Pleading for the right to perform

            My idea for the individual audition piece is perform a rap song. I want to do this because I find rapping to fairly hard and I enjoy doing things that are hard. The rap song I want to do is called N.Y. State Of Mind by Nas, often hailed as one of the best rap songs ever constructed. I chose this song cause while it is fairly long, I already have it memorized and It’s structure is slow and lumbersome. I do not think this will help improve my acting skills but I do believe that this will help me become a more rounded person, able to do several things rather than just one. That is part of being an actor, the ability to be flexible. It would also help me with enunciation of words while speaking fast or enunciation in general. The other reason why I want to rap NY state of mind is because I have been practicing it for over 6 months now. Not that I was planning on reciting it, I just have been doing that for a while. Along with that, I also have gotten good at doing the whole thing which means I'm basically done. 

             So in conclusion, I would like to perform the rap song, N.Y. State of mind by Nas, i want to do this because I already have all the words memorized and it's fairly hard to perform. It is also long and is about four minutes. It would make me a more rounded person which is important for being an actor. it would also help me with enunciation and speaking fast. I also have been practicing this for a long time. It would also be fun to do. 

Reflection is a reversal of reality

      I believe that you are asking about the Inception project, at least I hope so because you were not specific. My performance in the project was mixed I suppose. I still think my role as a cameraman was acceptable but I could not tell which scenes I had filmed and there were some shaky scenes that I may have contributed to. I honestly do not remember anymore. My role as an actor was hindered by how ridiculous I looked wearing flip flops and my bush of hair. I still liked how I was acting because it looked natural. Or at least, more natural than other performances. I remembered my lines, said them naturally and had fun. I could have brought more emotion to the scenes but there is a fine line between acting and overacting. I think I need to improve my body language and my outfits.
            The project it's self was also mixed. There were some good scenes and some bad scenes. Obviously sound quality was never gonna be good but the editing could have been better. I though some of my fellow actors did a good job, like John and Kade, but there were some actors who actively detracted from the scenes because of their unnaturalness and rigidity. There were some scenes that were filmed poorly, like the lobby scene while some scenes flowed nicely. The settings we had were ridiculous and unbelievable, especially the airplane scene. I did not like how the movie was edited, there were some mistakes made during filming that could have been made by smash cutting the scene. The airplane scene is really a prime example of this because if it had been cut sooner then it would not have appeared to be a mistake and it would have worked. I really thought it could have been done better, I do not know why we did not cut before Mr. Banci started yelling at us. Be that as it may, I still thought it was a fun and enjoyable to watch the movie.      
         I thought that the projects direction was not clearly thought out, I think for the genre of film John wanted to make we did not have the resources to do. In low budget film making your script needs to fit what you have and we did not have any of the tools or resources to take on the script of inception. Be that as it may, I thought that the end product was fun if not a little confusing. There was certainly a lot of room for improvement of cinematography and the acting during the scenes but it still was entertaining. Which if you are gonna make a bad movie that no one is gonna watch, it is the best you could hope for. At least it was not boring.

Acting briefly

       I do not do much as an actor for this group project. I do not have any scenes where I say more than three lines and I mostly sit. I do believe however I managed to make myself as natural as possible for those brief moments I had. My character does not do much developing in any scenes so I had to get my character across with the little things.
       For example, I flipped the chair backwards in one scene, I put my feet up and had looked around in the rain. Perhaps my dialogue was not as strong but I feel that my presence was strong. I think I looked relaxed and natural. The other thing I did for inception was be the camera man. I think a lot of my fellow group members, including john, got the camera wrong. When everyone else was doing it, the last thing they thought about was where the camera should be for the scene.
        The camera is the most important thing about a scene, it affects what is seen and not seen. Everyone except me, thought of the project as a bunch of single takes, with no cuts, which is odd considering we were filming it as a movie and not a play. I do not think there are more than five scenes with more than 2 cuts. This leads to a lot of stilted dialogue that is not as much impact as It could have been. For example, we filmed two scenes the exact same way. They had very different connotations and tones. The impact of both scenes are the same though because we did not use the camera effectively.
         I did find the Cobb & Mal scene to be a delight to film because I could use the funnest filming style. I do not know what it is called but it is essentially filming around something to gain emotional impact. I may not be the best at it here because we did not pace out the scene with the camera but I gave it my best. It is often used when two characters are arguing and the camera goes from one side to the other causing the viewer to gain both perspectives and emotions of both characters by filming the character's face while the other is making their point. I do not actually know if that is a filming technique because I just made it up but I have seen it used before, I think.

Visitation of Agitation

video link

Visitation of Agitation Review

This project was dialogue between a aged mobster and a young novelist. The conversation starts off bad but ends up being worse because the novelist is also a fetishist. The mobster being a traditionalist and probably a staunch conservative does not take kindly to this. The awkward conversation dissolves into the mobster shouting at the novelist while she flirts with him. He then forces her to leave because his girlfriend is on her way over. I of course played the role of the aged mobster while Angel played the role of the novelist. 

I thought that my portrayal was a lot more goofy than I wanted to be. I was supposed to portray a more serious and yah know experienced person. Instead I made myself out to be a little bit of a goof and dumb. My tone was all over the place with it, mainly because I was supposed to be angry but at times I sounded more exasperated than angry. 

I thought my blocking was ok, I managed to not stand still all the time and looked like I was walking mad. I thought the group project as a whole created a good dynamic of serious vs. silly and I thought I worked well with Angel. I thought that Angel did well especially since she was out of her comfort zone with the script.

 I liked the beginning of the performance best cause it had lighting. That is always fun. I thought that we could have done more with the script but that was left to angel and she did not feel as if we needed to. I personally thought that we could have had something to the right of me so I could get a drink or something. The middle is really where my tone falters though, I was supposed to have building rage but really it I just look exasperated until the last two lines. It does not look bad but not nearly as good as it could have been. 

I need to improve on my ability to get into a character, maybe it is because I was much more a caricature than a character but I was not all that into it. I especially need to work on this because the play is coming up soon and I still do not know how i am supposed to portray David Mathison or "Cynical Dave.” I am loving Gale as a character though even if I only get two lines I have to focus more on my emotions as a character. I think when I specifically take the time to get into the mindset of a character I perform way better. Especially because it is supposed to be funny and things only seem funny when it is natural not forced. Besides that, I think I will be improving at lot of stuff because apparently none of my directors feel the need to tell me what to do. Anyways, I rate the performance Angel and I did as a 6/10. Was not bad but definite room for improvement.  

Scene two

JAKE opens the door to his apartment. Sitting on the couch is CRYSTAL. Jake is startled for a moment.
JAKE Jesus, you scared me!
CRYSTAL Sorry. I didn’t mean to.
JAKE
How the hell did you get in?
Crystal smiles.
CRYSTAL Oh I have my ways.
JAKE
Look, don’t take this the wrong
way but you shouldn’t sneak up on people like that.
He pulls out his gun and shows her.
JAKE
It could be bad for your health if
you know what I mean. Crystal’s eyes lock on the gun.
CRYSTAL Oh this is good.
She pulls out a note pad and a pen. As she writes she talks out loud.
CRYSTAL (writing as she
speaks)
The Mobster pulled out his gun on the helpless damsel. He forced his body against hers...
Jake looks confused.
JAKE
What the hell are you talking
about? I didn’t force nothin.
CRYSTAL
Oh I know. It’s for the book. This
is good stuff 

JAKE
Look lady. I said you could follow
me around a bit for research but now you’re making me out to be this hardened criminal. That’s not how it works.
CRYSTAL
I thought mobsters were supposed
to be ruthless. They take what they want when they want.
JAKE
First off, don’t call me a
mobster. I am in the sanitation business. Secondly, I don’t force myself on any women.
She smiles at him.
CRYSTAL Well you could.
JAKE
Lady, I have a girlfriend.
She holds her finger up and starts writing and talking out loud again.
CRYSTAL (writing)
As he eyed her breasts he confesses the love triangle that is inevitable. He tears her shirt with ...
Jake holds his hands up.
JAKE
Woa woa woa. Okay, that’s it. You
gotta go.
CRYSTAL (still writing)
His breath warms her neck sending chills down her spine. Goose bumps begin to form around her...
Jake grabs the pad from her.
JAKE
That’s enough. No more writing. My
girlfriend is on her way over. You have to go 

CRYSTAL (into recorder)
Lines are blurred as all three bodies intertwine forming one massive pile of flesh and ecstacy. A moment before climax the mobster...
Jake grabs the recorder from her and turns it off.
JAKE
Lady, you are nuts. Get the hell
out of my apartment.
She stops speaking and looks at him. She is almost too excited.
CRYSTAL
Are you going to be forceful?
Jake pulls out his gun and points it at her. She holds her hands up in the air.
CRYSTAL
Do you have handcuffs or should we
use mine?
JAKE
I’m serious. Get out now!
She gets up and makes her way to the door. As she walks through it she turns back and winks at him.
CRYSTAL
Call me...
The door shuts and Jake locks it. He breaths a heavy sigh as we...
FADE TO BLACK. 

Hardest thing

I think the hardest thing that I'm gonna hafta work on is my onscreen chemistry with Angel. This is because I have never worked with or know much about Angel. It is certainly gonna be a challenge and the only way to sort it out is to spend time talking with Angel but that's difficult seeing as she really isn't my freind. Not that she's a bad person but she doesn't seem keen on social interaction in the class all that much. Which is understandable seeing as no one in the class was already her freind unlike everyone else. Besides all that the scene we are doing relies heavily on Angel being more forceful than I've ever seen her. My character is reactionary to what Angel says and does so if she doesn't have a strong preformance or I don't have a strong performance while the other one does it's not gonna look good. Similarly if we both have week performances it's not gonna be any better so in order to prevent these things I'll have to spend more time with Angel.