Jordans unit 7 work for joe

Unit 7 Acting for camera

Techniques:

Mining the text: Throughout the first few sessions of unit 7 I learnt how to mine text and how it really helps you to understand your character. Mining the text is going through the script and picking out all the little details that give you knowledge of what’s going on in the scene or information that reveals more about your character and asking the key questions who, what, why, when. Examining the text helped me understand more about the character and their intentions. Reading about the layout of the scene helped me shape an idea of what situation my character is in and how my character would react in the circumstances this in turn helps me hugely develop my character. I used this technique throughout the whole unit on each new monologue I performed making me much more knowledgeable on my character which in turn helped me portray the character in a more true to the script way.

Another exercise we did was to think of our character as an animal or a color or even a piece of furniture. This exercise is used when you’re stuck on a character and helps generate a new way of looking at the way your character would move or speak how their stance would be etc. I found this exercise particularly useful when looking at my character for my first monologue “A Tiger and his prey” seeing my character as a predator I added in slight elements of a tiger to change the way my character moved his head and scratched his arms I feel these animalistic elements helped develop my character into a more interesting view on him.   

 

Another useful exercise which links with the one above is when you’re trying to develop your character but you’re stuck so you give your character a problem for example make it so the person you’re talking to really smells or make your character be in love with the person your speaking to. Giving yourself these problems is a useful way to explore your character and help you to try and play your character different each time you

 

Internalize the character: one of the best bits of feedback I got which helped me develop as an actor throughout this unit was to internalize the character before externalizing the character. What I was doing was adding elements to show the audience what I wanted them to see my character as. For example if I wanted my character to be seen as scared and low states I would hunch over and be very introvert but the problem with adding these physicality’s on top before getting into character is they don’t look natural and when on camera look far too over the top and unrealistic. But the feedback I got was that I should try and embody the character first and internalize all their feelings and emotions and that way the physicality’s will come naturally and therefore look much more realistic on camera. I learnt that when performing to a camera every little detail is picked up so by internalizing everything the little changes in your body/voice will be picked up so instead of on stage where you have to show slightly over the top actions on camera it’s much more about the internal monologue.

 

 

Short film: I looked at several short films one of the ones I felt was interesting was “The interview” which had been uploaded to YouTube by “Bad Teeth” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxiWvzN5wto (The Interview / Live Stream Finalist // Bad Teeth, 2013)  their use of relatable comedy was simple but delivered very effectively with great comic timing. I felt that it was a simple idea executed very well and that it shows how you can create a great short film without over complicating it or having a massive budget. Another short film I watched was The Gunfighter directed by Eric Kissack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYP-2UCS5nY (The gunfighter - (voice by Nick Offerman), 2014) which had the very unique idea of having the characters being able to hear the narrator and playing on the comedy of that situation. They obviously had a much larger budget than some of the other short films I watched including “the interview” but they didn’t spend all their time trying to show of special effects which in a few of the short films I watched tried and it takes away massively from the story and acting ability instead they used the money on costumes and the scenery etc which enhanced the performance of the actors and the comedy rather than trying to take the limelight.   

 

 Actor analysis: The actor I have decided to analyze is Robert Knepper

Background: he started acting at a young age because his mum’s involvement in the acting community and later went on to study drama at Northwestern University. Before his big television break as the character T-Bag in prison break. He was involved in many different theatre performances from 1977 to 1998 while also getting small roles in films and television shows. Since his performances in prison break he had gone on to star in many more television shows and films such as: “transporter 3”, “heroes”, “Mob city” and many many more and is due to star in part one and two of “The hunger games mocking jay”.

Analysis: the reason I choose Robert Knepper was because his ability to add multiple layers to his characters both internally and externally and his attention to detail is incredible he fully understands everything about his character from the back story to the way they would speak and then uses these as tools to create the character here’s an interview of him talking about his role in prison break. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SdOn1znnKQ  (Robert Knepper, Prison Break, Series 1 extras interview, 2011) what I find interesting is his ability to take the setting and use that as a stimulus to base part of his character off  and his incorporation of animalistic’s into this role.  What I find particularly interesting is how he adds the layers of what his characters is thinking internally and how that effects his external movements and his knowledge of the accent he is using and how he can use that to affect the way he delivers lines in different scenarios I am very impressed how he adds all these elements together while still being able to keep the character naturalistic and completely believable. An example of both his ability to act internally and externally can be seen in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS-E8WdpqjM (Prison Break - T-Bag (Theodore Bagwell) Best Of (HD), 2013) from 0:00 to 1:35 there are multiple examples of him using animistic movements from his walk to the way he moves his arms and mouth are all based on different types of predators a lion/ snake this shows his ability to apply justified movements to enhance the character also the way he utilizes the accent allows him to play around with different ways to deliver lines indifferent scenarios giving him a wide range of different delivery’s in each scene. From 5:36 to 6:08 he shows a great use of internalizing the emotions of the characters which I feel makes this scene very powerful even though he has very few lines in that section.

Summary: I feel his ability to play extreme character with great range of acting ability whilst still keeping the roles believable make him a great actors and his dedication to the roles unearthing everything about them to enhance his performance really show his dedication to his craft and as someone who want to improve their ability to make characters believable and to be able to internalize a character more I feel I can learn a lot from watching his performances. I find it very interesting that he uses several techniques we have been taught through the unit such as the exercise of thinking of your character as an animal and about internalizing your character which then brings out the external character so it’s very interesting how he’s developed these techniques and how that links up with out unit.

 

Bibliography:

Bad Teeth. 2013 The interview/ live stream finalist// Bad Teeth [online video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxiWvzN5wto [accessed 21/10/2014]

Pamelash86.2011.Robert Knepper prison break series1 extras interview [online video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SdOn1znnKQ [accessed 21/10/2014]

Thequizandquestions.2013.Prison break-T-Bag (theadore bagwell) best of HD [online video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS-E8WdpqjM [accessed 22/10/2014]

Thinzeh. 2014 The gunfighter-(voice by nick offerman) [online video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYP-2UCS5nY [accessed 19/10/2014]

Jordan Matthews