• To enable students to identify and engage creatively and imaginatively with techniques and conventions and behaviours of acting for radio and film and/or television (c, e, f, g, h)

   

• To experience and reflect on current and emerging professional practices in and in relation to recorded acting (e.g. self-direction, studio constraints, feedback mechanisms) (a, b, c)

   

• To consider the practical considerations of acting for a lens/microphone and for audiences of recorded media (e.g. individual/mass, dispersed, committed/distracted)  (e, f, g)

   

On completion of this module students should be able to

• Identify and apply techniques and conventions of acting for camera/radio (A1, A2, A3, C1, C2, C3)

   

• Respond creatively and imaginatively to conventions to communicate a convincing depiction of character for camera/radio and an absent audience (B1, C2, C3)

   

• Create a recorded product to deadlines (D3)

   

• Recognise and draw from a range of relevant sources form a variety of media (A3, B3)

   

In this module, students will be introduced to techniques and conventions of acting for radio and camera and to imaginative dramatic texts written for radio and TV (e.g. those by Churchill, Pinter and selected plays from Radio 3 and Radio 4).  They will consider the implications of performed via recording technology to an absent audience and engage creatively and imaginatively with this knowledge to create characters for radio and film and/or television.  They will become familiar with processes of self-directing and adapting their work to fit the coherence of the resulting work.  They will be encouraged to become familiar with a range of source texts in the form of specific television and radio shows and films, together with literature on the field.  While not assessed for the filming/editing, students may be called on to record and edit scenes as part of the wider learning of the module.

Lecture/workshop/seminars/recordings/instruction/screenings, often in combination.

Required Reading

Elsam, P., 2006: Acting characters: 20 simple steps from rehearsal to performance ( London : A. & C. Black).

Recommended Reading : Baron, Elsam, beck, (Baron et al., 2004; Barr and Kline, 1997; Beck, 1997; Brecht and Silberman, 2000; Cardullo, 1998; Cole, 1995; Lovell and Krämer, 1999; Mamet, 1997)brecht 2000, linklater, stan, mamet, barr, lovel, cardullo,

blum, cole, allan, ley

Baron, C A, Carson, D, and Tomasulo, F P, More than a method : trends and traditions in contemporary film performance. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2004.

Barr, T and Kline, E S, Acting for the camera. New York: HarperPerennial, 1997.

Beck, A, Radio Acting. London: A&C Black Publishers Limited, 1997.

Brecht, B and Silberman, M, Brecht on film and radio. London: Methuen, 2000.

Cardullo, B, Playing to the camera : film actors discuss their craft. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.

Cole, T, Acting : a handbook of the Stanislavski method. New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1995.

Lovell, A and Krämer, P, Screen acting. London ; New York: Routledge, 1999.

Mamet, D, True and false : heresy and common sense for the actor. New York: Pantheon Books, 1997.