1st Acting Class

I had my first acting class last Thursday. It's a 6-week on-camera acting class taught by Barbara Cameron. I am taking it through Image Development. I was nervous for my first class but over all it went pretty well. There were 9 students in the class (including me). To start off Barbara had us all sit in a circle and go around introducing ourselves, saying a little bit about us, what we like about acting and why we were taking the class. That was cool. It made everyone relax a little bit getting to know each other I think. After introductions, we were each given a short two-paragraph commercial and 10 minutes to memorize it. Mine was a funny commercial about clear band aids. Once I got the memorizing done and how I wanted to say the words I decided to throw in something extra just for fun. There was a part in my commercial where I say "So now I wear clear band aids from Johnson and Johnson" - at that part I decided to hold up my arm and point to it, like I actually had a clear band aid on.

After our 10 minutes were up we all went into the waiting room. Barbara called us one by one into the other room where we did our commercial audition in front of the camera. I felt like mine went pretty well. I only stuttered at one part on words but I did feel like I was nervous and was afraid I would be shaking on the tape (but I wasn't). After everyone did their commercial we all went back in the main room. Then Barbara played everyone's audition and critiqued them all, saying this is what you did right, this is what you did wrong, these are some tips, etc. Everyone seemed to like mine, I got a couple compliments which I wasn't expecting from others in the class. Barbara said I had a lot of energy but that I talk with my eyes to much. So my biggest focus is going to be trying not to talk with my eyes and blink so much. I learned a lot from everyone's corrections and took notes the whole class.

After we went through everyone's auditions, we all took turns doing them again on-camera, trying to improve on the comments Barbara had made earlier. Everyone improved for the second one. I felt a lot better about mine too. Once everyone auditioned again, we watched them all and Barbara critiqued them all again. When we got to mine Barbara paused the tape after my first line. I was afraid she was going to say something about I made a huge mistake on something but she didn't. She said that the first line was great and that I really grabbed her attention. We had talked about how your first line is very important to make an impression and grab their attention - so the fact that mine did was a very good thing. I was so excited about that! Then we watched the rest of the tape.

After watching the rest of the tape...Barbara said I have a lot of energy and that my first line was really good and that she liked how I pointed to my arm. She said I was still talking to much with my eyes (so fixing that is my main focus for tomorrow's class) but that I have a lot of natural talent and that she thinks I'll be good. I was very pleased with those comments. Over all it was very encouraging and I can't wait for my second class, which is tomorrow! :)