Films and live plays have a few of the same requirements and traits. Both require a designated time and place for them to take place and both need a live audience as well. A common convention that is present in both film and in theater is the lights dimming when the show is about to start. I noticed after attending "Dearly Departed" and having been to the movies several times, it is a given that in both situations the audience always gets quiet, settles down, and focuses all of their attention to either the stage or the movie screen as soon as the lights are dimmed.
With that in mind, live performances and films are much more different than they are the same. When a person attends a movie nothing is expected of them. In other words, whether they enjoy the movie or not, whether they laugh or cry, clap or not, the movie is still going to go on and the performance from the actors on the screen will be the same no matter what, it is impossible of changing. On the other hand, when it comes to a live play, the audience plays a large role in the performance of the actors on stage. With "Dearly Departed" being a comedy, it is expected that the audience will laugh at times. I noticed that when the audience did laugh out loud during the play, it boosted the energy of the actors and it was obvious to see that they fed off of the approval of the audience. There are also some obvious differences between seeing a live performance and seeing a movie. A few of which include applauding from the audience, intermissions, the performers bowing, etc.; all of which do not occur in films.
Another major difference between the two is that once all the final cuts are done to a movie and it is complete, it will never change. The same is not true with live theater; each performance will be different depending on how the audience reacts, how the actors are feeling, etc. I heard a girl who was one of the actors in "Dearly Departed" talking in class a few days before the opening. She was saying that there was going to be a matinee show on Sunday and that she did not expect it to go as well because the audience was probably going to be all older people who would not be as involved and probably wouldn't laugh as much as the other audiences would. After hearing this, I could definitely see where she was coming from and realized that not only does the audience have a huge impact on the play, but because of factors like this each performance is going to vary slightly. This would obviously never occur with a movie; whether the audience is young or old, happy or sad, small or large, the movie is never going to be different from when it was played the last time.
Overall, although there are some similarities between live performances and films, the differences between them are much greater.
Kristin,
ReplyDeleteThoughtful and complete.