25th November

Lighting Technicalities

18th Novemeber 2014

Tech Lighting Session With Paul

I really enjoyed testing out the different lighting effects, the possibilities are simply endless! It was also really good to know the different technical attributes of each studio. I learnt a lot about lighting and how it can wash out an actors face ect. Seeing light coming from each side of the stage was also another interesting method of lighting, however this would take lots of practice as the actor has to be stood in exactly the right place, which is interesting to know as if an actor is not in that space it could have a completely different effect. As I was saying in a previous post lighting can make different emotions, when seeing all red your brain instantly feels danger or love perhaps, together with the actions of the actor this can duplicate the effect creating strong feelings for the audience. Looking at a complete red wash really hurt my eyes which could be good to look at if I wanted to create something uncomfortable. 


  

Being a Crab

11th November 2014

Becoming objects and animals helped me realise how much I DON'T use my body physically as well as I could. Becoming a crab and a toilet ect. wasn't as easy as it sounds, moving your body to the shape that it needs to be is not that easy, it takes control and stamina, something that as a performer I need to improve. 

I discovered the objects I could make with my body just by moving in different ways. Physical theatre is very interesting, and you can create an object, which is good if you do not have a prop you can simply just make it. It can also be a way to make an object slightly different, or to give it a personality. Whilst thinking about giving a object a personality it seems crazy but in actual fact it could be a vital way of creating a mood within your piece, and an easy way also! From thinking about moods and emotions within an object it then got me thinking about different ways to create moods and emotions. Which can be lighting, acting, set, music, and physical movement, it is important to create emotions and moods in different ways in order for the audience to understand and feel the same. 

Evaluating Ones Self

Personal Performance Evaluation 

5th November 2014

Myself - I have learned from the process so far that I like to work with physical objects. Having an object helps me create scenarios in my mind that can link me to other ideas. I have been finding it difficult to come up with ideas for my piece as feel I can't just sit down and come up with material. So having a physical object makes my brain picture this object in a different way. I want to be able to find some sort of strait narrative or storyline, which I do not feel I have, I feel that everyone around me has solid ideas and I do not, I feel like I should have these ideas and this is stressing me out slightly. In order to come up with material I feel like I should watch certain things that I can relate or find inspiration for other peoples projects, but I don't know where to look for this!

I feel as if I need a structure and clear ideas so I must evaluate what to do next in order for me to feel comfortable about where my project is at. 
I feel I should

• Write stories for bullet points 
• Watch technology related programmes
• Draft ideas for characters
• Think about relaty TV, technology and mind control to find material. 

I hope that if I spend time generating ideas that I will start to have a clear structure to my work. 

Objects = Inspiration

28th October 2014 

For this lesson we had to bring in 2 objects that we thought could be useful for our piece, so I took an xBox controller and a pair of glasses. Everybody brought their own objects in and here is a picture of these objects.

Objects that were bought in.

 It was interesting to see the vast range of objects as they were all different and I could see some that could work for my piece.

We all went around and wrote some words by the objects that sprang to mind when people saw them. This was helpful but I did not feel like the words that were written really related to the feel I was going for. Knowing what sprang to peoples mind when they saw them was pretty useful however, because I then could see what they thought when they saw them.

The Controller Words/Phrases

The Glasses Words/Phrases

We then created our own scenarios using the objects, some peoples scenarios were really helpful to me as they were very relative to what I wanted to do, such as the 'technology killer' where the cord of the controller was put around someone's neck, a sort of 'death by games' theme. I liked this because my whole piece is about technology and it's disadvantages. It helped me see how just objects can tell a powerful story. The other one that was useful to me was the fox playing the games machine, the fox had some sort of connotation about trickery, someone who is cunning, or has magic powers this made me think of the controlling aspect of my plan, the main character who can control peoples minds links to a fox in many ways so therefore I could play around with this idea, maybe this character could take on some characteristics of a fox. Rhys also chose a scenario that I liked, he stood watching people with his glasses on and taking notes, this gave the idea that he was watching people, I want to explore with the idea of watching people and how this can be shown. 

 For my scenario I chose my objects, when my glasses were on I was then able to control minds, this gave the glasses a 'personality' like feature and they were then something completely different to just a pair of glasses. I had originally chosen a completely different idea but decided to change it as it did not relate to my ideas.

We then took some objects in groups and made a scenario out of them. In my group we had a necklace, a book and a notepad. We create a scenario from the story within the book. Books are a great way of thinking of ideas as you make images up in your mind from the words, I think I could find one about the disadvantages of technology and that would help me!

 

Scenario Building

23rd October 2014

Thinking up 3 scenarios with my character. The first scenario was about the character crying in the road, and screaming about being watched/chased, you can see people filming her to the side, later on in the film we see this footage. 

This idea slightly came from other peoples, it is useful to hear other peoples ideas because you get a different angle to what you are thinking and this can give your work some extra textures. Most work is influenced from previous work anyway, so it helps to get opinions and ideas to refresh your mind. 

I also created another scenario which was about the main character rather than the character I had created before, therefore I started creating another character in my mind as I was writing this scenario. 

This lesson was helpful because I then had created scenes in my mind.   

Character Creating

21st October 2014

In this lesson we started to work on creating some characters and the ways in which we could create those characters. Splitting the page into 3 columns, first narrative, second detail, and third background/context, we had just write and not stop what we were doing, I found this very helpful as I was able to just write nonsense down on paper but when reading it actually made sense. I created a character called Kayla, she is the person who is being followed and later on begins to be controlled by another character. In order to do this task I created an image of a person in my head and just wrote down attributes that I thought this character would have, for example Kayla had some problems in her life so I made the character look older than she should look. I am unsure if I will actually use this character in my film but the method of creating the character really helped me think up a character. Not being able to stop writing makes you write exactly what is in your mind, you do not have time to change what you think because instantly this is already written. I should take some time to do this in my own time. My understanding of making work has improved because I slowing learning many more methods.