UNIT 3/4:             

                                   SILENT MOVIE REPORT

On Thursday 31st October Rob made us perform our silent movie and had recorded it for Shenagh to watch in the next lesson to give us feedback on what to improve. 

SCENE 1: Setting

4 friends are playing the Ouija board and asked 2 questions 

1: Are there any bad spirits ?

2:is anything bad going to happen today?

and the answer to each question was 'yes' the 4 friend decide to stop playing 

SCENE 2: Funfair 

The 4 friends then decide to go to the funfair and see a fortune teller, I then ask about my future, and then i'm then warned that I would die if I enter a haunted house, he then says if I choose to go in I should not look at the blue light or else !

SCENE 3: Haunted house 

We all see the haunted house and choose to go in, However when I see the house I hesitate to go in because of what the fortune teller has told me and then the 3 other friends encourage her to come in the house and convince her everything is going to be okay.

SCENE 4: Inside the house 

As the friends walked inside the house one of the friends looked directly at the blue light that she was told not to look at, she is then hypnotised and unable to move , the other friend comes in front of her and looks at her and try's to help when told not to, she then becomes hypnotised after the first friend. The first friend that comes out of the hypnosis stands there in confusion. The third friend helps the second friend the becomes hypnotised and whilst helping the second hypnotised friend, the third friend then faints and falls into a deep sleep and the 3 friend start to panic as they are all confused to what had just happened. 

The fortune teller then appears in the house and tells them they are wrong coming into the house. the fortune teller then explains to them why the friend is in a deep sleep and wants everyone soul as he had already taken one of the friends already. One of the friends then run to the car and try's to start up the car leaving the two friends in the house. the two friends left in the house start to argue whether they should leave the friend or help the friend that has been already taken. 

SCENE 5: Car 

The two friends that were left in the house with then fortune teller and the third friend then run out of the house and go straight into the car. once the fortune teller notices that they have ran away he send the third friend the go after them and the third friend breaks into the car...
 

                                              CREPPE

Context:

Our silent movie unit is based on the theme of 'The Haunted house of Horrors' and our silent movie is a  genre of horror/mystery about 4 friends. Hanna, Amelia , Mark , Lewis and myself being trapped in a haunted house. 

Research:

'The Cure'

Before we started our the silent movies unit, in class we all watched a few famous silent movies such as 'The Cure' which is a 1912 silent movie written by Charlie Chaplin and starring John Bunny and Flora Finch and also Nosferatu  a symphony of horror created in 1922. These silent movies helped us  gain ideas and gave an insight on how to act when acting in silent movies and also how we create our characters.

Nosferatu(1922)

We were also introduced to 'Nosferatu' before our silent movie project, 'Nosferatu' is a silent German expressionist film starring a famous German actor, Max Schreck who played the role of Count Orlok, the vampire. The film was released in the United States on June 3rd 1929, seven years after the original premiere in Germany.

Planning:

How did we break down our scene?

Before we worked on scene 1 we all brain stormed what you would usually see in a horror film, 

For example: they might have a Ouija board or a get away car that breaks down or the black person always dies first, So we all brain stormed some stereotypical things that you would find in a 'classic' horror film so from that we picked a few things that we wanted in our silent movie. 

So the difficulties that my character has to face is her fears by asking the fortune teller about her future and accepting what is about to happen and also trusting her 3 friends as they did tell her that she was going to be okay if the went into the haunted house. In our silent movie the protagonist is Hanna and the antagonist is me, this is because when we first discover the haunted house she is the main person who encourages my character to come into the house after we was just told that my character was going to be in great danger.

Half way through finishing our piece we had to add a new member to the group which i didn't think was too much of a hassle and he fitted in with our story quite easily. I think I worked really well with my group as we all contributed to what we wanted to do in our piece and what we wanted our character to be.  For our production, set ,props etc, During one of on classes with Rob, Rob took us to the room and we were all allowed to choose what we thought was suitable for our silent movie. The props that we decided to use were:

OUIJA BOARD 

• medium sized Ball 
• aluminium foil 
• glass plate
• cardboard (Ouija board)
• table cloth 
• scarf 

Most of the props were for Mark as his character was a fortune teller. 

The medium sized ball and aluminium foil was used to Crystal ball for him to tell me my future while we were all at the funfair during scene 2. The the table cloth was just for decoration to make it look like more realistic and the scarf was used a a turban. The cardboard was used as a Ouija board during the very first scene of scene 1. For our costumes we all decided to wear our own clothes as we were playing 'normal' kids.

Problem solving:

A problem we came across was adding a new member and changing the script of our movie, also we all had difficulties with the green screen because we didn't know what was going to on behind us.
also we edited the script by adding a prop during scene 1, but before we all thought that it was boring and unclear to us and the audience. The editing helped made the scene more clear.

Evaluation:

Overall, the whole process was a huge success because we managed to overcome a few obstacles such as, finding props in a short amount of time and filming within an hour and working with new cast members and changing the script in a short time. I also think that while we were working with Rob and the second year filming student we were very quick and mature about filming 

                            

                   What went well and what could better?

WHAT WENT WELL ?

Last week,we filmed our silent movie I thought it went really well since we had to make some of our own props and a new person to the group in such a short amount of time.

The Props Used;

• Ball 
• aluminium foil 
• plate 
• glass plate
• cardboard (Ouija board)
• table cloth 
• scarf 

since Mark was the only person who actually needed props and costumes it was much easier to make our own props,we used a ball and aluminium foil to make it look like a 'crystal ball'. the table cloth was used to make it look more like a 'fun fair' and more effective since Mark was a 'fortune teller'. I also think that we were all very serious and in character at all times we filming the scenes. I also think what went well was that we were acting even though we didn't know what our back drops were . 

WHAT COULD BE BETTER ?

Overall I think Hanna, Amelia , Louis, and myself could have had better costumes whereas Mark had a good costume and it was very clear who he was playing as a character. But maybe explored different styles of costumes so we are out of character and explored a different character instead of playing ourselves in the film. 

Also if we had a choice to choose what our back drops were or what our set looked like then we would probably have a better understanding of our filming. I also think our props could have been better such as the 'crystal ball' and the Ouija board instead of using aluminium foil and a bouncy ball and plain cardboard.

Tuesday 21st January 2020

Today, in production arts class we looked at a round plan of the Camden peoples theatre as we are going to perform our silent movies. We also had to look up how small the staging area was so we can prepare what props we need on the day of our performance as the staging area is extremely small. For my group as we didn't need that many props we only need;

• one small square table 
• 4 chairs.
• medium ball wrapped in aluminium foil 
• table cloth

This is an example of what the theatre looks like and how small the stage area is.




In my opinion i believe working in this space will be extremely difficult because there isn't much space to actually perform as i haven't performed in such a enclosed area before. Also the music students will be attending with us so it will take up even more space in the theatre as they will be play there samples of music whilst we are performing during our silent movie. We also discussed about what type of lighting we would like to have whilst performing as our technician, Ezra is a year 1 production arts student who will be coming with us to help with our lighting sound and video.

Lighting

For our lighting ideas we were all contributing what we think will suit for our movie;

Scene 1: Ouija Board/home. 

For scene 1 as we are all in a house playing with a ouija board, were going to have a red spot light when we notice that there are 'bad spirits' when the board moves to 'YES'

Scene 2: Fun Fair. 

When we all decide to go to the fun fair were going to have multi coloured lights are jovial music to infer that we are at a fun fair. we then meet Mark at the Fortune tellers tent and when he mention that one of the friends are going to die, we are going to have red flashing lights and load thunder sounds to indicate fear and danger when Mark laughs.

Scene 3: seeing the house.

When seeing the house there will be a red spotlight and intense music such as loud thunder and lighting sound effects to indicate fear horror and danger. 

Scene 4: Haunted house. 

All the friends enter the house, so were going to have intense music and a fixed blue light to look at to indicate to the audience that we have been 'possessed' by the light. Once the first person has been 'possessed' there will be a white spotlight on Hanna as she has been 'possessed' first, when she snaps out of the hypnosis the light will black out and the white spotlight fade onto Amelia, then when I faint the light blacks out. Mark walks into the house and there will be a white spotlight focused on him.

Scene 5: Car. 

When the two people run to the car there will be flashing white lights too indicate that the car is breaking down. Then there will be a black out at the end when the two friends get caught by there 'possessed' friend in the end to show a cliff hanger.


These are some examples of what we are going to use;

• White spotlight.
• multiple colourful spotlights.

The lights can be used to establish what the atmosphere is and it can also indicate where you are or the audience can infer what is happening, for example if it was a harsh (red) light it can indicate whether the scene is about anger or danger, Whereas if it were a soft light (yellow)the audience would be able to tell the scene is romantic or happiness.  

Technician, Ezra

Today we meet with Ezra again to discuss what our lighting plan is, when the lights are needed during every scene and what type of lights we need such as white spot lights .We managed to tell him what we wanted and next week he is going to the Camden Peoples Theatre to discuss with the technician at the theatre what is possible and what is not possible to have during our performance.

Costumes

As me, Amelia and Hanna are playing the part of normal teenagers we wouldn't need any costumes and can perform in our own clothing for the performance. However, Louis is playing Mark's roll as Mark is absent for our performance at The Camden People's Theatre, therefore Louis is the only person in our group that will be in a costume. Louis is playing a fortune teller/gypsy he will be wearing a suit, a scarf worn as a turban and a rose in the pocket of the blazer. 

Set

As we don't need much objects for our set, we only need two tables and four chairs. One table and one chair is for the fortune teller/gypsy, the other table and the other three chairs is for the three friends at the beginning of the movie with the Ouija board. 

Props

The only prop that we need is the Ouija board which is used at the start of the movie with the three friends before going to the funfair. 

Hair and Make up 

As mentioned before, me, Amelia and Hanna are playing normal teenagers, therefore make up isn't needed and hair can be done by the choice of the character.

Lighting 

Ezra and Becca went to the theatre to see what could be done and what lights were allowed to be used for our performances.

Evaluation of the performance at the Camden Peoples Theatre. 

On March 3rd we went to the Camden peoples theatre and performed our silent movie pieces with the music students. When we first got to the theatre we had to wait for the music student to arrive with their instruments and other equipment needed for the performance. After an hour had passed, we started to rehearse without the music students and the technician to get feedback and get use to the small space we had, to perform in. Once we all had a chance to rehearse our pieces we had a tech rehearsal with Ezra. During our tech rehearsal we had an issue with the lights, because a couple weeks before our performance, Ezra and Becca went to the Camden theatre to see what could be used for the performance and during our rehearsal Ezra had a bit of issues as he didn't use any of the lights we had asked for. After out tech rehearsal we added the music students to our performance to see what music ideas they had prepared to play during our performance. Once the music students added their pieces, we spoke with Ezra and told him what needed to be added to make our performance more effective. After everything was sorted out he had a break until the audience arrived, once they arrived we watched our silent movie project that we had filmed with the film students. When all 3 groups performed we did our live performance with the music students. Overall I think the whole performance was a success and everything went very well and we performed with confidence and with good dramatic techniques, such as , staying in role and overplay. Although our only problem we had when performing was that we all decided as a group that we rushed the performance a little bit  and didn't take our time, but overall I think it was a great performance.