RISK Performance and Snow Queen Production

Thursday 18^th October

My first ever time working tech on a performance.

The day started early, I was at the MAC by 08:30 (always ‘first in, last out’), to meet up with all the actors and make sure everyone got placed properly. Ellie handed over the card keys and props (hand held LED lights for the ‘Club Risk’ piece), and it was down to me to make sure everyone was in their various preparation rooms and that the props were well looked after.

Once I had done this I adjourned back to my own ‘Risk’ performance group who had decided to use a quiet hall way in the basement to go over lines, block out movements, etc. Alex N. joined us for a time as he would be in charge of operating the sound/light for nearly all the groups. Leon provided us with print outs of the script so we could go through with them and mark up the various tech cues for the performance.
I also took opportunity of this time to use my laptop and the MAC’s Wi-Fi to go in search of an appropriate metallic clang sound effect to simulate the bars of the cage going up.
I ended up on the website: http://www.freesound.org/ which Anthony had recommended. It has a huge selection of sound effects and such that can be downloaded and used for free.
The tag search for ‘metallic clang’ came up with a huge amount of results, so I set to checking the descriptions and selecting those sounds that I thought would be suitable. Then I checked the ones I had selected and whittled them down to about half a dozen options which I played to the cast till we finally found the clang that sounded the best. Alex N then took a copy of that sound and the music that we would be using and moved on to the next group he would be operating for.
By this time I was starting to feel a tad nervous and also being in a cramped space underground full of people all talking at once and moving (stomping) about was making me feel a bit queasy. So I decided to move on to make sure all the other groups were happy and had everything they needed and also get some air.
On my travels between groups I was told that Anthony had arrived, had a briefing from management about using the Hexagon Theatre space and us techies could go in and get ourselves properly acquainted with the space and set up in the control booth. So I went and collected my equipment from the basement and went to the booth.
Whilst we were setting up our lap tops, cds etc. I noticed how stuffy the booth was getting after just a few minutes of there being only 4 people in there. Then I noticed the radiator! Whose clever idea was it to have a radiator in a tiny room full of electronic equipment which at times will also be occupied by a number of highly strung techies?!? We tried to turn off the radiator but the best we could do was turn it down a little bit.
Later on I would have to time getting out of the booth to get some fresh air, unfortunately it meant missing a few of the performance pieces as to get to the booth I had to climb through the audience seating, which of course meant constantly dealing with my nemesis: ‘odd shaped flights of stairs’.

By the time we’d got set up performance time had rolled around and we went straight to work.
My own ‘Risk’ group, now officially named ‘Caged Bird’ was one of the first to go. So with much trepidation I made sure that my script and video were completely set up and ready to go. It was at this point that I realised how incredibly nervous I was. Pre-performance nerves are not something I had encountered for quite some time. Having competed in sports for so many years you get used to it and metallise yourself to the point that you no longer feel the typical butterflies in stomach and anxieties associated with such things. But, of course, production arts are still very new and alien to me. So as my group took their places and the piece started I saw how my hands were shaking and I felt quite wobbly as I made sure that I hit the video cues on time. The anxiety didn’t let up until quite some time after we’d finished but in the end it all worked out ok and it came off without too many hitches.
Afterwards I stayed in the booth to observe Alex N. and Alex W. working. Again all those buttons and movement had me quite confused but I’m sure that very soon I will begin to understand perfectly what everything does.

Once all the performances had finished it was our turn to clear up, I had to make sure that all of the rehearsal spaces had been tidied up and that all the props etc. were returned to Ellie in the state she had provided them in.
Such is the lot of the production staff that even when all the actors had finished and left there we were still making sure everything was neat and tidy.

After that we all adjourned to the MAC cafeteria area for a production meeting for the Snow Queen.
Alex N. and I shared note taking duties for the meeting. We spoke with Ellie about the set, props and costumes.
We finally decided on the dimensions of the cave/platform which would be the centre piece for the set.
We went through the costumes and what sorts of styles Ellie had in mind for each character so I could then write up a properly detailed costume list for the whole team to investigate, research and source, much the same as the props list.
Anthony provided a perfect idea for the magic mirror that the Snow Queen breaks at the start of the show: We make up a mirror that is pre-broken into two pieces. These pieces slot together and then before each performance it is covered in a large piece of tin foil which holds it together but then tears as the Devils pull the pieces apart. Quite ingenious really.
There was a great deal of debate over a lot of the set, costumes and props with everyone interjecting with ideas and such. In general a great group ‘brain storming’ session.

Production & RISK 3

Thursday 11^th October

I arrived early at the MAC ready to get down to work with my designated ‘Risk’ group, setting up and filming the ‘memory’ scenes we would be projecting during the performance.
Unfortunately duty called elsewhere as we had an impromptu production meeting with Anthony about the YouTheatre week we would be working on for The Rep. during half-term.

So I was unable to collect the video camera off Ellie that she had kindly brought in for us to use. I explained the situation to my group and being the resourceful lot that they are they decided to forgo the video camera and to use their mobile phones to film instead and we agreed that I would go and find them once the production meeting had ended.

Anthony took us through the information that he had received from the two theatre companies that would be performing during the YouTheatre sessions: Seabright Productions on Tuesday 23^rd and Box Clever Productions on Wednesday 24^th. Both companies had sent very comprehensive timetables, set/lighting/sound requirements, Box Clever had even sent a detailed floor-plan/lighting schematic for their set.
We went through the lists and timetables and organised our own timetables for the week including prep, get-ins, get-outs and listed any lighting and sound equipment that would needed to be outsourced for the week.

We then set to designing the lighting we would be rigging on Monday 22nd so the lighting requirements would be covered for all the shows and we wouldn’t have to change all the rigging each day for the individual shows.
There was an increasing amount of technical jargon being thrown around and by the end of the meeting I found myself feeling that my brain had been filled to capacity and was quite confused as to what everything was, although Anthony very nicely tried to explain what we were talking about I still found myself quite lost. But I’m sure that once I have gotten to see the equipment in question and worked with it for a bit I’m sure it’ll all become clear to me, and I’ll be able to tell Par cans from Fresnels and Gobos from Gels.

By the time we adjourned it was almost lunch time so I went in search of my Risk group to see how they were getting on. Turned out they had already filmed a couple of scenes and that they were just about to wrap for lunch. So we organised to meet up again later and set up for the next scenes which would probably require a bit more organisation.

After lunch I found my group trying to set up for the ‘You’re better off on your own!’ scene. It called for a sitting room type setting and the group chose to use the seating/screen area by the exhibition hall. I was having difficulty finding a suitable angle to shoot from when Alex N. happened to walk by and pointed out something that had been ticking away at the back of my mind: copyright and privacy issues! The copyright issues arose from the fact that we were filming in front of a plasma screen displaying images from the photography show in the hall, I had been trying to find a camera angle that wouldn’t show those images but was finding it difficult to get it right; the other issue was the jukebox blaring in the back ground, not only was it drowning out our dialogue but also playing music that we did not have rights to. The privacy issue was quickly becoming apparent because we had already had passers by trying to include themselves in our shots and we did not have waivers for anyone of them to sign even if we did keep them in the scenes.
I decided to go and speak to somebody from the MAC, 1^st to gain permission to film on the property and 2^nd to ask whether there was anywhere else in the building that would be more suited to our setting requirements.
The lady at the information desk handed me over to a manager named to Camille to whom I explained our situation and requirements, she kindly gave us permission to shoot on the property and helped us to locate an area that fitted our needs perfectly, (a cubbyhole off the foyer that had been used for mini exhibitions but was standing empty just for that day), she also gave us permission to move a sofa from the seating area into the cubby and then back again once we had finished. I assigned Jonothan and Leon to this task as they are both big strong lads and could lift and move the sofa with relative ease. I myself directed them across the foyer making sure that they did not bump into anything or anyone and that they were lifting and carrying safely.
The filming went surprising well and after only three takes we had the footage we needed.
We replaced the sofa to its original spot and left a message for Camille at the info. Desk that we had finished filming interiors, that we had replaced the loaned sofa and thanked her for her help.

The group then went outside into the park to film the ‘I don’t want to be alone’ scenes. I found a perfect location for the park bench shot up the hill by the band stand then helped to find the right angles and ambience needed. We then went down to the duck pond, where I discovered a new job description that I probably won’t be adding to my CV: duck wrangler!
We needed Eve to be happily feeding the ducks on the pond when suddenly they all abandon her for the lovey-dovey couple from the park bench… It was then that we discovered that none of us had any bread or such to entice the ducks over, but we did have a packet of posh cheese and onion crisps left over from lunch. I took the crisps crushed them up to have more to work with, and then rationed them between the actors and myself. I used my own crisps to test the ducks behaviour and figure out how we would set up the shot, then I explained to the actors how we needed to get the ducks to do what we wanted and how I would cue the actors into the shot. We recorded the scene in two takes and hoped that it would be enough footage to work with because we had run out of bait for the birds and they had swum off.
We then went back inside to finish off recording the ‘You’re so boring’ scene.

After that filming was done the group went back to the English Suite to try and devise a way to recreate a bird taking flight. The idea was that the actors would group together forming the general shape of the bird and its wings, flapping, taking off and soaring free. At this point I had to mainly do risk assessments for them, due to the fact that some of the movements they were attempting including lifting each other and hanging off each other were a little too dangerous and I had to steer them away from those ideas. I also tried to explain what a large bird such as an eagle looks like when it takes flight and soars, Amy who was supervising at that point recommended that during the weekend they should research some videos of large birds in flight so they could get a proper idea of how they move.
It was getting rather late in the day so we had a quick recap meeting, organising who would be doing what on the project over the weekend. As I would not be seeing the group again until the following Thursday Leon volunteered to be in charge of all the footage we had collected that day and do any editing necessary. I explained that if there were any emergencies that needed my attention that the group could contact me but that if they needed onsite production artist aid that I had arranged for Alex N. to cover for me whilst I was away from them on other jobs.

Risk 2

Wednesday 10^th October 

It was great to be back with my designated project group. We had a bit of a chat to get reacquainted with each other and the subject matter. We went over the notes from the previous work sessions and added any input from the survey of friends and family we had done over the previous weekend about Risk, the conclusion of which was that we hadn’t been off the mark with our ideas of examples of risk that people will and won’t take in life and the effects of such.

So we decided to carry on developing scenes and concepts from the previous week though I was beginning to feel a little un-easy with establishing staging concepts too far, due to the limited amount of time we had for development and prop making, our complete lack of budget and also that we hadn’t yet seen the theatre space we would be giving the performance in. I tried to steer the group away from too outlandish concepts and to keep it all as easy to produce and minimalist as possible.

The main concept that was developed in the morning work session was that each member of the cast would be faced with a decision whether or not to take a risk in life, that we would see a short scene of something that happened to them in the past that pushed them to not take that risk and that decision would form the individual bar to their metaphorical cage. Later on in the performance piece the characters would discover that by not taking those risks they had trapped themselves in that cage and would have to learn how to break free taking the risk, embracing the unknown future and taking flight.

Towards midday we were allowed access to the ‘Hexagon Theatre’ (the space all the groups would be performing in on Thursday 18^th). Unfortunately we couldn’t access the lighting so the theatre was extremely dark and Alex W. and I had to reconnoitre by the light of a mobile phone and the tiny LED torch on the base of my lighter. One thing was blatantly obvious to us even in the dark, that the theatre was a lot smaller than we had expected, (the rectangular area upstage I strode out as being 4m wide by 1.5m deep there was a curved out area downstage (approximately 6m wide by 2m) but as the front row of audience seating was on the same level as the staging area we wouldn’t be able to use too much of it without getting too close to the audience.
The performance students left the theatre to carry on working and to lunch whilst ‘The A Team’ stayed to sit a while getting a feel for the space, looking at what lighting and A/V options we may be able to access and also talk to Amy about how we were doing with our groups and exchange ideas on how we could develop the production requirements our groups were asking for. 

I voiced my doubts on being able to produce the bars for the cage, bars that would grow from seeds of doubt planted by each character. We discussed the possible materials from which those bars could be made: scaffolding bars, (expensive and unwieldy);  ropes (as we couldn’t access the rigging and each bar needed to be raised individually this was quickly rejected); lights (not too hard to recreate if the bar originated from above but as it was a case of the opposite direction, it would mean sourcing extremely powerful yet small portable lights and also having to use hazing machines to be able to see the shafts of light properly, and thus this was also rejected for being way out of budget and timescale.) A possibility we came upon was to use bamboo poles which the actors could 'plant' themselves, (this was a good option as Alex N. has a number of bamboo poles at home that he could bring in and therefore would not cost a penny to produce). We also noticed that there was a projector in the rigging which could prove very useful for my group: a concept we had considered was to project pre-recorded video representing those memories that steered the characters towards not taking risks.
Armed with all our information we returned to our project groups to help make any adjustments and carry on steering them towards finishing scripts etc.

After lunch we all returned to the ‘English Suite’ (a space I am beginning to dislike as the acoustics in the room are strange and the smallest sound is greatly amplified and when there are groups of people all talking at once, music blaring, etc. it’s just too loud. That afternoon I was developing a serious headache and going into ‘grumpy bear’ mode).

Ellie gave us a short brief on how we should use Harvard Referencing in our blogs and written work. A subject I am sure to find very useful in the future. Ellie had just had some surgery on her mouth and was finding it difficult to talk over the class when they got a bit rowdy so I found myself having to bark at them to quiet down and concentrate on what was being explained to us, the acoustics seemed to work in my favour and even though I hardly raised my voice the class ended up in shocked silence. (I have a feeling that I’m going to become infamous amongst my peers for my ‘Drill Sargent’ discipline.) 

After the briefing I returned to my Risk group and relayed the information about the projector and the cage bars. They liked the projector and chose to run with that concept but rejected the bamboo pole idea, the group seemed to have their hearts set on using lights, so I had to put my foot down (maybe a little too firmly due to the headache/grumpiness) and explain that that concept was just too far beyond our means of budget and time. I did soften the blow by introducing them to the idea I had had that by combining a metal clang sound effect and miming a reaction to an imaginary bar shooting up to trap them they could quite easily produce the desired effect. Plus I believed that it would paint them in a good light to the audience by stretching their acting skills whilst not relying on elaborate props and staging. The group were convinced that this was the best option and so I measured out a space in our corner of the suite mimicking the Hexagon stage so we could proceed with blocking out the various scenes and get down to devising a solid script.

As the day’s work sessions drew to a close we decided that we would dedicate the next day to filming those ‘bad-memory’ videos so they could be edited over the weekend. I went to Ellie to ask whether we could borrow a video camera and explained to her what exactly we would be using the video for. She very kindly agreed to bring in the camera and explained what cable/memory card we would need to transfer the video for editing.

RISK - Part 1

Thursday 4^th October

A day all about ‘Risk’, the first project for the HND Year Ones.

We started off with Ellie giving the production team a stack of printouts of quotes about risk, from which we were to select those quotes we thought pertained most to the subject of risk. As with most internet search results many of the quotes actually didn’t have anything to do with risk other than they contained the word. So the two Alex’s and I set to the job by creating three piles of quotes: the definite 'yeses', the 'maybes' and the definite 'nos'. Once we had gone through all of the printouts, we went back and looked at the 'maybes' and debated whether each was a 'yes' or a 'no'.

Once we had organised them all, the pile of pertinent quotes were placed around the room for the performance students to peruse and then select one that spoke the most to each individual student.

Then each member of the production team would join one of the three groups of performers that Ellie had formed. I pretty much chose the group I would join at random but was quite surprised to later find that all the quotes they had selected had been ones I myself had chosen for the ‘yes’ pile and that all the quotes had a similar theme to them:

• Eve – Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free. (Paul Tillich)
• Billie – There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community. (M. Scott Peck)
• Laura – The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all. (Jawaharlal Nehru)
• Matt – The trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more. (Eric Jong)
• Leon – We know there is no such thing as freedom without the risk of failure. (Rick Perry)
• Jonathon – At the risk of sounding hopelessly romantic, love is the key element. I really love to play with different musicians who come from different cultural backgrounds. (John McLaughlin)

The group sat for a while and spoke about their individual quotes: why they had chosen them and how each quote spoke to them personally. It became obvious pretty quickly that there was a certain theme to the quotes that would be the central theme to the performance piece we would be making: That not taking any risk in life can actually be the biggest risk of all. That many people when they come to the end of their lives do not regret the things they have done in life so much as the things they haven’t…
Through this subject we came to the theory that people who never take any risks and always err on the side of caution do not seem to ‘get anywhere’ in their lives and don’t fulfil their potential. Becoming almost institutionalised in their safe (if not boring) little worlds and how in some cases this can be harmful and even fatal.
At this point a mental image came to me and I offered it to the group:  I have observed how in the cases of the more intelligent types of animals, (including humans), when they have been caged for long periods of time, do not seem to be able to function properly outside their cages. That they have become institutionalised and when given the opportunity to escape or are removed from their confinement, all they want to do is get back in.   
From this observation the group grasped upon the vision of a caged bird taking the risk to break free of its confinement and spreading its wings and flying off into the unknown.
From there the group decided on the purpose and theme of the performance piece: to hopefully persuade the audience to take risks in life, that sometimes one has to take a risk to be able to live life to the fullest and be free of the metaphorical cage society and indeed ourselves build up around us.
From there on it was all about figuring out how we would get the message across to the audience. What scenes and images we would use, what examples of risk would be most pertinent to the subject matter and also be obtainable to the target audience (In this case the 2^nd years).
As the work session came to an end we decided to each speak to a variety of friends and family over the weekend, asking them about what they thought of ‘Risk’, what risks they may have taken or hadn’t taken in life and which of those they may have regretted. Thus we could get a cross section of opinion on the subject and use the most common risks in the piece.

In general it was a great work session, with lots of creativity flowing around the group, as most of the group seem to be on similar wavelengths, there is a good sense of comradery and eagerness to produce the best performance possible.