 I just sat down to log on to Zoom because today is the first day of the actor. Meisner Fundamentals class I'm taking with the Meisner Center today is day one of five weeks. So the next five weeks of my life, Monday through Thursday from 7 to 10 p.m. I'm going to be doing an acting class in my bedroom. Hi, my name is Velkika and I'm an actress and I make acting related videos all of the time. Acting experiences, just acting things. I just finished taking the Meisner Fundamentals online and oh man, I have so much to say about this. It taught me so much. I have never taken an action class that affects me so much in my personal life as well as in my artistic life. I just finished day two of the acting class and today we actually went over about 20 minutes, which I don't mind at all. We worked a little bit on the word repetition game and it's only day two and I'm already terrified. I'm terrified because I know this is going to bring up a lot about my personal life, about how I feel about myself, about my relationships with the people that I love, the people that I don't like, but I'm excited because I know this is going to help me be more truthful and I'm really excited to share this with you guys. It is not for everybody. There is an interview required. So let me just tell you about it. First, let me tell you how I found out about the Meisner Center in Burbank because that is so important when you're doing research for classes. It's really important to get feedback from people that you know before you pay a bunch of money. Of course, you can audit a lot of the classes, but in general, I trust actors I have worked with before and people that I know work similar to me because there are all kinds of acting classes and no, this acting class is not for everybody. You definitely have to be ready for it and I'll talk about that a little bit later. But I worked with a couple of actors back in 2013 or 14 and one of them, Amir, completed the program, loved it, told me about it and then Carlos, he's done one year and I believe his second year was 2020 and then the pandemic happened. So they have to stop. Those are two people that I really trust in actors, artists that I admire and because they were enjoying it so much, I decided let me go audit the class. So back in January of 2020, I believe it was January. If not December of 2019, I audited the class in Burbank because they did have an in-person class that you could come into and get an idea of it and you would be in the room with a bunch of other people who were also interested in it. I remember being in that class and being like, wow, this is, it feels so natural to be in this environment and we did a couple of exercises and Ranjiv, I really, really enjoy his energy. He is very honest. So I can definitely see how some people might take it as like too much for them because some people don't want to hear the truth. Some people don't want or they're just a little bit more delicate. After that audit class, I remember calling my boyfriend and being so excited and I told him like, this is what I need to do. I have to take this class is exactly what I need for my acting to develop for my acting career to, you know, to be more confident in auditions and as an actress in general. And because that class was nine months twice a week and it was the days that I happened to have off. I decided not to take that acting class because it would mean that I could not visit my family at all, which is funny because I haven't been able to visit my family at all because of the pandemic. A few months ago, I believe it's a few months ago, I decided to make a video of different online classes because I was looking for online classes and I went on to their website. The next one is the Center Meisner Center. I don't think they had this before, but now they have something called online Meisner Fundamentals. Oh, the full Meisner technique cannot be taught properly online. Online classes should not cost the same as in-person classes. Wow. It says it's $200, but is it $200 a week or for the whole course? Wait, it's $200 for the five weeks? I want to sign up for that. And it turns out that they're doing online Meisner Fundamentals, which on their website, you can see that they're offering a very limited version of the fundamentals of Meisner and they don't believe that they can actually give you the full scope of the Meisner technique online and they don't believe that they should be charging as much as in-person classes. So this class is only $200, which is crazy because it's five weeks and it's three hours every night. So for our class, it was 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and then on the weekends usually had some kind of rehearsal with a partner or some kind of homework. So it comes out to around $5 an hour, which is insane for the amount of growth that you have as a person and as an actor as well. And you do have to interview in order to get into this class because they want to make sure that you are serious, that you're actually going to show up, that you are ready for this acting class. If you guys want to do the free introductory session, it's going to be January 10th, which is a Sunday. You can go on their website if you're watching this in the future after January 10th, 2020, they are having more sessions, more of the intro sessions online. And after that session, then you can decide if you want to do an interview and then after the interview, they could invite you. If you do decide to take this acting class, I would highly suggest to have a space where you can move around because you are going to have to get up and move around and do different activities. I have some water. I have some lights because it's a little bit dark. I only have a couple of lights over there in the room and then I have a notebook and they told me to have some space behind me. Make sure you have lighting so everybody can see you because of course you want them to be able to see if you're going to be doing different acting exercises and have good Wi-Fi because it's on Zoom. I check my course with Ronjeev but there's also another faculty member and his name is Martin. I don't have any experience with him but I'm not sure if he's also teaching them. This is my experience that I had with Ronjeev. I had already done the intro session in person about a year ago. So I skipped the intro session and emailed Ronjeev and said, hey, I see that you're having this. I would love to interview and see if you would have me for the fundamentals and he interviewed and he invited me and I was so excited. Paid the $200 through PayPal really easy and then you get a link for Zoom. So now I'm going to tell you my experience with the acting class, everything I learned. Of course, I'm not going to give away any spoilers because if you do end up taking this class, I don't want to ruin it for you and I want to be respectful of course to the Meisner Center because I am so grateful and oh, by the way, yes, I definitely want to go back as soon as they have the capacity, we all have the capacity. We can all do it in a healthy way. I'm definitely going to take the Meisner in person. As you can see all of this online but they have a few different ones. So right now, of course, it's only the online one and then in the future when we can go back to in-person courses, it's going to be either the two nine month sessions. So you do two years essentially or you can do the five week intensive and as far as I could see online, it's three different sessions of five weeks. As you know, there's so many different kinds of acting techniques and this one I happen to love and I happen to really connect with and I know this is the acting technique that I would like to continue to do. Although I'm going to take different acting classes, voiceover classes in general to, you know, keep doing classes because I found that that's something that I have loved during quarantine taking different courses and having a time where I can be with other artists. This one is absolutely my favorite. It's the one I've learned the most from. Ranjee was the instructor for this course and he is so truthful. I've never had a person be able to read me as he did or maybe other people weren't being honest with me because he always knew if something was affecting me, if I was thinking about something, you know, because because I'm obviously sharing it in my face, that emotion but I had never had anybody be that truthful with me and in that class, he really taught us to listen to the other person and really see what they are giving that I found so, so valuable, really giving your attention to the other person because in the past, whenever we studied text, you would have to think about the text, think about the situation and not so much how the other person is affecting you as in them as a being rather than how they're affecting you because of the words they're saying, if that makes sense. And he is very, very honest and truthful and I would say you have to be ready for this type of acting class because it's not that he's intense, it's that the truth is intense in general. So if you're not ready to really be honest to yourself about your life, about your artistic life, if you're not ready to confront that, I would say come back to this class when you are mentally in a better place. In the acting classes, we also spoke about the business. Ranjiv was great in sharing so much with us about the business. A lot of the things that I talk about here on my YouTube channel like SAG, how to get an agent, different casting websites, but of course he has been in the industry for longer than I have and he went more in depth with all of that information. So just think about the information I give you except he's also a casting director and he's, you know, a faculty member of the Meisner Center so he knows so much more than I do. He shares tons and tons of information about the business. So if you do end up taking this course, make sure you are ready to take lots and lots of notes. It was really cool to get a perspective from a casting director because he is in the industry and you were able to ask him things that you were always curious about about auditions or castings in general, casting websites, how do they actually work? What do the casting directors, casting associates actually see on their side? What could do we see? The actors versus what agency? Different talent agencies, just so, so much about the business. Talked a lot about careers and having an IMDb. Do you need a website? What should your email be? And I really appreciated that because a lot of acting classes, especially if they're going to be a condensed version, will ignore all of the business and just focus on acting, but you can't really do anything with your acting. If you don't know about the business, you don't know how to use it. Another thing Ranjeev really taught me is how to be truthful or I am starting to really be truthful in my acting and really mean everything that I say, which sounds really funny, but there are so many different kinds of acting techniques. And of course, I just started to scratch the surface on this technique. I just finished day three. We have been working so much on truly connecting with the other person and paying attention to them and not staying in our heads. And that is so much harder than it sounds. I am so processing a lot of what happened and of course, I'm excited to take it in person in the future and really continue to grow. Okay, one of the things that I am afraid of, and I'm going to be so honest with you guys because this is something really scary One of the things I don't like about acting is that I sometimes get nervous about that bleeding, you know, acting and real life bleeding. So one of the ways that Ranjeev was explaining it was like the manifestation fear that if you are playing a serial killer, you're scared that you're asking the universe or whatever you believe in to be a serial killer. And I know that sounds a little bit crazy and that specifically is very drastic, but I am sometimes afraid of, you know, if I'm playing somebody that things a certain way that I will also start to think that way, but he started to help me to put lines there and say, okay, look, this is my artistic life and this is what's happening in my artistic life and this is me and this is how I actually feel. So he really helped me relax in that manifestation fear. And I'm of course working on it. I mean, all of this is just the fundamentals of starting everything, but it was so nice to have somebody of his caliber, somebody that knows so much, give me advice and a fear like that. There were also some other actors in this class, of course, they had different issues or different hurdles that they wanted to get through and we definitely talked about that at the beginning, what we wanted to get out of this class and it was really cool to see the growth of everybody and how much everybody enjoyed it. I have known that I want to be an actress for a long time, but something that I came into my mind during this class or in one of the conversations we were having is the reason why I have to be an actress because often when you're an actor, people will ask you why are you an actor or why do you want to be an actor? And when I first decided it was because I saw how powerful acting was and storytelling and how you can teach people about different things. So if something didn't have the attention that you thought it deserved, you can do a film about it or you can do a series or some piece about it. And I thought, okay, well, it would be really cool if I could help people make them happy or teach them about something that they didn't know before. And also I really, I really enjoy it. I love acting. I've always had so much fun and something that felt so natural to me when I first tried it and I felt so much joy. During this class we were talking about how emotional I am and how in my family, I'm always labeled as the emotional one or the dramatic one or the, oh, don't tell her. She's too sensitive. Like, let's wait until it's over. I've always been the person that other people judge because of my emotions and in different office jobs, you're always asked to leave, you know, your problems at the door or be professional. And in acting, of course, you do have to be professional but acting is the only career that you can really act, express your emotions, direct them in an acting way and be praised for it and be liked for it. And in the acting world is the only place where I could fit in while being myself, while being my emotional self but while being me and that is the reason why I have to be an actor because it's the only career where I can feel without feeling bad for it, you know, without having to keep it in, push it away. But of course, I hope I'm making sense because of course, you still have to be professional. I mean, I'm not going to, you know, start crying in the middle of a meeting when we're trying to settle a deal, a contract or something. But what I'm saying is that you're allowed to feel a lot of emotions when you are on set. You can put it into your work. That was my experience in the Meisner Center's online fundamentals and I am so grateful. I hope you got something good from this. I have lots of friends from the Meisner Center that also took this. So it may be it'd be cool to interview them as well with their experiences with this. But as I said, all of their information is on their website. Of course, as always, I will leave it in the description. Your next intro class is January 10th and then you'll have to interview and then they will let you know if you will be one of the next eight people in the next course. Thank you so much for watching at the end of every video. I feature another channel. This is today's feature. If you would like to be featured on my next video, make sure you're subscribed, like this video and leave me a comment.