Exercise: Black & White to Vivid Color in Motion Exercise

Best done as an individual

This is a great way to get into character and the moment of the song. Practice it often to make your performance come alive every time.

Steps

1. Image that you are holding a black and white photograph that shows the moment right before the song or scene starts for your character.
2. Make sure that picture is detailed and clear in your mind.
3. Now imaging yourself stepping into that picture and it becoming a 3D world around you.
4. Find your character in that 3D world. Observe them by walking around them in your imagination. Pay attention to everything about them from head to foot.
5. Imagine you then step into your character if you are their ghost letting your body perfectly fit every aspect of what you observed earlier about their body.
6. Everything is still in a frozen black and white.
7. Imagine that a magic solution is poured out onto the crown of your head and drips down your body then out from your feet filling the entire world around you and bringing it to color and life as it does.
8. Once the entire world is full of color, life, and detail then open your eyes.
9. Take a breath in tempo as that character breathing in the emotion of what they are about to communicate.
10. Start the song.

Using it in practice vs. performance

You may not wish to close your eyes during a performance as you prepare for a new song and you can’t take near as much time to go through this process in live performance. There is good news though.

It become more effective and takes less time the more you practice this.

If you take the time in your practice to really work through all the details and go through this process regularly the process will go faster and its effects will allow you to go deeper into the character. You won’t have to take more than a moment to go through this in your mind in performance if you have practiced it.