My group’s task was to make a silent film. In order to complete this task we followed seven steps, all of which are vital and important to create a silent film. Our first step was to brainstorm ideas for the plot of our silent film. Our second step was to choose an idea from our brainstorm. Our third step was to find thedetails involving detailed descriptions about each scene of our silent film. Our fourth step was to rehearse our roles. Our fifth step was to create the planning and design for our silent film; this involves camera angles and blocking, costume and props, as well as music. Our sixth step was filming each other. We had to book our location and get permission to film. And our seventh and last step was editing our silent film. We had to keep in mind that silent films are in black and white; we had to make sure that we also have a title and a short credit at the end.
Overall, I thought making our silent film was fun and made me interact with people that I don’t usually work with. The hardest step for our group was choosing which idea we should base our silent film on. We were stuck between two different ideas—dancing contest or eating at a restaurant. My heart was stuck on basing our silent film on a dancing contest but our group was getting no where because we couldn’t all be in agreement with one idea. Knowing we were at a disadvantage compared to the other classes as we had a shorter time line, I gave in to basing our silent film on eating at a restaurant for the benefit of our group’s silent film, even if I didn’t really want to do it. After that our group was pretty flexible with the details for our silent film, as we knew the main idea of it.
I liked filming our silent film. All though we had a few normal people in the background while we were filming (we couldn’t tell everyone in the cafeteria to leave) I think that our location for filming was fine. I also liked editing our silent film because we could see how our acting was and see how all of the steps we took behind that paid off. I didn’t like how we rehearsed. Since we were on a very short timeline, we had to practice on our own. This put us at a disadvantage because we wouldn’t be all too familiar with how the staging will be like when we were filming. We also had to trust each other greatly about if we are practicing or not.
I enjoyed working with everyone in my group as they all contributed something to the table. Even if it were a hard choice, I’d say I enjoyed working with Caitlin the most. She’s great with computers so it was easier to edit our silent film. She was open to what her role is (she was absent when we chose our topic for our silent film and when we chose our roles), and if she wasn’t happy with it, she certainly didn’t show it.
I aim to be enthusiastic about our silent film as well; I think Caitlin and I helped our group get up and going. I tried to be open-minded as well as thoughtful about other’s opinions. An example of this is when we were filming; we had to film the part when the waiter (Nick) trips while carrying the food. I wasn’t all too happy about getting dirty but since it helps my group I did it anyway. What I did then also shows that I’m a risk-taker.
If I were to watch our silent film, I would probably think how funny and risk-taking we were. I’d say the funniest part would be when the waiter trips and some of the food got on the customers.
If I were to create a silent film again I would focus on improving my cooperation with others and being consistent in following the plan we made for filming. Time was lost because of my cooperation skills, which could have affected our plan. Because we thought on the spot we didn’t have to do re-shoots later on, but it means our planning before hand wasn’t good enough. What may have also contributed to this was my lack of communication skills. We changed the last scene a lot and Caitlin was in that scene the most. Because I forgot to call Caitlin to get her perspective on our plan, we ended up doing something different while filming.
Throughout this Drama unit (Physical Theater) I have learned many important skills vital to communicate physically. For example, I have learned how to exaggerate my actions, expressions and energy. These are some of the key elements in mime but they have also proved most useful in my silent film. In my silent film, I tried to exaggerate my expressions in a way that seems bigger than life. I try to use my whole body to show my expression. Unfortunately, exaggerating expressions has been one of my week points in Drama. Because of this my expressions aren’t crystal clear.
Because of the creation of my silent film, I have improved my physical communication. At the beginning at this unit I didn’t know much about mime and I didn’t what slapstick or what Commedia dell Arte was. Learning about these has helped me when performing mime because I try hard to have consistency in the imaginary objects in my mime. When we did dodge ball with 3 invisible balls, I quickly lost track where everything was. If I tried it now, I’m sure I could be able to have a ‘normal’ dodge ball game. I also learned the importance of exaggerating my actions. I’ve kept this in mind even when I’m doing a simple action such as walking.
As I grow as a performer, I will try to focus on exaggerated my expressions, as well as my energy. I want to be more committed to my role when filming. This is because at a serious time when we were filming, I remember smiling. When I’m filming or performing, I would like to feel like the character. Have the personality of that character and act like that character too. I think that finding more inspirations to provoke more emotion inside of me will help me improve my physical communication.
Thanks for reading on my blog!
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