CLASSES
FILM CLASSES- Fourth Grade through Twelfth Grade:
FILM 1- Where budding actors have the opportunity to enhance their skills. We reinforce being natural and believable on camera. Being directable is a must and is a skill all actors need to develop to work in film. Actors will build on character development skills, work with props, and hit marks while responding to set directions. We simulate real onset location shootings using the students as leads, principals, and extras. The students will boost their on-camera skills while using different types of shots.
FILM 2-Where the actor elevates his/her own usage of projecting their own emotions while delving into emotional scenes. After watching and studying child and teen actors who are accomplished in their field at showing extreme emotion in their scenes and working on exercises used in professional circles, we try it ourselves. We use various type scenes taken from real feature films like Stepmom, Stand By Me, My Dog Skip, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Life is a House, etc.
FILM 3- Is all about the actor expanding their cold-reading skills. Solid cold-reading skills are a necessity in all aspects of this business…Film, TV, Commercial, Industrials and Stage. In this class, we will cold-read within 8-10 minutes every week to sharpen our skills for these cold-reading situations.
FILM 4- This is a class series totally concentrating on enhancing listening and reacting skills. One of the most important things casting directors look for in an actor is their listening skills and it is one of the LEAST focused-on skills of the actor. (Who wants to learn to listen?). We work on many fun exercises to learn how to "be effected" and we finish with a fun distraction exercise which sharpen the actors' ability to concentrate and perform your scene even when distractions happen. (Real examples of the kinds of things that happen: cell phone going off, babies crying, casting director's answering their phones or talking to someone else while you do your scene). Once the student has worked on distraction exercises, they are usually stronger and more confident to be able to handle this situation when it comes up.
FILM 5-is COMEDY, COMEDY, COMEDY!!! We will work on Comedic scenes from Network TV, Disney, Nickelodeon and Feature Films. Comedic timing, flow and pace will be at the forefront of our concentration and how they differ with each situation. We really work on being able to put our funny side of our personalities into our scenes!
FILM 6- is all about working on characters that are opposite the students' personalities. It is one of the most fun series where they portray characters that are nerds, bullies, insanely jealous girls or "mean girl" types, and sociopaths-challenging but fun!
NEW CLASSES NEEDED AND ADDED-NEW MASTER 1 AND NEW MASTER 2!!This year, I noticed that there were important skills that I was having to catch up for my newer master students and they were unable to participate in the master level classes until they were done. Therefore, I added NEW MASTER 1 AND NEW MASTER 2 classes. EACH STUDENT coming up through the program should take NEW MASTER CLASSES TWICE!!! (New Master 1 and New Master 2).
NEW MASTER 1 is improving your voiceover and monologue skills to help with agent interviews and independent film auditions.
NEW MASTER 2 is improving your Disney and Nickolodean style auditions. This class is pure Disney, Nick and Cartoon Network scenes.
MASTER- Students with real-world experience interact with one another in this fun class, learning how to develop chemistry better with other actors and enhance their ability to stand out. They will be integrating their growth from the Film series (Film 1-New master 2) into their work every week and concentrate on their weaknesses in order to strengthen their skills. There is focus on small details that make a difference in the callback situations to help book jobs. There will be focus on the visual vs. vocal subtext skills and body language. (In other words, watching the difference between what the actor's face and eyes say vs. what his/her voice say vs. what the actor's body language is reflecting).
There are several Master Classes divided by age range and how long the student has been a master. Students will enhance their range and depth of characters needed for Film and TV.
ACTING FOR CAMERA CLASSES- Kindergarten through Third GradeActing for Camera 1- Enhancing believability and taking direction for on-camera skills, and helping the student feel more comfortable in front of the camera.
Acting for Camera 2-Strengthening the students understanding of marks and props usage, and building character development.
Acting for Camera 3- heightening the approach to understanding action and character development; feeling more comfortable with putting one's personality into their scenes.
Acting for Camera 4 and up(Mixed Levels)- Mixed Levels is when there are different levels of AC students in the same class. For example, there could be Acting for Camera 4 student and Acting for Camera 6 students within the same class. The teacher will concentrate on what each particular students need to be working on simultaneously: Working with more than one character in a scene at a time, being able to act goofy and let your nerdy side out, being free in front of the camera and taking on roles opposite your personality.
WHEN DO I MOVE FROM AC CLASSES?
After completing each AC class, one can move on to the next AC level. If one has moved to fourth grade, they are welcome to enter the FILM program. If they have completed AC3, they can move to Film 2 and go on to Film 3. If the student is an AC MASTER student, the student will skip Film 1 and Film 3 and take Film 2 and then, move to Film 4, Film 5, Film 6 and New Master 1 and New Master 2.
