{"id":30674,"date":"2019-06-10T13:21:35","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T17:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=30674"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:11:35","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:11:35","slug":"lights-camera-action-maymester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=30674","title":{"rendered":"Lights! Camera! Action! Maymester!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Acting and directing students team up to produce films in just three weeks.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lights! Camera! Action! Maymester!\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6sG_74mijJk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s the second day of Maymester, Carolina\u2019s three-week offering of some 50 Summer School courses. Students in two of them, Acting for the Camera and Directing for the Camera, occupy a studio filled with bodies pretending to move large objects across the room, without using their hands, and making sounds like <em>Mrummph! Bahfff! <\/em>And<em> Arrrrh! <\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30676\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30676\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30676 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/07\/014619_acting_for_camera059.jpg\" alt=\"During Maymester\u2019s courses on acting for the camera and directing, students and instructors work on a scene for a final-project film in Carolina\u2019s Forest Theatre. (Jon Gardiner\/UNC-Chapel Hill)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30676\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">During Maymester\u2019s courses on acting for the camera and directing, students and instructors work on a scene for a final-project film in Carolina\u2019s Forest Theatre. (Jon Gardiner\/UNC-Chapel Hill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The students in the studio come from both of these classes in the dramatic art department, part of the College of Arts &amp; Sciences. Through this joint exercise, they learn a common vocabulary for describing movement in acting \u2014 \u201cpress\u201d versus \u201cdab,\u201d for example. For the moment, all the students are producing are grunts and groans, but by the end of Maymester they will have made three short films to show at a screening.<\/p>\n<p>Because of Maymester\u2019s condensed schedule, they have less than 40 hours of class time to complete the final projects. That\u2019s 12 classes, each three hours and 15 minutes long. Attendance and attention are vital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t teach everything about filmmaking in 12 classes,\u201d says the directing instructor, assistant professor Tracy Bersley. \u201cWe want them to get their hands dirty and to wrestle with how to frame a shot, how to tell a story through camera angles, nonverbal storytelling and verbal storytelling, as well as script writing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The collaboration between the acting class and directing class, and sometimes a script writing class, has been a staple of Maymester since 2013. The classes meet separately at times to hone their particular crafts, but often join forces to learn common lessons, like today\u2019s on movement, and to collaborate on their projects.<\/p>\n<p>The students vary widely in backgrounds and reasons for taking the courses. A psychology major wants to delve into characters\u2019 minds. A varsity soccer player wants \u201can understanding of a world I don\u2019t really know.\u201d A continuing education student wants to \u201cre-invigorate a sense of craft.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They and the others represent how today\u2019s story-driven culture brings in students who differ in imagination and creativity, says Aubrey Snowden, the teaching assistant professor leading the acting class.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30677\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30677\" style=\"width: 512px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-30677\" src=\"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/07\/014619_acting_for_camera061.jpg\" alt=\"Prior to filming a scene for \u201cThough Time May Change,\u201d student director Dan Ferguson talks with student actors Julia Thompson and Madison Schultz while Anane Ward notes details for the take on a slate. (Jon Gardiner\/UNC-Chapel Hill)\" width=\"512\" height=\"341\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30677\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prior to filming a scene for \u201cThough Time May Change,\u201d student director Dan Ferguson talks with student actors Julia Thompson and Madison Schultz while Anane Ward notes details for the take on a slate. (Jon Gardiner\/UNC-Chapel Hill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Personal tenets of theater<\/h3>\n<p>In today\u2019s noisy class, Snowden takes notes for her students\u2019 use as they learn about how movement can be used to develop their characters.<\/p>\n<p>The actors also learn about their voice and body through physical and vocal warm-ups each class, discuss the theory and purpose of performance, study plays such as \u201cThe Glass Menagerie\u201d from the actor\u2019s point of view and perform contemporary monologues and commercial scripts for the camera. In addition to the final-project films, the acting students collaborate with directing students on commercials, iPhone films and storyboards.<\/p>\n<p>Snowden, who also teaches courses on directing and script-analysis and directs graduate and undergraduate productions, asks students to work under her personal tenets of theater: generosity, curiosity and a tolerance of uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p>Generosity, she explains, includes giving feedback to others, and receiving their feedback, in a caring way. Curiosity is essential for actors, who need to bring \u201cyour full self to a character\u201d because \u201cacting is more about revealing than putting something on,\u201d Snowden says. The tolerance of uncertainty applies to the final project, which might be great or not so great. \u201cWho cares? It\u2019s feeling the fear, removing the inner critic and doing it anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Practical and beautiful<\/h3>\n<p>After the joint exercise, Bersley takes the fledgling directors to a separate session in the studio next door. There Bersley, who is also head of movement for the master of fine arts acting program and choreographer for PlayMakers Repertory Company, will describe the six directing tools they will try: theme, story, character, intention, space and previous circumstance. The tools emphasize structuring a story to create rising action, climax and resolution and using space to support the story\u2019s themes.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30678\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30678\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30678 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/07\/Acting_for_camera_onscreen-002.jpg\" alt=\"Aubrey Snowden, right, coaches acting student Brianna Albritton on her lines while other students watch a monitor. Photo by Aaron Moger.\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30678\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aubrey Snowden, right, coaches acting student Brianna Albritton on her lines while other students watch a monitor. (Photo by Aaron Moger.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The directors will also need to work with actors, as they learn how to use a character\u2019s actions to prove their intention. The instructors say that they are impressed with the way students collaborate and share their ideas to make them more expansive, more detailed.<\/p>\n<p>But the experience is intense for all the students. \u201cThere\u2019s a healthy sense of panic. It\u2019s thrilling to watch them push so hard to make something that they\u2019re proud of and different from theater,\u201d Bersley said.<\/p>\n<p>When the two classes finish their work together, the final-project films are shown at a screening for class members and guests on the course\u2019s last day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFilm is captured forever,\u201d Bersley says. \u201cIf they want to go into this field, they\u2019ll have a record of what they produced. It\u2019s practical in a business sense as well, and they have this beautiful thing that can be celebrated in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gazette.unc.edu\/2019\/06\/07\/lights-camera-action-maymester\"><em>By Scott Jared, University Gazette<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Acting and directing students team up to produce films in just three weeks in these Maymester Summer School classes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":30677,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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