Final thoughts

I very much enjoyed this project.  A key lesson learned was organization. File structures and notes and conventions became more important as the project progressed. I had to spend time reorganizing my files so I could keep track of my work.

Files and contents

As I edited different version naming and keeping track became very important. I can hear the voice of those more wiser than I ringing in my ears. I think my final thoughts are very important to me. Did I understand what the client wanted from reading the brief. There where many point during this project that  elements of self doubt would creep in. Was I making something because it seemed like a good idea and it fitted the brief or was it just a good idea and had nothing to do with what the client wanted but they where going to get it anyway. This is the first project where these ideas have impinged on my thoughts.

Crit and beyond

I don't know why I say it each time but I do enjoy seeing the work the rest of the group have produced. This project seems to have struck a cord with everybody.  They all have picked up the ideas and run with them. Russel has created a slick video for Bacardi, I think he really excelled with his work. I liked Corinne's poster for the forestry commission and as the group suggested a little tweak would improve them. As for my work I happy that Andrew thought the pdf was striking, that it was important to grab the attention of YCN when they view the project. Hayley came up with a suggestion that I make the words look like they are cutout from the pencil. I spent some time trying that but abandon it for a redesign. Andrew had suggested some shadows which I had argued against it saying I like the look as if it had been photographed on a light box. Different coloured leaves were also discussed.

Part of the redesign

I re-sized the leaves making the green ones smaller and changing others to brown and adding the text to spell out the message. I feel that it has certainly made the poster stronger. I have cut one element from the animation and added my tag line at the end. Chris thought I might be able to have it at the start but I could not make it work, however I did use the few seconds gained to show the text at the end longer.

Finishing off

 

Phillip Glass 'Brasil'

Today has been a day of completion. It was only yesterday that I found the music I wanted to use for the animation.  I had been thinking of Brian Eno as I wanted some ambient music, in the end I chose a Phillip Glass track called 'Brasil'. I am only going to use the first 25 seconds. I did an edit yesterday with music and this morning I felt I needed to edit the sound track. There is drum beat with horns and I have reintroduce that dramatic sound before the curtains open. It adds a moment of anticipation.

Bottom of poster

 All is complete however I feel there is something missing from the poster I am finding it difficult to highlight the text at the bottom  so the message comes across. Hopefully crit will throw up a solution.

Dividing my time

We now have a week away from the college this week my time will be divided up between working on video, pdf for submission of work and my tickets and posters. As all of the work for the pdf is interdependent this is the key area for the week.

I have chosen to use the key elements from my videos to use as a style motif for the pdf.

Page from pdf

I did all the work for the pdf in Indesign, I have not had a great deal of experience with Indesign but the tutorial attended the week before sent me in the right direction. I chose to use the leaf as part of the back ground and set that in the master page. What I did not do however was to set the leaf and string in the master which would have reproduced it on every page. So I would copy and paste the string and leaves in position on every page. I know some people would rather do everything in Photoshop and make all the pages up into a pdf later. I found the auto guides a great help when laying things out. I was able to give the gab between each window for the story board a great help. The second advantage of using Indesign was the ability to edit the page easier. I could substitute a new image by deleting the old image leaving the box it sat in in place. Then using place a new image could easily take its place.

The forest church

I saw this image during the week and it had reenforced the idea that I wanted a dappled light effect in the video. I did a search on the internet and the nearest effect that I could find was for light beams underwater. I have adapted this technique to enhance the back ground of the animation.

Note to myself

I made a quick note to myself and left it in the same folder as all the After Effect work so I could call upon it when I wanted to repeat the effect.

Better understanding of after effects

This the second project that we have used After Effects. I did my preconception work outs with After Effects except for my initial quick video in Photoshop. Though it takes a little time I was able to develop and explore ideas quickly. For example I used Photoshop generated images, I soon discovered that it was easier to create the different layers which where used in After Effects if saved as single images as either jpegs or png depending on whether I wanted them to be transparent or not.  I could then adapt or up date any image saving it as the same name that it would then be in place and have the same attributes as a previous version.

Renaming new images

My original string image was just a brown lines. I soon realised that they needed to to be lighter. I renames string to string original. Later I substituted the lighter string for real strings. So I renames string to string two, and as before saved the new image as string. When Opened up After effects the image was already in place and set to go.

Point of interest and parents

The other key element that helped me was point of interest. This allowed me to control the string and leaves, I could put rotation around the point this gave the feeling of the leaves fly through the air. Using parenting, linked the string with the leaves which was on separate layers. What ever movement or position I put the leaf in the string would follow.

Development ideas

My initial thoughts was the arch of travel from the pen to the stage, I thought about stage sets, pencil and paper which lead me to think about trees. I collected some images for inspiration.

Collection of idea images.

I like the thought that paper and pencils come from trees, I already had the idea of a tree made of pencils when I saw this window display from Liberty's. I made a try out video in Photoshop and finished it of in After Effects.

My first try out video

It is funny how things stick in your mind. I remember seeing a pencil make from a twig. I tracked down an image and used it to create a new video as prof of concept. I added some music just to help the atmosphere.

Prof of concept video

As you can see the idea is quite well informed I now need to find the real twig pencils to us in my video.

Pitch

We had to pitch our ideas to day. I was able to present a rough video which has encapsulated the idea I have. The presentation consisted of my understanding of the brief and the key elements I felt were important. along with, the video and a rough poster lastly the concept for the ticket. This is to be a marketing device to encourage regular user of the theatre to to see more productions. The feed back from the group was very positive and have taken on board their comments.

Key element of my project.

 These three elements I believe will act as a visual metaphor to tell the story of the play to the stage.

A brief history of The Royal Court Theatre

The Royal Court Theatre is situated on Sloane Square London. The theatre was acquired in 1956 by the English stage company. George Devine artistic director produced new British and foreign plays. It was his aim to create a writers theatre seeking to discover new writers and produce serious contemporary work. He produced John Osborne's Look Back in Anger in 1956, the first play identified as being by one of the angry young men. A phrase originally coined by The Royal Court Theatre press officer to publicise John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger and then applied to other young British playwrights and novelist of the time. In 1965 Osborne’s A Patriot for Me and Edwards Bond's Saved both had issues of censorship, which was still enforce by the Lord Chamberlain office. This necessitated the theatre turning its self into a private members club so the productions could be staged. In 1968 theatre censorship was ended.

Roots by Arnold Wesker, The Knack by Ann Jellicoe, Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman

Ariel Dorfman

 

Other noted production under Devine's directorship, besides Osbourne and Bond, are works by Roots by Arnold Wesker, Sergeants Musgrave's Dance by John Arden, The knack by Ann Jellicoe and A Resounding Tinkle and One way Pendulum by Nf Simpson. Subsequent artistic director of the royal court premiered work by Christopher Hampton, The Island by Athol Fugard, Howard Brenton, The Girls and Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill, Hanif Kureishi, Sarah Danniels, Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertbaker, Attempts on her life by Martin Crimp, Blasted by Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, Martin Conagh, MotorTown by Simond Stephens and Leo Butler. Early season included new international plays by Bertolt Brecht, Eugene Ionesco, Endgames by Samuel Becket, Jean Paul Sartre, and Marguerite Duras. In addition to the 400 seat proscenium arch Theatre Downstairs, the studio theatre up stairs was opened in 1969 at the time 63 seats facility. The Rocky Horror Show premiered in 1973.

The Jerwood Theatre upstairs

By 1995 the theatre was threatened with closure due to the deterioration of the building and was save by an arts council and national lottery grant, opening in 2000 under the artistic directorship of Stephen Daldry it was completely rebuilt, except for the facade and the intimate auditorium. Now named The Jerwood theatre downstairs with 380 seats and a 85 seat studio theatre up stairs.

The Jerwood Theatre down stairs

Over the last decade the royal court has placed a renewed emphasis on the development and productions of international work. From 1993 the british council has begun its support of the international residency programme ( which started in 1989 as the royal court international summer school) and by early 1996 a department solely dedicated to international work had been created. A creative dialogue now exists between innovative theatre writers and practitioners in many different countries including Brazil, Cuba, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Palestine, Romania, Russia, Spain, Syria and Uganda. Many of these projects are supported by the British Council and more recently by the Genesis Foundation, who also support the production of international plays. The international Department has been the recipient of a number of awards including the 1999 International Theatre Institute awards.