Ella has incredible acting instincts! We introduced a few things today to help her mind slow down so that she can put everything into a scene that it requires.
We worked on:
1. Beats/ Pauses and Pacing
2. Creating a quick backstory
3. Dynamics/ Character shifts
Beats/Pauses and Pacing:
There are 2 main things that separate a good actress from a great one. One of them is beats. Beats are the pauses that we use as humans in regular conversations that make our words sound natural. In acting - the first pauses that we mark and put into a scene or monologue are these natural pauses (places that punctuation or direction is given that tell us "pause here to not sound like a robot"). The biggest way to sound like you're reading a script instead of acting in character, is to forget these pauses.
The next set of beats that we put in our script are our acting choice pauses - places we pause for comedic timing, added drama, to emphasize a certain part of the scene, and places where we want to add specific actions. We use each beat as an opportunity to move: both physically with at least a body shift, and to move the scene forward.
The beats that we put in our scenes also help us set the pace for our scene. One of the biggest mistakes that actors and actresses make - is rushing through their scene. When going too fast - you miss out on things like comedic timing, having a more interesting character, having the audience understand and appreciate your scene, and it makes the scene more unnatural. The pace is always slower than we think - and with theatrical acting it's extra slow. We do most of our acting in the pauses of our scenes - so if we skip over them, we act the scene a lot less.
So, we started our lesson today by adding in the beats to our scene - marking them with 2 lines like this : //
Creating a backstory
The next thing we did was add different characteristics to our character to make it a more interesting dynamic character. The script we got came with a tiny description - just the age and objective of the character "age 15, wants to go to a school dance." We looked at our script to gather clues about what else we could add to our character. To the first description, we added:
1. Insecure
2. Doesn't have a lot of friends/ really wants to fit in with these cool girls she's talking about
3. Because of this, she would do anything to get in with them (including breaking the law and taking the car before she's 16)- which causes her to be hysterical when she doesn't immediately get her way
4. Overly dramatic
4. We decided to channel "Eunice" from she's the man, combined with the dramatic character of Sebastian's girlfriend
By adding these things to the backstory of our character - we already have more of a direction to go without writing down "say this word in this way before moving to the next word where you need to emphasize the first consonant to make sure it sounds like you are angry to then move....." It gives us acting choices to make - and provides a bigger range of "natural character moves" that allow us to be big and ridiculous while not looking unnatural for the character.
Dynamics/ Character shifts
The next thing we did was add dynamics to our monologue. We circled words we wanted to emphasize and mapped out how the character was going to act in each separate section of the monologue.
We separated our sections like this:
- She is going to try every way she can think of to try and manipulate her dad and convince him to let her take the car by herself. She's also always on the verge of tears and in a hurry to get going.
1. Trying to be an authority figure while hysterical.
2. Shifting to be overly casual- while still hysterical, so that it comes across frantic and shifty.
3. Complete dramatic teenager "I hate you mom and dad"
4. Showing her dorkiness on a whole new level while talking about the "cool" girls in her class while fangirling over them.
She did SO awesome!!!
Here are our videos from today!
Before/End of our lesson:
GREAT job Ella!! Maybe someday you will stop surprising me with your crazy ninja good at everything talent. But I doubt it. Cuz today - was definitely not that day. See you Monday friend!