Shhhhhh....... The film is about to start!

The silent movie film was certainly much easier than the projects previously done in terms of memorization as well as struggles with performance and takes. With previous assignments it was necessary to start over after every single mess-up and mistake even if it was just stuttering over a single word. With the silent movie however, it was just cutting a section out, for instance when I bent over to pick up the fake dentures and my wig came off and I sneezed, we just continued filming and were able to cut right back to where we needed to go- it also just so happened to allow a hilarious blooper reel. There was also no need to memorize lines, as the movies were silent. All that one needed to know was their actions in relation to the other actors and actresses, which made it easy because there were obvious cues, such as after Lisa throws her paper at me I lift the cane and try to hit her with it. I found this easier than monologues because there were other cues to reach off of other than the line that I had spoken before, and I look forward to seeing how this helps in the single scene with the feeding off of each other.

In this assignment I think one had to be very overdramatic with every single movement and every single look or emotion that crossed over their face, for instance in order to portray anger you could not just furrow your brow, you also had to raise your cheekbones, narrow your eyes, and scrunch up your nose or else the face is similar to confusion which can convey a totally different message. I think that Lisa did a very good job at this, using every single muscle in her face for each different reaction she had, remaining hunched over for each element of the movie, and also her movements were completely parallel to that of an elderly person. Abby was simply a grumpy old man and even without words was able to show character progression from the old grump to a cute old man in love with a woman who is inappropriately young for him. Dayna had a very soft-spoken role, yet she still was able to not be overlooked as a character. The person she was portraying seemed to be somewhat insignificant yet Dayna gave the character importance with each graceful movement.

I think that to make my performance better I could have acted better. I think that at one point I am standing up fully straight, which most old people are incapable of doing, my shaking looked awkward and faked, as well as my facial emotion was not to the level that I think it could be. Overall I think that the final product looks ok, but viewing it myself, I definitely see how when you watch yourself act you can pinpoint how you should have moved, which I think will help me in future acting performances.

Here is the movie!

https://www.youtu.be/qJYfdbPu9zl