P.S…. Hi!

I meant to write this earlier, but I met a junior visiting my Video Production class today for MVNU Day.

*waves to all the MVNU Day visitors*

She got to enjoy seeing the results of our first video projects–four groups in this class, each doing a 30-second TV commercial for some food product. My group made a commercial for Chocolate Cheerios, and this commercial was quite well-received (and entertained the group). If it ever gets on YouTube I’m posting it here as well!

I liked seeing all the other videos as well. It really helped me see what works well in a video, and what we could do better, and what sorts of ways we can convey ideas beyond just saying them. One group showed the passage of time (as in decades) by changing the effect used on the clips… at first it was a grainy black-and-white, then it turned into a sort of sepia tone, and then at the end (in the present-day shots) we arrived at full color. I really liked that use of effect!

The best part of our video was our “talent”–the people you saw. We got some great people to overdo their facial expressions, and the little girl we asked to eat the cereal (my Resident Director’s young daughter) was absolutely adorable. That, combined with great shot setup and some really fun accidents that happened to us, made for an awesome project.

Quick One: Winter One-Acts

That is me… as Hester Hornbuckle… how’s that for a name?

“Shhh!!”

…and my lovely makeup gal, who did superbly with the age lines.

“MY pants!”

The funniest character, who also had the fewest lines.

The Winter One-Acts, parte dos

Remember how I tried out for some part in one of the winter one-act comedies here at MVNU?

We just had our opening night!! And it was fantastic. We got lots of laughs, and we just went all out on the acting. I enjoyed playing my apoplectic, decrepit old lady persona. I do promise some pictures later, once my friends get them uploaded to Facebook or something!

However–if you want something better than pictures, come and see the one-act comedies yourself! They’ll be showing at 8pm Friday night and at 1pm Saturday afternoon–February 5th and 6th–in MVNU’s Thorne Performance Hall. You can even call ahead and buy tickets!

The Winter One-Acts

OK, so it’s not quite “tomorrow” like I said earlier–but it’s close!

I went to the tryouts for MVNU’s J-term One-Act Productions over in Thorne Performance Hall, with one of my best friends, on Monday night. The tryouts lasted about… three and a half hours. But they were a lot of fun, and encompassed casting all the parts for 3 different comedies-in-one-act. The one I got a part in is called “The Small World of Millie McIvor,” and my part in it is as I said before–that of a cranky old lady who cannot be pleased in any way. My character is married to a “pincher” (an old man who likes to pinch young ladies).

My friend, a gal, gets to play two men in her play. An unfortunate shortage of male actors required that we in the drama department get a little creative, and my friend has an impressive “man voice.” She is bound to get some laughs out of the audience! By the way, performances are the first week in February, right during Little Sibs Weekend. I’ll be posting more about it as rehearsals get underway and we figure out what we’re doing with these comedies.

Tonight, after supper in our newly-remodeled cafeteria, I’m going down to the Wednesday evening chapel service in the Prince Student Union (which everyone calls the PSU). A friend of mine (and fellow Spanish major) is leading worship tonight so I’m excited to have the time to go!

(But that’s what J-term is about… having the time to do what you really want. *smile*)

La clase de español y los dramas

Well, classes did indeed start last Wednesday, and I immediately began loving my third J-term. I’m taking a conversational Spanish class, in which we play games… and more games… and then we talk about our lives or ourselves. I find it fascinating to listen to other people tell me about their lives, and to hear it in Spanish makes it doubly fascinating (because you can learn a lot about a person by how one overcomes obstacles such as that language barrier).

This weekend was hectic, involving a trip home, a car making loud noises, and cousins, but my mom got me safely back to campus just in time for Spanish class. As we unloaded some stuff from the car, she heard a couple of my apartment-mates practicing their presentation for our Spanish class, and started chattering at them… in Spanish. (My mom is fluent in Spanish as well as English.)

And another story tomorrow… about our winter one-act plays! After all my excitement about Gotcha, I decided to dedicate my time to other trivial pursuits, such as performing the part of a cranky, nitpicky lady in our upcoming one-act comedies. Tryouts were tonight and I found out just about an hour ago what part I got. 🙂