It’s so great to hear from all of you who have been following the blog and especially those of you who are trying the exercises in our last several posts (click here, and here to review those exercises or to do them now if you haven’t done so).

I know that this is new and strange territory for some of you and I admire your courage in challenging yourselves to try something different, to speak up when you don’t understand, and to just “go with it” and see where it takes you. Please keep doing all that and also submitting your comments on each post page or speaking to me “offline” or both!

If you do use the “comments” feature, it helps us all to see what others are grappling with or how they are approaching things. It’s amazing how alike we can be and really fun to explore our differences as well. I know that I learn a lot from seeing the various approaches that people take and where their imaginations lead. Your creativity helps me to be more creative and I hope you will find the same experience in sharing with others here.

I’ve stressed throughout these introductory exercises that there’s no “right” or “wrong” answers. The point is really to expand horizons. To let your imagination develop, partly through a “metaphorical” approach; that is, through using one creative or artistic medium to talk about another. In these cases, we’ve used light and shadow, color and tone, depth and angle, “inclusion” and “exclusion” — all found in photographs — to help us explore what stories interest us, how we might relate these stories as writers or directors, and why.

That last part — “why” — is hugely important and is often overlooked in the creative process, perhaps, especially, by actors. These exercises not only help develop imagination but also help develop critical thinking skills; that is, the ability to say, “I choose this over that, I prefer this to that, and here are the reasons.” That’s vital to “technique”. And “technique” has a lot to do with success in the professional world. Almost anyone (if they felt safe enough) could walk onto a stage and churn up an emotion. The art and craft of acting lie in knowing how to do it and why one does it and in being able to replicate it night after night for weeks or months on the stage or take after take after take on film or tape. And, of course, in making it interesting and believable all at the same time (while staying in your light, being in the right place, not bumping into other people or furniture, possibly wearing heavy wigs and odd clothes, etc, etc, etc)!

So, now let’s do one exercise for actors using our by now familiar photo technique and then let’s branch out and add another medium.

By the way . . . as we learned in the last post, these techniques aren’t just for people working in the arts! They can be and have been used successfully by those in other fields, including but not limited to marketing and other aspects of business, to develop critical thinking, build teams, and “outside the box” solutions! Give them a try and see! And, as always, let me — and your fellow blog readers — know your experiences and how you apply these various approaches in your own lives and work! Send a comment below or e-mail me at wwatkins@ewwwf.org.

EXERCISES

Exercise #5:

You’re an actor and your task is to convey a flesh and blood, believable character (even if it’s a “fantastic” or “monstrous” one) to an audience. A character exists within a story and has his or her own life story, a part of which is being played out within the context of the film or play before the audience.

Remember that it’s never possible to show every aspect of one character within the confines of one scene or even one play or film. Just as in life, we may walk into a room as full people with an entire history, but we certainly aren’t going to display every bit of that each time we enter. Those “back story” elements may and do inform our various choices but we don’t demonstrate or think through our entire lives in every encounter we have.

So . . . now have the story in mind. Preferably, this is the story (or part of the story) you chose in one of the previous exercises.

Here are four pictures.  (None is of an actual person — wouldn’t that have been less fun?!) Choose a picture that demonstrates the character you want to portray in your story. (Click on any photo to enlarge it, by the way.)

Your choices may be based on what you want to emphasize about the character (for example, is the character “brooding”? “colorful”? “mysterious”? “playful”? “multi-faceted”? “simple”? “dreamy”? “angry”? “amorous”? “spontaneous”? “uptight”? “self-contained”? “flirtatious”? “murderous”? some combination of many of those? ). Or perhaps you might make your choice also on how you would like to “shade” things, what nuances you want to bring out. Maybe that’s captured in the lighting of a particular photo or what the photographer has chosen to reveal or to hide. It’s up to you.

1. 2.

3. 4.

Please make your choice of photo in the “survey” box below and be prepared to explain your choice. Have fun!

[pinnion id=16806]

Exercise #6:

Now let’s ratchet it up a notch by adding another medium: This time, music.

Here are five sound clips in mp3 format, all brief portions from larger works of original music by Earl Wentz. Click on each link to play it.

Your task is to choose which piece of music most aligns with or informs your character choice.

As you did above with the images, use your imagination and your reason, too, to choose which sound most-closely conveys the essence of your character. It could be something about the rhythm, perhaps representing the way your character might walk, or something about the mood or tone, representing the sound of your character’s voice, how he or she feels, or perhaps the scenario he or she finds himself in or how she relates to others. There are lots of possibilities. None of them is wrong.

Again, have fun and let yourself explore a different way of thinking!

Clip #1:

Clip #2:

Clip #3:

Clip #4:

Clip #5:

Now to share! Please make your choice of music in the “survey” box below and then explain why you made that choice. Enjoy!

[pinnion id=16807]

As always, please be in touch with your comments and feedback. And feel free to share this post with others via e-mail, Facebook, or other social media.

All the best to you!

Bill

© William B. Watkins and “William Weighs In”, 2014-2015. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction. This blog and all its content and components, including but not limited to photographs, videos, music, and text entries, are fully protected by all copyright laws of the United States of America and by international covenants. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.