Comedic Entrances
Only Fools and Horses -doorbell
-enters by smashing through a wall, smashing someone's head into food
-office scene: Elizabeth enters in a sexual way, 'swaying'
Drama
Monday, 10 December 2012
Sunday, 2 December 2012
Rule of three / Comic triple
Rule of Three/Comic Triple:
Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
-"Who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, ere the other side he see....". >It is actually subverted four times; the first time, the three questions are all easy, so the knight easily crosses. The second knight unexpectedly receives a third, difficult question which results in his death, while the third knight unexpectedly gets an easy question again but fails to answer it correctly and dies. On the final set of questions, King Arthur subverts it again by asking a question back to the bridge keeper, resulting in the bridge keeper's death.
-Arthur, when deploying the Holy Hand Grenade shouts 'One...two...five!' Sir Galahad corrects him: 'Three, sire.' 'Three!'
-Additionally when reading a parody of the Bible: "...then thou shalt count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out."
Big Bang Theory:
-Sheldon knocks three times, then says 'Penny' or 'Penny and Leonard' and repeats the process three times. Unexpected: knock knock knock 'Penny!' knock knock knock 'Sheldon!'...
Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
-"Who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, ere the other side he see....". >It is actually subverted four times; the first time, the three questions are all easy, so the knight easily crosses. The second knight unexpectedly receives a third, difficult question which results in his death, while the third knight unexpectedly gets an easy question again but fails to answer it correctly and dies. On the final set of questions, King Arthur subverts it again by asking a question back to the bridge keeper, resulting in the bridge keeper's death.
-Arthur, when deploying the Holy Hand Grenade shouts 'One...two...five!' Sir Galahad corrects him: 'Three, sire.' 'Three!'
-Additionally when reading a parody of the Bible: "...then thou shalt count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out."
Big Bang Theory:
-Sheldon knocks three times, then says 'Penny' or 'Penny and Leonard' and repeats the process three times. Unexpected: knock knock knock 'Penny!' knock knock knock 'Sheldon!'...
Sunday, 21 October 2012
17th October
-more
Whose Line Is It Anyway? guests/host activities, >>liked funny accent
[European?], imaginary friend, Irish accent
-improv
with finger-pointing was very funny > call friend to get her to decde who is
better at pointing > Taylor being pregnant, giving birth... >ambulance
arrives
-decided
to focus on scene between Raye, Pia, Elizabeth > affair, Margot walks in on
Fredrick and his sexcretary, wants him to take her underwear, Margot very
ouraged
-asks for
handcuffs, kinky clothes.... back from Fredrick
>>>Elizabeth's
charcter is very kinky, whips Fredrick [who is very old, bad back], music: 'you
know how this music makes me feel...'
-set in
his office
-tries to
apologise to Margot, reveals he has a wife
-tries to
get two women to fight together 'fall on top of her..!'
-suggests
a foursome, then rages at Elizabeth's charcter for suggesting it
-ends
with two women leaving Fredrick??
· I had an idea for incorporating
secret transvestite into a scene >can be on a date and revelas it, date can
be shocked, or not know what that is and say its ok when they don't actually
understand?? >would like to try out idea...
· if the idea doesn't work, I would
still like to try a scene with a date [in a restaurant or something similar]
> Pia =chav-like London accent, Hazel =Russian accent, Elizabeth =French
[waiter] >just having a funny date -funny lines: gets served a live lobster
etc. >this sort of thing could work if it was just completely deadpanned
15th/16th October
NEW IDEA:
-piece of
theatre can be a montage of scenes with a them like 'secrets' [from
before with our brainstorming of 9/11]
-we can
work with our strong point of improvisations with two characters > start
by being moulded into positions and then improvise a small, usually funny
scene, anyone can say 'stop' and take the place of one of the people, more
people can walk in to the scene whenever they want
-we can
do several improvised scenes to get ideas, all based on secrets, and pick out
the ones we like the best
Ideas
from improvs:
· infection /medical problem >>South African
· stealing >>dog
· affair >>older posh people,
Fredrick and Marjory/Sarah and 'sexcretary'
· trying to get rid of /hide
something >>body in river, call in gangster friend
· trafficking >> European
bought-wife
· pervert >> through keyhole,
two men fighting for better position, 'she doesn't even like you'...
· treatment [cosmetic?]
>>whale sperm, gives one soft skin and another a rash, 2 Australians, one
English
-want to
try: secret life, secret job, addiction, obsession, secret transvestite
-would
like to try Russian improv.
-did activity from Whose Line
Is It Anyway? with host and guests [all guests had something they had to do
or something they thought etc., and host has to guess them, e.g likes to sniff
furniture, or hates everyone] >>good way to create characters
9th/10th October
-practicing scene in Betty's front room with tea and Jean's plan
-repeating some of other characters' lines in a thoughtful tone as if she knows what they're saying but really doesn't
-spills tea? awakward fumbling for cup, spills it on herself and acts as if she hadn't >> Betty says 'I don't trust her with tea'
-after watching Anchorman, it was suggested maybe my character should be facing the audience watching out of a window, watching people, looking very intense, commenting on people walking past, generally ignored
-say a few lines about people outside before Betty enters with tea, e.g. 'man with shoes...'
-repeating some of other characters' lines in a thoughtful tone as if she knows what they're saying but really doesn't
-spills tea? awakward fumbling for cup, spills it on herself and acts as if she hadn't >> Betty says 'I don't trust her with tea'
-after watching Anchorman, it was suggested maybe my character should be facing the audience watching out of a window, watching people, looking very intense, commenting on people walking past, generally ignored
-say a few lines about people outside before Betty enters with tea, e.g. 'man with shoes...'
8th October
-stuck with character, want to make her a happier person,
more funny
-I am discovering that the kind of random lines I want
Georgie to have will need to be scripted, I am finding it difficult to
improvise with her character
-developed opening scene –skipping across when Raye is doing
Inspector’s ‘siblings, uncanny’ section and then stops, looks at inspector and
tip-toes the rest of the way across at back of stage –standing behind the
screen where Inspector puts up mug shots and says she is ‘thick as
shit’>looks out??? –when ‘Jean’ creeps out to follow Inspector, Georgie
follows her and they creep around
stage, neither knowing they are being followed>Inspector runs off through
audience, Jean goes back behind screen, I dive under the side counter -hide
there until Jean, Betty and Kaley come out to look for Georgie>surprises
them by jumping out and shouting ‘Put ‘em up!’ with a fake ‘gun’, thinks its a
game, laughs, gets told off by Jean [try not to make this too serious as it shouldn’t ruin the funny atmosphere] –overheard
by Inspector and we all freeze in front of our mug shots…
-starting second scene where we are gathered in Betty’s
living room
·
Playing a video game, facing audience, shouting
at TV, in my own world
·
Betty disturbs me, asks if I want tea, ask for
milkshake, annoyed because I lost the game, no milkshake, Jean gets Betty to
give me some milk>ask Jean to shake it?
·
Want to be involved in Bingo robbing plan >
infiltrate because I’m dumb and no one would suspect me
·
Enthusiastic about disguise [coloured wigs]
-more people-watching>> Brick from the film Anchorman
·
Seems aware of own stupidity, but has a kind of
‘well, what can you do about it?’ attitude about it, which is funny and
slightly endearing
·
Starts laughing at a joke later than other
people, as if he’s waiting to make sure it’s something to laugh about it and
following the crowd
·
Tries to insult someone back with a similar but
worse insult >doesn’t really make sense
·
‘the guy who can’t think’
·
‘You’re not Ron’ >> ‘You’re not Jean’???
·
Giggling at rude words
·
Playing with a random object whilst idly
listening to conversation
·
Repeats what others say awkwardly, because the
words don’t really belong in his mouth
1st/2nd/3rd October
HOMEWORK:
-people watching or studying TV or film characters to
develop own character [people who are similar or have similar traits to chosen
character –Georgie]
Brittany from Glee
·
goes into her own little world and comes up with
very imaginative stories and things
·
believes in things that others know aren’t true
[Santa, leprechauns, thinks babies are carried to her by a stalk (from
Dumbo)...]
·
does weird things [keeping bird in her locker,
uses curling iron in bathtub to keep from getting burnt...]
·
confuses words [thought ballad was a male duck
and that duet was a blanket]
·
says things as if they are true and believes
them to be [dolphins are just gay sharks, thought Dr Pepper was a dentist...]
·
writes in crayon
·
seems stupid [no one taught her to read a
calendar, stopped learning alphabet after m and n because they were too
similar]
·
misunderstands common sayings [‘Take it away!’
‘Take what away?’, ‘Use protection.’ ‘Does he mean like a burglar alarm?’]
-people watching >would walk with toes pointing in a bit,
holding own hands in front of her, usually looking up at sky when
walking>walks into things/trips a lot, when standing she bounces on toes
-in class exercise: walking around in character, leading by a certain
body part [chin> head in the sky, very aloof, in another world], using a movement
specific to character: wringing/twisting hands?
-introduce character in a minute or so: Georgie, 18 but
people think she’s younger, like when she went to the cinema and they wouldn’t
let her in... she likes having fun, wants to do the robbery because it’s with
her friends and she thinks it will be lots of fun to do this with them
-working on opening scene –Mission Impossible>>James
Bond theme songs in background
·
rolling out from under side-counter and using
fingers as fake gun, fake shooting, pulls out a map [obviously lost], sits in
audience waiting to be found by someone else,
·
ditch the map >roll out with ‘gun’, movie
lines: ‘put ‘em up!’ and ‘you talkin’ to me?’ to audience, get called back by
Elizabeth’s character [Jean]
- post-it notes exercise –quiet/excitable –ditsy/clueless
–shy/friendly –bumbly/happy >>> knowing what other people saw my character as helped me to know whether what I was trying to do was working on not, so I could work harder on giving the right impression about my character >> mostly I did want to come across as clueless and happy, but all the words describing me seemed to make my characters sound like a sweet little kid everyone has a soft spot for which is nice but I wanted to improve my crazy side by doing stuff that's more unusual so I would come across as weird more than ditsy.
-not sure about rolling out >have a cloth hiding counter,
stick head and ‘gun’ hand out and look around, wide eyed, point ‘gun’ at audience, crawl out a little
way, movie lines still?
-seems like two separate characters: 1) bubbly, happy, dumb,
sweet, friendly girl, very open and says what’s on her mind, or 2) endearing
and excitable, introverted, not very friendly because quite awkward and weird,
watches films like the ones those lines come from and plays video games, more
of a tomboy >>> not sure which to play..
-I think I prefer the bubbly/eccentric/in her own
world/always thinking about other stuff so often comes out with random
things/happy/friendly/walks into stuff frequently/very Brittany-like
character...
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