23/01/23 - 26/01/23

 Week 17 of Milly's acting journey

On Monday 23rd, we revisited our groups from the previous week and went over the same scenes that we went over that included both the older and younger versions of the characters. I was a substitution Stefi which meant that me and Millie took turns in coming in the scenes. I made sure the scenes so I was off-script as Kelly had advised it to allow yourself to use your body more and become the character easily, which I did and definitely felt myself more confident.    Mark, who is working on production of Connections, helped with staging and how to make ourselves not seem awkward which at time I definitely felt since I didn't feel like I had chemistry with some people and we didn't really bounce off one another easily. We made it work though and at times I really felt the scene flowing which was really good. On the afternoon, we showed Kelly our scenes and we were the first group to show it, I wasn't too worried about it since we have had loads of lessons and time to learn the lines and make it as great as we possible could do. After watching other groups scenes, I definitely was feeling deflated since it was obvious that they had better chemistry and all the other Stefi's were just amazing so I felt my chances getting slimmer. However, this definitely did encourage me to go over Stefi's lines and try out on my own how I think she would say the lines and look into her character more to add to my understanding of her. I made that my aim for when I get in to look over Stefi more. The day didn't end there though however as me and some other actors from the course joined a Zoom Call at 5 in college with the writer of our script. This was vital in our journey to Connections as it allowed us to listen to her interpretation of her own script. People from other schools that are doing the same play as us so they were also on the call which was interesting to see. Questions were asked and the main one we all wanted to know the answer too was 'Who killed the policeman?' What I found clever is that the author behind our Connection's script said that doesn't know which she did purposely to allow us to interpret it the way we want to. This gave us space and freedom to give each character an extra meaning to themselves and since we had no idea who we think did it, it leaves it to the audience to discover and think about. 

On Tuesday 24th, we were with Kane which meant we would present our Diction presentation to the rest of our course. Me and Emily went into college a little bit earlier to get some final pieces of presentation finished which we were so glad we did since it made our lesson look more professional and longer obviously. We were the 3rd group to go and it was very successful, everyone was involved and the class did all the tongue twisters we had encouraged them to do. Watching everyone else's was really interesting and the boy's group's presentation was super fun and hilarious. They put lots of effort in theirs which was definitely evident. After we had all went, Kane introduced us to this line remembering technique called The Beats Technique. It's where you stop after a few lines where the emotion changes or something has been said, this allows you to remember quicker if you repeat little sections. We went into groups, and picked a scene from Connections to have a go at using this technique. The day ended with all of our course going ice skating as part of the tutorial treat.

On Wednesday 25th, all of our course went into the theatre and did more Connections work. We started the lesson by doing warm-ups and then going straight into police interview scenes. This allowed us to see the flow of them, since in one scene it's just a line of the younger versions being interrogated about Tom Joy. We then moved onto the scene with the younger versions where they are trying to make the film about the Mad Tramp, and we hadn't really focused on their scenes in a while so it was refreshing to see different scenes in a while. I sat with Mark and the rest of the older versions where we talked about ideas of how to transition us into this scene, whilst also looking at the younger's to see how they could improve. Their scene begins with Zafer saying "I'm going to the police..." so we all had an idea that was led by Alan where we stand in an oval shape, and once it's said our younger versions run in between their older self. We have to react to how our character is feeling and what they are doing which I found okay since I picked up on a key moment where Stefi get's pushed by Tom in which when that happens I look subtly hurt by it. Another moment is when Stefi is moving the lights, I made sure to look at her and reminisce on the moment as if I was slowly remembering it. Before the lesson ended, we showed it to Kelly and she thought we all did a great job. 

On Thursday 26th, we began the lesson with some warm ups like the shoe game, which myself and Emie introduced to everyone. Last time I played this game, I fell over on my back and bruised it badly so I decided to sit this one out as I've seen how competitive everyone on the course is when it comes to warm-up games. We then gathered into a group and Martin from Film and Tv came into our lesson, as he explained his objective for us all. We would be going through the group scene for the upcoming pilot episode 'Unbroken' starring Kadie which is so brilliant for her. The group scene is set in a social club where a boxing match is about to take place, and we all had to come up with characters and their reason for being in attendance. I came up with the name Courtney, and myself and a few others decided we would be their for our friends birthday celebration and that we had come out for a few drinks together. I had so much fun doing this as the whole scene we had to be silent, but keep the expressions and ourselves clear and expressive since that's what the set will feel like in our venue due to the dialogue having to go to the actor's with lines so that they can be heard. We practised taking a few shots and watching the boxing match happen, and myself, Latoya and Millie went away to take a seat at the bar for movement. However, we had to remember everywhere and everything we did due to continuity reasons, and if you're spotted twice in a scene doing completely different things it can ruin a shot. I'm glad it was a practise run as it allowed me to think over what I'd be doing and my character.