Research - Mike Leigh & Naturalism

MIKE LEIGH

• One of the most important contemporary directors in the UK
• First realized wanted to make films while analysing  the cinematic potential of his grandfather's funeral at the age of 12
• In his teens devised comic sketches
• Studied at the Camberwell School of Art then enrolled to London film School
• has since returned to be the Chairman of the Governors since 2000
• As a student started to write plays which were largely  improvised
• Became recognized for writing powerful TV films like Nuts in May(1976)
• Directing methods involve intense improvisation, research and close collaboration with his actors
• Starts projects without a script, begins with a basic premise which is developed through the improvisation 
• established clear codes of practise such as never letting actors discuss their characters anything but in third person
• players getting too close to their parts in firmly discounted
  "... people becoming the characters doesn't happen..."
  - Mike Leigh
• Actors only know what their characters do

NATURALISM

• Movement in European drama & theatre
• developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
• Refers to theatre that attempts to create a perfect illusion of reality
• Dramatic & Theatrical strategies used(e.g.):
• three-dimensional settings
• everyday speech forms
• a secular world-view
• acting that attempts to recreate the impression of reality
• Naturalistic writers influenced by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution
• believe one's heredity &social development determined one's character

How did we use this in our devising?

    Unlike Mike Leigh does, we didn't use his method for a long period of time before actually starting to create our scene, because of obvious time constrains, but we did begin the progress of our scene with improvisation and character development trough it. Talking about our characters, playing games like The Hot Seat and thinking about how our characters move and hold themselves to start the progress of our characters and to give us actors the knowledge to use to react to things just like our characters would when improvising. So, in a way we used Mike Leigh directing method, but in a shortened amount on time. It was a lot about exploring the character that was chosen for you on your own time, and finding out new things about them especially after we were divided into pairs. Once in pairs, the mane focus was creating memories for our characters, improvising when the two would first meet and some of the most important moments in their relationship. This all connects to Mike Leigh's way of directing and creating his characters and stories, we first create these memories and happenings that have moulded our characters. The final result of the character will be seen the finished piece, but there is so much character development that the audience might not be able to see or know about, because the importance of this development is to enable the actor to truly know their character and their life inside and out. For me, I felt that starting right away improvising the first time my character Vera and Yunuse's character Rick, met was difficult at first, but trough that improvisation we were able have in depth conversation about our characters, how they would act in certain situations and how they would react to each other. When we were then put into our final groups of four, or in our case five, we continued to improvise the first time all of our characters would meet. This really helped me with character development and further understanding Mike Leigh's method and why he uses it.  Because when we finally started to plan and improvise the scene that would become our final piece, it so much easier for me to act as Vera and think on my feet about what she would do and what she would think about this situation they are in. 

    Naturalism was the style we were all going towards with our pieces, trying to be as realistic as possible throughout the scene. We did this by keeping our characters in kind of boredom, since in real life, everyone isn't talking all the time, but there are moments of silence and uncertainty. 

 We needed to think about being realistic especially with our end, where Rick dies. The shock and the actions of the different characters needed to be done so, that it could actually happen in real life. Originally we had everyone just stay silent because of shock, but then after some consideration, we realized that this wasn't actually how most would act. There is always someone who go and try help, and so changed so, that we would actually have Craig be one of the first ones to run out and help Rick. After that Vera, probably still in denial about Rick dying, trying to go and wake him up. The only one not to actually do anything would be Xanthe, which seemed the most natural reaction to her character, a deeply unsure and depressed person who just cannot deal with this kind of shock. Still, in the end, when all of them realize there isn't anything they can do to save Rick, all of the characters sort of move into this helpless silence, where their youth and inexperience with these sort of situations come alive. All of characters are either in their late teens or early twenties. Naturally they haven't seen that much of life and so are feeling afraid and useless in this situation.