Category: Controlled Assessments

Working Record: 7 years Stimulus

May 9, 2016 / / 2 Comments

 

 

Drama in the Making – Rehearsed Improvisations and other information.

 

We were shown our stimulus, which had been the music video, “7 Years” by Lukas Graham. We had then watched the video numerous times together with my group and had eventually come up with the idea of having a young and misguided Lukas being visited by his lavish and successful 30 year old self as he receives advice and guidance which had seemed quite convincing until 60 year old Lukas bursts in and challenges him. We had decided to structure it as if the 30 year old Lukas, played by me was the devil like figure on Lukas’s right side and Gabriel had been on his left playing the angel like figure. We had also later devised recently in the play that we could help show this by using lighting. We would use red for the 30 year old Lukas to signify the devil and evil, whereas we will have a blue light for the 60 year old Lukas to signify an angel and the good side.

Item 1

For my character in the improvised performance I had made him act very brash and obnoxious as this was the stage in Lukas’s life where he had been at the height of his career and was making a lot o money compared to what he had been making before with selling botttlecaps as a kid for cheap change. Then it would show how the money had got to him and how he had become a product of money and the twisted society of fame. His costume that I had constructed had been a suit that his many advisers and makeup stylists had squeezed him in to and how they had also got him a fresh haircut to symbolize how he has to keep up his public appearances. Rings and a shiny watch I had worn to reinforce how he had money to afford such things.

The three items that I have chosen are; Character development, Costume design and our compulsory joint performance. I had chosen character development and costume design because they are very closely linked and can both benefit each over as they can almost intertwine because they are both to do with ‘the method behind the madness’.

The dramatic potential is promising because it could be a possible short independent film in which we could possibly get to see the back stories to the three characters so that we could be more immersed into the characters. The performance could even be for the music video of the song, “7 Years”.

The stimulus had been great because in “7 Years”, the Danish group, ‘Lukas Graham’ reflect on their lives and wonder about how their life would eventually turn out as they grow older. There is prominent nostalgia from the ages 7, 11, and 20 which are openly reminisced, before the band goes on to wonder about their life in the possible future; specifically, when they’re at the ages of 30 and 60, or when they have children of their own, or a wife.

Throughout the poem there are two prominent themes of loneliness and family. An example of this is Lukas attempting to remember and heed his parents’ advice at all times, “Once I was seven years old my momma told me,
Go make yourself some friends or you’ll be lonely. This helped me to understand what the protagonist had had to experience and how the character would react to certain situations. For instance, if someone had randomly started a conversation with him or he had been ‘put on the spot;, then he might have trouble communicating and may not be very open to others, seeing as he had not had a lot of interaction with other children in the past.

In verse 1, “It was a big big world, but we thought we were bigger
Pushing each other to the limits, we were learning quicker
By eleven smoking herb and drinking burning liquor”. This gives me the idea that they had to adapt to the socially challenged community of the world, by doing so it had changed them, and introduced them to the harmful substances and depressants of life, Alcohol and drugs.

This also indicates that his Mothers advice had worked in some way, although negatively as the first and second verse indicate that he had been hanging round with a rough crowd and because of this, his Father had maybe deduced that if he is taking drugs and drinking alcohol, then sooner or later he will come into contact with girls, so gives some simple relationship advice as Lukas begins to enters a period of sexual awakening. Perhaps his father was hoping that he would get “settled down” at an early age.

“Something about that glory just always seemed to bore me
Cause only those I really love will ever really know me”. He finds that he is oblivious to the people that are attracted to his fame, but instead on the people who truly matter, like his family or close friends. And on the next chorus he talks about, “Once my story got told
Before the morning sun, when life was lonely”, suggesting that being famous and being successful isn’t very enjoyable and is quite lonely despite all the attention.

The next verse talks about positivity and how despite all the negativity, he had triumphed. This would help me get to grips with the character and how he views himself at this age as he talks about how some peoples voices can make a big difference and have an effect on him, while he has his friends and all those that matter, beside him; “I only see my goals, I don’t believe in failure
Cause I know the smallest voices, they can make it major
I got my boys with me at least those in favor
And if we don’t meet before I leave, I hope I’ll see you later”. The last line also refers to the afterlife in which Lukas says that if you don’t meet him before he dies, then he hopes to see you in heaven.

Lukas refers back to earlier lyrics to show how his life had progressed. When he had imagined himself with a successful music career, married with children and will have eventually found true friends to share his life with. “I’m still learning about life
My woman brought children for me
So I can sing them all my songs
And I can tell them stories
Most of my boys are with me
Some are still out seeking glory
And some I had to leave behind
My brother I’m still sorry “. Lukas had also mentioned in sadness, his friends who were unable to escape the rough upbringing of alcohol and drugs that he had also experienced.

“Soon I’ll be 60 years old, my daddy got 61
Remember life and then your life becomes a better one
I made a man so happy when I wrote a letter once
I hope my children come and visit, once or twice a month”. This Talks about Lukas looking into his future, not knowing what it would look like. His father died at a relatively young age, When he says “I made a man so happy when I wrote a letter once”, he is referring to how even the smallest of things like writing a letter or making a phone call to your parents means the world to them, and he hopes that his kids will do this when he is older.

It then ends with the chorus.

The dramatic potential is vast because it displays a range of emotion and events that an actor can work with, in the sense that he or she has a lot of stimulus material to work with and therefore can put themselves into the shoes of Lukas.

Item 2 Character Development:

My Character had been that of someone that is a troubled antagonist who had been wronged in some way by society. The character would be very distant from everyone else. loneliness is a prominent feeling with him. He feel’s empty inside and it almost feels like nothing matters and that nobody cares about him. Apart from his caring parents who are trying their best to provide for their son who suffers from minimum wage work and past due rent, he forgets about those true to him because he had always seen the world from a disadvantaged point of view. Where his peers at school would use money and purchase items frivolously, where he had had to conserve the little that he gets.

I had based part of my development on Stanislavsky’s theory of really inhabiting the role that the actor would be playing by tapping into my emotions and using memories of times when I had felt angry and sad as a drive for the character so that the audience would see the subtle movements in my face and that would make it more realistic and real. The actor shouldn’t only know what lines he or she needs to say, but the story behind the why for those lines, but also every detail of that character’s life offstage as well as onstage. I had devised the character so that he could possibly be at the stage before someone would turn into a villain that you would come across in a story, where he would have plans to unleash fury on the world for his somehow preordained past. He had been used to getting the wrong end of the stick and always bullied for his individuality as he has a foreign name from everyone else and so on. So a good way to get into character would be to isolate myself from social media or interacting with friends as this will give me a feeling of the loneliness that he had felt throughout his adolescence. Another technique that I would also use would be to listen to music that had a sad tone which would get me feeling emotional and with the thoughts of how would I feel if someone that I had loved was taken from me. This would get me to the point of my eyes watering. By using Stanislavsky’s theory I would use my emotions and emotional memory for which I would focus internally to portray the character’s emotions onstage.

I had done this for a day and latter in the evening I would sit in a chair in-front of a mirror and ask myself various questions for my character. When I was asking questions, I had used a different tone of voice than to when I was answering as the character. The voice that I had used for the character had been a quiet confused voice in order to show a distinct difference. Even simple questions such as what did I have for lunch would help me get into character, for instance he would have eaten something bland or rather very simple and maybe not even eat anything at all due to the fact that he wouldn’t be going out to meet friends or have a game of football with the lads because he wasn’t invited or wasn’t ever taught to play.

Item 3: Costume Design

For the costume I had used a spider diagram in order to brainstorm through some ideas to what the character would wear. For instance, I had started off with the shoes, so would he wear sneakers or the more practical choice of boots ? If sneakers then what type, running shoes or simply ones for casual wear, perhaps I had thought to myself, casual because running shoes would indicate that he would have an affiliation with sports, but then again casual sneakers are seen as quite popular and we need the character to stand out and seem unorthodox, so the running shoes it is. These would be worn with untied laces. I had then chosen to have my character wear a hoodie because it is a comfortable top that is universally worn by teenagers and he would wear the hood, so that the character would conceal himself. Rips and holes as it has been constantly worn. Jeans would be the choice for the lower part of the body because they are comfortable and durable whilst being quite fashionable, but they would not be of a designer brand and would not fit properly because they were bought from a charity shop. They would also slouch because there wasn’t a belt.

There is also practicality, with looking at if there is a lot of action, then the actors’ clothes must be easy to move in. For quick costume changes, perhaps there must be adjustments on the costume so that the actor or actress can take it off themselves. I will also have to check how the lighting projected onto the stage affects the material. For instance, for some of the rehearsals we had had to take off our jumpers so that the different color lighting could take effect on the white shirt.

Evaluation:

Improvised performance:

What had went went well in the first improvised piece had been how we had all acted fluently and there had not been an occasion where we were lost for words so therefore we had been confident and the performance would be real.

What I would do better next time would be to exaggerate with what I was saying and my actions so it would seem more clear to understand my character.

Character Development:

What had gone well had been how the posture and body language had told you what the character was going to be like even before he had spoken a word.

What I would improve would be to prepare and get into character for a longer period of time before the performance.

Costume Design:

What had gone well had been how I used specifics on how the costume would be worn and what type, the for instance, jeans would be.

What I would do better would be to have alternate design ideas showing the many different alterations from experimenting with different ideas.

 

Other Peoples performance:

Amjad and Josh’s performance had been very interesting to watch and the concept of having a duologue between Lukas at 7 and Lukas at 60 because it was showing the two extremes. It showed this because Amjad who had played Lukas at 7, had been very naive and this was good because it had displayed his understanding of the character being at that age and therefore had understood how someone at that age would react. Josh, who had played Lukas at 60, had been somewhat depressed and battle-worn, as he had experienced the scorns of time and is now perhaps paying the price for the mistakes that he had made when he was young, by not having anyone to celebrate his 60th birthday with him. At first I was skeptical about the use of lighting as they had only used blackouts, but It had in fact worked well as they had obviously worked on their character development.

There is mostly praise, but I believe that it would have been more powerful If they had there is also the subject of costume design. Well, it is evident that they had not put the majority of their attention onto their costume as Amjad had been acting as a 7 year old child with a fancy wrist watch. Also Josh had not put in much thought as someone of that age would not have a ‘fat tie’. This could have been changed by Amjad wearing clothing that would indicate at first glance to the viewer that he had been of such a young age as it had seemed that the only indicators had been the body language. Josh could have worn brown and earthy-like colors to indicate that he had been old and wise, like a tree perhaps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shakespeare Controlled Assessment.

December 17, 2015 / / 1 Comment

skullifiedHow do the studied poets and Shakespeare use literary techniques to show how people respond to forces in the world over which they have no control.

Shakespeare alongside many other poets uses literary devices in order to reflect how characters or people react to forces, such as Fate in the seemingly twisted world around them. In the chosen poems: “On my first sonne”, “Do not go gentle into that good Night”, “A song in a storm”, “Dying of the Light” and extracts from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, all utilize the presence of death as they had all lost someone very close to them. I know this because from my own knowledge I can gather that Shakespeare had named the infamous play, “Hamlet” after his first son, named “Hamnet”, who had succumbed to the symptoms of the Bubonic Plague and eventually died. As most did at that time.

Shakespeare may had felt a lot of grief following his death as “Hamnet” was his only son, heir and individual who could carry on the Shakespeare name. As his daughter who would have not been entitled to the same gratification in the 16th century. The plague was almost impossible to evade as the sanitation in the 1600’s was vile and wretched, meaning it was only the inevitability that one in three people would catch it.

Ben Johnson’s son had also died from an illness, yet Johnson’s son had been presumably diagnosed as terminally ill from birth, as in his poem, “On my first sonne”, he mentions “Seven yeeres thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay”. This translates to his son being given life for seven years and now he has to deal with the grief. An extract from the monologue in Hamlet reads, “Thousand natural shocks that fleshy is heir to”. This means that throughout life your body will be introduced to shocks and pain that your body is to inherit almost as if everyone at some point in time is introduced to the suffering of life which Hamlet had gone through but Ben Johnson’s son did not as he had died young. Johnson is known for his tongue and cheek satirical poems, yet due to the death of his son, it had changed his writing momentarily which shows the severity of the depression and pain. However Dylan Thomas had lost his Father and this could give an alternate relationship from son to Father. His Father had died from old age (natural causes) and yet again there had never been a way in which to prevent this. Finally Rudyard Kipling’s loss had been the many comrades and soldiers who had died around him. Compared to the other poets mentioned, Kipling was not entirely close to the dead around him and therefore was not in depression as we can see in his poems, they are not direct towards a specific person or entity yet of describing the atmosphere of battle etc. He also stands out from Shakespeare, Ben Johnson etc. As his poems tend to give off a positive vibe that leaves the reader feeling uplifted and may have uplifted the morale of the fellow-men around him.

Whether there are small or significant differences between them,  all poets mentioned have something that they all have in common, whether it describes this in their poems or in general. Apart from themselves all being men, another similarity is that they have all lost someone close to them and it had been of no fault of their own, as the illnesses caught by Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet and Ben Johnson’s son, Benjamin, had been all terminal, and nothing could have been done to of prevented those deaths. Along side Dylan Thomas who’s father died from natural old age, which as we know is the most certain inevitable event during life. Soldiers dying in battle is also expected as it is fundamentally known that in battle there is a high risk of being killed, so therefore Rudyard Kipling could certainly not have prevented this.

They all know that they could not of prevented them being witness to loss, yet feel somehow guilty or portray this in their poems. This may just be grief towards the fact that what they once held close was taken from them.

Now looking at other similarities, I can say that even in other poems by other poets, there is a heavy use of metaphors. Metaphors help describe and give personality to a piece of text. The poet can explain, in detail how he would have liked the word to be used. For example “Hamlet was angry” could be emphasised with the use of a metaphor such as “Hamlet almost had fumes seeping out of his ears as he was visually infuriated”. This is more descriptive and helps the reader to understand the level of anger that Hamlet is undertaking.

A great metaphor in Hamlet is “For who would bear the whips and scorns of time”. I believe this means that through time, all will experience many different types of pain ( the fate of experiencing pain) such as mental and physical illness and maybe even spiritual like a family loss.

In Ben Johnson’s, On my first Sonne, ” Seven yeeres thou wert lent to me and I thee pay, Exacted by thy Fate, on the just day”. In this metaphor, Johnson views God as a banker or lender in which had lent him his son to come to earth. When it was time for his son to return with God, his son had died and exactly after seven years. Johnson had known that his son would be given back prior so it had been a loan in some sense.

“Do not go gentle into that good Night” is a poem written by Dylan Thomas, the use of metaphors is profound in the poem as the poet had been an avid reader of Shakespeare from a young age, which can be seen throughout his writings. There is a re-occurrence of light and time of day etc and they are metaphors for death as it explains a lifespan as if it were a day, specifically sunrise being birth and night being death. Seeming as the poem explains that it is sunset which would mean this person or entity is approaching death and is almost saying that you should accept death yet have your head held high This is exactly explained in the poem, “Old age should burn and rave at close of day” overall the poem’s fate is that death will come and the only choice you have is whether to embrace the inevitable or not.

“A song in a storm” is tattered with metaphors such as “The glimmering combers roll”, the abiding oceans fight” and “As our streaming bows rebuke Each billow’s baulked career”. The poem, hence the name is using a storm like setting of a sea to describe a battle, “The abiding oceans fight” or “By force of weather, not of war, in jeopardy we steer”. It is a good use of metaphor as a ocean can be wild and destructive with tidal waves and tsunami’s etc, but yet it can be calm and bearer of wondrous species of fish and coral life. Looking at the physical presentation of poem, the stanzas are much like waves in the sense that as a paragraph glorifies death and righteousness, it heaves back with a parting of the next paragraph and the reader is then hit with a new wave of metaphors and repetition.The sentence  “Be well assured that on our side The abiding oceans fight”, is quite comical as then ocean is thought to be against whoever dares to sail through it yet somehow, something that is treacherous and uncontrollable is on their side.Rudyard was present during the first world war so perhaps he uses these metaphors to display that the battlefield was chaotic and like an ocean, unpredictable.

Personification is used in poems to to give a human characteristic or quality to an object or entity that would not normally feel and think.

For instance, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, there are many examples of this such as when Hamlet is questioning the solidarity of life and he says, “Currents turn awry”. Awry means for something to go off on an almost unexpected course, so maybe the word “currents” accompanies the word awry as, when in sea, the ocean and water can be unpredictable and therefore may alternate from calm to awry and can often feel that the sea had changed its mind and had wanted to make your journey hell. The use of personification with water is also present in “A song In a Storm” by Rudyard Kipling.

In Rudyard Kipling’s, “A song in a Storm”, it is tattered with uses of personification as he talks about the ocean being a metaphor for war and battle. For instance, “To welcome Fate’s discourtesy” as it is saying that fate is somewhat inconsiderate of people lives and well beings, by inducing them to pain and suffering. The poem is positive and was probably used at that time for propaganda as the government had needed more people to enlist into the army and this was a good technique to make the readers believe that they had owed something to their “country”.

“Dying of the Light” is an example of personification present in Dylan Thomas’s ‘Do not Go Gentle Into that Good Light’ as light does not die, as it is not alive and an entity as it is portrayed throughout the poem rigorously. As the poem is based around fighting against the inevitability of death as a a flame can be calm and elegant with wave like movements or aggressive and primal like a scorching torch. Fate is present in this poem spiritually almost as the poem is a voice in denial of almost “growing old gracefully” or with reluctance to accept departure from the ground beneath us. “Curse, Bless me now with your false tears, I pray”, This is a very powerful collection of words as it describes everyone as being doomed with a time of death even before you are born. The “Fierce Tear” is powerful because the entity is crying because of anger not sadness and really expresses the emotional image being as it is not passing  across sorrow for the fact that he is leaving, yet angry almost at “God” that he has to go through with this transaction in the first place and that there is no choice as it is decided before birth.

Personification is present in Ben Johnson’s, “On My First Son”, as “O have so soon ‘scap’d world’s and flesh’s rage”. As he is describing “flesh” as life and that “flesh’s rage” is all the troubles and evil that occur in life. He uses this sentence to describe how his son dyeing before a ripe age had prevented him from experiencing the pain and suffering which occurs throughout a life time.

Rhythm in poetry is the method of describing audible features of a poem. Metre is the basic rhythmic structure of verses or lines in a verse. Many traditional verse forms utilize a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study and the actual use of metres and forms of versification are both known as prosody.

In Shakespeare’s’ Hamlet, and many works, all have metre and rhythm present, as the actors would often perform with a step in their feet to pronounce the beat(Pardon the pun). For instance in Act 1 Scene 2, there is a good representation of metre and rhythm with iambic pentameter.

O that this too too solid flesh would melt,Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ’gainst self -slaughter! O God! O God! The iambic pentameter consists of ten syllables in each line, and has stressed and unstressed syllables. The following letters are what the iambic beat consists of, “Ba” is followed by “Bum“. The Iambic pentameter is said to be of the same beat as a heartbeat or a “Tick-Tock” of a clock.

It is present in Ben Johnson first two lines of “On My First Sonne” that there is rhyme and metre. The words “joy” and “lov’d boy” both rhyme and both appear at the end of both lines.

“Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;

My sin was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy.

This appears frequently throughout the poem, as Ben Johnson had been perhaps influenced by Shakespeare and had both lived roughly around the same time period of the 1600’s, so the style of poetry would have iambic pentameter and metre etc.

In “Do not go gentle into that good night”, Dylan Thomas also shares a connection with Shakespeare as to end the Iambic Pentameter they will both use a repetition of a word i.e. Rage Rage against the Dying Of The Light”. And Shakespeare’s, “self -slaughter! O God! O God! The physical structure of the poem is in a pattern also as the “Stanzas” are each three lines each, except the last, yet the first two lines of every stanza are longer than the last.

Rudyard Kipling’s poem “A Song In A Storm”, has many types of rhythm and metre. For example, “Be well assured, though wave and wind Have mightier blows in store,That we who keep the watch assigned, Must stand to it the more”. The words, “Have mightier blows in store” and ” Must stand to it the more” both rhyme and have similar phonics. I.E. “Store” and “More”.

Iambic pentameter is also present, “No matter though our decks be swept, And mast and timber crack, We can make good all loss except, The loss of turning back. So, ‘twixt these Devils and our deep Let courteous trumpets sound, To welcome Fate’s discourtesy
Whereby it will be found, etc.

The studied poets and especially Shakespeare use literary techniques to show how people respond to forces in the world over which they have no control, as with the help of metaphors and metre, they are able to talk about their feelings on fate and how it has affected their life. For instance, they are moved by the loss of something close to them and may find writing a poem about it, healing and even maybe comforting. They make subtle references to God also which they could often blame for their chosen fate.