STAC

The Prisoner- Early on this week we reflected on the last Prisoner episode we watched about A, B and C. We learned about log lines and synopsis. The log line summarizes the entire episode into one sentence and the synopsis summarizes it into a paragraph. We first tried to do this on our own to the recent episode we watched. What makes this difficult is being able to put in just the right amount of detail. A big note is no back story from previous episodes and plots. Then we separated into groups and wrote our own log lines and synopsises on original Prisoner episode ideas based on the title given, "Father Knows Best." This was a bit easier because we did not know as much detail from the plot to put in, but then it was difficult to not get caught up in each scene making the synopsis too long. Also it had to be clear with enough detail. Overall, it takes effort, but it was fun to think of ideas for a new episode. Our group decided to have #6's father come to the Village. Since everyone would think this is a plot of #2's to get information out of #6, we turned the tables at the end and made the father totally innocent. In the end, we made sure to follow the recurring theme of the prisoner ending up in circle leaving him and ourselves with just as many questions and confusions as it was in the beginning of the episode.


Busby Berkley- During stac art this week we began a unit on Busby Berkly from the 1930s. I was pretty impressed at the elaborate dance numbers he was able to create and found it interesting to want to see what he would do next. Also I was astonished as to the fact that there were so many women in each dance and that they seemed to really pull it off to more or less look symmetrical even though every person looks slightly different. What was also impressing was the extensive set designs with revolving stages and waterfalls. He seemed to not only be ahead of his time in wanting to use different camera angles and making things more complex but he was very creative with his unique style or geometric figures.


Improv- On Wednesday STAC took a walk to the community center to work on our improv on the stage. Helping us to prepare for the school play audition, which is to act as different characters, this also was our first introduction for the newbies into improvisational acting. Because I took Luke's theatre class in freshman year I was not totally clueless as to what was going on, yet it still isn't completely comfortable with me yet. I did get some good characters, voices and generally body positions, but a lot of the time I found myself in an awkward state where I wasn't totally letting myself go. Perhaps it was just because I was a bit tired or nervous even. I know that sometimes when I'm  just having fun with friends and I talk in a weird way I can create a character that may even go out of hand and taken to far that stuns other people or even brings other people into this game. I'll admit that at home I could spend hours just looking at myself and making weird faces and voices, so then it is totally natural. Maybe I am not really seeing myself when I make a strange body position or do something with my face, therefore making it more difficult to realize what kind of character I can attribute with the look and feel. All in all, I probably should work on more or less feeling the character rather than thinking about what he or she may look like.