Tag: Aidan Felis

Show day!

It was show day. Myself and Laura arrived first so we could get on with setting everything up. We wanted to get everything done quickly so the actors could get onto the stage and we could do a run through of everything with sound and lighting, for their benefit but also for our so we could give ourselves time to make alterations to anything if needs be. For this we needed to be prepared and go in with a plan which we had done. We knew what needed to happen and who would be doing what.

we bagan by measuring out all of the rope and cutting it to the right length ready for hanging. At the same time as working out the rope we began lighting the syke. The rope started taking place and began looking really good. I was very happy with how it was turning out. The syke we had gone with green because that was the colour of one of the birds who did not have a colour of her own inside the cage. before we could start plotting the lights we had to get the initial shape of the cage and get the rostra in position so the lights would be focused in the right place.

The cage starting to take shape

The cage starting to take shape

Once everything was in place we began plotting the lights. Instead of having the actors come onto the stage and stand where they should i would be where the actors should be while Laura talked them through the lights. This was the actors could use their time to be rehearsing final bits ready for the show. Having already programmed everything into the laptop the day before it made this whole process faster meaning we could break for lunch and return to have a cue to cue and a full tech and dress run through.

We decided that I would be operating the Tech on the night as i knew the play and i knew the characteristics of everyone, I knew pauses added in by the director and how lines were said. This meant the the Cur to Cue could be faster wasting less time and it would also make Laura’s job easier as i already have an idea of what is coming so i would understand her easier and if anything went wrong i would know as appose to the technicians who would only be able to follow Laura’s instructions.

During the tech run we came across a few problems that we had a bit of time to fix. after receiving feedback we changed the syke from green to a light blue so it represented the outside more than the character. The death scene needed making more intense so we dropped some lights and just had the one and finally we added in more lights to certain parts as we found that in some places the actors were not lit due to the gobo having dark spots which meant if the actors stood in a certain place that dark spot could be on their face.

After fixing everything, it was time to break before the show. finally when the show came around i was nervous for the actors and also because i felt a lot of pressure on making sure the lights would be in the right place and the sounds would be timed correctly, however the entire thing went really well. The actors performed the best they ever had and the audience seemed to really enjoy the show which at the end of the day is why we made it the way we did.

Design and Qlab

During the final week of the process we realised that we had an idea about how the stage would be lit and how it would sound but there were know cues for me and Laura to go from. A few members of the company sat and discussed what we wanted for lights and sound. It was decided that the lights would be basic and not really do much other than dim and possibly get brighter. I didn’t feel like this stuck with the feel of the play. We have a large set and play that can get very hectic and built up at points. During a discussion with Laura while going through the tech script we decided we needed to add more in there. Kali-Renee says just how important lighting can be on their online post saying:

‘When putting together a production one of the most important key elements is lighting. Creating proper lighting for specific scenes, whether it is for theater production or music concerts, can make or break the production if not done properly.’ (2013)

The post goes onto discuss how the lighting can help influence a persons mood and tell the audience how they should feel at certain parts of the play, I didnt feel like our design did that and so we began developing the idea’s put forward by the lighting team and directors. We kept everyones idea of having the different spots for different areas as that was an on going thing throughout the piece and we did not want to get rid of it, however we developed the the initial idea of the dimming and brightening of the lights requested by the director and turned it into a pulsing effect. This pulsing effect looks subtle on the floor of the stage however placing it at points where emotions are high and the plays mood is very hectic it will just help add to the atmosphere which is what we wanted to do.

The different colours and broken Gobo lighting

The different colours and broken Gobo lighting

some problems we had were for the final part of the play and the death of ‘The Wild one’ were how to make it a better atmosphere for what was going on. we didn’t want all the lights to be on as that would have taken away from the focus of what we wanted people to see. so instead we used specials, one which would follow the actors movements so they could just be lit by one light and another that was a strobe light to heighten the intensity of the killing section. This would force the audience to only focus on what we wanted them to.

As for sound we felt that there was a layer missing throughout the performance, the actors would perform bird noises all the way through and we decided to add more bird noises through the speakers. The sound was only soft however it would help with adding to the atmosphere of the piece. During a run through of the play i played the sounds and marked down important area’s where the noise could get louder to add to the chaos or quieter to help the audience focus on certain points of the play and to add tension to what is happening. There were points where the bird noise would stop completely. During the death scene The birds would get louder in the build up to the death and stop completly during the death, with the sudden change in sound and the new found silence would make any noise made during the death heightened and mean more.

Having already operated the sound on a show this year I know my way around a programme called Qlab. This programme is what runs all lights and sound in the tech box. Usually on the day you would add everything into Qlab ready for the night, however we thought it would be more beneficial to sit and do it the day before the show while going through the tech script so that way we could go in on the day ready and prepared to link it up to the system and it would speed up the whole process of the day meaning there would be more chance for the actors to get onto the stage and work with the lights and sound.

 

Works cited –

Kali-Renee, (2013) How to use stage lighting to convey mood and atmosphere. [online] http://www.helium.com/items/2411743-how-to-use-stage-lighting-to-convey-mood-and-atmosphere (accessed) 23/05/2013

I want a cage

When we first decided on doing Cagebird’s i straight away decided that i wanted a cage on stage. I felt that most people would avoid using a cage due to the difficulties of creating it. So many other people would have found ways around it by maybe suggesting that they were in a cage or changing the play completely so it wasn’t a cage at all. However i felt that this was going to be our final piece at university and that creating a birdcage would be a good task to get involved with and it would look really good on the stage. We are also a company that sells ourselves as visual theatre and visual theatre does not just have to be the style of movement it can be created with the space as well. My favourite productions that i have seen have been ones that have large sets with a lot to look at because they look more professional, They are the ones you see on West end such as Les Miserables and their ship and barricade, or the Lion king having a revolve and pride rock on stage so what is stopping us from having a 23 foot high bird cage.

The rest of the cast were unsure and the director said she would prefer a more empty stage with maybe just a door however i was set on the idea of having a birdcage. After many discussions we decided that a descision had to be made and so, as Artistic Director, i put my foot down and decided we would have the bird cage. The next stage was to discuss with the Technicians whether we could have it after i fought so hard to get the cast on side.

After meeting with the Technicians to discuss my idea’s they said it would be possible to do, all we have to do is source the materials to build it. I Met with Laura to discuss idea’s so we could then go to the director with a plan. we decided on using rope to create the cage as it could be manipulated to give more of a dome shape rather than it going from just floor to ground. we then needed measurements for the cage so we knew how much rope would be needed for the cage. we tried it out with some rope that was already around to get an idea of the performance space size.

The cage would go from the floor to the grid of the LPAC which is a height of seven meters. coming from a centre point outwards for three meters and the gap between grid and the beginning of the drop of the rope is one meter, this meant that we would need roughly eleven meters of rope for each piece of rope we used. our plan was to create seven bars using the rope giving a total of seventy seven meters worth of rope. The LPAC had twenty three meters meaning we had to somehow source a further fifty four. we looked online at DIY stores to get prices but quickly realised that the rope was not cheap and for the amount we were wanting it would be around £100 which was outside of our budget. At this point we knew we might not be able to go through with the idea due to the difficulties of sourcing rope.

Measurements for the birdcage

Measurements for the birdcage

After a meeting with the technicians about the rope we were pointed in the direction of the Theatre Royal, we were told that they might have some rope we could use however it may not be enough for what we want. we decided to try it anyway and if we had to cut it down to 5 pieces of rope that is what we would do. We got in contact with the Theatre Royal and they said they would give us the rope we needed. After collecting the rope we now had eighty meters of rope which would be enough to go with the scale we had originally wanted, the next step will be to build the cage on the day.

Logo Design

During the time of performing Grimm Tales i was a part of the marketing team. It was a this time that we came up with our name, Retold Theatre, and needed a logo for the company. I had experience in using a programme called Photoshop so i took it upon my self to design the logo for the company. We decided we wanted something that wasn’t just the words ‘Retold Theatre’ in some decorative font, but was maybe a letter of a picture that could be easily recognised and associated with the company.

17223_476419742420696_499372250_n

This is is the logo design that i came up with in the end. It is the infinite symbol which in this case represents the retelling of stories that can go on forever. The red ‘R’ is for Retold. The design is something that is simple but it sums up the company name well. it has colour which makes it interesting to look at and can me memorable which is what you want when marketing.

Creating the Trailer!

When creating the trailers for Retold Theatre i wanted to make sure that they were something that was interesting to watch, it was something that stuck with the concept of the piece we were doing and that is was not too long meaning people would watch it to the end as that is where the important information would come.

This is the trailer created for our original performance, Grimm Tales. With this trailer i made it an animation, partially because it was early in the process and we were not prepared with costumes and make up to make a live action trailer where most companies would use rehearsal footage as a little teaser, however it was animation mainly because it looks more impressive and is easier to watch. You can make animation look professional which is what i wanted. With a trailer that uses actors you have to rely on so many more people, such as the actors to perform well, you have to make sure it is lit clearly and that the sound is alright. Creating an animated i only have to rely on myself, if i find that something is not right i can go back to a previous step and fix it myself, whereas if i find something wrong while editing a trailer with the actors the whole thing could need re-shooting.

Grimm Tales are children stories but with a dark twist. This is the reason for using the pop up book, it shows the aspects of children’s stories, The shapes that come away from the page show that is might not be all that it seems, especially the final one with the tree coming right towards the screen however it does not give too much away. It hopefully makes the viewer want to find out more about the production and they would ideally go to the social media links that are within the trailer and become interested in the production. Given the trailers length 23 seconds there is no reason to not watch it all as it has finished before you have chance to get bored of it. I fell this is a good example of a trailer and includes everything i would want from it.

When we changed our show and decided to go with David Campton’s Cagebirds, this meant a new trailer had to be created. This brought up the challenge of how to go about it. I could have animated another trailer for it however i wanted to show that there is more to Retold Theatre, and the show would not suit that style of animation as well as Grimm Tales did. During a meeting about poster designs we came up with the idea of using eyes, i took this idea and put it to work on the trailer. However just having eyes on a trailer with some information would not be very interesting to watch meaning it would not do a very good job when trying to get people to come to the show. I thought about different idea’s and i came up with the one we have now.

The concept of this trailer was to fit in with the mood of the play. Cagebirds begins calm and builds up into a frantic piece where everything is disturbed and the birds become irate. I tried to get the trailer to fit that, so it begins with the mood being light, the first six pairs of eyes in the trailer are the six birds that have been within the cage the longest. the eyes start speeding up while the talking stays the same length. that meant the talking would overlap, which had been directed in the play to happen so fit in with the trailer. This continues until the final pair of eyes appear. These are the eyes of the ‘Wild One’ which in the play is the character that causes the chaos so the trailer has her as the one who appears the most sharply and are the only pair of eyes that do not close again. While the wild one is silent i felt that there was something missing so i added in the white noise as another layer.

I would have liked this trailer to have been better than it was however due to changing plays so late into the process we had to remarket everything as soon as possible. given more time i feel i would have done a better job and it may have been more affective. However it still ties in with what i wanted from a trailer as it is short, it is interesting and it sticks with the concept of the play

Aidan Felis – Artistic Director

Aidan Headshot

Aidan Felis is currently finishing his final year at the university of lincoln, studying Drama. During his final semester Aidan is the Artistic Director of Retold theatre, as well as Creative and technical director along with design.

Aidan has tried his hand at al aspects of the theatre, including being an actor within a number of productions, his favourites being; a production of Debris in 2012 created with course friends as part of a university module, a production of the Trial (2010) for his final performance of his college course and his favourite role was the part of Macduff in a college production of Macbeth (2009). As well as acting Aidan has been artistic director of a charity show put on at the LPAC (2013) which he created along with a friend to raise money for the Wish Upon a Star Foundation and He has also been a Technical operator for a production of Spring Awakening (2013) where he operated the sound for the show over a period of two shows which included 9 different microphones.

Outside of the theatre Aidan Enjoys juggling and circus performance and will maybe one day run away with the circus.