OddballGreg - A Day Of Acting

A fairly (un)related header image for the topic no? I'd have put something actually related in if they weren't all thoroughly unsuitable.

Yesterday, I got to go be in an extra in a new Afrikaans TV production called "Bloedbroers", wear a guard uniform, wear a prisoner uniform and make a bunch of experienced actors laugh at my strange personality. Lets talk about that!

Depending on how long you've been reading the TCSA, (or previously, OddballGreg), blog, you may know that I used to do a weekly segment called "Thespian Thursday" in which I discussed various things regarding my history in acting and some of the theory behind the art. (I'm not going to link to any of those articles because they were some of the first that I wrote and are fairly terrible. If curiosity is burning in your soul, feel free to peruse the archive via the bar on the left.)

Suffice to say, I thoroughly enjoy acting, and was quite happy to go and spend a day in the middle of Johannesburg being a 1930's "Tronkwag" (Prisonguard) for the typically insubstantial amount of money you would expect a nameless extra to be paid.

It was quite a funny experience to say the least, considering I had only be asked to fill the position 2 days prior by a casting agent who had somehow found my cellphone number. (I'm still somewhat tempted to ask where precisely, but I suppose when you blog online and post your face all over the internet, privacy starts to become something of a moot point.)

In any case, so I went to constitution hill, expecting to be fairly lost in the midst of the Afrikaans speaking masses while I waited to do what they needed me to and then leave. Perhaps in a note of blessing, nobody forced me to speak Afrikaans myself and were more than happy to communicate in English; though my mind was hard at work trying to pull up whatever modicum of understanding of the language I had just to better work with everyone.

Following a cup of coffee and a chat with a friendly looking older gentleman whom later ended up being my fellow extra and conversational partner between scenes, I found myself in the wardrobe department getting used to crew and eventually being given my guard uniform. I will point out that the boots were a size too small and made me extremely happy to be wearing my own shoes once the day was over. 

It seems to be that I am in my element when wearing smart and formal clothing, or uniforms... Also, I've just shown how silly you look when you blink in a photo. (Teehee)

Following a good few hours of waiting and a fair number of meetings with various other extra's whom I would mention by name had I thought to ask for permission, as well as some more experienced and well known actors from Afrikaans movies and series. (Admittedly, I had never heard of any of them, but I think that's more due to my own ignorance than anything else. In any case, many of them have tweeted and been tweeted about in the production, and you can find their associated Twitter accounts here.)

That aside, I got to speak to a lot of cast and crews from the sound, lighting, editing, make-up and wardrobe crews and had a genuinely fun and interesting time seeing how the whole process happens first hand. I also got to physically throw the main actor through a door for one scene, and inadvertently ended up landing another role as an prisoner extra when they realized the only person on set small enough to fit in their costume happened to be me. (This led to a good few jokes about what happens to guards who assist the prisoners. Teehee) 15 minutes later I had gone from respectable guard to scruffy victim of the law, and got to pretend to urinate for one of their scenes. (Which is rather hilariously awkward thing to state in hindsight, but it wasn't really that bad.)

In any case, that was the end of my work after that, and I was soon on my way home after a long, and interesting day. I think I would quite enjoy doing that again should the opportunity arise once again, but I suppose that's not entirely up to me.

In any case, do be sure to keep watch for new Afrikaans drama BloedBroers if you are a Mnet/Kyknet/Tv channel watcher, (I have no idea when and where it will be on.), if you want to see OddballGreg chuck a guy through a doorway. Other than that, if you wish to ask anything or simply mention how I sound like such a noob, feel free to do so down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear from you. Also, feel free to share this post with any friends you think may be interested in my laughable account of the movie recording from yesterday. Of course, if you would like to read any more articles like this, do consider liking the official TCSA Facebook page and/or following us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts, as they're published. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had and absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Happy movie watching my friends.

JovialJman - Beauty And Attraction

Doesn't that person look beautiful? The lazy behind the hazed glass does as well.

Different people are seen to be attractive for different reasons, Males tend to be attractive when they are masculine and females tend to be attractive when they are feminine. Why is that and what does it mean?

There are many studies that have been done about the attractiveness of people and genders, (most probably since everyone would like to be considered beautiful), and I shall mention some of the results of those studies in this post. Now some of these studies did not have many ethnic groups, so it may be biased towards western cultures, but I shall try be as diverse as I can.

Sight is often the first sense we use when meeting someone new, and often influences the most in the selection of a possible mate. The physique of a person can often be told from far away, so that shall start our discussion. Women tend to prefer men that have broad shoulders a slim waist and is taller than they are. Men generally prefer women who have curves, medium sizes breasts, long hair and that are shorter than they are. These are the most popular and not the only options. There are people who prefer the out of norm body shapes, such as slightly over weight, (this usually being where food may become scarce, like places in mid Africa), really skinny, (this is mainly due to media's distortion on what they perceive as beauty), really short and really tall.

A silhouette of a man

Several silhouettes of females in 60's style clothing

Women often complain that men look at their mammary first, and sorry gents, but science may have proven just that. A research has shown that almost half of the men that very studied looked a the mammaries of the female gender first and spent the most time looking at them in relation to other parts of the body. The size of them didn't affect it too much as men still fixated on them when presented with pictures. Areas that didn't get too much attention were the arms legs and the feet. These area's used to be the most seen place in the times where ladies were wearing layers of clothes along side men. But since of cultural changes, there is more skin showing now so our gaze has shifted.

Facial features also play a role in attractiveness. Facial symmetry seemed to play a big part, (this means that one side of the face looks like the other), however, if a face is perfectly symmetrical, it looks unusual and does not seem to be found beautiful. Women find men with a chiseled chin and jutting cheek-bones, but if they are too pronounced, then these people are perceived to be very dominant and unfriendly. Both of these features are caused by the relative gender hormones, testosterone for males and oestrogens for women. The golden ratio also seems to play a part in beauty. I did mention it briefly in this blog post.

Body scent is a way for people to find a potential mate. In the DNA sequence there is a large strip that plays a part in the immune system calle MHC. MHC influences the hormones that are release in your body odor. People often found scents of people with different MHC than there owns more attractive. One hypothesis for this is since people with very similar MHC are relatives, it may stop inbreeding, and if you vary the MHC you will get healthier children.

With all of these, culture and religion play the biggest part. Those in a religion to look a certian way, then those that do not look that way may be seen as unattractive, like monks with hair, or English men without eyebrows. Everyone is beautiful in their own way, and there is someone out there that will find you irresistible. If the chances of that are one in a million then there are at least 7000 people out there that fall in that.

With that positive note it draws an end to this informative post. I hope you learnt something and if you did, may you share this with others so knowledge may be shared. If you have any comments and/or suggestions please leave them down in the comments below, or on Facebook/Twitter as we here at TCSA love to hear from you. If you would like to see more posts as they are published, then please like us on Facebook and/or Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. I hope you have/had an awesome day, and thank you for taking the time to read today's post.

Stay beautiful people.