Teaching Acting Technique and Building a Character Through Cinema
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Blurred Lines Between Role and Reality: a Phenomenological Study of Acting
Antioch University AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive Student & Alumni Scholarship, including Dissertations & Theses Dissertations & Theses 2019 Blurred Lines Between Role and Reality: A Phenomenological Study of Acting Gregory Hyppolyte Brown Follow this and additional works at: https://aura.antioch.edu/etds Part of the Psychology Commons BLURRED LINES BETWEEN ROLE AND REALITY: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF ACTING A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Antioch University Santa Barbara In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the the degree of DOCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY In CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY by GREGORY HIPPOLYTE BROWN August 2019 This dissertation, by Gregory Hippolyte Brown, has been approved by the committee members signed below who recommend that it be accepted by the faculty of Antioch University Santa Barbara in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY Dissertation Committee: _________________________ Brett Kia-Keating, Ed.D. Chairperson __________________________ Sharleen O‘ Brien, Ph.D. Second Faculty __________________________ Thalia R. Goldstein, Ph.D. External Expert ii Copyright © 2019 Gregory Hippolyte Brown iii Abstract When an actor plays a character in a film, they try to connect with the emotions and behavioral patterns of the scripted character. There is an absence of literature regarding how a role influences an actor’s life before, during, and after film production. This study examined how acting roles might influence an actor during times on set shooting a movie or television series as well as their personal life after the filming is finished. Additionally the study considered the psychological impact of embodying a role, and whether or not an actor ever has the feeling that the performed character has independent agency over the actor. -
The First Critical Assessments of a Streetcar Named Desire: the Streetcar Tryouts and the Reviewers
FALL 1991 45 The First Critical Assessments of A Streetcar Named Desire: The Streetcar Tryouts and the Reviewers Philip C. Kolin The first review of A Streetcar Named Desire in a New York City paper was not of the Broadway premiere of Williams's play on December 3, 1947, but of the world premiere in New Haven on October 30, 1947. Writing in Variety for November 5, 1947, Bone found Streetcar "a mixture of seduction, sordid revelations and incidental perversion which will be revolting to certain playgoers but devoured with avidity by others. Latter category will predomin ate." Continuing his predictions, he asserted that Streetcar was "important theatre" and that it would be one "trolley that should ring up plenty of fares on Broadway" ("Plays Out of Town"). Like Bone, almost everyone else interested in the history of Streetcar has looked forward to the play's reception on Broadway. Yet one of the most important chapters in Streetcar's stage history has been neglected, that is, the play's tryouts before that momentous Broadway debut. Oddly enough, bibliographies of Williams fail to include many of the Streetcar tryout reviews and surveys of the critical reception of the play commence with the pronouncements found in the New York Theatre Critics' Reviews for the week of December 3, 1947. Such neglect is unfortunate. Streetcar was performed more than a full month and in three different cities before it ever arrived on Broadway. Not only was the play new, so was its producer. Making her debut as a producer with Streetcar, Irene Selznick was one of the powerhouses behind the play. -
Summer Classic Film Series, Now in Its 43Rd Year
Austin has changed a lot over the past decade, but one tradition you can always count on is the Paramount Summer Classic Film Series, now in its 43rd year. We are presenting more than 110 films this summer, so look forward to more well-preserved film prints and dazzling digital restorations, romance and laughs and thrills and more. Escape the unbearable heat (another Austin tradition that isn’t going anywhere) and join us for a three-month-long celebration of the movies! Films screening at SUMMER CLASSIC FILM SERIES the Paramount will be marked with a , while films screening at Stateside will be marked with an . Presented by: A Weekend to Remember – Thurs, May 24 – Sun, May 27 We’re DEFINITELY Not in Kansas Anymore – Sun, June 3 We get the summer started with a weekend of characters and performers you’ll never forget These characters are stepping very far outside their comfort zones OPENING NIGHT FILM! Peter Sellers turns in not one but three incomparably Back to the Future 50TH ANNIVERSARY! hilarious performances, and director Stanley Kubrick Casablanca delivers pitch-dark comedy in this riotous satire of (1985, 116min/color, 35mm) Michael J. Fox, Planet of the Apes (1942, 102min/b&w, 35mm) Humphrey Bogart, Cold War paranoia that suggests we shouldn’t be as Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, and Crispin (1968, 112min/color, 35mm) Charlton Heston, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad worried about the bomb as we are about the inept Glover . Directed by Robert Zemeckis . Time travel- Roddy McDowell, and Kim Hunter. Directed by Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre. -
Chapter 4: Acting
096-157 CH04-861627 12/4/03 12:01 AM Page 96 CHAPTER ᪴ ᪴ ᪴ ᪴ ᪴ ᪴ ᪴ ᪴ ᪴ ᪴ 4 Acting No role is too small. In this scene from Julius Caesar, the varied responses of the crowd members to Caesar’s death give the scene more depth. One can see Mark Antony, played by Al Pacino, judging the crowd’s mood and planning how to manipulate it. cting is a question of absorbing other Apeople’s personalities and adding some of our own experience. —PAUL NEWMAN, ACTOR 96 096-157 CH04-861627 12/4/03 12:02 AM Page 97 SETTING THE SCENE Focus Questions What special terminology is used in acting? What are the different types of roles? How do you create a character? What does it mean to act? Vocabulary emotional or straight parts master gesture subjective acting character parts inflection technical or objective acting characterization subtext leading roles primary source substitution protagonist secondary sources improvisation antagonist body language paraphrasing supporting roles So now you’re ready to act! For most students of drama, this is the moment you have been waiting for. You probably share the dream of every actor to create a role so convincing that the audience totally accepts your character as real, for- getting that you are only an actor playing a part. You must work hard to be an effective actor, but acting should never be so real that the audience loses the theatrical illu- sion of reality. Theater is not life, and acting is not life. Both are illusions that are larger than life. -
TRAINING the YOUNG ACTOR: a PHYSICAL APPROACH a Thesis
TRAINING THE YOUNG ACTOR: A PHYSICAL APPROACH A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Anthony Lewis Johnson December, 2009 TRAINING THE YOUNG ACTOR: A PHYSICAL APPROACH Anthony Lewis Johnson Thesis Approved: Accepted: __________________________ __________________________ Advisor Dean of the College Mr. James Slowiak Dr. Dudley Turner __________________________ __________________________ Faculty Reader Dean of the Graduate School Mr. Durand Pope Dr. George R. Newkome __________________________ __________________________ School Director Date Mr. Neil Sapienza ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION TO TRAINING THE YOUNG ACTOR: A PHYSICAL APPROACH...............................................................................1 II. AMERICAN INTERPRETATIONS OF STANISLAVSKI’S EARLY WORK .......5 Lee Strasberg .............................................................................................7 Stella Adler..................................................................................................8 Robert Lewis...............................................................................................9 Sanford Meisner .......................................................................................10 Uta Hagen.................................................................................................11 III. STANISLAVSKI’S LATER WORK .................................................................13 Tension -
Cbk: Movies and Meaning
PETERS TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT CORE BODY OF KNOWLEDGE MOVIES AND MEANING GRADES 9-12 COURSE DESCRIPTION Great films explore great themes, which help us get acquainted with our own lives. In this class, students will view, discuss, write about, and research some of the world’s finest and most renowned examples of cinema. Students will learn to “read” film in order to appreciate, interpret, and critique history’s most complex art form. STUDY SKILLS Develop strategies for enriching cinematic experiences. Derive interpretations from visual cues and details. Identify universal themes and relate them to personal experiences. Recognize symbolic enhancements to storyline and theme. Acquire a historical perspective on classic cinema. Recognize and synthesize the complex components of the art of film and make judgments on their effective applications. Interpret subtleties of characterization via actions, acting, dialogue, and context. Analyze mise-en-scene with respect to symbolism and emotional effect. Make abstract judgments regarding theme and motivation. Present and refine ideas orally and in writing. Research and summarize expert critical and scholarly opinions. Expand multi-cultural horizons via use of foreign films UNIT THEMES LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION! Recognize, appreciate, and apply the various types of writing about film. Appreciate and interpret the various uses of light and shadow to augment narrative and characterization. Gain an overview of the history of the cinema. Gain exposure to famous film clips from famous films. Gain practical insights to the overall process and tribulations of filmmaking. Sustain an aesthetic discussion on the merits of particular film shots. RISE TO THE OCCASION! Recognize, interpret, and summarize various expressions of courage via iconic film characters. -
On-The-Waterfront-Study-Guide
On the Waterfront Study Guide Acknowledgements Writer: Susan Bye Education Programmer Australian Centre for the Moving Image Susan’s primary role at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image is to support the teaching of film as text to secondary school students. Initially trained as an English teacher, she studied and taught film and media at La Trobe University before joining ACMI in 2009. Study Guide > On the Waterfront 2 On the Waterfront: difficult choices in an uncertain world The purpose of this guide is to provide an introduction to On the Waterfront (PG, Elia Kazan, 103 mins, USA, 1954), an overview of the commentary and debate that the film has generated and some ideas that will help you form your own interpretation of this challenging film. Studying and Interpreting On the Waterfront On the Waterfront is a film that is as problematic as it is extraordinary. It carries with it an interesting history which has, over the years, affected the way people have responded to the film. On the Waterfront encourages different and conflicting interpretations, with its controversial ending being a particular source of debate. This study guide is intended as an informative resource, providing background information and a number of different ways of thinking about the film. One of the most exciting and satisfying aspects of the film is its capacity to invite and sustain different and multifaceted interpretations. On the Waterfront focuses on life’s uncertainty and confusion, depicting both Father Barry’s dogmatic certainty and Johnny Friendly’s egotistical self-confidence as dangerously blinkered. For some viewers, Father Barry’s vision of collective action and Terry Malloy’s confused struggle to be a better man belong in two different films; however, the contrast between these two ways of looking at, and responding to, life’s challenges highlights the limitations of each of these perspectives. -
Marlon Brando Material on ONE-EYED JACKS
http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8w0999r No online items Marlon Brando material on ONE-EYED JACKS Special Collections Margaret Herrick Library© 2015 Marlon Brando material on 1074 1 ONE-EYED JACKS Descriptive Summary Title: Marlon Brando material on ONE-EYED JACKS Date (inclusive): 1957-1961 Collection number: 1074 Creator: Brando, Marlon Extent: 1.3 linear feet of papers. Repository: Margaret Herrick Library. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Languages: English Access Available by appointment only. Publication rights Property rights to the physical object belong to the Margaret Herrick Library. Researchers are responsible for obtaining all necessary rights, licenses, or permissions from the appropriate companies or individuals before quoting from or publishing materials obtained from the library. Preferred Citation Marlon Brando material on ONE-EYED JACKS, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Acquisition Information Anomymous gift, 2005 Biography Marlon Brando was an American actor active in film from 1950 to 2001. ONE-EYED JACKS is an American feature film directed by Brando and released by Paramount Pictures in 1961. It represents Brando's sole directorial effort. Brando's eight Academy Award nominations in the acting category include a statuette for best actor for ON THE WATERFRONT (1954). Collection Scope and Content Summary The Marlon Brando material on ONE-EYED JACKS spans the years 1957-1961 and encompasses 1.3 linear feet. The collection consists of script material; production material, including production-related correspondence; and handwritten notes. Of interest are numerous handwritten notes by Brando on the script, editing, and other areas of production. The material was the personal property of Marlon Brando. -
The Creative Process
The Creative Process THE SEARCH FOR AN AUDIO-VISUAL LANGUAGE AND STRUCTURE SECOND EDITION by John Howard Lawson Preface by Jay Leyda dol HILL AND WANG • NEW YORK www.johnhowardlawson.com Copyright © 1964, 1967 by John Howard Lawson All rights reserved Library of Congress catalog card number: 67-26852 Manufactured in the United States of America First edition September 1964 Second edition November 1967 www.johnhowardlawson.com To the Association of Film Makers of the U.S.S.R. and all its members, whose proud traditions and present achievements have been an inspiration in the preparation of this book www.johnhowardlawson.com Preface The masters of cinema moved at a leisurely pace, enjoyed giving generalized instruction, and loved to abandon themselves to reminis cence. They made it clear that they possessed certain magical secrets of their profession, but they mentioned them evasively. Now and then they made lofty artistic pronouncements, but they showed a more sincere interest in anecdotes about scenarios that were written on a cuff during a gay supper.... This might well be a description of Hollywood during any period of its cultivated silence on the matter of film-making. Actually, it is Leningrad in 1924, described by Grigori Kozintsev in his memoirs.1 It is so seldom that we are allowed to study the disclosures of a Hollywood film-maker about his medium that I cannot recall the last instance that preceded John Howard Lawson's book. There is no dearth of books about Hollywood, but when did any other book come from there that takes such articulate pride in the art that is-or was-made there? I have never understood exactly why the makers of American films felt it necessary to hide their methods and aims under blankets of coyness and anecdotes, the one as impenetrable as the other. -
Harrison Ford 5 Film Collection
Page 1 HARRISON FORD 5 FILM COLLECTION TM Available on DVD & Bluray from 2nd November Includes: Firewall, 42, Presumed Innocent, Frantic and The Fugitive On November 2nd 2015, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE) will release the Harrison Ford 5 Film Collection, three of which are brand new to Bluray. ABOUT THE FILMS 42 (2013) Written and directed by Brian Helgeland (Legend, LA Confidential) this is the inspiring true story of the man who broke the Major League baseball colour barrier, Jackie Robinson, with Ford starring as the man who signed him, Branch Rickey. Firewall (2006) Ford proved he still had what it takes in the action man genre in this dazzling technothriller, starring as a security specialist forced to rob a bank after his family is taken hostage by the dastardly Paul Bettany. Frantic (1988) Directed by Roman Polanski, this superb thriller, a forerunner to the Liam Neeson Taken films, sees Harrison Ford as a doctor whose wife disappears from their hotel room during a trip to Paris. What follows is a nightmarish journey into the underbelly of the city as Ford attempts to find out Page 2 what has happened to her. Presumed Innocent (1990) A sensational nailbiting whodunnit right up to the final scene, this box office smash was based on the bestselling Scott Turow novel, and directed by the great Alan J Pakula (Klute). Ford is a DA who is put in charge of the investigation of his lover’s murder – and finds himself in the frame for the killing. When the film was released it became the ‘don’t reveal the ending’ hit of the year. -
Emotion, Action and the Journey of Feelings in the Actor's Mournful
The Lamenting Brain: Emotion, Action and the Journey of Feelings in the Actor’s Mournful Art Panagiotis Papageorgopoulos Department of Drama and Theatre Royal Holloway College University of London Submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2009 Page | 1 I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the qualification of any other degree or diploma of a University or other institution of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text. 1/12/2009 Panagiotis Papageorgopoulos Page | 2 ABSTRACT This thesis is motivated by the question of how and why actors perform and experience emotion, especially in cases when the emotional demands are as extreme and urgent as in Greek tragedy. In order to answer this question the thesis embarks on two main tasks: (a) to reappraise the position, function and technique of emotion in the work of four key practitioners of twentieth century Western acting (Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Brecht and Grotowski) from the point of view of contemporary neuroscience, and (b) to trace their original paradigm in the professional mourners’ psychotechnique of emotion, as found in ancient and modern Greek ritual lamentation for the dead. The first part of the thesis attempts to reread and reframe twentieth century western acting’s technique of emotion by adopting the radically new neuroscientific paradigm of emotion, which reappraises emotion as a catalytic faculty in the formation of motivation, decision-making, reasoning, action and social interaction. -
Mayjune 2005 Social Ed.Indd
Social Education 69(4), pp. 189-192 © 2005 National Council for the Social Studies Reel to Real: Teaching the Twentieth Century with Classic Hollywood Films Karl A. Matz and Lori L. Pingatore Making students’ learning cal artifacts, virtually primary source docu- works to support all three. At work, Bow experiences as direct and real as possible ments, that are very easy to obtain and yet has caught the eye of a wealthy young man, has always been challenging for educators. are too rarely used. Here, we hope to give a friend of the store owner’s son. In this Ancient wars and forgotten statesmen teachers a sense of which films are most brief beginning to a feature length film, often hold little excitement for students. appropriate and to provide a workable viewers see three important locations as Innovative teachers often use artifacts and method for guiding students to critically they were in the late 1920s. We see the primary source documents to transform a examine these historical artifacts. downtown department store, so different vicarious learning experience to a much from the suburban malls we know today. more direct one. Lee Ann Potter observes Celluloid Anthropology We see the humble apartment, the decora- that primary source documents “allow us, Students can study films in a manner simi- tions, and the absence of technology. And, quite literally, to touch and connect with lar to the way an anthropologist studies a finally, we see the restaurant. the past.”1 culture. If we were to study the culture of While watching this film, as any Films, like artifacts and photographs, a community in the Brazilian rainforest, other movie of a different era, viewers can also bring students closer to the people we would observe social rules, modes of can observe manners and behaviors, note and events that they are studying.