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