Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Just wondering what people's views/thoughts/opinions are on 'memory'?

Do you believe that as you get older, childhood memories become more vivid?

Do you believe that the brain can make up a memory?

Do you believe that we tend to embellish a memory?

Should be memory be deemed as credible evidence, say in a court of law?

Are memories real?

Do you believe that as you get older, childhood memories become more vivid?? No

Do you believe that the brain can make up a memory? Yes

Do you believe that we tend to embellish a memory? Yes

Should be memory be deemed as credible evidence, say in a court of law? No



Are memories real?? :-\? ?This is actually a very interesting question. Memory is filled with images from our past but? some of them disappear or are altered for some reason ; fi, generally a trauma can cause :
 a - "deletion"? of memories that is to say amnesia
 b- partial or total "deletion" of the memory attached to the event which caused the trauma. Some of this "deleted" memory may anyway return when a person is aslept? and it will appear as a nightmare.
 
I use "deletion" with care because i don't think that a? memory can be deleted. A little event can sudenly remind you of something which occurred twenty years ago and make you realize that you had totally forgotten about it.? But the memory was still here, somewhere in your mind.
Are memories real ? You "can't put your arms around " them, can't touch them. They are fluctuant, altered. You can modify a memory if it is suitable for your mental condition. But memories are also part of your personality. They help you to make your way in this world...? :yes:
 Let's say that you're like? a mirror, which can store what surrounds you as memories. But? since those? are an imperfect? reflection from the past, they're not real.


Edit/ i know you gonna say : "hey, since we can modify them, they're real !" ,  ;D

Do you think that more than one person can share the same memory?

Can a word trigger off a memory? A smell? A sight? What about flashbacks? Hypnosis? Why do we remeber faces more than names?

Why do songs evoke memories? How many times do you hear someone say "gee, that song takes me right back"?

I was trained as a method actor. More specifically, I was trained using the Stanislavsky technique. In a nutshell, the Stanislavsky method is all about 'becoming' the role. As as actor, I have been taught to use my own emotions and memories to bring a character to life. There is clever merging of reality. To feel it, one has to be it. For over three years, in acting class, we would do an exercise called 'emotional memory'.

Basically, we would act out a basic scenario - say cleaning the bed room. At some stage during the scene, we were required to find something in the room that would suddenly trigger off a memory - and the whole mood would change.

For example, cleaning under the bed.......find a long lost locket........locket happens to contain a photo of a an ex or something.........suddenly, that photo brings up a memory about the ex.........the mood may change to sadness, or we may find outself laughing about a funny incident.

Are there any actors here, familiar with the Stanislavsky method?

That's how I know this message board and your posts are real...

No because even if you watch the same movie/attend the same event, you have your own sensitivity.
:o So you 're actually a dude ? ?

:P



I had never heard about this method before but it is definitely interesting since memory is linked to emotion.

Just to set the record straight, the term actor is used to refer to both male and female performers. In fact, "actress" is rarely used these days, equality and all that BS.

Not that i'm defending stolat or anything. "It" still sucks. :)

The exercise is called 'emotional memory' and it is all about the actor using his/her memories and experiences to give a  character real depth and real 'emotional memories'. It's all about making the character 3 dimensional. That way when playing a character it will appear that the character has a real past.

A method actor uses his/her experiences to give that character real emotions. It takes years of training for this acting technique to become second nature. That being said,? I remember in acting class some students weren't able to separate their own memory from the role - the trick is to know when to pull back. Sometimes, the actor walks a very fine line.

The amazing thing about method acting is that all the emotions that you see coming from the character are real and are based on some real experience/memory.

A method actor is very drained at the end of a performance. I think De Niro is known for his absorption into a role - where he actually 'becomes' the character he is playing for the whole 3 months or however long the shoot goes for.

Needless to say, a method actor will give a very honest performance because part of the skill is the the ability to be in touch with one's own emotions and to know oneself (and human nature) very well.

Two small points: DeNiro drops in and out of character on set all of the time. He's probably more well known for that than for being absorbed in his role.

And secondly, The Method isn't supposed to be hanging around on set with you anyway. It's prep technique, not performance technique.

i know madeleines do.

(http://clockendkitchen.fc2web.com/251104madeleines.jpg)


>> Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0394712439/ref=pd_sim_books_3/103-5493472-4140646?v=glance&s=books

I was going to say something, but i cant remember what it was now...

Probably something about the inherent "rulage" of giant robots.

While i do find this a topic of intrest I must ask what are you opnions on your posted questions. I find it rather annoying when someone posts a question on a wide topic but offers no answer of thier own for their own questions, it allows for too much of an open area that the poster can fabricate their answers into waht would be more highly accepted by the readers of the thread.

Just open questions of a philosophical nature.

Not trick questions - just asking for your opinions on memory.




Yes, I agree with your points 25. The method is a technique - with training, it does become second nature. De Niro is an amazing actor, who is in control of his craft. I guess the article I read in (I think it was Rolling Stone - not 100% sure it was RS) was not entirely correct then.

I think of it as a tap - that one can turn on and off. That being said, sometimes, the actor will find that he/she has created such an affinity to that character - the character almost becomes an old friend.

However, there are cases, eg. Martin Sheen at the beginning of Apocalypse Now, where the actor 'channels' something deep inside. The lines between performance/technique and reality become harder to separate.

If not taught properly, I'm of the opinion that method acting can almost be a dangerous thing to dabble in. It leaves the actor very vulnerable - as there is an 'open tap' directly to one's emotions. I think it almost killed Monty Clift (a few times)!

Too much alcohol erases memory.

If I don't remember it I didn't do it!

And if she said she was 16...

That's a good idea to build upon SinCut "if I don't remember it, then I didn't do it", so if we do remember something it means it must be real then?

Not always true, sometimes I'm aghast after checking in here ... oh the power of Bourbon.

It depends.. am I telling about it to my friends,

Or is her bf asking.

Axl makes reference to memory in at least two of his songs - apart from the obvious one, this line from Yesterdays is one of my favourites:

Yesterdays means nothing to me, time to turn the page in my book of memories......

I like the analogy that we carry around a 'book' of memories.

yes and i requested your opnions on your own questions. in case you memory fails you you have not supplied those answers

Well, in providing an example of how an actor uses his/her own experiences to make a character real - to give that character 'real' memories - you may be able to ascertain how I feel about the power of memory. Too obscure for you?

I am a visual thinker, so I am able to store images in my mind very well.

I have also mentioned how I like the analogy that we carry a 'book' of memories around with us.

Philosophical questions do not have clear cut answers, these questions are there to be discussed.

One thing you need to know, though, I don't fabricate answers - read again what I have said about honest actors.

You don't have to contribute to this thread, you know...

I believe it is

Time just fades the pages in my book of memories

but that doesn't change the book part but I just wanted to say it. :)

We disagree, on an epic scale. You seem to be saying "if you study the method eventually the exercises become so ingrained that you can just flip switches during your performance to achieve whichever emotion is necessary," which sounds like the exact opposite of what experienced, professional method actors tend to say. Actually, just look up Dustin Hoffman's recent "Inside The Actors Studio" appearance for an opposing view from a more valid source than I. 

 :rofl: damn my ears!

Yes, the book part is the important bit though.


25, what I am saying about the tap is that the exercises enable one to connect the plumbing that leads directly to one's emotions or more specifically to the solar plexus.

As I am an experienced actor, who has worked professionally, I often find it hard to explain the 'tricks' that I do, the secrets of the trade. It often happens without having to think about it too much.

When the tap is open, that's when the magic happens. I'm often too absorbed in it to know which switches I am actually flipping.

And with that, any pretense at taking your statement seriously is rendered moot. Magical Acting Faucet Chakra! Get yours today!

...and yet they still let you out of the care home!

 

If you know anything about The Method you would know what I am referring to when I say the solar plexus. Stanislavsky has written books about it.

You don't get the Magical Acting Faucet Chakra unless you do the training........years of it.........

Oh shit, now Stanislavsky has to take the blame for this as well? DAMN YOU, STRASBERG!

no want to post jsut as i stated b4 my reasons behind it

memories can deceive a person of factual information as time passes
child hood memories can become more accurate but agin back to my first statement, they can be altered as one gets older
most certinly the brain can fabricate memories. People that have suffered tramatic events do on occasion create a false memory to mask the real events that occured to protect that person from the damage that the event caused.
it really depends.... from my previous point then yes it is possible, to alter the memory or overwrite it creating a seemingly true memory with extra information, that can embilish the actual memory. there was a documentry on discovery channel one time about the suggestiveness of a persons memory at varrying times after somethign happeend, simply asking about the color of something could alter the orgional statement or cause the witness to make false statemetns that they beleived were true. and as we know truth is really true so long as you beleive it to be true..... memory cant really be trusted unless it can be backed up with imperical evidence.
So no not to the full extent memory can be altered with leading questions and such...... if its backed with imperical evidence then yes its good to go

And Checkov. They came up with 10 Psycho-Techniques of acting.......




So they say.........