Group Creativity Project

Improvised Video Movies that Express Group Feelings

1029 Federal Street
Belchertown, MA 01007

Phone: 413-256-3493
www.GroupCreativityProject.com

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HISTORY

The first Group Creativity Project was a storefront cabaret--Chicago COMPASS, produced by Paul Sills and David Shepherd in 1955. It employed Barbara Harris, Mike Nichols, Elaine May and Shelley Berman, becoming the inspiration for Second City and Saturday Night Live.

This year on July 5, undergrads from the University of Chicago performed a replica of the first COMPASS show—exactly 50 years ago to the day. The show featured the "Living News," a scenario play and audience suggestions.

The format that brings COMPASS off the stage and into the 21st Century is MOVIExperience, which enables a group to brainstorm a scenario, learn how to improvise, warm up for the camera and shoot all day until its video is ready to be screened for cast and friends.

For almost a decade Group Creativity, a team of trainers and designers, has been producing these short video movies that express group feelings. Dozens of MOVIExperiences have been produced by social agencies, corporations, families and school groups in Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. Many of them are discussed in our guide to video movie making, "That Movie in your Head."

BUY OUR GUIDE TO IMPROV VIDEO MOVIES AND GET SHEPHERD FREE

CURRENT ACTIVITIES

HOW to SHOOT a MOVIExperience involves a group of improvisers who visit each other's homes to perform on digital video and the Drama Dept of a school that wants to make a video movie in one semester. We're reaching out for groups to test 'Word Play'--a format that's flourished at parks, beaches and cafes. It calls for 3-5 players, who alternately improvise tough games and invite spectators to "find their own voice"--by touching a primal sentiment. A comedy group in New Hampshire was the first team to test Word Play.

ARCHIVES on COMPASS and its successors for the University of Chicago Library. Assembling video and audio tape, photos, posters and memos including self-evaluations and schedules from the 80's, 90's and 2000's.

GROUP NOVELLA, a new format being written on line by a half dozen authors, two editors, a facilitator and friends looking over our shoulders.

History and Current
 

WHAT TO EXPECT IN A VIDEO IMPROV CLASS

Teamwork. Careful planning. Unexpected camera angles. Natural dialog. Emotion (rather than plot) driving the story. RESULT: You don't get ten times more tape than you have time to screen. You don't get eight takes for every cutaway, or 4 readings for every line of dialog. There's no video overkill. Editing is minimal. There's little blase camera work or lazy interchanges between players.

Improv makes things close & hot—it reveals feeling and happenings. The conventional play or movie script is performed at a fairly even pace. The improviser is looking constantly to change the pace and surprise his partner. They both know that a predictable pace is not natural; surprise is.

OUTREACH TO TRAVELERS, STUDENTS, AND CAMP DIRECTORS

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