Pringles or Ruffles or Aliens?

To my surprise, Abby and I finished our scene today, and I think we did it very well! Today, I was very nervous about performing our scene. I wasn't feeling that great today and the weird schedule today totally threw me off my game. However, I felt very focused while doing our scene today. Abby and I were planning to go last because we had gone first the other day, so we were a little nervous going up to perform after watching Jack and Duncan's scene.

Abby and I had a lot of fun performing our scenes. We both really got into character. I remember practicing with her the other day and we just burst out laughing because we both could never imagine being so rude, especially to each other. It was a stretch for both of us, but it was such a fun scene to perform. I've always been the type of person to be super patient and understanding of people. If you read zodiacs, the Libra is often portrayed as the easygoing doormat of the signs that just wants everyone to be happy and peaceful. I am a Libra and most of these zodiacs are absolutely true for me. That is who I truly am, but growing up I've always loved e mean characters in movies. One of my favorite mean girl characters as a little kid was Tess from Camp Rock, who was a rich girl that had 2 loyal followers and hated everyone else. Totally opposite of me, but I've always loved these characters! Now, my favorite mean character is Regina George from Mean Girls.

Both of our characters are rather rude and unfriendly, which is what makes the scene so funny. I think we did a really good job at being snotty and passive aggressive until the end where I trip Barbara (Abby). It's silly to think that such a thing as chips would cause such an argument, which is why I love the scene. One thing I think we both could've improved on our scene is fanning out more. For some parts, I was faced towards Abby and you could only see a side profile. However, I think our facial expressions, vocal tone, and body language was great. Our characters were fun to portray and I think we did a great job in character development exercises which led to a good performance.

I really enjoyed Jack and Duncan's scene as well. At first, I thought the scene was horrible and I had no idea how they could pull it off. The time they performed it the other day, I saw great progress. I really liked Jack as the alien and Duncan as the agent. I can tell being an alien was a stretch for Jack, so I think he did a great job! It became a really funny scene as well; at first I did not find it amusing at all. It's weird, but I like watching things get knocked over/destroyed. I also think they did a great job portraying the scene as a hallucination, which I thought they would have trouble with. I would've loved to see Jack to a weird alien-y voice, but I think it still worked out fine.


I can't wait to see the last scene tomorrow!

Link to my acting scene with Abby

Here is the link to the scene:
http://youtu.be/RmicFziWYqU

Link to silent movie

Here is the link to the silent movie:

http://youtu.be/qJYfdbPu9zI

Character Study/Scene Study

The character I portray in my short scene with Abby is named Ally. In the scene, Ally and Barbara (Abby's character) fight with each other over the last tube of Pringles.

Ally
Who is Ally?

Age: 28

Backstory: Ally grew up a spoiled only child with two loving parents who let Ally run the house. However, they always taught her to be proper and to have good manners. In this scene, I hope to portray Ally has a person who is proper and poised but is not afraid to argue to get her way because she is so used to it.

Family: Ally has no kids of her own because she does not want to be pregnant for 9 months and "get fat." She has one adopted child from Italy and a husband named Louis. She married her husband when she was 20 for "true love" aka, good looks and money. He is often at work and does not pay much attention to her, but Ally believes that he is very loyal to her because she is beautiful.

Education: Ally graduated college and medical school to become a nurse. She just finished her education and has been a nurse for a year.

Status and Living Situation: Ally is definitely a socialite in her neighborhood. She is not the most wealthy herself but, because of her husband, she has a lot of money. Many of her friends also have wealthy husbands, and they get together for dinner parties at least once a month. Ally is used to getting what she wants, so dealing with a person much different than her like Barbara will be challenging.

Motivation: Ally's motivation to come to the grocery store is to get some food for the week to bring home for her husband and kid. Pringles are her child's favorite snack food, so she decides to get the Pringles. It is not so much that Ally really wants the Pringles, but she is used to getting what she wants and it is outrageous to her that someone could so rude as to argue with her.

Appearance:
Good posture
Hands on hips while arguing
Hair kept in a tight bun with no flyaways
Fancy gold silver jewelry with pearls
High heels that always make an obnoxious 'clomp' sound

Movements:
Slow, collected at the beginning of the monologue.
Hands folded or on hips as Ally gets more annoyed.
Rolling of eyes and exasperated sighs as Barbara gets madder.

My acting journey and progress so far

Wow! I have come such a long way since the beginning of the school year, and it has only been 2 months. It feels like just yesterday I was sitting in the pews of St. Bridget Church at convocation surrounded by people I didn't know at all, starting high school. I still remember our first acting class, where we learned each other's names through games.

Since I have had experience acting before, I assumed that going into this class I would do really well and learn a couple extra tips, but not a lot more than I already knew. Boy, was I wrong! Well, I am satisfied with myself in acting class so far, but there are many things that I have learned and can still improve on. My first monologue I performed was easy for me because I wasn't playing a character, but rather myself. However, it was somewhat challenging for me to perform. One thing I struggled with was balancing good facial expressions with good body language. It was much more hard for me than I thought! Each draft I did of my monologue, either I would have great facial expressions and poor body language or great body language and movement but horrible facial expressions. It took me a lot of attempts to get a monologue that balanced both of those out well.

My second monologue was definitely a challenge for me. I loved the monologue, but knew it would be a stretch for me to perform. The character I had to portray was very different than any I have played before. Also, the monologue was very confusing to block. The first couple times I performed the monologue to the class, everyone didn't' really know what I was performing. It was disheartening to me because I thought I was doing well, but I learned from others' feedback on how to make it more believable. Everyone's advice and encouragement helped me to do better with my dramatic monologue. I still don't think I did the best job with this monologue and could've chosen a more simpler one to perform, but looking back the monologue was a good choice because it made me learn many things about the importance of blocking and body movement to convey emotions.

My most recent performance in acting class was the silent movie. This was by far my favorite assignment to perform because I like working in groups and performing comedically. One of my goals for the silent movie was portraying a nurse well. I think I worked hard and did a good job at fitting into that role! A couple nights ago I showed my mom the silent movie and she found it hysterical. I was so happy that she enjoyed watching the silent movie just as much as I did performing it. Of course. I have to thank Lisa, Alexis, and Abby for doing an amazing job at being old people.

My goals for this upcoming semester are to continue being focused in acting class and working hard. I also want to remember to take criticism as a gift, not an offense. My goal is to listen to the feedback of others and to give good feedback in return so our class as a whole can have a great experience acting!

In Class Writing

Dayna Freeman                                                                                                                   10/15/15

In Class Writing - Acting


To my surprise, I really enjoyed doing a silent movie in class. It was really fun to perform and really entertaining to watch the other group. I think both our groups did an excellent job with their silent movies. Silent movies are not an easy thing to pull off and can be confusing to the audience if not performed well. I believe the greatest strength of both of our groups was doing a great job portraying stereotypical characters and working along well together. You could tell in the silent movie we all knew how to interact with each other to make it funny and believable.

 My group did a silent movie called "Back in my Day". My group got along really well together and all put in our ideas for the silent movie. We had good coordination working together to perform our silent movie and we helped each other if we were struggling. I really liked our story line. My role of the nurse I could understand and relate to because my grandmother has dementia and absolutely hates senior centers. She says they're full of old people and that she hates card games and bingo. She refuses to go to any senior center and insists on living on her own. While performing, I was imagining that Abby, Lisa, and Alexis were my grandmother that was cranky at a senior center. I imagined that I was trying to calm down my grandmother when she got mad. Of course, towards the end, I get exasperated with the fighting seniors (I can get a little exasperated with my grandmother too!) and just give them a blank stare as they continue to be annoying. My group did a great job at facial and body expressions. I could absolutely believe they were stereotypical cranky old people at a senior center. I think one thing I could've done better was having more consistent facial expressions throughout and showing the contrast between the kind, patient nurse and the annoyed, exasperated nurse. As a whole, I think our group could've been more focused in rehearsals. I feel like if we were a bit more focused on the performance than the music we could've done a better job.

The boys' group performed a silent movie called "The world's best cupcake". I loved their silent movie because it created suspense but was also very funny to watch. I also love the opening song to their silent movie (I forget what it is called but I've heard it before) because it creates a serene atmosphere but also one of mystery. Another thing that stood out to me was Jack behind the wall peeking his head around the corner to watch John. It was a classic "bad guy hiding" move and it was stereotypical but funny. I also liked the exact moment when Duncan and Jack reached for the cupcake. It was the iconic moment of the silent movie where the fighting starts. One thing I think could've been done better was a little less talking in the beginning. It was a little tedious to me and I think it could've been shorter and more to the point. Another thing I would've liked to stand out more was when Duncan was dying, but John actually killed him by stepping on him. It was a little difficult to understand and I think it could be more pronounced.

Senior Centers and Silent Movies

Performing a silent movie was surprisingly a very fun and exciting experience for me. I have never really known what silent movies were before this project. If you'd have asked me what a silent movie was, I would probably just stare at you blankly and ask how a movie could be silent and still be a movie. Well, now I know better and I really enjoy them! I loved working with the other girls in class for this project. We had a rocky start and experimented with a lot of different ideas, but as soon as we agreed on doing one about old people playing bingo we knew we had an idea we could work with. The plot actually came very easy to us- we didn't need to do a lot of brainstorming on it. We all agreed that it would be a really funny and cute silent movie. My role in my silent movie was the nurse of the senior center that I work at. I was the one character in the silent movie that wasn't elderly, so I had to clearly act out that I wasn't like them. I think I conveyed that I was a nurse well in the story because I moved at a normal pace and my body actions weren't delayed. I think in my facial expressions and emotions I conveyed that I was a nice caretaker that was trying her best to take care of the elderly. Well, a caretaker that gets a little exasperated working with cranky old people all day! Looking back on performing the silent movie, one thing I could've improved was showing the contrast between the kind and incredibly patient nurse at the beginning to the exasperated and annoyed nurse after a long day of dealing with angry seniors. However, I liked how I did my ending with Abby where we went off stage together on the wheelchair. It added a little romance to the plot and a lot of humor to the ending. One thing I definitely could've done better was to be more serious during rehearsals. Although I was having a great time rehearsing our silent movie, I could've been a little more serious and focused. However, I believe our final result we were all very serious and concentrated on performing well. One my group's biggest strengths in performing our silent movies is that we all worked very well together and our silent movie was made up of all of our ideas. We all really contributed to the movie and I think that's what made it so fun for us to perform and (hopefully!) very entertaining for the audience as well. Abby, Alexis, and Lisa all did a really good job as old people. They got super into character and did a great job. After we were done rehearsing each day, it was weird for me not to see them shaking with their canes and moving slowly! One of the most important factors for a silent movie is for the characters to be well understood, or stereotyped. They all did an excellent job stereotyping cranky old people at a senior center.

Plot of the silent movie

Here is what our plot of our silent movie looks like so far:

Beginning
elderly home
Middle
Smb claims to have bingo
Fights breaks out for the bingo
Alexis accidentally hits Abby's face with a cane
Abby's dentures fall out
Ending
Trying to pick them up

Movements
Alexis and Lisa are sitting making puzzles
Dayna is rolling Abby in and then she says: "Bingo time"
Everyone sits down and play bingo says" B 52"
Lisa and Alexis claim they have a bingo( stand up at same time. cards that says "bingo bingo!!!")
The fight starts:
Alexis bites her thumb at Lisa meanwhile, Abby is sitting with Dayna behind fight (
lisa throws bingo card at Shannok
Shanok SLOWLY moves Cane to hit Lisa
Lisa ducks
Cane hits Abby in face (close up shot)
Dentures fall out of Abby's mouth close up shot to where they fall on ground
Alexis and Lisa very slowly me in pain bend down to get dentures.
Eventually Dayna bends down
Zoom in to her hand only picking up dentures
Hands to Abby
Dayna sits in Abby's lap and they  wheels off, while the other two are left in pain
Heart that closes off scene

My first experience with silent movies

The link to the silent movie I watched is here: http://youtu.be/oj20onQnTww

I really liked the silent movie because it was cute and had moments of sadness and happiness. I think the setting for the monologue was very realistic and that the characters were relatable too. Although the boy who was the main character was a teenager, he did a good job of portraying a younger boy well. One thing that I disliked about the silent movie was that the facial expressions could've been much better. While they conveyed enough emotion for me to get the general message, atoints the facial expressions were very average and bland. All the actors could've shown much more emotion in their faces. Silent movies are a lot different than talking movies because talking is one of the primary ways humans interact with each other. In real life, most conversations we have with other people are more talking with the other person than being really emotional. Typically, we don't use extravagant facial expressions while talking to one another. While you have to be an actor in movies, you have to be a very emotional actor in silent movies. Since there is no language for the audience to understand, you have to convey your emotions through body movement and facial expressions. Silent movies don't rely just on the actors' body movements and facial expressions. They rely on other things to make a silent movie entertaining and understandable. Sometimes in silent movies there is background music to add a tone to the story. In this monologue, a youthful piano tune was played in the background to symbolize a story about a child. In the silent movie I watched, the boy's best friend was a teddy bear. The teddy bear is a prop that pieces together the whole monologue. Most of the story is revolved around finding the boy's teddy bear that is missing. Another prop in the story that stood out to me was the notebook that the boy was drawing in. He missed his best friend, the teddy bear, and is shown drawing a picture of him and the teddy bear holding hands right before the girl gives him his teddy bear. It was a sad but cute moment where it showed that the teddy bear was important to the boy. Setting is also very important for silent movies. The setting of the silent movie that I watched was in a stereotypical suburban neighborhood. The setting seemed like a very realistic place for the boy and the other characters in the story to be. Another thing that is important for silent movies to be understood is predictable characters. The boy and girl in the story are typical little kids that like stuffed animals and would be very upset if the lost their teddy bear. When the girl gives the boy his teddy bear in the end of the movie, the boy is very happy and also makes a new friend- the girl. The movie ends with the boy and girl running down a street, both holding each arm of the teddy bear. I learned from watching this movie the importance of facial expressions and that silent movies can work and be entertaining with the right elements.