fab

SITI Research Field Trip
2002-05-30 03:21:20 (UTC)

Day Two

This will be brief, I have loads of notes, but need to sleep
more than type right now, but thought I should at least catch up with
yesterday.

Day Two Tues 28 May 2002

SUZUKI with Leon Ingulsrud
"Don't get good at the training, get good at listening to it.
When doing the training, don't come into a classroom to
learn, come to a stage to DO"

As Kelly said yesterday, it is diagnostic, a chance to listen
to your body, your problems your self.

Leon used an amazing image for the level of energy or
velocity we need to work at in the training. He gave us the image of
hitting yourself with a baseball bat, harder and harder, and as you do
that, try to keep the exercises going, 'things start to fall off you'.
You need to keep a check on what is falling off. Some things you don't
need, for example the tension in the arms, some things you
need, such as your focus, the connection out to the audience, or the
form. So you have to work out how to make those things 'stick'
better under pressure. A fantastic and terrifying image.

VIEWPOINTS WITH ANNE BOGART
The focus today was on unison work. starting with a yoga sun
salutation in complete unison, repeated 12 times, getting faster each
time. A very strong exercise for union movement, especially when there
were about 25 people in the room, with whom you had to connect and be
together.

Then working in a group half that size, we made combinations of
running, stopping, jumping and changing direction, all the time trying
to initiate the changes as a group, without an audience knowing who is
initaiting or leading the changes. It is an interesting exercise, in
many ways, my observation today of it was really how do you initiate in
such as way as to take the group with you, not just taking off and
expecting them to follow, though that is also sometimes important.

COMPOSITION WITH ANNE BOGART
My group had composition today, which means we were set the week's
assingment of making a 10 minute piece in groups, based on Marivaus's
La Dispute.

First though we made some montages in class, as a way of starting to
look at composition. On the theme of a possionate relationship we had
10 minutes to storyboard a montage of 5 moments or events. We were then
placed in groups of three, and one would be director, the other two
their actors, and each director had just 15 mintues to create their
montage.

We also talked about the history and meaning of montage.
MONTAGE - a series of images or moments (moving or still) which when
placed together create something or meanings which are not contained in
any single image or moment.
MONTAGE- should be compiledof relatively simple structures, so as to
elave space for the audience to project their own thoughts and
perceptions, to actively engage the audience in generating meanings,
rather than presenting them with clear, complete solutions, which don't
require their input. (The audience is the final player to be added,
there must be space for them).
MONTAGE - creates subjective viewing.

The accumulation of a series of moments creates story, meaning, and cn
elicit response.

Anne was a great source for a 5 minute history of montage, thought it
was clear she had more information than there was time in this class to
deliver, but actually I really enjoyed the speed trip, whch i can
follow up in more details for myself, given her settign the context for
me. We briefly visited with her DW Griffiths who basically began the
idea of montage when he asked for the camera to be moved close to the
action - the close-up - thus creating editing, and montage. she went on
to visit Eisenstein who introduced ideas of delivering meaning and
emotion though the way in which montage and editing are used, and the
use of diffent rhythms in edting, which establishes and guides the
audiences way of seeing.

With all this in our minds, we set about creating our montages in the
15 minutes given to each director to communicate with their two actors.

so much more to type, but the time has come to sleep and prepare for
tomorrow. More in day Two Part II




Ad: