Monday
Today, Laura, Penelope and Jason worked together with the students to get to (by the day’s end) a stop-start run. Laura worked with the children to direct performance, while Jason drove the lighting and overhead projector to develop and learn cues (while he made some spectacular shadow puppets on the fly). Penelope ran between each, connecting all the elements of the production and notating all the elements that will be needed for production week. Callum stayed in Melbourne to develop and com the sound design for the animation.
Jason completed the layout of the animation across this week. Over the weekend, Penelope edited the animation, adding in narrative/text footage to tell the story more clearly. In the edit, it’s much easier to see logic leaps in story or gaps in continuity. Jason had to do one pick up - one little additional animation segment - yesterday, before the children arrived. It’s complete and nearly ready for final cut. Once we add sound and reshoot and add in one background, it’ll be complete. We will load it into Vimeo, and as Lynne suggested, make a QR code so families can access it easily next week.
Tuesday
Tuesday was dedicated to integration of sound and stage management, and doing runs of the show, building towards our tech and dress rehearsals next week. At the start of the day we showed the children the rough cut of the animation, which was exciting for all of us to hear and hear.
We are at a point where we are tightening the show and are on track for tech and dress next week.
Artist's Reflections
Laura
The last two days have been so joyful. I’m so enjoying all the pieces coming together after feeling last week that there was a LOT happening within the performance team. This week, the silhouette performers, shadow puppeteers, narrators and the over head projector images came together to tell the narrative the kids had created in a really beautiful way. I know Monday and Tuesday will be huge days for the kids next week as we do our tech and dress rehearsals but I’m feeling confident that with our stage management team calling the shots backstage that we’re in great hands. The only thing I’m a little concerned about is if we have performers away, we’ve put in place some understudy roles and Ted and Luca in particular have been sensational at adapting when we had narrators away on Monday so we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. Here we go! I can’t wait to share this work with the other students and broader community. How fun!
Penelope
This week, I can really see that we are on track. I have felt a little white-knuckled about the speed at which we have been able to create these two final pieces for presentation. There have been many shifts in how children learn and think during the lockdowns and this project has demonstrated this clearly. The staff have, as always, been so flexible and accomodating. The children have really jumped in, and it's wonderful to see the performance kids holding the space and owning the work. It is going to be beautiful.
The animation...Oh gosh! After spending the weekend editing it and sending it through to Callum, I had no real idea what to expect when we saw the rough cut on Tuesday morning. I was DELIGHTED!!!
We need to do some pickups (Jason has to reshoot the sky background) and load this in, then layer in the completed soundtrack, and it’s done. I will then upload it to Vimeo and create a QR code, which we will have available for the school community, both through the regular school channels and at the performance venue, for easy access and viewing. The kids were thrilled to see their work and made some astute observations about narrative, and were pleased to see their puppets in action.
The performance is coming together well. It’s quite a complex work, with many elements that need to be coordinated and refined, to make the piece run smoothly as a single unit. By the end of Tuesday, all of these elements were in order, and we were up to rough runs, so the show will tighten with the tech and dress runs on Monday, and then again across Tuesday with the performance for the school during the day. I am really thrilled to see everything coming together.
Jason
I firstly spent time on the Monday morning completing the animation. Over the weekend we had done a rough cut and found that a new scene was needed and a small addition to another scene. Once that was completed the stop frame animation desk was packed up and I focused on assisting with both lighting control and creating puppets for the overhead projector for the performance.
Gradually we developed a working technical script that included lighting cues. Over the remaining time, I simplified the operation down to two lights, worked out the colour background changes, worked out the puppet manipulation and operation and developed an organised system backstage. I had hoped to give the responsibility of operation to a student or students but found the complex nature of what we were doing would be more easily achieved by myself alone. It was then a matter of running the show multiple times and rehearsing the transitions. I could see the children performing at the rear of the screen from where I was opping, and they are doing a great job. It's a complex work and they are quickly getting the hang of it. There are some super switched-on children in this group. Great stuff!
Callum
This week was full on production mode. I spent all of Monday working to get the animation sound all finished. That was an interesting process, as it’s the first time if properly designed to such a specific visual element. It was a great learning experience, and I’m excited to do more sound work for film moving forward.
On Tuesday we showed the rough draft of the animation to the students, who all seemed to get a kick out of seeing their story animated and sounding good (even if the mix was a little rough). Then it was time to focus on sound for the performance. I worked with my assistant director, watching the performance and working together to build a sound scape. I also got to show them how QLab works, which is simultaneously very easy but weirdly complicated at times to explain. But he got the hang of it, and I’m excited for the final outcome when everything gets brought together! The kids are super excited, we’re super excited, it’s an exciting time all round!
Comentários