Performance review.

On the 1st of December 2009 creative media diploma students performed the performance: spotlight.

During and when preparing for the performance “spotlight” I had the role of set design. Set design involves creating the scenery that would be seen during the performance. I feel that I performed my role to the best of my abilities. For set design I had to design scenery, this required precision as I was required to carefully trim pieces of paper so that only the scenery was visible after it was stuck together and hung up on the black boards. The software I used is called Raster Bator; it allows the user to enlarge images to that they can be printed onto multiple pieces of paper. In addition to this I also had to do photography, this involved taking photos of things that were happening so that they could be documented, however I was unable to do this because I was too busy creating things for set design. Whilst doing set design I also managed to cover: 3D visual art, 2D visual art, and craft.

My strength in all of this was my ability to use the software: rasterbator to enlarge images into pieces of scenery; however my weakness was that I had a lot of work to do on rasterbator. I could have been a bit faster with my time keeping and blogging and that is one of the things I would change if I could do it again.

During the actual performance I had to move the microphones, this ensured that the dancers would be safe during their act and that they would not trip over any wires. The performance went well, all of the performers knew when to come onto the stage and they did so professionally. Everything about it was professional the singing was rehearsed brilliantly and everyone continued to show this professionalism during the fashion show part of Spotlight, which had barely been rehearsed in comparison to the talent show.

In conclusion the preparation and actual performance went great and it would be fun if we had the opportunity to do it again.

Ancient Greek theatre.

Today we have learnt alot about ancient Greek theatres.
Ancient Greek theatres, or amphitheatres, originated between 550 - 220 BC. Performances were divided into 3 different genres; tragedy, comedy, and satyr.
Theatres were designed to hold a chorus of up to 50 people and an audience of about 14,000. In 465 BC theatres began using backdrops and scenic walls which were hung up for scenery, cranes were used to simulate flight and trap doors for lifting up actors. Wheeled wagons were also used to position dead bodies.
There were rarely more than 3 actors and these were all male. Becauses of shortages they had to play multiple roles. They wore padded clothing in order to appear larger.
There are many similarities between theatres then and now such as they are both round so that sound can spread, and today many are still designed to hold massive amounts.

Journal

9/10/09 - Today I comlpeted my 'Musical poster collage' an uploaded it onto blogger.

15/10/09 - Today we began research for a presentation. I researched the 1940's and discoveres that Rogers and Hammerstein created a string of popular broadway musicals.

21/10/09 - Today I contributed to our groups presentation by researching information and sending to the others for use in the presentation. this useful information was easy to find as I used sites such as musicals 101 and wikipedia.

11/11/09 - Today I created a powerpoint describing my roles in set design and photography in preperation for the performance on the 1st of December.

13/11/09 - Today I finished up the powerpoint on my roles.

18/11/09 - Today I performed a test for images using a piece of software called rasterbator. These images are to be used a scenery during the performance.

19/11/09 - Today I created a piece of scenery for the performance and found images for other
pieces of scenery.

21/11/09 - Today I drew a casset player for a prop in the performance.

25/11/09 - Today I made more scenery using rasterbator, I feel that it has turned out well.

26/11/09 - full day - Today we had all day to work towards the performance. I worked on alot of scenery and the casset player, which we had to start again and paint.

27/11/09 - Today me and Michael finished the casset player and I finished the last of the scenery. With just a few days left I am looking forward to having everything finished.

1/12/09 - Today we all had some time to make the last preperations, we stuck the scenery up on the black boards and gave the casset player some card to stand up on.

1/12/09 - During the performance I Took some photos of what was happening on stage and changed some scenery .

Musical posters collage.

This is my musical poster collage. I started by searching ' Musical posters' I then compiled them together using microsoft powerpoint. I chose these musicals because they are well known and because of this I chose to use them so I could familarise myself with them and easily identify the posters.

Unit 2 Performance

2.1 To understand the development of a musical from the 1920's to the present day.

So far in this section of work we have researched the history of musicals since the 1920's. We also created a collage out of posters for many different musicals. Then we watched a performance called "Dancing in the streets", after this I wrote a review to practice our review writing skills.

A review of Dancing in the streets.

Dancing in the streets is a performance based on the mo-town era. It could be considered a tribute to the great artists of this time. Singers sung songs produced by various artists such as; the Supremes, Stevie wonder, Diana Ross and more. When ever a song by an artist was played during the performance a narrator gave background information into the artist, any one who wants to learn more about artists from the mo-town era should consider this performance.

Many different effects are utilised on stage; machines such as the smoke machine, spotlights, and other stage lights to create a mood. To give more effect to the songs, a band was performing in the unlit areas of the stage. Large images of buildings and artists were placed in the back ground and lights were shone on to them at certain times to create an effect.

In conclusion I found the performance to have a slight educational value, however it is a must see for anyone who loves the music of the mo-town era. With brilliant costumes, special effects and professional acting I give this performance 6/10.

Unit 2.1: To understand the develpment of musicals over a specified period of time

For this unit i will be reseaching the musical and how it has developed since the 1920's and present day. I have begun my reseach by going onto http://www.google.co.uk/ and typed in musicals since 1920's and clicked the wikipedia one and it gave me all the infomation i wanted about musicals since 1920 to the present day included the famous ones such as "High School Musical" in present day and the very first musical in the 1920's was called "A Dangerous Maid"High School Musical was produced on stage in 2006 and was put on to screen in 2006 as well also was directed by Kenny Ortega.Grease was produced on screen in 1978 and was directed by Randal Kleiser.