Julia Avila ’21, a liberal studies major and musical theatre minor, 在康考迪亚大学欧文分校读本科的三年里,她参演了所有的音乐剧和戏剧. But coming into the 2020-21 school year, because of COVID restrictions placed by the state and county, 她认为她在康考迪亚大学欧文分校的演艺生涯可能会过早结束.
“我喜欢戏剧,真的很想在大四的时候用一部音乐剧来完成这个圈子,” Avila says. “I was really worried we wouldn’t be able to do a musical at all.”
So was theatre professor Lori Siekmann, 是谁在寻找解决方案,为演员和观众创造有价值的艺术体验, without the usual freedoms. 她找到的是戏剧作品《十大正规赌平台平台》的“音乐会版本”,这是一部由演员兼喜剧演员兼班卓琴演奏家史蒂夫·马丁和流行歌手伊迪·布里克尔共同创作的蓝草音乐. Concert versions omit acting scenes, 用叙述的线索把音乐数字串在一起,使情节继续发展. Common in the world of theatre, 在去年的限制期间,演唱会版本变得更受欢迎.
“The students were so hungry for anything,” Siekmann says. “They just wanted to do be able to sing. There was excitement about this.”
他们的计划是拍摄这部经过修改的音乐剧,并于今年春天在网上播出. 11月在Zoom上举行海选,无论学生在哪里.
“在我童年的卧室里试镜并不是我想在大四的时候做的事情,” Avila says, laughing. She hung a gray blanket over her closet to provide a background, and recorded an audition on her iPad.
“为了找到合适的角度,我不得不把iPad堆在所有的书上,”她说. “我很紧张,因为我没有高科技设备来让它成为一场引人注目的试镜. I thought, ‘This is one of the strangest auditions I’ve ever done.但我很兴奋,因为我们将有机会做任何事情. I was feeling super-blessed.”
西克曼说,对许多学生来说,自录试镜是一种宝贵的教育. “这就像演员的名片,所以这是一个很好的学习过程,”她说. “我们讨论了很多关于把相机放在哪里的问题? 如果你有太多的空间,它会分散注意力,或者如果你有一个奇怪的背景或糟糕的照明. So many things can distract the viewer from what you’re doing.”
The cast then learned their music — 24 songs, total — over Zoom, and soon was rehearsing together on campus, outside.
“The first time we were able to hear each other sing as a group, to hear the harmonies, we all about cried,” says Siekmann.
The professional-level recording studio in the Borland-Manske Center 开辟了录制所有学生声音的途径,以配合版权所有者提供的完全精心编排的曲目. Over spring break, students went into the recording studio, using multiple isolation booths, to record their acting lines and vocals. 我们的想法是在拍摄当天对口型,无论是说的还是唱的. “我们练习了又练习,因为我们不想让它看起来像一部糟糕的假唱电影,” Siekmann says. “It was cool to learn how to lip-synch properly, because that’s a skill you need in the film industry, though it’s usually done the other way around.”
Avila, who played lead character Mama Murphy, 他说,提前录好他们的声音并假唱台词“太疯狂了”, 这是我经历过的最酷的事情之一,也是最难的事情之一.”
“We had to match ourselves, (在拍摄的时候)多拍几次,让我们的发音正确,在S和T的时候停下来, ” she says.
The effect was ultimately convincing. “当我的家人看音乐剧时,他们问,‘你们真的不说话吗?’” Avila says.
电影拍摄的舞台布置让每个演员站在不同的麦克风前, 每首歌的领唱都走到前面一排麦克风前. 这种情况要求学生们一边唱歌一边表演,彼此之间没有直接的联系.
“They couldn’t rely on tons of blocking,” Siekmann says. “他们必须学会如何与材料联系起来,感受身边人的存在,即使他们看不见他们.”
Siekmann, too, had her learning curve. Accustomed to directing students in live space, 她不得不将自己的视角限制在显示器上,显示摄像机正在捕捉的内容. Auspiciously, Concordia University Irvine is introducing a film emphasis this fall, and in advance of that, 学生们正在学习操作技术设备和对着镜头表演. 这意味着要学习电影布景的规程——比如“动作”和“剪辑”——以及演员的规程, it meant learning to act for a camera, not a seated audience.
我们都抱着这样一个愿景走到一起:“尽管有这么多障碍,这将是一件好事。.’
阿维拉说:“我们必须习惯那种腰部以上的表演,还有镜头角度和面部表情. “That was a unique experience. Musical theatre acting is so different from film acting. Film has smaller reactions because the camera’s catching it.”
在他们为期两天的电影拍摄中,西克曼承认自己“有点害怕”. I felt a lot of pressure to get the shots we needed.”
Once they began rolling through the 24 songs, they found a rhythm and finished nearly everything in one day. The bluegrass musical presents a fictionalized, 一个温馨的故事,根据一个据说是真实的故事改编的,关于一个婴儿从火车上被扔下来幸存下来. It is set in the 1940s and flashes back to earlier times.
“After we got done, that was our moment,” Siekmann says. “We got the feels. As soon as we were done we said, ‘Oh, my gosh, we did a thing! We made a movie!“在Zoom上,我们是不是都得呆在小方块里?,” she says.
康考迪亚大学欧文分校有个悠久的传统每次演出结束时都指着上帝, 拍摄结束时,学生演员们唱了返场,并在最后一个音符上一起向上指了指. “我们要感谢上帝赐予我们的才能,把荣耀归给上帝,”西克曼说. “You can clap for us, but in the end it’s all about him.”
对于演员来说,完成一部没人看过的戏感觉有点奇怪. 观众的情感反应一直推迟到5月的两个周末才在网上播出.
For cast and crew, 第二个回报是,西克曼预定了校园里的德纳礼堂(DeNault Auditorium),并在两块大屏幕上放映了最终作品, so that the cast and crew could do a final review. “I cried when I saw it,” says Avila. “我忍不住想,我们还能拍这部剧是多么幸运. I was so proud of us and beyond humbled by the entire experience.” Limited to an online audience, 这种独特的努力确实使外地观众有可能欣赏到这部作品.
Siekmann说:“和我聊过的每个人都很喜欢,不敢相信他们在假唱。. “We didn’t just make the best of it, we did something I’m really proud of, and we learned a lot of things we wouldn’t otherwise have learned.”
阿维拉说,学生们“非常幸运地使用了菲律宾十大网赌网站提供的一切。. We used the recording studio, and our own theatre. This experience was so special. 我们都抱着这样一个愿景走到一起:“尽管有这么多障碍,这将是一件好事。.’”