IMPROV: an Actor's Term for Improvisation

I am an actor. IMPROV is when actors improvise a performance using a specified "thing" as the "jumping off" point. It can have a time limit or no limit. It can be performed before an audience or have no audience. It trains the actor, among other things, to listen, to be "in the moment."

For this event I planned out a performance to do to the camera. It was to be done at Piha Beach, just over the hill on the West Coast. I needed the tide out (nice reflections on an expanse of sand), and mid afternoon so that the Sun was over the sea (rather than the land as it is in the morning). I calculated the last 2 days of photography would give me just that. I planned to shoot on the 2nd to last day giving me the last day for cover.

Shoot morning and I check my e-mails. WWP Digest is opened. "One more day for Photography"...excuse me?! You see this was the morning of the 23rd!! (We're a bit ahead of ourselves over here.) I scrambled to recheck the dates and indeed the 22nd, not the 24th, was the last day. AAARGGH!!!!!. HOW COULD I GET THE DATES WRONG??!! pAnIC...I could go ahead with the shoot and put LA time on it!?!! If I got it done before lunch I could put London time!!?!!! No Michael, that's not only against the rules, it's not in the spirit of the event!

OK. This is where IMPROV comes in. It teaches you to think laterally. I'll just have to improvise a VR from photographs taken during the shoot period.

2 days before shooting begun my D70 had a stroke and I could not revive it. That's OK, I thought, It's time for a replacement and it'll get to me before my end of time shoot. And so it did, just, but just is alright, it arrived. When I checked my folders I only had 2 sets of photos. Some snaps from my old, dusted off, Samsung compact, taking Toby the dog for a walk on the 17th, and some snaps taken in the city after an audition for a movie (appropriate for the theme!) on the 22nd. I got both ends of the shooting period covered!

Improvisation.... 2 disparate scenes to become one...this is where the performance is performed and whether the outcome is art is really up to you the beholder. It was fun to do, fun to be involved with IMPROV again!

Cheers Michael!!

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Australia - New Zealand / Australia

Lat: 37° 56' 58.04" S
Long: 174° 36' 24.28" E

Elevation: 101

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Samsung L74, Nikon D90, Handheld. PTGui Pro 8.2.2, Photoshop CS3 extended