Last night I attended an actor friend birthday party. Nothing like a little alcohol and a bunch of actors to turn on the "theory" conversations. Two very talented friends were having an interesting clash of views distilled into two camps: method and for lack of a better word, "non-method." I left the party and had an opportunity to think as I was up all night. I went over the ideas that I had heard such as: the creation of new memories through exercises for future usage to what is the actor really thinking when the camera is on them for that 15 second close-up/fade out?
I kept asking questions of myself: what is it that we do? Are we just story tellers? Yes. Do we represent life? Yes. Do we create? Yeee......ss. And here's where my brain starting firing. I thought about the"humanity" of being human. Is crying now over the loss of a loved one, any different than it was 2,000 years ago or 10,000 years ago? (or any number of conflicts or emotions.) I don't think so, but if you watch movies, starting with silent films all the way to the most progressive indie films being produced today, you will notice a MARKED difference in the way actors, directors and writers have shared their stories with their audiences since the beginning of the art (applies to theater as well), almost like we have made conscious decisions on which colors and sounds we are able to see, thus convey. Aaahhhhh, said the little voice inside my head. What we are able to see as people is what we are able to feel. What we are able to believe as artists is what we are able to convey. Think of breakthrough films which have changed genres, attitudes, even the art itself and it is more than simply pushing the envelope.
The chicken, my friend came first - from another chicken.
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