Task 3A: Professional Networks

I must admit I have very little experience in the world of professional networking. I've certainly not done much of it. Networking I have done a little in acquiring CD's and collectibles but no, never on a professional scale. This is something I want to look at though as I do have a desire to start earning a bit of money through voice overs so have started to plan a few bits and bobs. I'm thinking of getting in touch with a voice director to see if they will produce a demo for me. This will probably come later though as I'll make a rough demo first in the Chickenshed studio and test the water so to speak. If there is a positive reaction then I will try and get something a little more professional done and start trying to generate some work. Obviously, this isn't a lightning quick process and I will have to set up some kind of website through which I can sell myself. Include a voice reel and stuff like that.

I have had a few voice over experiences at Chickenshed in 2010 I recorded narration for the Christmas show "Badjelly's Bad Christmas". I had recorded a voice over in 2009 for a studio student produced show called "12 to 1" but as I say it was a much smaller scale project. A similar student project that was part of last years end of year shows was for a show called "Gameism"; it probably didn't have the same amount of audience as the Christmas shows but I was very pleased with it. I got to do a Richard Burton(ish) voice for the beginning of the show. I also recorded some additional dialogue later. In November of 2011 I got to go back into the studio and record a sort of snooty BBC royal correspondent type thing for the show "Cinderella". I'm very grateful for them letting me have these experiences as I think It gives you that rough idea of what you want to do. I think this will be a subject that my knowledge will grow on when I actually go into the industry and start trying to find the relevant people.

I will update this blog when I put that ball in motion.

Task 2D – Inquiry Task

1.)                What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic to find out more about? Who do you admire who also works with what makes you enthusiastic?

When people are completely committed to the same goal as you are, like a small cast who all want the exact same outcome and are so willing to put in that extra effort. I think no matter how enthusiastic you are about the subject itself that enthusiasm can be lost when others don’t believe in it. But I suppose when everyone has that same feeling you do, it’s great. I find I can even become more enthused when the working environment itself is good.

2.)                What gets you angry and makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found a way to work around the sadness or anger?

I suppose when you feel people are letting everything down. When a single group are destructive within a performance and don’t care if it’s ruined for anyone else involved. I find this can make me very angry, it’s the disregard for peoples work that’s the most infuriating. Even during other projects I have helped out with the absolute disrespect some people show to their peers can really be disgraceful. I find the people I most respect when it comes to this kind of stuff would have to be celebrity Chefs (any Chef would probably do). I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous but I love the way they deal with members of their team who are slacking. They will actually tell them what they think and what they have to change about the way they are doing it. I could list one name but they all seem fairly fiery. I’m not saying that anger and shouting are great ways of dealing with problems, it’s just sometimes I think people need a bit of tough love.

3.)                What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?

I love watching something performed. Especially when I’ve had some involvement in the writing or production of it. There is something great about standing back and looking at what people bring to something that was originally just an idea in your head. There are so many practitioners I could say I admire when it comes to this but I have to say, Woody Allen is probably the main one. He’s written some of the best comedies in history. He recently wrote a new film starring Larry David, “Whatever Works”, it really was one of the best films I’ve seen in years and manages to bring something new to the table.  I put in a link to his Wikipedia page so you can find out a little more about him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Allen

4.)                What do you feel you don’t understand? Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same question as you?

I suppose any number of things really. I don’t understand how I can just pick one thing I don’t understand. The world itself is as dubbed by the Temptations a “Ball of Confusion.” I think really the not understanding of stuff makes it all the better. As soon as the mysteries gone from a subject it looses it’s appeal in my mind greatly. So I suppose who I would have to admire would be the humble bumble Bee. Thanks for giving us one last thing that can’t be explained through the use of science.

Paul

Task 2b & 2C – Journal Writing Experience / Reflective Theory Task

Barbara and Pete rehearsing for 'There's No Tomorrow'

Now, I’ve taken a major liberty here and decided to incorporate both parts 2b and 2c. I found I was repeating a lot of the same stuff and really didn’t need half of it.

Well my most recent experience with performance was Shakespeare’s Island but I’ll take it back a bit to February. It was a week of performances at Chickenshed that was called “The Emerging Writers Week”, this was where a few members of the company wrote individual short stories based on personal experiences or just themes we wished to explore. I have always enjoyed writing but found the idea of have a group of people looking at and watching my work played out for the first time in front of a public audience rather daunting. I was told back in July that this was going to be put on and had to think of a subject to explore. Considering that I wanted to explore the themes of integrating different age groups and creating work as one unit I found myself leaning towards subjects about old age and the difficulties faced. I based the story mainly on my grandmother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease and the effect it has on the whole family. Much of the script I took from actual conversations I have heard and been a part of with my Nan. I put off the writing for as long as I could and then eventually got a finished script by January. I was constantly battling with the ending. Obviously, 20 minutes isn’t a huge amount of time to tell a story that you want to contain moments of a mixture of different emotions. I was still not 100% convinced when I handed in the final draft but unfortunately, deadlines had to be met and there was nothing much I could do about that. I think In future I would make the best possible use of my time when writing and wouldn’t just settle for things. It may be frustrating but it’s so much more rewarding when at the end you have something you are actually proud of, rather than a feeling of “bah, that’ll do.” In the end it was done and I called it "There's No Tomorrow."

Me and Ashley as Alan and Mark in Bromance.

The next step was also learning lines. As it was a festival type set-up with there being multiple performances each night, I had been chosen to also act in Micheal Gavas’ play Bromance. This was the most challenging step for me as not only was I terrified for my own work being brought to life but now also had to worry about lines. Bromance was a great process and it was only a two-man play. We got a good audience response and the only thing I would like to chance is the length. We had great rehearsals and really worked hard making the characters the best we could. It’s just a shame the play was a bit longer. If it had been an hour I think we would have been able to add even more of these layers and really build their relationship. The only thing I would like to really change about this element of “Emerging Writers” would be my ability to do quick set changes. I imagine I looked like some kind of sluggish monstrosity lugging those blocks around each night. One show I did actually make a conscious effort to be a little more graceful. This I found was an opinion shared by Donald Schon. The whole thing of not only reflecting on your work after but also during. I think this is one of the most important elements of reflection and can be used to much better a performance.

The performance of the piece I wrote was a little different however. It was not really up to me to change as people had begun rehearsing. I read about David Kolb’s reflective cycle and tried to create my own to show this writing process but I found there were too many spin off ideas and I ended up with lines all over a page and no real rhyme or reason. Sometimes I think cycles can be applied if it is a specific pattern that can be followed but with writing there are so many changes that you would be going back over and making stuff you have already done completely irrelevant. I don’t know cycles and diagrams annoy me in general and so I suppose I have a bit of a vendetta against poor old Kolb now.

After watching the performance I was very proud of those who played various members of my family. We had two of Chickenshed’s artistic staff and also someone who was once there and left to pursue a career in film-making. Barbara who played the part of my Grandmother was fantastic and she had previously attended the adult theatre workshops in September of  2011. I was very happy to be able to get a cast of people from all over the company to play the parts in this and it really has helped with my understanding of the writing and performance process. I think In future I would allow myself more time. I wouldn’t be so lenient with deadlines and would try and actually use them to help me. I am planning on writing something for next years emerging writers week and hopefully I will be able to stick to my guns and use what I’ve reflected on to better enrich my work and the quality and which I should settle for.

Paul

Task 1B - Web 2.Oh No!

Well before forcing myself to sit down and write this blog I must admit to never really thinking about what “web 2.0” is. I vaguely remember talking about it on the first during the campus session. Going back over this later would be a massive help and trying to recall certain people’s views.  I know that surprisingly a lot of people were actually not in complete against social media becoming so “social” (for lack of a better expression) there was the view that it has taken away a lot of peoples ability to communicate. A couple of months ago I met up with some friends. I hadn't seen them for a little while and we all had a lot to talk about, but rather than converse we seemed to have periods of intense silence where we would simply look down at our phones and just interact with people we see every day, through either; facebook, twitter, whatsapp or all manner of other devise designed for easy communication. I suppose that is a negative that when it is so easy to keep in touch with people we really do have it at our finger tips and use it in a negative way… but it does have a massive advantage as well. I mean we can now talk to people around the world so easily and making sure you don’t “lose touch” with someone is something that’s actually easy now. Also, for working its easy, people can do so much more on the go now than at one point. For some people I’m sure this is great, but then again it must have it’s negatives. I mean everyone needs a break every now and then and I suppose “sorry, I’m out of the office” will soon no longer be an excuse. Starting out on this blog I got in touch with Natalia who was working on the same thing. She cleared up a lot of my concerns and helped me come to some conclusions.

The way the internet connects people can be a massive benefit. I mean take the riots that occurred all around the world in 2011. These were brought about mainly by social media. The spreading of word through the facebook page “We are all Khaled Said” and peoples personal blogs. Through use of pages such as these it caused worldwide attention and soon got people up in arms over others strife. These riots would overspill and eventually many countries would make stands against barbaric and oppressive regimes. So this can only be seen as a good thing. Without this added element of the internet, this sort of, post and reply, open device for communication, much of this would never have been possible.

My first encounter with the internet being a device for direct communication was in about 2008 when I was looking for music by the artist Long John Baldry. I found the website of one Eli Maas from Holland. He had a fantastic amount of Baldry music listed and I had some stuff he was looking for too. So I simply send him a quick message on the “leave a comment” banner and within a few days he had replied. Now we have managed to assemble a rather massive collection and his website is still going strong.  This is a massive benefit to the internet the way you can so easily talk to people about subjects you are interested in. Say, antiques for example. It would be easy have a passion for collecting antiques, but if you are just starting out where would you begin. Now you can easily go online and find probably thousands of pages dedicated to that subject. Through facebook groups you will have other people who share that passion coming together… and no longer are you just dealing with one person with a shop who doesn’t know what you’re taling about over that phone, no, you are talking to people who are in their own way experts. The sharing of information. This is a fantastic use of the internet in my mind. When it can actually open up streams of conversation. This is what “web 2.0” is all about I suppose. Not just looking at information that’s presented to you, but actually being able to take that knowledge and share you own.

I have used Facebook a few too many times now I suppose. I mean it’s just one example of a much vaster array of websites that have really helped the world to communicate. I remember back in the 1990’s when TV shows would run competitions. It would be “send your answers to”, and then maybe they would offer a fax line. As time went on it was e-mail. Now, its text, tweet, or facebook. I won tickets to see Robert Plant live a couple of years ago just through liking his facebook group. I suppose for musicians the most important part of web 2.0 was myspace. That really was a revelation. People were able to post their music and a fair few bands got signed through it I’m lead to believe. This was a major triumph for musicians trying to get a break in that industry. The record companies were often seen as almost impossible to break into and now here was a way to actually gain public recognition. Myspace may have fizzled out a little now but it still was an important part of making communication online so much easier. Now of course youtube is used for music mainly. But not just for music, youtube, has social issued openly discussed and spoken about. Videos are now posted as replies and many different views on subjects are shared. There is something a little unsettling about youtube however, the comments can get rather nasty and often end in whoever posted the video being almost publicly insulted, but I suppose that’s just a necessary evil of being able to post pretty much whatever the hell you want.

Of course the main negative is really the communication of anything a bit more unsavory. So many times we hear that people have been arrested after the discovery of disturbing and sometimes vile information found on their computer. It has been shown that many pedophiles have operated online and actually been able to use facebook to almost ensnare people. This is another one of those situations, where there is no easy answer. To stop this really you would have to find a way of blocking and controlling information and this would probably spill over. Censoring information would indeed destroy certain freedoms such as that of those who reached out and shared their plight during the before mentioned riots.

The cominication of information is fantastic overall. It has some downsides and I suppose the only way we could really stop this would be to take a step back. To have everything reviewed.  

Paul

Task 1C - 45 Second Clip

I've just got task 1C done. I found the short clip very difficult to do. I'm very socially awkward and I think this shows... Well, I don't think it shows I know it does, I just watched the nonsense back. I don't mind being on stage acting stupid and even on a couple of occasion wear a dress but to talk about myself is a whole different kettle of fish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J24d0vA-WRA&context=C417f9a2ADvjVQa1PpcFNyV2zR0muurherRYGT8xr7aiY0kNDUb1Q=

Well there it is anyway...

The First Blog... God it's late

Well this is my first blog. I should have got this done ages ago since I technically started in September but have resorted to deferring on countless occasions. My reasons for doing the course were really to get a wider understanding of professional practice and also to get another notch on my belt. 

In the future I hope to go into writing and / or voice acting. The two aren’t the most stable of professions however, and may prove fruitless. So getting something behind you that will force you to get a deeper understanding of the professional world on the whole can’t be a bad thing. I am gradually coming to the conclusion that for my final project I want to look at how older members of the community can really come out of their shells through the use of theater. I study at Chickenshed, a theater company open to everyone and through a series of workshops and a vocal group they have held I’ve been looking at what really does get the most out of older people and how open they are to these activities. I’ll write more about these sessions in my next blog but thought I’d better put this one up as a brief intro. 

Paul