Jaci - I am pleased with your approach to both written and practical work so far - well done. Following your challenge week appointment. Please ensure that
you have checked your Markbook to monitor ongoing progress.
Your targets were....
•To ensure group momentum is maintained where possible. In particular forging ahead with rehearsals whether the whole group is available or not.
•To ensure the
group are ready to show scenes in our first show back to the group on Wednesday
27th November. To contribute leadership/directorial skills on a more regular basis.
Research & Exploration (SWED Work in Blog) working grade - B
Development & Structure (Practical Contribution)working grade - B
*If you continue working at the current level you will maintain your
grade. If you follow your targets and develop both your written and practical
work you will reach the next grade by the conclusion of the project.
Green - Working Grade
Red - Specific focus needed to gain higher grade
AO1 Research
& Exploration
Blog/SWED
Students
demonstrate outstanding depth of research that is far-reaching and
comprehensive. It is clear how the research has directly influenced
performance outcomes and practice for both self and others.
13- 15
Students demonstrate an excellent depth of research
that has produced a significant range of influence on performance outcomes
and practice for self and others.
10 – 12
Students demonstrate a good depth of research that
has produced a small range of influence on performance outcomes and practice
for self and others.
7 - 9
Students demonstrate an adequate depth of research
that has had some impact on performance outcomes and practice for self.
4 - 6
Students demonstrate a limited range of research
that shows superficial understanding of the material and purpose of their
enquiry. Research activity has had no impact on performance outcomes or
practice.
0 - 3
AO1 Development
& Structure
Practical/ Rehearsal
Students demonstrate
an outstanding involvement in the developmental process with a creative and
imaginative input that has a far reaching benefit to both their own work and
the work of others.
13 - 15
Students
demonstrate an excellent involvement in the
developmental process with a creative and imaginative input that fully
benefits both their own work and the work of others.
10 -12
Students
demonstrate a good involvement in the developmental
process with a creative and imaginative input that benefits their own work
and some of the work of others.
7-9
Students
demonstrate an adequate involvement in the
developmental process with a creative and imaginative input that impacts on
their own work but has little impact on the work of others.
4-6
Students
demonstrate a limited involvement in the developmental
process. They incline towards accepting creative ideas made by others with
little understanding or appreciation of its relevance to the intended
performance
Section - 1 - Research
The stimulus I have chosen to research is "The importance of DNA" below is all the resources and findings I have used.
In both these studies I found that even with twins separated or together they were both very similar in characteristics. I found that to be interesting as DNA seemed to be giving them the same interests and hobbies. Also it gave them the same talents and mental aptitudes.
So then I looked at genetic disorders, things that make humans different from others, many places state that missing just a few bases in one of your chromosomes can change your whole life.
For example cystic fibrosis is created because you miss 3 out of over 3000 bases in 1 of your chromosomes. This alters the shape of your proteins in your lungs which stops salt from being transferred across the layers which means you can have the build up of thick sticky mucus.
One culture that has many disorders is the Amish. The Amish was founded by about 500 German-Swedish settlers who joined over there traditionalist and religious views. However because they only have a small selection of ancestors genetic disorders are becoming more apparent, much like if a person was too have a child with a sibling.
IN LESSON PREPARATION
In lesson we spoke to each other in pairs about familiar topics such as games and books. Whilst this happened another pair would analyse our speech patterns, our movements and would write down quotes that they felt were interesting. Using this we created short dualogues that we gave to other people in the class to recreate in a naturalistic way.
Next lesson we performed the pieces and watched them to analyse how similar scripts could be portrayed in such different ways Moving on from there we created large mind-maps about a chosen character from TV/movie/books. We wrote down all about what they wear, how they talk and walk, how they are perceived and much more below is my mind map of Captain Jack Sparrow.
After this I was partnered with Rachel, and i interviewed her about people in her life trying to get as many characteristics and mannerisms they have as possible. Below is my sheet for that as well.
During our next lesson we created characters based on the mannerisms we had collected. My character became a 16 year old girl named Laura Anne Jones, she was a shy girl who was a closet lesbian. She had parents who are sickeningly sweet and she is always trying to rebel against them although she doesn't have the confidence to make friends in fear others might judge her. (Yeah, after a few mannerisms you start to speculate...).
Using these qualities we had to come in all dressed as are characters and remain in character throughout. My character only really had one other in the class that they actually connected with willingly. Surprisingly I found that to be the narcissistic business man (Kyle) who bonded with Laura over the mutual hate of where they were.
Next we moved on to frantic assembly, we gave ourselves a well known stereotype quickly at the beginning of the lesson and focussed on how they moved and interacted with others - what body language and signals they gave off - we then got into groups and began devising small sequences of movement that portrayed all our characters.
Finally we worked with changing the speed dynamic within a scene to change it about and make it seem much less naturalistic. We also restricted the vocals used so the scene was predominantly about movement. Incorporating both this scene and our section of movement from before by the end of the lesson we had a rough devised piece to perform.
Finally we did work on the practitioner knee high theatre company. They use children stories and other works already around them to come up with scenery that they use to create a story. For kneehigh we were given the story of Hansel and Gretel and were told to put our own spin on it. We decided to incorporate the story of Oliver twist and the living qualities of Victorian London to create a piece about Hansel and Gretel at a factory.
Having tried all the practitioners I decided to use mike Leigh's style.
In our first lesson in our groups we decided that we were gonna use all the stimuli but would focus most heavily on "the importance of DNA". from this we came up with a plot line for our story. We are all separate characters living in a world where the government has profiles of our DNA , Ellie uses identity theft to keep herself hidden from the government, but when her and the person whos identity she has stolen log into the same building together its locked down with all characters inside. The story unfolds as all characters believe they are guilty in some way.
The lesson after this we listed collectively as a group many characteristics of people around us that we know on to a big sheet to shortlist next lesson.
18/10/13 - During this lesson we were in character during a improvised scene. Our scene was a "speeding awareness" course. During this i found myself stuttering whilst playing my character, also that having a character that was easily frustrated but slow to say why help build my character and justify my already decided characteristics.
23/10/13 - Improvisational scenes between our characters. To log usuable lines and characteristics that can be possibly used in the final performance.
During this time we decided to start geting characters involved in our plotline so we could begin creating a script. However we had to find somewhere to start. So i suggested that each person does a morning routine for their character to get us thinking in the mind frame of our characters.
Below is my morning routine.
We also had time to begin creating scenes in which the characters had a motive to talk to one another. We started with Sam and I as "Carla and Chris" our motive was that chris was uneasy about the whole "lockdown" and that I as Carla was trying to get him to calm down. It was very experimental and just a first draft but it really helped people see where they could go forward with their characters.
25/10/13 - Improvising various scenes that could happen during our plotline, so we can begin to determine a script. Also to film all improvs. (Personal) )to further develop my character through improvisation.
During this lesson we began to incorporate more people into larger scenes that lasted for approximately 10 minutes long. Again i gave the characters motives so that we begin to see how the characters interact with one another.
Below is the plan we had to go through on the day.
Below each one I put a motive so that people would feel less worried about improvising for such a length of time as many people were very unsure.
6/11/13 - To continue to improvise scenes that could happen during our plotline so we can begin to determine a script. Also to film all improvs to further to develop my character through improvisation.
This lesson we tried to catch up Katie so she could have some improvisational scenes to work on. I suggested that we use lindsey and katie in a 5 minute scene about the characters cassie and jenny getting to know one another in the lockdown. Katie was having trouble in improvising so I suggested that she have a motive to talk to lindsey. This helped and we were able to create a 5 minutes scene between the pair of them. The scene is linked below.
8/11/13 - To review the videos we have created in previous lessons and try to draft a script and plot line for the lessons to come.
In this lesson we went over the videos we had already done and whilst others picked out lines that would be suitable for a script I focused on positioning and body language to find areas in which we could improve. Mostly I wrote down that our movent needed to be more involving for the characters, at the moment we are rather isolated. Also we don't have much change in our voices so looking into developing that would be beneficial.
Below is a picture of the notes I took whilst watching the videos.
It is a brief set of notes however using these we can further improve our scenes. We also created a 1st plot line draft with some dramatic techniques in brackets using what we felt worked from the video. Below is the text from that document.
-(Projector - The Date and Time or News Report).
Characters need to be near each other previously to the lockdown. Without acknowledging others so that we can show how coincidental it is that all of us would be locked down together.
- (Date and Time flashes up to move scenes through).
Within lockdown all of us in the same room.
Some scene ideas;
Do we suspect a mole?
(People can sleep or sit out for scenes between others) e.g. Chris and Carla.
Chris and Lindsey.
Ellie and Katie.
Everyone Accusing - Everyone gangs up on Carla.
(Lockdown going over night).
Government arrive. End.
Researching what my character is about is difficult as the play is set in the future and my character is a politics student. This is something you cant research as it would be a subject that is tailored to the current time. So instead i looked into some of the sci-fi novels and movies that look into the future.
Something that is particularly relevant to our piece is the George Orwell book, Nineteen-Eighty-Four, in this book it shows how a very similar idea as what we portray, that the government has utter control of everything and that each person is watched 24 hours of the day, that anything that is said is recorded. In this book george says that the government can even change old news so that it appears they were always right, this is something we didnt carry forward however we do have the issue that we know characters can be reprogrammed yet the government do not ever let out information supporting that fact. Also anyone who knows about this is either reprogrammed themselves or left in a position where they are powerless to change it.
Another piece of media that was relevant to our piece was a lesser known film called brazil. The director himself does not know why the film is called brazil, it was just something he felt fitted the film. The movie is about a alternate future where a government worker is put on a case that happens to be about the girl he has been dreaming about. Feeling empathy for the girl he is forced to reevalute his job working for the government. Through this we see more of a sinister side to the goverment. Overall the story line is very different to oiur own however the set up of the government, being portrayed as untouchable by average citizens also the language they use and the protocols they claim to have mirror what we wanted the government to be seen as by the audience. However we tried to make it seem a lot more plausible and natural than the film did.
A character that really influenced some of my characteristics was, nicole kidman's performance in the horror movie "The others", the film itself has no link to our show, even her character her self is different as she is a single mother to seemingly disabled children, who actually turns out to be unaware that she is a ghost. However her personality as that character is something my character can relate too. She plays someone who is unable to leave her house and frustrated by her situation but has a lot of knowledge about it. She is also a younger woman which means our age characteristics would be similar. Generally I found the way in which she was seemingly staying professional but actually scared and felt just as helpless as anyone else was something that i thought could add depth to my own character.
During this interview, we hear Mike Leigh talk about one of his films called "Happy-Go-Lucky". He says that he uses a very exploratory method when rehearsing to create his films. Also what he mostly talks about is developing the character of Poppy, the female protagonist. You can see clearly from the way he talks that his method is to build up a extensive character, growing qualities (in Poppy's case, optimism, charm, and emotional security to name a few) rather than using the conventional style of working from a script. Mike Leigh doesn't start by perfecting a script. He gets a rehearsal space and a cast and he uses many workshops to build characters and to give him inspiration for his films. Using this method he has gone on to create a multitude of films challenging many aspects of life such as race, politics, sexuality and class. Due to the way his characters evolve over time his films never have a planned outcome, his films evolve with the characters, and as such many films don't have a clear cut beginning, middle or end. This can often make the audience believe that the film is unfinished. But being the controversial man he is Mike Leigh maintains that is his style and intentional. He is quoted saying "I always think it's important for the audience to walk away from the film with stuff to work with, to think about, to wonder what happened next, and argue about and reflect on. For me, the film you can happily walk away from and never thin about again is not as good value as the one that you take with you and deal with, and savour the flavour for some more time to come."
His process is as follows, first find a cast and brief them on a basic storyline of the play/film that they are to rehearse. Then Mike will start working with each actor one on one, he will ask them to write a list of every person they know or have known, this list includes not just close friends and family but also people the actor may have only known for a brief period of time. Together the actor and Mike Leigh will reduce the list until the actor can form a new character based on the traits and qualities of the people the actor is familiar with. From here they begin the very long process of mapping out the characters life, fine tuning every detail including childhood traumas and how the character's parents met. By paying close attention to detail the character almost becomes a alter ego for the actor. This part of rehearsal is kept very private between the director and the actor. After this process has been finalised Mike will gradually introduce the actors to one another and begin with improvisational scenes to further build relationships between characters. Many actors don't meet one another until their characters meet in one of the improvisational workshops, just like the characters meeting for the first time. Mike Leigh will then observe as the actors go out into the public and interact with one another and unsuspecting public in their characters. These improvisations can continue for months and often don't stop right up until the shooting of the film. “Having worked at the characters for ages, the actors can go into character and do a wonderful improvisation that might go on for one or two hours non-stop. That does not give you a scene. That merely suggests a scene. My job is to distil that into something that happens in a few minutes and says just as much. And indeed says more, because obviously my job is also to inject things into it and edit things out, and to open up stuff that’s dormant.” Over many workshops the scenes become outlined and reduced from what the actors do. Filming will begin and the scenes will be done over and over accentuating the parts that are felt to be successfully and removing that which is felt unnecessary. There is a lot of footage that is left unused in the films however the actors and Mike Leigh have full access to it through out as it helps the performances.
Kneehigh Theatre Company - Fairytale
Kneehightheatre is a Cornish based company, that is renowned across the globe for it's outlandish productions that often take a serious stimulus and turn them into something childlike similar to a fairytale.
It was started by a single man, a teacher who began running acting workshops in his spare time. It was encouraged that people who had no experience acting joined the group and they began rehearsing and performing to one another all over Cornwall in unexpected places. Gradually they began to showcase their work to families and held there productions in places such as marquees, harbour sides, cliff tops, preaching pits and quarries.
They ventured across the Cornish country using weird and wonderful locations as their sets. Over the course of 30 years they have grown to become a theatre company that tours the UK and they are celebrated as one of the most exciting theatre companies in Britain.
To begin rehearsing a new production they start by collecting their actors needed and returning to a village they have created for themselves in Cornwall. Together the cast will live together in the barns and the house they have in this village as a community and use the inspiration from their surroundings to begin producing their next show. They will watch all sorts of movies and read a diverse range of books. They will sketch ideas and slowly form an idea for their new production.
Kneehigh is very dependent on the scenery and location of where they do their shows. Emma Rice, Joint Artistic Director, says that "This physical world holds meaning and narrative, it is as much a story telling tool as the written word." Emma will take the concepts that have been developed to the musical director and they will discuss the overall tone of the play. The musical director will than create a array of pieces and soundscapes to complement the work that has been done so far.
Once a huge bank of ideas, discussions and sounds has been created, these elements are brought to the whole team. Together they will be briefed and they will all write notes on a giant piece of paper and use each others own experiences to relate to the information they have. Then from this they will begin to develop characters and formulate the overall shape of the piece.
After this each person isolates themselves and writes about the piece, whether it is scene ideas or poems about the stimulus. Everyone writes something different so they have a broad spectrum of writings to use or adapt for the show. Each actor brings something different to the piece using the skills they have as an actor.
Lighting and sound is used whilst the actors rehearse from day one. Writers are constantly watching whilst the actors improvise giving them critiques and suggestions as they perform to enhance the show. The actors are told to trust their instincts and hold their nerve as they work. Doubting what they do is said to be one of the biggest hindrances in kneehigh's eyes.
Originally the process of creation would continue in these barns until the performance was completed but now because of how successful they are, much of what they do is co-produced with other companies after the initial work within the barns.
Frantic Assembly - Movement
Frantic assembly is a company that tours England focusing on movement to portray their pieces. Another unusual technique of theirs is that they use lighting, sound and effects from the early stages of rehearsal as their ethos states that working without that is like working without a script when making a movie. It doesn't make sense to them that something so crucial to the ambience of the piece would be left until the last week of rehearsal.
However the beginning stages of work hold nothing more than a stimulus and a dance studio. Frantic don't necessarily use dancers in their pieces, they will use actors who are said to have the appreciation of movement to display ideas. Together the cast will explore different ideas and dances appropriate to the stimulus whilst a partnership of directors oversees and begins to get an idea of a script and a design for the aesthetics of the piece. This process is drawn out and can sometimes take years until they believe they are ready.
Next the directors will approach a writer. They will then give strong influences to the script and will often have the majority of the plot or ideas already formulated. The use the writer simply to fine tune and slot the pieces together. Whilst doing this they also approach the techs to begin working on set and lighting. They also get composers to get to make some music according to the ideas they already have.
Then the speed is kicked up a notch. The cast is brought together to rehearse solidly for 6 weeks, they do not take longer than this and will often spend 12 hours a day rehearsing and working through their piece. They believe that work can be over done so by keeping to the strict time period they have time to finalise but not to kill the idea by over preening and obsessing.
Below is a video of their rehearsals and what it looks like on stage...
