Could you imagine me trying to write a live drama where I attempt to recreate this moment?Lauren and I stand on the black stage with a bright spot light in our faces and huge images behind us of closeups on our faces? I tell Lauren about God painting the sky just like He did when he painted her face when she was still in my "tummy" (She's too young to know about the uterus, work with me here). But without the visual of this breathtaking sunset, it would be hard for the audience to really tune in a "get" the beauty of the moment and the lesson we both learned that night. Thus, I am thankful for the wonderful invention of still and video cameras.Media is a great tool for our team. This chapter begins with the student complaining about performing in the "talkies" versus on the stage. This discussion is incredibly fitting since we are continually realizing that our media appearances are much more frequent than live. We are now noticing that we are only averaging one live drama to every five medias in a given series! This seems to make sense since we have these ginormous, mutant screens, but as the student is realizing, there is a whole different type of acting required. See if you can't identify with any of her complaints, especially if you've experienced a late night video shoot . . .
"I waited for an hour and a half. We started. This time three lines from the big scene; three lines--that was all. After that again a wait of an hour . . . .machinery, electricity, lenses, microphone, furniture, that is all that counts. An actor? Who cares? Acting? A miserable accessory . . . How can you look for rare moments of beauty? . . . Even when you find them they are separated, disjointed, cut, uneven . . ." (p. 47-48)
Thankfully, Jeff and our media team usually do their best not to make us feel as jaded as she does, but it is still sometimes challenging when you don't feel like you know everything about the media as a whole. But the cool thing about having a great media team is that we don't need to. We just need to know what our character is trying to accomplish in the given moment and trust in the vision of the producers and editors. Just look at the beauty and hilarity that occurred with all the elements coming together for Office Safari!
Many of us love the rush of live drama and love the community of doing weekends together, but our tactics for reaching our target are shifting. And that's one of the things I love about our church! We don't keep doing things because we like them, we adapt things to make things more effective for bringing people to Christ! So if you've been reluctant to see media winning out over live, listen to Richie's powerful argument on p. 51-52:
It is the "instrument that gives to the theatre the precision and scientific serenity which all other arts have had; the instrument that demands of the actor to be as exact as the color scheme in painting, form in sculpture, string, wood, brass in music, mathematics in architecture, words in poetry . . . It is the preservation of the art of the actor--the art of the theatre . . . Do you realize that with the invention of spontaneous recording of the image, movement, and voice, consequently the personality and soul of an actor, the last missing link in the chain of the arts disappears, and the theatre is no more a passing affair, but an eternal record?"
QUESTION FOR YOU:
How do you feel about live vs. media acting? What differences have you noticed? List some pros and cons for both.
The student continues to argue about the "flow of the part" and how she can "build up an emotion" with all the stopping and starting. That's when he tells her about the structure of actions, which I also refer to as objectives. You use these actions and objectives to create a map of where your character goes in the scene. It's like mapquest. Your ultimate goal is the destination but you have many different smaller goals and actions you have to take to get you there. For instance, Julia's goal this past weekend was to figure out what to do about her friend Chelsey. But she did it in a hundred different ways that made it interesting.
Assignment: Before you perform your scenes and monologues on Nov. 26th, make a map for yourself on your script. What is your overall objective? (Stan calls it the "superobjective" and Richie calls it the "leading strain".) What different tactics can you attach to certain lines or moments that will help you achieve your goal?
Assignment: Before you perform your scenes and monologues on Nov. 26th, make a map for yourself on your script. What is your overall objective? (Stan calls it the "superobjective" and Richie calls it the "leading strain".) What different tactics can you attach to certain lines or moments that will help you achieve your goal?
More on Chapter three next week! Keep those comments coming!
7 comments:
I'm sure we all feel live and media acting both have their benefits and drawbacks.
Live drama - benefits:
1. Closeness/connection to the audience.
2. More opportunity to build community with other drama team people.
Media drama - benefits:
1. The opportunity to do it over and over in an attempt to get the moment "exactly right".
2. Less stress since it isn't live.
I agree with Kristin's comments that there is a rush that comes with live drama. I wouldn't consider that a benefit though because that, in an of itself, doesn't make live drama better, at least in my opinion.
I wonder if doing live drama has a benefit with at least some people of making them prepare better???? Do you agree? Don't get me wrong, live or media acting shouldn't impact our preparation and character development but we all know that when you mess up in a filming environment you can laugh, stop, talk about it and start over. Obviously, that opportunity doesn't present itself in a live situation.
Bottom line: I think both modes of acting have their place in our strategy at GCC. It would be good, in my opinion, to do more live drama because I'm one of those people that are drawn more into a live drama than I am to a media. But...I'm sure others probably feel differently. I do see how other arts elements are more easily incorporated into a media and that combination of sensory stimulation is impactful. Regardless, I really enjoy both and look forward to where we go in the future!
Although I thoroughly enjoy media drama I must confess the feedback/interaction of the live drama gives a deeper sense of having actually ministered to the audience. I've noticed recently that the response of our congregation to the medias seem to be "do I clap/respond?..or not?" I'd look around and think..."people do you realize how many hours just went into that 2-3 minute media? Give it up!!!" But I had it brought to my attention by a fellow actor (Paul B.) that perhaps for most of our audience it is like watching TV and they do not clap after watching TV. It is more natural to clap after a live performance. Hhmm. I had never thought of it that way...just a new direction that our ministry is going.
While I think that certain drama's lend themselves to be better as a video i.e. closeups, location, edit and transition. There are other times when "live" is simply more helpful.
Sometimes, when we feel an element can be done either live or as a media. We aske ourselves "Can this be a 9 or a 10?" Meaning on a 1 - 10 "audience effectiveness scale," can this be a 10?
We have found that if we do something live, the audience gives us 2 bonus points - kind of like getting more points in diving for difficulty. So we try to do live when we think we can at least deliver an 8 (a few mistakes) but the "Live" factor gets us to a 10 with the audience.
I agree that each medium has it's own strengths and weaknesses. When I'm on stage, I love hearing the response of an audience - either laughter at the approrpiate moment, or silence when it's more seriously toned. It gives you that energy that makes what we do so worthwhile. I also like the risk involved with live acting - if you mess up, you have to keep going and that's really challenging. (John touched on that too....)
When we do stuff on video, it's always so interesting to see myself afterwards and be able to evaluate my performance, something you don't get to do in quite the same way with live performance - so that's a helpful aspect of media acting.
I've personally been really impacted by both great live dramas and great medias - so I think which we choose to address a particular topic, depends on the topic, the setting and the actors.
I have been impacted by both live and media dramas...but I love bringing the audience along with me in the process for live drama. I enjoy the risk of error and the thrill of nailing it....I tend to be more deeply impacted during a live performance when I am performing...but it isn't for me anyway, is it?
-Heather Novak- still cannot figure out the stupid blogger deal. GAH!
I suppose I find myself more able to be objective with media. I can sit back and watch without feeling compelled to engage emotionally with the actors on the screen.
With live drama, I am much more drawn in, because there is a live human being trying to reach out to me. I feel an obligation to reciprocate.
As far as performing, I definitely feel the rush with live. I like the medias because you're able to sit out in the audience with other people and hear and feel what they're experiencing.
While I was in the audience watching "Stories that keep you awake" the guy in front of me that had shaken my hand a few minutes before turned around and looked at me as if to say, " Hey, how can you be out here and up there at the same time?" That was fun.
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