Blog 10

I used to be a fairy god mother.

I liked to use my magical power.

I am not a pretty girl.( at least I am cute)

But I had my own magical world.

I wanted to have good score.

And I hoped I can achieve more.

My goal: restart drama

Be more confident

Have a B or above

Learn other kinds of performances beside drama

Yes, I achieve all goals I have set up this year. I restart drama and I will be doing it in the rest of my high school career. I am still shy, but a lot better than before. I can act and interpret naturally in scenes, which is the biggest achievement I have had this term. I do not have an A, but I do have B+ in my report card. In addition,I have learn different kinds of new performances such as skit, speech and musical. 

I challenge myself in many things. I tried different kinds of performances to learn more, 

Although I cannot sing well, I am going to try more song performances and practice more in the summer classes I have registered.In fact, standing on the stage with classmates is a kind of challenge to me already. I used to have painful experience when performing. Whenever I stand on the stage, the situation reminds me of the bad memory. I feel a lot better because of the help of my classmates. I am going to try my best in the final project. Hopefully, my effort will help me get a better grade. Besides this, I make a male friend in this class. I used to study in a Catholic girls school. Making friends with boys is never my strength. I feel lucky that Jaden become my friend. We chat things in Chinese ( sorry about that). I got better because of this new friend in my toughest time. 

From the experience I had this term, I gained a lot of things. I learned to be more confident. I learned how to help with (making props and dressing up) the setting. I also learn to sing some high notes( thanks to Abby and Maggie). Most importantly, I know how to look slimmer in the videos. If I stand behind Jack, and hide half of my body behind him, I will look as slim as Jayden. I learned this secret from online blogs. I do not know if it really works, but this helps me become more confident and natural in the video.

Macbeth

Lady Macbeth.

Was the hope drunk

Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time 
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,'
Like the poor cat i' the adage? 

Macbeth. Prithee, peace:
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none. 

Lady Macbeth. What beast was't, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place 
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face, 
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.

Blog for Alexander Hamilton

Reflect on your experience in the Hamilton skit

It is a lovely experience. The song is great and the lyric rhymes perfectly. I also like the guys' body movements.It is pretty enjoyable to work on things I like. I hope we can have more skits or similar shows. I also enjoy the enthusiasm of our classmates when working.

My strength:

I do not know yet...

My weakness

Firstly, I do not know how to snap my fingers. Jack has tried  hard to teach me, But I still cannot make large noise. I feel sorry for Abby and I am trying my best to learn. Hopefully, my "snap" sound will be loud enough when it is Jack's turn to say his solo part( he doesn't need to snap and I will be the only one dong it in the left side).

Secondly, I sometimes cannot reach the specific high notes that Abby wants me to sing. I can do it well with Maggie's help when there is no guys around. But I feel not comfortable and my voice sucks when singing in front of all without her help. I will get professional classes in Boston in summer, so hopefully I will improve in September. For this time, I will just try to catch up with the girls.

Thirdly, my body movements are not quick enough. I need more practice to catch up with the guys. I really want our performance to look clean and nice in the video. I think we need to cooperate more and have more practice( not the rehearsal of the entire song) on specific team movements. I think better details can make our skit closer to perfection.

In addition,I want to be more efficient when changing team shapes. I am always the slowest when transforming to different patterns. I hope I can do better and make our team better.

Last but not least, I want to have better facial expressions... Although I do not have a large role, I want to have unique things. I do not want to become a part of the background😂

P.S: I feel sorry but I have a serious cold. My voice changes to a deep one and I can not even speak normally. I have drunk tons of water and slept for two days in this weekend. But I don't seem to get better. I will just try my best to perform. Can I beg for Maggie's help? I am afraid that my deep voice will ruins Abby's effort😭

 

Call me tonight

What will you do and why? How will this help you improve as an actor?

Call you tonight by Whitney Houston

I want to perform a song because I have never tried it before. I want to keep exploring new things. It could be either a hell or a heaven to me, but I do not care.I want to do things I like.

Secondly, I want to have a try before my summer singing class starts. I want to see how high and low I can reach. I also want to learn performing skills from Maggie and Abbie.

Moreover, I want to try if I feel better when I sing. I feel good in Alexander Hamilton, so I want to sing more ( to get better grade). When I practice in my dorm room, I did not sing well.( I know it from my roommate's facial expression😭)But I have time to learn form beginning...(hopefully)

Lastly and most importantly, I want to praise my idol Whitney Houston. She is the only singer that I like the voice better than the song. I love her style. When she sings, I feel that she is speaking to me in a nice rhythm and flow. I will never feel stressful when listening to her. Her songs are not too high or too low, but just to the point that you would like to keep playing for several weeks.

Trying to sing out will certainly make me more confident, in which I can get improvement in terms of acting.Beside Whitney Houston, I have tons of idols that are singers. I always hope that I can sing professionally on a stage ( just like them)  in one day. In fact, they give me the power to sing in front of people. I love the courage I have when I sing.

Secondly, I would like to join Theatre next year. I am super excited about performing musical. I hope that I can have a singing role in the show next year. I will practice hard in the summer, and I will also use this project as a beginner class for musical and opera.

Lastly, practicing singing will benefit my voice, which is pretty important to an actor. I want to make my voice softer and nicer so that I can be better in the video.

Blog 2 for Inception

This is the first time I get in touch with the movie Inception. I really appreciate John’s effort to arrange such a long scene and to edit the script. His serious attitude is shown that he tries to use different ways ( such as buying pizzas in VDP)to encourage our classmates. I also loves people’s relaxing mode when working. They make the project an enjoyable process.

Secondly, I love the transfer of different scenes. I like the way that we use different places in campus to create an Inception feeling. I love the scene in the boy washroom the most. It looks real. Kade and Robert interpret well. They perform one of my favorite scenes in the play.

Cons

I think we should work on scheduling. In fact, we spent almost a week to go through lines. It is still great but we can use the time in a better way. We can stage the scenes and do rehearsal. We can memorize the lines. Basically, people are just sitting together and working on their electronic devices.

Secondly, we should work on lines memorization. We had been given several chances and deadlines, but not everyone follows the rule. We even started reading the lines after three lessons passed.

Thirdly, we did not do any staging or rehearsal, which cause confusion when shooting. Somebody did not face the camera. Somebody shook and stared to the floor. We did not know where to stand and we did not know how to perform. We filmed when we staged for the very first time, which was a disaster in a rush.  The whole video looked weird and unprofessional.

Lastly, not everyone watched the movie, which made it even harder to make the film. We were supposed to do so to help us with understanding.

My performance

I was not a good actor.  I do not act well. I know and I admit my weaknesses. Thank you for always encouraging me . I know memorizing lines is never a strength but a responsibility.  I know that I could have done better if I lose weight earlier TT I will try to look nicer next time.

No Strength

My improvement

I will try my best to look better in next scene. I will wear better clothes and do make up in the following project. I plan to bring multiple clothes for different scenes to make the final product more professional. Although I have no ideas about acting,I do not want to look silly anymore. I want to have a normal look in the video.

Lastly, I need to beg for your mercy. Can I do something else when you guys are watching the movie next time? It is a painful torture for me. I may help you to print things or prepare materials for class. Thank you.

Inception

Getting away from Reality 

    Breaking into people's fantasy

         Constructing own scene

               Exploring dreamers' brain

                      Seeking for their oneiro

                           Getting lost in Limbo

My strength

I memorized my lines well and I managed to perform new lines immediately. I was able to remember the lines when we are all sitting together and reading through the script. I watched the movie before acting. Also, my volume improved. These helped me to express Ariadne's excitement and curiosity better. In addition, I felt happy that I can be several characters in the same play. I can be Ariadne, I can be a Stewardess. I can be a bystander. I was also given the chance to help with filming and I felt great to try new things.

My weakness

I do not like my interpretation. I feel like I am just nobody. But in the film, Ariadne is an independent , smart and young girl that stands out from a bunch of guys. I did not feel strange when I was asked to be the waitress because I was using the same skills to do both roles.

I had exactly the same hair style and sweater on in every scene, even when I was not Ariadne. I was bad at styling.

I still could not act natural. I fill embarrassed when I watch the video. I felt like I was an old 

lady in the market, arguing with the hawker for a lower price😭😭😭

My improvement

Still, I need to improve on character interpretation. I should also work on the styling of my character . When I watch the video, I feel like all of us are the same. We are just a group of normal high school students. I could not tell that this is inception if nobody notices me. Acting is important but I should also improve on details to make Ariadne stand out.I will prepare clothes according to the character's personality before shooting next time to interpret better.In addition, I should be more natural when acting. I will act like I am in my dorm room next time.

Group strength

We all cooperated well and John organized the scene great.

Group weaknesses

We did not plan well that we spent too much time on reading the script. It was a little weird that we spent almost a week to chew and we rushed in two lessons to finish filming. A few of us watched the movie, which caused confusion when acting.We did not memorize the lines well and early enough, which caused inconvenience when shooting. Also, we did not stage or arrange settings before actual shooting. We were literally memorizing lines but not acting because we just had a few minutes to practice and adapt to the setting before actual shooting.

Group future improvement

I hope that we can plan well and work hard according to the plan. I also hope we can watch the movie or the play to get familiar with the setting.

                             

Wildest Dream

   Rewritten lyrics---Wildest dream by Taylor Swift

He said let's get out of this world 

Entering their dreams

Away from the crowds

I thought my sense can't help me now

One choice change forever

But this is gonna make me won

He's so wise and handsome as hell

He's so kind and he teaches so well

I can build the thing as dream begins

My one condition is

Say you'll forget me now 

Breaking your fantasy stealing your scene

Red lips and rosy cheeks

Say you'll can't notice Even I'm a true beauty

Wildest dreams ah ah ah

You see me in mind sight

Stealing your mind's right

Make you drunk

Someday you'll meet me I bet these memories 

Never be fund

( To Be Continued)

 

❤️Try to sing the song with music... I have a hard time filling the lyrics.😭

My character is called Ariadne, who is a student in French art school. Her major is architecture. She was hired by Cobb to design the settings in the dreams. Her job is to design specific background for certain dreamers( Fischer). In this way, he or she will truly believe that they are in their own dream. Her totem is a sophiscated chess. She is really smart and brave, but she lacks experience. She keeps asking questions and learning from the other teammates in our scenes.

I try to make my voice lively and louder. I want people to figure out that I am the new young lady in this team. I feel like I should be smart and calm but also energetic. I do not know that much about breaking into dreams and I keep learning from Cobb and other people. The only sad thing is that we have never tried to act it out. I am confused about the actual setting. I also want to help with some crop making if I have chance.

I memorized my scenes well but my classmates suggestted that I should do something to make my role stands out. I do not want to dramatify her since she is supposed to be a clever woman.I may specialize my intonation ( Canadian version?) and makes her voice sounds curious and exciting. I may use some facial expression and body movement to make my performance better.

I suggest that we should do rehearsal before actual shooting. We should make the stage setting clearer. I feel that we should force our classmates to watch the movie. I watched it, but I still cannot understand the ending.( Is he in reality or in dream?) For those who have not watched the movie, how can they understand their character and the setting?