The Family Christmas (In Texas, Not Louisiana)

To Be Home

Once again, I am home safe in the heat of Texas. I've already had fun chillin' with the Steven-bro and his fiance at their wonderful apartment. We watched a little bit of South Park Christmas and had plenty of laughs. I'll soon be off to Chick-fil-A with Ariana and Deitz to catch up on life happenings and such. And to top it all off, we all received an early family gift from uncle Dave and aunt Bonnie. Her name is Evangeline King Mead, and she's precious.

Last Day Of The First Semester

Today was quite pleasant! I'm fairly certain I made an acceptable grade on my Film Genres final. After the test, we watched "Easy Rider" with Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson. Yet another great film!

We said our goodbyes to each other once Actor's Lab was over at 4:45. When I arrived back at the dorm, AJ informed me that there was a snow storm advisory in effect until eleven o'clock Sunday morning. "Not cool," I exclaimed... Pete (my awesome cab driver), called a short while later and told me the same exact thing. He was worried he might not be able to make it, and if he did, if the airport would even stay open or not on Sunday (we're expecting a good 6 to 12 inches of snow apparently). So I called up de momma and she quickly rescheduled my flight for 12:40 tomorrow afternoon! It's going to be a great break!

Battle of the Monsters, Anyone?

New project...

A Tough Morning Precedes A Fine Day

Even though the morning brought plenty of unnecessary stress, the day itself was quite nice. In our last class of Meisner for the semester, John thought that what I had to bring to the "stage" was very nice, truthful and honest.

I feel I did fairly well with my Voice final, although Eileen commented that we all could have done better. I agree, we all could have been a little more rehearsed in our monologues, but she also said we all had some nice moments. Being the optimistic and spirited lady that she is, she simply said, "this was a challenge, ya did it, let's move on."

Adam and I got to rehearse and shoot our scene in Intro to the Camera today. We were the last ones to film in that class, and I must say I think we ended it on a high note. Alan loved all of our work on the soap scenes, and everyone was so supportive and generous in their comments.

So now, at the end of the day, I get to enjoy an "A.J. Opp" panini and my ZBrushing madness. Oh! And the water's back on!... Although it's not hot... Whaddayagonnado?

"...Good..."

Well, Wednesday did start off with some positive energy. I got a good work out at the gym, so I'm ready to tackle the rest of the day. What I wasn't prepared for was the lack of any running water when I got back to the room. And apparently the Clark St. subway station is closed... Can't wait to see how the rest of the day goes now.

Vital Source - The Lecture

This is a commercial for Vital Source, featuring my Film Genres teacher, Peter Mattaliano.

A Day Of Excellence

What-a-day! From the hour of ten o'clock on was nothing but excellence and excitement in everything my classmates and I did. We've built up a lot of anxiety about our finals, but so far we've managed to do very well in just about everything so far.

In Actor's Lab, we had four couples perform their scenes for the last time this semester. I was one of the ones who presented today and was totally anxious to do so. I hadn't had as much of the scene memorized as I wanted, but with what I had, I did "absolutely wonderful," as Ms. Ruth Nerken said. I was overjoyed when she named my work as "truly professional." Between my partner and I, she said she would definitely pay to see it as a whole performance.

An hour and a half later, I was blown away once more by the poems performed by my section. Every single one of us had excelled in one area or another and left Ms. Rebecca very impressed; she even decided to let us out twenty minutes early!

Then came Mrs. Connie Rotunda's class of movement and viewpointing... We got to viewpoint to our own music, so I chose the song "Tetrished" by Zoe Keating, a cello soloist. Great work throughout the class. Afterwards, I received plenty of enthusiastic comments on how "cool" and "crazy" my viewpointing is.

'Twas a tremendous day, and it's only seven o'clock.

One Final Down

Yesterday, I had my final in Berry McNabb's movement class. We all did ok on the warm up. He said we were applying ourselves to it very well, but as far as remembering what came after what in the warm up, we didn't do so well. We then had a written test with four questions on them, followed by naming the movements/weight shifts demonstrated by Mr. McNabb. Pretty sure I aced it the test.

In Meisner, John had some okay things to say about me; said I was working well off of my partner, letting the moments affect me and take me where they needed to go, allowing myself to adjust with every new moment. That's what the goal was, so I believe I reached it. Huzzah!

Rockefeller Center

Getting To Know IMovie

This is the final product of a quick little test on IMovie. We didn't have much filming to work with, so I made do with what we had and added a soundtrack by Zoe Keating, a cello soloist.

IMovie Magic

A few days ago, ol' Johnny West and I felt it a good idea to go ahead and start filming something... ANYTHING! I broke out the camera and he exercised his improvisational skills to create a basic plot. And when I say "basic" I mean "basic"...

While working around in IMovie, I happened to learn how to do some classic Hollywood style editing. It's not enough to post online yet, but it's gotten me excited enough to start doing a lot more filming. Won't be able to do a lot this week do to finals, but I can bet he'll be anxious to start filming as soon as we get back from the Christmas break.

Assassination Tango

Woke up feeling a bit of sickness settling into my throat, so I threw on some proper work-out clothes and headed over to the gym. The sauna helped clear a lot of it up, and the warm Denty Moore beef stew I had afterwards helped even more.

I then took a couple of hours out of the day to enjoy Assassination Tango, a film by (and starring) Robert Duvall. The Granddad suggested it to me a while back and claimed it to be one of Duvall's best films. I now share that same opinion.

One Week (Preparing for Finals)

With the first quarter of my film training here at SFT almost done, it's high time I start preparing myself for finals...

For Mr. McNabb's movement class, we are expected to know the full thirty-minute warm up by heart. Not sure if there will be an actual test on paper for all of us or not, but there will be questions on what part of the warm up comes next and for how many counts (ex, arms at second position, rotating front to back, four counts). He will also be demonstrating a series of dance movements and weight shifts, in which we will have to name. Fun stuff!

Don't have a final for Meisner, I believe... We are still working with partners using activities and emotional preparation.

For Actor's Lab, we are performing scenes in partners. We have been working on these scripts for about four or five weeks now, figuring out character intentions, objectives and motivations.

In both Voice and Speech classes, we have a Tolstoy monologue/poem to perform, demonstrating proper usage of breath, resonance, articulation, tempo, pitch and volume.

In Mrs. Connie Rotunda's movement class, we are to perform our monologue from the book "The Secret History" after a moment of viewpointing with two other classmates. The constraints include a limited number of gestures and weight shifts.

We are continuing to finish up soap opera scenes for Intro to the Camera.

The Film Genres final will be a test over all of the film genres studied this semester.

And that concludes the "things to practice before next week starts" list!

David Del Rio

On Wednesday, David Del Rio decided to pay a little visit to the school! David graduated from SFT in 2008 and is currently acting in a show called The Troupe on Nickelodeon.

Not only did David sit in on our Voice class for a few minutes, but he gave an entire lecture in our Intro to the Camera class! He told us all about the industry, working on sets, working with a crew, internships, and most importantly that the industry is far from a luxury. He is constantly working on some kind of project, whether it is acting or writing. David was a major inspiration for me as an actor and gave me a tremendous amount of motivation. Thank you, David!

Perfume

For the past five weeks or so, we've been assigned different films to watch for Actor's Lab, in which we'll be graded upon. The first few were East of Eden, On the Waterfront and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Can't say I was particularly fond of the first two. Loved Mr. Smith, however. I had seen it before a few times back in high school (once even in junior high).

The latest film that was assigned to us was a movie called Perfume - The Story of a Murderer. It's a fairly recent film (2006) and features Ben Wishaw, Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman. Although graphic and disquieting in nature, I was completely thrilled with how it all unfolded to the end. With brilliant performances from all three actors, I'd say Perfume goes on my top favorite films.

High Speed ZBrushing

I've finally gotten one of the latest versions of ZBrush onto my laptop, and it's everything I've been hoping it to be. With loads of memory space, I'm now able to sculpt extreme details in a very short amount of time and with plenty of ease.

Thanksgiving Break

This past week was the breather I had been waiting for. I took a plane by myself back to Houston to visit the fam and friends I have been away from for three months now. We enjoyed Thanksgiving together under one roof.

Being back home after a great period of time sure felt like I was returning to some sort of fantasy land called Home. The water was crystal clear, the bed was soft, the toilets flushed with ease... And the space... The space is what amazed me the most. I never realized how open and flat the south was. New York and Texas are two entirely different worlds.

Three more weeks of this semester and I will be a quarter of the way done with my education here at The School of Film and Television.

Viewpoints

Lately, in Ms. Connie Rotunda's Movement class, we've been exploring "viewpoints," a way of expressing yourself through bodily movements and gestures. We find different and interesting ways our bodies respond kinesthetically to not only our environment, but also to each other.

Today, I sat in on and participated in one of Connie's classes, as I will be missing my class with her this coming Tuesday. I knew most of the people in that section, but had never worked with any of them before. Despite my lack of knowledge in how these kids worked, our "viewpoint personality" connected instantly and gave some very interesting stuff for Connie to critique and discuss.

Afterwards, a couple of the girls from the class asked, "Does everybody in your section move like you do?" I didn't quite know how to respond, as I hardly pay strict attention to everyone's bodily movements. All I know is how focused I can be with the class and how easily it is to let myself go. One of the girls then proceeded to say, "I learned a couple things from you today simply by the way your were moving." It was a very generous compliment and I thanked her heartily.

Today turned out to be a very exciting day! It's always fun to learn something new up here.

The Moment Before

Today, in Actor's Lab, we learned about the "moment before" and did some exercises to practice it. In our groups of two, we had to perform the first line or two of the scene given following five seconds of a "moment before" that we had to make up for ourselves to fit the scene.

Now, five seconds may not be much, but it sure sparked a great amount of discussion between Ms. Nerken and I about the character I was playing... What does he want during the whole scene? He wants to relax and see others relaxed. Why does he want to relax? He's had a stressful week of work. So if he's relaxing, what might he be wearing? Tennis shoes, a t-shirt, maybe cargo shorts... Well why does he confront Anne, a complete stranger, about her negativity? Maybe his manager is the same way. He feels he cannot confront him about this, so he shares his thoughts with someone less intimidating, even if it is a stranger.

It was a very exciting two hours, I must say, and I learned a great deal from it!

Quote:

"The best part of acting is the part that cannot be explained." - John Tyrell - Meisner Teacher

Meisner Excellence and ZBrush Excitement

Just got out of Meisner class and BOY did we all do great! We worked again on our scenes for John to critique. Today was the first day I had felt completely and totally "activated" during our scene. Chelsea even got some tears going! When the scene finished, we looked up to John who looked more than content. "Very... nice... You're done." Totally took us by surprise, because all of the groups who had gone up before us were asked to do one more performance (which will be tomorrow or Monday). "Your punishment for being so good is to bring in an activity for repetition the next time we meet." Nice!!!

And to top it all off, it turns out I will be able to transfer the ZBrush 3.12 files from the family Mac to my laptop the next time I'm home!!! I will then be able to upgrade to ZBrush 3.2!!!!!! Very... good... day...

Muggy Filming

Well, it turns out Mr. Alan Rackham wasn't kidding when he told us that film acting entails hours of "sitting around" in possibly unbearable weather conditions...

Yesterday, Wednesday, we had five scenes to shoot in three hours. I was not in any of them. Although I was given the job of grip (move/set up furniture/props for a scene), I was sitting for about two and a half out of the three hour class time... with no air conditioning...

Now, it is getting cold up here in New York, but when you've got about four or five fresnel lights in a small room--that have been on for hours and hours before-hand--the room gets pretty darn muggy. Everybody was uncomfortable and sweating. All Alan could way was, "You gotta get used to it... This is film acting."

Aside from that, we performed yet another monologue in Voice and Speech, demonstrating proper usage of chest, mouth and nasal resonance. Eileen was very pleased, as usual. Our next project - Tolstoy! Memorize all of War and Peace...

...just kiddin'.

Ab Workouts and Dance Choreography

Well gosh, it appears my ab workouts every day are actually paying off! I talked to Mr. McNabb about them yesterday, and he immediately agreed that they were helping and saw that I was becoming more and more aware of when I was letting the gut hang out as apposed to keeping it strong and tight.

In about a week or so, I'm hoping to get to you all a video of what we've been doing in Movement - a nice little bit of choreographed dancing to the classic overture of the Broadway production, Chicago. It's pretty extensive stuff, and in a couple of weeks we'll be performing a scene with a partner while dancing it! I better get to practicin'!

Busy Schedules

Classes sure are starting to pick up the work load as scripts start making their way out to the students. So far we have short scripts for Meisner, Actor's Lab, Intro to the Camera, and Voice and Speech.

This coming week, we have a quiz in Film Genres over the War genre and Crime/Film Noir genre. I think I know those two pretty well, so I see at least a B sitting there. We also have the opportunity to start turning in our final papers for Film Genres this week, so hopefully I'll be getting that in. Wednesday will prove busy with a monologue due for Voice and Speech and a script memorized for Intro to the Camera. We'll see how it all goes.

My New Piano Score

Thursday Night Dinner

To The Promenade

A Day In New York

When AJ Toasts A Panini...

BLINDFOLDED!!!

Vin Diesel's Got Nothin...

Man, I had such a hard time waking up this morning. I set my alarm for 7:50 am, so I could snooze till about 8:05. At 8:05, I was contemplating whether or not I really wanted to get myself up to head on over to the gym. After a few minutes of staring blankly at the ceiling, I finally made the choice to get up and go work out... It was biblical in nature... I have a feeling I'm well on my way to topping Vin Diesel.

Hangin' With Geoff and John

This was Friday night... A fun way to start the weekend.

A Lil' Bit Of Halloween Night

Halloween

B Runs the Board!

Got the rest of my grades put up online the other day. Turns out I carry a B in each of my classes! The lowest one is a B- in Voice and Speech while the rest are B or B+. The school doesn't like to give out A grades very much, especially to first year students, mainly because they see A grades as no improvement needed... Like Meryl Streep work. So I'm content with my B grades.

First Two Grades!

It was a long day at school, ended well with Meisner. I decided to check to see if grades were up online, and it turns out they are! I figured a B in Movement for Actors and a B+ in Intro to the Camera is suitable for me!

Saturday Rain

New York Moments 3

Friday (Four Day)

What a great way to end the week! Had a quiz in Film Genres (which I probably could have done better on) and fun with improv in Actor's Lab (to explore motivations and goals). Afterward, I came home to finish up another lil' Garage Band project...

Thursday (Three Day)

I finally gave myself a Thursday worth remembering for the week. It started off kind of slow, but once I got myself on over to the gym, I was pumped and ready to tackle the rest of the day. Instead of going straight back to the room, I walked on over to Peas and Pickles for some simple groceries, such as bread, cereal, apple sauce and a small bottled protein shake. I did some reading for our midterm quiz in Film Genres tomorrow. I'll probably get some more cardio in at the gym tomorrow morning to make sure I'm fully energized for it. The weekend should be super fun! I'll try to get more pics up soon.

Wednesday (What Day?)

Long day, but basically a good one. We practiced using chest resonance in Voice and Speech, attempting to reach the lowest note we could hit while using breath.

Like Intro to the Camera, we are now starting to use lines a bit more in some of our other classes, such as Meisner and Actor's Lab.

After a ten-hour school day, I came home to an enthusiastic AJ who was ready to make pork chops. Now, I knew beforehand that nobody could beat Mamma's pork chops, but I decided to give a shot at his. With the help of some seasoned salt, they weren't too bad at all, actually.

....Still don't beat Mamma's...

Tuesday (Two Day)

I've finally built up the will power to get myself up at 6:30 in the morning to go to the gym! It feels pretty good, and I'm going to try to make it a habit for every morning (or whenever is convenient each day).

The day went extraordinarily well for the entire class! Actor's Lab was easy-going and super fun. We discussed the relationship between absolutes, imagination and motivation (in a script, absolutes are what the author gives us that can't be changed, i.e. a character with a gun or a shirt that is blue). Ms. Nerken helped us come to the conclusion that although we are given absolutes by the author, we as actors may very well have to create our own absolutes (by using our imagination) in order to motivate the character's actions.

We all performed our haiku poems today in Voice and Speech for a grade. Rebecca had plenty of positive comments for each one of us, followed by very helpful constructive criticism. Right after Voice and Speech, we had Movement and performed our monologues from The Secret History for a grade. Once more, we all did an astounding job in finding truth in stillness and Connie was very impressed.

Unfortunately now, I've got a head-ache. I'm going to go heat up some good ol' fashion Chicken Noodle Soup! That'll do the trick.

My two favorite quotes of the day....

"Let the emotion be a bi-product of your imagination." - Ruth Nerken

"The author writes the black. You act the white." - Charlie Fersko

Monday (One Day)

Although long and tiring, Monday proved to be one of the most beautiful days here in NY.

Our Movement class started at 1:30... Well, we left at 12:45 only to find that the entrance to the subway was blocked off. We were told there was an investigation going on and we should use the station at Borough Hall. We took our time walking there with a slight doubt that we would make it on time. While waiting for the train, an announcement came on informing us of the situation and that the 2 and 3 trains were not running - bullocks!

So, knowing for sure we had no way to get to school fast enough, we (me, Lauren, Bryce, Teya and Ben) relaxed in the park with a nice cup of Starbucks. Our good friend, Will, told us that Mr. McNabb still wanted us to be in class and he would give us all the time we needed to get there. Ultimately, we got to class with thirty minutes left.

This, of course, all happened after I had a pleasant morning workout at the gym. I started on Sunday, realizing that the lack of humidity has allowed my gut to grow back in a most unpresentable fashion.

Something else that boosted my self-esteem throughout the day... I was told by three or four separate people from our group that I looked like a dancer and thought I already was. Schweet!

The rest of the day was pretty "bleh." I tired myself out and by the time school was over at 9:00 p.m., I was ready to get home, eat some food and call it a day.

Sierra Blaze's Birthday Party Dinner!

Evenin', Chaps! So today, I spent three hours watching The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly on my laptop. I must say it was extremely epic, very amazing and wonderfully stunning. I got the ultimate goosebumps when Tuco was running through the graveyard, and even more goosebumps with the Trio shoot-out right after.

I finally got myself a little bit of a hair cut, too! It's nothin' drastic, just enough to look a little cleaner, little more presentable.

What pulled the day together was a birthday party dinner for our good friend, Sierra Blaze. She turns twenty on Monday, so we got together at the Hard Rock Cafe in Time Square. I enjoyed yet another New York Strip Steak with mashed potatoes and warm broccoli.