I realized that I haven't finished my reflection on the acting workshop with James III, yet, so I will do so in two separate posts. One will be for the purely Shakespeare acting, the other will be for the improv workshop.
Shakespeare:
We moved on from Sonnets to small scenes. The actors that were in the musical did their scenes from The Taming of the Shrew, and the rest of us did small scenes or monologues from The Tempest.
Before all that, we did an interesting exercise on "O's." I think doing the warm ups was my favorite part of the workshop, but this was my favorite exercise.
For the exercise, we got a card with an emotion on it. We had to say "O" with that emotion, while the others guessed what we were acting out. I liked it a lot, because you could say "O" with such emotion that you could probably hold a conversation with someone just by saying "O!"
A similar exercise was when we said a line from a Shakespeare play in different ways. We all got a line, then James told us how we should say it ("Say it like there's a baby in the room, and if you wake it up, it will never stop crying!") I enjoyed both warm-ups. It was fun to really put yourself into your emotions.
Back to the Shakespeare. The people in the musical worked on a Shakespeare scene, and I was put into one of the Tempest scenes with Emily and Lex. We read through a couple times, and got the general part, since James explained it to us beforehand, but some details of the scene confused us (What is a moon-calf?)
Finally, we both presented. I tried really hard to let go, and I was happy that the others watching us got the plot (a success)!
Overall, it was an enjoyable workshop. I felt even closer to the "actors" in STAC, and I learned that sometimes you need to let go and focus on the feelings behind the words instead of the actual words themselves.
Showing posts with label workshop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workshop. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Saturday, November 9, 2013
-16.4-
I believe the Shakespeare workshop, taught by James III, was my first pure acting workshop in STAC. I enjoyed it, but felt a little shy because I'm not usually an 'acting' person.
As I discussed when writing about the Shakespeare documentaries, Shakespeare IS about debating the meaning of the work, and presenting your results on stage, but it's also about making sure the audience can see your actions (it's also about getting used to speaking in iambic pentameter.)
During this workshop, we mainly focused on making our actions big (as if people in another room had to see us present Shakespeare.)
Before the workshop, we all chose a sonnet (it couldn't be the more popular sonnets). I chose sonnet LXV (65) because I thought the rhythm of the words was calming.
After warming up and introducing ourselves, we reviewed how the iambic pentameter sounds, then read the first line of our sonnets in this way. For some, breaking down the syllables was a bit harder than others, but we all managed to say our lines smoothly.
Next, we focused on action. We chose words in the sonnet that stood out to us, then thought about actions that suited each word. When comfortable, we silently performed the actions, then added sound effects to the action.
I was used to focusing on action, rather than getting into the mind-frame, from Luke's acting advice, but yesterday was different since we had a physical "script" to act from.
Acting individual words out of context seemed a little strange to me, but when people started to present their sonnet to the group; the actions fit the meaning of the sonnet!
After the initial performance, James started to go over making movements bigger (be big because you can always pull back if needed), and adding in context. For example, Brian's sonnet was directed towards a love intrest, so James had one of the girls stand next to him, and the rest of the guys stand up, so Brian had actual people to refer to while acting. Since many people had sonnets that involved antithesis, James encouraged them to emphasize the differences in order to get the meaning across even clearer.
When I went, I was nervous, but I tried to speak clearly and with the iambic pentameter in mind (people before me had some trouble with destressing words commonly stressed. The night before I didn't have time to go over the meaning of the sonnet, so I acted blindly. It went all right, and after we discussed the meaning of the sonnet (although time erodes everything, I hope my love for you in this letter withstands time). Without meaning to, I emphasized the meaning of "rocks impregnable"by pausing before doing my action for rock (James said the pause interrupted the rhythm, showing how even the words were stopped by the strength of the metaphorical stone.)
After I went, we ran out of time, so we recapped what we went over. While recapping, I began to think about how hard acting Shakespeare is. There are many ways of approaching it, and it's easy to get caught up in your approach to acting. However, when it was my turn, almost everything went blank. I suppose in the end it's as Charlie Parker says: "Then you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail."
As I discussed when writing about the Shakespeare documentaries, Shakespeare IS about debating the meaning of the work, and presenting your results on stage, but it's also about making sure the audience can see your actions (it's also about getting used to speaking in iambic pentameter.)
During this workshop, we mainly focused on making our actions big (as if people in another room had to see us present Shakespeare.)
Before the workshop, we all chose a sonnet (it couldn't be the more popular sonnets). I chose sonnet LXV (65) because I thought the rhythm of the words was calming.
After warming up and introducing ourselves, we reviewed how the iambic pentameter sounds, then read the first line of our sonnets in this way. For some, breaking down the syllables was a bit harder than others, but we all managed to say our lines smoothly.
Next, we focused on action. We chose words in the sonnet that stood out to us, then thought about actions that suited each word. When comfortable, we silently performed the actions, then added sound effects to the action.
I was used to focusing on action, rather than getting into the mind-frame, from Luke's acting advice, but yesterday was different since we had a physical "script" to act from.
Acting individual words out of context seemed a little strange to me, but when people started to present their sonnet to the group; the actions fit the meaning of the sonnet!
After the initial performance, James started to go over making movements bigger (be big because you can always pull back if needed), and adding in context. For example, Brian's sonnet was directed towards a love intrest, so James had one of the girls stand next to him, and the rest of the guys stand up, so Brian had actual people to refer to while acting. Since many people had sonnets that involved antithesis, James encouraged them to emphasize the differences in order to get the meaning across even clearer.
When I went, I was nervous, but I tried to speak clearly and with the iambic pentameter in mind (people before me had some trouble with destressing words commonly stressed. The night before I didn't have time to go over the meaning of the sonnet, so I acted blindly. It went all right, and after we discussed the meaning of the sonnet (although time erodes everything, I hope my love for you in this letter withstands time). Without meaning to, I emphasized the meaning of "rocks impregnable"by pausing before doing my action for rock (James said the pause interrupted the rhythm, showing how even the words were stopped by the strength of the metaphorical stone.)
After I went, we ran out of time, so we recapped what we went over. While recapping, I began to think about how hard acting Shakespeare is. There are many ways of approaching it, and it's easy to get caught up in your approach to acting. However, when it was my turn, almost everything went blank. I suppose in the end it's as Charlie Parker says: "Then you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail."
Friday, February 15, 2013
-35.3-
Painting workshop with Galen day 2.
(from 12/2/13)
After we set up the still life, we got right to work and began using color and paint. I wanted to do monochrome, but I wasn't sure if I was allowed to, so I decided to paint with exact colors.
Since the 'sculpting' technique worked with charcoal, I tried to apply this technique to painting by putting down a rough "block" of the shape in a color darker than the object then "carving" out a finer shape of the object in a lighter color.
At first I was working smoothly and quickly, but then I got caught up in measuring the exact proportions of the objects and slowed down. I got a little frustrated, so I started to use colors that were completely different than that of the objects so I wouldn't be distracted, and so I could focus on the values.
-picture of first try-
Galen was checking in with us as we painted, and when it was my turn he suggested that I try again, so I did just that. This time I started with using different colors right away.
-picture of 2nd try-
I was having trouble, still, so I asked Galen if I could do it in monochrome. He said that would be a good way to see value (sometimes students start out with a few colors so they aren't overwhelmed) and agreed. I started again, but I was having trouble figuring out the distance between the box and the bottle, so Galen showed me how he approached it (he used the edge of the paper as a third point of reference.)
-third attempt-
Throughout the workshop, Galen kept on saying that if you out down something on the canvas, it isn't final. Thinking about it, I came to an epiphany. I realized that you could draw the other objects around the subject, then once the subject is in proper relation, you could just paint the other objects out again, if needed. That reminded me of how I use layers when I'm doing digital painting/drawings...huh!
Overall, I still am a little confused about Galen's technique, but I think I'm slowly understanding it. I also realized that I am very inexperienced at using paint, and painting is a very strenuous process. By the end of yesterday and today I was exhausted!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
-34.3-
Painting workshop day 1
Today we worked with Galen Pittman on seeing and drawing values of color. To start, we pushed together two tables and set up a small still life (a cup, a bottle, and a rubber duck) in the middle of a table. Then we warmed up with a five-minute sketch of how we usually draw.
Then, we started on a second, drawing, this time extending the time to ten minutes. While working on this drawing, Galen showed us an example of how we works, using Caitlin's initial picture as an example. He said he tries to draw an object by using other objects in relation to it. He tries to draw everything around the object in order to "let the object draw itself."
I'm a little confused by what he meant by that, but when he showed an example at the end of class I understood a little better (but still not completely).
The example was the dark line in between the two tables pushed together. Galen said that you could drae the line as a line, or you could shade the whole space in, then erase the charcoal around the line (put in the lights around the line). At the end, there'll be two light spaces surrounding a line shape in the middle.
After Galen showed us his process, we continued on our ten minute drawings. He came around and helped us individually.
At first I was using my normal way of drawing still-lifes: first sketch out the outline of the shape of an object, then measure and sketch other objects in relation to the first one.
But... I got tired of drawing my ten minute drawing (...we kind-of lost track of time when we were being helped individually) so I started playing around and trying a different approach to drawing the still life.
I tried a lineless shading a rough shape of an object then "sculpting" the edges out of the rough shape by smoothing away the charcoal along the edges. When it was my turn, Galen suggested that I worked on my values by comparing a shade to the spot right next to it, then use an eraser to pull out the light shades. (He said I did an excellent shade on the rubber ducky, but that was by coincidence!)
This was my final result for the day.
I'm not used to art classes, so it was a little hard to sit still for all that time, but I liked how my brain turned off during this workshop. I'm curious about learning about drawing around an object (it didn't quite seem like drawing the negative space...) I'm also curious about experimenting with the new way of drawing that I was trying...how would I apply this way to painting?
Today we worked with Galen Pittman on seeing and drawing values of color. To start, we pushed together two tables and set up a small still life (a cup, a bottle, and a rubber duck) in the middle of a table. Then we warmed up with a five-minute sketch of how we usually draw.
Then, we started on a second, drawing, this time extending the time to ten minutes. While working on this drawing, Galen showed us an example of how we works, using Caitlin's initial picture as an example. He said he tries to draw an object by using other objects in relation to it. He tries to draw everything around the object in order to "let the object draw itself."
I'm a little confused by what he meant by that, but when he showed an example at the end of class I understood a little better (but still not completely).
The example was the dark line in between the two tables pushed together. Galen said that you could drae the line as a line, or you could shade the whole space in, then erase the charcoal around the line (put in the lights around the line). At the end, there'll be two light spaces surrounding a line shape in the middle.
After Galen showed us his process, we continued on our ten minute drawings. He came around and helped us individually.
At first I was using my normal way of drawing still-lifes: first sketch out the outline of the shape of an object, then measure and sketch other objects in relation to the first one.
But... I got tired of drawing my ten minute drawing (...we kind-of lost track of time when we were being helped individually) so I started playing around and trying a different approach to drawing the still life.
I tried a lineless shading a rough shape of an object then "sculpting" the edges out of the rough shape by smoothing away the charcoal along the edges. When it was my turn, Galen suggested that I worked on my values by comparing a shade to the spot right next to it, then use an eraser to pull out the light shades. (He said I did an excellent shade on the rubber ducky, but that was by coincidence!)
This was my final result for the day.
I'm not used to art classes, so it was a little hard to sit still for all that time, but I liked how my brain turned off during this workshop. I'm curious about learning about drawing around an object (it didn't quite seem like drawing the negative space...) I'm also curious about experimenting with the new way of drawing that I was trying...how would I apply this way to painting?
 |
| Some people finished earlier than others, so Galen set up a trumpet to work on. I had five minutes before class ended, so this was the start of my sketch. |
Monday, January 14, 2013
-27.3-
Song workshop 2
During this workshop, we got to work right away and presented our songs. Peter went first, and he showed us a recording of his song (I immediately knew that this is what I should have done.) I really liked the cleanliness of his recording, and how he used multiple instruments/instrument tracks. I went next, but my song came out very rough - I have to work on singing in front of people, besides my songwriting! I was a little embarrassed that my work wasn't as clean as my peers...Scott's song had nice chord progressions, and I liked John captured an the icy tone in his song about an arctic adventure.
Our songs were about homework. We had to find a news article title as inspiration and start the song with a question, some of the techniques we discussed in the first workshop. Here are the lyrics to my song:
Before (or after) we presented the song we wrote, we had to discuss a bit about our process.
I had an assignment for AP English that also involved the news, specifically op. ed. pieces, so when I went online to look at the op. ed. for The Times, a headline caught my eye "Why do Stars think it's O.K. to Sell Soda?"
Taking this title, I wanted to play around with space imagery, but also talk about a bigger issue: how everything is becoming commercialized now days, and how this isn't necessarily a good thing (the message of the article, and also a popular theme in my English class). I decided to ask my question "How much will it cost?" since it both refers to the immediate result of a purchase, one's pocket book getting a bit lighter, and the long-term result, the environment becoming more/less polluted. When thinking about the universe, I thought of what could go wrong, and it came to me as I was writing to made the "cost" something drastic: the product becomes so popular that it attracts some unwanted attention, a black hole which ends up eating everything.
I also tried to play around with foreshadowing this impending outcome both lyrically (the soda is light, which is "taken straight from the source," as in the light of space) and musically (I intentionally put an accidental on specific words such as "star.")
Once the lyrics were done, I had to start on the music. I tried to make the song sound space-like, and during this process I played around with fitting bits and pieces of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" into the melody. When the melody was done, I tried playing around with the chords to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to make more space references (and because I had no other idea on how to approach chords). It sounded like it needed some work, but I wrote the chords right before school so I had no time to fix anything. If I had a do-over, I would have recorded the song instead of playing it live.
Before playing the song, I addressed my time constraint with coming up with the chords, and after I finished a verse and a chorus, Brien suggested that I don't play the melody with my right hand, and just play the chords. My singing came out a little better, but it was still shaky. He asked if I took into account the chords suited for the key I was in, and I didn't approach it that way, so I said no (I didn't know how to approach chords at all!) He said that maybe I should take that into account and try re-writing the chords again.
I plan to record the song with the original chords, to see how it sounds as a somewhat-polished version, then play around and work with the chords in the scale I used and record that. I hope I have the time, since midterms, pitt, and SAT is coming up!
During this workshop, we got to work right away and presented our songs. Peter went first, and he showed us a recording of his song (I immediately knew that this is what I should have done.) I really liked the cleanliness of his recording, and how he used multiple instruments/instrument tracks. I went next, but my song came out very rough - I have to work on singing in front of people, besides my songwriting! I was a little embarrassed that my work wasn't as clean as my peers...Scott's song had nice chord progressions, and I liked John captured an the icy tone in his song about an arctic adventure.
Our songs were about homework. We had to find a news article title as inspiration and start the song with a question, some of the techniques we discussed in the first workshop. Here are the lyrics to my song:
Why Do Stars Think It’s O.K. To Sell Soda?
How much will it cost?
Come here, young moon, old sun
Let me pass this among us stars
A fizzy drink of the milky way
It’s pure bottled light- very sweet
It’s free – take a sample
Sell out like a burst of
flame
You might as well enjoy the
best
Of it
Time of your life
Before becoming rebranded
Again and again with these
universal barcodes
We think it’s great
How is it, young moon, old
sun?
Yes yes we agree
It’s taken straight from the
source
Perhaps we’ll send it along
to
Jupiter and its moons
Sell out like a burst of
flame
You might as well enjoy the
best
Of it
Time of your life
Before becoming rebranded
Again and again with these
universal barcodes
‘Turns out it’s quite the
success
All of the galaxy is parched
Even the black hole loves it
I think he’ll buy out
The whole stock
Of your space
Sell out like a burst of
flame
You might as well enjoy the
best
Of it
Time of your life
Before becoming rebranded
Again and again with these
universal barcodes
It doesn’t matter to us
We are only stars
We’re not in your solar
system
Before (or after) we presented the song we wrote, we had to discuss a bit about our process.
I had an assignment for AP English that also involved the news, specifically op. ed. pieces, so when I went online to look at the op. ed. for The Times, a headline caught my eye "Why do Stars think it's O.K. to Sell Soda?"
Taking this title, I wanted to play around with space imagery, but also talk about a bigger issue: how everything is becoming commercialized now days, and how this isn't necessarily a good thing (the message of the article, and also a popular theme in my English class). I decided to ask my question "How much will it cost?" since it both refers to the immediate result of a purchase, one's pocket book getting a bit lighter, and the long-term result, the environment becoming more/less polluted. When thinking about the universe, I thought of what could go wrong, and it came to me as I was writing to made the "cost" something drastic: the product becomes so popular that it attracts some unwanted attention, a black hole which ends up eating everything.
I also tried to play around with foreshadowing this impending outcome both lyrically (the soda is light, which is "taken straight from the source," as in the light of space) and musically (I intentionally put an accidental on specific words such as "star.")
Once the lyrics were done, I had to start on the music. I tried to make the song sound space-like, and during this process I played around with fitting bits and pieces of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" into the melody. When the melody was done, I tried playing around with the chords to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to make more space references (and because I had no other idea on how to approach chords). It sounded like it needed some work, but I wrote the chords right before school so I had no time to fix anything. If I had a do-over, I would have recorded the song instead of playing it live.
Before playing the song, I addressed my time constraint with coming up with the chords, and after I finished a verse and a chorus, Brien suggested that I don't play the melody with my right hand, and just play the chords. My singing came out a little better, but it was still shaky. He asked if I took into account the chords suited for the key I was in, and I didn't approach it that way, so I said no (I didn't know how to approach chords at all!) He said that maybe I should take that into account and try re-writing the chords again.
I plan to record the song with the original chords, to see how it sounds as a somewhat-polished version, then play around and work with the chords in the scale I used and record that. I hope I have the time, since midterms, pitt, and SAT is coming up!
Thursday, December 20, 2012
-23.3-
The song writing workshop with Brian was different than I expected. It was more of a casual workshop. Brian brought his own chairs.
We sat and listened to some things that Brian was working on, and he took us through some of his creative process.
Sometimes songwriting seems overwhelming...you could have lyrics, but no music (I seem to be this type), music, but no lyrics...you can have a song in one key or change keys...you can take the melody up and then down again to change the pace or tone...then many different styles...you could also pursue music writing, which is a different approach. With all of these options I feel a little overwhelmed whenever I sit down to write a song...
However, sitting down and writing seems to be the only way to find out which styles you're comfortable with, and which chord changes feel good to use. Brian showed us all of the files he had for a "daily practice" of song writing he had...I don't know if I'm /that/ dedicated to songwriting...sometimes I get in the mood to make music, but I'm never always flipped on. I like writing songs, but I feel worried that my seeing this as a...hobby isn't as good as the passions of the others in my group...but then again STAC is supposed to be for experimenting...
I think I need to find a method to approach songwriting -my very own procedure (since there isn't a set way to write songs...it's so boundless!)
I really liked the songs Brian showed us. My favorite was the Beatles tune he made for his girlfriend. He took famous lyrics from all of the Beatles' songs and turned it into a love song...in the style of the Beatles tunes, of course.) It was such a whimsical idea and very clever (I could feel myself grinning when he played the song for us!)
Brian also gave some good tips, such as, "Ask a question in your song so the audience's attention is grabbed." I wish he went more in-depth on how to approach styles of baselines/chord progressions, but I think I need to experiment with that (when writing the music for songs, I'm normally ok with the lyrics, but I get freaked out over how to approach the music.)
The song I presented went pretty well, I wrote it faster than my last two projects and actually had time to practice it, but I think I need to have more confidence in singing louder...it was odd, because Brian suggested that I record the instrumental and audio separately, and that's how I've been writing songs.
I was worried that mine wouldn't sound as well as the other people in my group, because I had so little experience with writing music, but everyone's songs were so different that it was hard to compare them to eachother.
Overall, I took away these five points:
1. To get good you need to practice a lot
2. Sing out
3. Try picking the tone of the song and writing music to that
4. Work on descendig baseline/chord progressions
5.You don't have to go through the process alone
edit: adding a point:
-Australia seems to be encouraging musicians to travel more than the American government. (see John's blog for more about this)
We sat and listened to some things that Brian was working on, and he took us through some of his creative process.
Sometimes songwriting seems overwhelming...you could have lyrics, but no music (I seem to be this type), music, but no lyrics...you can have a song in one key or change keys...you can take the melody up and then down again to change the pace or tone...then many different styles...you could also pursue music writing, which is a different approach. With all of these options I feel a little overwhelmed whenever I sit down to write a song...
However, sitting down and writing seems to be the only way to find out which styles you're comfortable with, and which chord changes feel good to use. Brian showed us all of the files he had for a "daily practice" of song writing he had...I don't know if I'm /that/ dedicated to songwriting...sometimes I get in the mood to make music, but I'm never always flipped on. I like writing songs, but I feel worried that my seeing this as a...hobby isn't as good as the passions of the others in my group...but then again STAC is supposed to be for experimenting...
I think I need to find a method to approach songwriting -my very own procedure (since there isn't a set way to write songs...it's so boundless!)
I really liked the songs Brian showed us. My favorite was the Beatles tune he made for his girlfriend. He took famous lyrics from all of the Beatles' songs and turned it into a love song...in the style of the Beatles tunes, of course.) It was such a whimsical idea and very clever (I could feel myself grinning when he played the song for us!)
Brian also gave some good tips, such as, "Ask a question in your song so the audience's attention is grabbed." I wish he went more in-depth on how to approach styles of baselines/chord progressions, but I think I need to experiment with that (when writing the music for songs, I'm normally ok with the lyrics, but I get freaked out over how to approach the music.)
The song I presented went pretty well, I wrote it faster than my last two projects and actually had time to practice it, but I think I need to have more confidence in singing louder...it was odd, because Brian suggested that I record the instrumental and audio separately, and that's how I've been writing songs.
I was worried that mine wouldn't sound as well as the other people in my group, because I had so little experience with writing music, but everyone's songs were so different that it was hard to compare them to eachother.
Overall, I took away these five points:
1. To get good you need to practice a lot
2. Sing out
3. Try picking the tone of the song and writing music to that
4. Work on descendig baseline/chord progressions
5.You don't have to go through the process alone
edit: adding a point:
-Australia seems to be encouraging musicians to travel more than the American government. (see John's blog for more about this)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)