Medium Specificity: Acting

It may seem suspicious that I chose acting as the medium I wanted to explore, seeing as our 185 class had readings, guest speakers, and assignments all discussing it, but I swear that I thought of it before all that happened.

I'm actually in an Acting Fundamentals class right now, and I'm fascinated by the psychology of acting. It's really interesting to me that people will assume another person's being. Actors and actresses imitate and re-create whole other egos in order to both support the narrative in which that character lives, and to satisfy a primal urge to perform and imitate.

Acting is hard; studying and expressing ourselves takes a heck of a lot of self-awareness and maturity, but to simultaneously be aware of the fact that they exist as a person and play a completely different person is an extremely vulnerable emotional position. It's trauma when you get it wrong, and ecstasy when you get it right. To make things even more confusing, you'll never get it right with more than one person -- one director may absolutely adore your little lip-biting quirk, and his best friend may not be able to stand it. Similarly, some actors are method to the point of obsessive-compulsive, while others are "from-the-inside-out" to the point of marijuana-reeking hippie.

After all is said and done, however, there are a few fundamental aspects of acting that make "acting" a medium and expression of art. Acting requires:
1. An actor/A human being
2. A character for that human to represent
3. A stage/setting to act on/in
4. An objective the character is trying to achieve
5. Tactics the character uses to achieve that objective
6. An audience

There are also a few other things that people tend to think are necessary in acting, but really aren't:
1. A director
2. Lines or a script
3. A camera
4. A costume
5. Fame
6. Drama

In my project, I tried to both celebrate the necessary aspects of acting and scrutinize the things that aren't. I poke fun at the idea of meticulously following the script, I subtly mock the over-zealous director, I roll my eyes at the standardized interaction between directors and actors, and - most importantly - I tried to break the imaginary fourth wall between what the actor is acting and who they are as a person. The script has the narrative; it's the meat and potatoes of any film or production. But the actors are who we see on screen or on stage -- it is their faces, their body language, their quirks that we critique and become familiar with. It is they who live within the narrative's world, and who bring life or death to the piece, no matter how fantastic the script is.

Ultimately, I wanted the audience to read the script or watch the film of the project and wonder what was scripted and what wasn't...because in either case, the person on being filmed is acting. The narrative, in these, aren't as important as the characters within the narrative, or how the characters and their lines make the audience step back and think.


Script:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0GOdVYghxWkSExhMzRpLUl3VkE

Film:
https://youtu.be/RiYDRBG6KMY