Diaries of a Wannabe Improvisor: Special Effects
With the 2012 edition of the Mprov festival coming to its official end on Sunday, the improvisers of Montreal were left with warm hearts, laughter-filled memories, and slightly more knowledge than before.
I was lucky enough to attend one of the workshops this weekend with a very talented duo from Austin, Texas called Get Up, featuring Shana Merlin and Shannon McCormick. The workshop, called “Special Effects,” provided a wealth of new tricks to add to my improv nerd repertoire, all of which I am keen to share with you! Here are my highlights from the lesson:
We experimented with slow motion as an added effect to emphasize important parts of a scene or to compliment action in a scene. Slow motion provides the advantage of exaggerated (and hilarious) facial expressions and reactions to whatever is happening. The problem with slow motion is that if one player initiates it, everyone needs to be aware and jump in, otherwise the effect is lost. This can be difficult if anyone has their back to the action, or if for whatever reason they’re not looking at their scene partner. To fix this, the Get Up team showed us how to use auditory cues. For example, if you’re about to engage in a slow-motion action you can use some sort of war cry along the lines of “RRAAAaaaaaaWWWWrrrRRRRRRR”. I know you know what I mean.
This was entirely new to me. We experimented with having one person create the illusion of an extended environment within a limited space. This could be accomplished by running in-place and ducking from certain things, crawling through imagined tunnels, or jumping over other things. Another player would follow behind, imitating the actions of the first with a slight time delay. The illusion was awesome! It really looked as though the two players were moving through space in pursuit of one another. Note that you can play with distance between players to create tension in this kind of scene, as a slight decrease in the distance between them will create the illusion of the first player risking getting caught. Also, this can be done with any type of transportation… Car chases galore!
I’ve seen music being used in scenes for added effect before, but this is the first time that I actually got to experience the effect first-hand. I loved it. It made me feel like a movie star. In fact, it made me wish I had a soundtrack for my real life. The right music for any moment in a scene, weather it is epic music for a slow motion fight, fast music for a chase, or soft music for a romantic moment, heightens the effect and truly drives home the emotion of the scene. My conclusion: I need to get me a tech guy, and fast!
So those are a few of the things I learned in the workshop. There were of course many other “aha” moments that occurred simply by watching the variety of great acts that the festival provided, but those lessons will be for another time.
Until the next edition of The Diaries of a Wannabe Improvisor: stay clever, friends!
