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Is first-person a lost art? I doubt it, but I have not found it consistently applied in my short time in the living-history world. Now, I am guilty by association and have not stuck with first-person, so I believe I can openly admit that we all miss it. Just recently, I messed up another person who WAS doing rather well at first-person. Why, you ask, did I ruin this person's "period moment?" Well, by then I had given up. "Excuses, excuses, you should have worked harder." That is correct, I should have, but I did not.
Before we can get into my point in writing this, there are a few things we should discuss, mainly, the "three-legged stool." There are plenty of writings about the "Man, Methods, and Material," but often I think we miss what it is all about. First on every list is the "Man." Why? Well, we cannot have materials or methods, or even something to recreate, without the "Man." The "Material" research is covered so thoroughly, I believe we focus all of our attention here and everything else can be damned. "Methods" are simple and easy to understand. We can spend a short amount of time in the drill book and then carefully listen, watch, and apply what our officers tell us to do. Sure, we make mistakes, but we quickly overcome this and the methods become second nature. Campaigner methods take a little longer, since we remove ourselves from many modern luxuries, but are quickly adapted to and applied.
Now, to my point (finally, you say). Why do we lack the time and energy to apply the level of research we devote to materials into the "Man?" Research into the man does not require extensive research into each locale where a unit we may portray hails from. We simply must understand the basic events of the time and then have a good idea of society. This is mostly one time research. There are more sources than one person could imagine when it comes to understanding the greater society at large. It may seem overwhelming, but dig in and you will find it fairly simple. Take the views you have now and just apply them to the time. It is not hard to have an opinion on life, but you must stay consistent. Take your own personality and create your generic character. I do this for every event and then I hone my character to the locale. This is where research into the "man" gets a little deeper and more related to the scenario.
Allow me to take you through the research into my last character. I took my knowledge of American society and what I knew about the region my character would be from. It was a border state and had people on both sides of the War. This knowledge allowed me some leeway in creating a good impression that was unique. I looked at the area my Federal company was from, found myself a little town and spent about 30 minutes reading about some of the local history. Then I found a Confederate unit that was raised in the area and looked at it's battle history. Since I was portraying a Federal unit, this may seem a little odd, but more on that to come. I knew that my event was early 1863 and that Confederate conscription was taking place all over in late 62. Now, here comes the kicker. My character had remained out of the war and at home with his wife until Confederate Conscription officers came and pressed me into service. The company I was assigned to was in the state and not far away when my character was pressed, so off my "Man" went to his unit. Not really feeling the whole secession thing, my "Man" felt it was time to take flight and at a battle where his conscripted unit was at he deserted and made his way to the Federal lines and where does he get placed when he volunteers? That is right, in the unit where men from his town were raised in the unit I was to portray. By the time this plan was made, I had a history, a local family name to use, a family name for my wife (if anyone asked), a home, a town, and I spent all of ONE HOUR. How hard was this? Not hard at all, I simply followed a single link from this forum that the event host had provided. One hour and I was set.
Now, this hour spent was no different than any other time I have done pre-event character research. In fact, if anything, I spent more time on this one. What I found with my recent event, as with every other event I have attended, is that the first person was limited to little jabs back and forth, and for trading. I am not sure had I used my town, or history, if anyone would have caught on. Now, get this, with all of my first person planning, I was so far out of character by the time I encountered another person in first person that I messed up their time. How fair was that? Not fair at all.
You may think I am here knocking my most recent event, but I am not. In fact, I enjoyed the event and thought it was quite good, but I missed the chance to have my research applied. I have not yet found a first person event, since I was unable to attend Westville (where I understand the first person was on-going the entire time) but I still seek it. Am I wrong in this? I think not. I simply think we are at a point where the stool has only two legs. "Material" and "Methods" mean more than the "Man."
First Person Information from the AC
Before we can get into my point in writing this, there are a few things we should discuss, mainly, the "three-legged stool." There are plenty of writings about the "Man, Methods, and Material," but often I think we miss what it is all about. First on every list is the "Man." Why? Well, we cannot have materials or methods, or even something to recreate, without the "Man." The "Material" research is covered so thoroughly, I believe we focus all of our attention here and everything else can be damned. "Methods" are simple and easy to understand. We can spend a short amount of time in the drill book and then carefully listen, watch, and apply what our officers tell us to do. Sure, we make mistakes, but we quickly overcome this and the methods become second nature. Campaigner methods take a little longer, since we remove ourselves from many modern luxuries, but are quickly adapted to and applied.
Now, to my point (finally, you say). Why do we lack the time and energy to apply the level of research we devote to materials into the "Man?" Research into the man does not require extensive research into each locale where a unit we may portray hails from. We simply must understand the basic events of the time and then have a good idea of society. This is mostly one time research. There are more sources than one person could imagine when it comes to understanding the greater society at large. It may seem overwhelming, but dig in and you will find it fairly simple. Take the views you have now and just apply them to the time. It is not hard to have an opinion on life, but you must stay consistent. Take your own personality and create your generic character. I do this for every event and then I hone my character to the locale. This is where research into the "man" gets a little deeper and more related to the scenario.
Allow me to take you through the research into my last character. I took my knowledge of American society and what I knew about the region my character would be from. It was a border state and had people on both sides of the War. This knowledge allowed me some leeway in creating a good impression that was unique. I looked at the area my Federal company was from, found myself a little town and spent about 30 minutes reading about some of the local history. Then I found a Confederate unit that was raised in the area and looked at it's battle history. Since I was portraying a Federal unit, this may seem a little odd, but more on that to come. I knew that my event was early 1863 and that Confederate conscription was taking place all over in late 62. Now, here comes the kicker. My character had remained out of the war and at home with his wife until Confederate Conscription officers came and pressed me into service. The company I was assigned to was in the state and not far away when my character was pressed, so off my "Man" went to his unit. Not really feeling the whole secession thing, my "Man" felt it was time to take flight and at a battle where his conscripted unit was at he deserted and made his way to the Federal lines and where does he get placed when he volunteers? That is right, in the unit where men from his town were raised in the unit I was to portray. By the time this plan was made, I had a history, a local family name to use, a family name for my wife (if anyone asked), a home, a town, and I spent all of ONE HOUR. How hard was this? Not hard at all, I simply followed a single link from this forum that the event host had provided. One hour and I was set.
Now, this hour spent was no different than any other time I have done pre-event character research. In fact, if anything, I spent more time on this one. What I found with my recent event, as with every other event I have attended, is that the first person was limited to little jabs back and forth, and for trading. I am not sure had I used my town, or history, if anyone would have caught on. Now, get this, with all of my first person planning, I was so far out of character by the time I encountered another person in first person that I messed up their time. How fair was that? Not fair at all.
You may think I am here knocking my most recent event, but I am not. In fact, I enjoyed the event and thought it was quite good, but I missed the chance to have my research applied. I have not yet found a first person event, since I was unable to attend Westville (where I understand the first person was on-going the entire time) but I still seek it. Am I wrong in this? I think not. I simply think we are at a point where the stool has only two legs. "Material" and "Methods" mean more than the "Man."
First Person Information from the AC
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