How the Hollywood Package Course allowed me to achieve a better understanding of how to play characters
Perth Film School Hollywood Package was an amazing experience where you really got to personally know the people you were working with and your teachers/mentors. The course itself was very instructive and informative because you learn the different ways of how you prepare to play a character, through many techniques and methods. To play a character you cannot do it on the spot, it takes time, effort and research which your mentors explain to you. It is extremely helpful because you also need to have a background story on your character that your playing otherwise it would be boring and plain. Perth Film School helped me to understand how and why we do this, also explaining that it adds a whole lot of depth and spice to your character. When playing a scene, your mentor will give back constructive criticism on how you went, what you did well and what you can improve on. This was exceptionally helpful because they didn’t just say nice opinions to not hurt your feelings, they get straight to the point and in doing this it helped me focus more on what I had to improve on my character, how to make my character 3D instead of 2D.
Throughout the duration of the Hollywood Package, you also make many new friends who you get to personally know because we work together as a group. By having partners and groups it helped me to get different views on how to play a character instead of just one way. We perform scenes that our mentors gave to us to the whole group to make us more comfortable with performing to an audience, more confident. In doing so you will get feedback from both your mentors and your peers that you work with. We go through many scripts and each one different from the other so that we can create a wider variety of acting styles. Towards the end of the Hollywood package, for 5-8 weeks we receive scripts that we are going to do on our showreel. Every lesson we would perform the same scripts so that we can get more comfortable with playing our character and how to be better at playing our character. I would go home and practice almost everyday so that I could get used to the scenes I was playing, to feel like I was actually the character in that situation, and how I would react and listen and talk to other people if I was this character. Then after many weeks of practicing we film our showreels and it is such a fantastic feeling, knowing that you have done well and that you can always do better.
The Hollywood Package was an absolutely amazing experience and I am very glad to have achieved this because I now have a much wider variety and understanding of how to play characters, how to improve on scenes and how to have so much fun while in these classes, always joking around but also knowing when to be serious and focus. My mentor Nicole Moerland was astounding and I am so glad that I got to work with her and get to know her while doing the Hollywood Package because she is an amazing person who has a lot of experience in the field. She always had time for everybody, never just focusing on one person but on everyone. It was such a pleasure working with her and I hope everyone enjoys working with her just as much as I did. I am glad to have done the Hollywood Package and to have worked with many amazing people.
~Emilia Sparta
Watch Emilia’s Hollywood Package Showreel here: