2015 – Page 2

May 24, 2015Naomi French No Comments

Technical preparations and Show Day

As part of the role of a sound designer, my job is to edit the sound files. Below is a picture of the separate sound files I uploaded to Audacity which I recorded using a Auna mic 900b USB Cardioid studio condenser mic. One of the top tips for editing sound and music is, ‘if the tracks are available, lay down each effect on its own track’ (Kaye and LeBrecht, 2009, 112). So I cut each individual recording of the five separate voices into their own track to layer and overlap each other.

WP_20150517_002 — Audacity used for layering the voice over

The reason each track is layered on top of each other is to reflect the build-up of anguish and tension between the wife and husband (Kirsty and Michael) which was shown through the increasingly distressed physical theatre presented on stage.

Lots of factors had to be taken into consideration when recording vocals; the proximity to the mic, the consistency between recording different voices, volume and noise control within the room. I also edited together the voice recording of Michael at the beginning of the ribbon sequence. Sound Designer Ross Brown talks about how sound files can be used ‘to create a mood in the audience so that they interpret the narrative or scene in a different way’ (Brown, 2010, 145). The reason the voice over sounds quite fragmented is because I want to reflect to the audience the sense of disjointed, jumbled thoughts that are going on in his brain, as he tries to comprehend what the doctor is telling him about Encephalitis.

Above is a picture taken from our final performance, where Michael slowly begins to remember his music again, and regains the memories of playing the piano. Music is chosen on the whole as an underscore to compliment the scene. If the levels of music are not correct, it could be ‘distracting the audience and detracting from the performance of the actor’ (Leonard, 2001, 121). This is why the director and I have made an executive decision to use only instrumental music because we did not want lyrics to detract the audience’s attention from the content of the scene. Overall, I am very proud of the final performance we have achieved as a Theatre Company. It raised awareness for Encephalitis, it spoke to each audience member individually and although the overall performance was subtle and understated, this worked to our advantage in telling a story of love, music and memory loss.

-Naomi

Works cited

Brown, R. (2010) Sound: A reader in theatre practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kaye, D. and LeBrecht, J. (2009) Sound and Music for the Theatre: The Art and Technique of Design. Oxford: Elsevier.

Leonard, J. A (2001) Theatre Sound. London: A and C Black (Publishers) Limited.

Levitin, J. D (2006) This is your brain on music. London: Penguin Books Ltd.

May 24, 2015Verity Ficken No Comments

The Final Weeks, A Memorable Experience.

Suddenly in the final weeks the process of devising and creating theatre seems to catch up on you as a theatre company, even more so as a Producer. The deadlines once set months before are days away and the final touches begin to take place.

We started as Fill In The Blank Theatre in January, at the start of our final term at University. The aspect of creating a fully functioning theatre company and producing our premier piece on the 20th May seemed a world away, but before we knew it we were in the venue’s auditorium tech-ing our show and seeing it come to life on the stage, out of the rehearsal space.

Our fantastic Stage Manager (Alice Saxton) and myself liaised to create several documents to ensure that the tech rehearsal and performance day both ran smoothly and we kept to schedule ensuring to make most of the time and space. In order to be productive in the space, Alice made sure that all of our technical requirements had already been created, such as lighting and sound cues and collated into Qlab to save time. Due to this we were able to do a full run in the space which we didn’t expect. It was a great opportunity to try the piece in the space and make necessary changes that we would of otherwise not known, for example certain blocking.

After a smooth productive tech rehearsal it was back to rehearsals to fine tune the piece. During this time it was my job in rehearsals to make notes during run through’s, although admittedly these notes became picky in the end but it was such notes that made the difference in making sure the piece was fluid and polished especially in aspects such as the choreography, where a foot out of place could make the scene look ‘sloppy’. During this fine tuning process, one element that I found vital was the presence of outside eyes. Nearing the end of our process we as a company invited our tutor and peers to come and witness our several ‘work in progresses’ and give us feedback. This is something I will most definitely carry with me from this experience as individuals outside of the company can pick up on things which you would have never thought to question due to being so involved with the project.

Due to our tech rehearsal being so successful thanks to our Stage Manager, Lighting Designer and Sound Designer being on top of things, it enabled us to make small changes on the performance day, such as re-recording voice over’s and changing projections due to our lighting and sound designers being experienced in using Qlab.

Yet again, Myself and Alice S planned our get in for the show day, it followed the below schedule:

9am- SM, ASM, SD, LD, PD and DESIGNER called at this time. Please try to arrive 10 minutes early as this means we can keep to schedule.

9-10.30am – Technical Set-Up. DESIGNER in charge of stage set up:

Hannah and Verity to set up stage boxes and props.

Katherine (and possibly Alice S) to set up hanging boxes.

Naomi to set piano on stage (to help Katherine after)

This time will be used to mark out the 8 chairs and centre stage, make any lighting changes and set up the projector(s).

CAST ON STANDBY FROM 10am – All cast and company members should enter through the back stage door as opposed to the auditorium. The code is 1930. Please stay in the dressing room unless you are called. Be ready in costume for Tech run.

11-11.50am – Full Tech run.

11.50am- 12.15pm – Notes and Lighting edits.

12.15–1.45pm – Lunch break. Everyone needs to return and be ready for no later than 2pm.

2-2.25pm – Cast warm up, DESIGNER to check props.

2.30-3.30pm – Dress Run. Full run of performance as though would be performed on the night. No stopping, if mistakes are made they are to be addressed at the end.

3.30pm–4.00pm – Feedback (Split; Verity = Performers and Alice = Technical)

4pm – 6pm – Dinner. If you leave the building please change out of your costume.

6pm – CALL FOR ALL CAST MEMBERS TO RETURN.

6.15pm – 6.45pm – Physical and vocal warm-up on stage. PR, SM and DR to check set and props. Performers to get in to costume.

6.40pm – HALF HOUR CALL.

6.55pm – 15 MINUTE CALL

7.10pm – BEGINNERS CALL

7.15pm – BEGIN PRESET

7.15pm – DOORS OPEN.

7.30pm – SHOW.

8.20pm – SHOW ENDS.

8.30pm – GET OUT BEGINS.

All in all we stuck closely to the schedule, perhaps being 10 minutes behind there or there abouts in which we shortened our first dinner break as we had notes to adjust technical requirements and some last minute blocking issues. We had quite an early first full run as we wanted to ‘warm up’ and get the cast used to the space whilst checking all the tech to ensure we had time to make changes, as well as the fact that we had Phil Crow, a professional photographer coming in to take pictures of our dress run at 2.30pm.

Following two fantastic dress runs, before we knew it, it was time for beginners call and the doors opened. I couldn’t be prouder of how the show went, all the cast gave it their all and were dedicated to such intense physical sequences. If I had to pick a favourite moment in the performance it would have to be the scene ‘waiting room’. Influenced by Frantic Assembly’s famous Chair Duets the scene was performed solely of movement and in complete silence, these being two reasons why I was particularly fond of it, but also the fact that it was relatable. Everyone at some point has received some sort of bad news and as people often say they have ‘no words’ to describe how they are feeling, thus its shown in the body. Even in reflection I still can’t quite comprehend the feedback we received from tutors, peers, family and friends. For example the response below;

“What a beautiful, haunting show…I admired and was touched by every aspect of the show – the conception, the performances, the soundtrack, the choreography and movement, the ensemble work, the use of the stage space, the overall productions, the artwork, the lighting, sound, projection and design. It was all pulled together so sensitively, fluently, stirringly. Really special” (Jordan, 2015).

The overall experience of being a part of organising, devising and creating a theatrical performance of a professional standard that people spoke of so highly is by far one of the most challenging yet greatest experiences I have been a part of. I have learnt many things throughout that I will carry with me after University.

It is for sure an experience that will go down in the memory book!

Works Cited:

Ficken, V., Saxton, A. (2015) FITB Performance Day Get In.

Jordan, A. (2015)

May 23, 2015Alice Saxton No Comments

The Man Whose Memories Fell Out!

Being stage manager for Fill in the Blank has been a true eye opener. Not only have I had the chance to work with some truly amazing people, and watch our piece develop (which I have never done before due to usually performing!), I have discovered and developed skills within myself that I never imagined I would have. I have developed the ability to remain outside of disputes, and ‘develop[ed] a critical eye, to observe the performance from an objective point of view’ (Palmer, 2000, 96). My key technical terms list has become rather extensive:

Key terms

I actually understand what all of them mean, which is a bonus!

As for the performance, technically, very little went wrong. I feel like our thorough ‘amount of pre-show planning and preparation… paid off’ (Palmer, 2000, 93). All the cue’s were on time and in the correct chronology. We made minor changes to two of our lighting states just before the doors opened: LX23 changed from fading into a blackout, to fading down to a 15% dimmed lighting state; LX32 and 32.5 became 7 second fades instead of 10seconds. During the Ribbon Sequence, there were 7 different strobe LX’s that were cued visually. As the sequence was performed slightly faster, possibly due to nerves, I was unable to complete all 7 cues and skipped the last one to avoid the stage right mic spot coming on too late. I also added SQ 12.5, a fade and stop cue for SQ12 as in both earlier runs the Solo Sequence was again performed too fast as a result of nerves; ‘the presence of a large audience makes a huge difference to performers… all members of the company will experience increased levels of adrenaline’ (Palmer, 2000, 93). Despite this, the cast successfully used all of their required props, with none being misplaced or misused as a result of said nerves. All the spacing of the chairs was marked in white tape on the floor to avoid the cast misplacing them in scenes. But most importantly, no ribbons were dropped in the Ribbon Sequence!

In hindsight, it would have been nice to have had more time practising with the microphones. Although we had them in 4 rehearsals leading up to the performance, the cast still struggled with their diction and their P’s and B’s when speaking into each mic. As obtaining performance space in the LPAC building proved difficult throughout the process, as well as the introduction of the mics in our piece coming in quite late, unfortunately we were unable to rehearse with them as much as we needed to. A further detailed report of the day can be found on my Post Show Report:

Post Show Report

Overall, the piece ran incredibly smoothly. Although sequences were performed faster than rehearsed at times, the production still managed to run smoothly, and the cast adapted excellently to any excess music as a result of this. I am immensely proud of The Man Whose Memories Fell Out, and the company that created it!

17713112130_c93c69b84d_m — (Crowe 2015) – Bows

Works Cited

Palmer, S. (2000) Essential Guide to Stage Management Lighting and Sound. Oxon: Bookpoint.
Crowe, P. (2015) [image] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/17713112130/in/album-72157653093111156/

May 23, 2015Alice Dale 1 Comment

…And We Are Finished.

Fill In The Blank Theatre debuted their first show at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre on Wednesday the 20 of May 2015 to an audience of 152 people. We successfully sold just over a third of tickets to ‘The Man Whose Memories Fell Out’. 43 of these tickets were on the door sales on the day of performance. I am pleased with the overall sales of the tickets as my goal for ticket sales was 150 and this just exceeded that.

The overall marketing campaign was a success for ‘The Man Whose Memories Fell Out’ and we quickly learnt that the online strategies were more effective than the other ones. Our main target audience was the students within the Lincoln School of Fine and Performing Arts and upon reviewing the sales report from the show it reveals that 98 of these tickets were booked by students from the school. This means we were able to successfully targeted this audience. Our online campaign along with the distribution of marketing materials on campus helped us in achieving this.

Other successful techniques of marketing were the distribution of promotional material in the city centre along with two radio interviews that we took part in with Siren Fm and BBC Radio Lincolnshire.

The final statistics on social media sites were…

Facebook-348

Twitter-174

(Stats recorded 24/05/2015)

We successfully gained an online presence throughout this process. The statistics show that this was mainly at the beginning when the company first formed and slowly increased throughout the weeks.

Facebook stats — As you can see from the graph, the likes on the FITB facebook page went from to nearly 200 in under two days and then slowly increased to 348 throughout last 4 months.

We pushed the social media sites mainly to LSFPA students which would have aided us in the final ticket sales. We also pushed this with the general public as the links to the sites were on all promotional material.

We found that, although flyering is a great way to get the company into the city centre, it is not always the most beneficial way of drawing attention to an event. The general public do not always react well to flyering and it is a time consuming marketing strategy. Although we did do a lot of distribution, we found that featuring the posters and flyers for the show in shop windows and on counters was a way of constantly having a presence in the city centre without overpowering the general public. This way we reached a larger audience in a less time consuming way.

As previously mention in the blog post titled Creating a ‘Cyber-Community’, social media becomes a places for people to share their opinions on the product showcased by the company. Therefore, after our first performance of ‘The Man Whose Memories Fell Out’, we received via social media lots of feedback. Here is an example of some of the comments we received on Twitter…

Overall, we were very happy with the feedback we gained from the audience. As both a performer and marketing manager, I have been overwhelmed by the positive feedback we have gained and I think being part of Fill In The Blank Theatre has taught me how to work as part of a large company whilst performing and has taught me to have confidence when working independently on marketing work.

-Alice.

Works Cited-

Crow, P, (2015), The Man Whose Memories Fell Out. [electronic print] https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/17713112130/ [Accessed 21 of May 2015].

May 22, 2015Kirsty Rice No Comments

#TheMan

We did it! After months of lengthy rehearsals consisting literally of blood, sweat and tears… ‘The Man Whose Memories Fell Out’ somehow made it to the LPAC stage and I still cannot quite believe it’s all over. It’s been an experience like no other, and the response received by the audience was one we could have only dreamed of. A performance we had become so caught up in working on for the past five months came to life on stage and transfixed our audience’s attention for the entire 45 minutes; from the moment the lights went up to the moment they faded down. Moments of silence within the performance no longer came across as lengthy and awkward, instead they only added to the haunting atmosphere, which in turn tugged away at our audience’s heart strings. The moment the lights went down and the performance began the audience became captivated by the collaboration of music, movement, lighting, text, projection and the powerful narrative of a man suffering from a rare condition known as Encephalitis.

The day of the performance ran as smoothly as our stage manager could have wished for. The set although minimal was still visually pleasing to the eye, with white wooden box frames encased in sheet music scattered lower down stage left and right and upstage centre. The day of the show was the first time the company were introduced to the completed boxes, so initially we were all particularly wary of how they would look on stage and if they would in fact be more of a hindrance than a help to our concept. However they presented the show’s theme of music beautifully and were no issue in hanging them from the rig to create levels.

The day before the show our director acknowledged us of how he envisioned the pre-set; he reiterated the point that with all performers on stage during the entirety of the performance, it made sense for us to be on stage the moment the audience walked into the auditorium. The pre-set was able to identify to the audience early on that we are a contemporary theatre company, whom doesn’t conform to traditions the stage set. Unlike most performances, our show has already begun once the audience members enter the auditorium doors.

Seeing the audience fill up was overwhelming, we did not expect to reach an audience capacity of 152, but it seems our marketing throughout the week on social media had made a huge impact on the amount of seats we sold on the day.

As a performer this was my first ever physical theatre piece, so I was unbelievably nervous. Would I remember all the choreography? Would we all be in time as an ensemble? Would the music and the movement combined transport our audience on an emotional journey? Or would it all just fall flat? As soon as we all took our seats in the pre-set there was no going back. Not being able to leave the stage worked in our favour, as the performance kept to a consistent rhythm and allowed for it to flow so naturally into the next scene. This was something I had never done up until now so it did worry me to begin with, as it meant as performers we had to know the running order backwards as well as be engaged with the performance even when we weren’t in a particular scene. Concentration and focus was the key to success. With the performance being so heavy in movement it also meant as performers we had to be aware of breath, as there was no opportunity for us to go off stage and catch our breath, overall it became a more tiring experience but a technique that more than worked in the show’s favour.

Thank you for following us on this amazing journey, who knows what’s next for the cast of Fill In The Blank, but what is for certain is this show will forever stay locked away as one of my proudest and most happiest memories. Until next time..

(The Man Whose Memories Fell Out, Crow, 2015)

(The Man Whose Memories Fell Out, Rice, 2015)

Works Cited:

Crow, P. (2015) The Man Whose Memories Fell Out [Taken] 20th May.

Rice, K. (2015) The Man Whose Memories Fell Out [Taken] 20th May.

Woodhall, M. (2015) Pre-set [Taken] 20th May.