My scene improvements.

The scene I am in charge of is the Under the scene Dance off.

I like the story of this scene and the characters.To improve it i would sort out their spacing and ending.

Firstly i would make the two sides seaweed/houses go on diagonals instead of been comletely side on as the audience cant see it properly and we miss some of the dialogue within the scene. I would also spread them out a tad as they are quite squashed in the middle of the stage instead of using the entire space.

I would then sort out the ending becuase they dont show clearly how they win the competition, so we need to add a judge to announce it or something that makes it obvious they won instead of them just going yeah we won as soon as they get to the "competition". 

Maybe to add more to the scene we could make the children put hands up and say its a tie, then do a tie breaker in which they both dance at the same time to give a bigger finale before Sam finally deciding the winner. 

Overall I would just clean the scene up to make it more polished and add more dynamics to it becuase it has quite a good structure.

Dance 17/11/15

Dance 17/11/15

We started by making a timeline of the dance for ourselves linking each movement or section with either the emotion we are conveying or what the section represented.

I liked doing this because it really helped us focus particular sections on specific emotions really developing our characters, its also effective because it helps give us an overall feel for our piece so we understand the concept. My character makes an impact on this piece as I represent the victims of gangs/riots, throughout the dance my character interacts differently with other people depending on how they are treating me for example at one point i feel that some of the gang accept me so my character becomes more confident before being knocked down again when attacked.

We then rehearsed our piece incorporating these emotions making the piece more energetic and dynamic.

I then went through the piece and decided on costume ideas and why they would work my ideas were:

Hoodies- I think that hoodies would be a big part as first they are a steretypical symbol for gangs but it also complements the choreography as we do quite agressive movements grabbing the hoodie, then as a result really helps with our characterisation.

Trainers- This also adds to characterisation and it is very commercial and alot of the movements are down into the ground as well as there is a lot of contact work.

Trackies/ Baggy trousers- This links with the hoodies as the baggy look adds to the gang stereotype and adds more to our characters.

Plain top - This is effective as its simple and doesnt distract from the choreography and also symbolises unity which is one of our themes within the overall gang theme.

I also did some lighting ideas, I think that in the contact scene we should use red lighting as the red connotes anger, aggression and blood.

Targets:

 I need to improve my use of dynamics by improving my control. To do this I need to do core exercises at least three times a week for example sit ups or crunches, i am aiming to achieve this by the week of the performance. 

Lesson 17- 17/11/15

Lesson 17 - 17/11/15

We started off this lesson by doing a schedule plan, this was so that we could work out what needed to be done and how we were going to fit it all in. This works well becuase then everyone knows what is going on as well as whether they need to bring anything for that specific lesson.

We then did production roles, Megan and I are Sound, however we had already chosen all the music and created a playlist, we can't carry on until we have a tech run. As a result we joined props for the day, this was a good idea as it helps get more done helping our piece progress more. We took a progress vlog at the beginning of the lesson to show what our aims were for the session and then took another one at the end to show some of what we achieved here are the videos:

Lesson 16 - 12/11/15

Lesson 16- 12/11/10

In todays lesson we needed to work on the second half of our performance this meant that we needed to work on the mermaid and pirate scenes. So we split up into the two groups and went over what material we already had for the sections we then put them together. As a pirate we had done a lot of physical theatre stuff and had asmall structure of where our scene had to go. We started off our scene by just doing some typical pirate physical theatre moves like mopping the deck, drinking rum, climbing the rigging and steering the ship, we then had to fast forward to the part in which we had to confess our love to the mermaids whilst they were distracting us, for this we cam up with the idea of creating a chant which then turned into making a song, the original chant we chose was we love you mermaids we do, we love you mermaids we do, we love you mermaids we do. oh mermaids we love you. We chanted this a few times with stereotypical pirate accents this was to make it more obvious to our target audience to what we were and more relatable for them. We then sta down as a group to come up with more lyrics we came up with 

We love Mermaids and thier shimmery scales,

We love hearing about mermaid tales,

We wish with our rum that mermaids were true,

and thats why mermaids we love you.

I kinda fail at doing a pirate accent as well as jess, so we came up with me being the big bulky pirate that has a growly voice and Jess being the very childish pirate once had created the song we added it with the chant so the order was chant, song, chant, chant and on the last chant we did a can can to make it more humourous for our audience. This decision made the song longer and have more of an official ending so the children can tell when the song is going to finish. We then performed it to the other group, once we had shown them they gave us peer analysis and after break we went back and used the evaluative comments to improve our scene, one of the comments was to add more dialogue so it should be how we find timmy on our ship and to come up with our names i came up with my name as elizabeth as such a feminine name contrasts with the big, bulky exterior of my character making her more interesting , the other pirate names were Captain Jim, Clive, Jack and jackjimmyjames.  I think that all our characters really impact our scene as prates are normally known are in a crew so each member makes the crew and i dont think the scene would have the smae atmosphere without the different personalities.  We then added all of it together to create out scene so we had the movement physical theatre the dialogue section on finding timmy and introducing our characters before the song. 

strengths-  working as a team to create the song.

weaknesses-  Doing a pirate accent and being negative agaisnt myslef.

target: My first target is to practice my pirate accent i could do this by talking as much as possible in the accent as well as write out how to sound the words in the accent do this over the next two weeks. To add to this I need to go over scenes by writing out each scene and what my character dooes within this do this at least three times by next lesson,  I also need to sort costumes, I can achieve this by writing a list of what I need and checking when I get home and lastly be more positive.

Lesson 15 - 10/11/15 and Dance 10/11/15

Lesson 15- 10/11/15 and Dance 10/11/15

We started this lesson by going through the first dentist scene and really cleaning it so we knew exactly what was going to happen and what to say. We felt as a group that whislt the car scene was going on the people in the background in the dentist scene made the energy really low as we are silent and still so we decided that we should move a little making noises like tapping feat to creat small sound scapes within the scene, mine were gently banging my chair and sighing. This overall added more energy to the scene, made it more pleasing to the eyes and ears and was very effective. Once we had decided these we then ran through a few times till everyone had it down and could really develop there characters in that part; we then carried on doing the part where the Grandpa tells all the people what to do usually he makes it up everytime but we decided that we wanted ones that were going to be the same everytime so we wouldnt freeze on stage, the Grandpa says that we are able to talk through ur minds becuase we are siblings, Max and I as that is the pair we were sitting in came up with the idea that we start singing the spongebob squareoants tune together as we were bored of waiting, using the spongebob tune is effective as it is a kids programme therefore appealing to our target audience and  making them be able to relate to it more and our characters as well as establish who they are. We then have the transition to get into a imaginary memory scene in which the dentist area turns into a football field, Megan, Max and I are supporters in the sides i campe up wth the idea to make up chants with the footballers names and doing a mexcian wave through our stand, this gave our stand members a better vbe and more to go off of then just wooing and clapping. Subsequently we then go into the space ship scene in which we use physical theatre to create the rocket before becoming the starts/astoids before they crash on cave man island.

After this we kept rehearsing it to get it right, before continuing onto the next scene which is the cave man scene which we had redone last lesson, we had to icnorporate the rest of the group into the scene as a result we had to change it around as certain people couldn't be their parts anymore so instead of Jimmy Hendrocks we are at a frozen concert and meet Anna and Hans this definitely  appeals to the target audience as Frozen is one of the most popular kids films as well as very well known music. Once we had finsihed that we ran over the misunderstood creature a scenes a few times to make sure evryone knew how they werve involved in the scene.

Dance- 

In this dance session we went through our routine a few times going over certain sections so everyone had the right leg or was looking the right direction. Once we had done that we then went over the new sections more closely as some had forgotten their duets we had choreographed last lesson, Max and I felt ours was a bit complicated so we slightly changed ares as it made us travel to far. After that we started on the ending, we had finshed laying on the floor in the last section to represent that we had all lost our fights Bubu then comes on and walks around this kind of symbolises to see if there are any survivors/ collecting up her gang everyone slowly gets up and into a clump execpt from me once they are all in the clump i start crawling to the centre back into the position i started in the beginning tp shwo a full circle and to show how things never end, i look down before they all jump foward at me simulatneously i fall forward and the we have a black out to represent that the gang have killed me. The full circle shows violence never ends well as well as how a gang works as one, the use of levels at he end adds more dynamics to the ending of the dance aswell.

targets: practise new changes and ending.

Lesson 14 - 5/11/15

Lesson 14- 5/11/15

In this lesson we started by discussing what needed working on and we decided that we needed to work on the fairy scene and the cave man scene as they hadnt been done in a while and needed polishing/developing. I am in the cave man scene. We felt as a group that the cave man scene was a bit short and low energy so decided to add another part to it at the begining as the "Rock" concert, creating a pun as the section is based on the Stone Age, we then discussed how we could do it and came upw with the fact that they crash and land in the middle of a rock concert, we decided on a concert as it will involve music and maybe a dance number this would bring up the energy of the scene and make it more appealing for our target audience. 

We also had to incorporate one of our main characters Timmy. We decided that our rock star was going to be called Jimmy Hendrocks another pun as its like Jimmy Hendricks but instead its rocks. Jimmy and Timmy obviously we then created that there was some kind of mix up, this adds a bit of a comedy element to the scene. Timmy still being the imaginer throughout our performance he decided who all our characters are as the scene goes on i end up beign a cave woman fan girl for jimmy hendrocks with sam. Whilst all this comotion is going on Sam realises that none of this is factually correct and is like wait a minute it is then that we goback  to the original cave scene which is more factually correct this will be appealing for the teachers who will then bring their students to see our piece. 

Once we had finished devising the scene we could then go over it better this was helpful as it made it easier for me to develop my characters as i could see where they fit into the scenes clearer. In the cave woman scene i made a few changes for character being that she could undertsand both cave man language and modern day english this then easier for the children to understand what is going on making it more entertaining as a result, also then my characters interacts with both sides of the story making it more interesting and more fun to characterise. A major chage was that Max and I shortened our fire chant so that it didnt take that long becuase we didnt have to fill up as much time as we did before. 

Combining these two scenes reall adds to the whole piece in general as it adds more material but it also adds more information as well as helps all the sotry come together make the whole imagination journey story line clearer o our young target audience.

strengths for this lesson was helping come up with new ideas, weaknesses trying to merge the scenes to create one scene. 

Self target : find out more facts for our performance theme for example, how long have cave people been around for? What did they eat? what did they draw in caves and why? find these by next lesson. 

Dance 3/11/15

13/11/15

In this dance lesson we were going through what we had so far within our final piece, we had to change it due to fact of people who werent there or no longer in certain sections. We went through some sections and cleaned them up or changed them slightly, for example in the unison section with the original motif we did final placings so that we used the stage more efficiently we then decided after the spin and were all facing down stage right to take cues from Sam as everyone could see him then as a result everyone would be on time with eachother making our our performance more fluid. After this section the boys do their trio whilst some of us girls are sitting in a diagonal line on the other side of the stage watching them, i came up with the idea to sit in a certain way to add more characterisation and projection this also enhances the themes of the piece more.

We then ran theough the piece again before carrying it on, we then went through our two gang sections and put them in it we changed ours around in it and took out the punching moves replacing them with different arm and leg movements before continuing with our next moves, after this we then spread out and started doing partner work to present a fight after doing a lift, i was with Max. max and I had to come up with a small sequence that looked like we were fighting but we had to be linked in someway the whole time i came up with the idea that we could use things like punches and slaps to ingite turns or drops to create levels as well as dynamics this section was good becuase it allowed us to use physical skills as well as performance skills such as projection and co-ordination.

My strengths for this lesson was Choreograph my duet, with Max as well as rembering all the material. My weaknesses were my stamina and strength, to improves these i need to do exercises to tone and strengthen my muscles this could then help with my control.