Acting for Film
Acting for Film Online High School Course
COURSE LENGTH:
Semester
Course Overview
This semester-long course provides essential skills for students who want to establish a foundation in on-screen acting. Students will work with scripts for movies, television, theater, skits, social media campaigns, and auditions. Students will demystify the tricks of the film and TV trade, and work towards developing their individualized acting techniques and preparing for any type of acting role. Students will study short clips of TV and cinema to identify useful techniques, and to develop a common language for acting craft moves. Guided by the instructor, students may narrow their focus on individualized projects. Students will receive training in script analysis and partner-to-partner work, and will ultimately present a simple showing of their work to the class.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
To read and annotate scripts in their various formats.
To understand the basics of your camera, your lighting, and your performance medium.
To take apart and have an actionable opinion on the elements and authorial choices in a script.
To recall a common language of techniques learned by observation and practice.
To receive the feedback of the director, partner, script and audience, and begin to put it into practice on camera.
To understand the fundamentals of Western storytelling through the lens of the camera.
To find comfort with the camera, with the acting partner, and with whichever audience may be viewing.
To engage in a confident, holistic, and clear productivity mode.
To tell interesting stories, with relational and personal dynamics, and a sense for theme and message.
To find calm, boldness, and breath.
To take apart and reassemble a story within a variety of preparatory timeframes.
To express oneself boldly and singularly.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS:
Students will gain a sense of agency and taste regarding the medium of video recording.
Students will be able to assess the techniques of storytelling and messaging in media.
Students will understand the importance of checking in with themselves in an open and honest way in the service of powerful and healthful self-expression.
Students will know how to put themselves on camera in an effective, viewer-facing way.
Watching television, film, reading, or consuming any media with a critical eye will be encouraged.
Students will move forward with a simple, repeatable personal process for making their own artistic decisions and creating their own work.
Students will understand how play and seriousness are both necessary.