Accidental Meetings!

In a fantastic piece of luck, I had the opportunity to meet a couple of workers from Snow Business!

This may come out sounding pretentious, though I hope it doesn't, but I have a strong belief that for designers, especially theatre, every thing should be able to influence your designing. Examining real life, people watching, even day to day tasks should be able to help you - and sometimes in the most unexpected ways! After working on shows for free, I have found some temporary paying work to tide me over for the time being - a topic that is currently much in discussion with recent post-grads.

I have been taken on in a Christmas Grotto for the season, and was lucky enough that the people who had been hired by the company to do their snow effect was Snow Business! For any who dont know, Snow Business are the company that does the snow effects for pretty much anything you see on film and television - they've done the 'Narnia' and 'Harry Potter' films, 'Les Miserables', 'Snow White and the Huntsman', 'The Day After Tomorrow', and a vast amount of other films, television shows and adverts. I was lucky enough to be able to chat to them while they were working and find out more about what they do - they are very impressive as a company in what they can do and everything they have worked on (and over 200 different types of snow and ice effect). They are based in Gloucestershire, and if you have a chance to look at their website and see what they have worked on and what they do I can very much reccomend it!

Post show review! No Pasaran!

No Pasaran is now done! The show was well attended, and thankfully there were no technical problems or cast disasters during the run (though there were a couple of pairs of ripped trousers!) I was joined in my backstage crew duties by Michael Ellis for all four run days, and for the final day Ludovic Scott joined to assist for the final two shows under stage manager Tash.

 

With the make-up artist dealing with the rest of the cast I ended up doing the scar make-up for Tom Robinson (playing Jimmy, an irishman turned Fascist) which needed to be applied during the interval of every show, showing the time progression and was a very interesting and fun experience as I have never done scar make-up before. During the second act there was a backstage lul during which myself and the other crew got to enter the back of the audience and watch a little of the show - so I am relieved to say that even from the back the scar was visible and looked realistic.

 

Tom backstage getting into character when I finished his scar.

 

The show itself was a little like Les Miserable crossed with Miss Saigon in that there was no dialogue with everything being sung save the sporadic naration from the 'Grandson' of the main character. Included in the show were also a number of spectacular flamenco performances.

 

The projection provided an interesting backdrop (one of the first things I did when the projection came up was mark a line on the stage at the back for the actors to stay in front of where the projection would hit them) but the physical set that Roy had hoped for in terms of the mobile spiral staircase with balcony and the mobile half tank, never materialised due to an issue with the contractors. Despite this the lack was not noticable and did not, in any way that I could see, impact the running of the show.

 

Since the show, myself and the cast have been emailed two reviews of the show - one from a member of the International Brigade Memorial Trust, and one from NODA; please see below!

 

http://rhymesandroutes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/no-pasaran-musical.html

 

Unfortunately I cannot find the NODA one on their website as I believe you must be a subscriber for that, but if you are a subscriber please let me know if you see it!

No Pasaran! Show week!

Over the last few days my roles on No Pasaran! have been dramatically altered! I was asked to crew the show, but over the last few days I have become wardrobe assistant, dresser, make-up artist for opening night and I have built a last minute part of the set!

To explain - during the get in on Monday, part of the set that was needed was to make the piano that cannot be removed from the stage look like a pile of rubble. Unfortunately the company that built the rest of the set didn't have one, and so that job came to me. I am proud to say I managed to make it in the required two days and it was on stage and working last night for opening night!

Starting the rubble cloth - a 3.6m x 3.6m loose weave cotton drop cloth

Texture effect created by using a mix of black and white matt emulsion sponged directly onto the cloth

 

Half completed, showing the texture effect in the light

 

With the weather turning cold, the cloth wasn't drying and so I used a heat gun to dry the last and worst of the wet spots!

The completed rubble cloth in the theatre doing its job! (hiding the piano that we couldn't remove from the stage)

I bulked out the cloth and created texture by stuffing the underneath with news paper to create a more 3D effect

The costumer, Carol, is a lovely lady who was on her own in sorting out and dressing the entire 28 person cast, and so I was enlisted to help in as wardrobe assistant and so far have allocated costumes, mended costumes, altered them, pinned ripped seams and dressed for numerous quick changes during the show!

Example of my work on alterations - unpicking a seam and adding a popper for a 4 second quick change between the second and third scene!

On Wednesday night, the night before we opened we were hit with a problem. Our make-up lady had found out she couldn't make it the next day and with Carol busy on the costumes there was no one to do it and do I was asked to step in - and I am honestly very proud of what we managed to achieve for the opening night! Olivia Ling, one of our leading ladies and an absolute star, was able to help with our two children's make-up.

Now we have 3 more shows to go and things backstage are getting into a good rhythm!

Last of the last minute prep!

With the refresher rehearsal tomorrow and the first show the following morning, the last minute prep is finally finished and it is all looking good ready for testing with the rest of the set tomorrow! In a last minute decision by the director, the garage is now having a physical set rather then a projected one, and so it was a dash down to the car specialists to hunt up a simple device to transform the set into a garage. The new additions are; a set of wheel covers to hang in the garage scene, re-hemmed and re-hung curtains to a better ballance, and the newly repainted stands and stool!

Before                                                    After

 

The stool was previously black, but with all of the rest of the furniture used being wood Tony asked me if I could paint the stool wood effect to match and I have managed to create a fairly effective effect!

As the stool already had a finish on it, the best option in this case was to use acrylic as it is durable, will stick to just about anything and can, if necessary, be washed off at the end of the run to return the stool to the black finish beneath.

Tomorrow's rehearsals are being held at the Friday morning venue and we are leaving the set there overnight, and I am delighted that for the Friday run and several dates after Diana Steadman, the stage manager I worked with on 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', will be coming on board as the shows stage manager!

Preparing for the next round! GI Joe

With the next round of shows begining next week - with a Thursday rehearsal and then two shows on the Friday, its all go with getting the last of the repairs and alterations done for the set! Last time, there was no full tech run before the first two shows and so there were the usual host of problems that come with an opening night plus a couple of extra hiccups.

With this in mind, after taking notes from the first show, I have come up with a list of things that need alteration and changing;

 - hemming the curtain bottoms

 - improving the hang of the side curtains

 - sanding marks from the stands

 - painting the stool brown

 - creating an image to be projected for the garage

 - getting more camouflage netting

 

Next Friday we have two shows, one at a school in Dorset in the afternoon, and another in the evening in Melbury Osmond nr. Yeovil. This is going to be interesting as I believe the school will be front projection, but the Melbury Osmond venue is I believe going to be back projected. Up until now I have only been able to see it front projected due to the size of the rehearsal space and the first venue, so it will be interesting to see how the images affect the tone of the performance when left up for the full scenes rather then just to introduce for the majority with the front projection.


For more information on the performance itself, venues and tickets please follow the below link to the company website!
http://stateofplayarts.co.uk/gi-joe/

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.