16.3. ACTING FOR CAMERA

   Next week we are starting to film our scenes, so today was crucial rehearsal time for all of, but also a chance for Andy to see them and give us some advice considering character and composition. We started the class by discussing shortly different practitioners that use naturalism and which we should be using in our rehearsals. These practitioners were:

• Stanislavski
• Michael Chekov
• Mike Leigh
• Meisner
• Lee Strasbourg(The Method)
• Uta Hagen(Respect for Acting)

   We also discussed the process of rehearsal and creating a naturalistic scene. We had a bit of a dodgy start, since people weren't participating as much as they should, making it seem that we don't actually know what a successful rehearsal contains. This is something all of us should improve on, especially us who are continuing to study acting, since it will come up. But, luckily we did get the hang of it soon enough and came up with this mind map:



   Something Andy really wanted to press on us is research. Research needs to be done in all of the stages of a rehearsal and creating a scene or a show, since problems will come up and the only way to solve them is to research.
   That is what me and Jenny did to start of with our scene. We are doing a scene from the Mike Leigh movie "Life is Sweet"(1990). The scene is between sisters, Natalie and Nicola, who are talking about children, men and Natalie going to America. Neither of us has seen the film, which in my opinion is quite good since we won't be mimicking the original actors. We did find out a little bit about the movie, though. It is a movie about a working class family. Natalie works as a plumber and Nicola is a bitter-mouthed and depressed young woman.
   I will be playing Nicola in the scene. She is very depressed and suffers from bulimia because of it. She hides this from her family and seems to be still stuck in that teenage rebellion phase. As I did a bit more research on the character of Nicola, who I am playing, I found that she has a lover who comes to the house to have sex when everyone else is away. This relationship ends when the man accuses Nicola of not being able to have an adult conversation, which really confirm my suspicions of how childish Nicola really is. I see this a sort of a defense mechanism, since she believes the rest of the family doesn't really care about her that much. I want to show this in my characterization in a slightly funny way, yet staying respectful and mindful to the fact that she has depression. I want to show both of these sides in her. She also criticizes her family for political incorrectness.
   The scene we are doing is one where the two sister are in their living room. Natalie asks Nicola if she wants to have any children in the future, which Nicola declines quickly. This leads them into a conversation about boyfriends, and how you need one before having a child. Natalie points out that Nicola doesn't have a boyfriend either, making a joke about men sneaking in. At this point I want Nicola to get especially agitated, since it is pretty much on point. She then accuses that all men are bastards and rapists which leads to her warning Natalie for the dangers of America. The scene ends Natalie making a racist joke about Americans, which Nicola calls out as racist.
   In itself, there isn't a lot that happens in this scene, not too much drama, but so much room for simple and strong character choices. Jenny and I discussed the scene before starting to rehearse it and agreed that this is probably quite usual conversation between the sisters. Natalie very much just wants to have a normal conversation with her sister, where as Nicola's objective is very much to prove her sister wrong, in the hopes of making herself feel better. She is also unloading some of her frustrations about the mishap she had with her lover. We also decided that we could well enough set it either in one of the abandoned rooms, just taking a sofa there to create the living room. I also thought that the sofa area at the student services could work well, but it might also be quite busy.
   I get why Nicola acts as she does. Depression can make you feel so alone and bitter, especially when other's don't necessarily know about it and you can end up feeling very isolated and misunderstood. Her childish behavior is a result of these feelings and denial of growing up. I want the way I am dressed to represent this, of course staying true to late 80's style. I have some white dungarees I can wear with a print t-shirt and converse.