does any one know good sense memory exercises?
- Thread starter Larryease
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cyclone
Well-known member
A day? It takes actors years to master that technique. You need to come up with incidents in your life that bring you great emotion just thinking about them and then, most difficult, tap into them: the loss of your childhood pet (saddness), the birthday you got the bicycle (happiness), the day you lost the basketball game (disappointment). It can be very difficult - impossible for some to do it in a group of people. That's why they say that actors need to be very trusting and why, when actors are around, you need to be very supportive of them. They lay their emotions bare (if they are good).
yeah i realise that you cannot teach sense memory in a day, but the workshop is for non-actors, and i want to give them a taste of the different acting techniques to demonstrate whats out there. I will also be covering Adler, Miesner and Others
Thanks for your advice though
Thanks for your advice though
Zak Forsman
Major Contributor
not sense memory excercises but viola spolin's improvisational games work well for groups of non-actors. just search for her name at amazon.
stan harrington
Well-known member
I understand that you are trying to do something helpful but bear in mind that sense memory is very much a Strassberg approach...Adler wants nothing to do with it, neither does Meisner...in other words be aware that you are teaching opposing views on a technique based on Stanislavski's teachings...
Stan Harrington
www.xristosproductions.com
Stan Harrington
www.xristosproductions.com
yeah Adler said some pretty harsh words about Strasberg. But from my experience with actors i see that the different techniques naturally work better for certain people. Some people find that affective memory is ther only way in to an authentic emotion. While other prefer a more technical approach using objectives and verbs. So i want to give the the option of seeing what works for them. there by as a Director I know what tools i have to use to get a good performance from them
stan harrington
Well-known member
Although I am a proponent of Adler, I am by no means knocking the other methods...but I will say that if you are going to offer this option to your actors, I think it is better to find a trained teacher...my reason is that if you are going to ask actors to go into their past and dig up personal experiences then you are playing a very dangerous game with their psychology...it is not authentic if it has nothing to do with the scene and if you are trying to get them in touch with something that is personal then you really need a trained teacher in that method...I think I just repeated myself...sorry...That aside, I commend you for trying to work with your actors, it's just how you do it that my comments relate to. This is only my opinion as someone who is trained in this field. I also think Zac's suggestion of improv games is great way to get spontaneous, in the moment actors...and improv doesn't have to mean just comedy improv...
Good Luck,
Stan Harrington
www.xristosproductions.com
Good Luck,
Stan Harrington
www.xristosproductions.com
zoostory
Well-known member
Oddly, people often confuse sense memory with emotional memory. Sense memory, in its origin, is literally just that, trying to remember the feeling of your senses.
I read a lot of original Stanislavsky back in the day and I feel like he gets misundersood a lot, even by the big guys. At its heart, sense memory is quite the opposite of "method" or emotion. It is a biomechanical tool to help an actor better their performance from the outside in, by remembering what it is like to touch, hear, smell, or feel something (literally).
That being said, a great old Russian/Polish Technique somewhat derived:
Ask your actor to close his/her eyes and narrate every single thing that happened that day from the moment he she woke up, going into great descriptive detail about things like, how coffee tasted (was it hot, cold), what they felt like driving in the car, what a sneeze felt like, etc.
This is a classic classroom technique that can help an actor pick up little bits of sense memory that can be used in a performance. Remember, always relate their tale to a scene or a current moment that they are performing in.
But all in all, this is not a quick fix. There are none. there are band-aid techniques for film acting, but you're not going to magically get a great performance out of a bad actor in 3 minutes with any technique.
I read a lot of original Stanislavsky back in the day and I feel like he gets misundersood a lot, even by the big guys. At its heart, sense memory is quite the opposite of "method" or emotion. It is a biomechanical tool to help an actor better their performance from the outside in, by remembering what it is like to touch, hear, smell, or feel something (literally).
That being said, a great old Russian/Polish Technique somewhat derived:
Ask your actor to close his/her eyes and narrate every single thing that happened that day from the moment he she woke up, going into great descriptive detail about things like, how coffee tasted (was it hot, cold), what they felt like driving in the car, what a sneeze felt like, etc.
This is a classic classroom technique that can help an actor pick up little bits of sense memory that can be used in a performance. Remember, always relate their tale to a scene or a current moment that they are performing in.
But all in all, this is not a quick fix. There are none. there are band-aid techniques for film acting, but you're not going to magically get a great performance out of a bad actor in 3 minutes with any technique.
Holosynthetic
Active member
zoostory said:
I think if you want to ask questions like that your either one of two things:
1) a trained psychologist
2) born without the ability to 'sense', so you ask others
this technique is completely absurd for an actor to go through for a director, it reeks of a director who thinks their actors are completely non-human and have no ability to remember simple things.
Acting is simply being a convincing liar, nothing more, nothing less. The only people who want you to think there's more to it are the ones who are trying to convince everyone else that it requires talent so they can put themselves on a pedestal. As an actor I observe very intently other actors, and something I have noticed is that those who state the importance of a technique are no more talented than those who were not formally trained.
I have a passion for dialects, I love them, and lots of actors claim to know how to use them properly...however! all to often when I hear someone use a dialect they are very choppy and stiff, the idea of language is to be fluid, such is the case for good acting, your actions either flow with a character or are stiff and choppy.
Another thing I have noticed though you may ask, is that after giving my take on a performance, I find the director is the one who starts to push me in a direction of being more stiff and unnatural.
cyclone
Well-known member
Holosynthetic,
Thank you for your opinion on the subject. As an actor yourself, it carries much weight.
I take issue, however, with your statement "This technique is completely absurd for an actor to go through for a director." Why would you take the postition of knowing what's best or what might work for any given performance or actor? I am not an actor, but I took a wonderful acting class from Dalia Salvi while I was at UCLA (to hopefully broaden my directing skills). I saw first hand the incredible tool that sense memory can be...working with trained actors. It won't work for some, but it most definitely works for others - need I list the actors? And, I also agree that there are other techniques - such as your other statement "Acting is simply being a convincing liar." Yes, but not in all cases.
Thank you for your opinion on the subject. As an actor yourself, it carries much weight.
I take issue, however, with your statement "This technique is completely absurd for an actor to go through for a director." Why would you take the postition of knowing what's best or what might work for any given performance or actor? I am not an actor, but I took a wonderful acting class from Dalia Salvi while I was at UCLA (to hopefully broaden my directing skills). I saw first hand the incredible tool that sense memory can be...working with trained actors. It won't work for some, but it most definitely works for others - need I list the actors? And, I also agree that there are other techniques - such as your other statement "Acting is simply being a convincing liar." Yes, but not in all cases.
Holosynthetic
Active member
Your right in that everyone is different, and by that analysis, what I do say is an observation that may hold true only to myself.
I have taken different acting classes to get a feel for what its like, but one thing that I keep seeing is that classes do nothing in the way of helping anyone become better, just more comfortable with being in a social setting. I believe that everyone has the potential to be a great actor, we all act on a daily basis, telling each other we are happy when we each have our share of problems in life, thats just a small example compared to the ass kissing I see taking place on audition day. Perhaps getting comfortable is all an actor really needs to become better, if we are all excellent performers whilst glaring at ourselves in our bathroom mirrors, then being able to use that with others around would make us more successful performers, so there's one plus to acting class, though I find them to be a waste of money at best.
why do I find the process you described absurd? its a matter of babying the actor, and to be honest I don't see how asking them about their day has anything to do with the day the character would experience. I may break a nail and start to cry while the snow ball effect would have me eventually burning the window curtains out of grief due to some memory years before that has no connection to the initial broken nail (for an example). The character I may become could break a nail and say "well hell! now I have nothing to chew on", then quickly makes their way to the kitchen to grab a stick of beef jerky to satisfy the need. One mans hot coffee is another mans snow cone. We can't compare our experiences to anyone else's because it is all relative, sort of like Einstein's view on time, it is different for everyone.
I prefer character acting, but for the most part, work that is available is mostly in the realm of personality acting (the act of being yourself in different situations), so maybe your sense memory exercise works great for that, helping people remember why they got mad and took a baseball bat to the front window of the 18 year old male with a fart can attached to his honda riding their ass for the last 20 miles while reving up a storm and honking the horn like they were at some arcade trying to hit the gofer when it peeps its head out of the hole. This however doesn't push aside the fact that life is spontaneous, and by strategically analyzing every aspect of a performance, it will take that freshness away, which is why I love improvisation, this however doesn't sit well with most script writers because your changing their art. I read a quote the other day that sums it up nicely I think:
"Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people." - Robert Benchley
I have taken different acting classes to get a feel for what its like, but one thing that I keep seeing is that classes do nothing in the way of helping anyone become better, just more comfortable with being in a social setting. I believe that everyone has the potential to be a great actor, we all act on a daily basis, telling each other we are happy when we each have our share of problems in life, thats just a small example compared to the ass kissing I see taking place on audition day. Perhaps getting comfortable is all an actor really needs to become better, if we are all excellent performers whilst glaring at ourselves in our bathroom mirrors, then being able to use that with others around would make us more successful performers, so there's one plus to acting class, though I find them to be a waste of money at best.
why do I find the process you described absurd? its a matter of babying the actor, and to be honest I don't see how asking them about their day has anything to do with the day the character would experience. I may break a nail and start to cry while the snow ball effect would have me eventually burning the window curtains out of grief due to some memory years before that has no connection to the initial broken nail (for an example). The character I may become could break a nail and say "well hell! now I have nothing to chew on", then quickly makes their way to the kitchen to grab a stick of beef jerky to satisfy the need. One mans hot coffee is another mans snow cone. We can't compare our experiences to anyone else's because it is all relative, sort of like Einstein's view on time, it is different for everyone.
I prefer character acting, but for the most part, work that is available is mostly in the realm of personality acting (the act of being yourself in different situations), so maybe your sense memory exercise works great for that, helping people remember why they got mad and took a baseball bat to the front window of the 18 year old male with a fart can attached to his honda riding their ass for the last 20 miles while reving up a storm and honking the horn like they were at some arcade trying to hit the gofer when it peeps its head out of the hole. This however doesn't push aside the fact that life is spontaneous, and by strategically analyzing every aspect of a performance, it will take that freshness away, which is why I love improvisation, this however doesn't sit well with most script writers because your changing their art. I read a quote the other day that sums it up nicely I think:
"Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people." - Robert Benchley
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stan harrington
Well-known member
I don't mean to get off topic too much but I personally don't believe that as a director (or an actor) you should consider the craft of acting as merely being a good liar. As a director I think you will always have trouble with your actors if this is your attitude. You don't have to put anyone on a pedestal, but you must respect what they bring to the plate. I see the dedication that goes in to the work first hand from amatuers to professionals and believe me, there are some true artists and if you ever get the opportunity to work with them, you will know what I mean. Everyone has taken a photo but I don't think that directing, photography or cinematography is not a craft or an art. Same for writing and many other skills. Just my 2 cents...
Stan Harrington
www.xristosproductions.com
Stan Harrington
www.xristosproductions.com