Alright. This should be the last entry. Hence the name of this blog. Anyway, this will basically be a reflection of the thought process in terms of scriptwriting thus far.
Directorial Vision
Since the beginning when we decided to incorporate themes from Ibsen's A Doll's House, we have stuck to the same directorial vision of: We are all connected and that one person's actions can influence another's. This DV has been the focus for our play and we have been improving the script as well as choreographing the movements according to this performance intention. However, due to recent comments that the intention of everyone being interconnected is not as clear as the idea that every character has to make choices, it has led to a change in our DV.
Therefore, our new DV is: One person's action can influence another person's choice.
Thought Process
Since Expressionistic scripts are episodic by nature, I have tried to incorporate this nature into the script. The script consists of scenes that are not elaborately written in terms of lines, but yet provide a basic structure for the whole play so that movements can be choreographed according to the performance intention of each scene. The script also provided a structure for the lights and song choices so that the proper atmosphere for each scene can be created. Lines should not be too elaborate as this will place a restriction on the creation of the movements.
In terms of the performance intention of each scene, basically, it is to show how the different characters are forced to make choices after being influenced by other characters around them. Prime examples are:
Scene 1: Parent's treatment of Child and Sibling starts their diverging paths.
Scene 2: Child has to choose between a more free lifestyle(Friend 1) or a restricted one(Friend 2). Friend 1 and 2 try to experience each other's lifestyle as well.
Scene 3: Parent's mistreatment of Sibling seals her fate in the sense that her choice was enforced upon her.
Scene 4: Sibling shows Child the result of a choice that she(Child) could have made.
Scene 5: Child makes a decision to decide who she wants to be according to her own decisions and not be controlled by others.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Entry Six
Pre-examination Showcase
Pardon my late entries. Blogger has been giving me problems for quite some time. Livejournal next time! But I digress.
Anyway, we had another showcase on Thursday to the J3s. This showcase incorporated all our new changes, including script and movements for each scene. Chenxing was absent so we could only showcase 3 out of 5 scenes. And the 2 scenes that were not shown were actually the most important scenes as they are actually the main scenes that show our DV.
But despite this, the J3s were able to get an idea of the DV of our piece(wow!) as well as some of the ideas that we were trying to push forward. Such as the idea of control, abuse, and struggle. And here are some of the comments that they gave us:
Movement Wise
They felt that we were still not purposeful enough in our movements. It seemed as if we were carrying out the movements as if it was memorized, but not as if it was part of our character. So, inner monologue is important. We must not only do it, but also feel it. There were also certain scenes that they felt was weird. For example, the vomiting part of the Parent/Sibling scene. It seemed as if the Parent had an upset tummy halfway through. Anyway, we plan to portray the video of my mouth saying deregatory words, making the intention of verbal abuse more clear. The Child/Sibling scene is still a crowd favourite, just that movement intention must be made more clear. They also felt that the timing for all our movements seemed off, but this can be solved with more rehearsals, and making our movements second nature!
Light/Sounds wise
They felt that our lights were okay. Kudos to our lighting tech. Only concerns were that there needs to be better demarkation of spacing so that our expressions can always been seen by the audience. Overspill is inevitable, but we still need to take note. We also need to learn the justifications behind each of our lighting choices! In the case of our sound, they felt that there were times that the song choices overpowered our movements. And that sometimes, they felt the emotions not because of our movements, but because of our song choices, so this has made our movements less impactful. Even though lights/sounds is one of our skills, the main crux of our performance is still our movements and so we will have to work on this.
All in all, the J3s felt that our concept was interesting and has a potential to develop further!
Post Showcase
And so, one thing that we are trying desperately to do right now is to incorpate Laban's movement analysis's effort drives into our movements. Theories involving our weight, direction, timing, flow. This will help to show the transition in characters more clearly. This should have been done long ago, but it ain't over till the fat lady sings!
In terms of script, final changes will be made tonight. Even though its the last draft and still seems sparse, Expressionistic scripts are supposed to be like that, so that it allows more room for the creation of movements. (ie. less restrictive)
We must remember, we are not miracle workers. We don't aim for perfection. We aim for Excellence!
Pardon my late entries. Blogger has been giving me problems for quite some time. Livejournal next time! But I digress.
Anyway, we had another showcase on Thursday to the J3s. This showcase incorporated all our new changes, including script and movements for each scene. Chenxing was absent so we could only showcase 3 out of 5 scenes. And the 2 scenes that were not shown were actually the most important scenes as they are actually the main scenes that show our DV.
But despite this, the J3s were able to get an idea of the DV of our piece(wow!) as well as some of the ideas that we were trying to push forward. Such as the idea of control, abuse, and struggle. And here are some of the comments that they gave us:
Movement Wise
They felt that we were still not purposeful enough in our movements. It seemed as if we were carrying out the movements as if it was memorized, but not as if it was part of our character. So, inner monologue is important. We must not only do it, but also feel it. There were also certain scenes that they felt was weird. For example, the vomiting part of the Parent/Sibling scene. It seemed as if the Parent had an upset tummy halfway through. Anyway, we plan to portray the video of my mouth saying deregatory words, making the intention of verbal abuse more clear. The Child/Sibling scene is still a crowd favourite, just that movement intention must be made more clear. They also felt that the timing for all our movements seemed off, but this can be solved with more rehearsals, and making our movements second nature!
Light/Sounds wise
They felt that our lights were okay. Kudos to our lighting tech. Only concerns were that there needs to be better demarkation of spacing so that our expressions can always been seen by the audience. Overspill is inevitable, but we still need to take note. We also need to learn the justifications behind each of our lighting choices! In the case of our sound, they felt that there were times that the song choices overpowered our movements. And that sometimes, they felt the emotions not because of our movements, but because of our song choices, so this has made our movements less impactful. Even though lights/sounds is one of our skills, the main crux of our performance is still our movements and so we will have to work on this.
All in all, the J3s felt that our concept was interesting and has a potential to develop further!
Post Showcase
And so, one thing that we are trying desperately to do right now is to incorpate Laban's movement analysis's effort drives into our movements. Theories involving our weight, direction, timing, flow. This will help to show the transition in characters more clearly. This should have been done long ago, but it ain't over till the fat lady sings!
In terms of script, final changes will be made tonight. Even though its the last draft and still seems sparse, Expressionistic scripts are supposed to be like that, so that it allows more room for the creation of movements. (ie. less restrictive)
We must remember, we are not miracle workers. We don't aim for perfection. We aim for Excellence!
Entry Five
Pre-Humanities Week Showcase
Okay, so basically the main comments we were given was that
1) They could see the clear divergence between Child and Sibling.
2) Struggle of identity(ie. Politics of Identity) was still unclear.
Comment number one was something that we could work off, because the audience could see that the characters, specifically the Child & Sibling, were forced to make a choice. This resulted in two clear and different end result; Sibling going mad and Child still remaining sane. So basically, we decided to incorporate this idea of every single character in our piece having to make a choice.
This has resulted in quite a major change in most scenes of the script. These include:
1) Number of scenes reduced from 6 to 5.
2) Instead of trying to make a running storyline, we incorporated more episodic elements.
3) Every single character will have to face the predicament of making a choice. (ie. emotional journey)
4) More buildup for the character of Parent so that violence doesn't seem to sudden.
5) Friend 1&2 will have more 'air-time", with their roles being of more importance.
6) Child and Sibling will be faced with the sense of choice and struggle.
Therefore, Identity will be based upon how the characters are going to choose amidst external factors.(ie. how characters affect each other.->DV) Internal struggle ensues.
Another change to note is that our 2 skills are now, Movement and Sound/light. No more multimedia. It will be another load off our shoulders as we feel that we won't be able to produce a good multimedia product in the short span of time.
Okay, so basically the main comments we were given was that
1) They could see the clear divergence between Child and Sibling.
2) Struggle of identity(ie. Politics of Identity) was still unclear.
Comment number one was something that we could work off, because the audience could see that the characters, specifically the Child & Sibling, were forced to make a choice. This resulted in two clear and different end result; Sibling going mad and Child still remaining sane. So basically, we decided to incorporate this idea of every single character in our piece having to make a choice.
This has resulted in quite a major change in most scenes of the script. These include:
1) Number of scenes reduced from 6 to 5.
2) Instead of trying to make a running storyline, we incorporated more episodic elements.
3) Every single character will have to face the predicament of making a choice. (ie. emotional journey)
4) More buildup for the character of Parent so that violence doesn't seem to sudden.
5) Friend 1&2 will have more 'air-time", with their roles being of more importance.
6) Child and Sibling will be faced with the sense of choice and struggle.
Therefore, Identity will be based upon how the characters are going to choose amidst external factors.(ie. how characters affect each other.->DV) Internal struggle ensues.
Another change to note is that our 2 skills are now, Movement and Sound/light. No more multimedia. It will be another load off our shoulders as we feel that we won't be able to produce a good multimedia product in the short span of time.
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