Thursday, July 30, 2009

On Tuesday we had a rehearsal, which was productive in many ways.

Firstly, we finally started rehearses with proper warm-ups, such as mime-warm ups and warm-ups to improve our physicality. We practiced the pulling rope exercises, and did different variations to this. For example, we tried miming pulling each other with the rope, as well as using our fingers to pull an imaginary rope around our partners fingers. This was helpful as it improved our miming skills, we could actually really see each other's ropes. We then mimed out other everyday activities.

Rehearsal was to polish up our scenes. We added in many new movements to make our scenes more comedic, and also incorporated more mime elements.
For example : In the shopping scene. Melissa and Afiqah will lean against an imaginary counter. Also, to make this less repetitive, we changed our blocking and movements. That means, instead of us just making use of the space in front, we are going to make use the whole space, we would be walking in a circle. The focus on the girls will also be cut down as the whole purpose of this scene is to show the boys, thus Mark and Su will play a more prominent role.

Our movement space for the hiking scene was also changed. This is because we felt that it would be hard for the audience to follow and to understand what we are trying to show if we walk around everywhere. It would be utterly confusing. Therefore, we are just going to stay stationary while miming out our hiking actions, facing the audience. This would be easier for the audience to focus on us, and thus they will understand more.

For the other scenes, we basically practiced whatever has already been cheorographed. We worked out exaggerating our movements to make it more hilarious and also tried out with the music to see if it would fit the mood of the different scenes.

However, the scenes with all of us in it is still amatuer, thus we need more work on this. It is quite difficult to mime with a group of four people. It is much easier to interact with just one partner.

On top of that, we got our lightings settled.

Monday, July 27, 2009

27/7/09 Rehearsal at the Dance Studio

We started our rehearsal at 5pm and ended at 7pm, followed by a group meeting for about 30minutes outside Dance Studio.

From 5pm to 5.45pm, we showcased to the other pair member on our pair scene. It started out with SUSU and Mel showing their Restaurant scene to the other pair. We had some productive and fruitful changes made to our scene. Some of them were:

-the 'asking of each other to sit down 1st'
-melissa will be ordering for me the food
-i will spit at her
-i will sneeze at her too
-she will try to pay the bill, but i insist
-i have no money so she pays
-i will walk away feeling ambarrassed
-she will take me backa n propose at the side stage, bringing a chair for me

We also then rehearsed Mark and Afiqah's scene in the house.Some of the changes made were:

-Afiqah will get splashed by Mark
-Mark will be dancing at the start
-Afiqah will pull him by the ear
-He will move away her legs from the table when cleaning

Next from 5.45pm to 7pm, we improvd our other 2 scenes which are the Hiking and the Shopping.
For the shopping scene, i felt that the part where we want to show that they are doing opposite sex's role is not really clearly shown and the part where the girls are shopping are too long and redundant. I think we need to show more of the guys shopping and girls waiting etc.Only then our DV can be brought out further. And also, i dont really see much mime movements taking place during the shopping scene, and we really have to work on that.
For the hiking scene, it was difficult to mime the girls climbing a mountain, and it requires lots of skill.Also, there wasnt much mimng movements taking place, thats what i felt. BUt its just a rough idea,we will polish the 2 scenes further.

From 7pm to 7.30pm, we did group check out. All of us mentioned the + aspect and - aspect of the rehearsal.Some said that they were proud that we were able to complete the mimng for the 4 scenes but were unhappy about the attitude of some members.Others felt it was tiring, but overall, it did made our piece better, and made us more confident of performing.
We also found out that some of us were having problems aside from TSD that they have to cope with, in conjunction with this GP2.Yeah!

So, this rehearsal proved to be fruitful, although more can be done in the future! Overall the rehearsal was useful!!! 10/10!!!!!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Rehearsal On the 14/7/09 at the BBOX!

For the 1st 45 minutes, we did some stuff at the dressing room. It was decided that we will cancel the character of Gabriel, and change it into MEME, whom is Lucifer's 'Assisstant'. This is because in the process of trying to mime the 1st scene(involving Gabriel and Heath), we felt it was a bit weird and redundant foer the character Gabriel to be present. Also, we didnt want Gabriel to only appear at one scene, which can actually fade his character.Because of that, we also had to change our story line by a bit. We also managed to find some pictures and sounds for our powerpoint slides.

The next 45 minutes was used meaningfully at the BBOX. We managed to mime out all the movements for the first few scenes, where Heath overheard God's conversation, and was summoned to get the souls. HE was then helped by Livy, and in the process, she was tricked by the evil Lucifer and MEME. The major problems were that some of the movements were not VERY exxaggerated. Our mime is supposed to be VERY EXXAGERATED to portray the actual meaning and actions. The use of lights was also a major problem, as many a times, we could not see Heath's face clearly, especially when we used the 'squarish' lights. AFter thatm we just had to decide on several things in order for us to prepare presenting this few parts on Thursday! They were:
1. Sound for God talking to other archangels
2. War Sounds
3. Lucifer & MEME Choreography
4. Knock2 sound
5. Door swing sound

Overall, today's rehearsal was a turning point to our group piece.It was fruitful! :)

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Meeting. 12 july 2009

Agenda:
1) decide on DS skills.
2) re-edit devision of roles.
3) see how the story line is progressing- line read the first scene.
4) revise DV
5) find/make the sounds.
6) finalize multi-media for the 1st scene.

after much deliberation, we have decided on the 2 skills, multi-media and mime.
these are the reasons why:
1) the story and script is about angels and thus, it is not a realistic or naturalistic piece, thus, to act would make the play quite boring and uninteresting and would not portray our DV accurately.
2) this is an abstract piece and thus, it is better suited to do a movement skill to show the feelings and emotions of the characters, rather than just telling.
3) all the members felt that learning mime would be a new experience.
4) mimes are usually associated with comedy and that is one of our intentions, to make the play entertaining yet, as with mimes, there is an underlying seriousness behind the comedy, the play tells a really strong message and the impact would be much better seen with mime.
5) the multi media is also used to enhance the piece as it provides a different perspective to the story.
6) the use of multimedia would also give us the opportunity to "talk" without "speaking" as the actors would remain silent.
7) the mood of the play could also be brought up with the use of multimedia

from TGO's comments.

we have discussed some of the reasons why we choose to do certain things.

1) why did you choose angels? 

Ans: angel are a prevalent idea in society today. we all have heard about it and the picture that some into our mind is one that shows angels to be infallible and they are supposed to be good and they are second only to God. we want to explore the possibility that even the best of us can fall and succumb to our desire to gain and attain more. every individual is fallible and by showing the audience a scenario with ANGELS, they will be reflect on that fact and see whether they have acted like Heath in the story- even though his intentions are noble- and to see if they have in fact lost themselves and also hurt the people that they love in the process.

2) so why not animals?

Ans: this is because we felt that animals don't have human attributes that can be more clearly seen in angels. everyone has an idea of what an angel looks like and what their job entails, like helping humans and all that  but animals are more primal and don't really have a specific role. plus, walking on all fours is not very comfortable.

3) do you know the traditions of the skills that you are using?

Ans: we are not very sure but have a rough idea. thus, we WILL be researching on mime and it's teachers like Jacques Lecoq, Marcel Marceau, Etienne Decroux. for the multimedia, we have decided to make most of our sounds ourselves courtesy of Mark's keyboard and guitar. also, we are going to find multimedia videos to watch to give ourselves inspiration!

OUR INSPIRATION!

1) Romeo
2) samuel beckett (acting without words)
3) youtube mime videos
4) dreams
5) ms Norzian's advice
6) Tze Chien
7) trial and error

changes made since last meeting:

1) initially, we wanted to do dance and acting. but after a few tries(see video posted), it was painful to watch ourselves dance and also, there was no meaning to our moves, they were just copied and it did not convey our DV.
2) the dance did not have any traditional purpose.
3) we felt that we need to learn a new skill and expend our repertoire. 
4) not much changes made to story line.

Multi-media Ideas:

1) use of picture/words to parallel what is being mimed.
2) distorted voices- concept of having extra characters with voices.
3) shadows
4) interaction with multimedia

What theory are we using?

SYMBOLISM
Commedia dell arte?(not sure yet) 
Jacques Lecoq
Marcell Marceau

Comfirmed list of roles:

suryadi- leader, researcher, sound manager

mark- script writer, sound maker, lights

afiqah- director, secretary, set

melissa- costume, physical training instructor.

Schedule for week 3:

13 july- meet up after 'A' end. discuss music, multimedia use for first scene and mime movements.

15 july- after drama, rehearsal of first scene to be presented on thursday

19 july- finalise script and sypnosis. meet up to discuss costume, setting to be sumitted the following week.


ciao. 

rules for indiv. post

Every member should keep a weblog detailing the process of carrying out his or her individual 

primary and secondary duties. The following must be considered:  

 

 Inspirations and influences for the storyline and skill(s) chosen 

 Performance traditions / theories related to acting and skill(s) chosen 

 Explanation of creative choices made 

 Significant moments or turning points that contributed to the final product 


Week Event Submission 


June 

hols 

Gather creative inspiration; read up on 

performance traditions / theories; analyse 

suggested readings and texts for structure and 

dramatic style 

 

Blog entry 1 


Week 1

 As above 

(Semestral Assessment week) 

 

 

Week 2

(Prep week for JC2 Practical exam – JC1s 

excused from class where needed) 

 

Submit list of roles for each member, and what 

this entails; 

Blog entry 2 

 

Week 3

Class meeting: all groups to pitch their pieces to 

the rest of the class; may present 1 scene in 

which they show how another skill (together with 

acting) has been incorporated within the piece 

 

Submit Working script and scene synopsis; 

Blog entry 3 



Week 4

Technical rehearsal Submit set / costume / mask / puppet design; 

Blog entry 4 

 

Week 5

Showcase Submit light and sound cuesheets; 

Blog entry 5 

 

Week 6

Full dress rehearsal 

 Blog entry 6 


Week 7 Assessment 

 Final Blog entry 7 

 

changes 2

OKAY! this is the last time. i swear.

we have changed our skills to:

1) MIME

2) MULTI-MEDIA



the choreographers have also different roles now.

-Melissa is physical training instructor.

-suryadi is co-trainer as well as researcher.


just a reminder.

2 blog post to be up in your indiv blog. TGO will come and check.

Monday, July 6, 2009

changes

okay people,

we have decided to change our skills to

1) acting
2) multimedia

the reasons are that we don't have very good dancing skills - making the piece a bit painful to watch- as well as choreographer.

more updates soon.

love, afiqah.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

lucifer dance scene

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0TkkB47ZBs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX66GQ2W-Ss

lucifer

Gabriel's Character Analysis

Character Analysis:

Location: Heaven

Nickname: The mighty one

Objective: To maintain my high status, and to use my power to order people around.

Personality: Authoritive, decisive, devoted, determined. My main aim to make sure that every aspects of on-goings in heaven takes place smoothly, without setbacks ; in this case to make sure that all souls of human beings must be brought back to heaven in peace, of course these can be achieved with the help of my ‘disciples’. I am the mighty one in heaven; no one has greater power than me. I am therefore the one controlling the activities going on heaven. I will not let any evil come into contact with heaven, nor shall there be any devil allowed to enter Heaven for they are not meant to be there. I care every single aspects of occurrences in heaven, because its my responsibility. Heaven is the place of peace and shall be away from all SINS and EVILS!!!

Power: I am the might one! I am able to control all heaven activities at my will. My ‘disciples’ are no advantage than me; they follow what I order them to do. No one! Yes NO ONE shall take over my position. With my power, I am able to cast spells on all evils beings, be it ‘good’ or bad, I have the power! In reality, I am the greatest! No one, not even the evil is able to destroy me with their power.

Relationship with Heath: He is my disciple. It’s therefore normal for him to obey all my orders. His business is also my business. I control him, so I must know everything about him. I am strict towards him, he is my disciple. I am authoritive towards them, as I do not want them to climb over my head, trying to outshine me! His carelessness sometimes puts me off!

Relationship with Livy: She is my disciple, but I hardly come into contact with her. But no matter what, she still has to follow my order and I treat her just like every other ‘disciples’. I am strict towards her. She often goes missing, and often I could tell she’s with that evil Lucifer! WHAT THE HELL IS SHE DOING! She will rot with that Lucifer! But what can I do? She is ‘hypnotized’ by Lucifer already!

Relationship with Lucifer: She thinks she can win me! NO WAY! She’s just a tiny insect to me. NO ONE! As I have said, is able to gain more power than me. NO ONE! She thinks she can influence my disciples. I would not let that happen to all of them! She will not be able to destroy my place, Heaven! In fact, I will be the one to destroy her HELL!

I would make sure all souls are brought back to heaven by my disciples without interferences from the evil Lucifer!

SUSU! :)

Livy Character Analysis

Name : Livy

Personality : Loving, Kind-hearted, Selfless, Gullible

Objective : To help the one person she loves, Heath, even if it means she has to suffer

Relationship with Heath :
I love Heath very much, perhaps more than I love myself. I feel that he is my soul mate, and I can trust him and count on him on anything. There is nothing in this world that I wouldn't do for him as I want him to be happy. Seeing him happy makes me happy. After all, that's what true love is, isn't it? Sometimes, Heath tends to go his own way, and not tell me where he is or what he is doing. I respect that because I understand that he needs his own space too. But I would always be here when he needs me. I like being his shoulder to cry on and most of the time, he does the same for me. I love him to the extent that I would sacrifice anything for his happiness, because his happiness means everything to me.

Relationship with Lucifer :

I don't really know the kind of person he/she is, but judging from what I have heard, I know I can't trust him/her. However, my main objective is to help Heath shine brightly, and at this point, Lucifer is the only person who actually has a concrete plan and can actually help me. Although I have my doubts, I think that I should just take this risk, because I have no other options. Maybe Lucifer isn't such a bad person after all. She does seem to genuinely want to help me and Heath. Whatever it is, I'm just grateful for the help I can get, even if the help is from Lucifer.

Relationship with Gabriel :

Since Gabriel is an archangel, I do respect and honour him. I do my best to please him and do whatever he tells me to do, after all, it is my job. However, I don't really have a relationship with him other than a leader-follower kind. Sometimes, I do not like the way he bosses us around. The way he tells us to do things restricts our freedom. I wish that Gabriel could be more kind-hearted and perhaps at least attempt to have a relationship with the rest of the angels. But whatever I feel about him, I can't express openly, because he is the leader, and I have to obey him.

At the end of the day, all that matters is Heath, and nothing else. :D

Character Analysis. Heath.

Name: Heath

Nickname: Heath

Job: Angel that brings souls from purgatory to heaven

Main Want: To be like the archangels and be of great importance.

Personality:
- Determined
- Stubborn
- Ambitious
- Caring at times
- Easily distracted

Relationship with "Livy".
I love her and she loves me. That's all. I like the fact that she is willing to help me by possibly sacrificing herself but I'm not sure if it is the right thing to do. If she can help me, I'll be willing to accept it whatever way she can, because she does it for me. I love her for who she is and for that, I'd hate for her to change.
She and I share a special connection. When I need someone to talk to, she always seems to know and be there for me. I really appreciate that. I owe her alot but I'm not sure how to replay her back than through paying for lunch and all that. I trust her that she will know how to help me the best way she can.
I honestly wouldnt know what life in heaven would be without her. Without her, I would not be able to shine brightly anymore and now she wants to help me even become an Archangel! Because of all these acts of unconditional love, I truly and can only try to love her back. In the end, I still want to be able to Shine and Livy is one way I can achieve that.

Relationship with Lucifer.
Lucifer is a fool. He always preoccupies things with small issues like the number of rooms in hell and what the other guy is saying. He never really talks about the big things like the war. All he wants to do is collect souls for hell. It's so simplistic.
Lucifer will keep trying to bring the angels down and he will always fail. He is too ambitious and he has to know his place rather than always trying to do something he cannot.
I have to admit that he can sometimes be very sneaky and smart but in the field of maths, I am obviously superior.
Can we not talk about him anymore?

Relationship with Gabriel:
Gabriel is my angel in Chief. He is a bit stern at times and I'm getting sick of it. I think he has more important things to do like worry about the war that always worrying about us. Is it not their job to look after them humans? Why does he keep snooping around us?
Gabriel is a bit too narrow-minded for my own liking. He always does things by the book, according to procedure. Even if he is my officer in charge, shouldnt he be less strict with us if he ever wants to gain the respect he obviously does not deserve?
Then again, he is beautiful beyond compare and I so wish to be in his position right now. He shines so brightly that when he comes, it is as if the sun has been revealed again.

start of scene 1..



heath and gabriel..



heath's frustration..




Hey guys here are the vids of the movement, currently, it does need work to polish it but we can do it!


xoxo,


MEL.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

character analysis: Lucifer

location: hell

nickname: the devil

wants: to destroy the good nameof heaven and the angels in them and to create havoc and chaos wherever i go.

personality: i am a complete and utter narcissist. evil, sinister and damn proud of it. i am the epitome of the seven deadly sins and moer. i revel when humans -and angels- fall prey to doing bad things and that is where i get my power, as long as there is hatred, jealousy, chaos, war in the world, i will always be there, the one to cause or worsen it. i hate angels, those goody two shoes and good for nothing idiots and one they they will all bow down to me. i love to have fun, and since i have nothing else to do right now, i might as well wreck havoc with little Heath, i have sensed that he is weak and vulnerable and i have just the thing for him. i am meticulous in whatever i do and selfish. i will destroy anyone who gets in my way-anyone and i work alone. i am the best and you better believe it.

powers: i can control humans' mind. i am the most powerful in Hell and everyone there listens to me. i have fire powers and i can shoot bolts of lightning from my fingertips. it gives me great pleasure to intimidate people with my powers. i can change my appearence at will and i generally like to take on the shape of a human woman as i find it more comfortable and sexy. not to mention, i can wear awesome shoes- the only things that humans invent worth mentioning, darling give me jimmy choos and you'll be my sidekick in hell. oh yeah, i can teleport at will too.

relationship with Livvy: ah, sweet and innocent Livvy, who is so desperately in love with the weak willed Heath. she is pretty eough, i suppose but the sight of the pink and shiny wings turning black will be very enjoyable for me. her love for heath will be her downfall and i will make sure that she will be a creature of hate by the time i'm through. she will be mice.

relationship with Heath: he wants to be at the top, and i'm just the person to help him do this. this is the perfect opportuniy for me to let his wants and greed consume him so that he lose himself and he will not know what hit him. i will have among the angels, a selfihs and greedy soul and not too lang, everyone will be the same way. i love my plan.

relationship with gabriel: he is a SOB. i cannot stand the sight of him and his presumptuous self. i will get my revenge to him for all the time he bested me and you better watch out darling, Lucifer will kick your butt.

How: my elaborate plan involves tricking livvy into make heath embrace his inner selfishness and desire to get to the top so that he stop doing good deeds and things for the greater good-bah! i will sabotage the souls and intercept them so that they go to hell instead of heaven. i will have more minions to order around and i like it. muahahaha(insert evil laughter)

ciao darlings

DS

these are the skills that we have chosen:

1) Acting
2) Dance - contemporary modern dance

our DV:

People are not happy with their status and when they strive for greater things, in the process, they lose themselves, what they believe in and hurt those they care about.

storyline:
Angel

Heath is an angel in heaven who wants to be an archangel as he wants to shine brighter. Livvy, his soulmate, wants to help him and makes a deal with the devil, Lucifer. Lucifer sabotages Heath and he gets into trouble with the archangel, Gabriel. Livvy takes the blame for the lost souls that Lucifer brought to hell and she is demoted. Heath however brings the souls back to heaven and gets to be an archangel but he forgets about Livvy.
cast:
Heath - Mark
Livvy- Melissa
Lucifer - Afiqah
Gabriel- Suryadi
xoxo
afiqah

roles

M&M's roles

leader: Suryadi

playwright: Mark

director: Afiqah

choreographers: Melissa and Suryadi

secretary: Afiqah

costume: Melissa

lights: Mark

sound: Suryadi

set: Afiqah

rules and regulation

M&M's rules

1) be on time for all meetings and rehearsals.

2) do your homework.

3) do not bring personal issues during meetings and rehearsals.

4) do not digress.

5) no handphones unless important.

6) listen when someone is talking.

7) everyone has to contribute ideas and TALK.