Week 17

Monday 29th January 2024 

We started Monday by making sock puppets as props for the therapist scene- wanting to use them as a way to create dimension in a movement sequences. I personally really like this concept, as I feel it adds this condescending sense to everything the therapist does, and as I'm playing the therapist I know that the childish element that the snakes will create is going to elevate my performance and the scene as a whole. The sock puppet snakes are meant to represent the dialogue that the therapist has, using the snakes as a way to represent Dana's fear of speaking visually- meaning they will move around her and act as "the company" in this scene. Once we had made the sock puppets we then delved into the relationship the Therapist has with her clients/the way she is as a person. To do this I ran an improvised "open mind" session in character whilst everyone else participated in it as there character- whether that be a "mean girl", popular lad or freak and geek character. I found this really enjoyable and freeing- just being able to fully experiment with the character without any restrictions or boundaries, and although improvisation can be quite nerve racking, I'm finding that my past work and development on improvisation has helped me build up the skill of being able to flow in and out of it with ease instead of hesitation.

We then decided to expand the idea of the snake sock puppets by using them to create a dance like comedic snake piece as experiment for physical movement we might use in the therapist scene. Our idea was to intertwine with one another in a way, crossing arms and bending our bodies in almost uncomfortable ways to look squashed and tangled together- whilst the actor playing Dana is stood in front of us all looking outwards. We then selected a song that seemed quite mysterious with a repetitive rhythm (for this we chose pink panther) and then moved one by one in an order to the beat, slowly surrounding Dana whilst using to sock puppets to show a sense of interaction with her- like they were purposefully annoying her. Although the concept of this was kind of embodying GCSE drama in a way I was still really happy with the result as I felt like it fit the scenes atmosphere really well- adding this childish element to it that embodies the sense that everything is being preserved as a joke when it comes to Danas struggle. 

Tuesday 30th January 2024 

Working on Connections 

We started Tuesday by delving into the first scene of connections were we meet Dana for the first time and see her collage reality, the whole point of this scene is to symbolise how unnoticed Dana is to the world- beginning in an open school quad area were we see the different groups of people in this environment, with Dana isolated. This scene is meant to feel busy whilst still being structured so certain moments pop out in Danas journey through society. This was also a difficult situation, because the point is to not drag attention to her, whilst still highlighting her separation throughout the space, meaning as actors we had to constantly rely on each other whilst using our peripheral vision to know were the actress playing Dana was at all times so we knew not to accidently look in her direction. The bit I find most difficult about this scene are the nose ques, because the scene is very loud for the majority except for when Dana speaks- meaning as an ensemble we have to mime speak at the same time when she goes to say her lines. Because the ensemble dialogue is partly improvised there any que lines we have for when we need to start mime acting/stop mime acting, meaning that we had to use Danas spacing as a way to que us all- which made it even more difficult to show that Dana was "unnoticed" as we all relied on her spacing to make the scene work. We spent quite a while going through this spacing and focusing on what our characters were focusing on in this scene. We haven't yet got the timing for this scene 100%, but its quite a difficult section so hopefully with more practise we will have it spot on in no time.     

Filming for "Oblivious"

Me and some of the other year one acting students have teamed up with some of the year one film and tv students to produce a shortened version of the classic film Clueless (but for copyright reasons we have named it oblivious). After our session we started our first day of filming, but as I am playing Travis I didn't have any lines in this first scene so did some ensemble background work instead. I've never been part of a filming project before so was really excited to experience and learn more about what it's like to be on a working set with a deadline, especially a deadline as close as this one. Straight away I learned how long the filming process of even the smallest scenes can be, when it comes to close ups re takes etc- needing to be focused and present at all time so that the close ups especially match the other shots. Overall I'm enjoying the process so far and already learning a lot from it- very excited to shoot the rest of it. 

Wednesday 31st January 

Today we were joined by the level 2s for a section of our session, this is so they can see more of what level 3 is like and If they feel they would be ready to transition on to our course the following collage year. To get everyone comfortable we started by playing some warm up games, just so we could learn everyone's names and slowly ease into the session. I could see that the level 2s seemed very apprehensive at first so it was our job as a group to make them feel welcome and supported as even just putting yourself out there in warm up games can be quite difficult when your nervous, so support was key. 

After the warm ups we went into some devising, getting put into small groups and then being given a starting line and an ending line that we had to build a piece around. This was a good devising challenge, as it wasn't to difficult whilst still leaving loads of opportunity for creative freedom. There was only one level 2 in our group of 4 so we collectively made sure that we were actively giving them the chance to input on ideas and feel listened to by the group, it was important for us all to show an accurate representation of what it would be like to join the course so they all had a clear idea of how they felt about it. 

Friday 2nd February 2024

filming for "oblivious"

Normally we're not in on a Friday, but on this weeks Friday we were filming all day, as we had unfortunately lost some earlier footage that we had shot in the week. I really enjoyed this filming day as I had all my main scenes as travis, these are very funny humours scenes so I really enjoyed just being able flow into them as comedy acting is something I really enjoy and have done quite a lot of so wasn't massively panicked about it. I also had to do some close ups today which is something I've never had to to do before, finding the whole experience to be really enjoyable and beneficial to me as TV and Film acting is something I'm really interested in perusing if I get the chance in the future. I also got to learn more about what its like on a set and the expectation you are required to meet as an actor, as there is quite a lot of waiting while other work is being done and things are being set up, so It's good for me and other young actors to get used to this as its something that we will potentially need to be prepared for  going into other Filming projects.