4 Blocks actor leads masterclass at BIMM University Berlin
Acting is coming to BIMM University Berlin from September 2023 and with it comes a whole new world of creative possibilities for our filmmaking and music students.
To get them up to speed with the craft, members of our film and music faculties had the chance to step into the shoes of an actor for a couple of hours during an exclusive BIMM University Berlin masterclass with Lisa Marie Janke.
Lisa, a German-Luxembourgish actor known for her work on Netflix’s Dark, 4 Blocks and Tatort, delivered a 2-hour practical masterclass on foundational acting theory and practice.
Alongside her busy production schedule, Lisa will also be joining the BIMM community as a lecturer on the BA (Hons) Acting for Stage, Screen and Digital Media programme.
To start off the session, Lisa presented her background in acting, what she most loves about being an actor and introduced students to some foundational acting theory, discussing influential theorists and teachers such as Konstantin Stanislavsky and Lee Strasberg.
Students also had the opportunity to introduce themselves and what made them interested in signing up for the session.
“As a filmmaker, I think it’s always good to know what it’s like to stand in front of the camera. It’s a great way to get a broader perspective of how to work with actors, especially for me because I’m interested in directing. It’s good to push yourself outside your boundaries and explore how different roles work on set.”
– Ebba Olofsson, Filmmaking
It was then time to get active with some warmup and icebreaker games, including a passionate “RANT” exercise, where students spoke passionately for 1 minute about something they had positive or negative feelings about.
“The RANT was super freeing and fun. It was a nice way to get into improvisation, and it was very interesting because it was something I had never done before – at least in an acting context.”
– Jemimah Muusha, Filmmaking
Once everyone was warmed up and felt comfortable with one another, they got together in pairs to perform some scenes.
Before students performed their scenes, Lisa gave each person in the pair a different emotion that they had to portray. The audience then had to guess which emotion they were showing.
“I loved the masterclass! Lisa was a great teacher, was very passionate about her craft and the exercises we did got me interested right away. I also felt comfortable very fast, even though I hadn’t met the majority of the group before and hadn’t been in an acting class in many years. I found the experience very fun, and useful as a performer.”
– Symela Stefanidou, Popular Music Performance (Vocals)
“The masterclass was such a fun time! Everyone got over their nerves really fast once we got into the exercises. A lot of the things we did in the workshop were pretty applicable to musical performance as well. Plus, it was great to meet some of the Filmmaking students!”
– Ford Kjellberg, Songwriting
After her masterclass, Lisa had this to share:
“My first teaching session at BIMM University Berlin went really well and was a lot of fun! Teaching students from all over the world who open-heartedly and passionately participated in all the exercises made me excited for collaborations in the future! Being able to share my experience in acting and the tools I’ve gained was a pleasure. I was especially touched by the “RANT” exercise, with how open and honest the students showed themselves in the group.”
Lisa’s masterclass gave our film and music students a wonderful first taste of what it’s like to be an actor. These skills will surely come in use as our students collaborate with our acting community once they join us in September 2023. We can’t wait to see all that’s to come!
Are you looking to take your passion for acting to the next level? Join us on our BA (Hons) Acting for Stage, Screen and Digital Media course, coming to BIMM University Berlin from September 2023. For more information, check out the course or get in touch with our Admissions Team via email admissions@bimm-institute.de or phone +49 (0) 30 311 99 186.
