Arjun Kalyan

First scene: This was on the first day too! Each one of us was supposed to enact the character of a pizza delivery guy, who should go knock the door of a haunted house and deliver pizza to a witch (our instructor/director) that lives in the spooky place! Simple, right? But, I messed it up! I knocked the door and went in casually � I didn't even know if I was supposed to look at the camera or at the person holding the boom microphone or the director! I have told my lines "Here is your cheese pizza, ma'am!" but I was supposed to look scared when entering the spooky house, which I missed! Should I have done something more? Could I ask for a tip? No idea! Since it was our first class, we were all in the same boat in this poor performance. When we were shown the film that was shot, it was funny and embarrassing! It was only after this initial trial that the instructor explained everything. The exercise was to let him assess each one of us with our "raw talent". Obviously, we sucked! He stressed on the importance of getting the sense of the character and the environment! We were also warned that we would not get any such details at a real movie audition either! It's for the artiste to figure out by oneself and stand out from others! Most importantly, our instructor stressed the need to have an empathy with the character, and to also improvise the scene with every rehearsal � ease up, even if you are uncomfortable with your co-artiste (who could be brighter or dumber than you are)!

This class was called " Scene Study" � and we were given scenes to act accordingly. Once the classes went on, we used to have scenes with two actors � working on the chemistry between actors. They also gave us a dummy movie-gun as part of a scene! All our performances are shot by the actual equipment and analyzed later in an in-class discussion that involved the instructor/director. By each day, the scenes were getting tougher, and the instructor explained us the scenario and environment, the character's current situation, and other relevant details. Actors used to perform with a healthy competitive spirit � helping each other in their performances. We used to learn the lines, rehearse, took takes, and shot each scene in three angles with all the equipment . In other words, we enacted each scene at least six times! ...I always wondered how artistes could enact through the same scene over and over, carrying the needed emotion and natural expression, without showing any irritation in their expression or body language! This class helped me go through the experience first-hand, and gave me some patience to deal with myself!

I talk... (Class-2: Monologues & Cold Reading)
The next class is all about actors' lines (dialogues/monologues), voice modulation, dubbing, and voice-over, and how an actor enacts them when the camera is rolling. On the first day, we were given one page full of lines by a single character and were asked to read the lines aloud one by one. Later, the scene and the character were explained, and we were asked to read it again! It was more like a voice-over thing or like a dubbing scene, as we punctuate our lines with the right emotions as we read through. In the next days, we were asked to act with those dialogues, but it wasn't being shot yet. Following one's performance, the director discussed one's mistakes and analyzed aspects of speech: where to pause and how, where to stress and where not, levels of tone, attitude and body of language of the character at various points in the dialogue - keeping in mind the scene and using the depicted environment and so on. All performances and analyses went in front of the whole class, so that we knew one another's characters, learn from one another's mistakes, and help each other. The idea behind this exercise to help each other to make a good movie together!

Soon, we could learn to memorize the whole page of our lines, enact the scene with varied emotions � happiness, angry, depressed, drunk, cold... whatever fits the role. Once we were comfortable with the character, we created a small set or atmosphere that suited our scene, and we were made to act there so that we get used to the set atmosphere. The atmosphere was complete with all the equipment � only the camera wasn't rolling yet but brings in the sense of set atmosphere. " Monologues and Cold Reading" was the name of the class, and like the name suggests, this class was more individualistic than the previous one, as I am the only actor in the frame to speak the lines � and one won't have the advantage of co-actors in the scene (to wait for others dialogues) as in the previous class. We shot two such scenes, each three takes, by the completion of course. ( Editor's Note: One of the scenes can be seen here . This is a later update to the originally published article.)

I emote... (Class-3: Body Language & Acting Techniques)
The last class is about basic body language, and techniques to control the same. These techniques helped one in making one's body get-into the mood of various emotions � angry, depressed, happy, apathy, confident, and so on. The techniques were like shifting gears to control one's body language. Also a part of training was mental relaxation methods that would help us bear the extreme stress one could face in the filmmaking. We performed various exercises and control our emotions as per our wish! Those techniques were amazing. This class was called " Body Language and Acting Techniques".

Boy, was it fun!
As the workshop advanced further, we were made to play some cool games based on acting. A game called "Improv", is like the game "Freeze & Unfreeze": Two actors would do a random scene without any lines, just based on one's spontaneity! Anyone of us could call it "Freeze", replace one of the actors and change the scene completely! The other actor should respond to it too. This has got to be the coolest and the most fun-filled game that I had ever played � and we played it for a couple of hours together! Another game that honed our spontaneity was similar to TV channels: Actors represent various TV channels such as News, MTV, Sports, Movies, and so on, and another actor has the "remote control" to these "channels". The student with the remote can change the channel, increase the volume, mute the volume, and so on, like a real remote control, to which the actors respond according to those "instructions"! It's fun, sure! In another game, one or two actors host a party at their home, and the rest of us are given various characters of celebrities through chits � and the hosts should identify us! The hosts wouldn't know what were in the chits. ...All these games were apparently designed to enhance one's spontaneity leaps and bounds, and give us a fair knowledge of body language and control. We used to play these games more and more, even in lunch breaks and when we didn't have any class! It was fun, after all, and I got to play various characters through these games � Justin Timberlake, Mahatma Gandhi, George Bush, Mike Myers, a Martian robot, A Scottish bagpiper, a Quiz show host ala SRK, a VJ in MTV, a cry-baby, ...lots, indeed! Try these games yourself, and I bet you would have the best fun ever!