Devising Project Blog 7: Week 5

Monday, 8/2/16:


Today we teched the show with lighting and sound cues although did not get enough time to block the power point projection properly. Katrina ran through all of the lighting cues with Colin while I ran through all of the sound cues. After this we tried to go through the piece and see what we could do with it.

Developments:

The main development of today was that we started blocking the planned wedding scene. When we started, someone said we should stand as couples standing opposite each other (So I would stand opposite Katrina) and then the bride (Daniella as Anita) would come down the isle and then the couples would walk towards each other. However when rehearsing this we messed around when the music came on and improvised some dancing and clicking. This looked cool and we decided to keep it in. Also it keeps the scene from being less static and adds a certain feel of joy to it. We also got on with the forced entertainment scene we had talked about before. As Brad says "Fake" referring to the moon landing, we all stop what we're doing and become ourselves. We all start arguing before going off stage and then continuing with the next scene. This seems like a great idea as of now but I do have some doubts, mainly that it may be too long or way too out of place to be funny or even actually good. But that's just as of now because it isn't finished and not been properly run. I hope it works though because it's an excellent idea.


Problems and solutions:

One problem of today was that we realised the table cloths are very fragile and rip easily. During some scene runs today they ripped although only at the sides where as the tops seem fine. This means we may have to buy some more cloths just in case they're unusable. Also during the wedding scene we decided to do the waltz but there was one problem, none of us knew how to do it. When Karen came in she tried her best showing us how to do it and now me and Katrina seem very able to do it. I'm thankful she helped us with that because it looked awful originally.


Input: the main idea that I had today was for the forced entertainment scene. It was suggested that Max comes out and says "Am I still playing the old man?". I suggested that I then shout "YES!" at him and then he may run off. The group liked it and wanted to do it as a whole rather than just me which I think should be quite funny.



Strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths:

Today we actually got the sound and lighting cues done with a good amount of communication from Katrina to the others and vice versa. The group seemed for the most part focused when they had to be. When we tried out all of the lighting, sound and projection states, they looked and sounded great. The projections to me stood out as surprisingly good. The date and moon projection are really good and set a tone and good atmosphere for what they are. We practiced with the transitions of getting the jacket from one Roy to the next and some of them look very smooth and cool where as some need to be worked out.

Weaknesses:

I volunteered to do the sound cues since I'm the one who brought in the music and no one else wanted to do it. I got it done but I don't think I was very good at it, I didn't manage communication and making notes all that well. I struggled with that a fair bit and in the end could not fill out the cue sheet. This is something I need to fill out even though the people should know their cues. Max did bring up a couple issues with the dates in the power-point, he said that it should be 1949 instead of 1959 and that the time periods sometimes don't align with the music properly. This I will look into when I get the chance. During a practice lift with Daniella, Sam let go of her leg to scare her as a joke which for a while made her unwilling to do the lift which is perfectly understandable. I don't like that he did it since it meant we couldn't do the scene for a while,





Tuesday, 9/2/16:


Today we just tried to run scenes and tweak or perfect what we were able to. So today had little development or overall eventfulness.

Input:

My ideas for today were few but still moderately interesting. One was by accident. When running my first scene with Jack A, after doing our clockwork drinking, I span my cup with my hands and I think it looked quite cool. I asked the rest and they seemed indifferent about it so I think it's something I will do but just not draw much attention to it. The other idea was for our forced entertainment scene. I was thinking that the scene was a nit too loud and chaotic so I decided to take myself out of all the arguments and shouting and just look very upset and walk slowly to get ready in place for the next scene. As I did this I suggested that I walk off into the audience and start talking to just one person in it. I showed them and they really seemed to like it and with the lines I have in mind it seemed quite funny.

Strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths:

Today we seemed to come out with a couple of interesting ideas even though it was just meant to be a refinement session. The session was fun when we just had to develop and it seemed relaxed but also focused at these points which was actually quite nice.

Weaknesses:

The main weakness of today was that some members of the group did not seem up for the idea of a complete run through at all. Brad in particular today was not focused and it was a little annoying since things like this have been hindering run throughs for ages. I wasn't trying to be forceful at all but I don't think I persuaded them at all. Most of the seemed up to it but just the few that weren't affected the day.

Developments:

Besides the idea I mentioned for the forced entertainment scene there were a few minor changes to it. Now there seems to be a theme of blaming each other throughout it. Such as now Katrina blames for the power point being rubbish and not convincing. Also now it seems as though props (More specifically the piece of paper/letter will be brought on during this moment so that it can transition while still being in this scene and not slowing the pace down. Also we have been practicing the wedding scene and the dancing is getting better the more we rehearse it. It still doesn't look very smooth but I hope we'll get there.









Thursday, 11/2/16:

Today was our last real opportunity to smooth out the piece or just finish the piece to a suitable standard. I don't believe we fully reached that but I do believe we used our time as well as we were able to.

Problems and solutions:

One problem pointed out by Karen was that Max does not have much to do throughout the piece in terms of physically interesting stuff and to an extent I agree with this. I do feel he needs more to do but at the same time think that he hasn't had the chance to due to him doing the music. I thought he would be doing more but had to other things for the piece. I don't know if he considered my suggestion about the moves during his speeches but nothing seems to have come from it. Although I did say it again and offer him help and Katrina mentioned about him interacting with other members of the group during the piece if they're not doing anything in various manners which I still think would be great for him. Max also decided to come up with the idea of him and Daniella doing a little dance type sequence which I think is good so that'll give him more to do and thankfully he seemed very keen to do the idea of random interactions while scenes are happening. We cannot get a sheet to stretch across the stage as intended so we a re going to shut the curtains and have someone running in front of them to signify it's not over while we are changing set.

Developments:

Me and Katrina have added more to our argument scene. We ran over it and she wanted to add more to it, more specifically wanting to use levels or the changing of status for the characters throughout the argument. we have added a moment where she throws me on to the ground and the as I reach out to her she throws me down again and then comes down. At that point I get up and then we have our hands following while I lead getting up. This is a nice moment that shows the changing status and summarises some of the feelings effectively and does add a fair bit to it. It also flows into the previous moves we've had so we only added and didn't change anything. Due to Max's mentioned lack of physical moments, him and Daniella now have a brief dance/physical moment that they choreographed themselves and it actually looks quite nice despite a slight lack of energy. We also spoke again about the faces that we should have when doing the 9/11 scene. Me and Jack A still think that the angry face would be ideal for it since it embodies the point and objective of the literal explosion/destruction. Katrina may disagree and say that a blank expression is better and that's perfectly OK with me if she would like to do that. The group didn't really come to an overall decision but at the same time we didn't argue about it, we just voiced our opinions and then agreed on that they both worked in their own ways. So I am sticking with the angry face due to the aforementioned reason.


Strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths:

We actually had a run through from beginning to end of the piece with no stopping. As far as we can tell the piece is definitely with in the time limit of 15- 30 minutes. Me and a few others treated this (As I have in every rehearsal) seriously and did not lose focus. The focused ones had a great amount of energy and control which is actually making me very hopeful about the performance, all we need to do is get the others to try and not break character and just smooth some things out. People were more willing to tweak their own moments today. For example Max and Daniella choreographed a dance on their own, Jack A and Georgia worked on their sex scene and me and Katrina worked on our argument scene. These were all worked on individually and simultaneously which was a great way to make progress with perfecting. One last thing that was good was that Karen mentioned the forced entertainment moment does help to establish things that may be misunderstood such as the multiple Roys and Anitas.

Weaknesses:

The main weakness of today was that despite saying we will do a 100% serious run through we didn't manage to do it. We did have a pretty good one where myself and a couple others did not lose focus at all although a few other did break character and it did seem a little messy at a few points. However even though it was good, the fact we did not get a proper run through with maximum focus from everybody was a bit irritating but only because of how much time is left. The other negative is that that some people today had a serious lack of energy when performing, when watching Max and Daniella, they had no energy, whether or not they were just tired or not engaged I have no idea but it looked unimpressive to say the least. Also Sam and Daniella looked not very keen with the sheets during the 9/11 scene but that can be smoothed out easily.




I would like to conclude this blog by writing about how I felt about the project process. I will admit this project has been very stressful at points due to some people having a general lack of focus or just not willing to work at all. I tried my best to stay calm and thankfully did. This project has not been the most enjoyable project ever but has probably taught me a fair few things. It has taught me about compromise and how to work around things, how to deal with things independently to the best possible degree such as if I can't get a full run through from everyone then I can just run the scenes I am in with the people who are willing. It's actually made me realise properly what a very stressful industry I'm getting into. But that's a good thing to be honest. It's given me some more realistic expectations about it but in a way that does not at all put me off the industry. It's just taught me to be more cautious. So I'd say it's been a very worthwhile project.

Devising Project Blog 1: Reflections, research and notes on Physical Theatre Styles/Companies.

Frantic assembly:

Devising/Writing Methods:
If an idea is still being worked on it will be passed around from writer to writer or to whoever is going to devise it in hopes it will change into something they feel they can work with.
Performance Features:
The plays generally focus on naturalism when just doing the normal scenes go more into a surreal more dance like display in order to convey something deeper. They often have regular sets but with something extra like in "Lovesong" the used screens as their background in which they would show surreal images on or even images of birds flying.
Character/Plot/Design:
From what I can tell there is only one characteristic that the characters have in common from the plays and even then it's not to do with the characters themselves it's how they're done. they are portrayed in a realistic manner using naturalism for the normal scenes and are then silent and maybe more expressive for the physical surreal moments.

I have watched the entire play of "Lovesong" by Frantic Assembly and I absolutely loved it. It was the first real physical theatre piece I watched and it's beautiful. It genuinely moved me and showed me the potential of for the art form. I personally love the mix of naturalism and physical theatre, I thin k it's a nice way to show a realistic situation and then the deeper more psychological aspects but of course there are other uses for it. It does have a lot of dramatic potential and somehow conveys a feeling better than just using words or something that's too subtle but also doesn't spoon feed it to you.

Frantic also like to use things they refer to as "Building Blocks". These can include "Round by through" which is 3 basic moves called "Round", "By" and "Through". This means going through someone under their arm, moving by them or just moving around them. These are very basic moves that need to be added to, so you could add some aggression or weight to it to imply an emotional connection. These can also be used to help with finding other moves for a sequence such as finding the right time to do a lift or turn. They think that it is important for every move should help the story flow or move forward rather than just having meaningless choreography.



DV8:

DV8 are a physical theatre company founded in 1986 by Lloyd Newson and is still led by him to this day. He formed the company so that there would be far less restrictions in the kind of productions that he would make. He wanted there to be less of a disconnect between the artists and the art. He wanted to portray human issues to do with psychology and society but doing that in dance does not do it justice and I can see why. The company love to tackle social issues for their pieces and express a viewpoint in a physical manner. The one performance of theirs I have watched is "Enter Achilles" which was a very very impressive piece altogether. It questioned and mocked the "Lad" culture of the 1980's and 1990's and from what I could tell had a theme of repression in gender or sexuality. It's something that shows how good control, focus and fluidity can be mesmerising.


Forced Entertainment:

We had a session on forced entertainment where we talked about some of there devising techniques and they're style in which the present themselves. Forced Entertainment are a devising company that has a style with more or less no rules with the exception that they may have to confuse, humour or at the very least entertain the audience but not necessarily in a way that you can see coming. They seem to pride themselves on being surreal or just plain nonsensical. Their devising methods are very interesting, for example, they'll tell secrets, mess around, get drunk, take clothes off or just tell jokes. They have all these simple methods that can produce and spark any number of ideas and of course they go with the ones they find the most confusing or funny depending on the play. We watched and had to perform parts of their play "Bloody mess". We got the script for a section of the play with no context and asked to just make what we thought it would be or simply our own version. This was unbelievably funny and entertaining. Although when actually watching the real scene it was admittedly disappointing. I will admit that from what we saw of bloody mess, I didn't enjoy it much at all. I don't blame the style for this or even the ideas with in the play. The issue I had with it was really just it's pacing. it was very slow and whether or not it was intentional, it made what we saw very unengaging. However the scene we saw that had good pacing and seemed to embrace it's absurdity the most (The "Born to be Wild" sequence) was so entertaining and even funny despite making no sense and being very random. I admittedly love the ideas they have and the style appeals to me a lot. It is something I would love to do but not necessarily for this project since we need a focus on physical theatre too. I'm not sure if we can combine the styles but if we can I'd love to add some elements of these guys in.



Commedia Dell'arte:

The style has quite a few archetype characters with somewhat fixed personalities but their situations are the only thing that can be changed. So you could adapt a story and change the characters in that story to Commedia characters and if done properly it could work. You can even take them and make them defined characters but with the personality types of Commedia. This means you could have it potentially in a school and have a Zanni be a child with low confidence but enthusiasm or he gets bullied or even Brighella being the teacher since he's the one that wants things to go to plan and no one change anything or something along these lines. Our first session was spent going over some of the basic archetype characters that are used in the style. These were:

Harlequin: A very energetic, acrobatic young man servant who has a very big apatite and eats almost anything or at least thinks about it.

Brighella: A very high servant who will do anything for money and always wants everything to go according to plan.

The Captain: A man who claims to be a great fighter and a brave man but will weasel and cower his way out of any trouble he gets into.

The Doctor: A very knowledgeable fat man who often talks too much about what he knows but doesn't actually understand any of it. He is a fraud of a man.

The Lovers: Two very spoiled young people who will have fits of rage if one minute thing doesn't go their way. Even when it does they compliment each other but in a hollow way and are very arrogant

Pantalone: An old merchant who is very tight with money and is very needy, hard to please cynic. He stands with his back arched and has been described a vinegary.

Zanni: Practically a servant who is very willing to help but also very stupid and nervous in the
presence of authority. They seem to mainly communicate in noises that are similar to a bird or just very little words. They're very keen and curious.



Mime:

We had a single session to do with dealing with mime masks more and how we would use them. The masks had one emotion on it but due to the body language of the actor this emotion can be conveyed in a number of ways and you can seemingly change the level of the emotion for this session we would be put into group and then choose a mask each with a different emotion on it and then have to devise a short scene with the masks using the right amount of energy and physicality to bring the masks to life as much as we could. I was put with Jack A, Mike and Elle. We discussed our ideas of where the varying emotions could happen or what situation do people often like or dislike and I suggested a class room due to people either loving school or despising it or the people/situations there. We had to come up with something that could really only be expressed through movement so we decided to just do a little improvising first even though we had very little time. thankfully Mike decided to go with the idea that he is annoying the people in class and is blaming me for it which I think was great. It's a basic idea that can be told effectively using these masks. In the time we had we couldn't think of a structure for it so it was not very good when rehearsing although I could see the potential in there and I was worried when we actually had to perform it to the class. Although I thought that I'll just improvise and try to put more energy into it than I did initially and it turned to be quite good. I had a grumpy mask so I thought that he really doesn't want to be in school and doesn't want to associate with anyone. I had my arms crossed the majority of the time and any movement I did was exaggerated but not to the point where it looked like I was trying to be imposing or anything along those lines. The improv worked and even some of the stuff we made up was quite funny, mainly our unrealistic movements. The other groups did very well too especially Becky who had a worried/scared mask that seemed to change the level of fear even though it was just using her body it could go from nervous to very scared in a few seconds and be believable just due to how her body was moving. That alone made me see the importance of body language. I have been aware of this before but that seemed to emphasise it and make me more interested in this style of physical theatre. I'm now intrigued to do it myself for the devising project and if my group chooses it then I shall be quite happy.





Christina's world session on devising:

This session was a look at how the devising process would go or at least very closely of how it should go. We were shown a stimulus and then split into 2 groups and then asked to come up with ideas about what the stimulus was about. The stimulus we were shown was the Andrew Wyeth magic realism style painting "Christina's world" which depicts a girl in a field crawling back to her house in the distance. This initially made me think of the themes of running away yet wanting to go back or being in a bad situation that you can't leave but I think I may have been over analysing because my first theme didn't seem to match it since the girl in the picture was disabled which we found out after we gave our ideas and that changed my perspective of the painting a bit. After this we were told to go and make a still image based off of the painting and it's themes. My group came up with the idea of that about 5 of us would hold Christina (Elle) at her feet and literally be her disability while Pau and Logan were the painter who didn't help her but just decided to make art based on her. After that we had to add move and even add sound if we wanted. Elle decided to do a movement where shes trying to move but then we keep pulling her back. When asked to add a sound to it or words we all agreed we should say "We can not move. We are broken.". All this combined made a visually interesting and engaging moment. This small session was actually quite useful to show that something simple like the stimulus can inspire very different, unique and interesting ideas




Steven Berkoff: 

We have done 2 sessions on the work of Steven Berkoff, more specifically the style in which his work is done and communicated. His style involves things such as over articulation, exaggerated movements, clockwork moments or anything to a rhythm. That's just his movements, he also has some naturalistic acting in but that's not his focus

The work we were given was to be put into groups of 5 and then be given a location to act out a small scene in which we had to have 16 movements each and act them out to a beat and even and sound effects to them. Me, Jack, Max, Brad and Rhys were given a pub scenario and it in all honesty didn't go that well. We misunderstood that we had to do 16 initially and we found out half way through the devising and I kept my four movements but changed the body language on them as they went along to sort of tell a story but unfortunate that was not the point. Our piece was not very good and seemed very unorganised, this is mainly due to misunderstanding both the task and style and due to it being off beat at times which didn't help. At the time I had little understanding of what the specifics of the style actually was and the task overall for us was a mess but the other groups pieces were actually quite impressive so I can see the potential in the style and it seems promising I just wish we understood it for this task.

After that we were set a task where we were given a piece of text and then have to apply Berkoffs style to it. I was put with Katrina, Sam, Becca and Georgia. I had to play a servant to Katrina who is very nervous yet willing to help in a similar vain to a zanni for Commedia Dell'arte. This was admittedly fun. The scene revolved around a baptism and dropping the baby and the mother not really caring that much which was to me quite funny. Ideas that I came up with were to actually help Katrina up onto her chair but also her waiting and then me realising and panicking while also holding a baby in my hands. I also thought of any thing to do with my character and how he acted such as the high pitched panicky laugh and the well spoken yet nervous and enthusiastic voice and even how happy he got when his master uses his head as an arm rest. this whole task was really fun and interesting to do and I think it went pretty well in terms of implementing the style such as there was the occasional clockwork movement, some slow motion and controlled body language but there was admittedly not enough and the was definitely room for more including some sound effects but we simply didn't include those much if at all. There was also very little exaggerated speech in the piece so overall that task went very well but needed some improvements.

The same could be said of the next task we were given the following day. We were given a piece of text that Berkoff had used for one of his plays that was based off of a Greek tragedy where a man had an affair with another mans wife and then that other man fed his children to him at a dinner and then told him. Quite a dark yet weirdly interesting story/piece to adapt and I was actually quite intrigued by the task. I was put with Katrina, Sam, Elle and Jack T. We were either the people at the actual mean or we were the conspirators planning the evening out and that was what I thought was the more interesting approach even if it probably didn't fit or would've made the play but as a stand alone piece I thought it worked. I did suggest that to the others but they seemed to go with the actual meal interpretation which means the ideas may have clashed when we performed it but it seemed to go well. I was sat at the table as the conspirator pretending to be the father while the others were acting out handing me the food and the potential taunts and phrases said and describing in detail what would happen. Overall I think it went well but same as the last task there was just a few things we needed to add. We're being too subtle and that's something we need to sort out. We needed more sound effects and exaggerated and over pronounced speech there was barley any in there. This style to me seems interesting but out of all of them it's one of the few I don't find especially interesting but I think it's unfair to dismiss it so during rehearsals if I get the chance I will suggest trying it out if it fits the situation.


Links:

http://www.franticassembly.co.uk/media/media/downloads/Frantic_Assembly_Resource_Pack_2012.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUqZPfGIX6U

http://www.forcedentertainment.com/about/

https://www.dv8.co.uk/about-dv8/faqs#top

https://www.dv8.co.uk/about-dv8

http://www.moma.org/collection/works/78455

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_0TAXWt8hY

http://italian.about.com/library/weekly/aa110800b.htm

Devising Project Blog 6: Week 4

Monday, 1/2/16:

Today we continued with the scene that me, Katrina and max were working on Wednesday. We had a fair few interesting ideas for it, some of them we even made up as we went along. We also worked on the scene afterwards which involves a robbery of the diner and the death of Anita. During the argument scene Anita will be played by Katrina and then Elle in the robbery scene. I will be Playing Roy in the former scene and either Brad or Jack T in the latter. Today Jack A had to fill that part because neither Brad nor Jack T were in today. Although we still got the first scene done and then the next scene (Which is our second to last) nearly done. The scenes go like this. I am pacing up and down while looking at a letter on a table, then I go over to the letter looking at it which says that I'm infertile and then I throw it to the ground. Anita comes in and finds it on the floor and reads it. She then confronts me about lying to her and then we have a physical representation of an argument with one of us not wanting to explain but wanting forgiveness and the other angry about the others deceit. Then Anita thinks about not being able to have a baby. We then go into the next scene where it's years later and they have reconciled and they are closing the diner for the night. A man (Played by Sam) refuses to leave and pulls a gun out on Anita. He shoots her and steals the money from the dine while Roy comes down and finds her dead. At the end of showing this Karen said that we should ask ourselves certain questions when doing this such as why does Max where the mask? although no questions were aimed at me and I can't think of any as of now.

My Input:

The ideas that I personally contributed today started with the argument for first scene we did today. I suggested certain moves for the moments after Katrina grabs my face for me to look at her. I suggested a series of turns and round by throughs. I am always trying to keep her from facing me since I don't want to explain why I hid the truth from her. We tried it out with me choreographing it and it was very flowing and looked very good according to the group who watched us. It was also a way to feed into Katrina's idea that she mentioned. I noticed in order to do Katrina's idea we would have to swap sides somehow and my idea fit very well and caused us to do so, so that was more motivation for me suggesting it since I really liked her idea. I also helped with directing Sam in the robbery scene and suggested how he should walk and approach Elle and how he should shoot. I suggested that he get up slowly and then walk past her to then stop and pull the gun out. The others seemed to change that slightly to that he now walks towards her and then pulls it out. They wanted a slightly physical moment between them and I said the easiest thing to do was to a round by through so it establishes a higher status for Sam. This seemed to be ignored in favour of a hymns hands sort of moment which works quite well. I also suggested that Sam should have his gun pointed at Elle for at least 5 seconds of complete silence and then he should shout "BANG!" which would be startling since it follows the silence or at least in the way we did it.

Group Input:

The idea that Katrina mentioned was to have the argument as a sort of dance. She had a few specific moments that she wanted to build upon as we went along. She showed me that she wanted me to grab her side and then bring her leg up and then we both move our top half in a circular motion. She also said about falling to the floor after I tear a metaphorical baby from her womb and then cries, "I'm never going to have a baby". At that point the which we recently introduced for this scene chorus will start singing "Bye Bye Baby" in a somewhat creepy manor. As of now I don't know if the intention is to have a moment of dark humour or to be actually creepy/disturbing but it comes off as both right now.

Teamwork:

Today, despite the fact we had 3 people away, we worked extremely well together and actually got a fair bit done. A lot of the group seemed more open to ideas such as when I was helping Sam with his scene and how he should approach it. I listened to his reasoning of why certain things should happen and vice versa. We all listened and expanded on any ideas when appropriate and even compromised a fair few times so that we could have something that worked as well as it could.

Strengths and weaknesses:

We worked very well today despite a few members not being here and the group was open to the idea of the gun sequence being mimed which I personally think is best for it. Sam in particular was surprisingly open for direction from me today which was great. He offered his opinion of the mime since he is the robber and would be the one doing it. He was not in favour of it and I listened and explained that from what we have got, it would be a more interesting scene physically than using a prop gun. He then lightened up to the idea thankfully and we stuck with what I think is quite an interesting take on the piece, both from a dramatic and physical stand point.

Weaknesses:

The only real weakness of today was that we had a couple members missing and this had a mild impact on the development of some scenes. This was not a major detriment but was a little inconvenient.


Developments:

Me and Katrina expanded on the scene that we have with Max and it has gone well. We now have some more basic choreography for the scene such as a lot of turns to display the objectives of the characters. Such as Roy (Who I'm playing in this scene) will mostly be turning away from Anita in this scene but she is trying to get him to face her. However even though Roy does want to avoid it he also doesn't want it to evolve into a full blown fight and is attempting to reconcile without a full explanation due to feeling ashamed. We need to finish it but it is coming along nicely with these moves which as of now are a little slow and awkward but with practice will get better. I initially thought my ideas were going to be ignored but thankfully were considered and they look good as of now, especially when I go round Katrina quickly but delicately. Now for convenience and flow I will throw the paper in the middle of the floor instead of under the table so it's more plausible for Anita to find it.


Research:

One point that Max brought up was whether or not Anita or Roy should own a gun since it seems common for business owners nowadays to have them but we don't know if they did in the 1990's so I looked into it. What I found suggests that it is allowed to be done depending on the state jurisdiction or gun laws since some of them vary. I found out however after researching this that we will not have Roy or Anita use or threaten to use a gun.

Problems and solutions:

As of now Katrina does have some issue with the spinning due to her knees but she is willing to keep going and practice it. she did get slightly better as we ran it and thankfully. Some of the Anita's were not in during the later half of the session so that means we could not block anything after Anita's death since the rest of them were supposed to come in for a montage although with knowledge of this we did not just stop with it altogether, we spoke about the movements that may be most dramatic or moving in anyway or at least to get a sense of reflection and possible nostalgia.














Tuesday, 2/2/16:

Today we had to show what we have of our pieces to the other group and the second year actors. We had to let the other group first and then we would go afterwards. I must admit I was impressed. watching made me realise that as a whole our group is just more unorganised since they had a more or less finished piece and we did not. This was unfortunate and sadly we had some issues that made our piece look far worse than it actually is. One, sound problems and two, Jack T was not in.

Criticism:

The second years and the other group gave us some criticism for the piece and since ours is incomplete I was expecting a fair amount. One thing was that they didn't get about Brad being a black man, they had no idea what the mask was supposed to be. I was very puzzled by this and even understood it and then I realised something. Max had forgot to do his speech about racism before the scene began and that meant they had no context. so while that was valid it has been somewhat fixed since we have to get him to remember that he has to say them to give context for the scene changes. Another one that Chloe gave us was that the freeze frames in the 50's scene with Jack a and Georgia are a bit messy. Actually in general that was the main criticism we had for the piece since a lot of our cues were wrong and made it seem very unfinished (Which it is) but that was due to lack of run throughs and improper cues which will be ironed out as we go along. Another point was from Matt from year 2 was that the "Tetris" theme stands out too much and while I can understand this in the sense that from it fitting the era isn't right, that wasn't the point of it being used. We did it more for the intent of the characters, not to represent a period. I will discuss that with the group when I get the chance. One comment that I wholeheartedly agree with is that during the 50's new years scene. Joe pointed out that we're just dancing normally and while I knew that, it never actually came into any of our heads that that was an ideal opportunity for physical moments that seem more surreal or more appealing than dancing normally. That is something that all of now think needs work so we're going to work on it at some point. We also were told that the customers should be doing things such as Berkovian movements and this I agree is true but we are already doing it to a degree such as me and Jack A do it when we drink and the girls even do some synchronised movements. But I do agree that there should be a lot more and that the ones we have should be made more noticeable.

Problems and solutions:

One issue was with the music, since we had no one to operate it that wasn't an actor, Max had to do it himself but with this came a couple of problems. One, he had to go off stage at points to turn it on and this lead to some very awkward moments and some slow pacing. Two, the songs were not edited to start at the points we wanted so this meant something like the "Tetris" remix started at the beginning rather than from about 40 seconds where we wanted it to be. This lead to a scene that was a nit too long and messy since a lot of people didn't get the timing right due to that we didn't have the actual cue to do so. Three, Max actually got the wrong music at one point for the twist song even though that did not affect much it's still a mild issue. Four, since the music had some issues that we didn't expect, it caused us to noticeably react to it or make the timing seem more off and messy. The way this could be resolved is by having the sound clips edited so that they start where we want them to but don't cut out the end so we aren't too tightly timed and in case we run over. Another issue was Brad's black mask. It fell off during the performance and not apparently it didn't communicate that he was black. This is a problem since there is no other way to indicate it with out being racist. We can't put make up him for that reason and even then he could not keep it on for the entire thing since he plays Roy at one point. The only solution I can think of at the moment is to literally hold up a sign pointing it out or someone saying it verbally. I will talk about that with the group on Thursday. The last problem we had was that Jack T was not in and this meant that we had to show the piece with him missing in certain scenes which besides looking weird also confused people slightly. This can be resolved by re blocking certain scenes without him in mind since his attendance lately has been very low. This shouldn't be too hard and it will be very effective hopefully in making it less awkward than simply not having him there.

Developments:

Today Sam had to leave because of an appointment right after showing the piece. Because of this, I had to fill in for him as the robber for the 90's scene and almost right away the group agreed that I should be the robber since I could show the emotion of anger in my phase more and could pull off a more intimidating physicality.

My input:

I Suggested quite a few ideas today that were at the very least considered or incorporated. Today max mentioned that just staring with contempt and hatred at me looked really cheesy, while i disagree with that I thought it was an ideal chance to give him something physical to do so I suggested him acting out his character's anger on me in a violent way while the music is playing. I suggested doing something extreme. The move I said to do was to cut my throat by wrapping his arm around my neck and then aggressively rubbing it and going back to him with a cutting motion. This looked very good once we went over it a few times so Max could get the anger and speed right. Max then added some of his own movements which I would follow and flow with that looked very good according to the people that watched. Max maybe a little rough when performing the actions but that's something I'm OK with as long as the actions look smoother or more authentic because of it. I also suggested that instead having a black out for Elle to get onto the table, we should just lift her up onto there (Or just one of us if possible) so we would not have to use up another lighting cue. This is now what we are doing. I also said that I should shout "BANG!" even though this technically was brads idea for the war scene we scrapped, I have applied it for a different context and form of delivery. Now it's done with silence and to one person. I mentioned this before but I have added more to it. When I went to walk off/run across the front of the stage to leave the scene, I thought I'd just look at the audience with a look of horror or anger/rage. This hopefully may add something a bit more involving even if only a little. Georgia then said that it would be a good idea to shoot into or above the audience which I think is an interesting idea and does seem to work as of now. I also want to change my dance scene to where I'm at the bar and drinking in a clockwork motion (Maybe not to a beat) but every time the song says twist, I will spin around and then get back to drinking again until my cue for something else happens. I need to try this out at some point and hopefully it should look interesting. And finally I suggested using actual 9/11 audio for the scene so that it adds authenticity to it because I think a generic explosion sound will be a bit cheesy or out of place in my mind.




Teamwork:

The group worked well today and had a very great sense of focus and even with taking on ideas. We listed all the criticisms we remembered from our session and then tried to see if we could add anything or change anything to improve these moments. Even after Katrina had to leave we still got on with our piece surprisingly well which I was very happy about we even got a few very good ideas from here such as the aforementioned moment where max symbolically kills me.



Wednesday, 3/2/16:

Today we did not have a devising session but we all decided to stay back and rehearse what we had or develop things. We partially blocked the 9/11 scene that Katrina had come up with. She had the idea of us more or less destroying the set but in slow motion. Me, Jack A and Katrina would be the explosion which destroys the building. We would flip over the tables and chairs and then see how it looked. We decided to do a rough version of this and it looked surprisingly good even though it definitely needs smoothing out. I personally think this idea is fantastic and could be very moving if done correctly. The only real problem with this is that sometimes you can see we're having trouble with certain things such as controlling the objects properly but this is something that should be fixed with more and more practice. We also need to see if we can assign certain people to certain objects but this is something we'll need to work out. We also had an idea for a brief wedding scene for Anita and Roy but we need to think of a way to fit it in and choreograph it.


Thursday, 4/2/16:

Today We tried to get as much as possible done as we could and even blocked our 9/11 scene completely. It has now developed into something that looks very nice and stylised especially with the music that was suggested. It now seems very fluid and to an audience member, hopefully moving.


Creative ideas/input:

I suggested to Jack A that we should have faces that imply anger or chaos since we're the ones causing the destruction. He liked the idea and it seemed to go well although Katrina just wanted to focus on the moves at that point rather than the small details.

Group input:

The song suggested was a song called "I miss you daddy" which is a 9/11 tribute song that does fit very well with it and blends with the slow motions and general speed of the piece. Another idea suggested was that Daniella and Sam will come on the stage with grey sheets to act as smoke or debris. Even though we plan to have actual smoke it will fit and make the scene have a motif somewhat with the use of sheets. An idea for the end was for the moment when we will (if we can find one big enough) lift a sheet to cover the stage and then move all of the set off and then all form a horseshoe around Max who will lay on the table and have a final moment with Elle.

Problems and solutions:

A problem with our final scene is that while it's great and potentially very moving, it does mean Max now has less to do. Originally we planned for him to have moments with each of us at the end to give him a decently lengthy scene which would conclude it nicely to see him  finally get a big part. I spoke to Max about this and while he wasn't annoyed and completely understood why, he was still a little disappointed so I tried to help him come to a compromise. I suggested that in his moments of dialogue he shouldn't just move naturalistically since this could be and ideal time to add some Berkovian walks like in the intro sequence of "The Trial" or that he could even mime during moments when he isn't talking to make his scenes lengthier and more physical. He seemed open to the ideas and says he will consider it. I hope he does because I know he is capable.

Strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths:


Despite having moments of being very unfocused, we actually got a fir bit done and have had some good ideas or have gone over the choreography. We managed to re-block the opening scene without Jack T who will no longer be in the piece and the scenes do seem to flow pretty well without him thankfully. The fight scene I had with him is the same except that now it will be brad pushing me over the table and then I will stay out of the scene while Jack A and Brad do the same as they did before. Today a couple members of the other group came into our room and wanted to see a scene that we were unable to perform Tuesday. Me and Katrina were working on our scene so we decided to show them. We ran through the whole scene and then asked if they had any feedback. They admittedly didn't have much. They both said that the scene was very good but needed smoothing out with the choreography since it seems obvious we trying to remember it slightly. I appreciated this but it was something we already knew however I still think it's useful to let us know.

Weaknesses:

A weakness of this sessions is that at a few points we did lose focus as usual. We some of the group did which impacts the others ability to to work but other than that I think today went quite well.

Developments:

We have finally decided what our costume will be. It will be all of us in black clothes and with just one article of clothing to distinguish who's playing who. The current Roy will wear a jacket or waistcoat and the current Anita will wear a headband or bow in their hair. We will get which ever is easiest to find.

Research:

Today I thought of doing some research into the event of 9/11. Now I actually know a fair bit about the event due to reading or watching a lot about it in the past but I'm gonna look some things up again just to be sure. We are focusing specifically on the twin towers in New York so there will be no references to the pentagon attack or flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania. The one thing I had to find out was whether or not people actually took shelter in buildings or just ran away. What I already know and can find suggest both but since nobody knew that the buildings would collapse so quickly (If at all) they had no reason to get a s far away as possible. This means that it would make perfect sense for people to take shelter in Roy's diner, especially considering that they're injured. Also while the collapse of each building only lasted for about 11 seconds, the debris and smoke would travel fast around the city for a good few minutes (Especially in the surrounding area) so this means that the length of the destruction scene makes sense and isn't too long. The videos I've seen of the collapse do support this, they are linked below.




Links for this week:

http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdIiyBFlPr8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8mz09VQQ2M

http://www.history.com/topics/9-11-attacks#

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

Devising Project Blog 4: Week 2

Monday, 18/1/16:

Today we continued with our piece on the American diner and have made one more scene for it and there have been some interesting developments. We also started the day with a few games of tag and had to play it but as serious as possible. Even though it worked for very brief periods and everybody lost their concentration but the aim of doing it seriously was to see how the mood would be changed during the game and it could show how the energy state and concentration could make the whole thing feel very different. It even showed that if we don't mess around and stick to an objective then we can achieve it much more easily. I think the class for the most part did a poor job of conveying this until the end when we had to get in a line, hold hands and tangle each other up. We the had to untangle the group without talking or even communicating. This part we did relatively well and we did it quite quickly and smoothly. We were then asked to incorporate a children's game into a scene to see if it would work. So that's what we tried. We tried incorporating musical statues.


Strengths and weaknesses:

A weakness of today is that the organisation of talking and giving ideas is getting a little worse. Quite a few members were annoyed including myself. We even tried to have the members who wanted to work to sit in the corner and contribute in a more controlled manor but while it worked at first, the more people came over the more hectic it got and the more interruptions were happening. I can't think of a way that means the group will actually be organised in terms of their ideas because I think they're just too impatient. I could suggest to someone that we sit in a circle and go around taking turns with giving the ideas and if anyone has an expansion on their idea they just write it down instead of just interrupting the person but realistically I don't think that will go down well. I've also noticed that my group doesn't seem willing at all to experiment with some ideas. It either goes as we like the idea and then we just stick with it or we seem sceptical and just dismiss it. There was also an issue I had with Katrina where she seemed much more focused and concerned on the minor task of the day of incorporating a game into the scene rather than working on incorporating physical theatre styles into the current piece which seems to be one of the core aspects of this assignment. While that is a very small issue and I'm not really against her intentions and what she's trying g to do, it wouldn't have been so bad if she didn't just outright dismiss my ideas at the start since they weren't to do with games. Thankfully she realised this and let the group suggest things later on but I thought it was worth mentioning as a reminder that the groups organisation and priorities probably aren't where they should be at the moment.

A positive is that we have got some interesting ideas going such as the staging and some the ideas involving character arcs or even the new directions we could possibly take the piece including the idea of following multiple. Personally I think some of the ideas today such as the idea of where to put the audience was fantastic and honestly could be brilliant if we actually try it out and I really hope we do. Some people were very keen to give ideas despite dome of them not linking to the stimulus at all although that doesn't matter too much since it's just our setting at the moment that has been directly influenced by the stimulus. While it does seem like I dislike this assignment or I'm just not enjoying it, I can confidently say that I am. I just feel that highlighting this issues is really the only way I can help resolve them and the group does have problems but overall so far I like the direction my group is going with the piece despite our discussions sometimes being a mess.


Developments:

One development was that Katrina suggested removing the girls from the diner scene in order to give the male side of the scene more focus and with the intent on making the scene tense. this didn't really get anywhere and the scenario I imagined in my head seemed to have a lack of any physical theatre although I can't tell since the idea never went anywhere. I have faith that Katrina had more to it than we made up which was very little. An idea came up that the piece will feature multiple protagonists instead of focusing solely on the original one who we  decided to call Jim. I don't know why this change was made because it was never explained or if it was then I didn't hear it. There was no reason as to why they have changed the story arc and I'm personally not a fan of it but if they decide to stick with it then I'll go with it. If it works then I'll be happy but I would like to know why this has happened. One idea that we came up with before that was admittedly quite good in which we had a scene where the main character would meet his future wife through a crowd and that would be the focus of the scene. I quite liked the idea and it seemed to go well even though it needed some adjustments but the fact it was scrapped was not something I was comfortable with especially seeing as it was got rid of so quickly. The last development of this session was to the scene structure. The group thought of adding a new years eve scene after every decade scene. Whether or not it would be any year or the end of that specific decade I don't know since it was never really mentioned

Creative ideas/input:

I have made a few suggestions today although very few of them were even considered due to some of the people in the group have different concerns at the time. One I suggested was an expansion on Katrina's idea of the lead character seeing his future wife through a crowd once we've all frozen. I thought that on the way there we could surround her and move along with her as the crowd so it could show that the place is packed without actually having too many actors on stage and could also show her struggle of getting through since we'd most likely be the ones controlling the direction in which she moves due to it being quite a hectic crowd. That was unfortunately quickly dismissed but I thought that it was a move that could potentially look very fluid and flowing which would also help us with showing their separation if we got their facial expressions right as well. I came up with an idea of dancing like I have no idea what's going on and then look like I'm trying to copy other people and seem like I'm warming up to the party atmosphere. I thought this would be an interesting and subtle scenario since it's only in the background for about a minute or so. I didn't suggest it to the group since we decided to improvise the scene. Also with this scene I thought incorporating musical statues into it was a very good idea on Katrina's part would have been really interesting to explore if not for it getting quickly cut. Katrina also come up with the idea of having the audience sit it the diner which I personally thought was a brilliant idea and even got me thinking about it.
Katrina staging audience in diner

Overall today was quite disappointing since we seemed to get rid of quite a few great ideas and I'm not looking forward to where we will go in the near future since we're still terribly organised and the rest seem more focused on changing ideas rather than developing or expanding. I want to stick with an idea with a decent amount of time before just hearing something new and then briefly working on that and changing again. Now there are quite a few negatives with the group at the moment but I'm hoping that it will get better because when we get an idea going I love working with them it's just the few problems this group has that I've mentioned quite a lot is getting to me and others in the group as well yet no one seems to want to talk about it so I feel I'm going to have to at some point.









Tuesday, 19/1/16:


Today we started the day by splitting off into groups and seeing if we could come up with any ideas. They did have to relate to the stimulus but we could probably fit them in if we wanted but that was not the focus of this small session for my group.

Creative ideas:

I went with Jack A and Max and we just talked briefly and then decided to get up and have a starting point to develop as we go. Max came up with the idea of surgery but the reason for it is ambiguous although it heavily hints that whatever is being taken, it's being taken forcibly. I would be the one to tie and hold jack down while he's having this done to him while he's awake. The scene looked quite good and gave off a sense of pain and panic which was intended. We were hoping if people liked it that we may focus on the back story to it or even the events after depending on whether or not we actually decided what was being taken. The idea I came up with was when Max was explaining his and he mentioned a that Jack A would have amnesia. This triggered an idea for a plot thread in my head in which a man wakes up and has amnesia and then interacts with people in ways to help remind him of who they are and reestablish the relationships he has with them through physical montages. I said to Jack A that he should lay down on the floor and then while we were admittedly messing around I did a move on him in which I moved him up without touching him. I was imitating "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" where this happens in a climactic scene. This seemed really cool to me and Jack since it looked very fluid and surreal. We then decided to start the scene with that movement and them both me and max coming in top remove his memories and then I wake him up. The move seemed supernatural so that's what it seemed to imply and we all liked how it fit. I thought this idea had a lot of potential for quite a few scenes including the idea that the different relationships could incorporate different styles. The group seemed to quite like the idea especially Katrina who offered the idea of it being in another world so that the people he may recognise but he would have to show them who he is or discover something or a similar story along these lines and it was a very good idea in my opinion. I also contributed towards the fight scenes in the diner scene we would later develop due to abandonment of my idea which we didn't even explore. I suggested to Jack T (who I'm fighting) that I should roll over the table after being pushed by him. I think it would look quite cool and add more flair to the scene if it's done correctly.


Developments:

The main development of this session was that the scene we worked on originally appears to have been scrapped now although it could be that we're using ideas from that scene to make another one where the black man we beat up has been replaced with 2 drunk men. which we must now fight on the table instead of just one man at the bar. Now I'm quite torn on this idea because it takes away the more interesting subtext from before of racial inequality and replaces it with just 2 drunk men. However the fight we have staged for it seems far more interesting visually since there are two simultaneous fights happening at once in very similar ways. So I'm hoping the racism theme will be revisited and hopefully expanded on. There were quite a few more starting points mentioned today which I thought was unnecessary since we had just had a session about ideas and they were all scrapped. We eventually agreed that going with the diner would be what we'd do for the day however I don't like that they abandoned my idea without even expanding it a little. At first a few of us seemed very keen on trying the idea with the war scene and the diner and fitting them into the amnesia one and admittedly when thinking of how it would go, it did seem to flow and blend together quite well but 2 or 3 members thought that it would be too long or cluttered but I disagree with this since we don't have much material and we need to expand on what we have so I'm disappointed we never saw what potential it could've had.



Strengths and Weaknesses:

Strengths:

A strength of today was that the group were still keen for ideas despite being stressed. Their creative minds were still thinking of starting points even though though they were annoyed at the mess of ideas we have and since no one could really decide about what to do. The session in the theatre where we had to just make something up was a truly great session and a brilliant ideas to get our minds active on the go and it even helped us with our fault of talking too much about ideas and not actually making anything up physically.

Weaknesses:

There were quite a few weaknesses today. The problem of the constant interruption has somehow gotten worse now I can barely hear what anyone is saying and when asked to do something after everyone has talked over each other is quite annoying because everyone was confused and sometimes contradictive to each other. Despite the amount of ideas that were being suggested, they all seemed to be either completely unnecessary or just made things more complicated and stressful which is something we really didn't need. I also don't like that my idea was scrapped so quickly and it's not because it was my idea that I don't like my dismissal, it's the fact that most of the group just had the intent of getting rid of it without trying it out despite really liking it about 20 minutes earlier. If we had tried it out for a bit and it genuinely didn't work or just not as well as the others then I honestly wouldn't have minded. I want what will work best but I feel we should've given it a go to give it some resolution and reason to it being gotten rid of. So overall the day started brilliantly and with promise and then got much worse and the ideas just went in circles.














Thursday, 21/1/16:

Since the last session was admittedly quite awful since people were stressed and the session just overall didn't go very well. We started off the day by finally trying to get a story and structure that we can stick to and thankfully we found it. We have decided to stick with the diner idea and to stick to the idea of following Max as the main character and events in his life throughout individual decades. We went with it because it was the most fleshed out of our ideas and had the most potential from our experimentation with certain ideas. We focused on the intro scene and the following scene set in the 1940's which was the scene we worked on last week but we just needed to tweak it. Our plan is to go over the scene and create a sort of "Rough cut" of the piece and see what we have to iron out

Creative Ideas/Input:

We started with the intro scene in which we agreed it should be Max introducing it. Max is the one who as of now is writing and improvising his dialogue but during this session he couldn't think of much which is fine for now as I agree that dialogue should have a bit more planning. One thing Katrina thought of quickly was that the tables and chair for the diner will be brought on by all of us in a somewhat creepy or limp manner and when trying it out I think it looked quite good but does need some work. Before that though she suggested all of us (the people who are gonna interact with this man at some point in his life) standing in a row and then me standing in the centre of the line doing the move from my amnesia idea where I lift him up. Although Katrina did this because she thought it would satisfy me, I said that if it didn't work I'd be OK with it but we tried it anyway. When doing it I tried thinking of a reason for it and I think I've found one. In my mind I was thinking that since this is in a dream like state or something not literal, we could all be a reason in his mind that he has awakened. Also while developing these scenes there were idea for other scenes that had basic templates. One was Katrina's idea of having a sex scene after the scene we had done a while ago of hi meeting his wife. She seemed keen on the idea due to it's physical and emotional potential and I think it's a good idea. It would only have to be suggesting it rather than be blatant and I know that they can be done well, for example, frantic assembly's "Othello" had a sex scene which was beautifully so I think with practice for whoever does it, it could be brilliant.  I then suggested an idea for the ending which seemed to go quite well. I said that since a recurring theme of the piece is regret then I thought it would be a good idea to show him letting go of his regret by having moments of physical reconciliation with all the people he's interacted with throughout the play and then those people who he's now let go of help him to rest in piece.  think it could be quite a beautiful moment of relief and hope in an otherwise pessimistic piece which would be a nice way to conclude it. The group seemed keen for the idea and me and Jack A had ideas for music for the final montage. My idea was to use a Instrumental piece called "Father and Son" from the game "Metal Gear Solid 4" composed by Harry Gregson-Williams. It's a wonderful piece of music that I think would fit the scene perfectly due to it's somber yet epic tone which will help set the mood for a bitter sweet end. Jack A suggested a song called "Saturn" by Sleeping at Last which is a very moving piece with a lot of scope in it's opening first half which is instrumental. The second half which has lyrics is just as beautiful but with a more somber feel to it. I think either of these pieces will suit it brilliantly when/if we try it out. Jack A also suggested using a combination of a Martin Luther King speech and some music. I can't remember it exactly  or who it was by but it seemed quite interesting and will have to consider it.




Developments:

As soon as Max has woken and had his opening monologue the following scene is the same one as we worked on but just tweaked a little in terms of the fighting speed but there was was big thing added to the scene. The idea of the girls banging a tune on the table that increases in volume as we keep fighting. I do quite like the idea although they seemed to have trouble with remembering the beat. I tried recommending another more simpler one but they didn't seem to listen. However they got it down and it seems to work for now.


Strengths and Weaknesses:

Strengths:

The best strength of this session is that my group now has a much better sense of focus on one idea instead of thinking of more and more starting points. We seemed a lot more collaborative and enthusiastic about the project. We were suggesting relevant ideas and rolling with them and even tried to make each other happy by actually experimenting with them a little. We were more active than usual, we talked as we moved and devised, not sitting down and discussing so we seemed to get more done and getting a good idea of what we're actually doing and I'm glad we're finally getting this going and I hope it stays like this. The interrupting still happens but today seemed more controlled than usual thankfully.

Weaknesses:

To be honest the only weakness of this session was that at the beginning we had to sort out all the problems we had last session due to the stress and while that was a little difficult it was over quickly and then we got on with the work.


Problems and solutions:

One problem that happened was when I had to roll over the table when jack T pushes me over it. Most of the attempts went quite well but one of the times we tried it where we tried adding aggression to it and more speed. He hit me in the jaw by accident and even though it didn't hurt (much) the rest of the group still noticed so that means that moment in particular we will have to run over and over again to see if we can put the right amount of aggression and speed it to make it convincing but safe. As of now I'd say maybe he should aim more for my side rather than a random high area or the top of my shoulder/neck. This may make it safer and more flowing. Another problem was the lifting move I do to max at the beginning. Max (compared to Jack A) doesn't have the strengths to do the move properly. I asked him to give it a few goes with Jack A giving him some advice on how to. He could do it but only once instead of the intended  and I think with some practice he could get it to look flowing as it should. Having 1 instead of 3 is fine and is a decent compromise. Another issue is whether or not some people will be comfortable with doing the sex scene. I personally would if I was asked to or was the last option since I think it could be a genuinely beautiful or powerful moment if done properly. While I would do it I admittedly would be uncomfortable with it at first. I guess we'll have to ask who will actually do it and if no one says they will then I will have to I think.



Aim of the piece:

We were asked to come up with a target audience and an aim for the piece and while we have ideas for now I can't confidently say that we're sticking with it. As of now the aim was to educate the audience about changes in American culture throughout the 20th century and our target audience is middle class Americans. I myself see those rather ill fitting as of now but it most likely will change.

Devising Project Blog 3: Week 1

Monday, 11/1/16:

Today when I came in I was admittedly sceptical about the following session and when I found out that 4 of my group members weren't in I was disheartened due to the potential complications. We got into our groups and started actually discussing the project and thankfully things actually went very well and I was very happy about the professionalism with in my group. We seemed to accomplish a lot by the time the session was over.

Creative Ideas:

After A few minutes of talking, quite a few people in the group expressed interest in developing the war scenario that was suggested by Katrina during the last session. I was among them since I found that the idea had a lot of potential for mixing styles and even made me start imagining scenes or parts of it quickly simply because it seemed the most interesting of the ideas discussed. At first I suggested some movements that I thought could be quite impact or at least interesting they had some more context added to them. The moves I suggested were a version of "Hymns hands" used by Frantic Assembly but with a twist on it. In the usual/basic version that I've seen them simply demonstrate people can put their hands on themselves or the other person but in this I made a rule that person 1 can only put their hands on to the other person and not themselves, whereas person 2 is only supposed to put person 1s hands back on to them and not themselves. This means that someone is trying to get close to someone but they're being rejected by the other person.This was an idea I had but with a different context such as scene to do with unrequited love or denying temptation or something along these lines. The other idea I suggested was to use a move called "Round, by and through" also used by Frantic Assembly, more specifically the "Through" part. I said if we were to use it in a war/fighting scenario then a way to show someone getting the better of someone else and killing them would be to go through their arms quickly but strongly to show some aggression and then push their head down to signify their death. Pushing the head down was also something frantic assembly did but wasn't to signify death. After a few minutes of talking about how to start and structure the opening Brad then came up with the idea that it should start in a sort of naturalistic way with soldiers in a line during the war just before they start fighting. I then suggest that we should march forward and then someone (I think it was Brad) said that we should improvise a little narration and I was at the front so I went first and said as we stopped marching, "It is a time of war." and then the rest say their lines and then I suggested that there be a higher ranking officer/soldier who commands the fighting. That was simply to get the idea of that we are about to fight across but then I suggested that the officer could move in an exaggerated way, more specifically the controlled movement you would see in something that Steven Berkoff would do such as in the opening to "The Trial", This way the controlled movement and slow entry should draw attention to him while showing the control he has over the rest of the soldiers so it makes you focus on him and establishes his authority without any dialogue and unnecessary moments trying to establish it. Brad came up with the idea of saying bang to start the fight scene and to signify a bomb or guns going off. This was expanded when Karen said there could be more of it to signify each action and I thought that was a good idea. She likened it to children in a playground but to be honest I don't really see it like that. As in that itself is a good comparison but I more see it as a way to convey what's happening more effectively in a physical way rather than using sound effects so it's more of a useful tool than a scenario if that is what she was implying but I could be wrong. regardless it was a great suggestion and in my opinion adds to the piece way that gives it a sort of constructed/clockwork feel even if it's only subtle. I suggested that to change the mood or to give the impression that we're in a different place, that we should change the lighting when we transition scenes and everyone thought it was a good idea and we all came to the conclusion that changing from white to purple light would be the best option since most of us thought it was the most dream like of colours. This will hopefully set a mood that feels different to the real world since it's all a coma induced dream. I also came up with that I should play a Zanni (since the shift is from naturalism/Frantic Assembly to Commedia Dell'arte) and it would be a dream version of one of his fellow soldiers and a close friend of his. I thought that basing the Commedia characters based on status and rank would be an interesting idea since a Zanni is the lowest that it would be suited to portraying that. It's actions and how it reacts to authority or higher status seemed to fit very well and even made for some dark humour in the piece such as me getting beaten or shouted at and me being overly submissive. Whether or not that will work I don't know but I hope so. The last idea I had of the session was just a little expansion on Jack A's idea of his Harlequin eating the pieces of a board game they're playing and I have to get them out. I simply suggested that I do it 3 times before Max rages and that's it however I think Max forgot that since he did it after one or two when showing it so I guess that doesn't mean much. Overall I contributed a lot more than I thought I would today and I'm proud of how it's all going so far, whether or not I'll be able to contribute as much in the future sessions I don't know but I really hope so.


Problems and solutions:

One issue we cam across was whether to put the masks off stage or not due to the complications of having blackouts and lighting effects since we'll have very little time to actually set them so max came up with the idea that the masks will simply be placed on stage at the exact point where we all fall over/die and in the test run of the it worked although I did suggest to make sure the masks are facing outwards to the audience so it looks deliberate rather than lazy. So this small change will mean that the basic lighting will only change and there might not be a black out at all so there's less pressure for those transitions. I also wondered how we're going to bring on the chairs and table for the protagonist to lay on and I suggested that we simply put the bed behind the gap in the back curtain so it can be easily grabbed and put on by Jack A. The same could be said for the chairs that me and Elle have to bring on. They will be placed at the entrances on each side so they are easily accessed. This is to potentially help the flow of the piece and to stop there being any long gaps that may affect the pacing so hopefully in our next few runs this will prove to be true. The last problem we really have is the issue with some of the people not turning up and while being off due to illness or personal problems isn't the problem, it does bring up the question of how are we going to fit them into the scenes we have already done but in some ways I think it could be quite simple due to that we could have more soldiers and more stories to tell in the fight scene and more conversations in the hospital scene if we block that.


Teamwork:

I think that my group worked extremely well today. We all took on each others ideas and I even asked them if they had any criticisms with my ideas and if they did I would appreciate them and that's how everyone was acting even if sometimes they were not contributing as much they would still listen and take on board the ideas and try them out honestly. We made some real progress today and I hope we continue to do so with the rest of the group.


Strengths and weaknesses:

Our main weakness of this session was that at points we did lose focus which was a little annoying even though I was part of it such as when Karen was in the room observing us we started talking about "Star Wars" for some reason but thankfully this happened very little but the fact it happened at all is still a flaw. Another fault was that we did not really get any other story ideas rolling due to that we were working on the war one which everyone seemed more interested in. We did have a brainstorming session for any other ideas and brad even came up with an interesting one to do with a homage to "The Wizard of Oz" using Anita and Joe/Roy but that didn't go anywhere although I will ask him  about any expansions on it tomorrow.

Our strengths were that there were a lot of points where we were completely focused and concentrating and being mostly critical (in a good way) to any ideas suggested so we only pick the best ones. We all listened to each other and weren't dismissive of any ideas unless they blatantly would not work but that never really happened. We got a lot of work done despite the others not being here and kept focus with the exception of a couple of times but even then when others may have been talking one or two of us would always discuss ideas and they kept at it to produce some good ideas. everyone was quite creative and could easily get into characters such as the Commedia ones and it was all seamless when actually performing it. The ideas some people were thinking of such as Jack A thinking of his harlequin eating the board game pieces in my opinion was brilliant. So overall a pretty damn good first real session with the group and I'm looking forward to tomorrow to see what we can develop.









Tuesday, 12/1/16:

Today we started off the day with an exercise in which we had to listen to the stimulus again and then in pairs and devise a 1 or 2 minute piece based on the new ideas that we had when listening to the song. Personally I initially didn't have any new thoughts when listening to the song. I just kept thinking of Anita encouraging Roy in either a simple innocent way too let loose or in the subtle against discrimination way that I thought when taking the time period and attitudes in jazz and race at the time into account. I was put with Brad and Daniella and Brad was the one who came up with the idea.He imagined an American diner and a couple in there arguing while he gives some narration. I came up with the idea that the argument should be represented by a chair duet. I mainly choreographed it with Daniella adding some movements. I used an idea that I used yesterday but with a different context. I'm trying to get close or hit on her but she is either just not interested or not in the mood. I try and put my hands on her and even try to kiss he but she just puts my hands back on me, blocks me or turns away from me and even at the end she pushes my head down and pours a drink over me. Then brad comes in and says something to me and then we fight using Hymns hands and then he says to me "I got an idea for you" ending it on a cliffhanger. This went very well and was quite well executed and flowed quite well in terms of the movements and according to Karen had some very good clarity so I'm happy with that.

Creative ideas:

The main idea of today was of an American diner through multiple decades and seeing the attitudes of people towards music, change in music style and just changing throughout time in general. I think this could be a very good idea but at the moment I have a worry that it may be too short but I'm also keeping in mind that we still need developing but as of now it could potentially show the declining of innocence as time has gone on. I think this will be an interesting and entertaining theme to show even to I actually don't agree with it. Music has certainly got less innocent but people in general are the same and in some ways it was worse back then with a lot of discrimination that today has improved. Regardless I still think that holds promise for narrative qualities which show how much time can change in a period that as a whole isn't very long. I didn't have much of a chance to say much today due to people talking too often but I was able to point out things about peoples ideas that they seemed to not consider such as I pointed out that if we have to costume change in the diner scene it may be a better idea to wear all black with one or two small and easy top put on items of clothing to signify the time period rather than do full costumes since this could have a very bad effect on the pacing if we take too long to change. Also I asked brad about an idea that he had yesterday which involved making the play mostly literal in terms of plot. Brad initially seemed sceptical of telling everyone but I insisted and then he said it and everyone seemed to quite ,like his idea of an adventure from downtown to uptown with Anita and Roy due to it's simplicity and lightheartedness. so this mean we now have 3 ideas for starting points and will focus on the diner idea for the next session to see what we can start.

Strengths and weaknesses:

A weakness of today was that I didn't really have the chance to contribute much in terms of starting points or ideas due to that the group was a bit too keen for the idea with the diner and any time I would attempt to suggest something then they would cut across me and in general the organisation in terms of conversation and note taking was a bit of a mess. I think it's great that the group was keen but I wish we were more organised. Another problem with today was that we did not do much in terms of blocking any actual movements, all we go to was a basic premise and while that premise is interesting I wish we could have actually got up and tried blocking a starting point and then seeing where we could go from there and keep it practical which means we would have most likely have got more done.

The strengths of the session was that everyone was quite keen to think of ideas and were quite perceptive and honest about the pros and cons of the ideas such as thinking of whether or not the transitions for the diner idea would be smooth or that having the right costume and the technical side will even be practical considering our limitations on time and resources. We also had very little time where we had nothing to say, it was very quick and everyone was contributing even the slightest bit to the ideas even if they were only clarification and pointing out minor flaws with the plan even though there may not have been a solution every time.


Developments:

I said that after listening to the song in class I had no other ideas than the ones I wrote down the first time but I thought I'd listen to it when I got home in order to think of any others that would come to mind and I plan to do this a few times over the next 2 weeks or so just to get more ideas going. The one idea I did think of today is a somewhat development of something I thought of before. I mention in my notes last time that I though of Las Vegas and when I thought of that again, a brief story came to mind of someone in a casino who at first seems to be very lucky and on a winning streak but the greed gets to them and they keep going and eventually lose everything. A rise and fall story that is often used in plays and films. One director who often uses this very basic and possibly even cliched story arc is Martin Scorsese whom often uses it in his film but often in different ways so I can see potential in this being more original than it may seem at first but it'll need some development before I can decide that. Now the casino idea itself is just an idea for a story arc not really a story to focus on although I'll have to see what happens if we start to develop it but I have no clue where this will go although I will try to think of more ideas soon.







Thursday, 14/1/16:

Today we had the more of the group in although it was still only 7 of 10 but we still managed to get a fair bot done today. We started off the day with a workshop that was to do with tension states shown physically. We had to go from being exhausted to laid back to neutral to passionate to alert and to tragic. We had to convey these feeling in a purely physical way and not in a very naturalistic way. The most effective way was to do them in a stylised manner which showed it easily and quickly even if it was extremely over the top. This was a fun exercise and was even useful due to that it showed me that naturalism doesn't really work for physical theatre because if I'm doing something that is meant to be unrealistic or over the top, I always have something that keeps me subdued in a sense and made me realise I need to work on that. It also helped with knowing that any actor must start from the neutral state before performing otherwise it's much harder to get anywhere else or into another state of tension. After that we got into our groups and continued devising. We showed the people who weren't here what we had done on Monday and they did like the first half just not the second half since they thought the dream transition wasn't communicated well enough. Instead we decided today to focus on the American diner idea that was mentioned last time.

Developments:

Originally it seemed that the main focus of the original idea was to show the change in times but mainly with music tastes or it seemed to be but after today it seems to have shifted to the changing of times and peoples attitudes and beliefs I'm not saying that's a bad idea at all if anything I think it's more interesting and has more potential for ideas. It could show the dark or light side of humanity much like how DV8 would theme their performances. Although we have only blocked one scene so far and the idea is this. An old man recounts his life of owning a diner through several decades and this can show how time changes through the perspective of one man and I agree this is best because potentially seeing his view point change over the years or have varying opinions on said time periods seems far more interesting than changing to multiple owners since they won't be there for long and it would be hard to get attached or sympathise with them in the amount of time they'd be given. The scene starts with Max coming in and saying how he felt about the opinions of race at the time and how other Americans at the time (The 1960's) would've have disagreed with him. It has the girls sitting at the table and Jack A on another. Sam is the younger version of Max and I come in and buy 2 drinks from him. After that I greet Jack and sit down and then the girls start talking about us thinking we're "Cute" or something along these lines. Then a black man (Brad in a black mask) comes in and the music stops to signify peoples shock or dislike of the situation. Me and Jack ask the women to move to another table so they are further away from us beating him up. Max then expresses his regret to himself and the audience and the scene ends. Although we do want to expand it since we didn't have everyone in today but what we've done so far I think is fantastic and really should focused on for now. The change of focus today has been worth it for this in my opinion brilliant idea with a lot of potential.

Creative ideas/input:

The first idea I had was for when I have to greet Jack. I suggested that instead of shaking hands we should shake hands but also spin or go through one another which besides looking interesting or stylised shows a sense of playfulness/comradery between the two which means their relationship can be established quickly and more efficiently than simply shaking hands. I also suggested that when me and Jack sit down to drink, we drink in a clock work motion or a way that's sort of in slow motion but has mild pauses in there. The clockwork aspect I thought was necessary to show to suggest a repetition in these peoples lives like they often do this or they come here a lot. It's a brief idea I'll need to expand but at the moment works and at least looks visually interesting. I also suggested that when we get up to fight Brad he gives me a cue line to grab and that at that moment me and Jack do a synchronised punch to his stomach, then I go round and through Brad to push him towards jack who gets him on the floor. Then someone else suggested keeping it as a freeze frame when he's on the floor while max gives his narration. This I thought was a good idea because it may show that our characters are used to doing this and it's something they do regularly which is signified by the punch done with the arms that will be closest (My left and Jack's right). The through motion is a more stylised way of showing my control over him in the situation as well as a way of getting Brad towards jack

Strengths and weaknesses:

A strength today was that everyone was keen to suggest ideas and wanted to pursue this idea to develop it. They pointed out the criticisms and what would work and even got excited when they realised the potential for a dramatic or stylistic moment. We got a whole scene done in the couple hours we had which I'm proud of and glad that everyone got on board with the idea so quickly. I contributed to details involving style to small moments to make them stand out more or just so they have more depth and seem more appealing to look at than simply having the basic actions.

A weakness of the group is our idea organisation. Last time I mentioned that the group members constantly interrupt each other when giving ideas and with more people here this time it was actually much worse and the fact that they were more keen didn't help. I was barley able to get a grasp on what was going on for the first half of the sessions and a few members felt the same and often just got cut across. I mentioned this to the group but it was quickly dismissed due to that "Once you get an idea you want to say it before you forget" This is really the only weakness we had this session but it's a pretty big one and we need to work on how to fix it.

Aims:

My main aim is to work out a way to make the way the group discusses ideas a bit more organised. This could be resolved by a bit more of a brain storming session or just taking turns instead of cutting each other off in mid sentence. Although I honestly don't think it would work since it's been passed off already. My other aim is to actually contribute more when I have the chance. I did today with quite a few small ideas but I would like to do more to do with the piece that focuses on it's core themes and try to help with the narrative of certain scenes. As of now I don't have any for the piece but on Monday I will try my hardest.