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The Actor’S Craft Pp.7-18 Kent Academic Repository Full text document (pdf) Citation for published version Howe, William (2015) A Cinema of Happenings: Exploring Improvisation as Process in Filmmaking. Master of Philosophy (MPhil) thesis, University of Kent,. DOI Link to record in KAR https://kar.kent.ac.uk/62458/ Document Version UNSPECIFIED Copyright & reuse Content in the Kent Academic Repository is made available for research purposes. Unless otherwise stated all content is protected by copyright and in the absence of an open licence (eg Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher, author or other copyright holder. Versions of research The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check http://kar.kent.ac.uk for the status of the paper. Users should always cite the published version of record. Enquiries For any further enquiries regarding the licence status of this document, please contact: [email protected] If you believe this document infringes copyright then please contact the KAR admin team with the take-down information provided at http://kar.kent.ac.uk/contact.html A CINEMA OF HAPPENINGS Exploring Improvisation as Process in Filmmaking Will Howe Submission for MPhil in Drama: Practice as Research ABSTRACT This thesis supports a practice-based-research project that examines differing methodologies of improvisation across the production of four film exercises: Fallen Angels (2005), Blood Offering (2005), Birdman (2009) and The Graduate Workshop (2010). By investigating the ‘materiality’ of improvisation within my filmmaking practice, bearing in mind that between the performer and the finished film there are inherent production processes that both finesse and obfuscate the improvised performance, I seek to address a fundamental question ‘to what extent are the footprints of improvisation visible within the performance and aesthetics of film production?’ This study brings together a number of ideas about improvisation practice, as evidenced in the work of Mike Leigh (Abigail’s Party, 1977, Another Year, 2010) and Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Snchez (The Blair Witch Project, 1999). I use dominant ‘institutional’ practice as a counterpoint to the received ideas about improvisation. This research is further informed by new materials, specifically, an interview with Penny Woolcock (Tina Goes Shopping, 1999, Death of Klinghoffer, 2003) as well as analysis of my own practice. Where existing accounts of improvisation have principally sought to define this as a phenomenology within the context of theatre and live performance, this study identifies distinct ‘models’ of improvisation process in relation to filmmaking. In comparing different production approaches, on a project-by-project basis and by referencing other filmmaker’s processes, the thesis proposes a paired down schema for future work; identifying clear points for developing and containing character, as well as recommending a structured approach for developing narrative and filming. This project makes a distinct contribution to the study of improvisation in film, by drawing attention to the importance of methodology in practical filmmaking. CONTENTS Introduction. Everyone Can Act. Everyone Can Improvise pp. 2-6 Chapter 1. The Actor’s Craft pp.7-18 Chapter 2. Improvising on Film: Exploring the Paradox pp. 19-37 Chapter 3. Towards a Methodology for Improvisation Practice. pp. 38-62 Chapter 4. Practice-Based-Research pp. 63-72 4.1. Dark Summers: Fallen Angels (2005) and Blood Offering (2005) pp.73-120 4.2 Learning To Fly: Birdman (2008). pp. 121-139 4.3 The Graduate – A Television Workshop (2010) pp.140-144 Conclusion. A Way Forward pp. 145-157 Bibliography. pp.158-163 Filmography. pp. 164-165 DVD Materials. pp. 166-169 Appendices. Interview with Penny Woolcock pp. 171-198 Suggested Approach to Creating Character pp.199-201 Blood Offering (2005) Outline pp.202-204 Birdman Draft Script pp.205-224 The Blair Witch Project (1999) Documentation pp.225-232 The Characters of Theophrastus pp.233 Vow of Chastity: Dogme Manifesto pp.234 Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise. In the opening lines of Improvisation for the Theatre (1999)1 Viola Spolin boldly declares that, “Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise” (1999: 3). Although her challenge particularly relates to the context of working in the theatre and classroom, I have appropriated Spolin’s ‘call to action’ as an invitation to actors, non-actors and directors who are undertaking improvisation for the camera. From the outset, I would not wish to suggest that the ‘institutional2’ practice of using a script to inform character is a flawed process; or that improvisation techniques always yield great success, particularly as my own research evidences varied results in this area. Rather, this study recognizes improvisation as an alternative approach to mainstream filmmaking practices, an approach that empowers the actor and facilitates character and narrative development at the point of production. This is the tangible exploration of process that, on one hand, experiments with unstructured and unrehearsed improvisation, through to work that has been aided by a script, but that uses improvisation as a way of developing and fine-tuning a performance. As will become apparent, my practical exercises have made extensive use of the untrained film actor. In part, this suited me for economic reasons and benefits of accessibility 1 First published in 1963, Viola Spolin’s Improvisation for the Theatre (1999) is a seminal text offering hundreds of exercises that explore different aspects and techniques of improvisation, including workshop exercises for developing character, emotion, staging, use of the body etc... In many ways it has been instrumental to many practitioners in opening up a dialogue about improvisation. It is didactic in tone with a clear practical emphasis. 2 Throughout this thesis I make reference to ‘institutional’ processes of production. In doing so, I am acknowledging both the production and business practices that underpin mainstream narrative filmmaking, as proposed by Noel Burch’s concept of Institutional Modes of Representation (IMR) in Theory of Film Practice (1981), and explanations of Classical Hollywood cinema defined by Bordwell & Thompson in Film Art (2010: 458‐461) Introduction Page 2 and planning the filming schedules. However, more significantly, I felt that the ‘trained’ film actor would come to the process with preconceived notions of how to create a character and perform for the camera. In doing so, one of the features central to the purpose of this investigation would be compromised. I surmised that there existed a range of actors who would be suited to my intended research, from those with no acting experience whatsoever through to actors whose experience was limited to theatre. My primary task, which shall be discussed in due course, was to find people who were not adverse to pretending and performing in public. In cinema, one can find many examples of the untrained and non-professional actor delivering highly competent screen performances albeit Lamberto Maggiorani3 in Bicycle Thieves [De Sica, 1948], Martin LaSalle in Pickpocket (Bresson, 1959) or Kelli Hollis in Tina Goes Shopping [Woolcock, 1999]. Whether or not use of the ‘non-actor’, as termed by director Robert Bresson (1977:5), might be driven by the quest for an ‘authenticity’ and a different kind of performance truth not found in the work of the trained actor, is undoubtedly a consideration that will be addressed through this thesis. The exercises that define this practice-based-research (PBR) comprise Fallen Angels (2005) and Blood Offering (2005), both of which could be thought of as ‘happenings’4, 3 Lamberto Maggiorani plays the unemployed father (Antonio Ricci) in Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (1948). One day, whilst hanging posters on the city walls. Antonio’s bicycle, his sole means of earning an income, is stolen. Together with his son, Bruno, the narrative follows Antonio as he journeys through the post- war ‘ruined’ city of Rome in search of the missing bicycle. This film, a significant example of ‘neorealist’ cinema, is often cited as a fine example of De Sica’s work with non-professional actors. 4 A Happening, according to Kirby is a term ‘Ébest used in a historical way and sociological way to refer to those works created as part of the international Happenings movement of the early and mid-1960s.’ (2002: 49). However, when reflecting on my early experiments with improvisation, Fallen Angels and Blood Offering, I began to think that it was possible that I had inadvertently been producing a series of ‘happenings’. According to Kirby ‘[h]appenings made little use of acting.’(2002: 49) and he goes on to provide an example of a happening called Mysteries and the Smaller Pieces saying that ‘the performance was without plot, story or narrative’ (ibid). Introduction Page 3 wherein the performances and narratives have been generated ‘in the moment’ according to defined contexts and constraints. The later pieces, Birdman (2008) and The Graduate Workshop (2010), are exercises that seek to extend the written materials, to use improvisation as a way of loosening up performance and in doing so find ‘impulses’ and meanings for the actors. It will suffice to say that my emphasis has been to research and report on how the combination of the actor and improvisation has been explored through my filmmaking experiences. My thesis explores the creative ‘dialogue’ between actor and director, and comments on the development of character-led narratives, aiming to reveal how the cinematic medium interacts with the improvisation process. Through analysis of these ‘captive’ performances I have been investigating whether the notion of ‘liveness’5, arguably a key facet of improvisation praxis, can have a visible presence in the recorded medium. Furthermore, ‘the acting did not involve character, place or situation other than, perhaps the conditions of the Artaudian plague that was the cause of death. The actors were only themselves “dying” in the aisles and on the stage of the theatre.’ (ibid: 50).
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