Supportive Written Evidence Document
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.
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.
