The first show! Gi Joe

The first show - Priests House Museum, Wimbourne, Dorset.

In the Priests House Museum, looking a little like a bookshop from the front, there is a door through to a secret garden out the back (that feels a little like stepping into Narnia) and there you find a cafe and next to it, our performance space. A blank box to start with, this performance and the one the following day were to text that the set worked, and due to technical dificulties at rehearsals to see if the projection would work in the space with the music, within the area that we had.

Despite some minor technical difficulties before the show started when our projector inexplicably stopped working, the performance went well with the curtains providing the actors some much needed wing space and shielded the laptop that was in charge of both the projector images and the music from the view of the audience.

Before the performance there were still some jobs to do that were unrelated to set and when a couple of buttons came off the military jackets in the final rehearsal and the helmet used was too loose, I volunteered my sewing skills in repairing them.

The play went off incredibly well, with almost a full house in the 62 seat venue and a good attendance by the media, the acting was done with conviction and emotion, and the story could really be felt.

After the main show, their was a section called 'hot seating', where the audience got to cross examine the characters as to their motives in the story, and where they ended up and why. This was incredibly interesting as it made the actors have to become their characters absolutely, knowing absolutely what they would have done and why to any given question and really having to think fast on their feet as the audience were free to ask anything they wanted to.

From this, there were parts of the set that I would like to change - parts I would like to paint, some minor alterations to the curtains, projections that I would like to alter slightly, additions to the first scene and more of the camouflage netting used! I want the netting to be over both of the 'wing' curtains rather then just on one side. There were minor notes, such as parts of set being brought on and not taken off when they were meant to be, but these all come with opening night and are easy enough to resolve!

 I have recieved a report from Tony that at the Bridport show last night there were 40 attending the afternoon show and 80 for the show in the evening! Now there is a 3 week gap, with the next performance being at Melbury Osmond on the 11th of October, and very exciting, so I have 3 weeks to make any and all changes that I want.

Here is a fantastic review that I was sent by Tony Horitz, the co-author of the piece;

http://www.sceneone.biz/content/g-i-joe-dorset

The Filming Day!

Due to the weather forecast, yesterday it was decided to bring the call time forward, from half 9, to 8am. SO;

7:30AM Cameraman Douglas to be collected by Roy

8AM arrival on site for cast and crew

Immediately into costume and make-up, with one make-up lady, one costumer, and only one room for the cast to get changed in - it took some time to get ready as, being set in Spain during the Civil War most of the actors needed to have fake tan applied. Part of this was also making sure the actors were alright, as it was early and quite cold, and one of our actresses had a cold.

 

 

8:45AM

Roy had found a secondary location he wanted to use for the 'funeral' scene for one of our actresses, and took myself, our cameraman and Katherine Lamb, our actress who's funeral it would be, to the secondary site. This was a walk in the opposite direction to our first site. The new site needed negotiation with the forestry commission, and as such I phoned our forestry commission contact and arranged a meeting in order to get the site checked and approved by him.

9:30AM

Alice Duggan, our runner and helper for the day, arrives ontime and ready to work.

 

10AM filming starts

We took the actors, now in costume and make-up, down to the site with the prop guns, a 20 minute walk from the car park. We started immediately, needing to get as much as we could done before the bad weather was meant to hit.

 

Douglas, our Cameraman, with Director Roy setting up the initial shots

 

10:30AM

Two scenes in I recieved a call from our forestry commission contact to let me know that he had arrived at our carpark and was ready to be taken to the other site to see if we would be able to use it. After letting the crew know where I was going, I headed back up to the carpark and took our contact over to the other site and explained to him what we were hoping to use it for. Thankfully he approved it, and then it was back to the car park to meet the next actors call time.

 

11:30AM

Final two actors arrive for costume and make-up.

 

11:45

Actors break for lunch while the two new actors finish getting put into hair and make-up

 

Cast and crew in the 'backstage area' getting into make-up and eating lunch

 

12:30PM

We headed over to the second site, to film the final bits of the battle, and the death and funeral scenes. By this point the weather was worsening but despite the wind and the begining of the rain, we managed to get the filming completed before the weather turned too badly. During this second half I was able to help costume and make-up (Picking blackberries which can be used as fake blood!) and help Alice in carrying equiptment for Douglas and the cast. When the rain started to get worse, myself and Carol Childs, the costume department, ended up holding an umbrella over the cameraman to make sure that he could get the last shots without getting the camera wet.

 

 

 

FILMING ON SITE END - 2PM

 

Pack up time - 30minutes, cast leaving site at 2:30PM

 

A very successful day, with the scenes being filmed quickly and efficiently and the cast very much in gear and focussed, we managed to finish much sooner then anticipated - and not a moment too soon as when we reached the car park the skies opened and the rain started in earnest, but the cast were wrapped up well enough that everyone was kept warm and dry and the packing up was done quickly as noone wanted to be out in the rain any longer then they had to be.

Now it is just a case of the film being edited, combined with the footage Roy is hoping to use and then re-formatted to be compatible with the projectors.

All go! Almost there!

No Pasaran!

With the filming day only three days away it is onto the last of the logistics - checking the equiptment is all ready, that everyone knows their call times, keeping fingers crossed that the weather will hold (despite some nasty rumours their is going to be a storm!) Roy has passed on to me that the costumes and props will be arriving tomorrow and Saturday and that he has notified the police, and Douglas our cameraman is all set. It is now the last bits chasing up emails, equiptment, contact details and the last details making sure that any extra equiptment that we may need is available.

The cast is raring to go.

Big change and all go!

GI Joe
After the latest production meeting we have found that;

• the file format works with the projection
• the distance we need to project a good size image is in excess of 6 foot, which means that there is more chance of using front projection due to the size of some of the performance spaces
• one of the current designs needs alterations but the rest are good
• with the time between scenes more images are needed

So, six new designs are needed and the others need the dates and captions altering and there are two stands that I will be beginning to build tomorrow! I am also going to be hunting for the 'blackout' material on Saturday, so the schedule is going to be tight over the next few days but I am confident that I will be able to get it all done and in good time and good condition - made better and easier by the good fortune we had in using the University as the location for our production meeting!

 

While we were there the acting department were throwing away some set pieces from the last years productions due to lack of storage space, they were more then happy to let us raid what would have otherwise have gone in a skip! This has had the tremendous bonus of helping with finding things for set-dressing for our prologue and in finding the timber to build the stands in what they were getting rid of.

 

So now it is on to getting the designs done and finished and the stands built and getting the fabric!

The new style!

GI Joe In Dorset;

After having tried to chase up more of the copyrights, I experimented with creating an image using a style different style giving the overall effect that Tony and I wanted to achieve in the backdrop and after sending a couple of basic images over to Tony, he has approved it. With one week to go, it is all go with the designs and building the set starts at the end of the week! For the designs, the very lovely Wendy at Barrie Pictures has agreed to let us use the image for the backdrop of the Camp scene for free in exchange for a thank you in the programme! Thank you again Wendy we are tremendously greatful. I am overlaying it with a light layer of sepia to carry through the stylised effect of the other scene designs, and like the others it will have a border and the date added.

 

We have 8 scene changes, so there is still a lot to do but I have until latest tomorrow night to get them finished and sent off to Tony before we check the projector on Wednesday, with the set build and painting starting on Friday! I will be building wings for the set so that where we are back projecting the actors will have a place to change without effecting the projection. For this we will be using blackout cloth - which is something that I am currently hunting for! It is all headed to be finished in good time for the show.

 

I will I believe be building the set over the weekend with the exception of Sunday which is the filming day for ;

 

No Pasaran!

With the final tweeks done to the call sheet by Roy, the filming day is fast approaching! The footage that we are aiming to film this weekend will be played during the show and as well as setting the mood it will also have some major plot points included in the footage so this is an exciting and crucial day, but with the location set, the cameraman arranged, lifts organised to the location and costume on the way it is all (fingers crossed touch wood) set to be smooth sailing from here.

One month and one week to the show!

No Pasaran! Filming 1 week to go!

With the filming day fast approaching it has come down to the last of the organisation. The final call sheet has been written up, ready for send off, the transport to the site is being arranged, the crew are set and organising the final details. The last pieces to be organised are the last pieces of equiptment, being organised by our cameraman, the costumes Roy is organising to be picked up and brought to the site by him, and making sure that any last minute problems can be dealt with quickly and effectively.

The cast are going to spending the day in the new forest, it is going to be an interesting day with woodland trecking, picnic food and either blankets and heaters or sun cream!
 

State of Play - chasing the copyrights!

As is the problem when using historical photographs, invariably the copyright belongs to someone else! With copyright laws curently being what they are I have found the images that we want to use and am currently chasing up if they are copyrighted, if they are by who, and if they would be willing to let us use them (preferably for free as we have a very small budget!) Unfortunately it looks like a rethink is in order for the dance scene as the images that we were hoping to use are copyrighted and, while one copyright owner I have been unable to hunt up the contact details for, the other would like to charge us £200 for its use and with a limited budget this is not affordable!

 

With this in mind I have had a rethink and am going to try creating an image for it using a style of image used commonly during the war for posters and postcards when photographs were not used in the hopes that this will achieve the same look that we are after.

State of Play - production meeting!

Today was a wonderful production meeting where I got to see the projection screen and meet co-director Sharon. With less then three weeks to go and a lot to do, a lot of decisions were made reguarding the overall visual effect of the production and the set logistics, including the physical aspects of the set and where the build and painting will be taking place, which I discovered today will be four days at the Arts University - an interesting way of going back after graduation!

Set designing! State of Play Arts

It has been an interesting and busy few weeks - I have been taken on by the State of Play theatre company as their costume designer for their touring production of GI Joe in Dorset, written and addapted by Samantha Muiruri and Tony Horitz about when the American African American GI forces were stationed in Dorset during the Second World War and how the locals reacted and interacted with the white and african american troops. This production originally comissioned by the Development Education in Dorset (DEED) as part of the We Were Here Heritage Lottery Funded Arts and History project.

 

This has been an incredibly interesting and challenging production to design for as the set design needed to be interesting and strong visually, but easy for get-ins and get-outs, light weight and durable and able to be packed down as small as possible for transport.

 

For this production, we have after some design experimentation decided that what suits the production and the quick turnaround in scenes is to use projection to create the backdrop for the performance. After playing around with different idea's in terms of a cohesive visual, and in the end have decided to use a kind of 'postcard' feel to the images. This suits the production as the troops would have been frequently writing home, and we are trying to use images from the era and the local area and locations to where the performance is touring to - in particular Wimbourne, Dorchester, Weymouth etc.

 

Here is one of the earlier set designs of a physical set!

 

 

This was a composite of images from the era and the local area, overlaid over a stylised image of a Dorset church and pillbox - a WW2 defense building - done in black, white and sepia.

 

For further information on the production please follow the link below to the website!

 http://stateofplayarts.co.uk/core/gi-joe/