"Just relearn to choose how to do what you've always done before"
I was working with one of my newer students today when this little kernel unveiled itself, I think I like it. He is an ambitious 18 year old model that wants to branch out into commercials and voice acting and he's never had any acting lessons or performance experience. So, I'm getting him to begin to evaluate his experience of emotions, how they make him react, and how he can increase his awareness of aesthetic qualities of voice and movement and use that to evoke expression; to reverse engineer emotions... I see him trying to cross those wires in his brain and getting very confused. "It's very hard but very simple", I said. "Just relearn to choose how to do what you've always done before."
We did an acting exercise where he said the same sentence with 3 different emotions, exploring what qualities he changed in his expression. Breaking his speech into elements of fast/slow, high/low, etc, and how it felt. Then we did a little Alba exercise to explore how breath could be a factor, and everything clicked for him. It was so cool to watch him go so quickly from confused and unsure of what I was asking him to do, to immediately understanding and being excited to explore more.
You cannot teach talent, only technique. And it can be very difficult for young professionals to explore the abstract qualities of acting techniques. I'm so thankful I have my Alba background to add some concrete, solid framework to the amorphous process of teaching someone emotional expression.
#acting#alba#emotions
Commentaires