Wednesday, 5 January 2011

Final Evaluation


Building the set of Little Shop Of Horrors has been a enjoyable experience for me as I got to get involved in everything to do with the production, from the graphics side to making the plant and to helping out on the actual show day. I have learnt that it is little room for error when your work is being showed to a live audience as you need to ensure that everything is safe and everything is flowing perfectly on time. A live performance puts a lot of pressure on you but as you overcome everything and make sure everything is fine so then it can be a really enjoyable time. The timescales and deadlines were very important for the production as we needed the set up as soon as possible so the actors could start rehearsing. The main big plant had to be controlled by someone so we had to make sure that was ready on time for them to try out before the live show. The deadlines are important as you will have a certain day before the live show and people have paid for their tickets so you would have to make sure everything is ready for the show. I have understood a lot about the theatre industry that I didn’t know before as I thought it would be much easier setting up a production but I never realised the deadlines and pressure you are under to meet them. When your work is shown to a live audience it is amazing feeling to see that people like your work and u realise all of the hard work paid off. My main role was the graphics side making sure the posters was ready and the leaflets and also helping building the plant, I think I was really good at meeting my deadlines and with my graphics skills I helped bring a good graphics side to the set. My strengths was my designing of the plant and my poster making as I have used photo shop a lot so I was really good at making the posters fast and at a good quality. Working behind the set on the live performance opens your eyes and makes you realise the hard work that goes into making the show possible. My weakness was probably that I could have put more ideas into the plant and the set as I didn’t give many ideas I just helped to build it at that time.  Overall designing a set is amazing to do and a lot of fun it’s better to be open give all the ideas you got in your head because when you look at the production at the end it looks amazing, if I ever get a chance to help design a set i would definitely get involved and help share my ideas.       

Other Musicals

Miss Saigon Musical


                                                                     Cats Musical



                                                                    Chicago Musical



                                                     Little Shop Of Horrors Musical


I checked out other musicals so I could get information on how you would set up a musical and how they would place everything on the stage and where the actors would stage. Its great help to check on other musicals as a guide line as you know you would have to be as good as them.

Stage Directions & Terminology

Stage Blocking:
Stage blocking is a term which means movement and positioning of the actors on the stage. They would be using this term during dance practices telling the dances or actors where they should stand so they don’t go off stage or hit into each other. Assistant director or stage director will have to take notes of the movement as they would be in charged. It is important that the actors know these terms as they will be having blocking rehearsal.


Sightlines:
A sightline is a line of sight between people watching the show and the stage or the place the stage area is. This will allow people to see the whole venue of the area as the eye height must be not be lower than 800 mm above the stage.

Stage directions:Stage directions is when the stage director will give the actors directions to take up, this helps the actors performs and helps the audience to see the whole play without missing anything which is a key part you don’t want them to miss anything.

Upstage:Upstage is when it is the furthest away from the stage so it’s back to front, which means the actors would know whether to be back at the stage or front as the actor terms are different to the normal day terms.

Downstage:
Downstage is when the actors need to be at the front of the stage closet to the audience they can, as from the audience it’s the other away round. The actors need to know this so they wouldn’t get confused on the stage but the stage director will help them understand.  

Stage Right & Stage Left:
From the actors point of view right is right and left is left but from the audience put of view it would be the opposite so the actor would have to be able to make sure there right is there left and there left is there right so everything is in reversed so the audience could understand it.

Peter Wexler

My professional set designer that I have done my research is Peter Wexler, who was born in 31 October, 1936 in New York. He studied painting, photography and design at the University Of Michigan’s school of Architecture and design.  Peter is married to Emmy who is an award winning costume designer. Peter Wexler works is very well known, his work has appeared in many magazines like, Opera News, Saturday Review, Theatre Crafts and Theatre Design.




Images of Peter Wexler work
Many of his models and drawings been exhibited in a one-man show at the Wright-Hepburn-Webster Gallery, New York City, in 1969. He has been involved in many productions like Cleopatra Shakespeare festival. He has been around all around the world and done productions in different countries and a lot of his productions are very big. He has done a lot of outdoor production festivals, musical ones and a lot of his been work is being held in exhibitions in New York.  Peter has received many awards over his time for best design in Los Angeles best designer play.

 

The Show







These are images from the night of the show, as you can see the detail in the back was really good and the plant stood out. The main set has some of the same things that I had on my model set like the box and the bin. The detail on the plant really stands out and I think the actors did a great job to make the whole play, the plant dark green colours goes well with the dark theme of the play. The plant moves about which shows it worked well and the mouth was the right measurement for it to open. The great thing is that everything is placed out nicely and is not all bunched into the corner; also the actors had enough room to move about on the set. The backgrounds bricks that we made really old fitted in perfectly with the whole theme and I think we achieved our target and created a perfect New York 1950s back streets.

More Research







I went to research on how I would make the plant, the small hand one to start with and the big human one for the end of the show, as there are different stages of the plant. I also went to see other posters that were made for other professional show for Little Shop Of Horrors, as it was a good guide line for me as I could see what the main things I should add. The hand plant is made out of a sponge as he has drawn the outline on the sponge and then cut it out so I could paint it. I have kept the tools in the picture so you could see how we made it; we had to make sure that it could fit into some ones hand so they can move it. The normal small plant one was easy to make as I put it into a pot and added the sponge one in. We painted it green and a bit of red on it for the blood, the big one was hard to make as it had to be human size. After we got the measurements it wasn’t too hard to make as we just needed to get rubber pipes and stick them together for the big mouth, after that we had to paint it the right colours for the production and then add the leafs on it. The research helped us to build the plants as no one was sure where to start and what materials we should use to create it. Also watching the actual show production it helped us understand what we should put into the plant as we understood the whole story and what happened which helped us paint and create the whole set and plant.    

Model Set



 The images I used to create the model set, I had to cut out templates.







These are model sets me and my partner made for the production design. The reason why I have created this is so I could see what the set would look like on the main stage and where I can place objects on the stage. I created it 3D so I could see where the room is on the stage. I used the backgrounds of these images to create the set, I used brick walls and the checker to create an old stage feel as it goes in with the 1950s New York style. I stuck the images on cardboard paper and some images I had to be a bit of painting and create a bin and a box. If you see the production you can see the images from my model set on the actual school play set. The little model set really helped me picture the set so I knew what would go where and I knew what objects I had to create.   


Helping Out At The Production

Monday 8t March 2010:

On the first night of the production I went to help set up the production and help backstage. I had to make sure that everything was set up the stage was all ready all the objects on the stage was placed where they are supposed to be. I had to help set up the chairs for the audience members and make sure every seat had a booklet that we made for them to read during the play. When the audience members started to come in I went behind stage to make sure that actors are all ready and helped them put on their clothes, and make sure that the person who was going to be in the plant was all ready. When the show started I helped to clear the stage when the lights went down and I helped doing the curtains. Working backstage I really didn’t get to see much of the play but I had a big role of helping everyone to make sure the play was running smoothly. The actors looked perfect how they was dressed and really matched the theme of the production. After the play was over I heard loud clapping from the audience members which showed they enjoyed it, after the audience members where all gone I helped clear up and make sure everything would be set for tomorrows show. I think the first night was really good as I could see the audience enjoyed it I just wanted to see how the next night will be now.  


Tuesday 9th March 2010:

Tuesday was the last night of the show and all the tickets were sold out, I wanted to work at the front door so I could take the tickets in so when everyone is inside I could come and watch the show. I had to make sure that everyone that came in had a ticket and I had to ensure no one from different schools tried to come in. there was a lot of people coming to watch the show so I was excited myself to finally see the production that we made. After everyone was in I sat at the back to watch the production, I really thought we did a good job with the back ground set as it had really good detail. The actors was amazing and the play went along smoothly, when I was watching the show I could tell the audience really enjoyed the show and I asked a few people what did they think about the background set they go it was amazing as you got the perfect backstreets for old school New York for the play. I was really happy people enjoyed my work and it feels good that you helped made that production with the excellent detail. The biggest hit was the plant and how it moved the audience really loved it and the detail that was put in. Overall I think both nights was a big hit and I would definitely get involved in another production and help out.
                                                                                   

Designing The Plant






We had to place someone on the table to check the size of the plant so we could fit someone into the plant to control it, so Khurum offered for us to draw around him. We had to take measurements and draw around him, to make sure there was enough room and it was going to be safe in the plant. We had to draw around Khurum in positions, like sitting up and laying down to make sure that our measurements were right when we were building the plant. We had to make sure that Khurum was stayed as still as he could when we was taking the measurements. After taking the measurements we started to draw the bases of the plant, so we had to draw the leafs and the whole plant face so it could fit around the measurements. It was important to make sure that every measurement was right as someone would be in the plant controlling it so we had to give them enough room to move about but still make it look real. After sorting out the measurements it was started to get easier as we had a bases and we knew what we had to work around and how much space we had.

Tuesday, 4 January 2011

Designing The Set







Here are images of me and my class mates working on the set of little shop of horrors, we worked as a team and made sure everything was perfect. This helped our graphics skills but as I am really good as graphics and I am taking it as A level, so I helped out people who was not to good at it. As we had the measurements for the plant now we could get started on painting the leafs and getting the back of the stage all drawn and painted. We had to mix up different shades of green for the leafs as we wanted a darkish old green which gives it the old look which we was going for, as we done our research to help us. We used bendy wiring to make the leaf shapes then we put paper mache on it to make it hard so we had to let them dry before we started painting them. We painted a lot of leafs but we had to place the leafs on the plant in a good way so it wouldn’t look like a mess. When we was doing the bricks for the back ground we had we make sure we didn’t leave massive gaps in between so we had to measure the space we left, also we had to mix a lot of colours of brown to get the right old type brown which will go well in backstreets of New York. We done a lot of research on the set of other productions for Little Shop Of Horrors so we knew what kind of style we had to do and how other productions painted the plant we wanted to get it right so it would look real.

The Layout Of The Stage


This is the layout of the stage that I have drawn, the reason why I have drew this is so I knew where to places everything on the stage. It’s like a guide line for me when I was building everything. When designing a set you must know how much room you have on the stage and you have to have the right measurements, which the layout I have drawn it helps me to see where I have more room. When making a little model of the production I can use this layout to see whether the audience can see all of the set because I what the audience to get the whole feel of the set. We need to also make sure that there is room left to the actors to move about on, so when places my set on the stage I need to make sure that it is not all tight in one corner and with this layout it can help me sort all my problems out.

Monday, 3 January 2011

Different Jobs In The Theatre

Theatre Director
A theatre director is a practitioner in the theatre field that oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production. They make sure everything is running fine they would have to make sure the budget is looked after as they would have big responsibilities. The director’s function is to ensure the quality and completeness of theatre production and to lead the members of the creative team into realizing their artistic vision of it.
Producer
A producer is someone that is responsible for overseeing and virtually mounting a production together. They would have been the person who found the script and got the whole ball rolling for the play, as the producer would be the person who finds the director. For example a theatrical producer would be responsible for mounting a theatre production together.

Designer

A designer is a person that designs things. A designer could be someone that creates things such as games, graphics, buildings, objects, laws etc. they would control the set and make a verision that the director and producer wanted, they would make sure everything is perfect as the often would have a MFA degrees in theatre arts.
Lighting Designer
The role of a lighting designer or known as a LD is to work with the director, set designer and costume designer to create an overall lighting set for the appropriate scenes and text in the show. They would have to make sure that the lighting goes with the play they would also have to see where the actors are standing and put light on them so the audience can see them, as lighting is a big part of the theatre.

Musical Director

A music director is someone who directs the music. This means that they could be the leader of a orchestra or even deciding what music will go into a film or a show. They would make sure the music goes with the theme at the time and make sure everyone is working together on the music side.
Stage Manager
A stage manager is someone that organizes and coordinates a theatre production as there are overall reasonability is to make sure everything on the stage is running smoothly. This means that before a show they make sure that the sets are all full prepared and all props are ready to be taken onto stage without them no one on the stage will know what is going on.


Stage Crew
The stage crew is a group people that help the stage manager with his work with preparing the stage with him and taking his orders that he tells them to do.
Choreographer
The choreographer is the person who would sort out and come up with a dance and would tell the actors where to dance as at some places the audience may not be able to see the dancers so they would have to make sure people can see them on the stage.

Prop Master

The prop master is the person in charge of the prop and he would make sure what props to buy for the set and he would be looking after the cost of the items.
Construction Manager
The construction management is the person who designs the whole construction like if they would have to build things for the set like a stairs they would design it and would have to make sure they meet deadlines and they are ready.
Dresser/Wardrobe Assistant
The role of a dresser is to make sure that the actors have clothes to wear which will fit the theme of the play like if it was a old play they would have to get them older clothes and also they would make sure they have makeup and hair all done.
Publicist
The job of a publicist is to advertise the production make sure people come to the play, sort out how much they would be selling tickets for and they would design leaflets and posters so people would know about the play.

Mood Board Evaluation

The reason why I created a mood board for my 1950s New York and scary plant images because it helps me with my visual images so I could use images from the mood board for my final idea, it’s like a little brain storm of images. It also helps me with design inspiration so I would have good ideas for other work. When I was searching for my theme scary plants and building images I used Google images and I went on advance options and made sure I got a certain size image and made sure they was clear so I wouldn’t waste time on images I don’t need so its straight to the point. When I was searching for my images I made sure I was clear with want I wanted. My mood board really helped me with my design of the set as I kept looking back at my mood board for ideas so it really helped me I also used images from my mood board for my other work like the posters. I didn’t get random images and placed them down on the paper I got certain colours like for the plant mood board I got a lot of green images and placed them next to each other as it goes in with the plant mood. With the New York mood board I used dull black and white colours as it creates the old street mood and over lapped some of the images as the main big ones stand out. I had to make sure I got the right images for my mood board and I to edit them so they stuck down on my page. I think mood board is the best thing to do before you start a project like this because it really does help you open your eyes as you may forget some really good ideas but looking back on the mood board it would make u remember.

Feed Back From Audience


 
After the play was finished I wanted to find out what the audience thought about the set, so I asked a few parents. Mrs Bansal came to watch her son in the show I asked her what she thought of the set, “It was very professional looking for a student production. The lighting and sets made it look very convincing”. This is really positive as they enjoyed our set.
I wanted to see what a student would say about the play so I asked this young girl called Amrit, I asked her what did she think of the musical, “I wish I had known it was gonna be that good, I would have auditioned for a part. It felt like a professional musical”.
I went to go find Mr Edwards head of our 6form he watched the show so I thought let me ask him what he thought of the show,
“t
he props and background were impressive, especially the giant plant and how it got bigger and bigger in each scene, that was the best bit. It really looked like it was eating people”.
This is great feedback from the audience as everyone we asked told us they enjoyed it and also people really liked the set at the back which makes us know we done a good job, after all the research and work we did it all paid off.
I asked Mrs Bhullar a few questions after the show


1. Did the show live up to your expectations?

I did not think the play would be as good as it was, I really enjoyed it I liked the acting and the set looked amazing, my son was in the show I really liked it.

2. Did the music go well with the production?
The music was good I liked how it was it was scary and tense as it went with the theme of the production.


3. Do you think the scale of the props worked well on stage alongside the actors?I think the prop was excellent and it went well with the actors as they was dressed old school type which went with the old street type background.

4. Was the background clear enough to show the locations throughout the production?
Yeah I could tell it was old New York backstreets with the old stairs and the old bricks it looks like you lot worked really hard on this set and it paid off.

5. Did you enjoy the show?Yes I enjoyed the show I defiantly come again to see another show if they are all like this one.

6. Was there anything you were particularly impressed with?
I was impressed with my sons acting and also the background was really good and the lighting was really good when the mood changed so did the lighting.

7. What would you improve?
I really cannot think of nothing to improve I thought it was a great show


This is positive feedback from Mrs. Bhullar, a lot of the people enjoyed the show and loved the background of the set. When I was inviting these people they loved the whole show and all said they could come again if there was another play like this.

The Whole Groups Final Finished Poster




 
This is our poster all finished we all went to Miss Jones with our posters she goes they are all great but you lot should sit down as a group and pick the best parts of each posters and put them all into one, so we did as you can see my image of the plant was picked. We worked as a group and created the best poster for the show. We added in the licensed part at the bottom which allows us to sell the leaflets and we added all the dates and important information so the audience members would know what is going on during the show and what the show is about. We photo shopped some blood coming down the page to give it the scary image and added another plant and a main character if you open the booklet so it would attract members of the audience more to read it. After the show I asked a few audience members how they found the booklets and was they helpful, a mum called Mrs.Dhillon said “The booklet really helped me understand the play and I liked the colours you used to keep it dark like the theme of the play and it was a fantastic play.” This is positive feedback as the booklet was a lot of help to the audience.  

My Final Poster Idea




This is my final idea for the poster I have put all my research into it and put all the information we need to show, that Miss Jones told us to. We had to add the licensed part as it gave up permission to use Little Shop Of Horrors as a leaflet, I used the colour blue as it made the writing stand out and also the colour of the back ground went with the colour of the title. I have chosen the best image and best writing for the poster from my research. I made sure that the date and time of the production was clear and also the venue where the production will happen. The image I used was the image of the plant going to eat the human I think this was the best picture was it looks scary and also its linked to the theme of the production.  I picked the writing type that I got of Google that I made as this was the most scariest and the most clear, which stood out. Miss Jones really liked my image of the plant I used as she said it stood out and went really well with the play and also she liked the type for the titled I used although she goes you should combine your ideas with your other graphic members and make another poster with all your ideas in there as we all have good ideas.  

Scary Plant Image Research




This is my research for scary plant images as I have checked on Google for different images which will be the best for our poster. I put in scary plant images in Google to find the best images for my poster; I wanted to see which one would be scary but also have the write colours to match my title, I clicked advance search so all the images I could was the size I wanted and wasn’t blurry. I have also ripped the images up so I could lay it out in a different way on the poster, with quotes from the production on there to get more of a feel of the plant images. I had to make sure that I found the right image so I did a lot of research to find the best plants, so when I am making my poster all I have to do is pick the best images I have and put them on the poster. Without this research I wouldn’t understand the type of plant I wanted and it wouldn’t go right with the play but as I done mi research I have taken time and made sure they connect with the theme of the production.

Research Of Different Type Writing Computer


                                                                 


 I have used word on the computer to create a title for the poster using the colour green or red as green shows the plant which is the main part of the show and the colour red makes the word horror stand out, I tried a lot of different types to see which one would be the best. I used  sold letters from word and I also went on Google and searched for scary type and created some scary type lettering with the words sharp and pointy with dark lettering. I was experimenting with different ways I could have the letters bending, 2D or bold as it creates different affects, but I wanted the one which would stand out the most but also be clear to read. When I was making my poster the research of the lettering really helped me as I just needed to pick the one I liked the most and crop it into my leaflet.   

Research Of Different Type Writing Ink






I have tried writing with ink to create a scary theme with the ink running down the page, as it is a great idea for the poster. I used the colour red to create a scary theme so it looks like blood, I made the images bigger in my second try and tried to make the word Horror stand out the most as that will catch people’s eyes. This is me experimenting with different ways to write Little Shops Of Horrors on the leaflet as theirs different styles and colours I could use that wouldn’t really work on the computer. I really wanted to see the difference and which one would be the best as writing it using ink makes it more scary and stands out a lot more with the letters all moving side to side with the ink splattered on the page.

New York 1950s Mood Board





This is a mood board and a image of the back streets of New York, the reason I done this is so I could get a feel of the area, its like a brain storm so I would know how to create the set because all the little details will help create a amazing set. This is mi research as this is how the production set should look like, so when designing and painting the set I should look back at the mood board so I can see what style and colours I would have to use. The old school stairs is a key point for the backstreets of New York as this is what I would have to put into the set so I wanted to get a lot of pictures of them so I would know how they look and where I should place them. This helps me get a feel of the 1950s time period so I could make it as real as I can.

Sunday, 2 January 2011

Production designer

                  
We interviewed a production designer, who has been working in theatre film and television since 1990 and here are some questions I asked.
What attracted you to production design?The love of the theatre as a child when I saw my first pat amine and also I realised I was really good at art so it made sense to become a production designer.  


What sort of problems do you come across as a production designer?
It is a very highly comparative industry, you have to be really good at what you do and you have to have great skills to be successful, the other problem is that your self employed which means you may not have no work for months or more so you have to be careful how u spend your money and you have to be out there on the ball finding another production.   

What subjects did you take in school and university?
Art and design really helps and also to be interested in history as a lot of sets are old time productions so you would need to know your history, 3D design and also I did a BA in theatre design and a masters in film and television, I had to also do a foundation course first which took me six years so you can tell I was really busy most of the time doing a lot of work to build my career up.
How good is the pay you get from production design? The pay is really good in film and television especially as a head of the department as a main designer as you could get over 600 pounds a day, but the down fall is that you will only get paid for the days you work.

How do you deal with finding work?
You got to get yourself a really good agent to find you productions as they would know a lot of people in the business and they also would have to take a percentage of your pay, also it’s good to get to know other people in the industry so you may find yourself a production.

Pros and Cons of being a production designer?
The pros are that you’re always doing different things so it is enjoyable, it’s really creative and pay is really good. When I started production designer I used to travel a lot to some really nice places and it was all paid for, that is want I loved the most. The cons are that you have really high level of responsibilities and stressful, a few challenges when you’re managing budgets and deadlines. Also you are not always safe with your job because you need to know whether the film industry is going down so you may need to find another place and it also takes up a lot of family time.

Have you ever had a bad review?
I had a bad review once when one of the audience members didn’t like my use of site as they couldn’t see the whole play, so you need to make sure the audience can see everything on the set but other than that I haven’t had a bad review.
How does it feel when you show your work of to the audience?it is the most amazing feeling ever and when u see that is your work and everyone in the audience is clapping and enjoying it then u realise that your impact on the show helps people understand the production.