8/11/16 Character costume analysis

Today's task got us thinking in depth about why characters are dressed in the costumes they wear. To get our brains stimulated, we endured a task which was essentially going through the opposite process of creating costume for charcaters. We had to analyse Sax and Max's outfits that they were wearing today, and why they had chosen to present themselves in the way they did. We had to critique their full outfit, hair, make up, jewellery and any other added accessories they were wearing. This helped us all ask ourselves 'why' they and made the clothing choices they did and what this might say about their personal life and overall personality. 

Collectively we gathered from Sax's choices: 

She likes to dress respectfully and with modesty at work as she feels this is professional. Also this suggests she is proud of her job and wouldn't do anything to jeopardise her position within the college. Therefore she is a driven individual who is keen to please people and maintain her employment. 

She had a single hair band on her wrist, allowing her to tie her hair up at any point through out the day as she was wearing her hair down. This shows she is prepared at all times, reflecting on her organised and practical personality. 

The colour of her t-shirt was very fitting to the season. It was a deep green colour which looked very autumnal and also linked to the idea of Christmas. This portrays the idea that she likes to pre think and be head of the game. 

Max's choices: 

He wore a navy suit, firstly indicating the fact he is at work and hold authority over the students, as suits are linked to power and look presentable. The fact it was navy linked to the fact that he wanted to come across approachable and relatable to students. Navy is a warm and clam colour compared to black which is looked at as a harsh colour and therefore would possible have come across as overpowering and unapproachable, if he wore a black suit. This conveyed the idea that he wants to fit in and connect with his students, showing the commitment he has to his job. 

He was wearing odd socks which linked to the fact he may be a lazy person who doesn't pay much attention to minor details. This could reflect the fact that he isn't a perfectionist and would rather focus on events and enjoying life rather than being caught up on appearence. 

His hair resembled a 'bed head' style and therefore didn't stereotypically fit with his presentable appearance, wearing a suit. This showed us that he still wants to be preceived as a young person due to his young age in a professional environment. This also showed us his quirky style, suggesting that even though he is wearing a suit which he wouldn't in day to day life, that he is a man who is true to himself and doesn't want his individual style to be lost. 

After finishing this though provoking exercise, Kim explained to us that what we had been doing is the reverse of what we need to be doing for our costume unit: we had been picking apart why the two models were wearing what they were wearing however for thr costume design unit, we will need to be creating ideas behind why we have put the charcaters in the outfits we have chosen. 

Now I will always be able to think back to this exercise if I come to a natural pause in my costume design; it will stimulate me to be thorough and creative when designing costume for the three charcaters. These ideas we came up with the justify their choices have also given be a basis to start from when giving reasons for my charcaters costumes, however I now need to game this a step further and be more imaginative as the charcaters are living in a virtual world, 300 years in the future, giving me more depth to explore and analyse. 

04/11/16 Another one bites the dust choreography and media piece refining

Warm up phrase

What went well?

Today we learnt a new warm up phrase which featured dynamic turns which improve your agility, different use of levels to ensure all parts of your body have the chanced to be prepared before dancing starts and in general fast pace which steadily increases your heart rate, encouraging effort to be made. I feel as though I was able to pick up the routine efficiently today as I remembered the movements after learning them. The first time I performed the phrase to music, I missed out a turning movement over the left shoulder. After realising this, I recalled this section of the dance and was soon able to perform it with no inaccuracies. 

Also personally I feel as though I worked well during the warm up today as I was at the front, leading the movement as I am efficient at picking up steps and new choreography. I like to help others and feel as though I did this today. 

Even better if... 

To improve for next time, I want to ensure that whilst performing a jump in the air, sending my legs out and up to change my body positioning, I fully extend my legs. I found myself not quite being able to fully extend my legs as I ran out of time towards the end of the phrase, where this move is performed. To improve, I will practise the movement a few times on its own to ensure my take off and landing positions aren't hindering my ability to maintain correct technique. 

Another one bites the dust

What went well? 

Today I feel as though the whole of the class worked well together to complete the choreography to this number. Bryleah took on the lead role of inputting ideas to the process and choreographing the majority of the number as her character Killer Queen, sings and is the main attraction of the number.

As an ensemble we worked out that acting robotically suits this dance as it is based on the Killer Queen having authority and control over the whole of Planet Mall. 

We also used the process of trial and error to ensure the movements we finally chose looked fitting and worked with the lyrics and intent behind the song. For example a couple of people has ideas for the ending of the piece however we chose the one which looked right when we tried them both out. We firstly tired splitting the class in to two, with one half running off after being zapped by the Killer Queen and the other half robotically falling to the floor as if they had been zapped down dead. Our second idea was to have everyone stay on and after being zapped, to fall robotically to the floor in a seemingly uncomfortable position, to later start twitching the body to the music, as if we were robots re booting. We decided to go with the second idea after seeing what both ideas looked like on stage becuase the stage looked busier this way. Also the twitching of the limbs right at the end added a comedic element to the piece which fits in with Killer Queen, who Izzy and especially Bryleah, play in a humourous fashion. 

Even better if... 

We could have improved on the piece if we had extra time in the lesson to go over the choreography we have finished today, and refined movements. This will make the piece be seemingly more fluid, which is professional. This is what we will be doing next lesson.

Media piece 

What went well? 

We continued refining the piece today and everyone co orporated as a team well, staying patient and focused. A couple of people were missing from last week's rehearsal therefore we helped them catch up with what they missed from this session. 

Even better if...

The next step we need to take is having a rehearsal in the theatre space, in which we will be performing in for the winter dance show. This will allow us to adapt out dance to the space around us, instead of having a shock by doing this on the day of the performance. The theatre is a different shape to the dance studio and therefore would be beneficial for us to get used to performing in the appropriate space. 

Week beginning 31/10/16 We Will Rock You rehearsals

Working together as an ensemble in today's lesson, we managed to create and choreograph the movement to Killer Queen and Khashoggi's conversation on pages 11 - 12 of the script. Everyone was late it with one another today as this process of creating movement took us 15 minutes of focus. Bryleah, as Killer Queen, took on a leadership role within the group, listening to the rest of the class's opinions and communicating them to Kim and everyone clearly. I felt everyone was focused and patient today and having Bryleah lead the choreography helped set out minds on what we needed to achieve. I felt my contribution to this part of the lesson was subtle yet helpful. I feel as though I contributed by being quiet and focused through out. Even though I didn't have much input into the creation of these movement, I listened to what was being asked of me and co operated by copying the movement correctly. We used robotic arm gestures to symbolise the Yuppie's emotions as they all think the same, under control of the Killer Queen. Whilst sitting on the Killer Queen’s steps, the Yuppies will raise their outside hand up to their mouths as they gasp. This works well with the gasping sound as it look controlled and everyone looks/sounds identical; under the power of Killer Queen. 

Developing an early scene between Scaramouche and the GaGa girls today took compromising today as all of the girls working on the piece including myself, had plenty of ideas about accent choice and use of the body to portray the 'bitchiness' of girls. I feel as though myself, Isobel, Talia, Jade and Megan worked effectively together as we were all relaxed enough to be able to chose the best ideas from the lot we contributed. Isobel had the idea of encorporating the Essex accent into the Ga Ga girl's persona, which we tried and worked well as this accent is linked to gossiping. 

I am a confident person and therefore I am used to taking on the leadership roles in similar situations during class. Therefore today I feel as though I have learnt that sometimes it is a positive idea to take a step back and show your ensemble contribution by being focused and doing what you are told to do. This makes the process of developing choreography much more fluid as having everyone talking at once always becomes too intense and unproductive. Peer support was strong today; we all knew we had to complete a significant amount of blocking today therefore all the class acted professionally, working corporately together to achieve this. An example of this was that some of the movement we created today was difficult to achieve unison with. Instead of individuals loosing focus when they and grasped the technique, we all managed to stay focused on behalf of the people had needed to spend more time rehearsing the movement. This ensured everyone was at the same level of awareness in the process. 

Something we found challenging today as a class was working out who is going to be able to perform on each night, due to doubling casting. This gets complicated as we have to consider that the year 12s will be involved in the show so we have to account for them too. This part of the lesson did become slightly stressful as at some points, a lot of us were talking over one another, trying to figure out who was needed for a certain scene and logistically if they were able to be a part of it. To have improved on our ensemble skills here, we should have tried to listen to one another and allow only one person to speak at a time. This would have solved the problem quicker and allowed for everyone to be heard separately. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=roWCuzOiPRE&feature=share

21/10/16 Another one bites the dust initial ideas and media piece development

The warm up phrase
What went well?

• This week I felt confident that i knew the warm up phrase and was able to dance it with no mistakes from start to finish. This shows development from the first week, seeing me unable to accurately achieve the correct timing for one of the movements.
• I feel as though my technique has also improved. I have improved by getting higher on my demi pointe when doing a half turn, to face the back of the studio. I also feel as though I have improved the fluidity when coming out of floor rolls, by ensuring I transitioned into them with momentum, allowing my recovery to be more natural and easy.

Even better if...

• To take the phrase that step further, I plan to take it upon myself to add appropriate dynamics to the dance. This will make the dance look as if it is my own and will add characteristic to the phrase.

The media piece
What went well?

• I feel as though the media piece we have been creating and developing for a number of weeks, is now coming together well with a clear and thought out structure to it. This has been a result of building on individual sections each week. Now performing all of the sections together in an appropriate order, really portrays the theme of media well. It does this by accessing different aspects of media through dance including being secretive, passing a story to others and therefore the story becomes altered, running away from the truth.

Even better if...

• To imporve next lesson, we need to keep going over the material we have tody put together to ensure it flows fluidly and the trasitions are looking clean and professional.
• Also next lesson we must fill in the couple of people who missed out on today's lesson as to what they are doing and where they are positioned on stage. Catching up is vital and we will work as a team to ensure they are up to speed with the movement and their positioning throughout? Being confident on stage is vital and we will all make sure that everyone feels comfortable and able to perform. 

Another one bites the dust

In the last few minutes of today's lesson we started to share some movement ideas for Another one bites the dust. Bryleah and Izzy had some positive ideas for this as they are playing Killer Queen and this is her song. They had done some research into various movement styles we could apply for this dance. We came to the conclusion that the style we dance in will be robotic and as if all dancers are brainwashed into thinking and moving in the same way. This will reflect the Killer Queen's influence on the citizens of Planet Mall, showing her authority over them. We tried out some ideas for example marching in unison as a group, showing the idea of 'control' and falling to the floor when the Queen signals at us, again showing her power over every individual. 

18/10/16 Costume bible

What is a costume bible?

• This is a book which includes all the information about costume design for a performance. All details about the costume design should be included.
• The book must include in-depth research into why each character is going to be wearing their specific type of costume and the practicality of making and maintaining it.
• Costume inspiration, why they are wearing each piece of costume.
• Initial designs and ideas, along with ideas and sketches of potential design ideas.
• Where you are going to source the materials from to create the costumes. Financing of the materials must also be included to ensure the company stay within their budget.
• Must include accurate measurements for each individual character, ensuring the clothing fits the characters accurately, making the costumes look professional and well maid.
• Samples of fabric you are considering using for the costumes, so you can make sure the texture is appropriate for a stage and theatre set up.
• Detailed information about specific extras for example, pockets, zips, buttons, wigs, jewellery.

What determines a costume designs?

• Practicality- ensuring what you are wearing enables you to perform your part well. For example if you are a contemporary dancer wearing a tight skirt, your movement will be restricted and therefore is not practical. Also if you have a quick costume change, the outfits you are changing between must be easy to alternate between.
• Character's personality- costume reflects their personality. For example, colour might determine the mood or warmth of the character. The costume also represents their personality, leading to stereotyping of certain outfits; dark colours could represent a depressed character whereas bright colours could show a happy and bubbly person.
• What they are trying to portray? For example, the character must be wearing an appropriate costume which suits their role in the piece. A business woman would be wearing a suit, including a shirt, blazer and trousers to show her authority and importance. A business woman wearing tracksuit bottoms and a bright pink crop top is not stereotypically correct and therefore will not be recognised or understood by audiences, making it difficult for the character to establish themselves. 
• Time period/ Social and political status - the costumes must be suited to the year the piece is set in. For example if your piece is set in the 90's, you must wear clothing appropriate to the fashion at the time, including bright jackets, denim jeans and skirts, block fringe and fluffy hair.
• Budget- ensure the materials you are using are cost effective and you get the most out of what you have got. You need to strategically spend your budget to create successful costumes. There are alternative ways to create character and status without the use of expensive or elaborate materials/ costumes.
• Physical setting- lighting, stage space- the lighting changes the colour of a costume. Practicality is also to be considered, as certain clothing under lighting can become see through, which would be inappropriate to audiences. For example, sequined costumes are a pain for lighting designers as the sequins catch the light and lots of scattered lighting is created as a consequence of this, interfering with the rest of the lighting plan.
• Status- how a character is measured against another character. For example costume can be a large indication of class in productions. For example in period dramas, they make an obvious distinguishment between upper class citizens, wearing delicate dresses and smart suits whereas the lower classes wear aprons, white and black scruffy and overworn garments with dirt on. This shows to the audiences a clear indication of the class divide, visually. This helps the audience understand the social and historical context.
• Original costume- does the original costume design effect and inspire what you have in mind for your interpretation.
• Audience- costumes have to be appropriate to the age and maturity of the audience. Costumes for a child audience may be colourful, have an interesting texture, comical, large and over exaggerated ideas. Children's theatre costumes would feature sensory aids for the children to visually appreciate; lights, texture, sounds and colour.

What is a costume plot?

• This is a break down of the costumes through out the show, a way of organising each detail of the costumes for the characters in each scene.
• This includes, clothing, jewellery, accessorises, footwear, headwear and make up.
• Below I have started my costume plot for my character in We Will Rock You, Scaramouche. In the first few scenes, her appearance is conveyed as care free and natural to her. However from  scene 9 and onwards, she is forced to change her appearance to completely rebel against the negative comments about her dress sense she has recived in her life. Her new outfit shows off her figure well, and shows her being confident in her body, almost as though she is starting to find herself. 

14/10/16 Media piece and Seven Seas of Rhye development

Seven Seas of Rhye

What went well? 

• Firstly I noticed an improvement on the target I set myself last week. This was to ensure I was getting the correct timing for a certain part of the dance, which is an extension, stepping backwards to come forwards again. Last rehearsal I was struggling with the timing and each time I ended up starting a count too early. This lesson I felt myself naturally correct this after the first time I ran through the movement. I had a quick glance in front of my at the other people in the dance and I was son able to pick up the timing and correct myself easily. 

• Secondly Luke and I developed our lift scene, which is now coming together nicely as we have correctly slotted in some transitions which make our movements look fluid and natural. For example we perform a lift, seeing me being pulled round in the air by Luke as I do a stag style leap. This looks strong as I manage to get a lot of height behind the jump. A smooth transition to the next move was what was missing. We choreographed a fluid transition for this, I tumble to the floor and roll over my rot shoulder. After, I do a spin up to standing, holding is hand still and do a leg extension jump, with my left leg extended to the back. Luke reaches for me at this point, conveying the idea of wanting to save me or potentially pull me to freedom. 

Even better if? 

• To improve my rehearing today, I would like to have spent more time working out little details to the dance; asking questions to double check specifics such as ‘is this leg extended or ben?’ or ‘flexed or pointed foot here?’ I feel as though I may have spent too much time actually ensuring I was confident with all of the movements and spacing. This is a positive thing as I know I am confident with the movements however for exact details of the dance, I will need to spend a few minutes going over at some point next week, before our next rehearsal.

Target…

• For next rehearsal I will firstly ensure I am familiar with precious details of the dance, to ensure my technique is accurate. This will have my dance performance look professional and of a high standard. 

Media piece 

What went well? 

• Firstly we managed to choreographed a substantial amount of the dance today in the hour period we have assigned ourselves to do so. We started today off with 1 minute of material and we have ended this lesson with just over 2 minutes of material. This shows we have been able to work efficiently as a team, producing a substantial amount of work for the hour we had to do it in. Everyone listened well to each other's ideas and were able to get on with rehearsing the parts we all individually needed to.

• I contributed to choreographing a section of the piece today. I came up with the idea of everyone starting in the corner and learning the same motif to represent keeping secrets and acting in a mysterious manner. I pitched to the class the idea that Bryleah would lead the dance; she would perform the motif with three other dancers, they would turn around and return to the corner they started from after completing the motif and perform it again, having picked up three other dancers. This happens three times until, the whole cast are dancing the motif. This visually represents the idea of a secret building up and being taken out of context. The more people performing, conveys the idea of the secret being twisted and added to. This idea was used and works well at the part of the dance we ended up at as we are able to naturally filter to the left back stage corner to perform the phrase. 

Even better if? 

• Something we could have improved on today was working with the people around us when dancing. Particularly in my quartet with Luke, Emily and Jaydee I noticed we were dancing well however need to develop our interactions with one another when performing. This is a minor detail when looking at the performance however will make all the difference. The more we exchange glances and keep eye contact, the easier it will be to convey the idea of a secret being the main subject of the piece. For example in real life when there is a rumour, everyone who knows about it exchanges glances and gestures towards each other. By mimicking this idea, the concept of out piece should be easier to understand. 

Target…

• My area to improve on for the next rehearsal is further developing my facial expression through out the piece. I felt myself performing with good facial expressions at some parts however more target is to ensure I keep this up through the whole piece. This adds to the characterisation and conveys the meaning of your character participation, why they are in the dance. 

13/10/16 Planning, rehearsing and performing an ensemble piece

 There are three main parts to successfully putting together an ensemble performance; planning, rehearsing and performing. Each step involves different elements of working together which are all vital in ensuring each step is honoured, giving the ensemble performance the best chance of success. 

Planning- this includes contributing ideas, researching the content of your performance and exploring the subject in depth, making compromises, availability of cast and team and listening to opera house other’s ideas. Ensuring you have a set idea of how you want the performance to look when it comes to the show day is essential as the rehearsal process will fit around this end image. Commitment to the process is also a vital to making the performance work. Each team member must be committed and passionate about their part in the performance. Having team members who are passionate about what they are participating to the process, will take the work to the highest standard possible.

Rehearsing- this includes putting together a rehearsal schedule, tolerance, patience, focus, flexibility and self discipline. This is the step where everyone's works starts coming together. Being patient is vital as this step is also the part of the process where everyone need to put in loads of hard work, ensuring everything about the performance has been covered and polished, ensuring it is ready to be performed. Focus is also important as there is always going to be a certain amount of time the work needs to the completed by therefore a lose of focus is a lose of time which you cannot get back. In conclusion this part of the process must be completed with care and commitment to make the performance the best it can be. 

Performing- your group image/ costumes, choosing your audience, enthusiasm, peer analysis, supporting one another and energy. This is the final step to the process and is where the hard work and commitment all pays off. Energy and enthusiasm are two essential traits all of the team member must have when performing. Watching people do something they enjoy and are passionate about is always pleasing for audiences. Appearing unenthusiastic and bored when performing not only looks unprofessional, it also brings The mood and atmosphere down to a low point which becomes unenjoyable for audiences and performers. 

‘I like the flowers’ is a warm up sung in the round. We split into three groups of roughly 4 people to sing this today. We performed the warm up song twice. Firstly we sung it with no prompt however before we sung it for a second time, we had a class discussion about how we could use performing skills (listed above as the third section) to improve the piece. Relating to the idea of performing, enthusiasm was the first element we needed to improve on. The first time lacked enthusiasm and charisma as we were all too focused on signing the lyrics correctly and ensuring we sung with our groups; keeping in time with the round as a whole. However after mentioning we needed more enthusiasm, the second time round definitely improved. I noticed in myself and when looking at others in my class that we used our facial expressions to demonstrate passion and that fact we were having a great time on stage, performing the song. I also noticed a difference in body language, we all let our vocals and the melody lead our movements, such as swaying from side to side and performing the simple hand actions which go with the song. This looked like it came naturally to us the second time round as we weren't over thinking the technical details as we had these perfected at this point. Eye contact between the whole group and each of the three individual groups helped us support one another. This connection allowed us to be clear on when to start singing and end the singing. This also helped make the transitions smooth between verses. Being aware and ‘awake’ whilst singing, also made sure each group kept to their timing in the round. If an individual in the class was confused about where to pitch their line or the timing, making eye contact with a outer group member made it so much easier to get them back on track. This is a positive way of non verbally communicating when performing. 

A counter melody is the idea that two songs can be sung together by two different vocals, accompanied by one of the song’s backing music. The songs however cannot be chosen at random, they have the musically fit together to ensure the two match and sound correct. We sung two sets of counter melodies today; 1- Adele, Someone like you with Journey’s Don't stop believing. 2- Pink’s Just give me a reason and James Blunt’s You're beautiful. The most difficult part of singing in a counter melody is keeping to your song in your group. Whilst singing two songs at the same time, it is easy to become distracted by the other song’s lyrics. This is where patience and focus comes in during the rehearsal process; you must help others understand how the overlapping of the songs works out and ensure all your attention is committed towards the task otherwise unnecessary mistakes will inevitably occur, wasting time for the whole cast. When performing, we had to bring strong energy to our performances as individual. As a result, this increased the whole volume of the group, making the songs sound brilliant together; you are able to hear the songs counteracting against each other, sounding stronger and more professional as a whole. 

Myself, Luke Emily and Jaydee were put into a group and given the song ‘Crazy little thing’ to choreograph and sing, with the end goal to perform to the rest of the class. We spent the least amount of time on the planning section as we only had 40 minutes to complete all three. Our planning consisted of a small amount of research into the song, listening to it and understanding the pitch and tone. This set us up in a strong position for starting the next step, rehearsing. We spent the majority of our time today on this step as for this quick task, preparing our material was the most important stage. We all listened to one another's ideas and put our heads down, getting on with the task in hand. For example there was one stage where we all had different ideas for s certain part of movement. Instead of debating over whose idea should be used, we civilly decided on which idea to use and made a compromise, to use the other movement ideas in the dance however in another section. This cut down the procrastination which could have potentially taken away some of our time we had rehearsing. Patience also came into play when rehearsing today; we were singing some difficult melody lines between a female and male vocal which took us some time to work out where we were meant to pitch the notes and following on from this, making them sound strong and perfecting them. 

When performing, some of the movements and vocals didn't look or sound as we had initial expected them to in rehearsals for two reasons. Firstly we didn't have a huge amount of time to create the choreography and therefore it wasn't refined as well as we would have been aiming for. Secondly due to the time period assigned for this again, none of us in my group were confident on the lyrics for the song, therefore we didn't sound fully confident. However sometimes these things happen when performing and pitching ideas to the rest of the cast therefore you have to apply other performing skills in the moment, the demonstrate a glimpse of what you have created could look like I'm the future. We apply end the idea of enthusiasm by making the movement we remembered over exaggerated, almost in an appropriate comedic way. This brought a new concept to the piece, as the audiences did enjoy us bringing in an element of humour, even if it was by mistake. Finally, peer analysis came in to play here when getting feed back from them after. As I mentioned, they enjoyed the comedic moments, such as making the movements over exaggerated and turning to the side and leaning on each other whilst singing and performing a crazy motor bike action. This has uncovered a new idea of bringing comedy to the piece as it really worked, which is a positive new idea which came from a mistake. This shows that as an ensemble if things go wrong, you must interact with each other and react to one another's energy; and this could actually bring new ideas to the table. 

My target for the following lesson is to continue thinking about the three stages of putting on an ensemble performance as they have really helped me think about why and how we do each step as a group, working together.