chronogically inaccurate

This’ll probably be messy at first. Hopefully I will give it some form within the next seven weeks.

Level 3 is being brought to us by Arthur Simone, one of the founders of Coldtowne. Level 3 is attended by the dwindling stock of folks from the previous classes.

Class #2 (Jan. 12, 2010):

Oh No. Arthur gave me crap for taking notes at the beginning of class. Which is totally fine because I shouldn’t have been. I should have been paying more attention to the actual exercise. He was right. I forgot about taking written notes for the remainder of class.

A new exercise tonight. It took us about 4 tries to begin to get a feeling for it. It’s called “Colverleaf”. We are gonna be practicing it for the next few classes. Here is how it’s played. One person throws out a suggestion. Participants will then volley ideas off the suggestion. After 8-10 vollies, the participants need to try to bring the idea back to the original. This exercise has a few merits for the class which Arthur defined. The one I remembered was that it gives us the ability to get closer as a team and be searching for ways to come back, organically, to the original suggestion

Arthur continues ask us to take it a level deeper. Don’t stick in the obvious stuff.

Class #1 (Jan. 5, 2010):

Begin to think one layer deeper than level 101 and 201 when developing scenes and characters. To get this depth, level 301 will students should be prepped for mental calisthenics. The first class was a stretch for most of us.

Where the hell is everyone? Just a thought. Tonight’s class was attended by four students. One of which was really not in the class, which is a bummer, because she brought something new. Based on Arthur’s records, there are more folks signed up. Small classes are great

Access mental data files. Think of the possible scenarios that exist in a bookstore, for example. Folks are browsing and buying, checking out others, drinking lattes, whispering or talking loudly, dropping stuff, chasing undisciplined children. Use the data stored in your mind to paint the picture of the scene.

Isolate: Wait for the first laugh (or in class the “first thing” and stick with whatever is happening at the time. Isolate this and make it the game. Try to isolate quick, within the first three lines. The sooner you get to it, the better.

Replicate: The idea is to take whatever got isolated and stick with it … usually make it bigger and more pronounced during the scene.

An example of the previous two steps. Two improvers take the suggestion “scuba diving”. The scene begins with them adjusting their mimed tanks. Within a few beats, one improver is informing the other how to get a high off of pure oxygen. First laugh. ISOLATE. The scene could’ve gone a million different ways from here. One of the ways suggested by el Don Simone was to stick with the “get high” theme and take it higher. Like, “Wow! That Oxy is rad. Have you ever freebased your snorkel? or mainlined your flippers?”

During the isolate phase, commit to either the real or unreal character. Make it clear to your partner; Let them play out the magnification. Lob your partner stuff for them to smash. Don’t try and be 2 silly people as the contrast is lessened.

There are endless opportunities to explore immediate family relationships. No wonder there are sooooo many sitcoms based on family dynamic. One of which was the tenuous love agreements of man/wife or girl/boy friends. One scene that had some potential was a woman who is asking her dude to fix a furnace. Soon, it is revealed that she has locked his toolbox away. Then there is a dialogue about “off limit” buttons being pressed. The laugh occurred when the tension released for a quick “I Love You” … then right back to the war.

Scenes that I remember from class. 1. Be’s old lady from eastern europe., 2. Be&S’s akward interview, 3. B&S’s bookstore scene, looking for a ship in a bottle, 4. Br.&J’s scene in the park, 5. Br.&J’s scuba diving, 6. S&J’s furnace fixing scene with the tools locked up …

Random Ideas for Characters and sketches to experiment with: a. Derived from SNL’s ShyRay. One character in a scene has dramatic physical reactions to partner, yet only whispers the response verbally. b. In the midst of a marathon, c. hotlines (prayer hotline, customer support hotline, insurance, etc) , d. “Depends” person, e. criteria for getting into heaven (if a gift is given to a bad guy, what is the offset in points), f. the question setup person or mr. beat around the bush, g. discussion on memory loss, h. “welcome to the pahhrtay bus”, i. diner at a fine restaurant that serve odd stuff (polynesian fried parakeet, fish nard salad) along side regular things (fried mushroom, cobb salad) and which wine would you suggest? j. inky pinky, k. dog dude (responds with wags and pants).