* Please bear in mind that I may change aspects of these to suit the development of my successful ideas throughout the project, and also based on any possible late responses I may get from theatres.
AIMS
To promote and demystify Shakespeare and Theatre.
To break barriers between audience and theatre.
To explore a new way in which Shakespeare/ theatre can be perceived.
AUDIENCE
To strike a balance between my two current options, I think I will (for the moment!) try to aim my project towards teenagers, especially those that will be tackling rougher concepts of Shakespeare in their later school years.
The aim from this audience will be to attempt to keep their interest and open-mindedness about Shakespeare and going to the theatre, rather than teach them more about him. If I can make Shakespeare relatable to them, then hopefully the gruelling process of English GCSE won't have ruined him forever!
MESSAGE
To show that Shakespeare's plays relate to human nature even now, not just then.
To try and show that theatre can be interesting and kinetic.
To make something that appears to be 'theatrical' current to its audience.
GENRE
To use general aspects of Shakespeare from his various famous plays. Each of the most recognisable bits should be able to show an over-all impression of Shakespeare, and will avoid focusing down the message of one play too much when it is about expressing his relevance generally.
This will be a marketing project to complete the aims mentioned above to the benefit of theatre and of understanding Shakespeare for a wider audience.
MATERIALS
Use projection as the main material to produce the message and initially conduct around an audience. Develop this content later through other various platforms that are currently being used by theatres, such as online videos. Consideration of how this secondary use of the project will have to be taken, though it is as a result of the prior marketing product rather than an effect to it.
LOCATION CREATED/FILMED
Possibly in schools. Most likely created externally using studios, external filming, editing the content to be projected and distributed in a different location.
LOCATION DISTRIBUTED
Schools, around the corridors, or possibly to film reactions shots around these areas. Not looking forward to the obvious CBD type checks to do this though! (Think it will be impossible?). Maybe around recreational areas that they audience will most likely spend time, e.g. parks, cinema's, general town/ public areas...?
The secondary distribution of this project/ content can be online via social networking sites, or theatre specific sites.
PROBLEM TO SOLVE
How can I use projection in a way that people would recognise as theatrical?
What can I produce that will make Shakespeare more relevant to my targeted audience?
Monday 16 July 2012
Problem with deciding the Audience...
I have a choice between focussing on young adults around my age range or those of school children, at the age they would start learning about Shakespeare in their English syllabus'. I was hoping to get more responses from theatres in regards to questions I had transcribed in one of my earlier posts. I was hoping the theatre's responses would hint at which audience would be more vital and relevant to write my brief for. Unfortunately I have had no responses as of yet. Here are my pros and cons for each audience bracket:
YOUNG ADULTS
Pros
- My age range so can relate more on what content would effectively grab attention.
- The content produced can be more intellectual, covering more relationships and issues about Shakespeare that children just wouldn't understand yet.
- More flexible with locations and output as audience will have more 'freedom' that way.
Cons
- Audience are more judgmental (possibly) or harder to attract the interest of.
- Their opinions of Shakespeare and theatre are already set.
- The purpose of the project might not be as solid as if it was for an already existing problem in the school curriculum etc
SCHOOL CHILDREN
Pros
- Existing problem of maintaining young audiences' interesting in something like Shakespeare because he is taught in a boring way at school.
- Aspects of location and situation won't be as broad. The project can be brought to them, to places the ideal audience will be.
- The themes and messages can be simpler to relate to a younger audience (to an extent).
- Could target teenagers, which would be covering Shakespeare in their GCSEs, and won't be too different to targeting a young adult audience.
Cons
- Idea can become too complicated, trying to cope with achieving too much for the audience.
- The loss of simplicity makes the end product confusing (relates to above statement).
- New audience and purpose changes original ideas.
- Harder to complete something with effective understanding or it's original goals.
YOUNG ADULTS
Pros
- My age range so can relate more on what content would effectively grab attention.
- The content produced can be more intellectual, covering more relationships and issues about Shakespeare that children just wouldn't understand yet.
- More flexible with locations and output as audience will have more 'freedom' that way.
Cons
- Audience are more judgmental (possibly) or harder to attract the interest of.
- Their opinions of Shakespeare and theatre are already set.
- The purpose of the project might not be as solid as if it was for an already existing problem in the school curriculum etc
SCHOOL CHILDREN
Pros
- Existing problem of maintaining young audiences' interesting in something like Shakespeare because he is taught in a boring way at school.
- Aspects of location and situation won't be as broad. The project can be brought to them, to places the ideal audience will be.
- The themes and messages can be simpler to relate to a younger audience (to an extent).
- Could target teenagers, which would be covering Shakespeare in their GCSEs, and won't be too different to targeting a young adult audience.
Cons
- Idea can become too complicated, trying to cope with achieving too much for the audience.
- The loss of simplicity makes the end product confusing (relates to above statement).
- New audience and purpose changes original ideas.
- Harder to complete something with effective understanding or it's original goals.
Saturday 14 July 2012
Projection Theatre Promotion
I tried doing some last minute basic look on Google just to see if I could find anything on current theatre outdoor marketing that involves projection, and all I could find was this work by a company called Massivemedia, who projected simple screen dimension posters of information on shows on various buildings around a town. Hardly that creative. Meh.
You can watch the video of it in action HERE.
You can watch the video of it in action HERE.
Shadow Stage & Shadow Light Productions
I was pointed towards the work of Shadow Stage Production by my tutor, Penny, who went and saw one of their recent productions called "If Ever". It is no longer showing but there is THIS brief video of it on YouTube which roughly shows some of their techniques, although it seems very abstract.
Their website shows videos and pictures of other past shows, and it seems to be a mixture of different colour lighting, depth perception, shadows formed from their own bodies and props. It seems to be simple and lo-budget techniques with sometimes effective visuals, unfortunately the website doesn't really give much away as to what it woud look like on stage and their precise production methods.
Click HERE for the page with their video tests/ examples on.
Shadow Light Productions is an american based theatre company who specialise in the art of shadow theatre with seemingly more depth than Shadow Stage, probably because of a higher budget, but also there seems to be more grounding with the traditional aesthetics of the eastern oriental establishments to shadow puppetry. What makes them unique is that they use performers for the shadows, with embellishments on the to create the 'look' of the character.
Their website shows videos and pictures of other past shows, and it seems to be a mixture of different colour lighting, depth perception, shadows formed from their own bodies and props. It seems to be simple and lo-budget techniques with sometimes effective visuals, unfortunately the website doesn't really give much away as to what it woud look like on stage and their precise production methods.
Click HERE for the page with their video tests/ examples on.
Shadow Light Productions is an american based theatre company who specialise in the art of shadow theatre with seemingly more depth than Shadow Stage, probably because of a higher budget, but also there seems to be more grounding with the traditional aesthetics of the eastern oriental establishments to shadow puppetry. What makes them unique is that they use performers for the shadows, with embellishments on the to create the 'look' of the character.
Click HERE for their trailer about their production "The Wild Party", which shows some of their techniques and story lines and which first alerted me to their work.
Shadow puppets isn't the material I originally planned to use, and I'm certainly leaning towards producing something that is outside of the theatres rather than in them, but the elements of shadow could help me tackle the problem of using things like projection in light. If I have to produce something for night time anyway, then shadows are another obvious form I could consider, and which look more 'deliberate' than perhaps projection would?
Friday 13 July 2012
RSC Pilot Night
The Pilot Night is an event which happens every year and I believe it is an external programme which uses different companies to host it every year, and also uses different theatre groups to get involved. This year the RSC was hosting it, so the theme was about Shakespeare and different ways of looking at his stories. There were five groups participating, each covering subjects like the theme of un-requited love from twelfth night (and cross-dressing), to Shakespeare's "severn ages of man" speech. There was also a translation of one of his sonnets into movement and vocal exercises, a murder in reverse to rock music and hand held signs with his words on them, and a sketch of door-to-door sales men slowly revealing the tragedies taken from King Lear.
It was very interesting to see the different takes on Shakespeare by these groups. My favourites being the take on 'severn ages of men', called "When I was Old, When I Get Young", by Lucy Ellinson. They had people from different backgrounds and ages walk onto the stage and stand there whilst a voice recoding of them plays over, telling life tales and thoughts. It that simplicity and curiosity element I always have when thinking about what other people are thinking.
Another good sketch was "Come Heavy Sleep" by Kindle Theatre. This was the story of a murder told backwards, and had the most people on stage out of all the groups. They were young actors and it was played out through a rock-song-opera narrator and some poignant words put of boards held up. It was very atmospheric and fun to watch, despite the subject matter! Oh and very 'theatrical'.
The takes, I suppose, weren't trying to be modern. They are modern in the sense that they were put in modern language and looked at in a new way, but all of them could have been done like that from any time. I was trying to spot a reference of translation of Shakespeare that could be relevant to my work, but it was difficult to define something as none of them were done purely to be targeted towards a younger audience. If I had to pick something I would say the Lucy Ellinson piece I mentioned would be the most influential. It effectively showed how just using people with a simple voice over can still provide a captivating narrative that draws in the audience. I will bear this in mind.
Thursday 12 July 2012
Whitechaple Gallery
I went to Whitechaple gallery in the hope of catching anything left that might have been of Gillian Wearing's work. It turns out I was about a month late! I had a look round anyway, incase there was anything useful or of point to my project. There was a lot of sound installations, light and also video. Here are the ones I found most interesting:
"Boys and Sculpture" 2012
Eva Rothschild
This was a video art piece showing some spindly sculptures in an open, blank room. One by one they let boys in from the ages of 8 to 12 (guess). It got to about 8 boys in total. It showed time passing and the boys getting increasingly frustrated and bored until they started playing round and witht he sculptures and then suddenly, once one broke, they annihilated the rest. It was quite funny to watch. This work shows the effectiveness of 'random' responses from non-actors and how simplicity can work.
"Boys and Sculpture" 2012
Eva Rothschild
This was a video art piece showing some spindly sculptures in an open, blank room. One by one they let boys in from the ages of 8 to 12 (guess). It got to about 8 boys in total. It showed time passing and the boys getting increasingly frustrated and bored until they started playing round and witht he sculptures and then suddenly, once one broke, they annihilated the rest. It was quite funny to watch. This work shows the effectiveness of 'random' responses from non-actors and how simplicity can work.
The Bloomberg Commission: "The Past Was A Mirage I'd Left Far Behind"
Josiah McElhenny
"Reflection, light and transparency are defining themes of Modernism."
Construction of severn sculptural screens made from mirrored glass, wood and projection cloth. The intention is to refract any image triple times, creating depth and expanding and warping the image. Contributing artists were asked to just create purely abstract films of their own personal history. It was interesting to see the visual effects and methods of producing such things, and considering the possibilites of using these myself.
Friday 6 July 2012
Questions to ask the Theatres
Marketing
- What promotional methods do you currently use?
- Have you tried using "gorilla" style marketing approaches outside of the theatre walls, e.g. go out on the streets to use promotional methods.
- Do you know about the online platforms or groups that try to make Shakespeare current (Chicken Shop Shakespeare, MyShakespeare etc.)
- Are these new platforms of marketing (online video etc) successful in bringing in new customers? If so, any specific age ranges?
- For a new marketing tool, would interaction be an important element?
Audience
- What age range audience do you currently try and target?
- What age ranges are the most important to target?
- How are you currently targeting a younger audience (School children and young adults)?
- In your opinion, which age range is more receptive or beneficial in targeting, school children or young adults?
- How do you market the concept of theatre to a younger generation?
Messages
- What messages do you try to convey about the theatre in your marketing schemes?
- How would you promote the theatre in a way that makes it relevant and interesting for a younger audience?
- How have you tried to promote Shakespeare as "modern" and still relevant?
- Which element of Shakespeare would you use or try to describe to prove his relevance in modern society, and also to younger people?
Mediums
- What techniques, platforms or materials do you use for your current marketing methods?
- How do/ have you used projection in your shows, installations or marketing?
- What are your expectations of materials such as projection or online platforms?
- What other "state-of-the-art"/ new technology or approaches are you considering next e.g. augmented reality?
- Do you think the online content loses elements of performance that is often considered vital to help understand Shakespeare's work/ language?
- How could new technology be used to combat this lack of performance?
- What promotional methods do you currently use?
- Have you tried using "gorilla" style marketing approaches outside of the theatre walls, e.g. go out on the streets to use promotional methods.
- Do you know about the online platforms or groups that try to make Shakespeare current (Chicken Shop Shakespeare, MyShakespeare etc.)
- Are these new platforms of marketing (online video etc) successful in bringing in new customers? If so, any specific age ranges?
- For a new marketing tool, would interaction be an important element?
Audience
- What age range audience do you currently try and target?
- What age ranges are the most important to target?
- How are you currently targeting a younger audience (School children and young adults)?
- In your opinion, which age range is more receptive or beneficial in targeting, school children or young adults?
- How do you market the concept of theatre to a younger generation?
Messages
- What messages do you try to convey about the theatre in your marketing schemes?
- How would you promote the theatre in a way that makes it relevant and interesting for a younger audience?
- How have you tried to promote Shakespeare as "modern" and still relevant?
- Which element of Shakespeare would you use or try to describe to prove his relevance in modern society, and also to younger people?
Mediums
- What techniques, platforms or materials do you use for your current marketing methods?
- How do/ have you used projection in your shows, installations or marketing?
- What are your expectations of materials such as projection or online platforms?
- What other "state-of-the-art"/ new technology or approaches are you considering next e.g. augmented reality?
- Do you think the online content loses elements of performance that is often considered vital to help understand Shakespeare's work/ language?
- How could new technology be used to combat this lack of performance?
Thursday 5 July 2012
Points from "Teaching Shakespeare"
- Students create imagery of the words with physical actions, this helps them understand the feelings and emotions of what is being described. It is connecting with the content physically.
"To talk about an image gives you one level of understanding, but an image with your own body, that is to take it to a far deeper level." - Mary Johnson, Practitioner, RSC.
- Creating physically creates a deeper understanding of the words.
"Imagine the words is extremely helpful for students. It is active, it is memorable and ensures their own understanding." - Natasha Evans, English teacher, Queensbridge School.
- Performance of the words make them more memorable.
"Imagery and physical memory with students helps them to take an abstract concept and make it concrete, so they are able to take the idea that Shakespeare is writing about and really understand them." - Amy McKibben, Language Arts teacher, Reynoldsbury Gateway Academy.
- It helps demystify and take the hidden meanings and complexity out of Shakespeare's words.
"Shakespeare's words are so beautiful, sometimes very complex, very dense, and, physically, those words really helps open the story for everyone. Embodying the words, inside my body and my soul, really helps me focus on the script and what is going on at that precise moment." - Debbie Korley, Actor/Freelance practitioner.
- Performing the words is important for actors and for the audience, to help understanding during a show, not just in education.
"It's really about what the words feel like, and I think this is why Shakespeare's language has lasted so long." - Aileen Gonslaves, Assistant Director, RSC.
The performance element of Shakespeare is something that I have brought up in my Unit Two work, and which has been classified as essential. Shakespeare, back in his time, never had a class preference with his work, even the 'uneducated poor' could go and enjoy it. This is what Shakespeare's performances are all about, the physical entertainment of the performance that elevates the audience's understanding.
This element of creating imagery and performance from the text can be key to understanding how my work/ outcome should be seen. It could be some sort of interactive element that requires movement or something!
"Acting them out makes you realise there's great depth to what they are actually saying. They're not just words that I find hard to read."
"To talk about an image gives you one level of understanding, but an image with your own body, that is to take it to a far deeper level." - Mary Johnson, Practitioner, RSC.
- Creating physically creates a deeper understanding of the words.
"Imagine the words is extremely helpful for students. It is active, it is memorable and ensures their own understanding." - Natasha Evans, English teacher, Queensbridge School.
- Performance of the words make them more memorable.
"Imagery and physical memory with students helps them to take an abstract concept and make it concrete, so they are able to take the idea that Shakespeare is writing about and really understand them." - Amy McKibben, Language Arts teacher, Reynoldsbury Gateway Academy.
- It helps demystify and take the hidden meanings and complexity out of Shakespeare's words.
"Shakespeare's words are so beautiful, sometimes very complex, very dense, and, physically, those words really helps open the story for everyone. Embodying the words, inside my body and my soul, really helps me focus on the script and what is going on at that precise moment." - Debbie Korley, Actor/Freelance practitioner.
- Performing the words is important for actors and for the audience, to help understanding during a show, not just in education.
"It's really about what the words feel like, and I think this is why Shakespeare's language has lasted so long." - Aileen Gonslaves, Assistant Director, RSC.
The performance element of Shakespeare is something that I have brought up in my Unit Two work, and which has been classified as essential. Shakespeare, back in his time, never had a class preference with his work, even the 'uneducated poor' could go and enjoy it. This is what Shakespeare's performances are all about, the physical entertainment of the performance that elevates the audience's understanding.
This element of creating imagery and performance from the text can be key to understanding how my work/ outcome should be seen. It could be some sort of interactive element that requires movement or something!
"Acting them out makes you realise there's great depth to what they are actually saying. They're not just words that I find hard to read."
LCC Graduate Show
The illustration and moving media graduate shows are showing at LCC at the moment and it was interesting taking a quick look round. I tried to look for projects or techniques that might have some relevance with what I'm doing. There were a couple of interesting uses of projection, such as this project by Young Eun Kim, called "Anger. Behind the Scenes". It seems to use performers with interesting projection on top of them.
There were other interesting examples, such as the use of projection of spacial images onto multiple surfaces that created the effect of depth, by Nandini Chauhan, studying BA Digital Media Design.
Wednesday 4 July 2012
Teaching Shakespeare
The RSC are promoting this new online learning platform called "Teaching Shakespeare". It is designed to be a platform for teachers and provides a "professional development programme for teachers brought to you by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the University of Warwick."
Here are two videos, on the RSC YouTube channel, promoting certain elements of their programmes and information. These are all about using certain teaching techniques to look at the language of Shakespeare in a way that can interact and engage children, and help them understand it:
Based on some of the ideas Penny suggested during my tutorial, such as using school children as my audience, and also in addition to approaching theatres, this discovery should prove extremely useful and relevant. This proves that theatres and schools have noticed the need to teach Shakespeare, the dreaded syllabus, in a way in which he is supposed to be experienced, through performance and actions. The potential to bring Shakespeare to a younger, newer audience, without scaring them off and keeping them entertained, is completely possible.
Whether I decide to make school children my audience or not, the points raised in these videos, and on the website, should be noted to see if there is anything I can take forward as an element to my final brief.
Pepper's Ghost
As previously mentioned, this was an illusionary technique made famous by John Pepper in the late 1800's, who updated the method from Henry Dircks, which was originally too costly to produce. Pepper found a way to easy incorporate it into theatres and it was first shown during a scene of Charles Dicken's "The Haunted Man."
Details of how the technique can be done, and examples of it, can conveniently be found HERE from Robert Schuch's personal website, with his personal project of a mini haunted house.
Details of how the technique can be done, and examples of it, can conveniently be found HERE from Robert Schuch's personal website, with his personal project of a mini haunted house.
This can be re-created quite easily at quite a low budget. It could be interesting to try re-creating my own version, however I don't believe this method will produce the style of images I had in my mind for my final outcome, to tell the right message for my final purpose and context.
Tuesday 3 July 2012
TUTORIAL 04.07.12
Main questions to answer:
- Who is my audience?
- What do I want to say?
- What is the genre? (Is it about Shakespeare in general, or play specific with specific location?)
- What will the output location?
- What will I use to create the output and speak my message?
- What is the problem I am looking to solve?
Some ideas:
- Could be aimed at school children or young people afraid of Shakespeare in some way.
- Could create a series of bite-size shorts to introduce Shakespeare to this audience in an engaging way.
- Use some lines from various Shakespeare plays (to show the 'essence' of Shakespeare) and put them in some sort of narrative or content.
- Could have elements to it that rely on interaction from the audience.
- Don't get bogged down with the tech side of it.
When contacting theatres:
- Ask them questions about how they engage a young audience, and what technologies they use.
- Get the RSC on board with my approach and ask if I can get their feedback at relevant points.
Next step:
- I've done enough research. I need to start creating my final practical approach.
- I need to WRITE THE BRIEF, then answer this brief as a script, with storyboards and visuals etc. THEN I can go back to research if needed.
- Who is my audience?
- What do I want to say?
- What is the genre? (Is it about Shakespeare in general, or play specific with specific location?)
- What will the output location?
- What will I use to create the output and speak my message?
- What is the problem I am looking to solve?
Some ideas:
- Could be aimed at school children or young people afraid of Shakespeare in some way.
- Could create a series of bite-size shorts to introduce Shakespeare to this audience in an engaging way.
- Use some lines from various Shakespeare plays (to show the 'essence' of Shakespeare) and put them in some sort of narrative or content.
- Could have elements to it that rely on interaction from the audience.
- Don't get bogged down with the tech side of it.
When contacting theatres:
- Ask them questions about how they engage a young audience, and what technologies they use.
- Get the RSC on board with my approach and ask if I can get their feedback at relevant points.
Next step:
- I've done enough research. I need to start creating my final practical approach.
- I need to WRITE THE BRIEF, then answer this brief as a script, with storyboards and visuals etc. THEN I can go back to research if needed.
Monday 2 July 2012
Next Step
Although my schedule says I should continue experimenting with projection and lighting techniques, I'm not actually sure if this is the best use of time. I have no ideas, beyond the tests I did in Unit 2.2, to take me further with the materials I wish to use. I think I need to go back to researching again, and gaining more material to solidify my idea further.
I want to start straight with the secondary (and primary in some cases) research to try to identify with my project aims as they are supposed to be, looking at this as a marketing project. I want to see if I can look at exiting material from theatres more, and possibly try to contact them and ask about their current knowledge and expectations of such materials, and what they would want out of them. This would help clarify my objectives into a more realistic brief to work with.
As you can see, I have already started my research (in some cases unintentionally!), and have some interesting new leads to look into, especially within projection as a new and creative technology within a stage environment.
I want to start straight with the secondary (and primary in some cases) research to try to identify with my project aims as they are supposed to be, looking at this as a marketing project. I want to see if I can look at exiting material from theatres more, and possibly try to contact them and ask about their current knowledge and expectations of such materials, and what they would want out of them. This would help clarify my objectives into a more realistic brief to work with.
As you can see, I have already started my research (in some cases unintentionally!), and have some interesting new leads to look into, especially within projection as a new and creative technology within a stage environment.
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