FLESHING OUT
Step 4
Core-belief provoking moment and an exercise of Sensorial detail
By Kimon Fioretos
(inspired by great teachers of acting)






Welcome back
We are not done with our directional part of the steps, we have not explained yet what
"subtext" is, and we need to work on super-objective . So a few more steps, but we are
entering a more practical and a more visceral path since we are going to take a break and
do an exercise before we come back to the last steps of part A.

So hopefully you have played around with core beliefs and you've also played around
with the wording of the phrase.
Let me remind you:

A Core belief is

"a decided, feeling evoking, negatively or positively motivating. Worded phrase That will dominate our character's whole consciousness.”


This belief will affect our actions and will affect our goal pursuing and our behavior."
I cannot express to you how important this part is.When an actor grasps this concept and how the phrasing of a core belief can deepen their emotional experience, things change drastically. Think of it as the umbilical cord
connecting you with your character.

In your wording:
● Try to be specific
● try not to be clinical

This is an emotional phrase.
Be creative, use strong words and phrasing that moves you, and one that truly correlates
with the character.
Have fun with it; test it around. Pay attention to how it makes you feel.
For example, if the character is in desperate need of love, or if she or he is denied true
love, the phrase.

"In need of love" or
Just "LOVE"

It might sound simple and, in some cases, specific (even though "love" is a general term), but it is clinical.
It moves nothing in me. However, change it up a bit and make it:

"The love nobody gives me" or
"I am not worth loving" or
"I will always be alone"

And something different starts moving inside of me. Maybe your character is all
about "POWER" but a single word will not bring enough drive or feeling in me but
change this to:

"How hard I have to fight for everything."
Or
"The respect I deserve."

Now we understand so much more about the state we are in. A belief is designed in such
a way to invoke experience, focus, and intense feelings of some kind. The action comes
when the character feels compelled to act on something in order to cope with the said
experience and feeling.

So make up your own now:
The character seems afraid of everybody and everything.

Write down some core beliefs:
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The character always experiences inner hurt and rejection
Write down some core beliefs:
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For the first one, I wrote:


"How frightening life is"
"What are they trying to do to me" (no question marks, instead a statement)


For the second one:
"I am unlovable."
"I am useless."
"The way they treat me".
"I am always left behind".


Now that we have decided on our core belief, something that permeates our entire
personality, we have a first feeling (impression) of our subtext.

So what is a subtext?

Well from both our first analytical work and now our directional work, a thought process
has started to form. An "inner monologue" as I prefer calling it. Our whole effort is to
change the 80/20 ratio.
When we start working on a character, we usually think 80% as actors and 20% of what
the character is thinking. Most actors reach performance day, and they are still under this
ratio.

We are trying to change this from 80/20 to 20/80.

20 percent thinking as actors (I know what is happening, I know I am on a stage, I am not
going to really stab my stage partner, I will stand under this spotlight) to 80% (my inner
monologue under imaginary circumstances, no technical stuff.)

Nevertheless, as I promised, an exercise is coming our way in the next step, core belief provoking moment exersis and in this step, the exercise of sensorial detail And to do this, we will use all our senses (sensorial detail), but this is not an affectiv memory (emotional memory-sense memory) exercise I REPEAT THIS IS NOT AFFECTIVE MEMORY!What we are going to do is use our senses and our good old imagination to change any personal memory!

Again! No personal memories!
So first things first, let me show you what I mean I will ask you to bring a real memory and

I promise you NEVER AGAIN

Do me a favor, read the instructions and the example and then close your eyes and do it
yourself:

Bring a clear, vivid memory of a specific place from your life, may be a room, or your
first classroom, a specific beach that you used to spend your summers at.

For this example, I will use my first classroom:

I will Bring back every little detail as I remember it: windows, blackboard, desks, chairs color on the walls, posters, daylight, smell, the warmth of the sun through the windows, a pen in my hand, ambient sound of the school, I am looking as if am there right this moment, through my eyes (no Birdseye view - POV only)using all my senses OK it's There. Good now...
- I will change the wall from white to blue!I will change all the chairs to yoga
balls.
- All the desks boom...gone!
- The blackboard I will take with my imagination, and I am placing it on another
wall.
- Windows from three become one huge one!
- From daylight to winter afternoon.
- Temp change
-  Posters change, only one big one remains it reads: "Athens 2nd high school".
- I hold a balloon in my hands.
- There is no sound. Everybody is gone.

I will change everything until nothing resembles my class

I still see it through my eyes, my POV (POINT OF VIEW) no looking at myself from the
outside.
NOW go do it...


QUESTION...

Is this the school, the beach, or the room you started with or a completely
different one?

No memory, this is a new place! We started with memory, but we changed everything!
Easy right?

So what if in this classroom, something emotional happens, something that invokes in
you a core belief?

Will this now be your memory? Or the memory of the character?

Well, if we play this right, it is going to be the character's memory!

See where I am going with this?
-We are going to build the character's memories from now on.
- We are going to utilize sensorial details as we build our past in the exercise of
core belief provoking moment.
However, Be patient because that is step five...

continue to fleshing out 5