Ursa Minor Arts + Education Center

FILM ACTING CLASSES

Beginning Film Acting

This class is a must for anyone pursuing or interested in pursuing a career in film acting. You will learn what you need to get started - where and how to get auditions, the do's and don'ts of auditions, and what is needed to land a role. Reading techniques for auditions and tools for rehearsing at home are included. The class will also address strategies for when you are on set. You will learn; the basic nuts and bolts of film work, on set protocol, and how to analyze a script in order to deliver your best work! During the class, your acting will be shot and reviewed by the instructor to address your specific talents and needs. You will leave this class with the confidence and skills needed to act in films. This class has both an Adult and a Teen (youth ages 14-17) offering.

4 Classes meet once per week. Please call for scheduling. $295

Intermediate Acting for Film

Are you an experienced performer who wants to learn how to adapt your craft to film and television? This class will give you the skills and tools to do just that. Taught by an industry veteran, you will hone and expand your craft. The class will focus on "acting in the moment". You will learn how to take inferred information from a script in order to create character history and maximize your scene. Through challenging script work and improvisation, you will discover how to add color and depth to your performance. Your work will be shot and reviewed by the instructor to address your specific talents and needs. You will leave this class ready to excel in film and television. This class has both an Adult and a Teen (youth ages 14-17) offering

4 Classes meet once per week. Please call for scheduling. $295.

IMPROV / PHYSICAL CLASSES

Improv

This class is an excellent way to have some fun and learn all the techniques needed to make yourself and your fellow performers look brilliant in improv. Utilizing theater games and narrative improv technique, this class will cover status, do's & don'ts, "dare to stay off", "dare to fail" and methods to use in the support of your fellow performers. You will leave this class ready to shine in improv and bring conscious life to the stories in your creative subconscious. his class has both an Adult and a Teen (youth ages 14-17) offering.

4 Classes meet once per week. Please call for scheduling. $295

Improvability / Improv for Non-Actors

Many of the tactics needed to be successful in improv are the same skills you need to succeed in life. This class will teach you techniques to help you respond naturally and confidently to any situation. We will work in a fun, relaxed, and non-judgmental environment. You will learn how to trust your own intuition and spontaneity, tap into your inner creativity, think on your feet, and present in a manner that exudes confidence. You will leave this class with improved public speaking skills and the confidence (and sense of humor) needed to handle the diverse situations thrown your way in life! This class currently offered for adults.

4 Classes meet once per week. Please call for scheduling. $295

Physical Awareness

By discovering your own body's range of physical expression and focusing on your awareness of it, you will discover one of the greatest creative expressions. In this class you will create a working technique to access images through non-character, specific movements. Utilizing masters Growtowski and Lecoq's techniques, this class delves into intense physical control, movement analysis, precision of expression and the dynamics of image creation through movement. This class currently offered for adults.

4 Classes meet once per week. Please call for scheduling. $295

Video Classes

Writing a Video Journal

Do you have a digital video camera but feel frustrated when it comes to assembling your footage for others to see? You know there's more to it than just "home movies, with music on top," right? Well, this class will show you how to turn your personal perceptions and reflections into coherent and engaging films, crafting an artistic statement out of the ordinary details of daily life. Neither fiction nor documentary, a video journal is a precise and exciting way to examine and portray the unsolved mysteries all around us. We'll learn to define intentions, identify and gather material, instill suspense, and align the various stylistic parameters to release the subtle reality of our unique corners of the world. For example, first lesson: find an intriguing corner in your house or apartment and film it so that I too am intrigued.

Having (and knowing how to use) your own digital video camera is required; Final Cut Pro editing systems will be provided.

4 Classes meet once per week. Please call for scheduling. $295

Self Defense in a Media Saturated World

It's safe to say that the average person today digests more visual information in one day than our great grandparents did in their whole lifetime. It is far from safe, however, to grow up inside this furious jumble of images, many of which were only generated to coax money from our pockets without us knowing why. By watching and discussing an assortment of film clips, this class will give young adults the critical skills to read between the lines, detecting embedded visual cues and extracting the real values amid all the wisecracks, explosions, sexy pouts and product placements. Learning how to defend ourselves as we navigate this densely charged and deceptively irresistible environment is most important because the visual market place, as it works to incite the very appetite it "satisfies," is not merely reflecting our world, but creating it.

Students must be old enough to view extracts of R rated movies.

4 Classes meet once per week. Please call for scheduling.

The Center offers a wide variety of educational tracks. Classes in these tracks include acting for camera, voice-over, improv, film making, sound engineering ...(more)