Script work: Annotations and Subtext

Today we worked on character analysis and tried to find out what our characters are feeling throughout the scenes. Most people found that their characters were not saying what they were truly feeling.

Later on in the lesson we learned that when characters say something but feel something else it is called subtext. Subtext can be used to make a scene more dramatic because it shows how the character can convey a wide variety of connotations.

We performed our scenes without words, instead we used  our bodies to convey the emotion and meaning behind them. This really helped to improve the scene because it was more physical and so we could show our emotions in more depth, we were able to over react and develop our gestures along with spatial awareness which will help us make our final piece more fluent and balanced. 
In the second half of the lesson we learned to read between the lines, inferring and understanding the subtet that lay beneath the text. 

WHAT IS TEXT AND SUBTEXT? 
Text is the words and gestures that we see. Sometimes they suggest other meanings, and sometimes they just say it like it is. If I asked you, “where is the fish and chip shop?” you might answer very clearly, with no subtext: “just up the road.” No underlying meanings there – a nice, straight answer.”

But if the question were asked of a cute blonde female and she answered with a wink, “Why do you want to go to the fish and chip shop when there’s so much fun to be had here!?” we would know that’s not a straight answer. Many other meanings lie beneath the surface. She’s promising a good time. She has something else in mind. If you catch her drift, you’ll either say, “No, thank you,” or decide to stay a while. 

We encounter subtext all the time in daily life. People have a habit of not always saying what they mean; or, sometimes they realize that it’s not good form, or polite, or acceptable to speak in subtext, so they cover it up with text and let the real meaning simmer beneath the surface. Sometimes they want the other person to understand the real meaning. Sometimes not. 

This image shows the connotations which I chose to make with the  script. It highlights how the characters are truly feeling and how they are saying one thing but feeling something completely different (It also shows some analysing that I have done).

From this task I learned that words can be very powerful, and depending on the way you act or perform them, the meaning can change. For instance a character could be shouting ‘I hate you’ however what they might really be trying to say is that ‘I love you’.

These connotations of words/sentences are almost like metaphors and are some of the most important lines in the play because they all have hidden meanings that convey a greater message to the audience.

Just a bit of analysis.

My scene did change after the subtext exercise because I realized that it's not just about learning the lines and portraying them in a reasonably good manor, it's about believing and understanding the words and then getting someone else to believe and understand what you are saying. To be honest it's almost like an illusion, because you are making something seem believable when it's all an act, but as long as you make your audience believe the act then you are doing your job correctly.

This lesson I developed my creative side, I was willing to try something new and in doing so I realized that I preferred my new perception of the scene. I change the mood by switching the tones around to give the words different emphasise, I then made sure that I believed what I was saying and once I managed to do that the rest just came slowly but naturally.