Ideas and final decisions. Devising

After our previous lessons we decided to put all of our ideas into a piece of paper, we then all voted ideas which we liked. To help us narrow down to one specific idea. Fortunately every group picked three ideas. They were "the tour of the fort", "no power with the Jordan character" and finally the "reality dinner idea" I chose all three of these when voting because they can all be put together. I can see al three ideas working well with each other. I was a little disappointed that the evacuation idea and the ghost tour didn't fall through. The reason I didn't vote for those. Was because they had not been explained thoroughly. Therefore I could not visualise us actually putting them on. The reason we couldn't really explain the ideas very well was because everyone who came up with an idea. Became attached to the idea. And wouldn't really take on board anyone else's ideas. So we were at a bit of a standstill for a while. Thankfully now we have 3 ideas which we all appreciate and can work with. We need to be very careful though because the ideas together sound like a horror like movie. We need to not make it look like a movie because it will look quite unprofessional and will be especially hard to put on.

After further discussions I have sided with the Jordan future idea, simply because I feel that it will have an interesting effect on the audience. We all eventually came up with the idea that it's going to be a normal tour around the tunnels. However during the tour there is a disturbance outside. Which one of the tour guides checks out. He doesn't return and we carry on to proceed through the tunnel to various places we can exit. However all the doors are locked. Also in the tunnel the audience will be told that technology does not work in the tunnels. Eerily we were going to have a phone just sitting on the floor ringing. Which then lead into a computer room with lines of laptops displaying the same face of Jordan. I really love the creepy aspect to this performance and feel we can really bounce creative ideas off it. 

Again we need to be careful we don't make it too movie like. So In the next few lessons I want to bring about the idea that after seeing the computer room. The audience then move into another room to watch an actual performance. I feel this will slide it more to the performing side rather than movie like.

I am going to carry on pressing on about the reality celebration idea. Because I like suspense. And I feel it will be a good idea to have the audience think they are coming to a celebration for finishing our drama unit. But it turns out to be something else. I think it will get the audience to think on their feet.

Location ideas, sight specific

We all came up with good ideas for location, here are some of our ideas

Chatham dockyard: good location especially for the evac boat idea
Fort Amhurst: Great for war location.
Orchard on lower rainham road: a more open location
Berengrave nature reserve: again an open spaced location
Upnor Castle: a cute small castle in a small village.

I personally liked Fort amhurst and the dockyard, and when it came to voting, both options got the most votes, Fort Amhurst just scraping the win.

After voting fort amhurst, the teacher asked us to come up with ideas that we could potentially use, we discussed alot of these in the next lesson, i say discuss, it was more of a full scale debate/arguement. Which lead to members of the class walking out, I think the problem was, people were so fixed on their own ideas and what they want out of the piece, that nobody really listened to anyones ideas, and what they could potentially become, it was quite sad really because excellent ideas were sort of just being buried.
I dont want us to fight and fight, to then be stuck with a generic idea that half the class doesnt approve of, i cant find a solutuion yet to this, we dont have much time left to come up with an idea, and everyone is acting childish, hopefully in the next lesson, not so outgoing people can voice their ideas, and we can actually stand a good chance of putting on a half decent performance.

With my idea, i have sort of just stuck with my guns with the original idea, but when i brought the idea to the table, half the class wasnt listening/ interested, and the other half didnt hear it out or think of possibilities of the idea, in order for us to move forward, find a location and story, people need to start utilising their ears.

Next lesson we all need to again bring ideas to the table, hopefully all ideas will be taken into consideration.

Sight Specific First idea

In the lesson we had the class split in half, and each group had to come up with a small idea of a piece to go with a picture idea we had been given, i thought despite out group taking quite a while to come up with any sort of idea, we actually got a really eerie openeing to something that could potentially be a great piece. Our picture looked like a Boat house, quite a modern one aswell. We had the idea that 3 men were seeking refuge in this boat house, hiding from something that is going on outside, which remained a mystery because we didnt have time to go into detail, also it left an eerie effect because the audience didnt know why they are hiding. In the scene, 2 of the characters have gone out to get supplies but end up being gone for a week, by this point, the man left in the boathouse has gone a bit crazy, all of a sudden people start to turn up, each one asking where the evacuation boat is, and when its going to turn up. This gives the audience the idea that something is actually going on in the outside world, wether that be a corrupt government, nuclear war, apocalypse, world war. Right at the end, the two characters walk back in, and join the group now in the boathouse.

I really liked this idea because i feel we used perfect lighting and sound, We used Red lights, and we had the room dark, which gave off thsat sort of danger feel, also we had the theme music from 28 days later in the background which was also my idea, i felt this piece could have really had a good storyline behind it, but i feel the other classmates watching our piece didnt see the bigger picture of what it could potentially be.