PrePlanning:
On this sheet, we wrote down basic notes and different details of our project. Our planning was done very roughly and we continued to add more features later on, throughout the group planning and discussion. The rough planning was made, including, noting down the names, characters, plot, props and much more. Though we planned with all of our group ( Magnus, Francesco, Dina, Salma, and I ) Salma had gone on the school related NASA trip so she wasn’t here during the filming process. We had come to a decision of myself, Dina and Francesco to be the main characters (husband and wife) and Soroush was chosen to be the child as well and the editor of the PSA video. Myself, Soroush and Magnus took part as co-cameraman for each others scene. Salma and Magnus both had the jobs of planning the different positions of the scenes and Salma made some decisions on the positions and angles of where the camera should be. Followed by our planning, Magnus was also chosen to have a police man role though we altered our story and the police man was not needed.
1) I am directing Francesco on what pose to stay in while filming the "drunk" scene, also explaining his lines and how they should be delivered. I told Francesco that he should be acting in a way where he is not perceived as fully conscious and aware of his surroundings (the stereotypical characteristics of being drunk) which will make it more evident that he is drunk, to the audience. I was also explaining the fight scene where I pretend to throw him on the floor and how I will slap him using stage combat techniques, which helps the scene develop to giving the audience a more realistic feel of domestic abuse. Francesco and I ran through the stage combat scene a couple of times just to perfect it and make it as realistic as possible.
2) In this image above, you can see that Soroush is talking to Francesco about how he will fall to the ground in the second last scene, where the child enters the scene. Soroush wanted to show him how he will be falling so he could be safe and that he would not fall on him and we were all safe. Francesco and Soroush positioned each other so that there was no risk involved. Francesco and Soroush also practiced this on multiple occasions to perfect it before we filmed it. The first few times where they tried it, it was somewhat unrealistic because Soroush was a bit scared to throw himself on the ground, though we found a solution where we put one of the cushions under Francesco and half of it exposed so Soroush could throw himself on the cushion without hurting himself or injuring himself.
3) Francesco and Soroush were going through the scene where Soroush shakes Francesco's face to see if he is awake. Soroush was giving Francesco a brief idea on what he needed to expect once the scene started as Francesco's eyes were closed and Soroush didn’t want to shock him and make him have more of a scared reaction. We did a few trial runs on this scene as well until Francesco knew what to expect throughout this scene, though one complication we found was that when Soroush and Francesco were doing their scene, being filmed, they were very loud so we had to find the most ideal time to film it without interrupting other classes nearby. Francesco and Soroush tried to synchronize Francesco's reaction so they could make it realistic. Soroush was also discussing on how Francesco and I were going to freeze in the background of Soroush using thought tracking, as you can see in the last scene of the video, so Soroush was giving him a set position to freeze in whilst the thought tracking was happening.
Group:
Francesco
Dina (Me)
Soroush
Salma
Magnus
Characters:
Francesco: Matthew (Drunk stay at home husband)
Dina: Sabrina (Working wife)
Soroush: Nathan (Child)
Video :
- Francesco played the drunk husband who was being abused
- I played the angry wife who pays the bills and gets nothing in return
- Soroush played the worried child who also expresses his feelings through the flashcards
Resolving/De-solving a conflict:
The scenario my group and I were given was "My friends ditched me and sat with other people at lunch"
Nada: Emma - Tori's best friend
Dina (Me): Tori - Emma's best friend
Nadim: Noah - Cool boy which Tori likes
Karim: - Cool boy
Lawrence: Carter - Lonely but caring boy
Summary of scenario:
For our conflict scenario, Emma and Tori are best friends, however, they get into a big argument/fight because Tori went to the mall on Friday night with another girl, behind Emma's back. Emma found out Tori went to the mall and threw a calm fit. In school, Emma is ignoring Tori and low-key throwing shade. At lunch time, which Emma and Tori normally spend together, Emma goes and sits with the "cool boys"; Noah and Karim. Emma did it deliberately as she knew Tori was obsessed with Noah. Meanwhile, Tori goes to the "lonely boy", Carter. She has an awkward conversation with him as he convinces her to go confront Emma about this awkward situation and solve it. Tori tells Carter how she didn't do anything over the weekend except go to the mall with her mom. Tori goes on the field to Emma, Noah and Karim and confronts her. Tori tells Emma how she went to the mall with her mom and Emma gets confused and embarrassed, especially in front of the cool boys. Emma immediately starts apologizing and Tori finally accepts the apology.
We chose this scenario to portray gossip. We also included a bit of exclusion to create more gossip and make our performance look more dramatic. We showed gossip by Tori and Emma having a fight and having the "cool boys" to take Emma's side and have Carter take Tori's side, with addition to, Tori talking to Carter about it and Emma over-exaggerating the gossip to Noah and Karim.
Personally, I think our performance looked realistic at times, but fell apart at others. Our performance went exactly as planned however we did mess up the lines at times. In Tori and Carters awkward conversation scene, I forgot to call Carter his name, instead I called him Lawrence. Another time was when Tori and Emma were having their resolving conflict scene. Myself and Nada forgot the lines to some of our parts so we just made it up on spot to cover up our mistake and make it look as realistic as possible.
I think our performance got across the point as we accomplished most of what we expected our play to turn out as. The audience didn't seem too confused on what was going on in our scenario, therefore, I think we did an alright job but could still improve in many areas.
We could improve in many ways, such as; not forgetting our lines, not laughing at times, knew exactly what we were doing, staying in character, and faced the audience more. If we wouldn't have forgotten some of our scripts, I think we could've been more into character and had more expression in our characters voice. At some points, we would giggle. Not to blame but I think Noah (Nadim) could've improved our performance by not giggling at times and staying in character. Overall, I think everyone stayed in character pretty well and we didn't have a big issue on that issue. My character, Tori was to be the one resolving conflict with Emma (Nada). In that scene, I think I could've faced the audience a bit more and shown them my facial expression of how confused my character was, to give them a better idea on what was going on and how realistic it could look.
