Audiencing

When I was given the scenes I was auditioning for I read though the scenes fully and started to think about the characters, and the films.
I thought about who I was?
What my characters relationship is like which the other characters in the scene?
How my character would relate to the other character?
I did this because it helped me to get into character, it helped me to think about how I should deliver my lines.


I think my casting could have gone better. I think I understood the characters well, however I think I could have delivered the lines better. I wish I had learn't all my lines, I think that would have improved my chances during the audition. I think I listened and re acted well, but I could have done better.  

26th Feb

Today we learnt about camera shoots and how acting on camera is different to on stage. Firstly, in a group we had to think of how TV acting and Theatre acting is different and write them down in a list. I contributed to this by giving ideas.

Difference in Shots

We were given a sheet that had different camera angles on and name which shot they were. I helped spot which camera shot was which. We learnt that for each shot you have to change how you act.
Long Shot you have to make your acting bigger and melodramatic. However when your filming a Extreme Close-up, because the camera is so close to you face, it picks up even the smallest movement.

Distance on Camera

We were then given a sheet that had different TV and Movie stills on, that we had to recreate then, and hold the position for 20 seconds. During this exercise I learnt that when on camera you have to be closer to people than you would in real life. When we were setting up the scene I did feel quit awkward. However when the 20 seconds started, and I was in role and focus, the awkward feeling went away. After doing this I learnt that actor have to be close to each other than they would in real life and in theatre. In theatre, the actors are a normal distance apart. However on screen the actors need to stand closer together to get them both in shot.

Cheating Shots

When watching we assume everything we are seeing is true. However sometimes the shot is cheated. All the viewer can see is what is on screen however as an actor we have to think about what isn't on screen.
For Example, If 2 people are in a fight scene and the director wants to get a close up shot of both actors together, and on actor is smaller, the smaller actor may need to stand on a box to achieve a good close up shot of both actors. However the viewer would never know that that shot has been cheated, because they can't see the box.

My Characters Monologue

  This My Characters Monologue

They were fighting again last night, my brother knocked on my door and climbed into my bed. We lay there together till we fell asleep, wishing the screaming could end. Next thing I knew my alarm went off. As I applied my make-up and did my hair I tried my best to fake normality. I got dressed, putting on my protective clothing as if it was a raincoat which kept me dry, and as everything poured down its just sprinkled away. I went to school as happy Chantelle desperately trying to cover the pain inside.

I’m pretty popular at school everyone loves me. I talk to my friends, which is pretty much everyone. I am nice to everyone, because no-one should feel left out.

School is usually boring, most of the time I just zone out and think about other things. Sometimes I think about reinvention. If I cut my hair, would they even notice?

I went to town after school, alone. I went in Boots, staring at the perfumes, lipsticks and blushers. I looked around. I picked up the new Chanel No.5, without even thinking about it. I dropped it in my bag. As always no one really noticed.

I walked home, with all my new goodies. I ran upstairs sat down and started cutting of all the labels of my new clothes, listening to the same old broken record in the background.

Some parts of my monologue make more sense when you see them performed.
' I talk to my friends, which is pretty much everyone. I am nice to everyone, because no-one should feel left out.' while I am delivering these lines, Fran who is playing me, will be making fun of other people. However, the audience will see that I think I am being nice.
'listening to the same old broken record in the background. '
While Fran, is miming cutting tags of clothes, Shannon and Jack, who play my parents, will be fighting in the background.

I thought of various different way of how to end my monologue, I was going to have her cut her hair. However that wouldn't work because I have rehearsed previous scenes, and flipping my hair is a big part of my character. However in the end I decided to have her steal. This works well, because she is very interested in fashion and make-up. Also because her parent are so wrapped up in arguing and fighting they don't really notice her. So she does it to try and get there attention.

In the monologue the audience get so see a contrast on her home life and school life. When she is in school she is talking to her "Friends" however when she goes shopping after school she goes alone. This shows how alone she is.

14th February

Today we did the final scene. We used the idea of ending the play with a written letter to the teacher, we got this idea from The Breakfast Club, we used there wording for the letter, because I fits well with our play.
However rather than ending it with 'You see us how you want to see us' with thought it would be better if we used a word that describes who we really are.
My word is Alone, because my character is very lonely. She pretends to be really popular, but really she is very lonely, her parents don't really pay attention to her.
I helped other people think of names because they were stuck, also because some people were off we had to think of names that would fit there character.

In the afternoon we added on an improvisation scene to our starting physical theatre scene. I like this scene because I think the audience really gets to see what my character is like. Because I am skipping and bouncing around and talking to loads of other class mates, however I am also being mean to people, I throw books and papers in the air and steal Megan's phone.

  

5th Feb 2013

Today we ran though our physical theatre routine, as some people were off we had to fit them in. We also fit the opening scene to a song called Kids by Take That. This songs fits well with our scene because of the lyrics.We had to change a few of the timings so that they fit in with the song.

I had the idea of rather than poking Sophie that I would play with her hair, this would make more sense, because at the end I end up playing with her hair. Also my character thinks by playing with peoples hair she is helping them, when really it is annoying them and they doesn't like it.

We also added a few more steps to the physical theatre opening scene. Once we have finished the scene we freeze on the chair, how our characters would sit. Some of the other students interact with each other, then we all do a few synchronised movements. For my move I stand on the chair and fit bump the air. This move is inspired by the end move in The Breakfast Club. Which is an icon move.

We then do a few other movements, when the lyrics is "They'll be trouble when the kids come out, When then kids come out, When the kids come out." Each time the lyrics says When the Kids come out, we pose in character. Then we gets down of the chair, and stand behind it. When the lyric is "Hey Hey Hey Hey, what you looking at?" We lift our heads up on " What you looking at?" then move our chairs to out class room setting.

We also planned out the first 4 scenes. We do a docedrama scene, this is the first scene were the audience really get to see my character. However they see the Happy Chanatelle, after my monologue you see more about my character.

My Character

My Character is called Chantelle, she is the stereotypical bitch character. However I wanted her to be a bit different to most bitch characters. I decided she would be a happy bitch. Sort of like she was living in her own world, in her own imagination.

In real life she is very mean to other characters in the play, however she thinks she is being nice to them, because in her world everyone loves her. But really she is alone, she doesn't have any close friends. She spends all her free time alone at home, listening to her parents argue in the background.

I got this idea from Wicked the musical. My character is similar to Galinda, she is the Good Witch of the South, everyone in Oz loves her. However as the musical continues and you meet Elphaba, who is knows as the Wicked Witch of The West, and Galinda is very mean to her, but she doesn't realise it.

At the start of this unit we where given stimuli of song lyrics and we had to make a scene based around them. The lyrics were from a song called Family Portrait by Pink. These fit well with my character so we made a piece using them lyrics as inspiration. I think giving my character family problems at home fit well, because she using her imagination to block out the pain. She fakes happiness so that people like her. I think deep down inside Chantelle knows that she is alone but doesn't want to admit.

29th January 2013

On Tuesday we explored our characters more. We all sat in a circle and we have to think about how our characters would sit on a chair and freeze in that position. Because my character is very confident I thought she would sit up straight. I also thought she would sit with her legs closed on the chair, this is very child like.I think my character is very child like in some respects, in the way she moves and stands. We then had to think about why we where in detention. My character was in detention, because she was late to school. Stereotypical bitches are often late, because they don't really care about being on time, because they have other things to do.

After that we looked at Physical Theatre. We used videos of Morecambe and Wise and Cirque du Soleil, as stimuli to give us inspiration on how to use physical theatre, but how to also stay in character. We also got inspiration from Frantic Assembly. Frantic Assembly create pieces of theatre using unique physical theatre  using music,movement, design and text. We watched this clip of a piece called Chair Duets. We used this as stimuli to create our opening scene.
We where then put into pairs and given 2 chairs and had to create a piece of physical theatre  I had to work with Caprice, she plays Sophie the film buff. Because I think everyone loves me I think we are friends, however she doesn't really like me.We then fit the piece to music.

Ours starts by me flipping my hair and Sophie looking at me weird, then I start trying to get her attention by poking her. I thought this fits in well because my character is very chatty and wanted to talk to her. However she just ignores me and shuffles away from me, I shuffles closer to her. This continues until she falls off the chair. She then stands up and moves to the other chair and moves the chair away from me. After waiting a sort while, I decided to try to get her attention again. I shuffles my chair up to hers and tap her on her shoulder as she looks over I grab her and pull he over my lap, and start playing with her hair. While I play with her hair I find a spilt end, I then push her and she rolls off my lap. She stands up then sits back down onto her chair.

I like our piece as we can clearly see the different characters. Caprice moves around more than me, this shows that I have more power over her as I am the one that makes her move around. My character is really bossy and wants everyone to do what she wants them to, this comes across in our piece.