Assignment 1

Assignment 1

CSE 490 J - Acting and Animation

Assignment for Directing Actors
Due Date: Friday, Jan 18 10:00 am

This coming Friday afternoon (January 18), you will have the opportunity to direct the actor(s) by providing them with scenarios you'd like them to visualize for you. You will be able to provide feedback for them as well. You'll also have the opportunity to do some further improv. exercises. I need to know as a group, what you would like to do for either one of these options -- the scenarios and/or the exercises.

We will have roughly an hour, give or take 10 minutes. I'd also like to know which actor(s) you felt did the best job for our needs since I need to (re)hire them. The more detail you can provide the actors on your scenario, the better. So please be clear and visual where needed. We'll try to get through most of them.

With this in mind ( and so that I can plan ahead) I'd like each of you to propose a scenario that fits our armature ( Old Men Play, Young Men Die) for each of the ideas listed below. Your scenario can be whatever you like as long as it fits the following parts of the story. If you want the whole class or some portion of it to do an improv exercise we've done in class before, indicate that in your scenario and why you think it would be beneficial.

1. The initial scene where the two men are seen for the first time. This would include the initial trigger that connects the two and provides the impetus for a continued struggle. So, opening scene up to the initial trigger. Please consider their personalities and how their personalities promote the trigger when proposing the scenario. Outline your scenario step by step if possible.

2. The initial introduction of the cards and how they respond to the men's behavior. Outline your scenario step by step if possible.

3. The escalating tension between the two old men. This will start after the trigger and until one of the men challenges the other to a game of the card game war or an escalation of the card game of war that develops until the "full on" war. Outline your scenario step by step if possible.

4. The climax.. starts with one old man fed up and the other responding in kind. Please focus on how the cards from opposing decks would respond to the men and their behavior. Please consider the cards responses to one another as well. Outline your scenario steps by step if at ll possible.

5. A specific proposal for how the cards would be destroyed. Please provide details for this scene that the actors should do to visualize it more effectively. Please indicate how this approach fits our armature best. Outline your scenario step by step if at all possible.

6. Starting from the destroyed cards lying on the floor, how the film would end. Outline your scenarios step by step if possible.

7. Any scenario you feel we should address that's not here. Please give me some idea of how this would fit into the story you envision and also how it fits the armature.