Devising Project Blog 5: Week 3

Monday, 25/1/16:

Today we wanted to develop more material since now we had a set focus on setting and story now. We developed a couple of scenes today, mainly the sex scene idea and the racist scene which is now completely different than it was before. The sex scene was worked on by Jack A, Georgia and Katrina while the rest of us worked on the new years eve scene and our placing. We also worked on the scene racism scene but changed the events although kept the same basic theme.

Developments:

Now the tables for the new years eve scene have to be in the middle of the room and pushed together so they can either be the bed or just a diner lay out change, either way though it's still so that Jack A and Georgia can have their sex scene on it and not fall off of the table. This is something we will need to remember so that we don't arrange them as normal and then they have to be moved which will affect the pacing. Today when doing my roll in my fight scene with Jack T I realised that it's actually getting more fluid and seemingly impressive since Jack T asked me if it hurts so I'm assuming it looks good. To me it feels a bit more fluid with practice but we'll have to make sure there's plenty of room for me to land behind the table or I'll probably mess it up and hit something since today there was about 2 feet of room between the table and the wall and I almost messed it up today. Today we also Completely changed the racism scene since we used the structure of the last version of it for the 40's fight scene since it fit it a little better and the idea we had today was more interesting. Now the focus isn't on 2 guys beating up a black man literally, now it's about the desires of the white people in the diner. It;s now focused on their collective urge to hurt him and how uncomfortable they feel about having him in the bar. In their minds they attack him but in reality they know they can't do anything and that black people now have more rights and that alone makes them uncomfortable. We all seem to be having a nice time in the diner (in slow motion or using exaggerated movements) and then he walks in and bumps into Jack A and then we all notice and point at him and then music kicks in and then we attack him. We throw him around and then walk back to our seats to transition to reality. This to me is much better and more visually interesting than we had before. I think with some practice and smoothing out it could be fantastic.


Problems and solutions:

One problem is with our transitions in which we move our tables around to change the lay out of the diner throughout decades. The problem is that the room we usually practice has carpet so it doesn't make too much noise when we move them around. However the room we practiced in today that has a very similar floor to the theatre revealed that moving them around is incredibly noisy. It drowns out Max's small monologues and just sounds horrible to listen to. A way we tried resolving this was to pick the tables up with as little dragging as possible and thankfully this paid off when we showed it to Karen. We need to practice picking them up but also in interesting ways rather than just simply moving them since that would be quite dull but at the moment the transitions are getting better. Although one thing we definitely need to do is to assign certain people to certain chairs and tables so they can get the amount of practice they need and make the transitions as quick and smooth as possible.   Another thing I really need to do is to try and get the line "Why are you bothering these ladies". As of now we can't do the line at the same time because we don't know when the other will start so we'll have to think of a way so that we know when to start. The ideas I could suggest are that we should say it just as we touch Brad and Jack T on the shoulder (Which Jack A can lead since he's in front) or That we say one word each and say the rest of the sentence together. I think the shoulder suggestion would work the best and would have a better sense of flow so that's what I'm going to suggest.



Strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths: A major strength of today was that we were very focused on this scene and everyone was contributing when they could. There were barely any unnecessary interruptions which was nice and everyone seemed a little more coordinated. Everyone seemed keen with this scene and wanted to contribute and offer at least basic ideas such as when we point at brad or that he should be bumped into. During that session we all worked well and got a whole scene done and I'm proud of the fact we kept the interesting subject matter of racism and put it in some more visually appealing events which also now have more depth than before due to the psychological aspect as well as the mass opinion adjustment.

Weaknesses:

A weakness of today was that after we had blocked the racism scene the group seemed to lose focus and only some of us actually practiced the new years eve scene while the sex scene was being blocked by 3 others. We got it done with the limited members that we had but the fact that some took ages to come back or get anything done is a little bit of a problem.

Creative Ideas/Input:

One idea I suggested for the racism scene was for me to slide over the table as we go to get Brad since it looked very smooth and quick. The group seemed to like it but it unfortunately had to be dropped since the approach to Brad seemed too be too fast so we decided to slow it down. We now approach him slowly and intently rather than starting enraged. This was Jack T and Katrina's idea I think  We did this to show and interesting contrast or the moment they all snap and their social restraints go away. Also during the moments when we are attacking Brad, (I believe it was) Georgia who suggested we should use faster music so we did and I suggested using the song "Derezzed" by Daft punk which was used in the film "Tron: Legacy" because it starts with some fast and energetic drum beats which could be used to show the intensity and rage. the beginning seemed to fit but the rest didn't so some other ideas were suggested. Jack T eventually suggested we use a remixed version of the "Tetris" theme by Dr. P. We tried it out and it really works and even has points that flow with the movements. It doesn't mean this adds energy to it much but does fit a lot with the movements and conveys a sense of urgency or instinct which I think really works.







Tuesday, 26/1/16:

Today we were given the task of presenting either five minutes or just one complete scene to Karen by the end of the session. In the end we developed one whole scene and even had another one started and partially done. Some members of the group decided to focus on the moon landing but at first I thought this would be somewhat irrelevant from the focus on the diner. Then I was told that it would be the moon landing but being watched on the television by the people in the diner including Roy. This was a base foundation for people to suggest ideas for. We also wanted to develop another scene with Anita to show her with Roy and making her a little more developed so that her suggested death doesn't seem too forced, bland or utterly pointless. We want the audience to feel some sympathy for him and showing more what his wife was like would make much more sense to establish some connection.

Creative Ideas/Input:

While we were doing the moon landing scene I was supposed to be Roy watching it on the television. I had to come in, clean the table at the front and then turn up the volume on the television to watch the moon landing. When Daniella had to do a run up to do the lift I suggested that she could do a slow motion exaggerated walk to give an illusion of low gravity and that could fit the scene while also suggesting the location and making the lead up for effective than a run since that would seem more natural and less out of place. This was considered although dismissed by Daniella since she felt more comfortable doing the run up which i fine for now but when she is comfortable with the lift I hope she considers doing something more fitting because as of now it looks almost too fluid to be taking place on the moon. I was also the one who suggested the music to be used. I chose "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss which was used in the film "2001: A Space Odyssey". The piece itself is often associated with space because of it's use in that film and is easily recognisable. it also has a sense of scope or grandness which lends itself to the piece. I suggested a few small things with in the scene me, Max and Katrina such as when Katrina comes in with the paper, I told her to say "You looking for this" and that there should be some silence in the scene and no music to keep the focus on them. Other interesting ideas suggested by the group were that Roy in the space scene, should have an extremely large TV remote. I thought it was maybe a slight joke about the change in technology since then. For example things such as phones, cameras, media players and such were all a lot simpler yet sometimes ridiculously huge. That's what I take it as but the rest of the group may just think it's funny but I like to see it as more. When I got home I actually had to check whether or not TVs had remotes in the 1960's and it turned out they did (Picture below). They first had remotes called "Lazy bones" but they were not wireless so they brought out one called "Flash-matic" which thankfully was. It was a little doubt that I had to look up and I found out that TVs could have remotes since the 1950's.They also thought of doing the jet pack lift that frantic assembly do since it fits with the setting. I agree with this and think it could be potentially brilliant and fluid when we smooth it out.


Strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths:

A strength of the session is that the group seemed to be quite keen about the moon landing idea and seemed excepting of ideas and even willing to do some physically demanding things such as the lifts and while a fair bit of time was taken up by them trying to figure out how to do them, we got there and have a pretty good ides of how the scene will flow. I also think that for the small amount of time me, Max and Katrina had, we actually made a pretty interesting blueprint for the a scene that should hopefully be quite powerful if we do it correctly and add in the right physical elements since at the moment it is too naturalistic. The scene idea is very good and with some more time could be great.

Weaknesses:

The main weakness of today was that there was again a lack of focus at points especially after we'd done the moon landing scene. Even after we had agreed to come back at set times some people claimed that they should be entitled to a longer break and didn't come back when they were an integral part of a scene. This was very unprofessional and halted the development of the scene which we needed to do. So we had to think of a way around this so it came to that we had to make Georgia as Anita only in the beginning and then have other girls play her and having the ones that would work go into another room while leaving the others to do something. As of now I have no idea if they did or not.

Problems and solutions:

One issue I had with today was that today the group seemed less focused and more inclined to mess about, well some of them anyway. A lot of us were willing to do work even after the moon landing although instead of dwelling on it me, max and Katrina decided to just go off into a separate room in order to do our scene and left the others to work on one of their own. This did actually help us a fair bit because if we had stayed in there we probably wouldn't have got much done but thankfully we did here. We now have a base idea for a scene that we need to expand on. Another issue I have is that the scene me, Katrina and max were doing was pretty interesting from a naturalistic perspective but to be honest didn't have much physicality in in other than the very brief hymns hands we do. My idea would be to just remove the dialogue entirely with the exception of maybe a few lines and replace it with more exaggerated body language and expressions to suggest the feelings and situations rather than talking about them. This would seem more interesting because at the moment there isn't much happening physically. I will suggest this to both of them on Thursday in our next session. I didn't get the chance to tell them this in class but I will and hopefully improve it. Another thing we briefly faced was whether or not infertility could be diagnosed in the 80's. I had to look it up and it turned out that there was such a thing as infertility treatment in the 80's from what I could find so it could be diagnosed.


Here is a picture of the "Flash-matic" which is the first ever wireless TV controller:





Thursday, 27/1/16:


Today the group seemed to not care much today with the exception of Me, Katrina, Jack A and Max. The rest seemed content to leave since Karen wasn't in today. This didn't change much for the few that wanted to work. I did say that we should discuss the scene we had worked on previously and asked other for any ideas. We couldn't show them since Katrina had had an accident so she couldn't do any of the movements blocked. Instead we discussed any thoughts on the scene but unfortunately that didn't really go any where since the others would had to have watched the scene to get ideas for it, Katrina was in pain so couldn't focus too much on it. I did suggest some ideas such as that Roy shouldn't talk and that Anita should have minimal dialogue for only implications. Also they agreed that the scene is too naturalistic from the sounds of it and that there needs to be more physical moments besides a brief moment of hymns hands. It took us a while to get focused but admittedly we didn't get much done so today was unfortunately an unproductive day.

Research:

I decided to research the moon landing for when I get my power point ready. I have to make sure of some of the dates so that I can be specific on the power point. As far as I'm aware, the moon-landing scene is when the astronauts land on the moon rather than when they take off from earth so that is the date I had to get right. The entire mission from launch to return took place between July 16th and July 24th 1969. They launched on the 16th, landed on the 21st, left on the 22nd and landed back on earth on the 24th. This means the date I will have to put in my power point is "July 21st, 1969".










Links:

http://www.infertility-guidance.co.uk/blog/2010/01/forgotten-infertility-management/

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-near-miracle-of-male-infertility-treatment

http://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/remote_control.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/21/newsid_2635000/2635845.stm

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html