By Daniel Buckland level 3
North Kent college: Miskin
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The dance show 2
Week 6
Finishing my set
Today we moved the bed to the studio to go onto our set and then I got the dead flowers prop and a green knitted blanket from design. Then I moved the bed and side table with the ECG machine to the other side of the bed and then I moved the bed where the side table was. Then the decoration for the ECG machine fell off because double sided sticky tape was used so I grabbed the hot glue gun and a extension lead which I plugged in and then I hot glued the rod that fell off onto the side table. Then wrapped up the extension lead wire and then I taped the wire together. My group's set was finished so I helped another group make sea weed which was done with green bin bags that were cut into strips which I unfold and cut from being s loop to a loop strip. Then from one of the ends I pulled it outwards with both of my thumbs and then I went down a bit and I did the same thing until there was none left to pull. Also if is ripped I carried on because a fish could of eaten it so it looked more natural. Then I put back two paper mache rocks that another group took out but didn't use. Then I continued to make seaweed. Then I went to the prop store again to put back a fire place prop that another group didn't use. Then I went into the studio where I footed a ladder for another group that were focusing. Then I did some coursework.
Set with new layout
Extension lead used with hot glue gun
Hot glued ECG rod
Helping the other groups
Starting to make seaweed video
Seaweed
Pile of seaweed I made
Rocks put back in prop store
Ladder I footed
Showing our set off
Today we had a meeting in the studio where we were told what the actors were doing and they were going to perform for open day and be marked for it. We also got told that today that tomorrow we are showing our sets to students, staff and other people in the college. Then I did some coursework while the lights and sound were being sorted out. Then I got the laminator and after it warmed up I laminated papers that had information on the set's theme for the different groups. When I first put the paper through the laminator it didn't seal it so I waited a bit longer and then it started to work again. Then my group's set that had the lights and soundscape running was being shown to people that wanted to enrol into the college and people could walk around to look at everyone set in their own time in the studio. Two people from each group would stand in front of their set and we would talk about our set and answer any questions that the people had about our set. We created a rotar to swap every 45 miniutes but some of the 2nd years giving tours weren't there so me and someone else were at our set for longer than we expected. I would say to the people that walked over to our set we had a plague doctor in a modern hospital and we were comparing covid to the black death and if you look in the basket we have cures in there for the black death with things like leeches, herbs, onions and vinigar also in the medical cabinet is cures to covid. The questions I got asked the most were how long did this take to make? and how many people were in your group?. The answer to the first question was 3 weeks of planning and 2 weeks of putting thing together and the answer to the second question was 5 people. Near the end someone asked a good question which was what was made and what was grabbed from somewhere else? So I expained the prop and costume stores and then I pointed at what we made also I said that we put together the wall and painted everything. I also explained to a couple of people about doing 2 or 3 years on the course and how the levels 2, 3, 3 extended and 4 work.Some people were nice and I had good conversations with. The sets were open to be seen from 3:30pm to 7:30pm and I stood near my set for 3 hours with another person.
The laminator warming up
My group's laminated information sheet---->
My group's set
Video of my set
Overall evaluation
When I first thoughts about the project was that the theme of altered reality was very open because altered reality could be a lot of different things for example a film, a parallel universe, a reality where aliens are on earth, a reality where there’s a zombie apocalypse or if the dinosaurs never went extinct. When I did this last year, I got the theme Grimm brothers fairy tales which made me do research about the many tales options. This topic was not too big, so I didn’t have any ideas and also not too small that it limits creativity. I think the theme has too big of a topic range because I struggled to come up with ideas at first. When we were coming up with our five ideas, I suggested that we have a portal on set that shows a different world which after talking we turned the idea into a horror game coming out of a tv, but the idea slowly lost the portal part of it and became our Slenderman in creepy woods set. I was responsible for making some of the props and I made the dead flowers, labeled the jars, found printed and laminated covid posters, filled up the plague doctor’s basket and the medical cabinet, sewed buttons onto the plague doctor’s robe, painted onions and I made a mixture to go in the Four thieves vinegar jar. I want to specialize in stage management, so I did a lot of prop making. I also helped find the flats that we wanted from the flats store which we had to move flats out to reach the ones we wanted. We did change the front of the flats because they were 8-foot dance flats. I enjoyed watching the Back To The Future Musical in the Adelphi theatre in London which I saw for a college trip. Even though I had seen it already in the summer holidays with my family it was still good to see again. I enjoyed watching and hearing the reaction from other students that hadn’t seen it before especially at the end when the car flew and spun upside down with actors in. The music and sounds were a big part of what made the show exiting with repeating the same song when something exciting was about to happen also the car had a robotic voice which was funny. The atmosphere was very good with the lighting and sound combined. They used a screen that went down in front of the set, but you could still see parts of the set behind for example the screen was used to make it look like the car was moving forwards. The show was very funny because they had silly moments in it for example, they had a reference to a Darth Vader light saber battle from Star Wars when Marty was fighting his bully Biff. What I found challenging was going up ladders but last year I only went up a couple of steps but this year I went up six steps so next time I go up a ladder I need to go up seven or more steps, so I improve. I also found it challenging to come up with five ideas for our set when we were planning. As a group we came up with the ideas of Slenderman, plague doctor, dementia, schizophrenia and asperges. Slenderman wasn’t an original idea it was just copied from a game and the plague doctor was a good idea but the other three were very similar so even though we had five ideas it felt like one idea which was the plague doctor one. I did lots of research in these six weeks and I did research before I made my dead flowers because I looked up online how to make dead flowers prop, but nothing appeared, so I researched images of dead flowers which I used as inspiration, so I knew what to make my prop look like. I also did research on hospital equipment when I wasn’t sure what to add to the medical cabinet which I did by looked at images of hospital equipment and I found tablets, oxygen mask, oxygen tank, scalpel, masks and gloves. Researching general hospital equipment gave me the idea to make tablets after looking at the collection of images I put together on word. I also found images of covid safety posters and a drug chart that I printed off which I laminated the posters and stuck on the set’s walls, and I attached the drug chart to a clipboard that went on the inside of the medical cabinet lid. I developed as a technician by learning how to work in a group and improving my communication skills. I also learnt ladder, tallescope, workshop and manual handling safety which is very useful to know in college and for when I get a job in a theatre. I have improved my sewing skills by learning how to sew a slip stitch, a hidden stitch and three ways of how to sew a button which is useful to know if a costume breaks during a show which needs to quickly be fixed. I also learnt how to tie four main knots on a rope which are bowline, reef knot, clove hitch and a figure of eight. These knot are useful to rig a person, connect two bits of rope together to create a bigger rope and to carry weight. What went well was showing my set to other people on open day because the people were nice and asked good questions. Also, when I wasn’t in the studio talking about my set, I was doing course work. We only had two people on each set from the group to not have too many people in the room and have a group all talking over each other trying to explain the same thing which would confuse the person looking at the sets. Most of the questions were the same but sometimes you would get someone that asks a good question. People found the plague doctor creepy, so it grabbed their attention to get a closer look. What didn’t go well was when my group looked for our flats because we were the last group to pick out our flats so after a while of pulling out flats, we found 8 foot flats that we used instead of 7 foot flats. The flats we pulled out were dance flats, so we had to remove the top that was glued on with a mallet and then we removed the staples on the frame with pliers and a screwdriver. Then we glued on a new top onto the frame. The annoying part was moving the flats onto the tresals and then once they were done, we put the next flat onto the tresals. I worked with my other team members when we were moving the flats out of the flats store to try and find flats for our set. One person was inside the container looking for our flats and then slid to us what was needed to move out which required two and sometimes three people to carry the flats out onto a pile leaning against a wall. I also worked with my team by having all of the group come together and list what we need to do which we then decided who was going to do what from that list. When we were showing our set to people me and another person in my group talked about our set to people and at one point, we had to talk to two different groups of people about our set because it got so busy. I worked in a bit of every department, and I didn’t have a specific department that I was in but I mainly worked with the stage management department when I was researching and making props which I have listed the props I made in the second paragraph. I also worked in construction when I was moving the flats out of the flats store and the replacing the top. I worked in costume when I was sewing two buttons onto the plague doctor’s robe. I helped with the lighting when me and my group were deciding what colour gel to use that we were testing on a birdie. What stood out to me the most was watching Back To The Future because bit was a good show that put twisted the original story from the film to a show. The effects were impressive and the actor that played Marty’s dad called George was funny because he acted like a pathetic nerd that was not cool and not strong. He showed his when he punched someone because it was more like a tap with his fist, he also had good voice acting. I enjoyed it when the car started to fly and spin upside down with actors in which I think was done with a crane hiding in the dark. I have learned how to sew better, and I now know how to sew a slip stitch, a hidden stitch and how to sew a button in three different way. The first way is sewing it parallel through the hole and another way is to sew through the hole by diagonally sewing across each other. The last way I learned how to sew a button was by doing a parallel stitch, but you wrap the thread around the button and then finish sewing parallel to tighten the sewing also I found it easier to thread a needle with a needle threader that I bought online for a cheap price. I also learnt how to focus light, tie four main knots, make props better, work as a team with communication better and I also learned some safety things like manual handling, using workshop tools, ladder safety and talllescope safety. I also learned how to help the new students from doing this course last year as a level 2. I would like to learn more skills in the stage management department and to also go up a ladder higher. I want to learn how to make props better and learning to work on shows in that department better. Last year for the Christmas show I got covid so I missed the tech week, but I was there during the show.