Class

I really enjoyed the exercise that we did at the begining of class last week. I thought it was fun and pretty interesting too. It is funny to see how much people lighten up and relax after being around each other more often. Everyone in class seems to be getting used to looking goofy in front of others and becomeing more and more ok with it. I watched a movie this weekend with some really bad acting and it made me think of some of the things that we were told about. It seemed like the actors were trying to show us what they were supposed to be doing instead of actually doing it. So thanks to this class, I am turning into a film critic.

Mirror Exercises

Thursdays class was an interesting one. To start with the warm up type exercise with the tikis and dahs and all the following was fun, I think we should start every class like that! The mirror exercises seemed like they would be easy but then we were supposed to look at each others eyes and move slowly. I think this made it really hard because so much of me wanted to looked at their hands instead of the eyes or face. Then just moving slowly seems so unnatural to me. Then the tug'o war exercise was harder than it looked as well. Plus, going first it was hard for us to do, we had so much minor details that we forgot, like picking up the rope, or not leaning back to pull at the same time. It was interesting to see everyone else try as the exercise went on, the groups got progressively better as examples were put in front of them.

Actors and Actresses with no training, but who deserve oscars

So I was talking to some of my friend about the weekend and one of my friends started talking about an email that she got. She is a transfer from a different school and came to ashland for the track program. Well this weekend she saw her old team, but unfortunately did not preform well. The next day she recieved an email saying "New team, same results." Believe me if you knew the whole story you would know this was a big insult, but unfortunately I don't have time to tell it all. Any way we were trying to figure out who wrote it and many options came up but the first one that popped into our head was her old coach. The twist on this was that her ex-coach just talked to our coach and had talked about how much better this girl was doing. Knowing this head coach she has always been a back stabber and really good at lying to people and making it extremely believable.
I guess my point is that many people are expert actors, but have never stood on stage or in front of a camera. Just something to think about.

Talking in Public

I have always thought that standing in front of people is not that hard as long as I am not talking. I have been on stage for seven years, dancing Bulgarian Folk Dances. It was always exciting for me to go out under all the different-colored lights and enjoy the audiences attention. When I took the speech class last year I realized that talking in public was not actually as hard as I thought it would have been. I liked the attention I was paid by all the students who were actually required to listen to me talking. That is why I didn't have any doubts taking an acting class. I knew it would be interesting.

thoughts

So after the discussion in class about making things seem believeable, I felt like I needed to watch a few of my favorite movies and kind of see what about the performance makes me believe what is happening is really happening. So I chose a few classics. My all time favorite movie ever is Breakfast At Tiffany's staring none other than Audrey Hepburn. I don't really know what it is about that movie but it draws me in and makes me want to be her, I believe she really is Holly Golightly. For anyone who hasn't seen the movie I would highly recommend you take time to sit down and watch this. This whole discussion about making things believable as well as caused me to realize that being believable is relative. I might think it was amazing however, the person next to me might not buy into it at all. Okay so enough said just go watch Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I find it really interesting how hard it is to imagine a physical object in front of you. I find it much easier to see or listen, but the physical touching of an object I have discovered is much more complex than I ever thought. Our exercises in class have lead me to understand this. I am sure that I have a whole lot more to learn, but I think I am beginning to see the very, very tip of the iceberg as to how difficult it is to be a successful actor.

entertainment

So today I was playing my guitar and one of my friends walked into my room and sat down. It was interesting because he has never really been in my room. I think its cool how people seek out entertainment and honestly enjoy a proformance. Not that I was putting on a proformance for him but it was fun to play for someone instead of just for myself.

an insanely annoying breakfast

So, this morning I went to breakfast in convo. I sat by myself at a table beside a table with a guy and a girl. Originally their conversation was quiet and the little bit that I heard involved the discussion of school or something like that. Then, another guy came over and sat with them. I have no idea how they this topic got brought up, but rather quickly they started discussing Victoria's Secret and the models. The guys were insanely loud and the girl was just laughing along with whatever they said. After they said something about someone being hot, the girl would say something like "oh, she is really pretty" or "she's gorgeous." The original guy then proceeded to tell a story of how he went in to a store and tried to buy one of the cardboard cutouts. The other guy thought it was awesome for a split second and proceeded to move on with the conversation. They talked about this crap for 7 minutes (you all know when something is that annoying you know exactly how long you sat there, but it seems longer). The reason I brought this up was because I thought it all sounded really fake. The girl was trying to be the awesome girl who understands and the guys were trying to tell the better story (although to outsiders such as myself they sounded creepy and perverted). They were trying to ACT better than the other and it ended up being obnoxious. I was annoyed. That's all.

Terrible Sleep Schedule

It's Monday afternoon and I just woke up from a two hour nap. I never napped at all in high school, yet I came to college and swear I probably wouldn't be able to get by without them. I guess it could have something to do with my staying up till 3 or 4 in the morning on the weekends and then sleeping in till noon. It's like I have terrible jet lag when I have to wake up for my 10 o'clock class on Monday morning. Then I sometimes take a nap after classes, so I stay up later that night and the cycle continues. I find it harder to focus and am much less animated and bubbly than I am typically. But I guess that's how it'll be until I learn to change my schedule... but the weekends are so fun...

Random

So I was watching the movie "Bring It On" the other night (dont ask why) but I notice some things in the movie that stuck out to me. I noticed that cheerleading competitions are alot like theatrical performances, as both have to memorize a routine and need to pay attention to small details like body movements and facial expressions.