Unit 12- task 1 - production diary

Candidate Declaration - I confirm that the attached portfolio is all my own work* and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself

(My device won’t allow me to pick where the pictures go they always go to the top sorry)

 April 17th

Today we started looking at little women. The girls got separated from the boys because they each see the story completely differently from each other since in those days, times were completely different for men and women. We spoke about how life was different in those days and what was going on in America at this time of life. We got into groups of five, I was with Latoya, Kadie, Emie and Bailey. We got a piece of paper to write down facts that we knew about it that period of life and facts about the girls. I’ll insert pictures below. 

We were talking about which character we’d want to go for and why. 

I would love to go for any of the sisters as they’re all unique and sweet to play however, I don’t think Beth would be much of a challenge. I also think Jo is a great character however, I don’t really feel like I fit the character as I’m not as strong and serious as she is. I just don’t think I’d connect with the character. I really like Meg as a character. She’s beautiful and poised, she cares about rules and she follows orders however, she ends up marrying somebody her family (aunt March) frowns upon. I think she’s a dynamic character to play. I also really love Amy as a character. She is childish and dramatic but she turns into a completely different woman when she’s older and her future relies on who she marries. I think she’d be challenging and fun to play as I think her character changes the most. she’s different to the rest of her family and struggles to fit in like the rest of them do as she’s not as giving as her sisters. She’s an artist, she goes against the norms with her love for creativity. 

We also found out the audition requirements for the show however I’ve posted that into a separate blog post named ‘little women audition process’. :)

After college, me and La Toya stayed back to finish writing our final draft of our script to send off to the National theatre we went through her notes and made the appropriate changes. We were very happy with the outcome and sent it off! We love our story ‘ the girls bathroom’ as it is a play we would love to be involved in.

April 18th

Today we spent the morning preparing for the little women auditions. We were sent to the LRC to do some independent learning. I was looking through the script trying to find a monologue for Amy because I’d decided that I liked her the most and she was most of a challenge for me. However, I spent a long time looking for a monologue for Amy but I couldn’t find anything that popped for me. I was speaking to charley who had a similar problem and we went to Kelly for advice. She said she was looking for a younger scene and she wanted to see Amy as a bratty little girl. This is when I realised I didn’t want Amy anymore. I loved the character but I loved when she was older more and that’s not focused on in the play. I then wanted to look into Meg more because she was my other favourite. I found so many amazing scenes that I had forgotten about. I think Meg has so much more depth in the play than in the movie, she’s a far better character. I crossed Amy off my audition sheet and wrote Meg on instead. Now I’ll have to find a juicy scene for her. I want to use a scene where she talks about the pressures of being the oldest child and being expected to save her whole family but she is at war with her brain and her heart because she has fallen for a poor man. I think that is her key moment and I’d love to show a piece of that. For the piece I have to devise I’m thinking about writing a piece about living in poverty and how it’s worth it for the riches of love. 

We spent the second half of the day listening to the pitches for the end of year movies. There’s some really good ideas however most of them are catered towards men and male roles because there are more male film makers than female. Some of them really went above and beyond for their presentations like Robert and his partner. I also think Jack and Kenz had a good presentation but no roles stood out to me from any of these. I did however, see myself playing a part in Tamara and Alex’s film. It has more girl roles. It’s quite physiological and really deep. It’s about girls at a boarding school and they’re given a drink everyday that makes them happy however the main character (Nina I think) breaks free from the cycle and realises they need more than one emotion. I think it’s a really beautiful story and I’d love to be part of it.

19th April

Today we started the day off with a warm up game of improv circle. We went into two big groups and had two people in the middle. We gave them a scenario and they had to improvise a scene from that. One of them was a mother had been stealing from her daughter and they had to respond to that. This game gets your mind thinking and helps me think fast on a morning, it can also be a good laugh too to get us out of our morning moods. Then at 10am I went to makeup to get my makeup done for my final day of filming ‘Counterpunch’. After my makeup was done me and the other cast and crew walked to tees barrage to put filming location, we were meant to be showing the beauty of Teesside howeverrr the location they’d picked definitely did not sell Teesside too well ahaha. We waited a while in the freezing cold so the director, Martin, could phone Kane and ask him for advice on where else’s to film. We walked for another 15mins and up a huge hill and then found a good spot to film at the top. It was extra cold up there so we wanted to get it filmed really quickly however because it was a new location it took a long time for them to find new shots and angels, I think it took around two hours. I didn’t have any lines in this scene so I only had to focus on reactions. This was a point in my character‘s (Grace) story as this is where she feels most alone but also in a place where she wants to save herself so she’s at the beginning of a turning point and is finding the strength and courage to do it. After we’d filmed this scene it was a wrap on the whole movie! I’m so proud of this film and i hope you can see the effort we’ve all put into it. I think it’s really grown me as an actor. 

Our class was learning an American accent today whilst we were filming so Kelly sent us the PowerPoint to go over it at home. Some of the tips were;

The main feature that separates the American accent from a lot of other accents in English is rhotic speech - This means that most Americans pronounce the r in words fully such as in hard .

• The short a sound is used in words such as “man” and “cat.”

• The use of an unrounded (relaxed) vowel in words such as “lot” (pronounced laht).

These were really helpful! I think I’m quite good at the average American accent however I’m nervous to start learning the Boston accent, especially since it’s meant to be from long ago. That makes it extremely hard.

20th April

Today we started off with a new warmup led by Emily and Ash. Its a game where we put our college ID into a box and each put our hands in and pick one out. then we stand in a big circle and someone goes in and imitates the person who's lanyard they have, then everyone has to guess then the person who was being imitated has to go in the middle and imitate their person. i was worried about how id be imitated as I didn't want anybody to be mean but it was all fine. it really made me think about mine and others body language so it was a good game to play.

Next we started looking at our other show 'Last Resort'. i think it’s good that we have two shows so that people who aren't interested in 'little women' have something to work on. I do think the last resort is a really funny show and it looks so fun to be part of especially since it’s directed by Geoffrey (a student). However, I really want to focus Little women so I’ll only go for a really small part. I’m thinking of going for a seagull with Latoya Milly and Adam because it’s a fun tiny part. We were actually looking at how we would act as animals in tlr today. We started off as acting as donkeys. I went into a group with Kadie and Emie, we got a script and we got on our hands and knees and acted it out. We used a Yorkshire accent because it seemed to fit the grumpy old man donkey character. We googled how to make donkey sounds and how donkeys laugh because we wanted it to be full and funny. We showed ours back and everyone was laughing it was such a funny scene. However Callum Morgan and Jamie were so much funnier so I think they should go for the part.

Then me Milly Latoya and Adam were together for the seagull scene. We started by reading it through it was so funny. Then we added seagull sounds and tried to replicate the mymymymymy sound from the finding memo seagulls. We kept adding more detail and really accepted that we were acting as animals and that it’s nothing to be embarrassed of. We did it and everyone loved it, it was such a fun new thing to do. I like this different style of acting. Me and my group really want to do it so we’re going to audition for it. I think this play will be good fun so I’d like to have a small part.

26th April

Today we did a lesson on etiquette to prepare us for little women. We were put in to groups of five and all had to line up, then 5 at a time we would have to walk to the other side of the room with a book on our heads to show the 1800’s posture. This was challenging but it was also really fun, now when I have to act in the show, I’ll just imagine there’s a book on my head to fix my back and shoulder and head posture. This was a really fun and interesting way to learn etiquette. Then in our groups of five, we got given a sheet of rules you must follow. Here are the rules;

• Never eat very fast
• Never fill the mouth very full
• Never open your mouth when chewing
• Never make noise with the mouth or throat
• Never attempt to talk with the mouth full
• Never leave the table with food in the mouth
• Never soil the table cloth, if it is possible to avoid it
• Never use anything but fork or spoon in feeding yourself
• Never pick your teeth or put your hand in your mouth while eating
• Never cut bread; always break it, spreading with butter each piece as you eat it
• Never hesitate to take the last piece of bread or the last cake; there are probably more
• Never hold bones in your fingers while you eat from them. Cut the meat with a knife
• Never use your own knife when cutting butter. Always use a knife assigned to that purpose
• Never wipe your fingers on the table cloth, nor clean them in your mouth. Use the napkin
• Never allow butter, soup, or other food to remain on your whiskers. Use napkin frequently
• Never pass your plate with a knife and fork on the same. Remove them, and allow them to rest upon a piece of bread
• Never make an effort to clean your plate or the bones you have been eating from too clean; it looks as if you left off hungry
• Never tip back in your chair nor lounge upon the table; neither assume any position that is awkward or ill-bred
• Never eat so much of any one article as to attract attention, as some people do who eat large quantities of butter, sweet cake, cheese or other articles
• Never expectorate at the table; also avoid sneezing or coughing. It is better to arise quietly from the table if you have occasion to do either. A sneeze is prevented by placing the finger firmly on the upper lip
• Never allow the conversation at the table to drift into anything but chit chat, the consideration of deep and abstruse principles will impair digestion

There are so many rules. We spent the rest of the lesson discussing the rules in our groups and trying to figure out how to turn it into a scene. My group decided we want half to be from the past and half to be in the present at dinner, that we we Cana teach them etiquette whilst simultaneously teaching ourselves and our peers.

After this I stayed back with harvey to paractice our audition duologue. It went well and I was feeling confident for the audition because I felt like we had a lot of chemistry .

27th April

Today we came in a few hours early and did sister chemistry reads. Kelly told us to get in groups of four and do a certain scene that we would show back to her as a further audition. She told certain people if she didn’t think they suited the part they went for but she never said anything to me so that’s a good sign. I paired with Kadie, Charley and Gracie for this scene. We went to 224 and started with a read through, once we knew what was going on we blocked the scene. We staged where we wanted things and then we did the scene. We would stop and change things if we thought it felt right. I thought it would be good to go to the costume room and get some swords for the scene because they were needed. No other group thought about this so we could perform better since we had props that fit. Then we ran through the scene with our props and decided we were ready to perform in front of Kelly and the other girls. We had put as much characterisation into it as we could with the short time we had and we went back to the class room. We watched the other groups do it and they were all very good! They did it different to each other and to us which was fun and refreshing. Then we did ours, it went quite well, there were some lines we forgot but it’s okay because we only had around half an hour to learn them and Kelly expected us to still be on script anyway. 

She didn’t give any feedback, she just said that it was going to be really hard to cast and then said she wants us to perform them later after more auditions. 

We had to go to the dance studio where she sent a list of duologues she wanted us to do. She wanted the Megs to do the same audition duologue with the Mr Brooke’s to see chemistry. I was paired with Harvey again and then Jack didn’t have a partner so I went with him as well. I’d already rehearsed it a lot with harvey so we just ran over it a few times and I went over it with Jack a lot because he hadn’t done this scene before, so I taught him the staging and I helped him learn the lines and I tried to make it seem like there was chemistry because it’s very important for Meg and John (mr Brooke). We showed them back to Kelly and the class but she didn’t really give much away she just said they were good. I think I embodied Meg as much as I know how to this early on in the process. 

2nd may 

Today we had a workshop with David Kirkbride. He was a student at Stockton riverside years ago before acting on the west-end. He came in to teach us about the industry and give us top tips. We started off the day by asking him questions about his experience and him telling us things. He was telling us how we will always be fighting for a job and that all the good roles will be given to celebrities who will bring in an audience. I suppose it’s nice that he’s not trying to sugarcoat anything. He also said “you will never get the role you want”. Not sure what kind of inspiration or motivation that was supposed to give us but again, he’s very comfortable hitting us in the face with his  truths. Then we played a game were we had to walk past someone but we could only say sorry. It was fun seeing all the different interpretations. I pretended I had earphones on so when the other person said sorry I couldn’t hear so said sorry then they went past and I was acting confused but shrugged. Then we did it again and I played the awkward sorry, er sorry as you both keep turning the same way. Then he was telling us about how we should rehearse something different every single time so we don’t get bored as it keeps it fresh. Then we went onto animal studies.this is something that’s often taught at drama school. For me personally, I’ve never had any interest in this method because it just doesn’t seem like the obvious way to develop your character but I was still very open to learning. He counted down from ten and we slowly developed more into the character as he spoke. By 1 I was a hamster, I was crouched down and walking trying to keep a ball like shape. Then when we went to sleep in this task I curled into a little ball as I thought hamsters would. I moved quite slowly and stopped for rests/ snacks a lot because I know that’s what hamsters do. I’m not sure what compelled me to pick a hamster to be honest. 

Then he counted back up to 8 and we slowly formed back but keeping some qualities. Then he wanted us to line up and act like we’re trying to get in a bar. I kept a higher pitched voice and my hands to my chest to keep some of the hamster qualities. Then we had to be in the party. I only hopped to the music and then stopped for a nap because I figured that’s what a hamster would do. This was an interesting way to get you to think about body language and really make you think about a character. David said he attached an animal to every character he played. I think for Meg she would be a deer, very elegant and my seagull in the Last resort would of course be a seagull.

3rd may

Today we started off with a cardio and muscle warmup, we were all dead after. Then we did a stretch. And then we did a vocal warmup. These warmups are really important for getting the mind and body ready to work. Then I think the next excessive is best describes as the blob. We all had to start by matching our breaths then walking around the room as one, turning stomping and reversing all as one. He said this helps the cast get chemistry and move as one. Then we started working on our seagull performance for the last resort show. We started working on realised we did do it different every time. We wanted to beat David to his feedback because we could tell what he was going to say. We wanted to all be individual so I made mine French, he loved it so did Kelly and Geoffrey. We added a part to the end aswell which we loved . He changed how we stand in the scene tho, he said don’t go right down to your knees stay more crouched to embody a seagull more. His workshop yesterday helped us with this.

Then we had the counterpunch premier where I played a lead role, once it has been posted I will link it.

4th may

Today we started working on little women. Main cast girls came in early to read the script that Kelly made for the first time. Kelly mixed two scripts together so it’s a bit complicated because we have to flick between two but it’s still very good. The whole of scene 1 is completely different now, it’s been changed so that you really meet each one of the girls in the beginning. It’s really difficult to know the order because certain scenes are cut, staying or on a different script but we’ll get used to it. Cast one managed to get to the end but we didn’t. After lunch we went back to the ballroom scene based off Bridgetown . We were working out choreography, it was complicated because we weren’t sure on the vision but once we figured it out we were fine. https://youtu.be/mcW6CKvoSJA (Dance scene we based it off). Then the costume girls looked at costume for the first time. Kelly showed us a dress she had in mind and we all liked it. It’s practical, pretty and good quality. 

(All of this will be in my production role blog).

Blog

 

We decided which girls would wear which colour based of personalities;

Jo- Dark blue

Meg- pink 

Amy- white

Beth- baby blue

We don’t have the budget to buy each person their own dress so we had to find ways to share them around based of the size and the cast.

All 3 of the Jo's can share one dark blue dress. All the Megs can share one pink dress. Two of the Amy's can share the white dress and two of the Beth's can share a baby blue dress. This leaves us with 6 dresses that we need to buy, in total that cost £360. That’s very expensive, so Freya and others are setting up a fundraiser. They’re thinking of walking 100 miles between all of us, that’s three miles each and getting sponsors for it. Meg, Sallie and Belle will need a fancier dress too, I’ve sent a link to Kelly (production blog). I’ve also told everyone we need character shoes and sent them people they can share with. 

 

9^th may

 

We all got asked to create a warmup in pairs ready to use if Kelly ever asks us. Mine and Latoyas warmup is partner yoga. We thought this would help us connect with our peers and also it helps you relax your mind ready to learn. Today charley and mark lead the warmup, the basic rule of the game is that you have to improvise a scene in your cast to help with chemistry.

Today we do courses on scene one. Kelly told us in advance that we would be so I learn all of my lines for this scene I’ve the weekend. Cast one went first so we got to watch how they blocked it first. We started really strong with this scene because we knew the lines and we already have a lot of chemistry because we’re all friends in our class. We put more effort into our chemistry by being close and touchy and Kelly noticed it and said it was good. I really love our cast I think you can’t tell from these first few rehearsals that we work well together. In this scene there’s the sisters, marmee and Hannah so it’s all about getting to know that family and learning where there life is at this point.

 

10^th may

 

Emily and Freya led the warmup today, we played the stops sat and laid down game. It was a fun improv game to get our minds working this morning. We ran scene 2 first today, only my cast got to perform it for everyone, it was really difficult to find how far we can push it but we’re slowly figuring it out. Then we did scene three where we take our breakfast to the Hummles. We watched the blocking of this scene but we didn’t actually get to perform it for Kelly. Then we did scene four where my character Meg gets her hair burned off before she goes to the ball. I really like this scene I think it’s fun and simple. We didn’t need much correction because we know our characters enough to figure out what they would do in a scene like this. We performed this scene for Kelly and she was very happy with it. I think I just need to work on my reaction to my hair being burned off. I don’t want to be tooo dramatic but also don’t want to be too boring either.   I stayed back to be an extra in Tamara’s film, there wasn’t much I had to do and it wouldn’t benefit me as an actor but she’s a friend so I stayed till six ish to help. 

 

11^th may

 

Today each cast took turns going through every scene we’d rehearsed this week, that meant the play felt like it was coming together and you could really see how hard we had worked. Each cast performed beautifully. I realised I wanted to work on my body language more because somethings I found myself with crossed arms which they definitely didn’t do in those times. Kelly have all casts feedback. She said ours was in another level compared to the other casts because she could see the chemistry we’d been working on and how we’d all been really looking at characterisation. Later the Laurie came in and cast three got to go through it with Kelly. Then we rehearsed the dancing scene again and added dialogue to it. I got to run through my next scene where I find Laurie and Jo dancing inappropriately. I really like this scene. I think it’s when you get to see how much Meg has learnt from her mother when she is correcting Jo and my character got to meet Laurie and me Brooke for the first time. 

 

15^th     

 

Today I helped Kane and Bailey with their film. I just had to be and extra walking into the club. It was fun and easy and nice to help out . Then in little women rehearsal we ran scenes 8 and nine, this is when I go to the ball with Sallie. I like this scene because I get to show how Meg was bullied for being poorer than the other girls and I get to show her vulnerability. I decided to keep her modest and polite even though she was being picked on. I wanted her to show how kind and gentle she was because that’s what she is. She’s a beautiful girl inside and out. 

 

16^th may 

 

Today we did scene 12 where Beth finds out she has scarlet fever. This is a really long and complicated scene so we spent a lot of time focusing on it. I needed to show how I could see the possibility of a tragic future but didn’t want to scare or worry my little sisters. This was a very stressful time for these girls so it was hard and worrying. My relationship with me also moved forward in this scene and we had to show it progressing. I also ran a scene with aunt March where we argue and Meg finally stands up for herself. These are all powerful scenes. We also rehearsed fathers arrival home. This was an emotional scene and the hardest part about it was making sure we don’t completely block tarring or Jack when we do the scene. It was a very long and hard day but we worked really hard to leave with a scene we weee proud of. The main focus in this scene is chemistry and it’s something we constantly think about. 

 

17^th may

 

Today we got started on act two. I’m barely in act two so when I’m not needed I spend my time learning lines which is what I did today. I was on in the very first scene but I literally walk on swap some flowers say a line and walk off. We rehearsed up to scene six. I also spent this time showing Kelly every costume we had decided on (all in costume production). We have two people on holiday and a few of our other cast members are leads in movies and the last resort so it’s rare we have a full cast. This is annoying but we make it work. I helped Tamara again and stayed later to help out by being an extra.

 

18^th may 

 

Today we completed the show!! We finally finished it! I feel so much more confident knowing that I’ve at least done all my scenes so there’s nothing new coming. I now know my lines to every scene but when I haven’t looked at it for a few days it evaporates from my brain which is annoying and hasn’t happened before. Actually I didn’t get to rehearse my small monologue because I was helping Cleveland police to film a car safety video. I had to take lots of pictures to advertise car safety. Then they taught us about different rules and ways to stay safe and filmed a small interview of us discussing this . This did take way longer than I expected so I was a bit stressed that I missed the rehearsal time but I’m glad I could help out. I had to break the fourth wall and talk to the audience again in this scene so it’s quite fun. The final scene is really annoying to block because there’s so many of us on stage that it becomes so hard to block but we eventually made it work and I’m now very proof of the scene. We took all of our set to toms dance studio before we left ready to use next week!!

 

22^nd May

 

This week Tom guest the HE teacher said he’d help us final touches. He worked with cast one today and said he’d work with my cast two tomorrow. He’s very good at noticing small details which makes us every afraid to rehearse with him because we know he’ll see EVERYTHING. Whilst they were rehearsing my cast went into the other dance studio and ran as much as we could with the cast we had which was the sisters as everyone else was working on other things. At some point Kane came in and seen how hard we were working so he stayed to help us direct it. We re blocked some scenes to make them make sense a bit more and for better stagecraft. I feel so much more confident with these scenes now thanks to him, the girls and the time we put in.

 

23^rd May

 

Today cast three we’re with Tom because our Jo was missing. I rehearsed my seagull scene with Milly Adam and Latoya with the director Geoffrey. He said he preferred us when we were actually in the door rather than crouching. He also said Milly should be more manly to show the difference between all of these characters. We discussed costume as-well. We said we’d all be in a white outfit that suits our character. I’m thinking of wearing my white dress with bows on it. We’re white confident with this scene because we all put in a lot of effort. I’m not worried about the last resort. 

 

24^th may 

 

Today we got to rehearse with Tom!! He made a lots of changes and it feels so much smoother now. He changed little things like Kadie staying one one side on one certain little part of a scene which might not seem important at all but it really helps us with stage craft. He also told me about saying my line “I remember when we used to be rich” positively asif reflecting on a happy memory, rather that how I was jealous of myself for not having that anymore. Tom and Kelly completely reworked the witches curse scene. They told Amy to be 10 times worse which adds so much comedic effect to it. We’ve put a lot of effort in today to make it as good as possible. It was really nice to have their help and undivided attention today. Also me, Latoya, Emie and Millie walked our three miles today for the fundraising as our warm up!! 

 

25^th may

 

This morning we came in early to work on costume. It’s very concerning that Kelly tried to order them and a lot of them won’t turn up until the show is done. This is really worrying because we’ve only got one week!! We looked in the costume room to find as many costumes as we could and we did find a few. We told Kelly to just order as many as will come and we will make them work. We have realised we were a bit ambitious when we were picking colours for everyone, now we just need them to fit. We found a dress for Amy in the witches curse, a blue skirt for Amy and a shirt. And also waistcoats for the boys. Hannah and aunt March have great costumes now that work so they’re fine.