Notes

In this video, I have seen so many extremely talent actors and actress who are students from all over the America. This video has record all the way frome they parking to the first show. I have seen they put so much effort on their work. They practice every night, and some of them even work until midnight. Even though they are talented, but they still need someone to teach them, so I also saw how they improve themselves to a higher level. They present not only with skills, but also with their own emotion. They had made the show alive. 

Setting is not easy!

Recently I have finished a scene which is a scene in a famous TV show called Friends. Friends is one of my favorite TV shows not only because it was the first that I saw, but also a great show which made me cry. When I decided to act this scene, I was so happy and worried because I did not know that if I would ruin this show or not, and I also wanted to make this scene perfect.

However, we had so many troubles when we were doing the scene, and there were three main problems that made the whole scene harder to do. The first one was that I could not find a good place to set up the living room like the one in the TV show, so Ms. Guarino took us to the black box to find a good place for the scene. We were lucky because we found a enough place, and we also find other tools that we needed such as bracelet. Another trouble was that we were little hurry, so we cannot make the scene one minute and 45 seconds. However, we did it in 55 seconds at the first time which was too short to show. Then, we practiced it with more actions such as smiles and funny faces. Finally, we made it one minute and 54 secons. The last problem for us was that I didn't do well at the first time because I showed my back to the audience, so I fixed my position many times. Then I found a good position for me, and I handled it. Also, at the first time, we did not move much which made the whole scene looked a little bit boring and short, so we add more position changes such as one running away and another one catching up. So the scene would looks more unaffectedly. Thus, it was a great scene that we all love it, and we put so many effort in it. I hope that  others will like it.

As we do all the scenes and practices, my skills have proved a lot. For example, I used to forget my lines so often; however, I can remember all my lines much faster and better than before. I am having so much fun in this class because we always do different scenes which brings me more colorful experiences. I am looking forward to have more classes in next semester.

Confidence Is Not Arrogance!

I saw The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at The Black Box Theater, Cheshire Academy. It was a excellent show. Every actor did his or her best job in the show, and I suggest that everone should go and see the play. I like the character Chip and Barfee so much because I learned one most important thing from them. The things is that we should always be confident, and we should never be arrogant.

We should always trust in ourselves. There is nothing that is impossible; however, people always doubt their abilities before they try to do something. For example, in the show The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the main charecter Barfee believes that he can spell words correctly because of her magic foot, but when Logainne's father spills coke on the floor, Barfee's magic foot doesn't work. He is so nervous and fear; however, he does spell the word correctly without the magic foot. At that moment, I saw that she jumps and yells excitedly and happily. This kind of thing happens not only in the show, but also in the real life. I remember when I was training my leg last night in weight room, I putted 9 plates on the machine, and each of them was 45 pounds. To be honest, I thought it was my limitation, but there was a sound in my head that kept saying a crazy idea "Maybe I can put one more each side". Actually, I did put one more each side, and I can handle it. I was tinking that if I never had that creazy thought, I could never know what I cnpan do. As we can see, we should always believe in ourselves and sometime we should push ourselves to break the limitation.

We should be confident, but we should never be arrogant. Lots of people become losers, and the reason is not because they don't have their skills. The real reason is because they over think their power, and they think that others have pour skill. In my opinion, the biggest enemy to us is always ourselves. I remember a main character who is called Chip. He was the champion of the last spelling bee, so he too confident to focus on the match. Then, he fall asleep during the game, and suddenly Vice-Principal calls him up to spell the word. However, he has erection, so he asks if he can escape this round. Vice-Principal says that Chip has to spell the word. Tittup is the word that Chip has to spell; however he spells "t i t u p" which is not correct because of a missing T. I am so sure that Chip knows how to spell that word, but his arrogance beats himself up. When I was in primary school, everytime my mom always asked about my test, and my answer was always good or great; however the truth was that I never did well on my test when I said that I did very well. The reason was that I would be less careful, if I knew how solve question. Thus, we should always be confident, and we also need to try our best in even every little thing, because details make things perfect.

As we all know, Barfee is the champion of the 25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee, and Chip was the champion last year. I consider that Chip and Barfee has the same abilities. The reason why Barfee is the champion instead of Chip is that Barfee finds his confidence back and Chip is too arrogant. Finally, there is one thing that we should never forget. It is that we should be confident not arrogant. 

It's Not Easy!

I have been working on a silent movie for nearly two weeks. I have learned three most important things from this project, and they are movements, plans and timing. In my opinion, those three things make a silent movie better because it helps actors to represent the show. However, I did not do well at the first time, so it was pretty bad. I had learned from every single acting, and I improved a lot. Thus, let me tell you how important those three things are by my own experience and details.

First of all, we should always focus on our movements when we are acting. For example, when the first time I practiced for the silent movie, I showed my back to the camera for a long time which was too bad. I remember a post in Ms. Guarino's classroom said that we should never show our back to the people who is watching our show. The second time, I moved faster and more smoothly, so I can give a better show to the audience. Another example is that we should do the moments more turgidly because we do not have a dialogue in a silent movie. We have to represent all informations by our reactions and face, so we improved our movements such as we pushed each other harder and recorded the face reaction. As we can see, movements are one of the biggest part of our presenting, and we should work on them harder.

Next main thing is that we should always have a plan before we make a silent movie. At the biggining, we spent a while period to write what we were going to show; however, we still need to change during the practice, so it is very important to have a plan. After we recorded all the videos, we need to put them together and get it done, but I didn't have a good plan for it, so we had a hard time to finish it which was a big trouble. Finally, plans can help so many things in a movie, so remember that we should always have our plans.

The last things is timing. Timing is important because timing can make a show better. For instence, in this silent movie our tempo is back ground music, so we need to control our tempo to show the different situation in the right time. The first time we practiced was not very good at timing because we did not know how long we should spent on every scene. The result was that we can make the movie represent what we thought it should be. I highly suggest that we should know how to use the time and tempo to show a better movie.

Finally, I am so glad that we had took this silent movie, because I never made a movie. I used to act, but I did not decided what I should do, and choose everything for the movie. To be honest, it was harder than I thought it would be, and this was a just a two minutes silent movie. What if it is a two hours movie, it will be too hard for me. I still need to learn more and more stuff. First ting I should do is that I will have a good plan, moments and timing for the next show.

Silent movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHddILsMnmk

Monologue

http://youtu.be/EMW3wGuqICY

Emotions & Feeling

We have been working on monologues for two weeks. It is a hard time for me to working on different types of monologues, such as calling friends and making a speech. The first time I did the monologue is not very good; because, I cannot understand part of the situation. Some times, I have to change my acting style in one monologue; for example, the first monologue I did is that a teenage boy calls one of his friend for lots times in different ways. I find two most important things taht will help me to show a monologue better, and they are emotions and feeling.

Emotions can help us to find the right way to act, and it also can help us to show better. I remember when I did my first monologue, I had to change my emotions 5 times. First time was that I had to talk with parents more sieriously. Then, I had to speak exciting, when I talk with my friends. However, I had a bad calling experience with my friends, so I was angry with my friends. I still wanted my to play with me, so I was sorry to my friends. During those changes I cannot did at the first time, so I connect it with my real experience. Then, I can use all my emoptions in the monologue. I suggest that we need to study chacters’ emotions before we act them, because emotions can make acting more real and vivid. As we can see, emotions are very important things to learn.

Feeling is another thing that we need to consider, when we are acting. Every times, when we are acting, we need to think about the characters’ feeling in the situations. The first time I did my second monologue was bad, because my feeling was not correct; my feeling was not confident enough, and my pronunciation was wrong. For example, I standed without power and my vioce was not loud enough. After Ms. Gurino told me what I should to improve, I tried it again with the right feeling which is confident and strong. Second time was much better than the first one. As we can see, we need more time to study the feeling during the acting, and it is very important to us.

At the end, I want to talk about what I learned from this class. I learned what should I do to make my acting more successful, such as body languages, tone, vioce, and background. My acting skills are getting better. However, I still need to improve my other skills, for example I cannot remember all my words, and I have a hard time to think the main thing I need to show, so I may need more time to work on my memorying. I do had a good time in this class. I think I will take this class next year. I hope taht I can learn more and more things in this calss, and one day I can act at Cheshire Academy theater!