Over the Easter holiday, our timetable gives us the following to achieve independent research (and purchasing the fabric), curating a setlist, songwriting, booking rehearsal spaces, practising the setlist, and finding potential actors.
To start, I have created two articles of research for my website and uploaded them. The first is on David Gilmour of Pink Floyd (as well as “Comfortably Numb” and “Wish You Were Here”), and the second on Bertolt Brecht (his style of theatre and how it ties into ours). For these research articles, I used the internet to read a range of sources (journalistic articles, YouTube videos, or informative articles) to find as much content as possible that could influence our project. I would then discuss why it is influential (e.g., in the Brecht article I evaluated if one of his techniques would be of use to us, then how we would use it. I even drew on my own experiences to discuss the work of those I have worked with).
In the first week of Easter, we organised, with our Snapchat group chat, a group trip to Doughty’s fabric shop to purchase the fabric we had researched and spoken to them about. We then had a 2.3 meter-wide polycotton sheet cut 4 meters long while we were there and spread the £24 cost three ways.
The setlist was completed a few weeks ago as I mentioned in a previous post (three covers: Pink Floyd, Nickelback, and The Goo Goo Dolls, and two originals), as well as the first original song. However, I have started practising ‘Wish You Were Here’, and ‘Always with Me, Always with You’ (the outro song) and you can listen to them here:
We have planned to start rehearsal sessions once we have written the script as well as the final original, which we plan to do next week. Regarding this, we have created a rehearsal timetable as a group with the tutor Pete Thorogood (see below).
Finally, potential actors have been a concern of mine since the start of the project, as the two of us may not be enough. However, the size of the screen and maintaining the simplicity of the script should mean two actors are enough. Although James Myatt and Drew Morris will still be on standby.
Last week I set out one goal: productivity. Over the last two weeks, I believe we have nearly met my goal. For example, we did get the fabric at the soonest moment we could, setting out a good outlook for the following two weeks. I also created two in-depth articles that are important to our project. However, due to the fact we had already met some of the goals set out for Easter initially, I think I could have dedicated more time to learning and practising more songs, perhaps even all the songs. I don’t want to be ahead of schedule, as this could show poor planning, however, if I had all the material, except the remaining original, learnt confidently, I could spend more time on future goals that may require lots of attention (e.g., scriptwriting). The solution to this will be using the timetable templates I have already created to good effect, as I will feel comfortable that everything is going to plan. This will definitely be useful during recording days, where we can plan our activities by the hour, making the most efficient use of our time.
Another concern is the uncertainty regarding the number of actors we might have. As we have not written the script yet, we cannot determine how many actors we need, or who suits the role best. Whilst this uncertainty is concerning, the script will contain all the instructions for any external actor may need, so won’t take long to learn. We can also rehearse with them in college or outside.
Going into next week, I think timetabling will become more important, so I must organise effectively and make the best use of my time. I would also like to gather feedback on my playing of the songs I have rehearsed so far from my peers or a tutor. The communication networks have proven to be useful in sharing ideas as we have discussed potential ideas for the second original song and research topics, as well as evaluating our progress.
Comments