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What Exactly Is Improv in the Filmmaking Process?

What Exactly Is Improv in the Filmmaking Process? Unlocking the potential of play. DISCOVER MORE with our online filmmaking course. “Directors perform a vital function in scenes that are improvised, for they, in a sense, represent the audience.” Back in college, I attended a conservatory program for dramatic writing. Students took both playwriting and screenwriting courses for the first couple of years, and then they chose the path they wanted to follow. I chose screenwriting. Although I had my heart set on filmmaking and wanted to devote all of my time to studying the screen, I now see how studying the stage exposed me to many different writing and performance approaches that impacted my film work. Improvisation is case in point. During my sophomore year, decorated playwright and Guggenheim Fellow Dan O’Brien filled in for our usual playwriting professor, who was on leave. O’Brien’s work, teaching style, and overall approach were very different from our professor’s. For starters, he brought me and my class to the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York City, where his wife, Jessica St. Clair, was staging a play with fellow UCB alum Jason Mantzoukas. The show was called “We Used to Go Out”, and it was funny, honest, and exciting to see. Even more exciting was that O’Brien was able to get us backstage to meet St. Clair and Mantzoukas, who shared how they created the show and spoke more broadly about the craft of improvisation. For context, UCB is a sketch comedy troupe with...

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Published By: Lights Film School Blog - Tuesday, 24 April, 2018

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