CosmicD

"Getting into Character" is finding things and Triggers, that instantly "get you into character"... Easy for some.. Impossible for others...

Maybe if we reach into our brains with a fork, we might find something new that works easier than what they've already got...


[Caution... this post gets really graphic from here... If you have a weak tummy, just don't read it...]

Re: "getting into character"...
What we seek for GIC, might be along the lines of "disassociation"...
I.E.: I was cruising' down the rainy stormy midnight highway at 120 kms, when in my headlights, I saw the car ahead of me hit a rabbit... The poor little critter was launched about twenty feet in the air, and landed in the middle of the road, spinning in circles... I screeched to a sudden halt.. reached out the open door, scooped up the messy little thing, and wrapped it in a towel, set on my lap, holding it gently with a tender hand...

At home I pulled out my illegal wilderness first-aid kit.. and went to work...
A series of tiny shots of marcaine to numb-out the Totally crushed leg.. then sterilize the tools... But when it was time to get into surgery, I just couldn't do it... I didn't know anything about surgery.. except for bandaids, burns, headaches, and slivers...

I worked at my willpower, but I just couldn't get me started...
I had the little guy comfy and drugged bigtime.. and the necessary tools all ready... but I couldn't do anything for all the horrid icy chills screaming up and down my spine.. nearly shaking my head off...

I paced the floor.. occasionally glancing at the critter staring at me...
"OK! I Can Do This! I Can Do This! I Can Do This!'.. I took a huge breath, rushed and sat at the table, picked up a tool... and suddenly something I never experienced before.. Like part of me just got turned "inside out", or inversed, ore something.. like a "Schzzwooopah-Swoosh!"... Suddenly my focus and senses seemed like they were standing behind me, looking over my shoulder, watching the doctor do his thing like he was born to it...
I had to glance back a moment, to see if I was there... ("Disassociation" it's called...) From over my shoulder I watched my hands working accurate.. feverish.. and like an expert, fixing the little critter, with skills I didn't know I had... I was mumbling, "WoW.. Did I just do that?"..
The "doctor" cleaned and removed the mess... cleaned out all the dirt... removed chunks of crushed bone from everywhere.. dusted with light penicillin, platinum wired muscles to bones, trimmed tissues to make good seams, and stitched it all up with textbook sutures... When it was all over I felt like I had been through hell and back...

I sat with the little feller in my lap all night.. stroking his back, and occasionally squeezing eyedroppers of cool water, mixed with dilute vitamins, and minerals, and glucose, into its mouth...

Couple weeks later the little bugger could jump four-feet in the air with one hind leg... He's huge now.. living on my brother's ranch with his kids...

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Re: "Getting into Character" is probably something to do with "disassociation".. do ya think?.. "Schzzwooopah-Swoosh"...

I'm not sure what the trigger was... It all happened so fast!..
Maybe the thing is to just "Dive Right Into It"... But maybe there's a lot more to it..?

CosmicD

Given that our Species has reached its peak in physical reality.. now everything is sideways and/or down.. and up for a few.. therefore.. We must build great actors who can present more reality, to the blind masses, content to designer-drug numb the fall into oblivion, like "the three monkeys"... "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, feel no evil".... till it has you by the ankle.. pulling you down.. like going swimming with an anchor...



We teach the Species how to live and love, and play nice..
..toward our Species living and loving throughout the universes...
Or we go extinct... You've got a Big job...


Means: To be a great actor, you must have a very functional mind.. and keen access to its controls.. including the sword and warriorself... of which I have the formulas, partially documented in course format.. the formulas "uncle" Fellini spoke of... 'ceptin' it don't make me freak, like in his interview... it's more like biting into a wild strawberry...

You must have a reasonable grasp on more reality than what we've documented to date...

Is there anything in your mental development, that concerns you, and seems to be a reason you weren't a great actor yesterday..?

CosmicD

Me thinks what you seek in "getting into character".. is to learn how to fully become the character for that moment... To be everything you are, in that character.. then anything can happen.. and your ad lib veering from the script will be most welcomed, and sought after gem...

I.E: ..I'm unloading a utility trailer at a mini-storage complex.. when I sees a lilac glowing "indigo" babe, on a motorcycle, zoom by at about 35 mph.. with huge sparks coming from the bike as the rear wheel slips off... As she is thrown-off, airborne, to the left of the bike... Immediately I reach out to her with this big imaginary hand I have, that sometimes does things for me when I'm "in the groove"... Instantly I posture the six foot hand at her back.. thumb under her left shoulder.. index under her right shoulder... and ever so slowly gently set her on the road as the magic-hand absorbs her excess momentum.. while bits of bouncing motorcycle are flying and bouncing all around.. and the flying spinning wheel missing her head by about six inches.. while my imaginary-hand cradles her purple auraed body, as she rests her arms on the huge thumb and index.. like she's seeing them there.. Her hands holding tight to the huge imaginary fingers.. totally blew me away that she saw it, and that she actually touched my physicalized-illusion...
Now I'd call that, "Getting into character".. for both of us... Any less, is just "playing the character"... We lived it to the fullest... Embracing her for that fleeting moment, I felt one with everything, especially with her, like I had touched all her life... I felt complete for the first time in my life...

Moments later, a small limo stops beside her.. they waves.. and she waves... She smiles at the vehicle's occupants, a smile that started to melt-me like a candle in a torch flame.. The limo waits as she gathers up her bags, and drags the wreck to the curb.. She climbs inside, and is gone...
and I'm standing by my trailer, mumbling, "how did she see my magic hand?"..
and, "I think I just embraced a goddess for but a few seconds"... but in those seconds, I had her whole life in my hand...

CosmicD

..I just remembered... ..The goddess collected her bags.. glanced at the limo.. then at me.. Dragged the bike to the curb... Scooped up her parcels.. and glanced into my eyes... her stare touching the middle of my bones.. smiling a smile you could charge admission to see... Her magesty bowed an ultra-perfect stage-bow/combo ballet-curtsie.. smiled and waved like she was waving into a mirror.. left dancing and giggling, like sun's ray make me feel... She lowered to enter the limo, pausing a moment.. establishing a vision-tunnel connecting us.. I saw her lips so puffy soft and tender.. that it might be possible she breathe life with a kiss.. as could kill with a kiss... I felt her lips kissing mine.. somewhere in a place between here and heaven....
..and when I regained consciousness.. she was gone...

CosmicD

A couple classic examples of kids in character...


I see this group of 14 year-olds.. playing gunfighter games in the neighborhood, house to house... half a mile from their home turf... dodging into yards and around houses... pretend shootin' at each other.. "pshh pshh"... when they notice someone is watching them...
Otherwise, they're casing the neigborhood's backyards to determine what's good and easy to rob tonight... Best casing I ever saw...

It's classic acting.. they've even dressed to look younger than they are.. but you can see it in their eyes and posture... they've got that "one-percent elite criminal-element" stare and air and glare...

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Best kid acting I saw was two little boys playing cowboys and indians, on the street, curb, and in the ditch... "BANG BANG BANG! I GOT YOU!"

"BANG BANG BANG" I GOT YOU TOO!"

They both fall where they's at.. One on the road, and one in the ditch, somewhere in that mess of bushes... The one on the road crys out, "I need you to help me.."

From the bushes.. "Why?"

"Cuz I can't walk!"

"Why can't you walk?"

"Cuz you shot my both legs! Why do you think!? I need you to help me walk!"

"I can't..."

"Why can't you?"

"I can't move.. moann..."

"Why can't you move?"

"Cuz you shot my ass off"...

cenobitehell

everyone has their own techniques. personally . myself.
i just repeat a moment over and over (groundhog day like)
until its so second nature to me, its as if it was me. then anything immediatly afterwards in in character anyways. but thats only me.

CosmicD

"Repetition" is what we're taught is the way.. because that's all the teacher knows to teach...

If you do something peak, just once.. you can easily repeat it.. and maybe even better the second time... but if you are only cramming duplicates.. you've created only a mirror.. a little like the kid who hates spinach, but must finish it as commanded.. so he finishes it in one huge gulp as fast and hard as he can.. as opposed to picking at it...

If you do the first try with all thrusters firin', and like it is you... then isnt there a chance that you will only need do one rehearsal/one repeat..? because now it is part of you.. as in, the part isn't you as much as you are the components of the part...

cenobitehell

i didnt quite mean it like that

i meant it helped deliver lines as the character, cos after so long, you believe the words to be your own and they come out more naturally. especially in character. thats how i meant it

CosmicD

Repetition is one of our first outputs as a newborn... Repetition equals "pattern"...

There must be another way to do what repetition does for us, in remembering lines... because that kind of learning lines shows as a deficiency in the final product.. like how some actors do kiss like they are trying to knock each other's teeth out...

Repetition is baby based.. it works but it wastes a lot of time and effort...
To be a prime actor you must be a genius...

Baby messes itself, and says a tiny "ack!".. and when nothing changes, it says "ack ack"... And still nothing changes, it says "ack ack ack", and waits... And when nothing happens, it yells out a bunch of connected ack's, which we call "crying"...
Thus a pattern, which targets mummy to get her into action.. to stop those acids from stinging baby's skin...

When acting, one wants a clean fresh shot at the line, with all your parts in motion, like the planets flow around the sun... is why I believe that rehearsal with all your passion and emotion, the first try, is what should replace repetition as an actor's tool...

Maybe if you image yourself standing on the top of the planet, while it is turning.. stepping just enough to maintain the top.. while imaging all the 28 original planets orbiting the sun.. before 2/3'rds of them crashed into the sun...
When I'm playing a dice/board game with my brother, while I am maintaining that "walking atop the planet" item, I can't lose... My brother suspects I'm doing something mindish to maintain my edge, but doesn't know what, and does everything he can to distract me, to break my focus, to make me lose.. is when I start losing the game to him...
While you practice-read a line.. if you are holding that "walking atop the planet" focus, it might enable you to study and learn your lines extremely efficiently, IF you put some of your passion and emotions into the equation...

I.E.: My other brother took Judo when he was a kid... I recall him detailing his technique... He held his gut tight all the while he practiced his lessons.. while the rest of the class didn't... He got a lot more out of it than all his classmates...

cenobitehell

well whatever works. works