Thursday 16 December 2010

Evaluation


For the production ‘Little shop of Horrors’ I got involved in with different things. Before the show I helped out to make the plant – this included sketching, wiring everything together, and painting. On the actual day of the production, I helped put the plant on stage. We made miniature scales for the set so we could see what it looks like in big size, and then helped paint everything. I lent a hand in making the tools of the dentist chair, and the flowers for the set. We used different coloured tissue paper and scrunched it up to make it look like a flower. This is all included as prop construction. As I made most of the props and helped construct and what everyone else in the group should do. This helped with my organisational skills.                                                                                   
I helped with selling leaflets at the front door. We sold them for 30p; this helped with my selling skills and communication with the audience. I had also helped out backstage doing the curtains – opening and closing them. I also helped with the Graphic design of the poster. We decided to use black and red colours to make it seem that the show will be adventurous and dangerous. As the colour red shows blood and jeopardy.  We put all the details at the bottom of the poster e.g. venue, time, date etc. We’d also included a big image of the plant on the front as it’s the most important thing about the show. With some help I also made the ‘Mushnik Florist’ sign to go on stage, as well as the set painting. I didn’t want to make it to big otherwise it would take up the whole stage and not to small otherwise the audience at the back wouldn’t be able to see. I got involved with stage management this included in helping getting the guy in an out of the plant the technical requirements of the show such as the model box and the plant. I also got involved with the Visual research this incorporated with the 1950’s mood board, and mind map. This helped me gain more knowledge on my research skills as I had to explore different words and images related to 1950’s New York. I had to also be aware of the Copyright issue.  As you can see in my other file, after all of these things that I got involved with I had to make sure of the Health and Safety Precautions for the production – before, during and after.


One element of the project that I consider that I’ve learnt from the most is when I was working back stage with the actors/ actresses, client, and the whole team production. I feel that any difficulty that arises I overcame and handled without delay as you have to be prepared to face anything that may cause the show not to run efficiently. You can prevent things like this from happening by rehearsing as much as you can, keep checking lists that need to be done, make sure everyone is available when needed and that everything works constructively well. Having an organisational manger is very important and can make a huge improvement in comparison to not having one at all.
I’ve also learnt that while creating the props and action prop construction we needed to be precise of the measurements. Rehearsing is fundamental as you can improve for the live show and make any arrangements such as when its queue to open and close curtains, the different lighting (brightness, colour, position etc) sound, and the use of props (position and the placements of the background.

What I found out from pre production work is that Pre-production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance’s. We worked hard when the show was coming close to the deadline by researching more information and having a timescale. If we work with pressure during his time then I feel it’s important in planning a performance because the show can go on smoothly and you know what to expect. To be more successful in finishing all tasks given it will be good to have an classify and arrange a management leader who will give up their free time to help instruct and teach all the team members with tasks bearing in mind the time scale.    If we have a strict timeline there will be dis-advantages like everyone will have to work quickly while achieving high standard work, but most of all its good because the work will be done. During pre-production, the script is broken down into individual scenes and all the locations, props, cast members, costumes, special effects and visual effects are identified.

I believe that I was good at showing my artistic skills when I got involved in the graphic designs of the poster, the drawing of the “Mushnik Florist” sign on stage, and also making miniature scales for the set, and when I helped paint everything. Also I felt I was good at the finding of the images. This was useful for me as well because it assisted me with my researching visually skills by using search engines.
I feel that I was bad at meeting the deadlines straight away after the work was given even though I did get it done. I’m also a perfectionist, so I want everything to be complete up to standard and I have high expectations in my own work, and I want to do well and I tried very hard in the whole production.

Thursday 2 December 2010

Stage Direction Terminology


Stage Blocking- Stage blocking is one of the most basic and technical elements of play direction. Blocking provides the backbone and structure needed to make other elements a reality. Blocking is the choreography of actors' movements throughout the entire play. If a character needs to exit the scene, for example, the actor must be able to move naturally towards the exit. The director's goal is to come up with a plausible means of getting that actor across the stage and through the door, window, and transporter beam.
Sightlines - A sightline is a 'line of sight' between spectators and the stage or playing area at a venue (for example a stadium or theatre). This is a radial view and a good sightline will allow a spectator to see all areas of the venue stage. It is recommended that the spectator's eye height must be not being lower than 800 mm above the stage.
Stage directions - In theatre, the stage is a designated space for the performance of theatrical productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience. To an actor facing the audience, "left" and "right" is the reverse of what they are for the audience.
Upstage - is an open source server-side application that has been purpose built for Cyberformance: multiple artists collaborate in real time via the Upstage platform to create and present live theatrical performances, for audiences who can be online (from anywhere in the world) or in a shared space, and who can interact with the performance via a text chat tool. It can also be understood as a form of digital puppetry.

Professional Practice - Case study of a theatre designer






Dan Potra - Theatre and Film Designer
Dan recently moved to the UK from Australia where he has graduated from National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992. He has also graduated from Bucharest Art Institute in 1985.

He worked with companies including Opera Australia and Sydney Theatre Company as well as designing for the opening ceremonies of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games and the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Dan has designed for, opera, theatre, film, television and other large scale events across the world. These include Places like USA, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Russia.

His work in the UK includes ‘The Gathering’ at Edinburgh Castle, ‘L’incoronazione’
for Garsington Opera, ‘Samson’ for Buxton Festival, ‘Sweeny Todd’ at the Royal Festival Hall. As you like it, merrily we roll along, the importance of being earnest and Moon Landing at Derby Playhouse and the opening ceremony and Portrait of Nation events for Liverpool 08.
I think his work is very unique and brilliant. I like the way he uses different materials and fabrics for a set on stage to make it look more stylish. When he’s designing a set he also makes it look more eye catching as well and I choose him because of all the work he’s designed for, which is very interesting. A theatre/film production designer are usually gifted artists, who is normally art school trained, and often specialising in 3, theatre or film design. The skills that they have are to communicate visual ideas with images & words.