07/10/15
Today we worked on the consequences scene; this consists of a series of freeze frames. The freeze frames are either solo or two people. Tom and Lewis's freeze frames shows Tom's character being arrested, whilst mine and Rhiannon's frames show mourning and confusion. Dan is portraying someone being kicked out of university, Toby's character is homeless due to his flat being burned down (and he has resorted to alcoholism), and Ash presents guilt. In between each freeze frame is a blackout to allow us to get to our positions in time. After ten blackouts we form a freeze frame as an ensemble; we form a straight line, with our wrists out as if we are awaiting arrest. There is then a blackout and we move backwards into another line, as if we were politicians. We wanted to get as many different types of person with lots of different scenarios all related back to the London Riots to present how everyone was effected. For my character (representation of distress and pain and confused anger) I took inspiration for the "movical" version of the musical "Rent", when the character Mimi is caught by Rodger buying drugs during the song "Without You" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrE7mh7Emj4 - at 3:47).
08/10/15
Today, we polished both the emotional turmoil scene and the consequences scene. We then added lighting to them both. During the emotional turmoil scene, the lighting varied throughout, with white strobe on any fight sections and a plain red or pink for mine and Rhiannon's sections. We then filmed this scene so we could do video observation and improvement. We watched the video, picked out on what we thought could be improved and then we made corrections. What needed improving the most in the emotional turmoil scene was the stage combat; the punching didn't look very realistic as the actors were too far away. Therefore we used strobe - although moving in strobe light is very challenging (as it is disorientating) it hides any distance dilemmas, making the punching look closer and more realistic. We then did the exact same with the consequences scene. Our main problem with this scene was not being in position on time, therefore we would still be moving slightly whilst the light was on. To correct this, we ensured we got to our positions quicker (and that we were confident with what position came next) and we made the blackouts slightly longer).
14/10/15
In today's lesson we altered the opening scene. Instead of beginning on stage, we have decided that we shall enter from behind the audience to open the piece. The song "Ill Manors" plays during this scene, and we all begin as "chavs". No one enters as the music starts to make the audience feel confused and inquisitive into what is about to happen. Rhiannon and I are the first to enter. We walk down the aisle and end up sitting on some desks (within the audience) staring at audience members, making them feel uncomfortable and uneasy. The rest of the ensemble enter from the back and have different actions as they walk down the middle. Once everyone has come down the aisle, we from our original positions around the room. From this point, the scene is the same as the original opening scene up until the individual freeze frames. After this, a recording of a siren plays, which is when we run off. We decided to put a siren on to give us a cue to leave to make our piece flow better and the transitions slicker.
