Choose 2 of the workshop activities, and write a reflective post on each.

Activity #1: Private Moment Activity 

In the first week, we did an exercise in the class called “private moment.” When Sebastian was speaking about this activity, my first reaction was quite confused because I had never done it before. Then Sebastian was explaining that everyone has three minutes of performance time, pick one daily thing to do, but you have to ensure all your action happens within the frame of the camera. Luckily I was not the first to do it because I don’t fully understand the point of the activity, so I had an opportunity to see how others did this. When it was my turn, I chose a boring action, is writing my weekly planner, which seemed like a simple and normal action to do. Whereas, I felt weird while doing it.

With regards to my action in the clip, I personally think I did not feel that natural, I was not used to being watched, and probably because I was constantly keeping in mind that I was only pretending I am staying at home alone. Apart from this, Sebastian and all my classmates were staring at me through the screen, which made me nervous and uncomfortable. When the tension reaches its peak, I get extremely embarrassed that I start to feel overwhelmed. For instance, I turned the page over and over again which represented my nervousness and a bit anxious. In fact, these three minutes were kind of torturous. At the last minute, I unconsciously thought: When will the recording end? It is quite distracting.
Simultaneously, this activity reminds me of the day-to-day working conditions of actors. Actors will be surrounded by many cameras during shooting, and there will be many field staff and other crew members watching your performance. They need to enter into the play, into the character situation. Furthermore, I even think of the film press conference, no role-playing, just asking you to face the audience, the camera, and the fans, I will panic. Thus, this also reflects my lack of experience. Indeed, through this practice, I am full of respect for the profession of an actor. On the top of that, they can treat the performance as if it were everyday life, bringing the natural feeling of everyday life into the scene so that it can be more gorgeous, without having to deliberately modify the expressions, the natural flow of the more real, thus their performance is more ornamental.

Through the discovery from “private moment” activity, I was clearly aware of my drawbacks that I couldn’t entirely devote myself to the performance under the watchful eyes of many people, psychological factors and environmental factors were affecting me all the time, making me unnatural. Therefore, I admit that this is where I need to continue to learn and improve in the future. There is a key point to remember is finding deficiencies is a necessary process on the way to becoming better.

Here is my video about “Private Moment” activity

Activity #2: Stayin’ Alive Audition Activity

This section was impressive, interesting, and valuable, and enriched my knowledge and experience. In class on Tuesday, the third week, a new concept came to my mind – audition, which means a short performance by an actor so that as directors, we can decide whether they are suitable to perform in the play. I have heard about it but have never been involved in it myself since I’ve been on set to shoot and edit, so this is a whole new area of career skills and it’s worth taking a deep dive into.

Afterward, Sebastian introduced the Casting principle and audition structure to us at the beginning of the class. Then, two professional actors came to our class – Luke and Jeni. While they were reading through the script, I have to say that I was shocked by the two actors’ emotional expression of the characters in the plot. More importantly, I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to have an online face-to-face audition practice with Jeni. As a newbie in this field and still learning how to become a qualified director, I was so nervous when I auditioned for the first time that my voice was trembling, my mind went blank, and I did not even know how to speak and how to communicate effectively with actors.

Reflecting on my entire practice, I am most cramped and uneasy in comparison to advising actors. I am very timid in expressing my opinions, always thinking that I am not professional enough and that my suggestions will not be wrong, inappropriate, or outlandish. Judith states that “give direction not to the auditioning actor, but to the helper actor” (Judith, 2017). Maybe I can make this attempt. To be honest, I always have low self-esteem. And like my perception of myself, I lack the organizing ability and leadership which implied I am not good at giving direction as well. This made it impossible for me to lead a communication conversation. Including the chatting session at the end, even if it was just a casual chat, I was not very confident because I was an introvert type. Against this modest deficit, I cannot help but have more desire to continue to explore and challenge regarding directing performance.

To conclude, likewise, this audition activity has provided me with clear goals and directions for improvement. In the following class exercises, try to adjust your own personality flaws, meanwhile learning how to use and have the ability to guide and develop an actor to see the actor’s potential and perception.

Here is the recording of  my audition with Jeni 

Reference:

Weston, J., 2017. Directing Actors.