Original Mockumentary
John wright
In this session, we looked at the methods of John Wright that we can use to make the mockumentary more comedic; states of tension, finding the game, clocking the audience, the drop and the double clocking.
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During the workshop, one of John Wrights methods that we practiced was the drop, where you abrupt abandonment of everything about in the scene, which draws attention to you. In partners, we had to improvise a scene where we would teach one of our partners something such as a dance and eventually get stressed when the other partner began to not listen. This would therefore create the drop and one of us would stop what we were doing by looking at the audience whilst sighing. After we practiced this method, we then went through our scripts and noted down where we can add the drop.
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During the workshop, one of John Wrights methods that we practiced was the drop, where you abrupt abandonment of everything about in the scene, which draws attention to you. In partners, we had to improvise a scene where we would teach one of our partners something such as a dance and eventually get stressed when the other partner began to not listen. This would therefore create the drop and one of us would stop what we were doing by looking at the audience whilst sighing. After we practiced this method, we then went through our scripts and noted down where we can add the drop.
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For example, whilst looking through the hip hop script for John Wrights methods, I suggested that we should add our own clocks into the script where we feel it is right for our character. For instance, when my character felt ashamed and embarrassed, she would side eye the camera a lot which was not written in the script but I added it for myself to bring in the audience and share how I was feeling.
This was a successful task for our miniseries because putting in clocks where we felt was needed, enabled us to get the audience's attention so that they were curious about what would happen next, but to also allow them to experience with us how we were also feeling, intensifying the scene, and making it more interesting.
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However, in the collaborative task, I found that when we were going through the script to add clocks and double takes, it was very time consuming again. Moving forward, I feel that we should just look at our own individual characters and add the clocks for their characters rather than going through everybody's character.
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Props and Costumes
In this session we looked at the props and costumes needed for each episode in our mockumentary.
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In order to complete this, we had to look at each individual character in the scripts and make a list of costumes and props that they needed. Moreover, we also looked further into the other requirements needed in the scenes, such as cars, bicycles and buses that may be needed on set. Once we found these in the script, we noted them down on an excel sheet.
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I worked collaboratively with others during this task by helping people produce ideas, whilst also sharing my own ideas with creating a costume and prop list for the characters and trying to produce something different that could make the characters more interesting by suggesting making a certain costume more colorful or dirtier.
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For example, In the hip hop group, I recommended that Leah and Abi’s costumes should be very ruffed up with a lot of holes because in the script I know that they are very unfortunate and grew up in a unwealthy environment, which therefore lead to performance development for our episode.
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This was a successful task for our mini-series because it allowed all the characters to show their different personalities and highlight the person they are, making them stand out from each other through costumes. As a result, it helped point out a character's social status but also talked more about the character's story.
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However, in this collaborative task, I found that when we were creating the costume and prop list, it was very time consuming as were all going through the script at the same time which made the process much slower, nevertheless in the future I am going to suggest that we split the scenes up so that each person has a different scene to cover and can make the process a lot more quicker.
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Textual Analysis, bit, beats, units and actions
In this session, we looked at the Bits, Beats and Actions analysis for our scripts.
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In order to find the bits, beats, and actions in our hip hop script, we had to read through our script and draw a line under the word where there is a change of thought (the beat) and write what your character is thinking under the line (the action). This helps the character understand why they are saying certain things and gives them a purpose for their actions.
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I have been working collaboratively with others during this task by helping people find the beats and actions in their script as well as finding them in our group script too. Working together to find the beats and actions in our scripts helped us to understand our characters better and the relationships between each of them.
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For example, in the Hip Hop group, for my character Leah, I suggested that her relationship with Abi is meaningful because when I went through the script to bit it, in the beginning scene, Leah is extremely interested in what Abi wants to tell her and shows that she cares for her, but when Abi tells her it is a dance competition she refuses, which is a thought change because she went from being interested to pushing her idea away, however in the end she does do the dance competition with Abi because she cares for her.
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On the other hand, in this collaborative task, I found that it was also very time consuming going through the whole script to bit and action all the characters lines, however, in the future, I feel that we should just focus on our own characters lines and bit and action their lines, rather than everybody else's.
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Character analysis- Uta Hagen
In this session we focused on the knowledge of our characters backstory using Uta Hagens 9 questions and creating character profiles.
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In order to complete this, we had to embody our characters and answer all nine of Uta Hagens questions in the way our character would do. Answering Uta Hagens questions allowed myself to gain a lot more knowledge on Leahs backstory such as, what do I want, what's in my way, where am I etc.; As a result of finding this out, I was able to know my character's motivations, fears, and flaws more in depth so that my performance can become stronger.
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Moreover, I worked with others during this task by asking some questions to other people in our hip-hop group as their character and getting others to ask me questions for my character too. This helped us to put our characters on the spot and answer the questions as naturally as possible. Furthermore, this also helped each of us to gain a deeper understanding of our characters and the relationships we have with our other characters.
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For example, an individual decision that led to performance development, was that when I was asking the questions to my partners for their character, I asked very in-depth questions such as, what is your favorite perfume so they can learn more about their character and create realistic performances.
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However, in the collaborative task, there was a lot of questions people could not answer for their character, so moving forward I feel that we should spend longer doing our character profiles and researching about our characters before we begin to answer Uta Hagens questions and the more in-depth questions.
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Objectives
During my home learning I looked at the objectives for my character in each scene.
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In order to do so, I had to read through each scene in my script and look at my actions for each of the bits and beats to see what my intentions were when saying certain things in a scene. As a result of this, I could then work out my objective for that scene, for example, in the beginning scene, a lot of my actions were to push Abi away which therefore shown me clearly that my objective is to get away from her.
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Furthermore, I worked collaboratively with others during this task via zoom by helping each other work out our actions so we could see the objective for their character. This helped us to figure out the relationships between each of our characters and how we could use our body language in that scene to show how we feel about them.
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For example, in the hip hop group, I recommended that when Leah is trying to push Abi away, Leahs body language was very closed off and there was no eye contact when Abi is persuading Leah to do the dance competition with her. This, therefore, allows the audience to clearly understand my character's objectives throughout.
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This was a very successful task for our miniseries because going through each of our characters objectives allowed us to show the audience why we were doing certain actions and giving meaning behind our words which makes our performance more realistic and rawer. It also allowed us to react to obstacles that stand in our way in the scenes and prevented us from getting our objective which drives our character to respond in the way they do.
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On the other hand, the collaborative task was very difficult this time as we had to do it over zoom due to the bus strikes which made it very time-consuming because there was either an internet problem or the connection was poor. As a result, it was difficult to understand each other properly rather than being in person.
Rehearsals for Mockumentary
In today's session we focused on our rehearsals for our mockumentary and how we can make our performances better.
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During these rehearsals we focused on the first scene and worked our way through each scene. Throughout most of our scenes we had to make sure that we kept clocking the camera when we feel it's natural too and so that it engages the audience throughout the mockumentary. For example, in the first scene Abi criticizes Leah, my character, a lot about her apperance which makes me feel embarrassed and therefore I had to keep clocking the camera to show the audience how embarrassed and ashamed I was.
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I also worked with others throughout rehearsals, as most of our scenes had more than one person in them. This meant that we had to work collaboratively with others to make sure that our performance was the best to our ability and our relationship between us was being shown. Whilst working collaboratively I suggested many ideas for our scenes, for example in the beginning scene when I am interacting with the uno boy, I suggested that I should look at the camera in frustration when I am playing uno with the child so that it shows clearly to the audience how I am feeling towards him
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This was a successful process because it really allowed the audience to connect with the characters because they are just two friends having fun, which made it so realistic. Furthermore, this individual action was very beneficial as it allowed me to find something in common between me and the characters as I used to make handshakes even when I was younger with my friends.
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However, whilst working collaboratively, it was very difficult to remember the lines in each scene, so moving forward I feel that we should spend more time memorizing our lines before we begin to rehearse our performance so that it does not waste time.
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Personal target
Looking at my feedback from my previous assessment and recent lessons, my target for this unit is to react more to the other characters in the scene to create a more realistic performance for the viewers. This target is important for me because it allows my performance to become more powerful throughout rehearsals and filming. It also benefits the group because it allows their characters to react to what I am feeling too. So, moving forward, I am going to go through my script and subtext any emotions that I am feeling towards the other characters in the scene.
Costumes
Throughout my home learning I also had to think about my character's costume.
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In order, to figure out what I need to source for my characters costumes, I went through my script and looked at where I put a star next to the costumes that I could bring from home. This helped me to figure out what costumes were being made for my character at BOA SS and what I needed to source from home
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I also worked collaboratively with others during this task as I helped bring in any costumes that my partner needed for their character, and they were able to also bring in any clothing items for my character that I did not have which they were able to bring in. Working collaboratively also helped the academy not have to buy extra materials to make the costumes if they could not find them which would create a longer process
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For example, I suggested bringing in a pair of grey joggers for my partner's character as she needed them for a particular scene which she did not have. Bringing in these joggers for my partner helped to save time as it meant that the academy did not have to spend time searching for them or buying new ones, saving money also.
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Sourcing our costumes for our characters was a successful task for our miniseries as it helped us picture the storyline of the episode better. For example, our aim in the episode is to get people to join our hip hop group and our outfits go very hand in hand with our goal as we are wearing very 90’s streetwear and a lot of jewelry so that we can perhaps persuade people to join us. Moreover, it also helps show the viewers my character's personality as I am wearing an all-green outfit which resembles money showing that my character really wants to win the prize money even though she tries to hide it.
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However, working collaboratively during this task was a little difficult at times as not everyone had any outfits to bring in for other people that their character needed so it became time consuming as that meant BOA SS did have to look for some outfits, making the process slow. Moving forward, I feel that we should look at sourcing our costumes earlier on in the process so that it does not waste any time if people do not have the outfits.
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Line learning
During my home learning I also focused on memorizing my lines in the script.
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In order to learn these lines, I used multiple methods to help myself memorize every scene. For example, one method that I used was writing out the lines on a separate piece of paper after I read through each scene. This helped me to become more recognized and familiar with my lines as I was more committed to trying to remember them so that the lines were correct when I was writing them down.
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Moreover, I worked collaboratively with others during this task also via zoom by testing each other on our lines and helping each other produce ideas on how to memorize our lines better. This helped us to know more about learning our lines without it being time consuming and help us memorize our lines in depth without glancing at our script.
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For example, one idea that I came up with for my group when learning lines so that it wouldn’t be time consuming was that we should run through the lines with our partners as many times as possible so that we can focus on the pauses between our lines and really absorb what is being said and going over the same scene many times in many different ways, playing with intensions, actions and pacing to see how they affect the way we say our lines.
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Memorizing the lines in our script was successful for our mockumentary series, as it is essential for the success of our acting performance and that we perform to our best ability. Learning the lines properly will also make sure that our performances are not being filled with unnecessary stress as we try to remember the lines which will make you look unprofessional and make the emotions in the scene unrealistic because you will be distracted trying to figure what comes next.
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However, working collaboratively to help us memorize our lines was also time consuming as a lot of people had not tried to remember any of their lines before going through them with someone else which made it a slower process. So, moving forward, I feel that we should try and write out our lines beforehand so that we remember some of our lines and then we can make sure we definitely remember the lines when going through them with someone.
Personal target
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Looking at my feedback from my previous assessment, my target for this unit Is to work on my development of physical characterization. Having this target is very important for my performance development as it will help me build a bond between the character and myself, making the performance raw and natural as I will find a relationship with my character. So, moving forward, I am going to do a lot more in-depth character profiles about my character and do a lot of research on the time and place where they grew up.
On camera rehearsal
During this weeks session, we have been doing camera rehearsals for some our scenes in the script and to see how we look on camera whilst playing the characters.
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For example, Mia and I practiced some scenes we are together in as well as performing improvisation so that we feel more connected with our characters and experiment with the camera spacing. A scene that we performed was one of our argument scenes so that we could experiment with the camera angles so we could make the scene very effective by really showing our agression towards each other through the camera.
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We worked collaboratively with each other during this by both sugessting different ideas of what camera angles we could use, for example, I recommended that we use high angles to show each others domminonce towards each other from our perspective and to also show the viewers how we are feeling. We also sugessted ideas of where we could stand in the camera space that we had that would make the scene much more powerful. This was very successful as we were really able to show the viewers how we were really feeling without faking it which made the performance look very natural and realistic.
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Photoshoots/Interviewers
In today's session we focused on our characters photos and interviews by the broadcast team.
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In order to do the photoshoot for our characters and cast we all had to bring in our costumes and props so that we were all in full costume to represent our characters through all the pictures, for example, a prop that we had to bring in to represent the hip hop group was a stereo. Moreover, for our interviews we did not need to be in costume for this but we had to make sure we knew a lot about our characters so we could answer the questions about them in depth and as accurately as possible.
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As a result of having to learn a lot about my character for the interviews, I worked collaboratively with others by hot seating each other so that we were more confident with the information surrounding our characters. Hot seating our characters helped enable me to view different perspectives of my characters emotions and actions. It also gave me a chance to find similarities between myself and the character so that we could build a bond between each other.
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An individual action that I suggested when hot seating my partner was to ask more in-depth questions such as what perfume your character wear or what city your character would be so that we could learn a lot more about the characters in depth. This further allowed us to be more imaginative with our characters and grow a deeper connection with them.
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Interviewing our characters and having photoshoots was an especially important task for our mockumentary series because it allows us to showcase our characters to the audience through the media and give them an insight into the type of people that our mocumentary is going to be surrounding. This also allowed us to make our characters interesting so that our audience wants to know more about them and are enticed to watch the series.
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However, during the collaborative task a lot of the questions that were asked were very bland and simple, making the hot seating activity time consuming as it did not really help us get to know our characters, so moving forward we should ask three or four in depth questions so that it is not time consuming and enables us to gather as much information about our characters quickly as possible without asking too many questions.
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Day one of shooting
In today's session we began our shooting for the first scene in the superhero episode.
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In order to begin filming we had to arrive at the shoot in full costumes with our hair and makeup done. This allowed there to be enough time for the broadcast team to have a couple of technical run-throughs so that everyone sounded clear and so that the cameras were clear and ready to shoot the entire day. This allowed the scene to be able to run smoothly without any complications or worries for anyone.
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Moreover, we all had to work collaboratively together by making sure that we were all very quiet so that the broadcast team could do all of the technical checks accurately so that when we began filming there would not be any problems to occur. Making sure that we were all quiet was also important so the filming process would also be quicker, and we would not have to keep repeating scenes due to any sound problems.
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In order to make sure that we were quiet I suggested that we all pretend we were rehearsing the scene which is to be students quietly doing their work so that it did not become boring when we had to sit there for a while in silence. This allowed us to be more prepared to get into character and to practice the scene more making sure we were all ready
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Shooting the first scene of the superhero episode was very important as it was the beginning scene of the whole episode where most the characters are introduced so it was especially important for this scene to be perfect and have no technical problems so that we could get around to most of the characters in time.
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However, when we all worked collaboratively to make sure that we were all silent, it became time consuming at times so moving forward I believe that we should be learning our lines for our other episodes whilst there was sound checks so that we could make that time very useful rather than sitting there and waiting, which can become boring.
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Rehearsals for Hip Hop scenes with director
In today's session my partner and I rehearsed the whole Hip Hop episode so that we could gain feedback on it from the directors.
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In order to gain feedback from the directors Mia and I rehearsed the first scene together and then we showed it to one of the directors. One piece of feedback we received was that we needed to stand closer together when we were performing so that it would look more natural on camera as well as to show how close in friendship we are. This was beneficial for our performance as it made it look more natural and pleasant to watch rather than it being awkward.
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As a result of gaining a lot of feedback for our episode, we had to make sure that Mia and I worked collaboratively so that we could enforce the feedback into our performance to make it stronger and realistic. This was very helpful for us so that we could correct our performance and add a lot more chemistry into it, for example standing closer together made our friendship a lot more noticeable.
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Moreover, an individual action that I suggested to make our performance even better was that we create a handshake for us to do during scenes as I feel like it fits our characters and makes them more relatable to the audience who are watching. This further makes our characters look more realistic as we are showing the viewers that we are teenagers just having fun and portraits our close bond between each other.
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Furthermore, gaining feedback was a very important task for our miniseries because it provides our performance with impartial, constructive, specific points for improvement so that we could therefore get the best outcome from it and allow our performance to be the best it could be. It also helped stay on track by being reminded of the scene we are trying to create so that it is not over the top and highlights the characters in the best way.
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However, when working collaboratively with our feedback, it would be very difficult at times on how to approach our feedback and we would become quite indecisive on how we could change the performance so that it would fit the feedback. So, moving forward, I believe we should try out all the ideas with our performance so that we can decide quicker rather than wasting time thinking which decision would be better.
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Filming on set and rehearsals
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In this week's session, we focused on rehearsing our scenes in the Hip Hop episode to shoot for Friday.
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In order to prepare for the filming on Friday, we had to rehearse our scenes multiple times until we were confident and felt natural for the scenes. Moreover, to help get into character for the scenes, we did a hot seating exercise for each person in the scenes so that we could become and understand our characters as well as their actions. This was beneficial for us as it allowed us to perform convincing characters and help build a more rounded character throughout the episode.
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Furthermore, I have been working collaboratively with others during this task as I helped to produce very in detail questions to ask the characters during the hot seating exercise so that we could grow a relationship with our characters by finding things in common with the character. This was very helpful as it made us become closer with who we were playing because this exercise allowed us to bond with them and experience with them how they felt during scenes.
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For example, a question that I suggested that we should ask for our characters was, what country would our characters want to live in more, which was very in-detail and allowed us to think like our characters and therefore become them, which would help us perform a raw character. This was very successful as we all felt more confident when performing our characters in the hip hop scenes and there have a more convincing character throughout the shooting.
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However, in the collaborative task I felt that it became very time consuming at times as in the beginning of the hot seating exercise, we were all ask simple and basic questions, so moving forward, I believe we should go straight in and ask the complex questions first so that it did not take too long answering the questions.
Personal target
Looking at my feedback from my previous assessment, my target for this unit Is to work on my development of being more interactive and sharing more ideas. Having this target is very important for my performance development as it will help me improve my work and performances as well as helping others performances. So, moving forward, I am going to always going to make sure that I am suggesting my ideas in every task.
Final day on set
During our final day of shooting, we shot the final scenes for the Magic Marvin episode.
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In order to shoot the final scene for Magic Marvin (The talent show) we had to arrive on set with our costumes on so that we were all ready to begin shooting. This allowed their to be enough time for Jack to get into his character, Marvin so that he was prepared to perform his magic tricks in the scene, as well as allow broadcast to go through a couple of tech rehearsals. This further allowed the final scene to run smoothly without any complecations or worries.
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Moreover, we all had to work collaboratively during this shooting by by making sure that we were all very quiet so that the broadcast team could do all of the technical checks accurately so that when we began filming there would not be any problems to occur. Making sure that we were all quiet was also important so the filming process would also be quicker, and we would not have to keep repeating scenes due to any sound problems. This would also be helpful to make the process much quicker so that we could celebrate together for our final day on set.
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In order to make sure that we were quiet I suggested that we all pretend we were rehearsing the scene which is to be students sat quietly being bored of the talent show, this allowed us to be more prepared to perform the scene and get into our characters.
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Shooting the final scene of our episode was very important as it was the final wrap of our Mockumentary mini series, so we needed the final scene to end in a very good way so that we could show the viewers a good ending and leave them happy. It was also important for us to have as many extras as possible for this scene as it was one of the biggest scenes out of the Mockumentary and we needed a full audience for the scene as we had to perform a talent show.
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However, when we all worked collaboratively to make sure that we were all silent, it became time consuming at times so moving forward I believe that we should be learning our lines for our other episodes whilst there was sound checks so that we could make that time very useful rather than sitting there and waiting, which can become boring.
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Personal target
Looking at my feedback from my previous assessment, my target for this unit is to work on my communication skills in the group setting. This is very important for group development as it will allow us to understand how we feel about certain ideas or if we want to change anything with our performance whilst performing. So, moving forward, I will make sure to talk to others in my group if I have an opinion on anything as well as asking if they are okay.