Started the morning with my last junior-level Dialects class, which began with the usual half hour of Fitzmaurice voice work. After that we moved on into more work on the Irish dialect, which is always good fun. We started by revising as a group (in dialect) what some of the characteristics of the dialect are, and I was pretty happy to be able to identify most of them. Then a bit of quick revision of some sound substitutions before reading aloud a bunch of purpose-built sentences designed to familiarise yourself with these signature sounds. One of the sounds that the class had to practise most was the 'th' sound, which becomes the semi-tricky slightly dentalised version halfway between 'th' and 't'. A lot of people struggled with this sound, often just straight substituting a 't' sound in, as is the stereotype of the dialect. David pointed out that if you can't do the dentalised version then it's much better just to stick with 'th' rather than 't' because it sounds so glaringly over-the-top.
Then we practised cold reading aloud in dialect, with David giving us a monologue from the book to read through out loud, each person taking one line. We did this with two monologues and then with a scene from another play that David put up on the board. I was pretty happy with how I did in these three, I didn't get corrected at all and felt as though I had a pretty good grasp on it. The last part of the class was then for a quick look at how to transcribe a sentence in dialect using IPA, in preparation for the test next week. While it won't be necessary for me, since I won't be here for the test, it was still interesting to watch and learn and a good skill to be able to have. Oh, and I found out more about what my test mark in the Deep South quiz meant: the oral portion of the test is worth 60% of the overall score, so David writing 60 next to that part of my test means I got 100% in the spoken section. Very happy with that.
Next class was Svetlana's, so I got all changed and ready to go and psyched myself up, only to get to class and find out that she's really ill (like seriously sick) so class was cancelled. That was a bit of a disappointment as it means I'll be performing on Friday, which puts a bit of pressure on my very last class here at Fullerton. Oh well, I'll just have to deal with it. One group used the time to rehearse and we watched and gave them feedback where we could. My partner and I discussed whether we wanted to rehearse or not, but eventually decided not to. We decided that we both know the scene really well now, and what is required of us is to just deliver what we know we need to when we actually get up, and running it a couple more times with feedback from classmates wasn't going to help that. So I went and got a nice sandwich.
Last class of the day was my last Camera Techniques class with John. One group was filming their scene today, but before they did that we all watched together the first edit of my scene with Nick from last week. It was really cool to watch actually, and it was really well shot and I was very happy with it. After we did that, the group went off to film and Nick and I got to go to the editing bay to sit and watch all of the footage we filmed last week, instead of just the one cut, and have a look at what we were doing. It was really great to be able to watch take after take of myself, and think back to remember what direction I was being fed and then to see it coming into the next tak (or not - mostly it did though). First impressions were that I do too much on screen, but as the takes go on I chilled out and was more easeful and I think I did some really good work. The first edit that got put together used some of the best takes anyway, so that was good. It's great to be able to see so clearly when what you're doing is working and when it's not, and then to be able to register for yourself what to do to make that happen. And it was very cool to see the one take we did with my American accent - I agree with John that it's about 90% there, but there are a couple of vowel sounds every now and then that are just a little bit off and they stand out.
Then John came in and spent about 15 minutes with Nick and I giving feedback, which was on the whole very very positive. He said to me that he was extremely happy with what we got and he thought the scene was 90% nailed, and the notes he did have were just small quibbles. He pointed out some moments to me where I perhaps overplayed just a little, or made a choice that gave just a little too much away, and it was great to have him show me that. It's the kind of thing where you instinctively feel from watching it that it's not quite right, and then John talking you through it just makes sense of that feeling for you. Some really really positive feedback included: "This is really nice work, I'm very impressed. You've got a lot of potential in film, and you're obviously leading man material. You have the kind of look that means people will want to cast you. Even if you're just ok they will want to cast you - but you have the potential to be a lot more than ok." He then went on to say that if I ever decide to come back to LA and have a go at it here then I need to get in touch with him, and he will do whatever he can to help me. Awesome.
So a pretty good day. Now only two to go. Scary, I'm starting to have lasts of things now. And from now on every class I have is going to be a last. Time sure does fly.
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