Mark Wheeller uses many conventions in the play. A flashback is used in ‘Childhood and Youth in Retrospect’ which shows Jo and Judy’s characters as children. A flash back is where you move from one scene to another scene that happened in the past. This is effective in the play as it shows their relationship as children. It shows how Judy has always been jealous of Jo as she had always been the ‘better’ child and their mother favoured her. The flashback also shows what Judy was like as a child, how she was a bully and not very clever at school, this could show how her childhood has affected Judy as an adult.
Cross cutting is used throughout the play. Cross cutting shows more than one scene simultaneously, swapping from one to the other. It was effective in the play as it was used to include flashbacks to the crash and also used to show different peoples recollections of the night at the same time.
A monologue was included at the end of the play. A monologue is where a character speaks aloud all of their thoughts and feelings to the audience. Judy’s monologue was effective as it was used to express all of her thoughts and feelings about the before and aftermath of the accident and the accident itself. It brought a lot of emotion to the play and also makes the audience feel more involved with that character, knowing all of her inner feelings about the accident.
A tableau was used in the play to show Judy catching the keys off Jo, ready to drive home. A tableau is a still image of something that has significance or represents something. In this case, it was effective because it was a very significant part of the play, the beginning of the end for Jo.
Another important convention used in this play is symbolism. At the very beginning of the play, Jo is being pushed by Judy in a shopping trolley, they crash and Jo falls off. This is very effective as it symbolises the crash, what is going to happen later on in the play. It also shows that Jo and Judy have a good sense of fun, but also how it can end in disaster.
Development
The first piece of practical work we were to develop from our stimulus, ‘Too Much Punch for Judy’ was to stage a stylised version of ‘the crash’. To create something in a ‘stylised’ way means to represent something in a different way, by not imitating or reconstructing it but by showing it non-naturalistically. We were asked to stage ‘the crash’ in a stylised way so we could use creative ideas and conventions to represent it. This would look more professional and would be more imaginative and interesting for the audience to watch rather than simply trying to show the actual crash. Our group had many ideas as to how to go about this and we discussed using slow motion, narration and also performing it with a non-linear structure. We eventually decided to represent ‘the crash’ by using music. We wanted to show the before and aftermath of the crash but not the crash itself. To show that the crash happened we decided we would have music playing in the background throughout, the music would gradually get louder and louder and to represent the crash, it would suddenly stop. This refers back to the play when Duncan recalls when he approached the car; ‘…all I could hear was ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ by the Carpenters blasting from what I later discovered to be the car stereo.’ This would also symbolise the end of a life, the music suddenly stopping shows how Jo was killed outright as a result of the crash.
To begin our whole performance, we researched some drink driving facts and statistics that were read out in a ‘news report’ style e.g. ‘560 people were killed in drink-drive related incidents in 2003’ and ‘Male drivers under 25 had the highest incidence of failing a breath test after being involved in a road accident in which someone was injured’. We then cross cut to different people in situations relating to alcohol, for example: a young girl buying alcohol underage, a girl insisting that if she’s old enough to drive, she’s old enough to drink, a girl gossiping to her mum about a woman who killed her brother in a drink driving accident and two lads on a night out who decide to get a taxi home and not drive. This set the scene for our performance, it introduced the subject of alcohol and drink driving and also informed the audience of a few facts and statistics about drink driving. The music was playing throughout that beginning scene and gradually got louder and louder until it suddenly stopped. When the music stopped, everyone stepped back and all held a freeze frame, responding to a car crash. We then flashed back to in the bar, the opening scene of ‘Too Much Punch for Judy’, and showed the characters of Bob, Nob, Judy and Jo all having a good time, dancing. We showed how alcohol made them happy and confident and saw them flirting with Bob and Nob. We used lines from the play to introduce all of these characters and also the ‘cheesy’ chat-up lines from Bob and Nob. This set a lighter mood and helped show the contrast from the previous scene of everybody’s reaction to the crash. We then used a tableau to represent an important part both in the play and our piece of drama. This was when Judy caught the keys ready to drive home. This was important to our piece as it linked the next scene, the immediate aftermath of the crash. For this scene we used the characters, Jo, Judy and Duncan. Jo and Judy were lying on a black sheet, both unconscious. Judy then wakes up and sees her sister. We used the black sheet to symbolise Jo’s death. We repeatedly cross cut from Judy screaming at Jo, “Wake up! Jo, wake up!” to Duncan looking out on to the crash, using lines from the text like; “Oh shit! I don’t want to be involved in that! I’ll let someone else go and have a look”. Judy froze as Duncan told his story in the background. By showing Duncan’s story it helped the audience to fully understand the events of that night with an added alternative view on the crash. In the play, Judy never got a chance to apologise to her sister Jo. We wanted to show her regret and guilt after the accident so showed Judy as if she was explaining the accident to her sister. We included lines from the script to show her initial reactions at the hospital and also how she felt years after, ‘No, not my sister … not my beautiful sister …’
We decided against using slow motion as this would make the crash less stylized and detract from the professional look of the performance. We also decided against using narration as we thought there were more creative ways to portray the crash.
We used many drama conventions within this piece including cross cutting. Cross cutting shows more than one scene simultaneously, swapping from one to the other. We used cross cutting to switch between the newsreader and the different people in different situations involving alcohol at the beginning of our piece, this was effective as it set the scene for the rest of the piece of drama. It showed lots of people in situations involving alcohol which showed that alcohol affects everyone in some way or another. We also used music; we used this to represent the actual crash. We had it playing throughout the beginning scene and then gradually getting louder, it suddenly stopped. This was effective because the sudden stop of the music showed the sudden end of Jo’s life in the crash, it also linked to the text when the music was blasting out of the car stereo after the crash. I think it was an original idea and worked well. Another convention we used was a flashback. A flash back is where you move from one scene to another scene that happened in the past. We used this to go to the scene just before the crash when Jo and Judy are in the bar being chatted up by Bob and Nob. This showed the contrast from that scene to the crash scene – how a good night out can lead to disaster. Another convention we used was symbolism. To represent something symbolically is to show it non-naturalistically. We used a black sheet to represent Jo’s death; this wasn’t that clear to the audience as to what it represented. We also used a freeze frame when we showed everyone’s reactions to the crash. A freeze frame is where all the characters freeze during a scene. This was effective as it represented the public’s view on the crash: shocked, surprised and upset. We also used a tableau when Jo was throwing Judy the keys. A tableau is a still image that symbolizes or represents something. This was significant as it is the beginning of the end; it has great importance in the play and also linked to our next scene well, the immediate aftermath of the crash. We set our piece out in a non-linear structure using a flashback after the crash to go to the bar scene showing them getting drunk and then going to the scene showing the aftermath of the crash. This worked well as it helped show the contrast between the fun sides of drinking to what could be disastrous consequences.
We had only a few characters in this piece, Jo, Judy, Duncan, Bob and Nob. We had two sets of Jo and Judy to show them before the accident (in the bar) and after the accident (on the black sheet). The Jo and Judy before the accident were very loud and stereotypically drunken girls. The characters I played in this piece were; someone reacting to the crash in the freeze frame and Duncan. For the person reacting to the crash I held a still image looking very shocked, with my hand to my mouth and staring at what would be the wreckage. For Duncan, I played him very shocked at the accident and worried to go out there and help. I played him with a quiver in my voice because he was worried about being involved and also shaken to see such an accident.
The second piece of practical work we were to develop from ‘Too Much Punch for Judy’ was to devise an abstract interpretation of a nightmare. In the script Judy talks about having a nightmare about Jo, ‘All I can remember is that I turned round and saw Joanna sitting in the car…really horrible…munched up and she turned to me and said…”Look what you’ve done to my face!”’ To create something in an abstract way means to show something non-naturalistically. We were asked to create the scene in an abstract way because it would give us a chance to show the dream with a lot more depth and use of conventions; it would make it more surreal which is what a dream is. It allows us to explore different techniques to portray the nightmare.
To help us with abstract techniques to portray our nightmare, we began the lesson with several exercises. The first of which was a vocal collage, a vocal collage is where a group of people all speak or whisper something, one after the other. For our vocal collage, we firstly all whispered the same line, “She’s having a nightmare” one after the other. We then developed the vocal collage by all whispering different things like, “Judy’s having a nightmare” or just repeating “nightmare, nightmare, nightmare…” The whispering created an eerie feel which would work very well in a representation of a nightmare. The next exercise we did was to experiment with size. In dreams or nightmares, size is always a big element of it; things tend to be out of proportion. For this, we all started by miming drinking a glass of wine. We would have to get the bottle out of the fridge, open the bottle, pour a glass and drink it. We repeated this, with our actions getting bigger and bigger so it looked as thought we were getting a giant bottle out of a giant fridge and pouring a huge glass of wine. We did the same thing again but this time our actions were very much smaller. We also looked at performance space, we all stood on a folded newspaper and that was the limit to our performance space, this linked in with the aspect of size. This time we mimed packing a suitcase, each time we did this, our actions became bigger and bigger and then did the same again but everything was so much smaller, all in this newspaper size performance space. Repetition is another element of dreams and nightmares, either that you can have the same dream night after night or that the same thing happens repeatedly in one dream. For this, we had three movements; laughing, drinking and taking an impact. For each movement we picked an area of the room where we would do each of these movements. We started by miming drinking, then move to the area of the room where we mimed laughing, and then moved to the area of the room where we mimed taking an impact. We repeated these actions over and over. We then brought in the aspects of fast and slow motion; sometimes dreams will go very quickly or very slowly. We repeated the three movements for repetition but this time going either very fast, or very slow. All of these exercises contribute to the idea of surreal and abstract performing and would help representing a dream or a nightmare.
Our group had many ideas how to show our abstract interpretation of a nightmare, these included using a vocal collage, playing with size and repetition and also fast and slow motion. We wanted to show the surreal aspect of dreams by using these ideas and also include text from the script as most dreams or nightmares relate to something that has happened in real life.
We began our piece with Judy surrounded by lots of ‘Jo’s’. We did this by one person playing Judy and everyone else playing Jo. Each person playing Jo said lines taken from the text, referring back to the night of the crash, ‘No! It’s my car. It’s my responsibility!’ and ‘Ok then. You drive.’ Every ‘Jo’ repeated their line from the text as Judy walked up to each of them in turn, this brought in the repetition element of the nightmare and showed how the night of the crash had been going round in Judy’s mind. Judy replied to each ‘Jo’ with what she had said in the text, ‘Jo, what’s going to happen if you do get pulled up? You’ll go to court with two drink drive convictions which means a huge ban and a ridiculous fine!’ I think this represented how Judy had questioned every action she had taken that night and played it over and over again in her mind. From this scene we went to showing Judy sitting at a desk with her head down, asleep. She awoke, startled as each ‘Jo’ walked up to her in turn repeatedly saying, ‘Look what you’ve done to my face!’ and ‘You killed me!’. As they were saying it, starting with a whisper and gradually getting louder and louder and faster and faster, they circled Judy and occasionally went right up into her face and shouted it. This is how we brought the vocal collage into our piece, we also used repetition and also fast motion as all the ‘Jo’s’ circled Judy. After this scene we repeated the beginning scene of Judy walking up to each ‘Jo’ and saying her lines from the text but this time changed it so it ended up, no one driving, them getting a taxi home instead. This brought in the ‘fantasy’ element of dreams, how you may dream about how you wanted something to happen a different way. Instead of Jo giving in and saying, ‘Ok then. You drive!’ she said, ‘No, if I can’t drive then neither of us will!’
We decided not to use slow motion as we felt it didn’t sit well with our performance, it was a very fast moving piece as we thought this gave it the effect of all the thoughts rushing round Judy’s head in the nightmare.
The conventions we used in this piece were; repetition, flashback, thought tracking, fast motion, vocal collage and fantasy. We used repetition a lot as we thought it played a big part in dreams and nightmares. Repetition is where you do or say something again and again. We firstly used it when we had lots of ‘Jo’s’ saying lines from the text in the flashback, it worked well as it showed how Judy had been playing that night over and over again in her mind. We also used it when the different ‘Jo’s’ circled Judy repeating their lines like, ‘You’ve ruined my face!’ We used the flashback when we showed the night of the crash in Judy’s nightmare; it was effective as this is what the nightmare was about. We used thought tracking to show what Judy thought Jo would be saying to her if she was there. Thought tracking is where the audience can hear a characters inner thoughts and feelings. We used this when each Jo circled Judy saying things like, ‘Look what you’ve done to my face!’ This was effective as it showed the guilt Judy was carrying around with her and how she had dreamt how Jo would react if she wasn’t dead. We used the fast motion when we used the thought tracking; gradually the different Jo’s got faster and faster to show the rush of thoughts going through Judy’s mind. We used the vocal collage, again, when we used thought tracking. As every Jo was saying the different lines like, ‘You’ve killed me!’ and ‘it’s all your fault!’ We overlapped all of these lines which worked well especially as everyone was getting louder and louder, it gave the piece a real eerie feel. We included the fantasy at the end of our piece, this was too show how Judy had been dreaming how things might have turned out, if she just hadn’t drove then her sister would be alive.
The part I played in this performance was on of the many Jo’s. At the beginning when I repeated lines like, ‘Ok then. You drive!’ I said them both drunkenly and angrily as Jo had just been arguing with Judy after a night out at the wine bar. When I was circling Judy repeating ‘Look what you’ve done to my face!’ I gradually got louder and louder and faster and faster. I said it very angrily and occasionally went right up into Judy’s face and pointed at my face. This showed how angry Judy was imagining Jo would have been if she was alive and also enforced the fact it was a nightmare, not just a dream.
For our third piece of practical work we had to create a detailed character for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Our character had to be set in a prison and convicted for a crime relating to alcohol. We had to create a name and a background for this character, leading to the reason they were imprisoned. In this lesson, everyone was in character. We sat in a circle with the teachers playing counselors and everyone else playing a prisoner attending this counseling session. In turn, we were asked to talk a little bit about the alcohol related incident which had landed us in prison.
My ideas for creating this character were to make him very nervous, to be constantly shaking and looking at the ground as if he is intimidated by the other prisoners, I didn’t want to show him to be a stereotypical prison inmate but more of a jumpy, quiet person that doesn’t really belong in prison. I needed a good background story to back this character up; here is my character profile:
Name: Stuart Ryan
Age: 24
Convictions: Two drink-driving offences, the second of which killed a fourteen year old girl.
Jail Sentence: Five years.
Background Story: Stuart is an only child and has a happy family relationship with both his mother and father. He was brought up very spoilt and loved and couldn’t do anything wrong in his parents eyes. Stuart was always a quiet child and shy when meeting new people. When Stuart became a teenager he started spending more time out of the house and got into a bad crowd, he became a bit of a ‘rebel’ in his late teens. When Stuart turned 17, his parents paid for him to learn to drive and also bought him a very nice second-hand car for passing his test. As all of his friends started to turn 18, Stuart would be out all night for several nights every month, celebrating their birthdays. One particular time, Stuart had been out drinking and celebrating his friend Marks, 18th Birthday. When the night was drawing to an end, Stuart offered to give several of his mates, lifts home, after consuming three times the legal driving limit of alcohol. Just down the street from his friend’s house, Stuart accidentally swerved the car into a garden wall, damaging both the wall and his own car. Stuart was given a small fine for this and banned for driving for two months. Two years later, Stuart was 20 years old and again, out for a night out with several of his friends. At two o’clock in the early hours of Sunday morning, Stuart made the same mistake again and drove him and his friend’s home, this time he was very drunk. He had no control of the wheel whatsoever and just round the corner from the bar he had been drinking at, Stuart hadn’t seen a young girl crossing from one side of the road to the other. He drove straight into her and she died instantly. The young girl was fourteen year old, Jenny McMillan, she and her friend were traveling home from the same club as Stuart had been at. Jenny’s friend wasn’t hit by the car. Stuart got out of the car to see if she was alright; the police and ambulance arrived within minutes. Stuart was sentence to five years in prison. Jenny’s parents often write to him in prison, they are church-going Christian people and are very forgiving. They don’t blame Stuart for the accident as Jenny shouldn’t have been out drinking underage anyway. In a way, this made things harder for Stuart, he hadn’t forgiven himself for what he did and don’t think he ever will. Stuart has spent four years in prison and has hardly spoken to or even made eye contact with any other inmates. Stuart’s parents forgave him after the first conviction but thought that would stop him from ever making the same mistake again, as this was such a minor accident, in that no one was hurt and Stuart didn’t have to pay for the damages to the wall or his car as his parents covered all costs. It had no effect on Stuart and he went on to repeat his actions – this time with disastrous consequences. The accident shook Stuart so much, he returned to being very quiet and shy. Up until now, at the counseling session, Stuart has never talked about the accident, apart from in letters to Jenny’s parents.
When playing this character, I sat facing the floor, constantly fiddling with my hands and my knees shaking. This was to show how much of a nervous wreck I had become after the accident. When I spoke to everyone else at the counseling session, I spoke with a stutter and often paused to show that this was the first time I had spoken about the accident in a long while and that I was so ashamed of my actions. I didn’t give anyone eye contact and continued to stare at the floor as I spoke, this showed my insecurity and the fact I was worried about what everyone else would think as I retold my story.
Continuing with the same character, we had to go into a separate room and create a monologue on the spot, talking to a video camera. We had to pretend we could either speak to the person we’ve killed, or their family and tell them how we feel and how sorry we are, if we were sorry for our actions. I decided to do my monologue to Jenny, the girl I accidentally killed. I began very slow as I thought it was strange talking to someone who was dead, similar to talking to a grave stone. I then started to apologise to Jenny and saying how her parents were too forgiving which was making this time even more difficult. I talked about how a five year jail sentence was not enough for what I have done and that I will never forgive myself, not ever.
When I performed this monologue I kept looking at the floor through most of it to show how ashamed I was. I acted similar to when I was in the counseling session, very nervous and shaky.
The fourth objective we had based on our stimulus, ‘Too Much Punch for Judy’ was to create a second version of ‘the crash’ showing symbolically that Judy was responsible for Jo’s death. Ideas our group had were; to revisit Judy and Jo’s past and show lots of scenarios where Judy is to blame for accidents involving Jo, we also thought about using thought tracking to show Jo and Judy’s thoughts about who they thought were to blame for the crash. We wanted to show that Judy was to blame; therefore we had to create a bias performance to make the audience believe Judy was responsible. We decided the best way to do this was to not only show that Judy was to blame for the crash but throughout their childhood; Judy had been responsible for many incidents where Jo was involved. Although Jo is Judy’s older sister, Judy was always more outgoing and rebellious whereas Jo was more quiet as a child.
We began our piece with a flashback to Jo and Judy’s childhood, we set it out like a court room and had two people playing lawyers and the other two playing Jo and Judy. We firstly showed a flashback to Judy push Jo over in the playground, as Jo and Judy froze, the two lawyers asked Judy, ‘was it you that pushed your sister over in the playground?!’ Judy didn’t respond but Jo gave small gestures to show what she was feeling, but couldn’t say, like a nod of the head to show that it was Judy that had pushed her over. We then flashed back to show Judy putting chewing gum in Jo’s hair, Judy and Jo froze again and the two lawyers asked Judy, ‘did you put all of this chewing gum in Joanna’s hair?!’ Judy again says nothing but Jo nods again to show that yes, it was Judy that had put chewing gum in her hair. The next flashback showed Jo and Judy as teenagers, they were both smoking. The two lawyers asked Judy, ‘Do you take full responsibility for starting your sister smoking?’ Judy just turns away but
Jo, now she is older makes more obvious gestures to show it was Judy’s fault. This time Jo said, ‘yeh, Judy told me to try her cigarette’ this shows that Jo is getting more confident as she is getting older. The next flashback we did showed Judy and Jo coming back from a night out, drunk. The two lawyers asked Judy, ‘was it your idea to take Jo out to that wine bar?’ In the early flashbacks, the two lawyers represent Jo and Judy’s mother, Jo was always the favourite child and although Judy was younger, we show that she was blamed for anything wrong that Jo did. This last flashback had great significance as it shows the beginning of Jo and Judy’s heavy drink problem which lead to the drink driving accident that killed Jo. Another reason for Jo not responding much when the lawyers asked Judy whether she was to blame for everything was because, in the play, Jo couldn’t respond to whether she thought the crash was Judy’s fault, she couldn’t give her opinion because she was dead, Judy had killed her. This relates to our final flashback, the crash. We ended this piece by Jo walking off, the lawyers then ask Judy, ‘Do you take full responsibility for driving under the influence of alcohol, resulting in your own sisters death?!’ This is where we ended our performance; all of the build up showed that Judy was responsible for killing Jo. Jo didn’t stay on stage to make any kind of gesture as to whether she thought it was Judy’s fault because this time we’ll never know whose fault Jo thought it was because Judy killed her.
We decided to not use the thought tracking idea as we thought there were better ways to show it was Judy’s fault, I think we used a more symbolic way of portraying the bias performance. The build up of incidents throughout their childhood showing Judy was to blame, I think worked better than if we had shown Jo’s thoughts of who she thought was responsible and I think what we did would have persuaded the audience to think the crash was Judy’s fault.
The drama conventions we used in this piece were; flashbacks, freeze frame and a form of repetition. We used the flashbacks to go to each part of their childhood. This was effective as it built up a background story persuading the audience that Judy was too blame for the crash as she was blamed for all the other incidents in the past, which is what our objective was. We used the freeze frames during each flashback when showing the incidents in the past. This worked well because as the lawyers ask Judy whether or not she was responsible for that particular incident, it gives the audience a chance to take a look at a freeze frame of the things Judy has been blamed for in the past. We used a form of repetition when we had several flashbacks and the lawyers repeatedly asked Judy whether or not the incident was her fault. We altered what the lawyers said to show the change from when they were little to when they were adults. The lawyers acted as Judy and Jo’s parents during the first few flashbacks, but then as the incidents got more serious, the lawyers sounded more serious and for the last flashback, to the crash, it was said as if in a courtroom and Judy was on trial.
The character I played in this piece was one of the lawyers. I asked Judy each time whether she was responsible or whether it was her fault for whatever the incident was. For the first few flashbacks I said it in a motherly like tone, asking, for example, whether it was Judy who put chewing gum in her sister’s hair. As the incidents got more serious I had a more serious tone to my voice and started to sound more and more like a lawyer. For the final flashback, I said it very seriously, to show it was a court room and as if Judy was on trial, ‘Do you take full responsibility for driving under the influence of alcohol, resulting in your own sisters death?!’ As I asked Judy, throughout all of the flashbacks I paced up and down in front of her and Jo to give the impression it was a serious matter at hand and to imply I was the ‘lawyer’ character throughout.
Our final piece of practical work we had to develop was to create an anti-drink driving advert. We wanted to create an advert that would shock the audience and make them think, we wanted to really bring home the message. The ideas our group came up with were to begin with a happy, fun-style advert and then end with a serious message. We wanted to show a big contrast so that the anti drink driving message has a big impact. In ‘Too Much Punch for Judy’ there is a big contrast from the fun, comical beginning of the play to when the crash happens and the emotional aftermath, this really hits the audience hard and we wanted to create something with a similar impact. We wanted to not only give the simple message, ‘don’t drink and drive’, but also inform the audience of some facts and statistics that would back up this message. Another idea we had was to base it around a school day, using the facts and statistics to tell the audience how many lives would be lost in one day due to drink driving. We decided to not used this idea as we thought it wouldn’t have as bigger impact on the audience to have a large contrast in the advert and by introducing the ‘shock factor’.
We began our advert in a ‘50’s American’ style, promoting the benefits of drinking. We said things like, ‘Drinking makes you cool’ and ‘Drinking makes you sophisticated.’ We also had fun music on in the background to enforce the happy atmosphere. This created a fun, relaxed environment which is the complete opposite of the message we were giving, therefore creating a big contrast which will shock the audience. We then went on to show a short story about ‘Jimmy and Sandy’. We showed Jimmy and Sandy drinking very happily and then went on to show Jimmy taking Sandy for a ride in his dad’s new car. As we did this, two people narrated the story while the other two played ‘Jimmy and Sandy’. We all used American accents and exaggerated gestures to make our advert look very ‘cheesy’ and fun to watch. As Jimmy and Sandy were bouncing along in Jimmy’s dad’s car, the narrators said, ‘…and at 12 o’clock, what happened?...Yep! You guessed it…’ This was to imply Jimmy had ‘got lucky’ that night. This is where we suddenly changed. The atmosphere went from fun and happy to deadly serious, the music stopped suddenly to show the abrupt change of mood. We lost the American accents and one of the narrators said, ‘They died’. We then all got into a line and faced the audience. Here is where we gave all of the facts and statistics. We finished our performance stating the message, ‘Don’t drink and drive’.
The conventions we used in this piece were; narration and music. We used narration to tell the story of Jimmy and Sandy; this was effective as it created a light, happy mood that would suddenly change. We continued to use narration after the sudden change of atmosphere; we gave drink driving facts and statistics which backed up our message. We used music throughout the piece until we changed the mood. The music was fun and happy which really enforced the atmosphere we were trying to portray. This was very effective as when we stopped the music suddenly, it explained very clearly to the audience that the advert had become serious, it also helped implement the ‘shock factor’.
The character I played in this play was, a young man drinking at the beginning and also a narrator throughout the piece. For the man at the beginning, I held a very stereotypical stance, drinking beer. I said, ‘Drinking makes you a hit with the ladies!’ in a ‘cheesy’ American accent and used exaggerated movements as I drank my beer. When I narrated the story of ‘Jimmy and Sandy’ I again used a fun American accent which fitted well with the happy mood we were trying to create. When the mood changed, I dropped the accent and gave the facts and statistics about drink driving, looking and speaking very seriously. This showed the large contrast from the beginning of the piece to the end which I think helped get the message across to the audience.
Evaluation
Our first objective was to create a stylised version of ‘the crash’. I think that our group as a whole had some very creative ideas which lead to an all round good piece of drama. We had many ideas as to how to show the crash stylistically and eventually decided to use music to represent the crash. I think was a good way to represent the crash as there was no difficulty involved, on its own the audience wouldn’t have been able to tell what it represented but as we showed the before and aftermath of the crash, it worked well and I think the audience would have understood it. We could have improved our piece by linking the scenes better so the piece flowed more freely. We used a non-linear structure and went from our beginning scene, reading drink driving facts and statistics, to representing the crash by the sudden rush of loud music, to the scene showing Jo and Judy in the wine bar before the crash, to the immediate aftermath of the accident. We cut from one scene to another and used no real way of interchanging between them all. We could have used a convention to use between all of the scenes which would have made the piece flow better. Our group worked well together on this task, we all input our own ideas which lead to a good finished piece of drama. I think we had too many people in our group and we would have worked better if there was a more compact group so everyone can listen to each others ideas. The ideas I had towards this task were; to use drink driving facts and statistics at the beginning of the piece and to use the music to represent the crash. I think the facts and statistics worked well as it set the scene for the scenes to come, it informed the audience of some information about the subject they will be watching. I think using the music to represent the crash was effective because it met the criteria of creating a stylised version of the crash. Showing the before and aftermath of the crash, I think made it easier for the audience to understand what the music symbolised. The music also related back to the text when Duncan approached the car and said that all he could hear was ‘We’ve only just begun’ by the Carpenters blasting out from the car stereo. I think I could have improved my own input to the task by listening more to everyone else’s ideas and building on them.
We used many drama conventions in this piece; crosscutting, music, flashback, symbolism, a tableau and we used a non-linear structure. The crosscutting was effective as it helped show various different people in different alcohol related situations and helped incorporate the drink driving facts and statistics. The music was used to symbolise the actual crash, this worked well as it related back to the text and also the abrupt end to the music symbolised Jo’s sudden death in the accident. The flashbacks were generally effective as they helped show the before and aftermath of the crash simultaneously, therefore highlighting the contrast in the piece. We used symbolism when we used a black sheet to show Jo’s death. I don’t think this was very effective as the audience might not have understood its reference and there was no need for it as Jo’s death was apparent by what Judy was shouting and screaming. The freeze frame was used to show everyone’s reactions to the crash, it was effective as it symbolised the family’s reaction to the accident. It also helped show what the music represented, when the music ended suddenly, we all held the freeze frame of people in shock and despair, looking onto the crash. We used a non-linear structure in this piece to enforce the contrast between different scenes; we went from the scene before the accident, in the wine bar, to the scene showing the immediate aftermath of the accident. I think we could have used symbolism more effectively by using it in a different scene. We could have incorporated the symbolism used in the play showing Judy and Jo playing in a shopping trolley, Jo then fell out which represented the whole crash and then Jo dieing. We used a black mat in our piece to symbolise Jo dieing, I felt wasn’t essential as that it was explained through other means.
In this piece I played Duncan and also a person in a freeze frame, reacting to the crash. When playing Duncan I used a both worried and shocked voice to show how shaken he would have been when looking out onto the crash and realising it was up to him to go out and assist to Jo and Judy. I think I could have demonstrated the character more effectively by using more emotion in my voice and actions, Duncan went out to a wrecked car, inside had a dead woman and her distressed sister so he would have been in more despair and shock. I should have perhaps used physical gestures to reflect the situation Duncan had been put into e.g. pulling at my hair or putting my hands over my face as well as using more emotion in my voice when reminiscing on the night of the accident.
If we had unlimited time to improve this scene I would have used different lighting to reflect the mood of each scene, for example the wine bar scene would be very bright to show how happy everyone was feeling and the aftermath of the crash scene would be darker to show how the crash happened a night and also to represent the feeling of grief and despair. I would have also used music from the same era as the play if not the song mentioned in the play, ‘We’ve only just begun’ by the Carpenters, as this would have had more depth and meaning to the piece as it enforces the fact the play is based on a true story.
Our second task was to devise an abstract interpretation of a nightmare. We had many ideas of what to show in this nightmare and decided we should make it look very surreal. We wanted to incorporate many of the conventions we had been looking at in the beginning of that lesson: vocal collage, repetition, playing with size and fast motion. Using all of these would make our piece look very surreal which is what a nightmare usually is. We also wanted to use text from the script as dreams and nightmares tend to be based upon things that happen in real life. We decided to show the nightmare by having lots of Jo’s and one Judy. We used several lines from the text from the night of the crash and used repetition when all the different Jo’s said these lines to Judy. We also showed the many Jo’s circling Judy at her desk saying things like, ‘Look what you’ve done to my face!’ We built up a vocal collage which really gave an eerie feel. We also repeated the section based on the crash scene but changed the details so that nobody ended up driving and no one died, this introduced a ‘fantasy’ element which occurs in dreams and nightmares. I think our ideas were effective as they gave the piece an eerie, nightmarish feel and made it look very surreal. We could improve on our ideas by developing the conventions more, including more of the vocal collage and repetition in the piece because this makes it look very surreal and also represents the thoughts of Judy going round and round in her head about the night of the crash. Our group worked well together on this task, we put all of our ideas together and, I think, achieved our objective by creating an abstract interpretation of Judy’s nightmare. The idea I contributed to this piece was to repeat the beginning scene relating back to the night of the crash but this time with details changed so that no one drove home and no one died. This was effective because it brought the fantasy element of dreams and nightmares in, what you most would have liked to have happened. It also represented how Judy must feel everyday, how she must wander, ‘what if things were different? What if we didn’t try and drive home?’ and how those thoughts might enter her dreams. I could have improved my own input to this task by developing my own ideas more, I would have liked to have played with size in this piece, which would have added to the surreal effect we created.
The conventions we used in this piece were; repetition, flashback, thought tracking, fast motion, vocal collage and fantasy. The repetition was used a lot throughout the piece, I think it worked very well as it represented the reoccurring thought that Judy must have about the accident. The flashback showed the night of the crash, this worked well as it is what the nightmare was all about. The crash is what caused Judy to have nightmares in the first place. We used the thought tracking when the ‘Jo’s’ were circling Judy to show what Judy had dreamt Jo would have said, if she was alive. This worked well as it gave us a chance to incorporate a vocal collage into the piece. The vocal collage worked very well as it really brought an eerie, nightmarish feel to the whole piece. The fast motion was used when we used the vocal collage, everything everyone was saying gradually got faster and faster and louder and louder, this showed how the thoughts are rushing round and round in Judy’s head. The fantasy was included at the end of the piece to show a ‘what if’ scenario, it was successful as it showed how Judy sometimes thought how things might have turned up if things were different. We could have included somewhere in our piece, playing with size. This would have enforced the surreal aspect of our performance. We could have used it to show the excessive amounts of alcohol Jo and Judy had consumed that night.
The part I played in this piece was one of the many Jo’s. In the flashback to the crash, I played it very drunk and angry to show Jo had just been in and argument with her sister. When we circled Judy saying things like, ‘You’ve killed me!’ I said it very aggressively, which is how Judy would have dreamt Jo would react. I could have demonstrated the character more effectively by using more physical actions. When circling Judy I could have used my arms to express my anger as well as my voice. If we had unlimited time on this piece I would have like to include some eerie but dramatic music to suit the mood of the piece and make it even more like a nightmare. I would also use dim lighting to have a frightening effect on our performance.
The third task we were asked to do was to create a detailed character for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and devise a monologue. The ideas I had for this piece was to make my character a very nervous and shaky person, someone who’s personality didn’t really belong in prison but his past and the crowd her had gotten into, had landed him there. I needed to create a good background story to back up this character and to give him reasons for his timid behaviour in prison but to also give him reason for being in prison. All of our characters had to have been imprisoned for an alcohol-related crime. We sat in a circle as a class with everybody in character, the teachers played counsellors and everyone else was a prison inmate. I think my ideas for this character were good because it gave me a chance to act as a different kind of person, in the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and to explore different acting techniques to portray this character. I could improve on my ideas for this character by giving him a more detailed personality review rather than just talking about his past. I could have gone into more detail about what kind of character he is; happy, sad, outgoing, timid etc. I worked very hard on this task and prepared what I was going to do for the AA meeting before I went in. When I was in the meeting, I sat facing the floor with my knees shaking rapidly. This was to show how nervous I was about talking about the incident which had landed me in prison. When I spoke, I spoke with a stutter and with a fairly quiet and timid voice, I kept stopping to take deep breaths and as I spoke continued to stare at the floor and gave nobody eye contact. I could have improved performing this character by using more depth and emotion in my voice especially when recalling the time of the accident.
We also had to go into another room and record a monologue to the person we have killed or their families to apologise and share our feelings with them. My monologue was to Jenny, the 14 year old girl my character killed. I spoke about how sorry I was for everything, how the punishment I received is not enough and that no one could ever know how regretful, guilty and ashamed I was feeling. I spoke again, with a stutter, slowly and very shyly. I could have improved my monologue by going into more detail about the night of the accident which would have given the audience more information about why I was in prison. If I had unlimited time, I would have prepared the monologue to Jenny rather than make it up on the spot, I would have spent more time developing it into a good piece of writing and went into more detail about the night of the accident.
The fourth task we were asked to do was to create a second version of the crash, showing symbolically that Judy was responsible for Jo’s death. We decided to show this by revisiting Jo and Judy’s past to show that there was many previous incidents involving Jo that Judy was responsible for. We set our piece out like a courtroom; we had two lawyers and then Jo and Judy. We started with a flashback showing Judy pushing Jo over and the lawyers asked, ‘was it you that pushed your sister over in the playground?!’ We repeated this same layout for four other flashbacks; Judy putting chewing gum in Jo’s hair, Judy starting Jo smoking, Judy bringing Jo back very drunk from the wine bar and most importantly the crash. I think our ideas about showing that Judy was responsible were very effective, I think showing flashbacks to Jo and Judy’s past builds up to the final flashback of the crash and persuades the audience that Judy was to blame because of all the other incidents in the past that Judy was responsible for. I think we could have improved on our ideas by flowing from one flashback to another with ease; there was a sort of stop and start as we ended one flashback and moved onto another. Our group worked very well together on this task, we sat down and discussed our ideas and then got to work developing them straight away. Ideas I contributed to this piece was to have all the flashbacks with the two lawyers, asking Judy whether she was responsible for whatever the incident was. I think this worked well as it linked them all to the main incident, the crash.
The conventions we used in this piece were; flashbacks, freeze frame and a form of repetition. We used the flashbacks throughout to show how Judy had been responsible for many things in the past. This was very effective as I thought it showed symbolically that Judy was responsible for Jo’s death, shown by the build up of incidents she was to blame for in the past. We used the freeze frames in each flashback, as the lawyers asked Judy whether she was responsible for whatever the incident was, the scene is frozen in the background. This worked well as it gives the audience a chance to look at the scene behind whilst hearing what Judy is being accused of. We used a form of repetition by using lots of flashbacks with the same layout, the lawyers asking Judy each time. I think we could have added more conventions to our piece to improve it, I think we could have used symbolism at the end of our piece to show that Judy was to blame for Jo’s death, which I think would wrap it up very well.
In this piece of drama, I played one of the lawyers who questioned Judy in each flashback. For the first few flashbacks I said it in a motherly like tone, asking, for example, whether it was Judy who pushed Jo over in the playground. As the incidents got more serious I had a more serious tone to my voice and started to sound more and more like a lawyer. For the final flashback, I said it very seriously, to show it was a court room and as if Judy was on trial, ‘Do you take full responsibility for driving under the influence of alcohol, resulting in your own sisters death?!’ As I asked Judy, throughout all of the flashbacks I paced up and down in front of her and Jo to give the impression it was a serious matter at hand and to imply I was the ‘lawyer’ character throughout. I could have demonstrated this character more effectively by adding more of a physical side to the performance, as well as pacing up and down I could have spoken with my hands or occasionally stopped in front of Judy to question her, this would have added to the ‘lawyer’ type character I was trying to achieve. If we had unlimited time to do this piece, I would have worked more on developing and lengthening each flashback as well as work on piecing the whole performance together to make it flow more and generally look like an all round better quality piece of drama.
The final task we were asked to do was to create an anti drink driving advert. Our group came up with several ideas as to how to go about this and decided we wanted to create an advert that has a big impact on the audience, which will get the message across. We wanted to have a large contrast from the beginning of the advert, to the end. We decided we would start off with a fun, happy advert then suddenly change to give the serious message. To begin our advert we talked about the benefits of drinking, how it makes you happy and confident. We used cheesy music in the background and spoke with happy American accents, all of which created a cheery atmosphere. We then told the story of ‘Jimmy and Sandy’ who had been drinking and then went for a ride in his dad’s new car. We finished the story by all turning serious and saying how they died. We then gave some facts and statistics about drink driving at the end. I think this was a good idea for the advert because the bigger the contrast, the bigger the impact and the more likely it is for the message to get across. I think we could have improved our ideas by using the facts and statistics throughout the piece, not just at the end. That way I think it will inform the audience more of what the advert is about as well as educate them of more details about drink driving. Our group worked very well together on this task, we all worked off each others ideas and we were all happy with the finished performance. The idea I contributed to this piece was to include a big contrast from the beginning to the end, making a big impact. I think this was very effective as it took the audience by surprise and really brought home the message. I could have improved my own input to this task by putting more ideas forward and suggesting other ways to improve our piece.
We only used two conventions in this piece; music and narration. We used the music throughout the beginning to enforce the happy mood. This worked well as it built it up for a big contrast; we stopped the music very abruptly which showed the audience the advert had now become serious. We used narration throughout the whole piece, we narrated the short story of Jimmy and Sandy and also went on to say seriously, that they died and gave the figures of people who die from drink driving every day. I think using no conventions e.g. freeze frames and flashbacks, in our piece worked well as it kept it simple which meant the audience could absorb the message easier.
The characters I played in this advert were, a young man drinking at the beginning and also a narrator throughout the piece. For the man at the beginning, I held a very stereotypical stance, drinking beer; I spoke in a ‘cheesy’ American accent and used exaggerated movements as I drank my beer. When I narrated the story of ‘Jimmy and Sandy’ I again used a fun American accent and when the mood changed, I dropped the accent and gave the facts and statistics about drink driving, looking and speaking very seriously. If we would have had unlimited time for this piece I would have used lighting to match the atmosphere in the scene at the time and also use props to make the scene at the beginning more stereotypically ‘cheesy’ and create a bigger contrast to the end of the piece.