When I was in high school, my friends and I went to the movies every weekend. I loved going to the theater, sitting with my friends, and, since we had the right, critiquing every part of the movie; commenting on the actors, the plot line, the costumes, and the like. One of my favorite things was, during the movie, I would pick a character that I could relate to the most and I pretended to be the character. It got to the point where I would be saying the line with the character as they were saying it under my breath. Weird, I know. I guess it was early theatrical tendencies that were starting to emerge within me. I used to love everything about movies; the acting, the reality of them, how you could get wrapped up in the storyline to the point that you forget it's fiction. However, once I came to college and started studying Theatre, I realized how skewed my perception of the film world was; how weak and unrealistic. During my first semester, I took a class called Intro to Acting. Throughout the class, we were taught how to make our performance mimic real life; a technique called conversational reality.
After studying different stage plays, I came to the conclusion that this type of performance is, by far, more convincing than the flat, two-dimension performances of the "big screen". In movies, the themes and plot lines are too unrealistic. For example, the movie The Day After Tomorrow, that came out in 2004 starring Jake Gyllenhall and Emmy Rossum, tells that story of the end of the world caused by a global ice age. This plot line, however entertaining and thought provoking, is not realistic in the slightest. Although the idea might be plausible, it cannot be conveyed in a real, "life-like" fashion because it has not happen before.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319262/ Also, since I have taken this class, I simply cannot watch some film actors perform. I never noticed how stiff and fake they seem compared to stage actors. Unlike stage actors, film actors do not have sufficient time to actually get into character. They are just through into one scene where the character is fully developed, then shoot a scene from the beginning of the movie, where the character is immature and has not grown yet. This confusing process reflects on the actors ability to change emotions and to make it seem like it's natural; a feat most of them lack. In a stage play, everything is in sequence, making the growth of the character seem more realistic because it is being played out right in front of your eyes. http://www.infoplease.com/cig/movies-flicks-film/film-acting-vs-theater-acting.html
Despite my continual love for movies, my new found love for my plays makes me realize how overplayed and materialistic they have become. Although epic car chases and secret agents crashing through windows trying catch a bad guy is entertaining to you, in the back of your mind, you know that you could never experience those things personally. A SWAT team is not going to beat don your door and demand that you stop as you dive out of your third story window (unless you're a convict, then this does not apply to you). When it comes down to it, people, people like to watch something that they can relate to; something that could actually happen to them. And I say that the stage is the perfect place for that. After all, " The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation." (Stella Adler)
http://www.easybib.com/export/html
No comments:
Post a Comment