My time working on this project has been very enjoyable but stressful. Enjoyable because I got to do something different, and stressful because our plans got changed, but I suppose that is what refining is. Our feedback on our short site specific film was rather good. One contructive critism was that we did not need music on our film for the sake of just having music, it took too much attention from the stories. The reason we put music in was just for easy viewing of the film we felt it carried the film and made it easy to watch. We got told it was distracting though and was not needed. Site specific has also taught me that the world is a stage, anything could be a performance but not everything should, just because of the simple fact that not everything is interesting. I think I have developed as an acter, I think I am much more confident and I hope my future shows can show this.
Site Specific
Progression.
It has been a very stressful process changing our site-specific performance but instead of moaning about it we have been getting the job done. After discarding the stories we could not use, we went in to the town to start filming for the stories we could. This was an easy job but time consuming and it has taken a couple of weeks to complete. We have sent emails and received a reply to go into the castle chapel to record more footage, the staff at the castle required a risk assessment before allowing us to film within the castle. We started to re-do some of the stories by recording ourselves, replacing the person that gave us the story, for the reason that there was to much background noise when we recorded them. By doing this it gave us a very accurate idea how long we will need to film the site being specified.
The filming is in completion and the editing has begun, it is a very slow process but my original fears about our film being boring are erased. It’s looking to be a very good piece of work. I am very happy with our work and hopefully either today or tomorrow the film will be complete.
A change of plan.
Our performance has changed drastically since we have spoken to Conan and went into more detail on the peice. Conan was afraid that our peice was too broad and not site specific and told us what would make it site specific with a few changes to our idea. Originally we were asking our audience to “tell us a story about Lincoln” but the stories we got were not specific to a site so we deicided to word our question to the public a little differently. The question we are asking now is “tell us a story about a place in Lincoln” this means that most of our footage and stories we already have could not be used. So it was back to the drawing board, our idea on using post cards and a canvas was scrapped and our idea on filming our audience was also scrapped instead we decided to you a dictaphone to record the stories we could use and message people we know are from Lincoln using social networking sites to obtain stories and record them on the dictaphone. The idea now is still to use footage but to film and record footage of the place that our audience participant states in their story. Personally this idea sounds less fun to do but I can understand it is more site specific.
Proposal.
Name: Gary Richardson
Email: 10180763@students.lincoln.ac.uk
Title of your Project: “Tell us a story about Lincoln”
Please describe your proposed work in no more than (50 words) A site specific performance located in different areas ofLincoln, with the city ofLincolnitself and those residing in it as the theme of our piece.
Tell us what you plan to do and provide a sketch of the ideas behind the work (250 words) We plan to interview members of the public of different ages, cultures and backgrounds to discover whatLincolnmeans to them. We will use the tools of postcards to help us collect their ideas and carry a large canvas to display all of this information. We will also photograph willing members of the public holding their postcards. This information will be gathered by spreading across various areas ofLincolnfor diversity including the high street and cathedral quarters.
All of this will be filmed and edited showing our process and we plan to incorporate physical theatre in to our work. The physical theatre will reflect the ideas of the public using our bodies to demonstrate movement and maybe even spell out some of the words they have used. This physical theatre will be performed in relatable locations ofLincoln, and included in our final film.
We plan to show our work in a public place such as Tower Bar or The Shed for a communal feel, using one of their large screens. We then hope to encourage the audience to join in with the postcard idea at the end of our film, adding to our canvas which we will have brought with us.
We are also considering filming more footage on the day of the screening but this idea is a work in progress.
Tell us about your target audience, and how your work will interact with them(150 words)Our target audience is a whole variety of the Lincoln Community, including an assortment of different ages, cultures, backgrounds and occupations.
Our audience for the filming will range from locals to students and all the postcards will contain data of their age, occupation and where they are from. We feel this data will help us to get a wide range of material for our film and physical theatre and that their differences will make the film interesting.
Our audience for the screening will mostly be students and some lecturers but also other members of the public partaking in the tower bar/shed for food or refreshments.
As for interaction with the filmed public we will be talking to them, gathering their ideas and filming and photographing them where applicable. Interaction with the viewers of the screening will involve collecting their thoughts to add to our canvas and perhaps including them in further filming.
When and where do you propose to present your work (location, date and time) A public place that is accessible to students, such as the Tower Bars or The Shed. We are yet to acknowledge the specific date and time as we are unaware of our groups allocated day/time for assessment.
Provide a project timetable detailing key targets and actions between now and the presentation of your work. Include Permissions, Materials, Health and Safety checks where applicable (250 words) Every Monday we plan to do Site Specific work for the entire day and wherever else we need to add in more rehearsal time. We need some footage to show by Monday (5th)
We want all our filming to be completed before the Easter holidays.
When we return all editing will be completed in time for the performance.
All materials and equipment we need have already been bought.
We will require permission from Tower Bar/The Shed and are unaware of other permissions needed.
As for health and safety generally taking care while moving around the city centre. Carefully choosing physical theatre movement so that it does not surpass our skills or strength.
List the equipment and materials you will need to deliver your project (and how you will source them). Canvas – bought Postcards – bought card, cutting and printing Cassie’s design on to them to be done. Marker pens – bought Tape – bought Camera – sourced from media building, we also have Casey’s digital camera as a back-up if needed
Give details of your project budget (though be aware that there is no Module budget so any expenses will, unfortunately, have to be borne by you alone). We don’t have a specific budget and have already equally divided the cost of what we bought previously.
Audience suitability: is there anything in your work we may need to make audiences aware of (e.g. Swearing, nudity, flashing lights etc)? We may have to warn the audience of swearing depending on the footage we capture of the public.
Include a brief artist’s statement that describes you and your work (100 words). Our work is all about seeing Lincoln through the eyes of a diverse public and what it means to them. It is about looking at Lincoln with fresh eyes and exploring the great parts of the city. The public are a central piece of our performance and our direction to follow in terms of the physical theatre. The physical theatre is to highlight these thoughts and feelings and to add some excitement to the film. Our work is multi-disciplinary providing a combination of film, photography, physical theatre and documentary. We hope the viewing audience will question what Lincoln means to them.
First time filming on the Lincoln high street.
Conan thought that our question “What does Lincoln mean to you?” was to broad so gave us another suggestion which was “Tell us a story about Lincoln” we thought that this question work a lot better so Cassie designed the postcard which we then photocopied and glued on to the cards. On Monday the fifth of March we went on to the high street and filmed for the first time. It took us a few minutes to gather up enough courage to go up to people walking by and ask if they have enough time to help us, most people walked straight passed us just saying “Sorry. No.” We found it interesting that the younger genoration were a lot more open but a few older people stopped and filled in a post card. An hour passed in the freezing cold and we only managed to get seven cards three of which were done by us. Our next attempt is on Thursday the eighth of March.
Filming the next time round went a lot easier, we managed to stop more people. This time around we took the canvas with us and the public seemed to come to us and ask what we were doing. One lady we stopped gave us a story about a shop called MacFisheries and that it was were Carphone Warehouse used to be in Lincoln high street. She said that they used to hang pheasants in the shope window. Her grandfather used to work there and he was the one that told her this story. One day while he wass working a posh lady came in with a large fancy hat, she called to be served but when her grandfather turned to look at her he noticed that there was maggots all over her hat and began to laugh, he could not stop laughing and had to get someone else to help serve her. I had to check if there was actually was a shop called Macfisheries, just so we could use the story and came across this on this website http://www.macfisheries.co.uk/page2.htm, a man called Hesketh Lever bought the firm in during World War one “to create a market for the islanders fish, he started to buy up fishmongers shops throughout Britain, eventualy creating the “Mac Fisheries” chain.” Other stories we were told ranged from the history of a certain place for example, a night club called Scream used to be were Harvester is now, to stories were the person told us a situation that has happened to them.
Our canvas is filling up and the project is going well, students seem to be more approachable when it comes to us asking them if they would not mind telling us a story, but I think this only because it is our age group. next time we are out we are going to attempt to get more of a mixed range of ages.
Work Cited
http://www.macfisheries.co.uk/page2.htm (Accessed: 6 May 2012)