Monday 8 October 2012

A change of plan - a different direction - and meetings meetings meetings


Today I was set to meet with Oliver at 9 to consolidate our idea's and research in preparation for our meeting with the director - Kenneth Robertson - and the digital media lecturer Liam in the afternoon.

Having spent the weekend researching everywhere I could I found out a startling fact. There was no hippy or drug culture mentioned anywhere in 1970's Greece with the natives, and the most reference found from that time was on a group of hippies who moved from the west of Europe to one of the Greek Islands in search of a refuge to live peacefully and were driven out by the nearby towns people. There is no mention whatsoever that I could find of any kind of drugs in Greece at that time.

Politically this was a time of great political and civil unrest. In an effort to stop the unrest and increasing violence of the riots between the right and left factions that it seemed the government was unable to control, a small group of Greek colonels plotted and enacted a coup, in one night having all opposition, real and suspected, of there impending takeover arrested they took control of Greece in 1967. They were not removed from power until 1974, and during this time the laws in Greece were rigid and the punishments brutal, there are stories of unlawful arrests and imprisonment, even torture, from that time as the Junta as it is now known sought to wipe out all opposition. This lead me to the conclusion that for the lovers a hippy Lysander, being an Athenian man, would not be supported by history.

A possible alternative to this would be to still have the lovers from opposing political sides and go for a more subtle approach perhaps with the concept being about conflict and division - the opposition of right and left, the lovers, the difference between Athens and the woods, ect. Upon meeting with Oliver I was incredibly relieved to find that he had come to the same alternative that I had. We went over our idea and the work we had started over the weekend and then went to meet with Kenneth and Liam.

Unfortunately Liam couldn't make the meeting, but we did get to have a long meeting with Kenneth. On broaching our idea, supported by our research, Kenneth revealed that his research had found the same thing and that it went so far as, he believes, long hair was banned in Greece at that time.

Notes from the meeting;
- Pitched the left vs right idea to Kenneth and he liked it, and suggested we look at Z, a documentary film by Costa Gravas.
- Egeus and Peter Quince are to be the same actor so a strong difference is needed here so that the actor will not be recognised.
- A record player is a possible prop in the first scene for the dance, the Tango Libertard (liberty tango is a destinct possibility.

There are some further notes, but they are minor about the actors playing the characters and we have been asked not to reveal these as the actors themselves have not been told - it is going to be a surprise.


Following this was a meeting with Gareth, one of our tutors which later turned into a double tutorial with Oliver.
Notes;
-Good pitch to Ken.
- Looking at the parrallels with Pans Labyrinth! The war, the woods, the magical world. Look at Pans Labyrinth for inspiration.
- Look possibly at Athenians as right wing and the woods and fairies as left wing rebels?
- Peter Brooke version might be a good adaptation to watch
- The dances ; Spanish/latin american Tango - Northern European/English Clog dance - Indian Dance
Muddying of the era's and locations through so many multicultural influences - look into possible Greek alternatives of dances to pitch to Ken OR go with the concept of influences being taken (cherry picked) from all over the world. Costume Context - if the dances are taken from all over the world this needs to be reflected in the costumes.

During the meeting I recieved an email from Ken which changed the era of setting from 1970 during the dictatorship after the colonels coup to 1960 before the colonels coup and dictatorship. This changed aspects that we had aleady discussed. Due to this, Gareth suggested that Oliver and myself should come up with two concepts to pitch to Ken based on the meetings we have had so far.

initial idea's for the concepts;
Concept A - Pan's Labyrinth inspired, looking at the conflict and the darker, more subtle side
Concept B - Multicultural, more abstract

Myself and Oliver have agreed to work on these idea's and our concepts and to meet again later in the week to go over our idea's and research.
I feel that so far myself and Oliver are both looking more ar
 

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