Assignment 4 Reflection 1
This week we talked about actors’ performance. Robin shared us some short clips to help us get more information of acting. That reminds me last year I played a character in my classmates’ short film which I found out that is so hard to be an actor. Somehow I just felt so awkward acting in scenes. From that on, I stop judging some unprofessional actors’ performance. At some point, some people could be looked better when they was showed on screen. Some people has good looking but not photogenic. In my opinion, because I read a research about the different face looking at different focal length recently. In some focal length, it will stretch people’s face.
Narrative means the central place in most films. Actors adjust the quality and energy of their gestures, voice and actions to communicate their characters’ shifting desires and dynamic relationships with other characters. At each moment of the film, actors’ performance are keyed to the narrative. The clip that Robin showed us was a man in a swimming pool scene. The actor was so talent to show us his movement, action and his best angle on screen. Every action was so detail. This reminds me Charlie Chaplin’s performance in City Lights(1931). He was so intelligent with his action. And I think the blocking is essential as well. Before shooting, director and actors will have a conversation about the position and the camera movement and do the rehearsal.
The quality and energy of actors’ movements and vocal expression are equally important in experimental cinema, for actors’ performance contribute to the mood or feeling conveyed by the piece as a whole. Through rehearsal and individual script analysis, actors find the quality and the energy their intonations and inflections must have to convey their characters’ changing experiences. Sharp, sudden, staccato bursts of words might be used to show that a character is alarmed, while a smooth, sustained, legato vocal rhythm will be used to show that the character is at ease.