Experiment #3

Purpose:

Intensive character development as a means of honest, collaborative expression between actor, writer, and director. The final product will be a continuous video document of the progression and development of the characters.

Methods:

Each character is developed separately, between writer, director and actor, through discussion, script, and improvisation. This process will begin with a character biography that the writer and actor will pass back and forth to develop together, starting with a blurb and a questionnaire.

Actors are strictly forbidden from talking about their characters to other actors. If two characters are supposed to have a relationship, that relationship will have to be made organically, in character, through improvisation and rehearsal.

All 'unessential' elements are removed from the world of the story, to allow for all focus to be placed on the two main characters.

The function of the camera will be to capture the development of the characters as unobtrusively as possible. An outline will act as a map for the story, and all scenes will be filmed sequentially, through the use of multiple takes, improvisation, looping, and filming when the actor is unaware he or she is being filmed. When on-set, actors will be strictly forbidden from being 'out of character' to anyone but the director, who may need to communicate direction to the actor. In other words, the atmosphere should be extremely focused on the work, and only the work during shooting. Actors should 'be' the characters until a previously scheduled wrap time.

At wrap-time each day of shooting, a 'decompression' session will take place, to bring the actors out of character and back to themselves. This part is very important. Doing something unrelated to the work for at least 30 minutes after wrap is highly necessary in making this process work.