Drama Improvisation

                                                                                     

Drama Improvisation

Monday 9th September 2013

why do we used improvisation?

• to come up with a new routine or scene on the spot without any rehearsals.
• to come up with your own characterisation of a character on the spot.
• quick thinking when needed.
• cover up any mistake during a performance.
• increase confidants for the actor.
• adapt to different roles quicker with out knowing anything about the character.

ways we use Drama Improvisation.

we can use improvisation though different techniques like.....

• hot seating
• thought track
• A and B game
• Thank you very much game.

Non Audience Activity

To complete this task which include a range of activities where the actor is painting with music, with this task our minds explored the different colours and emotions that the music brought to mind and reflect it within painting a box that we the actor created with our imagination,
But during the 4 piece of music that we listen to song 1 and 3 link with colours and emotion with extra emotion being added and song 2 and 4 linking with the colour and emotion being link in together but as the second song was added the colour that I added wasn't for the background colour it was for the patterns that represented that emotion.

• Song One brought the colour of RED to mind as the music portrayed the emotion of anger and death in mind with tempo being fast and slow which my body can explore with different body parts to explore emotion thought the movement,as the music made me feel fear or anger and death the colour red as red connotes the colour of blood and the music made me feel that blood had been spilled.

• Song Two brought the colour of GREEN to mind as the music emotion had changed for the anger to more or a joyful and more happy tempo which allowed me to explore my body movement to be more light and calm and not to be as tense as before, as music made me feel more joyful the colour green came to mind as the music sounded a bit like Italian with makes think of the colour green as it is on Italy's flag also that green is a colour that makes people feel bright which help me to feel more relax.

•  Song Three links into Song one as the music brought the colour Black to mind with the emotion be mischievous coming with the pattern being straight sharp lines to represent the mischief as the music made think of the colour black it made me feel mischievous as anything can hide with shadows that black can create, to show this mischievous my body movement had to be sharp quick movement to show that my arms had a mind of their own and didn't want to listen to anything else.

• Song Four links into Song two as the music added an emotion that could have been felt during song two which the music brought the colour white to mind with the emotion being peace with the white being known for the colour the represent that peace by being a calm pure colour that cant be ruined, the pattern that came to mind was a circle of all size as a circle can contain and hold the peace and not let it escape as a circle can not be broken, to show the peace my body movement had to be calm, relaxed and I had to move my body in a soft way also to help with this emotion and colour the music was a song that I recognised which help me to explore the emotion.

By using more movement and experimenting with our bodies you can create the environment for the audience to visualise and fill the stage by inhabiting the environment you are saving yourself from spoon feed the audience by telling them what you are doing and leaving them the figure what your are doing though the movement. 

Painting the fence

By using our own knowledge of a fence we could work together as a team to choose the colour and the physicality of the fence without communicating to each other, we used naturalistic gestures to communicate as if one person did a certain movement e.g. using a paint brush then the rest would follow, also by painting the fence to the tempo and the beat of the music it helped to show the physicality of this fence.

 

Monday 16th September

The Prisoner
To complete this task we had to imagine that we where in two situation one in a prison cell which is slowly flooding with water and the other situation where we are being chased a monster down an endless tunnel trying to find a way out, the sension that felt the worst to being in was the prison cell because you had that fear that something was going to happen to you that someone is going to kill you or your going to die of natural causes but the fear of death was the emotion I was scared of as I related the flooding water with the fear of drowning from the film "Titanic" where people drown as there were trapped but by referring this situation to film makes the situation feel more of a reality as we can watch it happen on screen but it felt more real think that I was in the same situation, with the second situation of being chase by a monster down a long never ending tunnel with different levels of low and high also different settings within the tunnel, overall I felt that the first exercise felt more real then the second as I feel more like I was trapped in the prison fearing more my life then in the tunnel when you are you are one step a head of the monster who is chasing you but as the first exercise I could relate what I was imaging to a film but the second one I couldn't so relating the situation to a film did help make the exercise more of a reality.


Monday 23rd September 2013
Spontaneity

Spontaneity games Part 1

How does it feel to input and except idea's?
I didn't find it hard to input ideas to a piece of work or excepting other peoples ideas as your own ideas can help out other people if they cant think of anything on the spot the "what if questions" it was hard to think of a answer for the question that I was given on the spot but expect what other people was suggesting help me to come up with an answer this worked for other people when I suggested thing for them which helped them to come up with there own answer, However the "would you rather" objects to excepting other peoples ideas as it what you have decide what I want not what other people think of you, "making shape" this exercise did let you except other people ideas as mainly one person took control of each shape but they let other peoples ideas help in to create the final shape and the last exercise "rush hour traffic" this except other peoples ideas as well as my own to create a town with our bags and shoes but this exercise also put someone trust in you when I was driving someone around this town who cant see so they have to trust to you don't crash them into to anything which was the same for the person who was driving you around as I had to put my trust in them. overall  found the activities and easy and challenging at the same time as with some activities it easy to come up with your answer or ideas but with other someone else idea change you ideas and change your mind to what you original thought.


Monday 30th September 2013

Spontaneity games part 2

This time to complete the task we played different games still focusing on expecting other people ideas  but also how forth coming was I with ideas as the first game we played was "excepting circle" this included when some start a movement with a sound and the next person along has to copy the exactly what person before did this was a bit like Chinese  whispers in this game I was really expecting other peoples idea's as I change the movement at some point and at some point adding some extra as if I laugh it had to be added to the movement at nearly every turn the movement and the sound was changed as we had all seen the start of movement and we trying to copy what we had seen at the start not what the person before us was doing which was diffing the rules of the games as we weren't copy what the person before was doing and that I also had change the movement at some points, so I could conclude for this game that I was focused at all time to improve this I would have more focus and try not to laugh as much during the exercise,
 then we moved on the "bag on objects" this game was the one game were i was more expecting and forth coming with ideas as i could see what objects have been use and which ones hadn't so to start i choose the objects that hadn't been use then i move on to the objects that had and i tried not to copy what other people had done for that certain object, this task was the one I found more easier and I was abkle to keep focused more. then we moved on to the game "yes lets" this games was more about excepting other peoples ideas as we had to listen to what someone said then do what they have said, in this game I was more excepting other people ideas as I tried to do the movement that they have said but at some points I didn't know what I could do for other ideas but also I forth coming with ideas I came up with an air hostess and a news reader which other people were excepting off if I could do this games again I would try to add more ideas in as well as not trying to laugh as much and more go with the flow of the game. the next game that we did was "freeze" as this game was more focus on excepting other ideas as you could freeze the scene at any point and you  would enter it but you had to change the idea of the scene into a new scene this was more fun to play as the other person in the scene had to go along with the idea that you had brought in to the scene but they couldn't change it themselves during this game I gave the ideas of the an X Factor judge asking why so I keep someone on the show then when Amelia said freeze the scene change and I was excepting her idea of a couple having an argument which ended with me pulling a gun out on her when the   next time around I did Jeremy Kyle by giving a lie detector results to someone and then asking why they had lied in this exercise I could have been more focus by trying not to laugh when I was on stage. the final game was "who line is it" were we write down a line and we have to start and finish with someone else line also we had to come up with a character as two different group we each had a line and character we then had to decide which line starts and end the scene my character was the joker and I had to end line "I wonder why I get the blame" in this exercise I have could have giving more ideas on where to stage the scene and what other characters could do but during this I was fully excepting of other people ideas.

Monday 7th October 2013 

Sit, stand , lie 

This activity involved us to think about character aswell and keeping eye contact with each other as if some change their potion from standing to sitting then the person who was sitting had to stand I found this activity fun and challenging as I had to think on the spot what my character would've and think of a different story every time I was in the center aswell as keeping eye contact on the other people so if the change I would change also I found it hard to stay in character and try not to laugh at so meeting that was funny when I was in the center. The parts that I found fun was the different scene that was create that was interesting as we were in different setting each time with different character that was interesting to play. 

Park bench 

This actnvity involved the character that we had already created this involved two people on a park bench entering as there character I found this activity fun and interesting as the character could

 go away with their stories and ideas as there was no boundaries and the topic if each character change when there enter and the range of character was that was played was interesting, out of the row character I played I found the news report more fun to play then the local council member getting a view of the area I found the news reporter more fun ans he was asking a women that he had already ask before questions as she had got on his nerves and he didn't like the way the women kept on asking question about him at the end it involved the women leaving I found this challenging aswell to play as I didn't always stay in character if I could do this task again I would try to stay in character more and add another layer to the character. 

Monday 14th October 2013 

Why do actors study movement?

As the actor can used the movement that they have studied in their own performances though body languages and take on a character thoug the uses of full mirror. 

How does this link to drama improv? 

This links to drama improv as the movement that has been studied can be use on the spot when improving a character or a scene. 

Has your opinin changed on why an actor study movement Changed after reading the article?

My opinin has changed after reading the article as the article was saying about as an actor you have to lose your own habits to become the character that you inten to become so the movement helps loses those habits. 

Lecog 

7 levels of tension 

0 - No Tension 

1 - Exhasusted (collapse)

2 - Layed back (Sunday afternoon)

3 - Netural (No emotion) 

4 - Moving with purpose (yes/no)

5 -Surpence 

6 - Realisation 

7- Total Tension 

Vianegative - not telling his students what's right or wrong and letting them physically feel.

What habits did you have to break to be Netural?i

The habits I had to break to be Netural was to keep my face straight and have no emotion in my face lasso the other habits I had to break was stand up right with my shoulders back which before i wasn't doing I was slouched back with my shoulders down.

Were there any levels that was hard and easy to change for and why?

I found the level 0 the hardest level as I found it hard to have no tension with in my body and my facial when having no tension I found this hard because I struggle to hold the no tension with my shoulders backs and having no expression on my face and not laughing at anyone in the room, the level I found easy was level 5 I found this easy because I could show the facial expression of I am not sure what I am hear and moving around with showly and having caution in every step. 

1- lejue - play fullness 

2- complicite - togetherness 

3- disponsibility - openness. 

Monday 4th November 2013 

Fairy tales to create ingredients for improv

The strengths of my performance was this I showed the character clearly though my body language and I thinking on the spot and have a dramatic ending my weakness was I kept changing my accent when playing the character of the beast if could do this again I would keep to one accent not change it and try to focus more on the characterisation.

On the spot storytelling with a giving stimulis. 

The stimulis I was giving was CDs  my strengths were keeping the audience engage whilst explaining why I love CDs also I was able to very my tone this helped me to keep the audience engage my weakness for the performance was trying to keep going as I ran out of ideas I could talk about on CDs also I didn't have much eye contract with my audience at some points I made some eye contact with the audience. 

Do you think you have masted the skills of story telling and what did you prefer?

I think I have mastered the skill of storytelling as I was able to think of a story on the spot with the given stimuli also with the fairy tell ingredients I felt that I have mastered telling a story on the spot with giving lines I think I have mastered this because I was able to think on the spot with and I

was trying to make the story interesting for the audience, out of the two storytelling techniques that we use I preferred the on the spot storytelling with given stimulus as I could go anyway with it within the given topic and that I didn't have to say any lines if I could do that again I would hope for a better topic to talk about so I could talk for longer then I did which wasn't to bad of 1 minutes 24 seconds.

Monday 11th November 2013
Dramatic tension.

what is dramatic tension?

dramatic tension is a technique that is design to keep the audience encage and making them think about what they are seeing by taking the audience to the edge of their seats this happen when tension has build up top its peak, the effects of tension are used in film, Television, Musicals and Plays.

How is tension created?

• Exaggeration - when a something has happen in the plotline of the media.
• Marking the Moment - when something has happen and the actor has come out of the scene to explain  what the character is feeling.
•  Lighting/Music/ Sound Effects- when these are use these help to build up the tension this makes the audience feel more tense as they know something is going to happen but they don't know what.
• Facial Expression - when the actor use there facial expression to show the emotion to audience which helps the audience feel more tense when don't know what the actor is seeing.
• body language - when an actor moves in a certain way to show an emotion to the audience helps build the tension within the audience when they don't know why they are moving in that way.
• Vocal - this involves the use of pitch, volume and tone these are use to help build tension within the audience but also used to encage the audience by keeping them interested in the storyline.
•  Long pause/Dramatic pause - these are used to show thing mainly bad has happen and the actor want the audience to reflect on what's happen with the pause this also helps build tension when something worst could happen.
• Descriptive and Emotional words- this help by playing the audience sense and emotion by telling the audience that it was a cold room the audience feel cold also when telling the audience that a character is sad plays with the audience emotion and the audience becomes sad along with the character.

why is dramatic tension used in storytelling?
I believe that dramatic tension is used in storytelling to keep the audience interested and encage with the story that the actors are telling them also dramatic tension is also used in storytelling to make the audience think about what they have just seen.

Monday 25th November

we recapped on the past  7 weeks to see what we could remember to get ready for the weekly assessments.

We all took at certain week and wrote what we could remember I was giving week 7 of storytelling, after we went though each one as a class to see what we might have missed.

we were then given a task to create prepared improve that includes some of  techniqes that we had learnt from the 7 weeks.

Me and Kat worked together to create a dramatic piece of a husband losing his wife to cancer and he kidnapped the doctor trying to get him to save his wife but there was no luck we made it dramatic by using  silence and dramatic pauses and verying the tone of voice.

Monday 2nd December 2013

Assessment 1

 Image stimulus

To complete this assessment we were given three of Roy Lickenstein pop art and we had to create a piece of improv from the three images.

the three images

From these image I worked with Sasha, Kat and Tom and we create a scene that involve a married couple arguing  then crossing cut to the past when the couple that was happy but change to unhappy with the couple not trusting each other, also we show the couples past by using cross cutting in the first cross cut we showed when then couple first meet to make the scene look more effective every time the scene switch to the past the couple argue about something else until the car crash at the end of the scene.

 The techniques that we used was dramatic pause to build tension with the help of long pauses also we used cross cutting to show the different time period when me and Kat were talking Tom and Sasha were frozen then after a key word me and Kat froze and Tom and Sasha come unfrozen every time as the scene went on me and Kat tone and pitch change as the more angry the character got the louder our voice got till they couldn't go anything further, also we used slow motion to show the car crash scene with the couple falling slowly out of the car on to the floor in a dead position but to show to the audience that they were a couple me and Kat had one hand touching the others. 

The strengths of the performance was that we use planned improv well we knew what we were doing and we had a understand of what improv techniques we were going to use and we came up with different ideas for each of the images, the weakness we had was that we did try to over plan what we could do for the piece then trying the ideas we had and seeing which one worked well and which one that didn't.

Monday 9th December 2013

Assessment 2

Audio stimulus

To complete this assessment we listen to the song "I don't like Monday" by Boomtown Rats. From the song we had to crate a scene from the music.       

From the song I worked with Sasha, Kat and Tom and we looked at the idea of a zombie apocalypse to start of with we looked at two survivors trapped in a room with the dead entering from different aganal with me and Kat trying to defend our selves whilst Tom and Sasha was playing the zombies then we decide to add to the scene by adding a part where Kat character becomes a zombie which leave me to defend myself which ends up falling then my character becomes a zombie but we made the character all say "I don't like Monday's", to help make the scene more effective we set the audience in the round to make the scene effective so the Tom and Sasha could enter in different place and that the audience could see my and Kats reaction to the zombie we was all facing all members of the audience. 

To give more depth into the story we decide to set the scene like a story by starting with children telling ghosting stories then acting out the story that Tom's child character was telling then finishing the scene with the children screaming.

The techniques that we used for the scene was long pause to show the character reaction and to help build tension for the audience as they have go no clue what could happen next which help to the fear of the scene, also we used a deeper tone of voice when playing the zombies character to show to the audience that we were dead this was also backed up by the use of our movement as we moved our bodies in a way which we thought a zombie would move, to make the scene have more fear we went up to audience members touching, smelling and talking them in a zombie manner which made the audience feel scared as we made the audience feel that they were in a really zombie apocalypse.  

The strengths of the performance was we using planned improvisation for the final piece but during the whole rehearsal period we improvised every scene to have an idea of what ideas work and which didn't and seeing it their were parts that we like but need to be change to my the scene work. This time we felt that we didn't over think the scene like we did before in the visual stimulus we had opened up a little but a some points we over plan at the start when we first listen the song when we were think of ideas that would work.  

Monday 6th January 2014

Assessment 3

Scripted Stimulus

To complete this assessment we looked at the script called "Sophie" and had to create a scene with the characters from the script, the scene had to be about one of the theme that we found by reading the script.

I work with Natalia and from the script we thought that the character Sophie has voice in her head or a demon so we create a scene starting the line "I don't care"  with Natalia  who played Sophie mining the line then lowing her body level to the floor and repeating the line "I don't care" but this time she sayed the line with me playing the voice questioning with "why don't you care" and "you should care" and repeating the first line "why don't you care" we portrayed the relationship between Sophie and voice with the voice answering all of Sophie demands but saying "I don't want to leave" or "Why should I?" and " I like it here in your head" also we showed the voice hypnotising her with words saying "you need me" and showing to the audience that Sophie was hypnotised by Natalia saying the line in a hypnotised tone and facial expression and having Sophie back out of the hypnoses by turning her head away and saying "I hate you" we repeated this to show to the audience that the character of Sophie was fighting the voice even though the voice was fight her every demand.

Though the rehearsal process we look at the basic idea with Sophie questioning the voice then we looked at how could we get to the part of Sophie crying at the voice so we took the idea of the voice telling her the jobs that need to be done, I did though saying "why haven't you done this?", why isn't that done" to make more effective to the audience I starting to speed up saying the voice demands until Sophie lost it and said "I don't care" which starts the scene with the voice questioning her on why don't she care, we then thought to end the scene with Sophie shouting "I don't care" then with the voice saying "you never care about me did you" then to end the scene we deicide that Sophie level should rise from the floor to standing then having her facial express looked hypnotised again to show to the audience that the voice was in control not her.  

The techniques that we used were tone of voice and body level we achieve this by having the voice have a low evil sound tone of voice making him sound like the devil to make the scene more effective and to make the character of Sophie feel more scared of the voice we also made the voice have more status by making his body level higher then Sophie's as we had Sophie at the start on a chair then she moved to the floor by having Sophie on a lower level it shows to the audience that Sophie has no authority at all that all the authority is with the voice.

The strengths of the performance was we improvise that the start when we were creating the idea but with a mixture of planed improv as we talked about we should do and could do, when presenting the final scene to the audience we improvise some parts of the scene when staying the line as it change every time we did it as well as not including every thing that we had rehearsal. when creating the first idea we struggle to think of something as we didn't understand what we had to do but once we found the theme and understand what we had to do the ideas just followed as time I believe that we didn't over plan what we could do we just went with the what we felt was right. 

Monday 17th March 2014

Improvisation Part 3 On The Spot.

This is the final part of Drama Improvisation this part focus on "on the spot" improvisation these task makes you think about changing someone on the spot which out having time to think, these techniques more helps presenters of show as they can quickly do step in and do something if something go wrong. 

Forum Theatre

What is Forum Theatre?

Forum Theatre is where there is a scene with something going on and the idea for the audience is work out what is wrong with the scene and say stop the actor stop the scene where stop was say and allow  the audience member that said stop can ether tell the actor what wrong and tell them what needs to change to make scene work or the audience member that said stop can swap with one of the actor that they chose and the scene continues but the new actor in the scene change was created to make the scene to work.

The task that we were set to do was to create different scene that really happen to you or a member of your group where you did something wrong, the two scene idea that we come up with was first Sasha trip to Magaluf with one of her friends had lost her camera and the other scene was from Tom when he and his mate tried to get in a house party. once the two scene was created we present it in front of the other group they could ether say "STOP" or "REWIND" an example is Ryan Y said "STOP" when we presented the tom scene and he swap with Tash who was a bouncers and the scene continue, the other group could use "REWIND" which is where the scene could rewind to part that the other group that they missed. For the other group I said "STOP" for the other group for Kat's scene on a roller coaster I swapped with Ryan Y and I changed the scene by being person that was more scared of the ride.

From this task I found it really fun as there was not right or wrong to a scene you could change to the way that you wanted it to be. I did find the first performance from Ryan Y group confusing to work out what could be changed the make the scene work but I found the second performance easier to find way to change it but it did take a long time to work out what was wrong. The only thing that I found difficult was sometimes working out what could be change before I said "STOP" but apart from that I really enjoyed this task. 

Monday 12th May 2014

QVC Shopping channel task 

The task that I was set to do was to pitch a random item that appeared on screen and try to sell to an audience in the style of a presenter from the shopping channel QVC the presentation had to be maximum of 5 minutes long and I had to think in the style of a presenter of QVC, fur this task I had to think of a character who was a presenter and I had to think like a present of a shopping channel I had t use words that would make someone buy the product that I was selling to them and I had to go buy he information that I was giving on screen. 

The item that I was selling was a pair of Phillips 3D glasses, within the presentation I had the price and the postage and packaging price as well as key feature of the product and the benefits of the product for someone life.

The skills I use thoughout of the presentation was on the spot skils where I am trying to present something wih no practice or cues to help but the main skill I was using was saving my self as thoughout the task I went blank and I didn't know what to say  so this skill made think what else I could say but one looking at the information but also looking at the way I am presenting the information I am making it intresting to the audience, I am not repeating my self, so using this skill help me save the presentation but using these skill does also link in to did you find the task easy or hard well I found it hard as I said I went blank and didn't know what to say at some points this was because I was under pressure to sell something I didn't know about at all as under pressure you do intended to go blank but as well I felt I wasn't all ways making the presentation intresting to watch but once I had saved myself I was also working on my presentation skils as well. 

If I could do this task again I would try not to think about the audience in front of me as I felt during the presentation they making me feel pressurised as I wanted them to think that I am good at presenting but as well I would try to relax more so I would hopeful not go blank and try not to speak to fast as thought my presentation I was speaking to fast so the audience couldn't understand what I am saying and I was trying th use up my time to fast if I slow down so one people can understand me and as well the time will go much quicker.