Does the Technique of Improvisation in Acting and Technical Field Really Improves or Impoverishes the Film - Coursework Example

Does the technique of improvisation in acting and technical field really improves or impoverishes the film. Introduction: The function of question isto derive an answer either directly or else that of direst experience. The planet we live evolved from its primitiveness to globalised advanced village, from hunter gather society to egalitarian society of today is all the way through an aspect called evolution. Or to over simplify it can be put as improvisation. Naturally over a course of time improvisation adds up to the advancement human being in immeasurable, intangible ways of what we see today. And there is other more precise illustration to state the improvisation does improve the prospects. Hence the improvisation has evidently improved the modern society, will the same technique improve the quality of the film/video/drama if systematically applied in the film making process Improvisation is other cinema undefined unnamed aspects that can also be said as avant-garde or independent. Over the course of time concept of improvisation has stepped in many ways, does it really help in improvising the piece of art or impoverishes the art itself. Independent film makers used various methods and revolutionary ideas in film making process. Indie film makers used actors without any professional background to act in the films, many strong and valid arguments have been raised and reasons for using improvisation as technique to enhance the film, the major part of the thesis is concerned with how and in what ways it does improve the film. Does it really improves the quality of the film /video or is it time consuming, pressurise, ill way that impoverishes the film. The improvisation technique improves the quality of the film, in actual film making there are numerous ways that the technique can be applied and stand to see the result. When improvisation is used it’s clear that standard system used for normal studio film making is not applicable, Right from the story, a story without a script, given to non professional actors, against the normal studio lighting with natural backdrop to give authenticity for the story. Naturally, the question rises how a non professional actor or a script less story benefits the whole film against method actors and bound scripts? In what ways is the improvisations make the film making process easy, time saving, and benefits the director from a normal big studio film. Group Experience Working in a group parallelly using a very simple story line can be very useful when using the technique of improvisation. When working in groups the actors could use the comments from their colleagues thereby improving their capabilities during practice and rehearsals. This kind of sharing and helping would lead one to imagine the sequence of logical moments and build the story to climax. Alison Oddey, a British educator and artist had started devising theatre from the year 1977. In her book titled, “In Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook, Alison Oddey tells us that a comprehensive study on devised work helps to bring out “the uniqueness of process and product for every group concerned”. (Oddey Alison, 1994) She speaks of another devising process called ‘Forced Entertainment’ where a group uses “an almost random pile of text, images, ideas and personal experiences, out of which comes the subject matter for a piece”. (87) Oddey has dedicated one chapter in her book which is adapted from the work of Augusto Boal, an activist and director on the subject of improvisation. The exercises that are demonstrated give a wide spectrum of devising approaches which include improvisation of thematic developments, short theatrical bits pertaining to specific areas which the group develops gradually into proper cohesion and taste. Kerrigan, who is the founder of TOUCH Mime Theatre has conducted significant research on collaborative creativity and has come up with an amazing book that gives a step by step guide of how to create an original performance while working within a group. There are two separate divisions to Kerrigan’s book titled “The Performer’s Guide”.– The first section is called the “Creative Processes” which lays down the developmental stages to the reader filled with activities and exercises that project thoughts and ideas towards devised work of which strategies and methods of improvisation play a great part. The second part of Kerrigan’s book deals with helping members of a group to work together productively and without any disagreement. She says that in order to have a well organised team or group, the head of the group should have very good organisational skills which include criticizing a work constructively and without bias and how to go about resolving conflicts when they crop up. Using improvisation within a group helps the new or the not – so – good actor to learn a lot from the well experienced ones thus building up a lot of confidence. Other qualities imbibed when working in a group are cooperation, tolerance, patience, love for the art, a yearning to learn from experiences and above all constructive criticism. Working in a group on a thin script or no script at all helps all the actors to make their contribution in building a good script. Characterisation and emotion Mike Leigh, one of Britain’s great directors and writers, makes films dealing realistically with ordinary people in every day life. He is one director besides the American director John Sayles who has an eye for choosing typical characters to make up one of the most interesting casts that he is so famous for. Though his characters seem quite odd or queer, they are people who face problems, love and laugh like anyone of us and hence we are able to identify with Leigh’s characters. These characters do a wonderful job of improvising for an hour or so and then it becomes the director’s job to sift through and distil the right amount of feeling and emotion that goes into the characters act. (Jason Best, in an interview with Mike Leigh on BBC) Mike Leigh feels that the common man has witnessed so much of violence through films, video games and on TV that he has become “desensitized” and therefore the improvisation portrayed by his characters who are rather odd but still very human are intended to rouse them from their stupor or lethargy and make them “feel” compassion “for others” around us. (Leonard Quart, Ray Carney, “The Films of Mike Leigh”) Most of his characters are kind of repelling- such as being extremely obese or a sadist or even a drunk but yet his improvisation through the kind of characters he chooses are able to bring out the right amount of emotions necessary to make society aware of how insensitive we are. Some of Mike Leigh’s films that cater to characterization with emotions are – “Bleak Moments”, “All Or Nothing”, “Naked”, “Grown Ups”, “Secrets and Lies”, and many more. (Leonard Quart, Ray Carney The Films of Mike Leigh) Form in improvisation Development of form in improvisation is a permutation combination of group experience, characterisation and emotion that sets mood and atmosphere. This develops a simple story into a complex and detailed film. Many a times, improvisation could be described as ‘a crutch for lazy filmmakers’. The film crew start out with a truly weak script and using improvisation as a crutch try to develop the plot and characters along the way. Good examples of films where improvisation fails to redeem a bad or worthless script are films like ‘Dodgeball’ and ‘A True Underdog Story’. On the other hand improvisation could spell a mega hit at the box – office if handled deftly and sensibly. In this case, the script would be strong and making use of the technique of improvisation through out the film, would turn out to be phenomenal. Camera aspects The group can rehearse mock film making whilst in the presence of the camera, the shot and movement of camera can be determined. It helps in actual film-making by time consuming and helps the inhibition of the actors. Constant rehearsal and the camera movement actually speeds up the process while the actual filming is taking place. This is a valuable aspect of improvisation. Analysis This study is based on an analysis conducted on Improvisation and its techniques and how far these techniques are both viable and useful in either enhancing a film or tearing it down. The above mentioned factors would be examined and analysed by referring to films that have used the technique of improvisation, exhaustive study on improvisation, and a practical experiment of using the technique of improvisation. I had applied the technique in producing a short film involving two non professional actors and a story without abound script. The scenes and dialogues used are improvised and the camera was handheld with a very basic available source of light. By making a study of the various theorists and utilising a theoretical foundation, all the above mentioned areas would be studied and examined. Improvisation in films could be an exceptionally wonderful tool, but is not an end in itself. It has to be used within limitations. The modern digital age has made it quite possible to make movies very easily even with people who have very limited talent. The increasing popularity of improvisation makes every Wannabe think and feel that he could make it big with little or no effort and talent. This analysis is going to examine the efficacy of improvisation and look at those films that have proved it to bee a boon and those films that have proved it to be a bane. Choice of films There are few short -listed films useful for the above thesis that has made use of improvisation techniques in their film. The works of John Cassavetes, Shane meadow and Mike Leigh are few and the chosen films are - A ROOM FOR ROMEO BRASS Directed by ace director Shane Meadows, “A Room for Romeo Brass” is a scintillating yet eccentric film that is encapsulated on a huge canvas by characters whose genuine performances prove that films could be good even though they make use of ordinary characters. Just like great directors such as Ken Loach and Les Blair, Meadows too had the Midas touch of getting right into the heart of the audience through his characters. This story is based on love and flits between significance and insignificance, from comedy into serious drama, and from heightened humour to deathly horror. Romeo Brass and Gavin Woolley also called “Knocks” are two Nottingham school children who are not only neighbours but also best buddies. Both of them share a good rapport helping each other out. Romeo’s father has left the family leaving them to fend for themselves. Gavin has a back problem that results in his limp. Morrell befriends the boys and becomes infatuated with Romeo’s sister Ladine whom he tries to seduce. An angry confrontation ensues and Morrell is thrown out. Morrell then tries to attack Knocks’ father but just in time Romeo’s father returns and gives him a good thrashing. A touching family bonding takes place and Romeo and Knocks’ are united once again. The technique used in this film by Meadows is on –camera improvisation, where the characters are permitted to flit in an out in front of the camera making the scenes more life like and natural. Another point of improvisation he makes use of is the humorous or jokey takes which helps to give the audience a good feeling about the same people. SHADOWS John Cassavetes is one director who would dare to undo a plot and expose his characters by making them experience the camera. He was a director who did not go along with the traditionl\al but on the other hand he challenged it by resolving plots with a more realistic approach. In his film “Shadows” Cassavetes uses the technique of improvisation to the maximum. The whole film utilises the improvisation not only of the creative talent of his characters but also of settings, lights, props and cameras. ‘Shadows’ was improved in every possible way by giving the actors total freedom and asking them to improvise the scene from their own point of view. He made use of a rudimentary film-making technique, used a basic sound and lighting rig with 16mm Arriflex camera which was mostly hand held and moved up and down in an uneven way. According to Cassavetes “In Hollywood ...everyone is frightened to do anything that’s not traditional ... there are certain rules and regulations that I think are set specifically to destroy the actor and make him feel uncomfortable.” (Cassavetes about Shadows) Traditionally, in regular motion pictures there are always markings for lights and the actor is expected to stay in that certain region of light to enact the scene else it would have to go for another take, but Cassavetes being the unconventional director that he is, asked his cameraman to light the scene generally so that the actor’s spontaneity was not limited. Cassavetes and many others were pioneers in this field which brought about an evolution in New York’s Avant - garde cinema. PICKPOCKET Robert Bresson’s film ‘Pickpocket’ is all about imprisoned persons. It is the sad story of a pick pocket on the streets of Paris who is a loner who lives in his room and keeps himself away from everyone else. It is a realistic art film in which the actors hardly express their feelings. Michael, the hero in the film is a loser whose only passion is indulging in the crime of pick-pocketing and playing the game of cat and mouse where he experiences feelings of fear, guilt, anxiety and excitement. He spends some time studying from a master and the rest of the time he is seen moving with a gang of pickpockets. Michael is a person devoid of any emotion. He even gives his girlfriend Jeanne who looks after his sick mother to his friend Jacques. His therapist comes in the form of a police detective who is hell bent on capturing him. As stated by Ken Kelman “Bressons use of acting style and his refusal to supply psychological motivation thwarts our usual expectations of character explanation; and correspondingly, if his systematic use of ellipsis (separating events and sequences from one another rather than causally linking them) cuts off our dependence on the dominance of narrative”. (Ken Kelman, 1975) The final part of the film shows how Michael comes to terms with himself when he gets captured and regains his ability to love Jeanne. Improvisation in Comedy: Comedy films use a lot of improvisation to make the scenes more natural and alive. In the film ‘Knocked Up’, intelligent and comic improvisation played a major role throughout the film bringing out its ramshackle but cool charm. Though cute and funny at the same time, it breathed spontaneity and humaneness. Comedy, either slapstick or otherwise would be a wash out if the technique of improvisation is not handled well. Great comedy stars like Jim Carey and Robin Williams are actors who have to be tightly reined instead of asking them to improvise so much. The end result of such encouragement is a widely improvised and cheaply shot film that doesn’t get too far with an audience. ‘The Office’ is a good example of this. CHENNAI 600028 It revolves around a group ghetto kids, the passion, love, hatred, friendship typically a ghetto life is shown for one year of time. They have used non-professional actors facing the camera first time, acting improvisation was used, lots of rehearsal and basic lighting on a shoestring budget. VERA DRAKE. The above mentioned films have used improvisation technique in many aspects of film making. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION OF THE CONCEPT Life and Improvisation Learning takes place through life experiences that we come across. Our entire life is one long eventful experience. It is analysed in a cross sectional view of past, present, and future, with little or no attempt made to view life as a whole. In order to have a better understanding of life, the whole aspect of life needs to be thoroughly observed and examined. While we make a study or an analysis of the various aspects of human life, we must not lose sight of the uniqueness of every individual. Every individual has his/her own experience in their life time, which means that every single human being is a subject of study and research. Every individual begin life with their own unique or particular heredity and personality traits which undergoes various changes due to the influence of society, environment and pressure that changes or modifies the human personality thereby contributing to ones unique life. Life experiences help us to gain a lot especially if it is shared with other individuals and we try to fit these experiences into our own lives. Appreciating Art and other subjects like Science, History and Geography or the reading or poetry and novels are some of the ways we share life and information with others and these experiences help to enrich our own lives. Film too, is one such medium where we could make a study of human life experiences and how these same humans find solutions in solving the problems they are faced with. In other words film can also be called a reflection of life. All films portray various aspects of human life – like happiness, sadness, melancholy, love, hate, greed, disgust and violence under various situations and at different stages. Actors who depict the various characters experience both the good and the bad aspects of life which in turn enriches his life and moulds his personality. Acting is one of the forms by which we can explore the experiences in life. Acting represents life in different forms by portraying problems and seeking solutions to it.. In improvisation an actor is given an opportunity to identify and rectify his own misrepresentations. Whereas in real life situations the incidents and problems are real and happen on the spur of the moment and can never be improvised or reverted. But if the same situation happens in a film the scene can be improved however many times it is needed. In other words, human response can be improvised in film unlike in real life. Aims and values of improvisation “Necessity is the mother of all invention.” As the word invention strikes, a degree of improvisation accompanies with imagination. An imaginative world brings an improvisation but as we grow along grows inhibition and embarrassments. It is hard to make people think in an imaginative world and fantasise things as they are not accustomed after a point of time in life. As life starts everyone begun to think and imagine a fantasy world that gradually saturates by various degrees, like primary, secondary or tertiary saturation. Lives tend to lose the power of imagination. This proves to be an obstacle in the learning process in all aspects of life. Every development may come to stand still and progress can be negative and stagnant. Development is always sought in every branch of life, mind, body and soul. To enrich the body and mind it is necessary to have a creative and imaginative mind. Imagination can enrich the spiritual experience and acting aids imaginative growth. The usage of Improvisation is necessary and perennial for people to utilize their grey cells. It helps the thought pattern in an orderly way and helps to enhance their thought processes. It helps people analyse and understand real human situations and respond to it because the feeling and expressions used during improvisation are always honest and realistic. In acting the room for improvisation is plenty and it helps us in real life situation. It opens the door for understanding and helps us to overcome the fears and insecurities, conditions us to live wisely and confidently. Understanding is a dual process that helps us not only to understand our relationship with others but also the similarities and difference between them. Improvisation is a group activity that encourages the feeling of cooperation, constructive criticism, patience and tolerance. It helps us to understand life experiences we come across in a better light and teaches us valuable lessons. Acting and improvisation kindles independent thought. Rehearsals play a major role in improvisation and encourage the actor to build up confidence and act confidently and this in turn replenishes his/her skills in acting. Improvisation in acting gives us a better sense of body movement in relation to everything else around us. It breaks down the barrier of inhibitions and self consciousness, because of the experience gained by repeated rehearsals or takes. It helps us to be more creative in trying out new and different angles for one situation. If either a film or story has a very feeble or thin script to work on, then the best way would be to work in a group because many heads are better than one and all of them could be instrumental in building up a good script brick by brick. In improvisation, actors are given freedom to enact scenes how they like and to build dialogues which contributes greatly to the end product. group activity aids the weaker section to learn from others, ensuring growth. Theory that supports the argument Stanislavsky pioneered an approach in improvisation in how an actor prepares: He stuck the pin in a fold of a curtain and asked the actor to find it, “Maria dashed on to the stage as if she had been chased .She ran to the edge of footlights and then back again, holding her head with both hands, and writhing with terror. Then she came forward again, and then again went away, this time in opposite direction. Rushing out toward the front stage seized the folds of the curtain and shook them desperately, finally burying head in them. This act she intended to represent looking for the brooch.” Though the actor felt wonderful, Stanislavsky felt the artificial in the act represented because he felt she never searched the brooch but was suffering to search for it. He warned her to search for the brooch to get saved. “Immediately her face became intense. She glued her eyes on the curtain, and went every fold of the material from top to bottom, painstakingly, systematically. This time her search was at a much slower pace, but we were all sure that she was not wasting a second of her time and that she was sincerely excited although she made no effort to seem so.” (Hodgson John and Richards Ernest, 1983, 5) From the above exercise she learnt her first search was bad, the second was good. This exercise very much reflects the importance of improvisation; the improvised search gets closer to naturalist and realistic acting. Improvisation as therapy Improvisation replaces psychoanalysis aspects and puts the mind in a better state of consciousness to overcome feelings that have been kept pent up for a very long period. Difficult and trying situations in the life of any human being that creates an imbalance could be brought back on track by the application of improvisation therapy which has been proved to be quite useful. At The Henderson Hospital at Sutton in Surrey, as reported in The Observer, 31 January 1965, “treatment is designed through individuals to work together on their minor psychological problems”. One middle–aged woman, when asked what the hospital had done for her, said, “Well, I don’t take the tablets any more – I have learned to put human relationships in their place.” (The Observer, 31st Jan. 1965) Augusto Boal, a theatre director from Brazil who makes a brilliant statement in his book “The Rainbow of Desire” when he speaks about the therapeutic quality and ability of theatre that helps to liberate people and drastically change their lives. The book that was written by Boal in French was deftly translated by Adrian Jackson who states that these techniques help us to view the oppressions we have unknowingly internalized. Boal is famously known all over the world as the author of “Theatre of the Oppressed”. Abstract that connects to my film. The film Cliff, relates to the central thesis of the dissertation in many ways. Firstly the story is about two individuals on the verge of life; one is committed to die and the other to save the life. The theme contemplates life and death. The film is about the old man travelling to the cliffs of Dover accompanied by his daughter to end his life. He undergoes emotional trauma and confused as his daughter takes him with eyes blinded and says final goodbye. For unknown reasons he retracts from his motive, breaks down removes his blind fold to realises that he is not on the cliff but on an open field. The characters were played by non-professional actors aged early 20’s and late 50’s.They were initially briefed about the story line. To have a realistic approach to the film, the actors were asked to play their part with their imaginative dialogue and naive acting. The actors were called in and asked to act out a small scene that was briefed on the spot. They used the available furniture and clothing was a casual one, they spoke the dialogue and improvised it. For e.g. there was this scene the old man annoys her without eating food and repeatedly expresses to die on the cliff, for this, the girl retaliates telling even she shall accompany in his death, shall end her life along with him. The father is shocked and vents his anger pouring the water on the daughter’s face. This seems to be realistic and naturalist approach, as he is old, is not capable to hit her back, and uses the available property to show his anger. This was improvised on the set while rehearsing for the particular scene. The father character was to vent out his anger by slapping or rebuking her, but it was his own idea to splash the water on her face. Had the above scene been filmed in a normal studio film the scene would have heavily dramatised with orchestra music and strong lengthy dialogue delivery. She could have recalled the past of his father, might even have flashback story, proving to look very traditional and normal motion film. However in this film the dialogue was short and unnecessary back story information was cut down. Mostly the dialogues were the improvised by group activity among the actors, group experience helped them share and improve the dialogue. It helped to build the story with strong dialogue and naturalistic way of using them added flair to the film. Normally this type of dramatic films would have dramatic or sentimental dialogues to sympathise with audience. Group experience lead to characterisation and emotion of the character, as they practised and rehearsed together it enable to greater understanding of each other. The rapport among the actors was brilliant they turned to real life father-daughter, emotions were strong. She had the spontaneity and was able to cry on the cliffs without any artificial method. Location used was an ill maintained house to project their status; it reflects their mood and living condition. The furniture’s used was a single cot that lay unused in the house and the cot was removed and mattress was placed on the floor .And the cliff represents the loneliness, hollowness in their life. Minimum use of set properties and story told in non linear way influences the audience strongly. Camera aspects, mostly the film used hand held technique which gave the actor his freedom and liberty. Available source light was used so that it does not interrupt the actor’s flow of acting. Due to the low level of lighting the scenes looked bit grainy added effect to the story. Hand held camera movement helped the actor to have own territory to move around. . It also deals general outward concerns and issues of ordinary human, consequences that lead their life. It also attempts to explore the attitude of small town man living out life in a cosmopolitan city. It tries to figure the naked truth behind his death wish; its mixture of a politics, social and economic reason. In this film it is much more inclined to social reasons, the old man does not have peer group, socially in active, for which the society could be indirectly involved. Had he been involved with society or social circle, chances are really meek of taking a terrible decision. This is reflected in the film as the old man lives a lonely life which society indirectly attributes and issues of old age behaviour, past life and attitudes towards circumstance References: A Room for Romeo Brass www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/297 Quart, Ray Carney. The Films of Mike Leigh: “Real People. Real Lives” (Cambridge Film Classics) Publisher: Swell Books, Park Ridge, IL www.amazon.com/Films-Mike-Leigh-Cambridge-Classics/dp/0521485185 Carney, Raymond The films of Mike Leigh / Ray Carney with Leonard Quart. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press , 2000. BBC – Films – Interview – Mike Leigh (All or Nothing) www.bbc.co.uk/films/2002/10/03/mike_leigh_all_or_nothing_interview.shtml Alison Oddey. 1994, Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook. New York: Routledge, 2004; Boal, Augusto The rainbow of Desire : the Boal method of theatre and therapy / Augusto Boal ; translated by Adrian Jackson. London : Routledge, 1994. Ken Kelman: The Structure of Fate" in The Essential Cinema: Essays on Films in the Collection of Anthology Film Archives, P. Adams Sitney (ed) Anthology Film Archives, New York, 1975 Sheila Kerrigan The Performers Guide to the Collaborative Process. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2001 Read More