Evaluate Brian Clark's play "Whose Life Is It Anyway?"
The aim of this assignment is to evaluate Brian Clark's play "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" and to form an opinion on how the author keeps attention of the audience throughout the play. For this purpose, the research has been carried out through detailed analysis of the play, as well as through the study and evaluation of materials presented in books and websites, so as to determine the devices and structures used by the playwright to engage and sustain the interest of the audience. "Whose Life is it Anyway" by Brian Clark, is a play about Ken Harrison, a professional sculptor and teacher, whose spinal cord has been damaged by a car accident. Ken is paralysed by the neck down and is being kept alive only by the miracles of medical technology. However, Ken does not want to be kept alive and this provides the core of the play which is centred around the changed life of Ken Harrison, his determination to decide his own fate, and the determination of those who care for him to keep him alive. The play takes up six months after the accident, as Ken is starting to realise the full extent of his injuries. The problem is that he has not been told exactly what his life will be like. He has to ask the doctors, who scarcely tell him, that he will need to be in the care of a hospital for the rest of his life. Ken is determined to exercise a choice over his own life or death, but his decision
How does Peter Medak gain the viewers sympathy for Derek Bentley in the film "Let him have it"
How does Peter Medak gain the viewers sympathy for Derek Bentley in the film "Let him have it" This is a story that follows the life of an epileptic boy called Derek Bentley. The story shows how quickly a normal boy's life can turn upside down. Derek arrives home from an approved school and doesn't step out of his doorstep for a whole year. Derek is later led by Christopher Craig and his make-believe gangsters to go around and cause trouble. This later results in crime and Bentley is given the death penalty in court for 'apparently' being party to a murder but it was a huge injustice. After the trial Peter Medak, the producer tries to make the audience feel sympathetic towards Derek and his life in prison and his family waiting for his execution. Derek's sister Iris still battles on for justice and recently Bentley was pardoned. As the film is based on a true story, Medak might have been affected by the injustice and one day maybe thought to make this film in Derek's name. Derek's childhood is the most sympathetic part of the film, this is because it shows how he struggled with the trauma of having epilepsy throughout his life. In 1941 Derek's home is bombed and he is buried in the rubble from the the explosion he begins to throw a fit. Derek is not a leader he is led by others. Medak shows his lack of leadership skills in the part where Derek follows his friends to
Our aim was to create a character driven piece of drama, lasting approximately 25 minutes, using realistic situations with moments of abstraction to create a situation controlled by temptation
Initial ideas The idea of temptation was the initial inspiration for this piece of devised drama. The group took this idea from various pieces of drama that we have encountered during our AS course. Going to see 'A Dealer's Choice' allowed me to see that temptation can often cause major disruption between a group of people. As our piece was going to be very much character based, we thought that by incorporating temptation as a major theme it would allow us to show tensions between characters. Temptation being the power to seduce a person to do something they would normally not do, and diverting from universal obedience. Over the AS course we have studied 'Yerma' by Garcia Lorca and this was also an inspiration for the initial theme of temptation. In this play the character of Yerma longs for a child and yet her husband does not want to have one. Victor, a strong and handsome male character represents the temptation in Yerma's life to get what she wants. Yerma is in love with Victor and dreams of him with her child, yet this temptation to be with him is never visited because of the boundaries created by the world that she lives in. In our piece however, we wanted to create the temptation and then show how each character would approach it. One of the members of the group came up with the idea of showing the temptation through the use of an unopened box. The rest of
In what ways was the stimulus material developed through the drama process?
In what ways was the stimulus material developed through the drama process? Our stimulus derived from a newspaper article brought in by a member of my peer group, the article was in relation to a young girl 'Ainlee Walker' being abused by both her parents 'Leanne Labonte' and 'Dennis Henry'. Due to the unremitting abuse the child died at the young age of six. The editorial was deplorable and touched us all deeply leading to us using it as a supporting stimulus. We engaged out thoughts on this article and brainstormed ways in which we could portray this through drama. We began with the idea of an estate agent showing a couple through the house in which the abuse took place, and each room the agent took the couple into, for example the bedroom, we would see the abuse that took place in that room re-occurring. We also thought of using the nursery rhyme "Hush little baby don't say a word" as a mode to convey the repulsion of the whole situation. We tried this suggestion out but found it extremely hard to perform due to the structure of the house being indistinguishable and we also found it hard to convey what part of the house we were in, due to the difficulty in portraying this idea to the audience we moved on to look at other prospects for our piece. In the midst of further research on the Internet, we came across various true-life anecdotes from the official
Directing Act Three Scene 1 of Midsummer's Nights Dreams.
Act Three Scene 1 The plot of this scene has a lot of potential for creative directing. The surreal and chaotic world of the fairies when contrasted with the foolish world of the mechanicals appears almost orderly. The setting of this scene also displays this ironic gradient as the men physically step almost into the world of the fairies. The beginning of this scene is as the mechanicals all gather in the forest to rehearse. Titania, the fairy queen is sleeping close by. I would have a dark stage with low orange light on the area where the men gather. Titania lying at the side of the stage would be separated by darkness with a forest green light, perhaps with filters with a foliage effect cast over her. The orange would clash with the green. This would indicate trouble arising. The conversations between the mechanicals would be spoken over- dramatically. Such as: Bottom There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself, [here all the actors must be shocked and taken aback] which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that? [Mechanicals must appear to be puzzled - stupidly] Bottom takes over the role of director and struts about the stage slightly exasperated, as he bosses the other actors about. Humour and the foolishness of the characters is enhanced by the disorganised way in which they
Goldeneye: how does the pre-credit sequence keep us watching?
The film Golden Eye (1995) is a well known film. Martin Campbell, the director uses many techniques such as death defying stunts, villains, attractive Bond girls, exotic locations, and sarcastic humour to create an exciting action film. Even though the audience all know that MI6's finest agent James Bond will escape near death, save the day and bed the girl, we all return to watch the next mission. Goldeneye fulfils all of the audience's expectations by exploring all the music, camera angles and shots that Campbell uses I intend to show that Goldeneye is one of the most exciting Bond films available. At the start of the film, the audience sees a black screen with white spotlights coming from the left hand side. The spotlights are in the middle of the screen, then leaving the at the right hand side. Bond walks into the gun barrel and faces the camera and shoots his gun. It has a white and black back ground until he shoots his gun when it becomes red. This creates the illusion of blood falling down the screen. The barrel shakes from side to side before the whole image becomes one whole searchlight. The searchlight goes into the bottom left hand corner. This makes it look like the light is becoming the plane. You know this because it makes the sound of a plane. The plane then returns into the middle of the screen. Martin Campbell keeps the audience watching by inventing new
How does the director build suspense and scare the audience in the film jaws
How does the director build suspense and scare the audience in the film jaws The film is called "Jaws", which is about a very large shark, that's attacking people in the town of Amity. The film is set in 1975 and is building up to the 4th of July, Independence Day in America. With Amity being a seaside town with a large beach and it coming up to Independence Day, it is going to be more heavily populated for the holidays, which is good news for a hungry shark. I think Spielberg uses music very well to build suspense in this film, the theme music is very good because the pace can be sped up or slowed down to give the desired effect . In the opening sequence music is used to build suspense the theme music starts off slowly and you don't even see the shark, but the music immediately makes you think the shark is there and about to attack. Then the music gets faster and faster and it makes you almost certain you are going to see something like an attack or even a glimpse of the shark. It really builds tension, but, then there is a jump shot to a party on the beach where you can hear a mouth organ being played, this makes the audience feel more relaxed after expecting to see a shark attack. There is also a bonfire on the beach which together with the mouth organ creates a scene where people are really happy and enjoying themselves. The next scene is a girl swimming in the sea and
The sixth sense review
The sixth sense review 05 minutes Certificate 12 Director: M. Night Shyamalan Rating: Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment are just a few of the names in this clever and unsettling super natural thriller. M. Night Shyamalans' (signs, unbreakable and the village) latest masterpiece uses clever symbols and imagery to make the ultimate super natural thriller. We meet Cole in his home in modern day Philadelphia filled with a red brick past and dieing autumn leaves. Things from the beginning are clearly not right; Cole has no friends and suffers from panic attacks. The film makes several references to religion although more as something of safety than a faith. His mother is desperately worried and frustrated, you genuinely feel her and her son's love for one another but also the tension caused by lies. It is up to Dr Crow (Bruce Willis- in a predictable but still interesting character) to sort him out. Crow is haunted by memories of the past and a more recent encounter with a former patient that seems to have ended his marriage. Crow has to look deeper than his more usual cases and see what is really there. As the film goes on Dr Crow and Cole grow to trust each other until after a frightening encounter at chucky cheese he learns Cole's secret. The grey air of a hospital ward is filled by the frightened child's steamy breath as he utters the now clichéd words -'I see dead
Explore how the elements of the horrorgenre are shaped to make the opening extract grip and scare the audience
Explore how the elements of the horror genre are shaped to make the opening extract grip and scare the audience Horror films are made to grip and scare the audience in many different ways in the opening extract. I am going to be using two examples of classic horror movies and how they have scared their audiences. My first example of a horror movie is a film called 'I know what you did last summer' it was released in 1998. It starts with two couples talking about a rumour but they begin to argue about the rumours being true, that they actually happened. This makes the audience feel uncomfortable, they believe whatever happens in the so-called rumours could happen to them. They begin to talk about the gruesome ways in which people are killed after having sex, dieing after having sex in horror films is a typical convention. At this point mysterious and creepy music starts, which make the atmosphere very tense making the audience feel like something is going to happen. Therefore this grips the audience, as they know that something is going to happen but do not know exactly when it is going to happen. Each couple then has sex, breaking all of the rules of horror films, and it seems a stupid thing to do after they were all talking about horror stories and what happens after having sex. Even though the audience feel very tense and worry because something might happen to them,
Does Clark present arguments for and against 'assisted suicide' without prejudicing the audience in 'Whose Life Is It Anyway?'
Does Clark present arguments for and against 'assisted suicide' without prejudicing the audience in 'Whose Life Is It Anyway?' The play 'Whose Life is it Anyway' is about a man called Ken and his struggle for the right to decide his own future, after a tragic car accident leaves him paralysed from the neck down. This play was written in the 1970's, and the audiences of then and today are completely different. I can imagine the audience being extremely shocked by the topic of the play, when first watching it in the 70's, because euthanasia was not discussed openly in those times, and the fact that Ken wins his case must have been upsetting for some. However modern thoughts on euthanasia are not so discreet. For example, over the last year, there have been about three cases where people have gone to the high courts to fight for the right to die! People are more aware of their rights, the Patients Charter. So most of the modern audience are not shocked by the topic or the outcome of the play. The language was quite strong in parts of the play, and the audience of the 70's might have felt uncomfortable, also with the sexual content, for instance Ken says, "From where I'm lying, if you can make it at all - even with your right hand - it would be heaven." Whereas nearly every film released today contains swearing or sexual content! Brian Clark wanted to show the audience