Ash played his fiancée. She was very loud and bubbly, and her permanent grin and large gestures showed this very well. She had no peculiar characteristics, but she moved in a way which showed that she really loved her fiancé. As they were in a fancy restaurant she would have been wearing a simple, but pretty dress.
Josh played a football star that had made it in America and who had just featured on a TV programme over there. He wore a designer tracksuit as he was sporty and doing well. He also interestingly had a spring in his step and when he got excited he bounced on the heels of his feet. This showed us that he was an active and excitable person.
I played the aeroplane pilot whose plane crash had caused the death of many people including mine. She was a woman of little words, who had trouble with connecting to people. However, she was strong in her purpose, and she could not rest until she had told the man she was sorry to have caused the death of his loved ones. I played this ghostly and somewhat fearsome character by moving slowly but intently, making it look like I had a firm purpose in mind to convey the characters urgency, yet at the same time not to warp the characters’ avoidance of people. To emphasise this avoidance I also made the character not speak a lot, and when I did speak I made sure the words sounded raw and rusty, as if the person wasn’t used to speaking. This also made the character seem less human and more ghostly, as the characters body language was at first weird and intimidating.
The explorative strategies we were required to use as part of the workshop were cross-cutting and still image. We also chose to use thought tracking. We used thought tracking to explain and narrate the man’s complex feelings in the park so the audience would understand and relate to the pain the man was going through. My making him voice his panic and reveal his inner fears made the piece achieve its purpose and scare and worry the audience, whereas if he was in silence it wouldn’t have been as clear, scary or as interesting. Cross cutting helped us convey to the audience that the last instances he saw his loved ones were warm times that suggested a long bond of friendship, and helped us do this quickly, concisely and effectively. It helped the scene dramatically by giving the man a back story so the audience would me more concerned in his plight. We used still image at the beginning and end of each cross cut to make the cross cuts more precise and so it seemed like a snippet of a memory where it was frozen, and how there would have been more to come, but the mysterious park had confused and jumbled them all into one. It helped the scene dramatically by allowing the audience the audience see the relationships between the characters.
The elements of drama we used were contrasts and climax/anti-climax. We used contrasts in the scene by making the park seem spooky and lonely, whereas in his memories they were warm and with his friends. It helped by making the story richer, and made each moment of happiness and despair stand out from each other. So therefore it made it bigger and more dramatic. We used climax/anti climax throughout the scene. In each memory the tension that was built up was released when he realised the turn of events were happy and so the suspense was lost in an anti climax. However, at the end, the suspense was built up by making the ghost of the pilot walk slowly whilst looking long and hard into the man’s eyes. Each step built up more and more tension until the man shook the ghost. This was the climax of the scene and made it more effective as it surprised the audience after all the tension that was built up. It helped our scene as it made it more exciting to watch.
We used the drama mediums of movement, mime and gesture and of space and levels. We used mime to convey the newspaper holding the deaths of all his loved ones. We did this by gestures such as unfolding the newspaper and flicking through the pages and looking like it was being read. We did this to maintain the silence, yet still make our actions clear. We used space and levels to express the relationships between the characters. When the man was with his friends he was at the same levels as them to convey a sense of friendship and equality in status. The space between the ghost of the pilot and the man was a lot at first, which symbolised how they had no relation to each other. But as the ghost moved closer towards the man it symbolised how his confession would bring him closer to the man.
When creating the scene we wanted our audience to feel concerned and scared by feeling compassion for the man and so they would be anxious for him.
The atmosphere we created was a misty park where he had lost his only companion in the park. The sense of desertion made the atmosphere cold and mysterious which helped the audience to feel scared and concern. We did this by acting out walking in the mist, and the haunting whistle that pierced their ears at vital moments to make it more and more mysterious and terrifying.
My understanding of the text has been developed through the use of explorative strategies, drama mediums and elements of drama. By characterisation (element of drama) I have learnt how it felt for Mr Kipps in the text where he is lost and is desperately clinging on to Spider, his only remaining companion in the misty moors. Thought tracking (explorative strategy) has helped me understand the different moments in the text and how his fear could have been heightened at certain points; this made me understand his different actions and how his desperation increased throughout the text. The use of voice (drama medium) has helped me understand the text by knowing that the whistle could have been interpreted in so many different ways. It could have been a sign of hope or of despair which lead him to chase after Spider.
By using these strategies, elements and mediums my understanding of drama has improved. I have learnt that plot and content of the story can be developed and improved by using them. For example the element of drama: characterisation has made me understand how to develop a character and how it has helped developing my comprehension of acting in doing so. Drama mediums have also improved my understanding. I never understood the use of sound/music and now I have come to realise it can emphasise and collaborate with a scene to improve and compliment the actions on stage instead of distracting them from it. An explorative strategy such as cross-cutting has helped me understand the variety and depth that can be included in a scene. In conclusion these strategies, elements and mediums have greatly developed my understanding of drama.
