Quest For Atmosphere - VDU Lesson 1 (PMD1&2)

For this lesson we were looking at Gothic Literature. At the beginning of this lesson we got shown the above image and the initial thing we had to do was look at the image and pick two adjectives from the options we got given. Once we had done this, we had to come up with our own two adjectives to describe the image.

Here are the 4 adjectives I chose: Delicate, Isolated, Overwhelming and Overpowering.

The reason why we were focusing on gothic literature and the above image is because this links back to our performance stimulus, The Mask Of The Red Death.

Continuing from this, we got split into two groups, each person had to create a still image for each one of the adjectives that we had picked. Below you can see an example of my still images.

This still image represents delicate. For this still image I decided to have everyone touching each others hands lightly to portray something being delicate, by gently touching something it shows that you have to be careful with something otherwise it will break. However if I was to further develop this still image I would change the levels of the image because there wasn't a real reason as to why I decided to have everyone sitting on the floor, it was my initial idea. So to further develop this still image I would trial and error with different levels and see the effect that this has on the image. I would also experiment with different ways of portraying something delicate. In order to further develop this, I would research metaphorical ways of showing something delicate and test how these ideas look as a still image.

This second still image is showing something being overwhelming and for this still image I decided to bring in a shock element and I believe that when something is overwhelming you don't really know how to respond, so I attempted to implement this into the still image. For this image, I have slightly changed the levels, however to develop this further I would again trial and error with the different levels and see what effect this has on the image as a whole. Not only this, I would also experiment with different facial expressions to communicate this as everyone is using the same facial expression. I would also experiment with spacing to see what it would look like if each person was in their own individual space. Something that I do like about this still image is that each person is looking at a different place. The end of the picture is slightly off but I am looking to the right, with Matthew looking straight in front, but slightly off centre and Megan looking straight up. I decided to implement this within my still image I think it metaphorically represents that there is a lot if space as it shows that there is a lot to look at because there is a lot of space, rather than have everyone look at the same spot, which would represent a small space.

This still image communicates the idea of being isolated. For this still image I didn't want to go with my first idea which was just having each person in there own space because it lacks originality and it has been used so many times before. Even though this image is still not very original, this was due to time constraints. What I do like about this still image is that by everyone being close together, it shows that you can feel isolated and alone even when you are surrounded by different people. If I was to further develop this idea I would do some research into how people react when they feel isolated and try to show this within the still image. I would also use the emotional recall technique that Stanislavski used with his actors to a time when Matthew, Megan and myself felt isolated to make the still image as realistic as possible.

My final still image represents overpowering. I could have gone with the idea of having two people together and someone on their own to represent how two people are overpowering the third person, however similarly to my third still image I thought this lacked originality so I came up with this idea of presenting a hierarchal ladder to show different levels of status, going from not very powerful to being at the top and being the most powerful (left to right). I did this because it shows how people can be overpowering in a working environment and it makes it clear that people are not always on the same level. If I was to further develop this idea, I would create another still image to add to this one which showed the overpowering being implemented to really emphasise the idea. I would do this by further experimenting with levels as well as using trial and error with different spacing to see how this effects the image and to see what works best.

Overall I think that the still images would be a lot better if they were to be further developed and if space and levels were to be further explored.

The next stage for development was to use the 5 senses to create an atmosphere to the stimulus. We traced out our hand and put a sense on each finger. For this development we decided to focus on what we could hear and we added this to the still images to create a soundscape.

Here is an example of the hand diagram that I came up with.

The video above shows the three still images with soundscape put together to create an atmosphere. Our tutor Mrs Duguid, is walking through the space to see what the atmosphere is like. Overall I don't think this video and development is very successful because we are spending too long on each still image, the transition's between them are messy and there is no creativity with different levels so therefore it doesn't give much space for our tutor to walk around or to create a different atmosphere. Overall it wasn't very well prepared, however with further development, I believe it could become better and portray the atmosphere a lot better than what it does.

Gothic Literature - Further Research

- Gothic Literature focuses a lot around violence and supernatural concepts.

-  Within gothic literature it focuses on ideas such as duality (Jekyll & Hyde)

- The plague was the last major epidemic in England and it killed around a quarter of London's population.

- It was also known as the black death

For this type of performance it would be good to use the style of Artaud because he used uncomfortable movement and focused on performances that would give the audience a message but would also make them feel on the edge of their seats. Due to gothic literature being quite dark this would be a good route to follow.