Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th January 2015

During Monday's lesson we ran through our scenes that we knew. We then realised we had blocked all of our performance and the only thing we needed to do was transitions between each scene and polish the longer scenes such as the second ending and the argument/fight scene.

Ideas I gave during this lesson was that when we're split screening Tess and Finn both go to the door that seperates each scene and then it goes into a split screen where The Boss and I both pull away the two of them. This adds another technique to our performance and the audience will hopefully feel how close yet how far apart the couple are.

During the Tuesday lesson we ran through our devised piece and added in the transition scenes. We also added music to our argument/fight scene. The music in this scene is a very happy and upbeat song, this shows irony and therefore is another technique. 

The second part of the second ending where Kyle kills Stan and Frank was added to by using the same technique we used for the start of it. Next lesson I plan to video this scene and upload it to here and to also do a full run and discuss costume ideas for our performance in a few weeks time.

Thursday 22nd January 2015

Today was a very productive lesson. The group and I managed to finish blocking the rest of the 2nd ending. Now we have finished all of our scenes in the coming lessons we'll try to link each scene together.

This lesson started off by us running through the split stage scene. An idea I gave whilst rehearsing this was that we should use shorter but more splits between each room. Also that Tess and Finn are both going to go up to the door where they should meet but 'The boss' stops Tess and I stop Finn from opening it. Following on from this Kyle and Ellie then meet at the speakeazy where they find out that the gang had been lying to them about not wanting to see each other. Kyle(Finn) get's really annoyed with this and decides he can't handle any more from us and comes back to our warehouse where he kills Frank and Stan.

When Finn kills Frank and Stan we wasn't sure on how to show it as we didn't want to use stage combat again. As a group we decided to use movement and physical theatre to show the murder of Stan and Frank, I'll upload a video of this here when it's on YouTube. After trying to get a song that we could move in time to we chose to use the song 'Lolita by Lana Del Ray'. Next lesson we plan to add in the links between each scene and polish the argument scene.

19th & 20th January 2015

During Mondays lesson (19th) Tom and I sat down and discussed the monologue scene which will be used after the torture/introduction scene of our devised piece. To do this we used the research we done over the Christmas half term so we could find out what each member of the gang could talk about. Once we had collected all the information and research together we made monologues for each gang member and the author.

For the second half of the lesson I went to the music department with Dan and recorded his drumming piece which will be used over the attack scene. We went back and showed the rest of the group and they liked it. An idea I had when Dan was choosing lighting was that we should use strobe lighting effects over parts of the fight/argument scene. We then watched through the scene Kyle and Ellie had made which was them meeting properly for the first time, we decided to use pink/light purple lighting for this as it is a convention of love.

In Tuesdays lesson (20th) we performed our monologue scene roughly and Dan lighting to it. We then decided to block the break up scene which is now our second ending, this is done using the technique split screen. On one side of the split screen we have Tom and Ellie talking about Kyle and Tom's trying to persuade Ellie that Kyle doesn't want to speak to her any more whereas on the other side of the split screen it is me, Dan and Kyle playing cards. The ideas I had during blocking this scene was that Dan and I should stand on the opposite side of the block to Kyle as we're still at the awkward stage where we don't know if we're friends or not after the argument scene. Another idea I had was that Kyle mentions that we should play KINGS because he feels like he is above us and has a higher authority, another way I said we could show authority would be me and Dan leaning on the block we'll use as a table whilst Kyle stands tall above us. The main idea I contributed was that throughout the card game each character makes sly&witty comments that are relevant to the situation doing things such as using the cards (king, queen,joker) to portray what has gone on with the gang.

Attack Scene - First Block

Tuesday 13th January 2015

Today's lesson we finished off blocking and staging the attack scene. Dan added lighting to our piece and we used certain colours such as red to set the mood of the scene. Every time we go to the warehouse we use a bright light which will set that scene and the audience will know where we are. Ideas I gave this lesson were that Dan should drum over the attack scene instead of music being played.

We then filmed our attack scene and I will post it on here when it has been uploaded to YouTube. Next lesson I plan to go through monologues with Tom and help Dan decide on what to do throughout the attack scene.

Monday 12th January 2015

In today's lesson we finished off blocking the argument/fight scene and perfected it. We also chose and came up with what style our performance would be. Also if our performance was a person what they'd be like and what traits of personality etc.

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We then performed our argument/fight scene to the other group, we added lighting and got a lot of positive feedback. Our group then sat down and thought more into our performance and we made the decision to change one of the endings as we thought the 'rape scene' would be very hard to show and could upset audience members. We changed this ending so instead of 'The Boss' raping Tess he beats her and she bleeds to her death, an idea I gave to this scene was that Ellie (Tess) could use fake blood capsules and pop them when she's being hit. This will not be seen by the audience as we're going to have flickering lights during this scene.