2)
Stanislavski started to create steps for his acting instructions there were quite a lot of them and listed below are a few examples:
1) Technical Control of body
2) High level of concentration
3) State of relaxation
4) Creative State of mind
- Fear of being watched
- Believing a ‘lie’
- Keeping a part fresh
- Who am I?
- Where am I?
- When is it?
- What do I want?
- Why do I want it?
- How will I get it?
- What do I need to overcome?
1) Acting of craft
- Acting of image
- Acting of Emotional identification (or Experience)
1)
Our first Stanislavski task was to do a relaxation exercise where we had to find out how much we were over using our muscles for normal everyday activities. We also did a little role play where we had to show someone where everything in our room was and they had to remember where everything was. Then they had to do a simple thing like get their books together for school.
The relaxation task was the first task we did out of the two tasks and for this we had to get a pen. Then we had to lay down and relax every single muscle in our body. It was quite a weird feeling when I relaxed all my muscles because I had really never tried this that before and I realised that I had been using my muscles quite a lot because they felt tense when I picked up the pen. We laid down for about three minutes or so while Mr Johans was speaking. Then suddenly we had to tense all our muscles up. At first this hurt because I had been relaxing my muscles so much, after a while it stopped hurting. We tensed our muscles for about another three minutes. Then we relaxed them again, after relaxing again we put our pens by the side of us where we were laying. Then we had to reach out and grab our pens. When I finally did go to get it I could feel all the muscles down my side were working to get this pen. This showed me how much I over used my muscles and made me realise I should try not to do that in plays and to relax more so that I don’t get tired.
The bedroom task I found very easy. I had made a point where I was meant to go and wasn’t meant to go and I mapped out how to get the books together for school. I felt comfortable performing this task as I felt that I know what I was doing.
2)
We did two other activities for development as well. They were Temper Rhythm and emotion memory both of which are to do with feelings.
The first task that we did was emotion memory. At the beginning of this we sat on a chair and we had to close our eyes and think of a point in our lives where we experienced the emotion that we want the most and think we are in that scene. The first emotion we started with was happiness. I closed my eyes and the first thing that came into my head was at my sleepover where my friend fell out of a tree. The memory made me chuckle a bit and it worked fine because when I walked to the next chair I was all happy. The next emotion memory didn’t work for me, it was sadness I tried to think of a sad point in my life but one did not come up quickly. So I don’t think it worked because of that I knew it had not worked because I felt normal and not sad.
The second exercise I did was a Temper-Rhythm one. This is where we ran around in a circle and then suddenly snapped into a scene. The first scene we did was a busy office scene. The scene was set in a stock market where everything had gone haywire. Before this scene started we all ran around the room. We started off with a light jog and sped up until we were at full speed then at full speed we snapped into the office scene. When we snapped into the scene I felt a rush of excitement all over my chest area. I think I got this because I knew it was going to be a fast action packed scene this was because of the fast running as well. As soon as I got into the scene I could feel a tingly feeling between my stomach and rib cage which made me really want to shout out loud.
The first Temper-Rhythm task that we performed was a speech where we had to learn it off by heart and then perform it in front of a camera. We had to show distinctly the variations between emotions in our vocal tones and facial expressions.
I had learnt the Chaz and Pip speech about Pip getting beaten up and Chaz caring for him then asking him if he wants to teach him about business. I think this was the hardest of both of them.
As soon as I got in front of the camera I started to forget my words which I thought was very annoying. At the beginning of the speech I spoke quite fast and stumbled a bit because that’s what I though Chaz would be acting like. I thought that because most people would be acting like that if one of their friends had been beaten up. Then when I came round to asking him about him teaching me. I slowed down the pace that I was talking at and I asked nice and calmly. This was my speech.
2)
The Temper Rhythm exercise I am going to describe is going to be the murder scene we did and the doctors surgery.
I think this scene was very good for showing expressions on the outside and inside at the same time. I was the person who knew the murderer was in the house. The first bit of Temper-Rhythm I felt was when I first heard the murderer jump into the house I then I heard a bang I felt a rush up my body and I automatically stood up. The person that conflicts with my characters Temper-Rhythm was the person who didn’t believe that there was a murder in the house. I constantly got annoyed with my character and he would not believe there was a murderer in the house. I felt the same until the murder called out my name then my heartbeat got faster and I felt like running away very fast. Then as soon as we both saw the murderer I felt that we were both on the same level for the Temper-Rhythm.
The doctors surgery is the first scene where the feelings inside you and your expressions on the outside conflict with each other. In this scene you find out that you may have cancer and you are waiting for the results to come through. This is another scene where you express your feelings by silence. This scene probably has the strangest feeling, inside my heart was racing and I had butterflies in my stomach, but outside I looked calm and collected.
