EVALUATION
I showed the final version to our group today. Overall, the editing received very positive feedback (mostly). I am very satisfied with the final product, including my own performance and the general product. One area I excelled in was creating enough energy, despite being TV acting. It is a common belief that TV acting is always more naturalistic and less exaggerated than stage acting, however, this isn't always the case. As our piece was a comedy, the stereotypes are still very prominent. Dylan (my character) is a stereotypical teenager, crushing on a girl, very cocky and has a lot of attitude towards his parents. I feel I delivered his cockiness through lines such as, "I'm a lifeguard, I'm guarding her", as I acted very defensive when my 'sister' suggested I was an embarrassment for not 'making a move' on Zoe yet.
One thing I wish I could improve on was my acting under the mask. Most of the sitcom was done without masks, however, when we had all our extras in, we had to wear our masks (kept it realistic though, as this was only for the party scene). It is quite hard to let the mask impact your general energy, as well as your facial expressions. I would have liked to do it again to emphasise my emotions through posture and body language. Another thing I would change about my performance would be obtaining the same energy in all my scenes. Although I feel as though I always generated energy, I feel as though there was a clear contrast between when I was completely in character and when I wasn't. An example would be at the start of Ken's office scene (the first scene we shot). I took some time to get into character, and my voice hadn't reached the way I had been rehearsing it.
When it comes to directing (and filming), I feel as though I could have improved. I was consistent with my directing, often finding good angles and effective shots following the 180% rule and understand the connotations of each shot. Despite this, my filming was pretty poor, clearly being the shakiest out of all the footage. All the other actors were assigned a pre-production task, but I was assigned the task of editing. I was happy with the edit, after facing a lot of issues, however there were still some audio issues in the final edit.
Overall, I got a lot of positive feedback for the similarities between my acting and Dylan. This meant I was portraying the same character traits as him, so I am happy with my performance. The research into Dylan's given and implied circumstances helped significantly into understanding the character, as well as all the improvisation exercises. This wasn't just important in understanding our characters, but it meant we understood how all the characters interact and how they react to your character. The sitcom came out very funny, although I can acknowledge how challenging film and TV acting can be, especially with the set, costume, and energy challenges we faced.
