The Improvisator

London impro news and reviews

• Green Screen - the Reinvention of Impro

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Posted: February 25, 2010

Do you remember when you were at nursery school and you had to become a tree or a fish or somesuch? Well it was fun and some of the kids got a little bit overexcited! All drama schools have improvisation (impro) classes for their students. Things hadn’t changed much - it was still trees and fish and the like but it was all a bit more precise - cuttlefish/shark/squid/oak tree/willow etc.

However with the ever growing film industry impro started to take a back seat. Everything was scripted and directed and there appeared to be less and less opportunity for the actors to “express”themselves. It started with black and white silent movies. Then when colour and sound came in less was required of the actor. However as time went by the actor had to grow more into their role and we began seeing better and better true to life performances. The “method”system came and for those performances, for the most part, with the right acting practitioner, we could see the parts being lived.

In recent years however we have witnessed the return of actors needing to improvise and the source of this reinvention is, surprisingly, technology. This year’s big hit movie has been Avatar, which has been made totally using CGI (Computer Generated Imagery). One could be forgivien for thinking that this means that the actor has less to do and therefore less skill is required. However, if you think about it the opposite is true. The actors are all wired up so that their movements can be noted by the computer - not just limb movement but facial as well - ie - emotion. The actor does not have another to work off, to react to. They are working against a green screen that the computer then fills in. The skill the actor is required to have to do this convincingly is of the highest order and the only way to acheve it is to be a good, if not brilliant, improvisor!

So back to basics actor - grow into a birch tree (not an oak - there is a difference!).