SUBJECT: So today's class reminded me of two main points.
For one, the hourglass video on storytelling
reminded me of a separate hourglass video
on the creative process that I really
like watching when I am in a creative slump
or I feel like what I'm doing isn't good enough, which
is how I feel like you guys might feel about your scripts
at some point or your videos at some point during this process.
I'll put a link to it below, but basically it's
the idea that you want to make videos,
and you can recognize what is good within a video.
So you have this good taste.
But there's a large gap.
There's a large learning gap and a lot of trial and error
and being able to produce content that you're proud of.
And so you're going to go through all these stages
of making essentially crap.
And knowing, because of your taste in videos,
that what you're producing isn't what was in your head,
isn't what the ideal video should look like.
And that can be really frustrating.
But no one instantly jumped to success.
And it's hard to remember that sometimes.
The second thing is a lot of George's and Elizabeth's talk
about hosting reminded me of a lot of theater exercises
that I've experienced.
I don't act, but I've stage managed.
I've produced.
I've done tech, sets, light, sound.
Basically anything behind the scenes in theater
that's possible, I have dabbled in at some point.
And the things that they were getting you to do,
where in saying the lines over and over again,
thinking about your intonation, is exactly what
actors do in rehearsals when they're reading scripts
to put on a play.
And so one thing I thought might be interesting to watch,
or I went back and watched them partially
because I like Shakespeare and partially
because I like David Tennant, is a bunch
of Hamlet's soliloquies.
And there's a YouTube playlist of the
to be or not to be speech, pretty famous,
with six different versions done by six
different professional actors.
And they all have slightly different takes on the lines.
And they still imbue meaning.
And the meaning of the monologue or the soliloquy
changes depending on their inflections on the words.
And so it's really interesting to think of yourself
as not only just hosts, not only just creators of these videos,
but also as actors of sorts.
And this might bring around reservations.
I know it would for me because it's like, I'm not an actor.
I prefer to be behind the scenes.
I prefer my face not to be on camera.
But if you think of yourself as a developing actor, as someone
who wants to practice these things,
it's not a bad idea to do so.
For example, memorizing lines helps.
Once actors have their lines memorized,
it means that they can focus on the nuances of the performance.
They can focus on the emotions that they want to convey.
They can focus on their blocking.
They can focus on all different numbers of things.
So that carries from video to stage acting.
If you know the words that you're going to say,
you can start thinking about what those words really mean,
which is the point that George was making earlier.
Yeah, just thinking about the different emotions
you can portray and trying all the different ways
you can say a similar sentence and imbue different emotions
into it.
And like the exercises they were doing today where you yell it,
you say it in a weird accent, and then
what we're ultimately trying to do
is different than the goal of an actor.
We're not trying to become someone else.
We're trying to figure out how to become ourselves
on screen instead of acting like someone else.
And so by doing all these extravagant things,
and by doing all these acting exercises,
you automatically revert back to your natural,
which is, I guess, what we were saying.
So I don't know if I have anything new to add.
But I don't know.
If you're curious about acting exercises, feel free to ask me.
I've not personally done a lot, but I
have seen actors go from reading a text aloud
like popcorn reading in third grade
to being in a stage production.
And I'm no professional director,
but I can definitely share some tips
that I at least have observed.
Yeah, this video has gone on longer than I thought it would,
but that's all I have to say.
Let me know if you need any help with anything, as always.