GESTUS
Gesture + Attitude = Gestus
Task 1 - Told a nursery rhyme to each other from opposite ends of the room - you had to shout. Could you hear?
During this i believe i could hear my partners however i was familiar with the nursery rhythm ''Humpty Dumpty'' which i got straight away partly because i was paying close attention to their mouths so i could lip read and also their body language was easy to understand.
Performers had to focus on using their body language to tell enforce the verbal communication. How did this help?
It helped because at times when you couldn't hear exactly what was being said i was able to know what part of the rhythm they were up to because of their body language matched the words well enough that i got the gist of what was being said.
Task 2 - Created paired still images to show characters such as Romeo and Juliet, Cat and Mouse, Sweet and Sour, War and Peace, Rich and Poor. Discuss what everyone did for Rich and Poor - why did everyone create the same image? How did this demonstrate Gestus?
For rich and poor pretty much everybody played around with levels for example someone would be cleaning or polishing the other persons shoe or someone would be waiting hand and foot for another person. Theses made powerful still images because it showed power and status in just one image.
This demonstrated Gestus because it showed strong characterisation that another person viewing would of been able to understand and have their own opinions and views on the image. which we done in class to ensure that our images were bold enough that the messages behind the still images couldn't be misinterpreted for something else.
Task 3 - An actor played a soldier, they walked on stage, stopped and walked off. How did you know he was a soldier? What did you think of the character, if anything? Then we added in seven dead bodies, the soldier appeared and disappeared again. What was different about this scene? What did the soldier do? How did this demonstrate Gestus?
It was clear that an actor was playing a solider because of the body language associated with it. The strong march like walk in one direction, and the straight posture with no eye contact but only in the direction in which they were walking/looking at but also the sharp solute that some of the actors done made it very clear that they were soldiers. For all of the soldiers i believe my views are the same, when people played soldiers they hugely stereotyped them into being quiet numb, showing no feelings and emotions. Where as you could show different types of soldiers like brave ones, scared ones and excited ones depending on their stories and situations of course.
I was one of the seven dead bodies and we had look like we'd just been killed, so we laid in awkward positions. Whilst the other soldiers walk over us. The first time doing so they were allowed to do what they pleased, walking over us how they wanted. this resulted in the actors naturally wanting to be aware of our bodies and care for us making sure they didn't step on us or hurt us in any way. This also affected the pace of their walk, they took a long time to walk across due to their caring instincts. The second time doing so Chris asked them to be faster and and disregard us even being there. This changed the the piece and the atmosphere. the second time round felt cold and like you were truly alone because no one cared about you or if they were gonna hurt you or step on you. i felt as if i was invisible like i didn't matter.
this was a great example of Gestus because it showed that even the smallest decisions impact the dynamic of the scene or image in a big way and can change the outlook and opinion for the viewer.
Task 4 - You created two still images to show opposing gestic images:
War the maker of heroes & War the taker of lives
Exaplain what you did and why? How were these gestic?
Thinking questions...
- Summarise Gestus using examples from the above exercises?
- Explain this: Gesture + Attitude = Gestus
- How do you feel about this technique?
No comments:
Post a Comment