Acting Class Lessons

Presence Training

Week 1: Learning

Week 2: Embodying

Week 3: Applying

Week 4: Developing

Week 5: Ownership

1. Will you do this work? Pick a very specific space.

2. What time of the day will you do this work? Do this work pretty much at the same time

every day.

3. Make this work nonemotional - Brushing your teeth, taking a shower, etc. Place time of

day, just show up and do it

4. Ready to do the work after you show up and did the work.

Framework

Lower third

Pelvic Bone to the belly button

Middle Third

Belly Button to the Solar Plexus (between your boobs and your belly button), all the lower ribs

(from the back to the side to the front of the body)

Upper Third

Solar Plexus to the collarbone (clavicle), breastplate into the back

Overbreathing - Inhaling and going into the whisper count

Athletic Breath - continuous motion. Consistent breath makes it much more likely to take in

present information

Think about movement from the pelvis to the upper bone. Focus on all of the areas

When breathes, diagram displaces/replaces the internal organs besides the heart and the lungs

Principles: Frame of mind

The Framework

Enter each exercise with a high state of integrity

Are you gaining information from that attempt, or are you so much in the head that you are

beating yourself up over the attempt. Stay present in our breath in the exercise as much as

possible. Small chunks more consistently is more effective than bigger chunks less consistently.

It’s really about muscle memory

Have a lot of patience for yourself.

Idea of the expectation of the Result. Way to have presence

A lot of work is based on being present. Presence is a muscle that you are exercising over and

over and over again. More at stake - stop breathing, go into fantasy. Be in thget yo ass hover

here

e situation, being more available for present information, dealing with that reality.

Feel more comfortable with not knowing what’s going to happen. Anything that comes you can

deal with presently.

Please don’t be precious about this work. Really move through it, work through it, the residue of

the experience will be with us.

Learning process

Do something, don’t do it well, don’t do it well, do it better, a bit better, pretty good, pretty good,

then unconsciously. Teaching is a higher level of studentship.

Active Breath

Eyes scanning searching for thoughts

Open lips

60-70 is the standard dimension for a nice self tape

Try to avoid sealing your lips

Look slightly off the screen

Testimonial - look straight at the camera from personal experience, look right into your eyes,

into the camera, other than that you never look right into the camera.

Don’t seal your lips

Pretty Decent Table

Neutral environment, or fully lit natural environment

Use what’s real or do neutral

Holding a little bit from the top and bottom. Holding while he was talking

Work is a bit less tense as far as where holding went. At the early stages of class the holds

were palpable but this is certainly a step forward a new monologue new character work little

accent sprinkled in, breath work has progressed

Second, make the whole thing more expensive, a bit more energized.

Speak with the voice you would speak in that real situation

Spend more breath. It should feel in your body almost like you’re sighing. Let that go and let it

be a more subtle thing.

Send more information out to the audience: emotional, intellectual

Take a bit more time with your inhales, quality inhales. Eyes, unlocked

Go back through your class notes, and choose one aspect of the work and lean into it.

Leave a couple of seconds at the end of your monologue when you are breathing and sending

something back

Don’t deenergize at the end of each line . stay energized through the end, tumble into the next

line.

when you feel like you need something to happen it feels forced and that’s

when the lips seal

No need for the script to go anywhere. Give over to the need to have a big emotional

experience just breathe dig the thoughts search and speech. And just be aware of what you are

going to say, the strong emotions are going to come.

Really go through the thought center, just think more and it’s how you think. Once your whole

body. Be a 10, practice with the physical sensation of something, then reduce it down to like a 6

or a 7.

Phrase / timestamp when lips seals breath hold, etc.

Digital Theater

Pay attention to the alignment of the legs. KNees are over the hips which are over the ankles

Make sure the knees are a little bit bent to make sure you don’t compromise or relax your pelvis.

Lower third release.

Don’t tighten your bottom. WHen breathing in, release the bottom as opposed to pulling in

Pa te ke

Ba da ge

Don’t plan to hold.

Thumb in flesh area by zygomatic process. Hand together, massage here

Flag pole

Finger is right underneath the nose and sticks your tongue out. Size of the corners of the lips do

not feel tension. Finger remains under the nose, try to push the finger to the other side. Isolate

tongue away from the lips

Finger as far back as possible (no i’m not gonna do this). Try to yawn to the top part of the

throat

2 Tongues beneath finger, kind of yawn

Swan

Open the position of the tongue and internal mask

Hand in back, left arm right ear

Shoulder nice and released, yawn as if you’re trying to reach your right ear to the head

Yaw through the gonial angle

Back, yawn go back, chest up hand on top of head, chest open up

Energy down, energy up, release on the other side

Wall V, sitting knees up, lying down

Work on breath into the lower third. After those progressions, pull knees to chest and lengthen

tailbone. Lower third, middle third, bear hug, nice and relaxed shoulders through this. Do some

breathing and some progressions, ribs moving down, move, moving hands side to side. Get

back off floor or table. Finding more length and width in the back, breathing and opening up the

hips a lot more.

Lift shoulders to the floor to the table, do this several times, come back to center, knees to

spine. Last thing to do is pull your knees to your chest and rock back and forth. Have a book

under your head to keep the alignment from the sound into the neck. It avoids the pressure in

the throat.

Swing: ankles are turning so that the hips can rotate. Arms have dynamic tension What’s driving

the movement are the hips. Kind of like a pendulum effect. In when going out, out when going

in.

Vocalized sound: put a little tension in the throat to have an inhalation and exhalation. Inhale

will come a lot quicker than expected. Eliminate any holding in the breath. Sigh into the

vocalized sounds. Don’t hold the sound the way you are able to do it

Pitch slides: Intervals: 1 (high) 2(medium) 3(low)

Put the attention in front of certain things in front of you. The whole premise is how do we build

a sense of greater presence and voice around us? Presence in your voice, presence in your

breath: try to feel the same way without swinging.

Exercise these tomorrow

For jaw horse, thumbs below. 15 rubbing 5 holding pressing

Jaw horse: tongue very released by the lower front teeth

Any tension in the back of the tongue breath into relaxing that

Finger under nose tongue to right side

FInger under nose, tongue to left side’

Arms have dynamic tension

USE a napkin tilt towards roof no jaw

FInger back on top of tongue yawn, raise the soft palate

Breathe like the tide is coming on and moving back into the ocean

Keep shoulders nice and released even as you are crossing over

Imagine the middle of the chest is falling on the exhale.

Prioritize the middle part of the chest first, since that is the hardest part to come down

Hesitation on the top - whisper count

Belly and chest go down simultaneously.

When auditioning, get the camera on first, addressing focal point then one part where you look

at a different spot

Don’t get become the expectation to an emotional level. As soon as expectation gets in, things

become a bit more predictable and less interesting. To keep from getting ahead, don’t do

anything at all. Live moment to moment go through the piece at each time.

Breathe into the strangest place to break up that habit a little more. MIlisecond time. Put some

tape somewhere in the room

Put the person off center, the only time where you look into the camera would be testimonials.

Active breath helps you get into organic natural communication

Analyzing a rehearsal process to watch other people work and employ certain techniques

Fixate on your partner when you really need to

Active breathing is really nice,

--------Breathing in-----------

| |

| |

| |

---------Speaking-------------

Your measures of communication are all over the place

Communicate more with your eyes

Let her to think every time that she speaks

Stick - give yourself a physical or visual image that you can embody

They speak through their brain and listen via their third eye

Think - brain - think before do

Feel - heart - weaving before doing stuff

Will - groin - impulsive

Shake your body up - introduce imposing choices

Embody it. Now that you know what you’re doing you can just do it.

Jaw Moose

Work on the temporalis jaw by the teeth or the muscle massage with ulna

Nasal : N M Ng

Tip of tongue goes to the region behind the top front teeth

M very relaxed before teeth

NG Right behind bottom teeth, right across the roof of the mouth, make sure the air doesn’t get

interrupted by the back of the throat

Whisper count - No vocalized sound happening

Count, trigger inhale before contraction in the throat, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

More air with the whisper count, diaphragm works a little harder for this to happen

Contrast the tone for a comedic effect

Keep the same cyclical breathing, etc. Turn the temple off

Get a nice creating imagery on how to speed up vs pushing for a result

Chris character choice, picked something strong came through playing with a salty pirate

Tighter of a frame Make sure next time get a little tighte Eyes are very important as it relates to

points of performance

Talking to multiple, make sure that that person’s here there and there. See that one mark, and it

gets consistent every time. Big steps active breathing. Much more fluidity.

Working point: thinking about sigh sign out sound, that it’s a little less tight. Even less tight

Heart edge bowling ball

Try to step into other people's shoes. Personality traits blend into other characters

Feels much more human for opposite roles

Life happening before starting to speak

It’s gonna come and go in the emotional life regardless

Tempo - when the thought comes, time to break up pauses in every 2-3 words

Let them tumble out, use the words, make them less precious. This was my main mistake.

Search but don’t be extremely insecure about it. Different thoughts 2 specific people in the

room.

A few times the lines got a little unsure. Completely justified to fumble. Wait a little bit, but keep

breathing open

Allow the veil and allows the feels to feel

Active Breath Integration

1. Thought

2. Intention

3. Expression

Breathing about thinking

Singing if you’re just yelling, just sing and it’s easier to hit high notes.

Lead with breath and thoughts, not emotions (symatic cycles)

Your body is what are you doing this doesn’t feel real

Next: Thought story, the Bourne Apocalypse. Read Page 2 description under assignments, talk

just the technique and exercise thought story self take

Apply It.

Tongue Pull: instructoin mode.

Work on the exercise to release and stretch the back of the tongue.

Pinch the sides of the tongue and lift the tip.

Left, right, out and down

Breath in, pull back, breath out: releasing the tongue a little bit forward.

Reteach the tongue to relax and release as much as possible.

Pitch: more quickly higher pitch, lower voice, lower bounce.

Pitch delivers a lot of information to the listener.

Pitch variability starts to diminish when we are giving a public speech

Talking to friends, teach what you already know what to do in a new situation with new

information

News broadcasters are usually really good at this.

Base your pitch on the changed thoughts not the punctuation.

Intention, effort, ability

Release the effort, ease it up, and then trust it up

It won’t be done by overt effort, it will be done by gentle effort.

Active breath breathing and staying more relaxed than normal

If you relax those muscles it willl help you the most overall with what you are doing.

Neck farter then what we think are

The jaw muscles are some of the biggest parts of your articulators.

Tongue work

Openness, relaxation, breath

Compare a very cheap piano, vs a Steinway, because the tone has more power

The swing integrates everything as one system.

Swing is an undulation of the swing, even though you are not swinging, your body inside is

swinging.

Don’t seal your lips on the top of the breath, don’t seal your lips at the bottom of you breath.

Be with your thoughts

At the end of the day, I am imposing my idea on how the scene should be going. Everything is

pre planned, manipulated and gently controlled.

Rehearsals are for knowing the story. Moments where something organic will happen.

Repeatable simple physiological technique so that all your preparation can take flight.

2 self take videos related to thought story first take

1. You doing the scene but talking through your inner thoughts

2. First take of the scene for real, as if it was an audition, Sending with an audition, with a

$500 attached and a picture of your face.

Submit 2 videos this week.

Chris thought story thoughts

Chris thought story take 1

The majority of the work that you are going to do is coming on for a cameo

As your career develops, maybe you get a bigger role as you go, go, go

Somehow you gotta attempt to do through actions everything in the script

Have a plan and somewhat timed out

1.Story points: if I am writing and directing this scene and communicating to the audience, the

actor has to communicate to me everything that needs to be told

Ex. when the witness sits down, they are already sitting down to relax the mind

Now screen time, I’ve been proofreading this stuff all day, I gotta sit down

Grab the phone and check the phone, check messages. See a specific post that elicits a

reaction, causing me to say the line

Walking towards, coming into clearer view

Oh stuff, it’s randall straight and he’s walking right towards me!

Make your backstory, start to make connections, how long do those thoughts take? Maybe

thoughts happen as you are doing something, thoughts are racing

What is going to happen to men

Emergency, flashes with an edge to it

Oh no, no, do I stay or do I go

Have to capture 13 clean, clear story points in 40 seconds.

I don’t care about your emotions, tell the story clearly first, if you’re not a star, you’re serving our

script, and we start there, cannot afford to take the chance on set, need to tell the story

Tell the story, and then go, “oh, how good can we make it”

Rewrite the script through text transfusion in thoughts

Oh what a day give me the stupi ass news, think through them every day it’s gonna make me

pissed and stuff. Oh damn, no she didn't oh that’s crazy what a ***** lol

Somethings about your internal thoughts ain’t nobody hear them, uncensored, as explicit and

colorful as they need to be to serve you as an actor.

Inspire more internal life in your eyes out loud thoughts more colorful and energetic and

dynamic than you are typically comfortable with. Hopefully the residual visceral experience of

those thoughts are inside. I can still feel it in your eyes. Now.

Crafted all your thoughts out loud and got it on a map. Practice it several times living through

the scene with the phone tape yourself and watch !

On the film set there is a script supervisor, charge of the storyboard and story point, cannot last

longer than 50 seconds. Make sure the lines are right story points are clear and make sure it is

within a time period

You happen to be the script supervisor, and keep rehearsing until you do.

Woah! I completely recognize my voice and where it’s coming from. Its as if your internal

thoughts are having these particular pitch inflections.

Tie you down and cut you down, and stuff

Rachel Mcadams

Daniel Day Lewis

WE ARE IN THE GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION

Watch more videos than you are already watching.

here are your weak spots: -don't pace for no reason, have a reason to move in every stride -i would

recommend you focus alone on your voice, really try to make it resonate, essentially, help the tension grow

by using your voice as well -focus more on your body movements as they seem awkward, (considering the

end)

uh sure, -remember your scripts prior to recording -if you can't shout, try to find a place where

you can, holding back any expression really hinders performance -the rest is technique based in

which i cbf going through but you're not bad

Week 4- Develop some proficiencies (Develop it, pay attention to the nuances and the

exercises)

Air Flow and Dynamic Tension

We are trying to create opportunities for the body to experience the sense of breath leading into

voice. Don’t start to speak from a held breath, release a lot more information to the people

around you.

“I have a lot of air left over as I am speaking” We are trying to create exercises to release as

much air as much as possible

The predominant amount of air is coming from the larynx from the head. Everything is air flow

and getting some kind of breathing coordination. The greater the force, the greater the

resonance the bigger the bell, the more open the bell is.

High level athletes has tension, but find the really nice balance how much is the most of energy

with the least amount of tension to create the greatest amount of force?

UMPH!! Maybe I can stay, Oh no, this guy’s actually gonna go towars me, I gotta go

How to energize the panic of the scene

Physically body to sense the body so psychology can catch up

Panic goes UP HIGH in the chest, when live or die panic, breathing is high

If you can get your breath to go there, within a second, your psychology gets to that specific

point. Yeah, here we go, let’s play make believe.

What do we have our space to make our thing feel more real?

Not only do you see the person you don’t want to be detected, hide while you make the

decision, initial moment, make myself as small as possible as all animals do.

They go small when animals that feel like they are in stress or in danger.

Don’t allow your body to move, but keep your thoughts and energy just as revved.

Have the opening be a little private de energize for those couple of moments.

In real life, one covers their mouth, doesn’t make you hold your breath

First take is settling to a clear internal take.

Be more compressed and more internal, you don’t want to be seen or heard. Breathing gets

100% but then the body goes to the extent

When searching, choose 3, MAYBE 3 SPECIFIC POINTS.

Triple your breath energy

HItchcockian Camera Angle, Widen up, scrolling though and then seeing something, turning

backwards difficult to see the expression that comes from that

Tighter frame, come down to one of the lower stoops

Need breath energy more cyclical and energy, and it was clear like you were running from a

gunshot. Need that build up to the bolt, more levels are more layers coming form breath energy

breath energy

Oh god oh god, what do I do? See next week. First line as easy as you need it to be, second

line, nice and cyclical and be private

Brion had a hologram film LOL read back to the story points

3 thoughts

What did she do

Oh my god

Oh no…

Copy and paste, clearer three thoughts, started to search flat searching

Find a way to a higher peakk that sends you boltin.

Zoom in to what makes this person so crazy

Urgency, or the energy of the life and death aspect of it

Chair Alternative\Use a chair think about breathing down into a chair. Elbows relaxed palms

down on stomich whisper count, into the chair, almost as if the chair is part of your body.

Middle third makes you go directly into the bear hug. Then arms to chest like deadpool

wolverine except one hand is on the armpit. The last one to look at is the entire upper body.

Inner game of text: Diagnosing if I can keep the integrity of a nice easy breath without going into

tension. Arm on middle of clavicle, belly button

MASTERCLASS

Getting to know your character

Develop a timeline for your character

What your character goes through, what your character goes within the film as a whole. Make

chronological order. Name moments specifically, when there is a shift/change in the character,

what are the overarching changes, what are the steps in the changes (This is the scene where

he/she ……. For the first time). You character does not know what is happening when they are

not there. Don’t include that in your arc. How you can show different sides, how you can have

variabionts

You need to look at your character in the way they see themselves, that other people see them,

know other people see them, wanting other people to see them. Different with your boyfriend

boss, mom, kid.

Create pages: Relationships with A,B,C Feelings towards each other, different elements,

specific dynamics of that relationship

Find out the details that make your character unique. The more details, the better, more specific

and more unusual Upbeat, pessimistic is big category, focused, free willing. What’s their pet

peeve, thing that scares them the most, kinds of people that they are attracted to, what is their

DESIRE/WHAT GIVES THEM PLEASURE. See what happens that will shape their personality.

FIND the very specific, there’s only one person like this.

Don’t judge your character, step into their shoes, think the way they do. Most people don’t

define themselves as bad people. Find reasons for all the things that you do in this story. If you

really can’t get to that you shouldn’t be doing the part if you can’t get into the justification.

Playing make believe: knowing it so well and you trust yourself.

Don’t try to “force” something to be good. Day playaer coming to do this one scene for one job

Make your take unique, For example, alex played music.

Hear the thing I needed to search for, Hear the thing, act, What’s that?

I recognize that voice, that’s strange. Breath needs to be a little higher, top third, faster,

intensify the moment, put me in a place of panic make it your own thing, get creative like Brion

while saying the same story.

As long as different feel authentic, how do you get to other stuff?

I paid for this time, don’t rush I’m enjoying myself

Find tree, scan over the the bush, scan the tree

Try not to look at the camera.

Next time, showcase everything. I wonder if at one point after one point is sustained: see

moment where that goes to and see privacy

Rely solely on thought and active breath.

Find eerie hallway

Chris Chu

Theater 250

John Patrick 

4/28/2020

AB Research and Analysis 

Active Breath Casual Dialogue:

Daniel Day Lewis Scene 0:00 to 1:09

Daniel Day Lewis, portrayed as Lincoln here, tells a story of Ethan Allen to the War Department’s telegraph office members while they were waiting to hear the news from the Battle of Wilmington, making a joke connecting the British’s petrification of George Washington to “s*****g on the toilet quickly”, which caused an uproar of laughter among the War Department members. Aside from having a great punchline, the main reason why Day-Lewis was able to sound comedic here was because he exhibited active breath which made him seem easy going and in a relaxed tone, despite the period of time the movie was set in (the Civil War). He offered a very welcome reprieve to the tensity of the situation.  

Active Breath Heightened Emotion: 

Rachel McAdams Scene 1:40 to 2:04

In this scene, Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling), desperately tries to beg Allie (Rachel McAdams), to re-enter a relationship with him after serving in World War 2. Allie, unaware of the situation (her mother hid Noah’s letter to get her to marry an upper-class man) seems extremely divided, and she didn’t try to suppress any of her emotions here (hence the breathing) trying to convince herself she loved her husband and defending against him, creating a very powerful scene. 

Held Breath Casual Dialogue:

Christopher Plummer Scene 0:21 to 2:31

In the following clip, Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) informs his nurse Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas) on how to get away with his murder (even though she never murdered him in the first place). His tone was rather tense while speaking, and he paused in between sentences with many periods of time not breathing while speaking. He wanted to take out emotion and tell Marta straightforwardly what she needs to know and deliver the information in the most effective manner.  

Held Breath Heightened Emotion: 

Marlon Brando Scene 0:19 to 0:36

Possibly one of the most well known scenes of all time, the intensity of the scene was when Colonel Kurtz showed his madness by not breathing when saying these words, and keeping heavy eye contact on his would-be assassin, Captain Williard. My take on this is that Kurtz did not see Captain Willard as a human, but as an object of manipulation, to be toyed with, and stares him down like a wild animal, successfully raising the suspense among the audiences.  

Connected through Intention NOT Primarily Eye Contact Casual Dialogue:

Dustin Hoffman Scene 0:40 to 1:25

Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) tries to establish a connection with his brother Charlie (Tom Cruise) attempting to convey to him how much he misses him. He hasn’t seen his brother for decades, and he tries to get Charlie to remember the time they last saw each other.  However, Raymond is an autistic savant, which results in his excellent memory but gives him trouble showing emotions except when in distress. It also makes it difficult for him to maintain eye contact or look someone in the eye.  By having a conversation with his brother, and showing him that he remembers vividly the conditions the day the two departed, he is telling his brother that he truly values him in a way different from most other actors. 

Connected through Intention NOT Primarily Eye Contact Heightened Emotion:

Joaquin Phoenix Scene 1:22 to 1:46

This final scene shows Arthur Fleck/Joker (Joaquin Phoenix)’s contempt for society after everything that has happened to him: being abused by his mother at a young age that rendered him a laughing condition, and being spat on by society, and his contact regarding his frustrations makes it seem like he’s screaming towards the Gotham citizens in general and directing his anger towards an place/community (Gotham) rather than a physical entity, hence his lack of continuous eye contact. When he told the morbid joke referring to the Wall Street Guys he killed, “They couldn’t carry a tune to save their lives”he was picturing the same imaginary audience and trying to still get them to have the “last laugh” despite his actions.