STAC has been pretty interesting over the past week or two. We've done and seen a lot of new stuff, had more in depth discussions about art, and even went on a field trip. So, naturally, I have a lot to write about.
Last week we watched a movie called Hanna. It was pretty interesting. While I was watching, to be perfectly honest, I was so lost. I felt like I was the only one in the class who didn't get it. After we started to tear it apart the next couple of days however, it started to make a little more sense. Like Luke said, we need to learn to watch movies differently. Before STAC, to me movies were just fun pastimes. Now I'm slowly learning how to take things from movies, and how to be a good audience through them.
After watching Hanna, we had to do an assignment as a group. Luke gave each of us four index cards with parts of the plot at random, and we had to go outside and tape them all up on the wall in chronological order. At first, the people who usually take charge tried to do that, only it didn't work. For a while, we had no idea what to do. 36 kids with 4 index cards each that had to go up onto a wall in two periods. That is not easy. We managed to finally pull it all together when everyone broke into groups and started taping their index cards in chronological order on different parts of the wall. And soon it all came together as one movie plot.
We also started to look at different ways to film different parts of movies, using Hanna and many other short clips from other movies as examples. We learned about all different kinds of shots, and I thought it was really cool. Now while I'm watching TV, I start to notice these kinds of shots, or even think about why the director chose to use a certain angle or something. By tearing apart a movie or a movie clip, I realized that you really look at all filmography a completely different way. And I like that new way a lot.
We had STAC art and STACting as well in the duration of these two weeks. In STAC art we started working on futurism. At first, when Mr. Ganes was explaining it and showing examples, I had no idea what I was going to do. He said that futurism should show some type of movement. So, for a good 10 minutes I sat there, looking at my blank piece of paper, thinking of what I should do. I started to think of music, and how most people don't see that music can be movement. So, I finally decided that I was going to draw piano keys with the music moving and floating out of them. I'm really happy with the way that it's turning out. I can't wait to work on my piece again this week.
In STACting, we started with miming, and ended with arguing. It was a really interesting class for me because when we were arguing with each other, I found myself starting to get really angry about the silliest things. Like, if we should not get off of a spaceship on a planet filled with vampires who would kill us. It was stupid little arguments that weren't even real, but I found myself getting kind of angry. I'm not sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign, but it surprised me.
We also continued with working on our projects. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I'm in dance once again, with the same group. As a group, we all have fantastic chemistry, so things were going great. We took Luke's advice and started from nothing, and soon, it actually became an organized dance that we started to put together.
Then sometime last week, Luke gave the entire class the same advice he gave us on our first day of working. So, things started to get kind of confusing for us. We felt as if we had already passed that stage, and we didn't need to repeat it. Most of us agreed, some did not. So, a couple of minor problems started to formulate with ideas. Thankfully though, we managed to finally agree that what we had seemed good, and that we needed to work from what we had. And we did, and we got a ton more ideas to add into our general outline. I think we're on the right track, and that we're going to have a phenomenal final product.
And lastly, our field trip. We went to the city again, and made our first stop at MoMA. Truthfully, that was my first time at MoMA and I liked it. I thought some stuff in MoMA was a little weird, and I was thinking a lot about how it actually made its way into the museum, but I liked a lot of stuff as well. The de Kooning exhibit was a little to abstract for my taste, but I really enjoyed the photography exhibit and the video art exhibits. I thought those were very cool.
Next we went off on our own, and I had a ton of fun. Since I got sick on the first STAC trip, I missed the part where we could stroll around the city. Friday was my first time, and it was probably one of my favorite parts of the entire trip.
At night we went to a show called "Bill Bowers: Beyond Words." I really enjoyed the show a lot. I thought that Bill was extremely talented in miming, and his story was really beautiful and fun to watch. I was amazed at how well of a mime he was and how he was so not afraid to say anything and everything. As an audience member, I felt completely connected to him and felt like I was in his story, because he told it so well.
As a performer, I really enjoyed the way the theatre was set up (the audience being super close to the stage), because it really broke the fourth wall. I love being downstage because I'm closer to the audience. That makes it feel more real to me, so I liked that a lot.
All in all, these past two weeks in STAC have been (as usual) a ton of fun, and I can't wait to see what we're going to do this week!
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