Week 1, seminar, screen tests

Screen Magnetism: 

• to be on camera, portraying a certain look, song, act etc. capturing the audience
• to magnify a persona by the way they are perceived on camera
• e.g. in Marlene Dietrich's 1930 screen test she looks at the camera and uses her cigarette and stockings to seduce the audience (during this time these small actions would have been very sexual), she uses her cigarette frequently to show her frustration, she bangs the piano; eventually climbing it and sitting on to (something you are not supposed to do). She does these actions to grip the audience and to magnify her acting role. 

This video is of her screen test in 1930 for The blue Angel https://youtu.be/alaG0sEcGAo

A Hollywood screen test compared to Andy Warhol's own screen tests:

• Hollywood gives the actor or actress a role to play for the test 
• The people in Hollywood screen tests are normally famous for their acting and are taking the test to find the perfect actor/actress for the role
• Andy Warhol gave the people in his screen tests their '5 minutes of fame' as some of them were just normal people, his we're not staged and showed the person doing natural things like staring, sitting, drinking and some crying.

After watching many of Andy Warhol's screen tests compared to some from Hollywood, it shows that to be an actor or actress; there must be a lot of practice in front of a camera. Staring into a camera is almost like starring into a mirror, people become self conscious of what is going on around them and what they look like; Edie Sedgwick took part in a screen test for Warhol that took about 4 minutes, she was still and quiet and during parts of the test I could see she would become more conscious of the camera and look away or take a deep breath. In Nico's screen test, it appeared that she became bored and uninterested, she moved a lot and appeared to be making herself busy to avoid the camera. 

For me it is very difficult to be in front of a camera comfortably, I find it difficult to stay still while being filmed as I don't know what I look like or what facial expression to make. Doing this experiment is similar to the artwork from Marina Abramovic, she sat at a wooden desk for 12 hours of everyday without food or water and invited people to sit with her in silence and stare. In doing this a person can reveal much about their personalities, even without speaking. As she sat she was motionless and her body language was closed, she wore a dress that covered every art of her body apart from hands and her face, and by the end of most days she was so exhausted from the experiment she had to be carried out.   

This powerful project made me think of a video I have watched recently called 'Look beyond borders.' It was to show the strength and power of people in Syria who had fled for their lives, some had no family and were alone. A Syrian person would sit opposite someone from a surrounding country and they would stare into each others eyes. Some people spoke, even though there was a language barrier, others laughed and smiled, some even started to cry. 

This video touched me because it shows that people hurt and love wherever they are from, it discourages racism and encourages all people to help each other. It interested me that even though there was no speaking in some of the experimentations, the people could see how much hurt there was in the other persons eyes; it shows that all people can and do radiate their emotions and personalities through body language and their eyes.      


https://youtu.be/f7XhrXUoD6U