acting class! Since the first time I took this class, I started loving acting because I never get tired with it. It started at the first play I saw last year which was Galileo, and I was surprised by the play because I didn't expect that they did such a great job. After I saw the play I decided to start doing acting things, so I took my first acting class. When I was in China I used to do a lot of different performance, but I had never done any English performance, so I started my English acting life here.

In my first acting class I learned a new thing called theater and play which is so different from a movie, and the play is more interesting than movie because you can never find two exact same play even with exact same crew and cast, but a movie is always the same. After my first acting class, I made my mind to join in the theater for the afternoon activity, and I did. The first English play I did in the spring was Peter Pan, and I have to say this play changed my life. Through the process of the play, I had made so many good friends from different place and they are all talented. Before I joined this play, I was blocking myself in the Chinese circle which was my comfort zone. However, Peter Pan brought my out of my little circle, and now I am in a huge globe. It also changed my goals and plans for my future. I was thinking to major in business, so I can help with my family, but I realized that my heart is set for acting and theater. So, now I will major in theater in college, and I will keep doing it in the future.

Because of my decisions, I have to learn more and more about theater not just acting, and that is why I am here in this class again. I want to learn more about directing, stage settingh and costuming. The more I learn the more harder I find theater is because I know that a play includes so many details, and some of them the audience may not even notice, but we have to have them because the play has to be realistic. For example, I changed my cane twice to represent the difference and connection between Mr. Darling and Curly. However, only one person noticed this small change. Even though, I know only one person will see that, I still do it because this one small change is a part of characters. I am looking forward to work and learn more deeply, and I wish we can all improved ourselves at the end of the semester!