The act of creating focus is where all the attention is put on one specific person or object. This is used in many situations. One of these situations could be in a crowded room with people all over the place but there is one person in the background who does something completely different from the other. An example is, everyone in the room is all standing still and just talking but the person with the focus is moving around. You could also have a memorial scene where everyone is very quiet and there is one person who sighs or makes some kind of noise which puts the attention on that person. You can also look or point at the person or object to give them the focus.
We did one activity which really allowed you to put focus on someone. This was a ‘Olympic Games Award Ceremony’. What we had to do here was have three people on the podium at different levels from each other. The third place was elevated a little bit from the ground to make him seem more important then the person giving the medals. Then came the second who is higher up then the third and then came first who was elevated much higher then both second and third. What we did here was use elevation to give focus on one specific person. You don’t even need to have blocks to stand on to create this effect. Someone who is bent forward and acts very small has less power then the person who stands upright which gives the upright person more focus.
Lastly we had a quick look at how place and space could help put focus on a specific person or object. If you are a character that needs a lot of focus then it is better to stand either at the front right of the stage or the front middle. The front right can put good emphasis on something because as human beings, we read from left to right. We tend to do this when it comes at looking at a room or a screen or play too. The right from the actor’s PoV is left for the audience which means that the audience will see a person that is standing on the right (or left depending on the PoV) much quicker then someone on the opposite side. The middle is obvious because it is in the centre of the stage which always gives some kind of feeling of power and emphasis. The reason that you must be in the front is because if you are on the right (or left) and in the middle back, then you might want attention but people will always focus more on the things that are happening in the foreground and then they go to the background. The only time that the focus would immediately go to the background is when the person in the background does something completely different from the people in the foreground and stands out.