Feb 8, 2011

More on What is Good?
Recap:
1. Emotional Content – like Bruce Lee says
- it doesn’t have to be sadness, it can be babies laughing, or whatever
- UNIVERSALITY – common to all people – things that are universal are generally understood by all people
- common universals – love, war, loss, family, fear of isolation, loneliness, sickness, etc
2. Honesty – people can identify phoniness and it turns us off – we respond to things differently when we think they’re real
- video game violence vs real violence – even a kid knows the difference, although the line can blur
- a form of art that has this sense of honesty is much more likely to appeal to us
- eg Rachel McAdams screen test – she got the part because it was real
A Look at Acting
- Method – (Stanislavsky)
- This was a kind of acting that shocked movie watchers in the 50s and it became a kind of standard –
- When we judge movies now, we are looking for actors who can do the things that this method was known for
- sense-memory
- they anchor a real memory to the scene and if they have to cry, the actor cries for real – if it’s rage, it’s real rage, etc
- eg James Franco’s cat
- can this work with laughing? Being scared? Not so much.
- It works best with darker emotions – acting coaches would say it works for laughing, but I would be surprised
- For comedy, what does the trick? – improv – top film comedians bring new tricks to each line
- Going off the script and doing what the character “would do” or feels, this is also a Method strategy
- Research –
- Some actors will spend time learning about some job or skill or whatever and then bring that into the part they play – the most insane person to do this is Daniel Day Lewis, who went into the woods and hunted with a bow and learned to skin animals and make clothes and everything for a role in Last of the Mohicans
For some actors, it’s not acting – it’s real.
This makes a movie better (or scarier) or whatever
3. Techniques (this is much of what the course is about)
- sound
-story/script – writing
- picture (still or moving, or drawn)
- post production (editing, layering in whatever else we use)

We Will Start with Sound
Music (you will make some music)
Sounds Effects (you will create a soundscape_
Vocals – in the context of a story or scene, or narration (you will do a narration/radio play type of thing)
Build an interest-based podcast

First Ass. In Sound
Collect some music and post the videos or sound tracks on your blog for me to enjoy.
Over the semester, if you can get some sounds and songs that hook me, you will get bonus marks.
Ie Keep posting tracks to your blog and keep reviewing them