Mask-Making, Devising

Monday 21st January-
We went back to mask-making but this time we were starting to shape and form the facial features of our masks. Mine and Bekki's mask was the zanni therefore we took features that the zanni has like a flat, fat nose and big cheeks.
The features have to be quite thick for exaggeration and also symetrical for realism.
Our masks are not completed but we have to complete them sometime soon :)

Wednesday 23rd January-
I missed this double lesson as I was ill but i do know that the rest of the class started devising our commedia piece. They prepared what they produced for me to watch on Thursday :)

Thursday 24th January-
Today I watched my classmates perform the first sketch of our commedia piece.
I loved watching it!
I also thought it was a great way for me to give feedback for everyone and also advice for myself in advance before acting.
Here is some of the advice I wrote down and what other people said, including Mr Fearnehough:

• exaggerate characters more
• stay in characters
• get names of characters right
• face audience more and come to downstage centre
• maybe no music on guitar scene, instead actually play guitar(badly) and sing badly too. Adds live music too which is what commedia involves
• add in more zanni and lazzi dialogue( jokes)
• use more well know songs if they are used.
• sort out ending 

LOVE WINS ALL - DEVISING

Monday 21st of January - We went back to the art black and did some more work on our masks. We were shown by Mrs.Wilkins different techniques on how to shape different features of the mask. She reminded us that the features have to be symmetrical and we always have to consider which way we are looking at the masks so it doesn't create un wanted shadows that could change the whole features of the masks.

Wednesday 23rd of January - AT the beginning of our double lesson Halley showed used different movements that are used in Commedia. There was the 8 different directions, reflection of movement, lunges and hand gestures on different jumps. For the rest of our double lesson we worked on our commedia piece. We started by going through each scene and improvising. I am a Zanni so my job is to make the audience laugh at jokes and join in but without Lydia there who is also a Zanni it was a bit hard to just do jokes on my own. We all worked together and came up with a rough draft so we could perform it to Lydia and Mr.Fearnehough the next day. We got loads of good ideas and lots of technical music and sound ideas that we really got into and really want to use.


Thursday 24th of January-  We did the run through the rough draft of our  Commedia piece 'Love Wins All' We then went through it with Mr.Fearnehough and Lydia and we discussed what were the positives things of the piece and what could be worked on. In all:
- we need to remember what scene is when
- We need to define are characters better.
- We need more audience participation.
-  Zanni and Lazzi have to have more jokes.

Week 16: More Maskmaking and the First Run-through

Monday-We returned to the art block to work on our masks. Mrs. Wilkins showed us lots of different techniques to shape them. She reminded us that it is important to consider how the mask will look from different angles- the side, underneath, top, and symmetrically. I think that this is important to remember for all aspects of theatre-look at the performance, set, prop, costume, or make-up from different angles and make sure that all visible sides are presentable.
 
Wednesday-Mr. Fearnehough gave us the double hour to work on our commedia piece. It started with Halley giving us a movement class. She showed us the eight directions of movement, different hand gestures, reflection of movement, and directional lunging. Lydia was sick that day so her absence made Bekki's job more difficult, she did not have anyone to tell jokes with, pull pranks with, but still did good on her own.  Mr. Fearnehough told us that we would be performing our "rough draft" piece for him the next day. Then, he left us alone to figure out what we were going to be doing. We worked together well, except sometimes we had so many ideas to do one scene that we couldn't decide how to use them all or which one to pick. It was really good to finally get to work on the acting and fitting in the technical aspects, start putting the pieces together. This also showed us things that we need to work on. For example I realized that I  need to practice singing my character's song (badly). It also helped me to realize what props and sets we would really need. For instance, I realized that for the  theatre we would only need chairs as the set. As we devised I was able to see what props we needed as well. One interesting thing that I noticed as we were devising was our tendency to make it a musical, especially after most of the class had protested having any singing in it at all in the beginning. This picture of a tongue-tied bear shows how I felt when I was attempting to improvise for this performance.


Thursday- We did the first full run-through of our play, "Love Wins All". It went pretty good for being a first complete run through, although there are parts that need work.

1. We did not know our scene order well
2. Our characters were not well defined
3. We need to be more expressive (use bigger movements, louder voices, and more elaborate, descriptive lines)
4. We need to incorporate audience participation (in the run-through the audience was ignored)
5. We need to decide who will be moving which set piece and decide what our scene changes will look like
6. More Zanni and lazzi!-more silliness
7. The male characters need to be more male (I should not stand like a girl when I am playing Jack)
8. Face the audience
9. One thing that I know I had difficulty with was the "cop in  my head"-allowing myself to get into character and act like that character with out worrying what people think or if I look dumb.
10. Mary and me need to work on our "love" scenes. (Be more lovey-dovey)

Even though the run-through was rough and needs work it has some parts that are already amazing!

1. Halley and Axel's movement (they both moved like their characters)
2. The plot of the piece is good
3. Bekki's lazzi were good (she just needs Lydia's help to amp it up)
4. The lines that we had were good and with once we  get more comfortable with our characters I think that we will have more to as well.
5. Mary did great as the completely bored and disinterested  girlfriend and the lover.

LOVE WINS ALL

Monday ( January 21, 2013) We continued to make a mask by that time, we add the things that is needed to be added in the mask.

Wednesday ( January 23, 2013) First thing we did is having a warm up lead by Halley Rose, I learned a lot of things, then after that, we started to make a script in every scene by applying it on the spot, sometimes we are thinking what we will say or do.

Thursday ( January 24, 2013) This is our first time to perform in front of 2 audiences namely Mr. Fearnehough and Lydia which is absent on the day we practice.
 GOOD:
-  Every characters do there part

WE NEED TO IMPROVE:
- We need more script so we are not been stuck
- Express the movement and the emotion of each characters, specially when we are wearing the mask.
- Then we need to speak louder so the audience must hear what we are talking about.
- Put some funny moments in the scene so it would be a commedia play.

Two weeks of theatre, from loglines to our play!

SO, this entry has to make up for the fact that I forgot to do it last week. Hopefully it’ll fill in all the gaps.

Monday 14^th of January – We took a short break from Commedia to concentrate once more on our pitches, with Mr. Fearnehough introducing us to loglines. Loglines are particularly used by Hollywood screenwriters in their film trailers to attract attention. They do this by placing 3 key words in the text read by the narrator. These words are:

When – Sets the scene, introduces the main character of the story.

Then – Introduces the problem that befalls the main character.

Until – The character thinks outside the box to find a solution to the problem.

These will be a great help in writing our pitches for our Commedia play, now called “Love wins all”.

Wednesday 16^th of January – was the day on which we made our Commedia masks! Although we probably won’t use them, this was a great insight into the world of Commedia. I was the model so I didn’t make a mask but I still feel like I learned a lot on mask making. The masks are made of tissue paper and gum-tape, so they are tough yet light. Following that trip to the art room, Mr. Fearnehough explained what our next research task would be. Mr. Fearnehough wants us to make an annotated bibliography. Although this is something that only the higher level students are supposed to do, Mr Fearnehough wants everyone to do this as it will be very important for university. An annotated bibliography is basically a bibliography in which every source is explained, from its reliability to its use. This is a very good exercise but a very long one too!

Thursday 17^th of January – Freeze frames and improvisation! We decide to make our freeze frames better as we had found a lot of things we could change. Halley, Mary, Abby and I started improvising the cinema scene in our play, a scene which does not have Bekki or Lydia in. Bekki watched us and gave us feedback while Lydia printed and hung posters of our freeze-frames. We repeated that scene several times and every time we were surer of our acting and of the things we were saying.

Monday 21^st of January – A trip back to the art block was on the cards so that we could finish our masks. Mary and I are focusing on the Pantalone mask, so we started work on a small, spiky moustache and a crooked nose. Although they are not nearly done, we did get a lot over with!

Wednesday 23^rd of January – This was the big devising day. Halley started us off on a small Commedia workout, including the 8 Commedia steps. We then went straight to devising and improvising our play, although we were one member short as Lydia was ill! Nevertheless we ploughed on, desperately trying not to make a musical, even though that’s what everyone really wanted. We got practically all of it done and dusted by the end of the lesson though. Or so we thought!

Thursday 24^th of January – For the first time ever, we showcased “Love Wins All” to a live audience of… two. And that’s when we realised exactly how much more work had to be put in. We had concentrated so much on getting it right we’d forgotten one of the key points of Commedia; audience interaction. We were all too focused on each other to give the audience a glance! That being said, there were some good bits too! Halley dove right into her role as Il Capitano, acting extravagant, arrogant and like a right prat, which is exactly what Il Capitano should be like. Mary got us out of a few tight spots with her improvisation whilst Abby knew exactly how to react to my Pantalone character. Bekki did her Zanni part very well, especially during the guitar scene. To conclude we agreed we needed to break the fourth wall and give the Zanni a bigger role, as they are key to Commedia and our biggest chance at making people laugh.

First Review of "Love Wins All"

This week started with a suprise foray back into the art block to continue working on our masks. This stage was crucial because we were able to start and add the essential elements of our character into the actual shape of the mask. Abby and I are working the Il Capitano mask, so we first had to shape in the form of a half mask, so his mouth has all the room necessary for bragging and seducing! The most important addition however was the long nose that we added. The process was actually quite simple, we used cardstock and then just fitted the angle to the bridge of the nose and there it was! We added so more paper mache for stability but were unable to start painting or decorating. I think this whole experience in the art room has not only been fun, but it has also made me more aware of all the different types of art that go into the art of performing. I have a deeper respect for artists, because an actors performance can either be enhanced or hindered by a costume or prop.

I'd say the theme of wednesday was "Lets Get Down to Buisness"! Before the real business could take place, I lead a brief warm-up in the classic moves of commedia. The focus of the warm-up was to explain the 8 directions used in commedia, as well as directional lunging.The task was simple: continue devising, BUT use the storyboard as a guide and just get the basics down, for the whole piece. When I heard this I was completely overwhelmed and nervous, (added to the fact that our ensemble was missing a very important member, Lydia!) However we managed to get on and get a basic story down. Though we found it quite easy to slip into a production of "IST: The Musical" :) The hardest part, and the part I think we lacked on wednesday, was staying true to our "masks". Since this is a modern take, we all have to consciously think about using the original commedia dell'arte elements in our performance.

Though we got the brunt of the work done on wednesday, thursday was very important because it was the first time performed our piece (to our audience of two). I felt that there were several things that went really well: I thought Mary did an excellent job improvising lines, especially when others in a scene didn't know what to say. Also I thought Axel did a really good job using the movement of Pantalone by shuffling his feet, being pigeon-toed, and stroking his wallet. I thought Abby's best momenet was when she has the conversation with Pantalone at the movie theater, she had just the right about of innocence yet power in the way she answered his questions. Also I thought that Bekki really brought the energy up in the first scene by being really weird and funny, especially with the line "OH! Fresh meat!" However that brings me to some of the things we could improve on: one I think the zanni need to be in it way more, and have the lazzi be a main source of shenanigans for them to take part in. Also I think we need to add in more funny cultural references, because I thought the "Bella Notte" song was pretty funny at the restaurant scene. As a whole we pretty much for got to include the audience. At some points we weren't facing front and we were so focused on eachother that we didn't even make eye contact with the audience. I think this problem will be solved if we break the 4th wall and get some audience participation (a key element of commedia). As for me, I think I need to define my character more, because at this point I almost feel bad for him as that one that no one likes, instead of the one no one can stand. Also I need to exaggerate my facial expressions to match my body position so the audience can tell what I'm feeling. Lastly, everyone needs to be LOUDER!

Log Lines, Mask Making and Freeze Frames

January 14, 2013 (Monday)
 MR. Fearnehough discuss about Loglines, i've got an idea now what is loglines mean in theatre, by having its 3 main word in expressing a film, this are the tree word:
WHEN is about the when is the main problem in the film
THEN is about the key relationship and the solution to the problem in the film
UNTIL is about how he or she solve the problem.
Then he gave us some aspects of production that having it's own themes, costumes, buildings, props and the light and sound which is the pat of performance concept that we learned last time.

January 16, 2013 (Wednesday)
 We started to make a mask which is a basic type on doing mask, we got to learn many things like how to make the shape of the noise. And our main aim is to make a mask that we needed in our commedia dell arte play.

January 17, 2013 (Thursday)
 We repeat our freeze frame because we have some scene that doesn't been included, and after that we get one scene about "Encounter in the Cinema" to practice what kind of movements do we put in it and we all thing what we gonna say which is we do not need script on we should say what we need to say exactly.

Mask Making, Freeze-Frames and Loglines :)

Monday 14th January-
Today we learnt all about Loglines!
I had no idea that loglines existed but they are used by Hollywood Screenwriters.
Basically when writing a "pitch" you begin with When and then in the middle you begin a sentence with Then and finish with Until.
It is a great way to learn how to write a good pitch for our commedia piece which is now called "Love Wins All".

Wednesday 16th January-
MASK MAKING :)
On our double lesson on Wednesday we started our mask making.
Our aim is to create some Commedia Dell'Arte character masks.
The materials used for the mask making was gum-tape, tissue papers and water to wet (slightly) the gumtape. We placed the tissue on someones face and then went over with the gum-tape creating the form of a face shape.
Right now, they isn't any Commedia elements to them but we havn't finished as we need to next exaggerate facial features to our character and then paint the masks!
I was the model therefore I wasn't making the masks and having that experience but that doesn't mean that I don't know how to do it.

After we made the beginning of our masks, we went back to the drama room and Mr Fearnehough told us about the research task we are going to be doing. We have to do an annotated bibliography which includes finding research about our technical roles in different forms. Our research will come from, internet, books, videos, primary resources...
I think that this research task will okay, but there is a lot of research we will need to do and I just hope that I can find good research!
Thursday 17th January-
Today we decided to re-take pictures of our freeze-frames because the other ones we changed afterwards that were much better. So we took new ones and then I printed them out and stuck them on the wall whilst Halley, Axel, Abby and Mary worked on the cinema scene which Bekki and I arn't in. Bekki watched them and gave them advice on what they could make better.

 

 

MASK MAKING

 

Monday 14th:

We were introduced to Loglines by Mr.Fearnehough and we were told the basic Hollywood films have loglines used by screenwriters before the film being produced. The 3 key words  they use is 'then', 'when' and 'until'. These words introduced different moments of the film.

 "When"is used for when a character encounters a problem.

 "Then" tries to solve the problem.

"Until"character acts outside of his pattern to solve the problem.

Wednesday 16th:
WAS MASK MAKIGN DAY!!!
We were shown by the art teacher how to make a base for the mask and create a form around the models face. We used gum tape and tissue paper to do this. I did Lydia and made the form and base by using her head muhahaha. mask forms were made we went back to the classroom and were told we would continue newt week. We were then told about the 'annotated bibliography'.  We were told that in the annotated bibliography we are going to have to do for our research task we have to show a lot of variety and resources in what we have found, and not just use INTERNET. 




Thursday 18th: We did our freeze frames again from our Commedia Piece. Halley, Axel, Mary and Abby started working on the cinema scene in more detail. Whilst Lydia was hanging the photos of the freeze frames up on the wall in the studio, I was helping the rest of the group by watching the cinema scene and say what things they could improve on, I think they did pretty well and every time they were doing it again it seemed funnier and they seemed to have a clearer idea every time what to say.

Week 15: Making Commedia Masks and Learning Loglines

Monday: Mr. Fearnehough introduced loglines to us. Loglines are used by Hollywood screenwriters. They use three words: then, when, and until. Each word introduces a different level of the story. "When"-a character with a pattern (exposition) encounters a problem (inciting moment) that challenges the pattern.

"Then"-with his key relationships he tries to solve the problem (rising action)
"Until"-the main character acts outside of his pattern to solve the problem (dynamic character)(climax)

Wednesday: We started making Commedia masks in the art block. This involved making the "form" for the mask. We used gum paper and tissue paper to do this. I was Halley's model and she did the actual artsy work while I sat there. It was a little disappointing that I was not able to make a "form" myself because I wanted to try it out. After we made the mask "forms" we went back to the classroom and Mr. Fearnehough told us all about our annotated bibliography. This is very similar to a normal bibliography except it includes a review of sorts about its quality, validity, and usefulness. While making a bibliography is not very daunting or difficult, the amount and variety of resources that we are expected to use in it is.




1-The Arrival

2-Rejection

Thursday: We redid our freeze frames from the Commedia Piece, Lydia printed them out and hung them in the studio. Then Axel, Halley, Mary, and me, started working on the cinema scene. We were all kind of wanted to get started on the acting, because we hadn't done any acting yet. I was kind of nervous about the acting, but I thought that it went pretty good considering that it was my first time acting for a couple years, except for a little thing at TaPS. I realized that I need to do some research for my part. For instance I need to learn a few different types of doctors, I need to figure out a few more cheesy love things for me to say about Mary, and most importantly I need to pick out a name for my character. I also need to practice staying in character through out the scene.





3-Falling for guitar man




4-Arranged Date





 



5-Failed Date

6-We are In Love
 



7-Encounters at the Cinema

8-Dad feels betrayed



9-Turning Point

10-Loves Wins All

Loglines, Mask-Making, Devising

This week started off with a brief break from commedia, instead we discussed “loglines” used in film hooks. Basically the structure of a logline provides the basis for a pitch, at which point you would layer on more details. The three key words used for the structure are “when”(character with a pattern encounters a problem that challenges his pattern), “then”(with his key relationship he/she tries to solve the problem despite all obstacles), and “until” (he acts outside his pattern and solves the problem). The brief summary of the plot is all in the present tense, however it can contain some spoilers seeing as it outlines the storyline. Once we learned this technique, it made me understand how to incorporate the brief summary aspect to a pitch. The logline discussion also helped me see the relationship between a writer and a director and a writer and a producer (the director would need the loglines, and the producer would need the pitch)

Wednesday we took a step in a new direction and did some theatre in the making! Even though we haven’t decided if we are using masks in our commedia piece, we are making them anyway to get the experience and appreciate the ‘dell’arte’ or mask-making, which was integral to commedia productions. We went to the art block and then got a demonstration (haha, Axel) of how to use tissue paper, and gum paper to form a realistic mask off of a live model. I’d say this was more of an art and team-bonding experience, and I found that I really enjoyed the artistic elements of forming the facial features. The only issue we ran into was that the art masks were designed to be realistic, and commedia masks are meant to be exaggerated as if caricatures of the people. However, I think this problem will fixed in “post-production” because we will be adding painted designs and even some attached features. This lesson ended with a gigantic research task! I’m not freaking out because I’ve had a lot of experience with annotated bibliographies as well as with dance/choreography. I’m looking forward to the inspiration that will hopefully come to my choreography, but I’m not looking forward to hours of sedentary activity for the purpose of creating dynamic movement.

Thursday we redid some of our freeze-frames so they would capture the “essence” of the scene more accurately, we did this through the different levels and body positions that eventually gave the frame more depth. These frames were then printed off and hang up; they will act as the storyboard for our production and help us stay on track without referring to a specific line in a structured script (which we don’t have anyway). Then came the true test of acting; we were left to improvise and devise the story. I enjoy making up stories and testing out new ways of doing things; BUT I won’t lie about my feelings toward improvisation= I don’t like it at all. I’m still not completely comfortable taking on the role of actor yet; however on reflection I think this commedia production has all the right elements in it that will force me to accept the practice as legitimate and useful. It is helpful for me to balance the research with the performance, and then I can have a balanced outlook and theatre experience. (Note, my computer won't let me upload pictures for some reason...but I put them on the fb group :)

Freeze Frames

THURSDAY (January 13)

We got to have our freeze frames based on our play and we give some different ideas on how every scene flow and give them a title of every scene, at first we all have been asking what we is the next scene we supposed to do and Mr; Fearnehough give us some ideas on how we totally give the best emotion and the physical appearance of each characters, and we supposed to help each other think what is the best thing to do which is has been more interesting.

Return from the HOLIDAYS!
 Monday 7th of January:

We started the lesson about discussing the performance concept with Mr.Fearnehough and we then discussed different ways we could research the technical roles we had been given. The London National Theatre is a great website to watch videos on all different technical aspects of performances.

Wednesday 9th of January:
Wednesday was when the fun began! Halley taught us how to do loads of acrobatics! It was a really good way of getting into the spirit of commedia and learning new skills. We spent the whole 2 hours learning new things like:
- Somersaults
- Jump-ups (starting from down on the knees)
- The run, slide, spin
- The worm
- The coffee grinder
- Cartwheels
- Different types of jumps - Hitch kick - Guitar - Leprechaun - Butterfly
- And the most exciting one the Russian Circle Running

 

I really enjoyed myself and Halley was very good at explaining everything and was leading the whole 2 hours extremely well and helped us if we were struggling with some moves. I think everyone enjoyed themselves and we worked together very well and we realised how well we worked from the pain we all had the next day haha.

Thursday 10th of January:

For this lesson we had to do freeze frames for the scenario we had come up with for our Commedia piece. We started off by re-reading the scenario and just going into a freeze frame and seeing if it work we then showed Mr.Fearnehough and we fixed them and came up with tittles for the freezes so we would be more clear. This activity also helped us out to figure out what our character was really like and the different levels that could be used in the freezes.

I think we are much clearer now on the whole scenario and how the characters are and I am really excited to work on it even more !!!!

 

Acrobatics, Freeze-Frames and Planning

Monday-
This lesson we had a more theory lesson where we discussed our technical roles. We gave eachother ideas and discussed if they would work. We got advice from Mr Fearnehough on how we can research our roles which will help us find a plan to carry out our ideas.

Wednesday (Double Lesson)-
This lesson was a VERY physical lesson! We learnt and mastered acrobatics taught by Halley.
I loved this lesson as I love doing activities like this as I am a dancer and felexible like Halley so I was very excited to be learning all these new movements.
I really wanted to master  the movements as I will be playing the Zanni (nerd) characters and these movements will fit perfectely into character when spying.
Halley added lots of variety of movements which included :

• 
• standing movements
• jumps
• standing on hands
• floor movements

Acrobatics didn't only just teach us how to do movements but it also brought the team together. Some movements meant we had to work together as a team for example the russian circle running. It required a lot of teamwork and we pulled it off amazingly! 

Thursday-We all limped into class after our intense acrobatics lesson yesterday and today we produced freeze-frames for our commedia piece.

We first did our freezeframes and then after Mr Fearnehough came to watch them.
The first time we did them, we didn't help eachother enough and take a look at our freeze-frames to see what we could make better and change. We realised that after we did this the second time, a lot of our freeze-frames from before were just safe ones. We changed them after to make them much more fun, exaggerated and showed the story and emotions more.

Learning new things !

Monday – On the return from the holidays, we sat down and discussed our technical roles for the play, as well as the performance concept. There I learned to my dismay that we would be performing in front of our old classmates. Oh joy!

Wednesday – The day of acrobatic hell. In fairness, it was a great acrobatics lesson led by Halley. In it I learned a whole load of new things, including the fact that I am slightly bendier than a wooden stick and that I still can’t do a roly-poly. But it was great fun and we learned a lot of things that will help us in our play!

 

 

Thursday – On Thursday, we learnt the meaning of the word “sore”. However, we quickly got to work as Mr. Fearnehough’s instructions on the board made us realise that the performance was fast approaching. We started making a series of freeze frames to represent each of our scenes. We also came up with titles for our scenes so we can have something to refer to in the future.