Sunday, April 28, 2013

My Rough Theatre

Most of what I work on I would consider rough theatre-- whenever I make a video, I may not have all of the  equipment that I would like, but I don't let that stop me from making something.  I feel that improvisation during a creative process can enhance what was already planned, and will add character to the final product.

When I was in high school, I was heavily involved in theatre classes/drama club.  I had a role in nearly every play, with my teacher coming to me and asking me to fill multiple small roles if I didn't audition for a role.  This wasn't because I was amazing at acting, (far from it, the best role I can play is "man in suit") but because there weren't many people at my school who were willing to be in the plays.  Our theatre was built in 1960, and had since been subjected to all forms of torture at the hands of students.  (and administrators who refused to give the theatre department any sort of budget.)  The year before I started going to the school a girl tried to burn down the theatre from inside one of the dressing rooms.  She failed to do so, but did cause a lot of smoke damage to the curtains-- which I had to help dispose of.  The point is, the theatre was kind of old and gross and all that.  But those of us who wanted to put on shows did what we could to make the most out of what we had.  Creative yet cheap set design allowed us to explore stories meant for huge stages, and with most shows it was obvious that the leads genuinely cared about putting on the best shows possible.

I try to apply this same process to videos I make, since I rarely have any money for a budget.  In lieu of a steadicam shot, I'll just run with the camera at a high frame rate and shutter speed and use after effects to smooth it out and slow it down in post.  Stories will change to fit the locations I have access to, sometimes at the last second.  I think that's a valuable experience-- something will always go wrong at the last second, and how you respond to it will affect how the rest of the project turns out.  A lot of the time I'll be with friends and we'll decide to make something, so we'll go out and improvise the whole process.

Here's a silly example of one of these videos:


No comments:

Post a Comment