Lewis & Clark Moodle

     In our text titled Culture Theory and Popular Culture by John Storey, and more specifically the portion in the book regarding structuralism and post-structuralism, Ferdinand de Saussure is accepted as the father of the "signifier" and "signified" concepts. The ad that was chosen for us to analyze contains many opportunities to determine the signifier and signified, and formulate signs from what we believe those to be. The first frame of the advertisement that I have chosen to analyze is the man on the screen, the second is quickly after the screen is shattered, showing a seemingly surprised group of people with a bright light shining across their faces.

     The signifier for the first shot I have described is a man displayed on a screen. the signifier part of Saussure's process, in terms of this assignment, disregards anything the man is saying. Simply put, as the signifier stands alone there is almost no meaning. I have found the signified, in this case, to be much more telling of the message Apple attempts to convey. I believe the signified to be a man that has transcended into the only voice of reason, providing blind subscription to a people. Together, the signifier (the man in the screen) and the signified (voice of reason) bring to my mind sign-systems of conformity exerted by an oppressive force. A reason why apple chose this Orwellian style was to portray their competitors as oppressors providing what they believe to be the only right choice.

     My second shot of choice is after the woman destroys the screen. The signifier is the reaction of a seated audience, all of their mouths agape and a white light shining of them. Again, there is little context to be pulled out of a signifier alone. However, I feel that the signified in this shot is a group of people astonished by something that has always been on finally being turned off. Although the light seems blinding, the audience still stares, as if not knowing what to do. I cannot help but think of the audience members as "the bewildered herd," a term coined by Noam Chomsky in his book titled Media Control. The signifier and signified together create the sign system of freedom, revelation,and mental liberation.

     Apple quickly, and almost ironically, implies that there is finally something new to consume that separates us from the mentally oppressed. By ironic I mean to say that Apple is projecting a "breaking of chains" in their advertisement but at the same suggesting people to follow a new technology. This is besides the point though, as the advertisement is powerful and contains a dismissal of an existing product with a new choice.

     People watching and connecting the sign systems within the ad will denote the man and the audience as that exactly: a man on a screen being watched by an audience. However, in contextualizing the ad with common opinion at the time, the audience will see the man as "Big Brother" and the audience as "the bewildered herd." These sign-systems relate quite naturally: the signs in the first shot being conformity and oppression and the second being freedom and mental liberation. This is a perfect conclusion for consumers to arrive at if you are Apple's marketing team, as Apple's competitors are now seen as evil while Macintosh is seen as good. 

We had our coaching meeting with Rebecca on Tuesday evening. After we ran through the scene, Rebecca told me, as she says every time (with reason) that I don't feel grounded. Rebecca was able to point out all of the times that we weren't being changed or affected by each other. The best part about working with Rebecca is that she is willing to make you uncomfortable, and discomfort was very productive for our scene. We were able to take more risks and make our actions more specific and find grounding in them.

*Pictures from all weeks to come if Julien gets around to it*

--Recap of 12/9-12/14--

Julien and I have been trying to practice every day together for at least an hour, and doing that has been really helpful. We are very rarely able to rehearse in the black box, but rehearsals in the black box are always so much more productive than rehearsals in a classroom. There is just something about being in the black box that gets you ready for performance, whereas a classroom has limitations: for example, you cannot say "I'm calling the police" loudly after the events that took place on campus. Rehearsing in classrooms did give us some perspective into how bizarre Catherine and Hal's relationship is-- if any sane person observed their interactions, it would be alarming to say the least.

We seem to blog every week about how we change the set, and we, once again, modified the set and it felt so much more natural.

Alright gang. It's Wednesday. It's the final. Jess and I had our final rehearsal last night to clear up the last notes from our coaching with R. Her big notes for us from that session was that we weren't staying present after we spoke our lines to see whether the action had had the result that we were expecting/hoping, or not.  We did the breathing-on-eachother's line exercise that Aria wrote about recently, the one that we did at the very beginning of partner work, and that has become our new warm up. I also noticed that it took this long, but Jess and I finally locked in to our rehearsal format. There was so much unspoken agreement about what we needed to be working on, what we were doing next, and how we should proceed.  It was so exciting to have that be so easy. 

Thank you all for an awesome semester, you made it the best acting class I could have hoped for. 

Have a great break

<3, T

Here it is! The curtains are soon to close! Dara and I gave a great performance during our second showing. The main thing we changed up is increasing the amount of fury during my angry scene, and we were met with good feedback! For our final performance tomorrow, we're going to do some things that will make the scene feel fresh to us as well as the audience and refine some key points in the scene.

So I don't forget, here's a list of all the changes we're making:

1. I tuck myself under Dara's blankets when I first enter

2. During my PINK EYE bit, I'm slamming the door shut.

2.5 We're leaving the cookies on the bed

3. We elaborated upon my angry moment and changed the blocking. 

4. We're making the beat change when I see her blood more clear.

5. We turned "Yeah it is. Yeah it is." into "Yeah it is yeah... It is." This will differentiate the two "Yeah it is"s and make it more clear the intent behind each one.

We're super excited to present the final product! It's been a blast to work on and we're proud to be able to show it.

So I realized that before Ruby left, the week we did our scene, that I hadn't blogged about it! The week prior to Ruby & I's final scene was really intense rehearsal wise. Ruby let me know she was leaving the semester early and so we had to really try to get the scene into good shape before then. We rehearsed almost everyday that week. We got to that point where we didn't know how to push the scene further than we had, so we did a couple odd things in rehearsal and the session with Rebecca was immensely helpful. One thing we did was rehearse in the little amphitheater next to Fir Acres, and we just walked around and tried to walk toward, away, or around each other according to what was going on in the scene. We also started running the scene with really high energy, and then really low and quiet energy to see what the variety was that we could work with. Then the session with Rebecca came, and we mainly worked on really trying to shape the choices we had already made. The scene between Justin and Julie is really odd, and it was hard to live inside some of the beats. Ruby and I really hope you guys enjoyed the scene and I can't wait to watch everyone's tomorrow. 

Also, since we did our final scene it's been really fun to watch everyone else's scene. There isn't one scene in the class that hasn't grown or engaged me, so I just wanted to say thanks to everyone because this class has been great. 

Abe and I have rehearsed twice in the last couple days. We had our last rehearsal today, before the performance tomorrow. I am pretty excited to perform in front of everybody again! I feel our scene has come a long way even from last Wednesday when we performed. In the last week I think we've become a lot more connected on stage. I feel personally that I have let myself be more committed to the scene than I had previously. I think I have also figured out how to be more grounded. The only thing I worry about for the final performance is focus. I think that may be my biggest challenge with acting. Its cool I figured that out through this process though!  

HI GUYS HERE IS THE FINAL VLOG. PROCRASTINATE FOR FINALS BY WATCHING THIS. HAVE A GOOD BREAK KIDS.

Hi every buggy! Because last week felt a little off for both Kela and I, we decided to come back to some exercises to help us redevelop our characters that we created before we went on break. One of the exercises that has really been helping Kela and I get into character is the breathing exercise that we did with our first scene partners (coincidentally, Kela was my first scene partner haha full circle.) This was the exercise where you sit with your knees touching your partners and take in a breath as or after they say there line. Then, with an exhale, you say your line. I felt that this exercise really helped Kela and I figure out when certain words that we say to each other hit us and how that hit effects how hard we hit back. 

Kela and I have also been working on the yelling parts to our scene to make them more dynamic as well as more realistic. One of the big notes that we received after our second preview was that most people when they have an intense argument, they don't yell at each other right in the face. Often times they look away out of frustration or they are simply to scared to look that person in the eye. This note has been hard to work with because as an actor, how do you show the audience that you are still listening to your scene partner without actually looking at them? This question has actually helped us spread out on the stage more and make diagonals. The mirrors in the black box have also helped us take snapshots of how our layout looks with every cross/motion that we do. It is definitely still a work in progress but Kela and I eat challenges like these for breakfast! Muhahaha!!!!

Hey everyone! Emma and I just finished rehearsing. We did our best to incorporate your notes, especially Rebecca's note on behaviors within the scene. I personally struggled with finding the proper times to get really mad in my scene, and I don't think I ever found the solution to that problem, so hopefully Rebecca will be able to help us during our coaching session. That being said, Emma and I both thought that we've worked out our blocking to the point that we aren't getting stuck in awkward positions anymore. We felt that we were lacking energy a bit in our rehearsal tonight, and we want to get that back, since the scene is at its best when we're both super energetic and excited in the moment. So, not the best rehearsal this time, but we hope to get back on track soon.