The Rivals

#0012
 

I’ve headed down south for this character.

Ok, no not literally. This time I was back at Little Moreton Hall for my second acting role, this time as Thomas the coachman in Richard Brinsley Sheriden’s “The Rivals”. Now let me explain the “heading south” statement. For this role I had to learn how to speak in a board Summerset accent.

Now accents have never been my strong suit. I have been known to make attempts at Welsh only to somehow end up enunciating in Indian. Don’t ask me how I managed that and I apologies to both those cultures as neither accent could be called convincing.

Thankfully I had the help from two very experienced cast members who gave me advice both on how to maintain the accent without losing my diction as well as how to project.

In the end all of the coaching and practice paid off as I was awarded a society award for my Summerset accent.

Now the weather was glorious which for me was both a blessing and a curse. On the up side we had all six of our productions outside in lovely evening sunshine but this resulted in a costume problem for me. I had to wear some chest padding under my coat to bulk me out a bit. As a result I was steadily cooking until the evening had progressed to dusk. I should say that this didn’t detract from the enjoyment of acting in this production at all.

Although I have to be frank and say that there is still plenty of room for improvement with my accents.

Small Spaces

#0010

Small Spaces

While working on a recent project there were a number of problems that needed addressing. All of which involved doing the most I could with the minimal amount of gear.

Why the gear restrictions? Well sometimes you could work on a filming project where the location simply doesn’t have the physical space for a crew and an endless amount of equipment. I these situations it is best to have the minimal amount of crew and equipment otherwise everyone is going to be tripping over each other and that how people get hurt and equipment gets broken.

 Shooting a promotional video. Note the lack of equipment, or more rather the lack of space for equipment.

I would have liked to be able to use both my reflectors, sound recording gear and shoulder rig on this shoot, but in a small space that simply isn’t possible. It was therefore necessary to make the best use I could of the cameras exposure, shutter speed and aperture settings to create either the right lighting for the video or to create and exposure that could be corrected in post-production. Making use of the cameras ‘cine colour mode’ helps as well. This makes the recoded video appear less saturated. This allows for greater colour correction flexibility in post-production.

Filming products through a glass cabinet.

Here is another reason why using bright lighting equipment would have been unsuitable for this shoot. Glass is a highly reflective surface, which means that if you shine a light at it the light is simply going to bounce off and cause a nasty reflection.

Working on shoots like these involves forward thinking. It’s easy to think of just slinging all your gear in a bag and then seeing what you use when you get there, however doing a bit of forward thinking means that you don’t have to drag excessive amounts of equipment around with you.

The God of Carnage

#0011

The God of Carnage

Quite a different show to what I’ve previously been involved with.

Although the lighting wasn’t at all difficult the play itself was an interesting piece of writing. The single act play, by Yasmina Reza, managed to sustain the growing tension between the four adults without it ever seeming gratuitous. Even though arguments are a somewhat unfortunate part of many people’s lives, recreating them in a written form is, in my opinion, an art in itself.

Each night I would watch as an initial disagreement would escalate into a chaotic shouting match. The one regret I do have for this production is not watching the entire rehearsal process to see how it was directed as I can only imagine the level of thought and skill required to bring this text to life. Sometimes the two couples would be united. At other points the different genders would band together against their partners. Then everyone would stand their own ground. On this feud would go, as the result of an inspirational piece of writing.

GoPro Fireworks

#0008

GoPro Fireworks

What damage can a firework do to a GoPro Hero 2 camera? Answer, none.

Ok, that answer may vary some-what depending on the size and power of the fireworks used, however in the tests I did on bonfire night my cameras survived being placed directly under rockets, roman candles and fountains and were completely unscathed.

A fountain firework filmed with a GoPro Hero 2 placed almost directly underneath it

These fireworks were quite small and therefore didn’t push the GoPro’s protective case to the limit. However this was a good thing, as it is likely that larger fireworks would have produced more sporadic looking footage.

These tests we’re shot at 120fps. This was to achieve a slow-motion effect and to clean up the video by utilising a faster shutter speed, thus reducing the motion blur effect that could have resulted at 30fps.

 A rocket taking off

Don't get me wrong, I do have respect for my equipment. I'm not usually putting my cameras in harm's way, however seeing as the cameras sustained more damage from the soil they were sat on, than the actual fireworks, and looking at the results that I got I would say the risk paid off.

Lighting The 39 Steps

#0009

I enjoy a technical challenge as much as any geek does and I can only describe this play as a melody of technical difficulties and unexpected occurrences which ultimately resulted in a brilliant and memorable show.

Any technically demanding show requires skill to light but the difficulty level is increased when there is a shortage of the necessary equipment.

For this production I was the lighting designer as well as the technician so it is up to me to meet the demands of this Patrick Barlow adaptation.

The fact that the play was performed in the round made the lighting that much harder. The director wanted a diagonally split stage which isn’t as simple as it may sound, especially with only eight lanterns and the audience seated right on the edge of the stage, more on that later. Plus an explosion effect and a central spot light.

The design I finally settled upon (illustrated) was; mount one lantern on the end of each lighting bar. Four lanterns would handle each half of the split stage and by borrowing a technique I had used in my AS Level drama exam, of directing each lantern in a spiral I could keep the glare out of the maximum number of the audiences’ eyes whilst ensuring that all sides of the actors face would be lit. Four spot lanterns would also be used to make up each side the centre stage spot plus four flood lanterns to create the effect of an exploding biplane (not-illustrated).

These were the “technical difficulties” however they were nothing that couldn’t be solved with good planning. The “unexpected occurrences” for me, came in the form of a rather temperamental smoke machine. I say “temperamental” as it had a of releasing tiny puffs of smoke at random intervals, after which it would refuse to operate as required for about thirty seconds.

Fortunately the play was a spoof so this occasionally added some hilarity.

With well over one-hundred lighting cues this was a joy to design and operate whilst being very funny.