Rosie Allen - BTEC Acting
Rehearsal Log 1
Wednesday 10/9/14
Today, the main topic of our lesson was on TV soap operas and our first task was to get into groups and write down our expectations of soaps as well as what we would ideally like from soaps. As someone who does not watch any of the major ongoing soap operas on TV, I found I had a much more impartial, unbiased view of what the stereotypical features of a soap are perceived to be (see spider diagrams below).
We then, in these groups, had to plan our own soap opera with the intention of devising and filming a scene for the end of tomorrow’s lesson. My group initially found this quite challenging given that none of us are regular viewers of soap operas, but we eventually found a theme and characters. We decided on doing ours on the topic of homophobic bullying, a topic that is relatable for the target audience of most TV soaps - teenagers and young adults. We will film it in tomorrow’s lesson.
photocopy of mind-map here
Rehearsal Log 2
Thursday 11/9/14
Today, continuing our current topic of soap operas, we resumed the planning, devising and filming of our mini soaps in our groups from yesterday. Despite the fact that we had to use someone’s phone for filming, this didn’t limit us in the creativity of our scene and we were able to make use of a variety of different shot types within our scene including long, mid and close shots of various characters.
One particularly effective section was when Beth was filmed from above in a toilet cubicle and then in a close shot while her character was on the phone to her girlfriend after being targeted by bullies at school. It made the moment even more powerful as the audience (the other half of the class) had an incredibly detailed view of her emotions.
However, we were, as a group, able to identify some key moments that didn’t work so well, considering the genre of TV soap operas. Our inclusion of some comic moments didn’t quite fit in with the genre and made it lean more towards a sitcom than a soap, but we did also notice that, if done in an appropriate way, comedy can fit in as a part of everyday life, which, ultimately, is what soaps try to depict.
Rehearsal Log 3
Wednesday 17/9/14
Today we moved onto a new genre of screen acting: American ‘sitcoms’ (situation comedies). I was much more familiar with this genre of TV than I was with soaps, as I am a big fan of classic programmes like ‘Friends’, ‘Cheers’ and ‘Frasier’.
We began by learning some basic characteristics of a ‘General American Accent’ (see accent sheet on next page). Initially, I found this challenging due to the difference in certain consonant sounds. For example, I find it slightly harder to articulate my ‘L’ sounds in my general speech, and Americans have much darker ‘L’ sounds that are placed further back in the throat compared to my natural accent. I did, however, enjoy this exercise as I know that I have a good ear for accents and languages, making this a really interesting part of the lesson for me personally.
We were then given a duologue from ‘The Odd Couple’ to work on in pairs. I really enjoyed having a context within which to practice my American accent, as well as approaching a different kind of comedy to the style that I’m used to which is much drier compared to American humour.
When we performed these scenes back to the class, the feedback on my accent was incredibly positive, and the only piece of constructive criticism I received was to play around with pacing a bit more in order to really draw every inch of comedy out of the script.
Rehearsal Log 4
Wednesday 24/9/14
The focus of today’s lesson was on film genres. As an entire class, we thought of as many different genres as we could, for example:
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Drama
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Period drama
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Action
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Comedy
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Romantic comedy
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Situation comedy
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Thriller
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Sci-Fi
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Horror
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Mystery/spy
We then were divided into two groups and were given the brief to devise a short scene about a group of friends watching TV and arguing over who has control of the remote.
We were then instructed to adapt the scene to fit the genre of ‘Thriller’. As a group of which the majority of whom do not watch this type of film, it was initially a challenge to identify the subtle nuances that differentiate a thriller film and a horror film. As a group, we managed to condense it down into this definition:
Horror films are explicitly violent/gory, with the fear-factor stemming from what you can see
Thriller films are implicitly scary, with more emphasis on what you can’t see and a high amount of suspense
With this subtle difference clarified, we were able to change our scenes slightly to fit the genre we had been given. We decided to make use of silence to build up suspense before finally having one character speak suddenly after a long period of absolutely no dialogue. This had the desired effect on the other group, who jumped when Charlotte suddenly spoke as they weren’t expecting it at all.
Rehearsal Log 5
Thursday 25/9/14
Today, we began by looking at the concept of ‘cast type’. We were instructed to identify three possible types of characters within our own individual casting bracket. For example, for me, personally, my cast type is period drama/ingenue/girl-next-door/serious character. We then had to write down a role that would challenge us as an actor. My answer for this question was the stereotypical ‘ditzy blonde’ character as it is completely outside of my casting bracket and personality type. This does not mean, however, that it is not a type of role I would like to play some day, as I think I would enjoy the challenge of playing a character so outside of my comfort zone. We also had to think about a type of character we would like to play and my response to this was either a role in a period drama or a comedy role.
We then had a brief look at some acting showreels on YouTube and, as a group, identified what makes a good showreel for an actor:
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variety
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professional quality filming
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well-edited
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engaging
Our homework for next week is to find a duologue from a film or TV script and bring it in to our next lesson with the intention of filming it and then, hopefully, using it as the beginning of our own showreel.
MARTIN COLLINS 2012 ACTING SHOWREEL
MY STORYBOARD OF A 'PERFECT' SHOWREEL
Rehearsal Log 6
Wednesday 3/10/14
Today we worked on our duologues in pairs. Mine was a scene from the film 'Bridesmaids' - a scene between two women battling over who has the most emotionally hard-hitting speech at their friend's engagement party. The scene, in my opinion, has a lot of comic potential although initially it was a challenge to create my own interpretation of the character of Helen, knowing the film so well and how the actress who plays the role delivers the lines. I do think, however, that I managed to make the role my own by focusing on the text and my own physicality as opposed to trying to mimic the way the scene was played in the actual film.
The feedback my partner and I received after our performance of our scene was very positive, the only constructive criticism being to continue to work on staging and our reactions to the other character's interruptions to our speech to make the piece even more naturalistic.
Overall, though, the general consensus was that we managed to convey the comedic nature of the scene very effectively to our audience by making the characters our own and I personally feel that we stayed true to the text and didn't over complicate it, which made the piece more effective and entertaining.
Rehearsal Log 7
Thursday 4/10/14
In today's lesson, we continued to develop the duologues from last lesson. Bearing in mind the key section of any acting showreel (the first 20 seconds and subsequent minute that forms the viewer's first impression of the actor), we were told to create a visual storyboard for the first section of our scene and how we would shoot and edit it to ensure it had maximum impact if it were to be included on a showreel. My partner and I decided to use a variety of different shot types (see storyboard and final footage below) to make it visually engaging as well as having the added effect of enhancing the acting itself as certain shots can emphasise an actor's facial expressions or physicality, depending on how the camera is positioned in relation to the actor.
Rehearsal Log 8
Thursday 9/10/14
Today we worked in different pairs and focused on a small section of another script of a different genre. Given that I worked on a romantic comedy script previously, my partner and I decided to opt for a more dramatic scene of dialogue from the film 'My Best Friend's Wedding' in which two women are having a tense conversation in an elevator about my character's (Kimmy) fiance who is also Julianne's ex-lover. This makes for an interesting dynamic between the two characters and my partner and I enjoyed the challenge of creating the atmosphere of a small confined space without actually having access to one for rehearsal and filming purposes.
The focus of this task was to consider how this scene could be filmed using just one static shot. We thought that our scene would work best filmed close-up so that the detail of our facial expressions can reveal the subtext of the characters as the conversation gets more and more fraught as the scene goes on.
Peer Assessment Feedback
My feedback for this scene was, overall, very positive. I personally felt that the final performance was successful as I was able to remain camera-aware throughout as well as translating the nuances and subtleties of the character despite the fact that we were working using only one static mid-shot. This meant that there were no close-ups to help the audience access the complete depth of the subtext of each character, so my partner and I had to communicate this through physicality and vocal qualities without relying too much on facial expressions.
Showreel Clip - Rehearsal and Final Edit Evaluation
My partner and I decided to change the scene we were going to film for our final assessment, as the nature of our previous scene (from 'Bridesmaids') didn't allow us to fully make use of the medium of film, as the most suitable shots for the scene were mid-long shots from a completely front-on angle. We chose a scene from the same film, but that has more emotional depth and potential to utilise different camera angles such as profile shots and close-ups. Watching the final edit back, I was able to evaluate my own performance and how successful it was in terms of fully exploiting the medium of film and TV acting. I think that, overall, I was camera-aware to a certain extent, although it was challenging as I had to keep my eyeline down to maintain eye contact with the person playing the part of Annie whilst not completely masking my facial expression by not making my eyes visible. I think I overcame this challenge as best I could, although I realise that I could have looked up more to show my eyes, momentarily breaking the eye contact between myself and my scene partner.