Working on ‘How to Disappear completely and never be found’ was a really interesting challenge for me. In terms of my artistic contribution I feel like I worked in a thorough and detailed manner. I worked in a methodical way to break down each characters costume, found the best price for each garment and in some cases got quotes for customized pieces. This meant that finance was able to see clearly where every penny would have gone. However I should have informed the panel of some of these facts or perhaps included the document in the packs we handed out as I barely touched on budget, howevermy figures were included in the main budget, therefore they were presented but in a less obvious way.
As well as being thorough in terms of budget, I read the script three or four times so that I was able to get every detail into the costume proposals. This also allowed me to get a feel for the mood of the play and helped me shape more solid ideas about our artistic vision. This really helped me in terms of creating material to present such as the mood boards. I did this twice, once as a compilation of potential ideas and themes which was shared at the production meeting, this was because I wanted to confirm with the rest of the team that I was working with a similar artistic vision. I Think this was a successful element of my process as it allowed me to refine my ideas even further after recieving positive feedback. For the actual presentation I put together all my ideas which comprised of sketches, fabric swatches and color schemes. Im really pleased with what I compiled t as it looked professional and helped me put my ideas across. However I have learnt that in terms of creating costume for stage, especially for a show including 27 characters its best to keep things simple.
Looking at the professional and vocational elements of my contribution I feel as though I completed every task well, I listened in group meetings and gave constructive feedback when necessary and recorded notes from meetings. This is also shown through my contribution in terms working with everyone in the group to pool our ideas together and write about our artistic vision. I put my idea forward that the audience should feel as thought they are watching a drug ‘fueled distopia’ not only because of the flamboyant colour scheme but because of the plays pace. We worked diplomatically to include each aspect of the production and produced a coherent vision at the front of our packs. This was a good way to do this because it meant the people we were presenting to could look at the basic idea of what we had created, as well as having it explained to them in more detail. This is something that I would say was most successful about our presentation, the booklet we handed out was in order so that as each new person got up to speak the page would be turned and the contents of the booklet would contain relevant, supporting information such as additional pictures or rehearsal plans. I personally benefitted from this a lot as I became very nervous when speaking, this is something I know I must improve in future however I was prepared and tried very hard to stay calm. Overall I would say that our pitch was strong and we conveyed good collective ideas in a professional and passionate way.
Roles Within the Group:
These are a combination of notes taken in a lesson and the information I found on the MGC futures website. These are the roles which will also be played within out 'companies'. I have identified key responsibilities, skills and roles.
Initial Ideas
Below is a brainstorm which contains initial thoughts and facts that came from reading the play. This brainstorm is what sparked my ideas which led me to my final designs, such as the vivid colours conjured by the drug infused world of the play.
From this initial Idea I began to think about greed in relation to clothing, rich colours for extravagant characters. This reminded me slightly of the capitol in the hunger games (sorry) the extreme world that is created. The video below is a brief insight into what I am talking about.
Of course this was not my only influence, the bold double breasted suites that swarmed Wall Street in the 80' and early 90's could be a bold comment on greed and dissolution also. This is were I realised a bonding of the two would be really really interesting onstage.
First collections of ideas and influences:
These are the mood boards I presented at the production meeting, they are just very simple indicators of the style I was going for. I feel like this work really well as I was able to discuss my ideas with these supporting images enabling everyone to see very clearly what I was trying to achieve. What came out if this is that the use of colour was good and conveyed a clear meaning and added to the manic nature of the production but in terms of budget the clothing would have to be slightly simpler.
Below is a copy of the budget I created, it includes all of the items of clothing required what they are for and how much they cost. This was hard for me as Im not particularly thorough with numbers, if I were to do it again I would definitely use excel as it is designed for 'Working Budgets' it calculates for you.
How to disappear completely and never be found - Costume Budget Breakdown
Actor 1: (Charlie) (Adam) - two costumes.
start to page 63. 100 to finish
Charlie: 3 piece suit £70 (depending on the artistic vision color will be decided.) Mac. £20 Dress socks £5 (3 pairs). Shoes.£26 Neutral Grey Underwear.£7 (3 pairs) Shirt. £15 (2x) watch £12
Sophie - All black, skinny jeans £13 long sleeved Black top £3, Boots £30 Coat £12.99 All Black
Total: £57.99
Total Expenditure : £594.99
Contingency:£100
required Budget: £694.99
Production Meeting Notes:
Marketing and PR (Sophie and Asa
Asa, inital thoughts for poster design, using passport with not face? this could be interesting and eye catching. This needs to be mocked up.
Hard Marketing approach, waiting to here back from potential printers with quotes
unsure about numbers in terms of flyers posters
Twitter campaign, looking at competition ideas and potential hashtags. How will we create a buzz around the show?
The importance of a great trailer. We need to find room in the budget for this? (Louie?)
Lighting and Sound (Alex)
Play hasn’t been read yet. unsure of the mood in which to convey and needs to liase with Tian (set designer)
Has looked at the soho theaters lighting rig and has knowledge of the sound desk.
Has a good understanding of the sound system which will be used.
Finance:
All numbers are in. The total Budget is complete
Is there room for more of a contingency in costume.
What are the ticket prices at the soho?
A best and worst case prediction will be complete by presentation.
Set:
Initial playground Idea and sketched shown. Liked and Approved by everyone.
Discussion about the use of a fabric which will be used to project off of. Muslin?
Colours in relations to other design aspects? With costume there is room for a match or great contrast?
The idea of the moving train? Will the complications this will bring pay off?
The moving set idea is approved by everyone.
Education:
Who are we looking to reach?
demographic of 18-25 year olds
which issues/themes will be tackled? should the workshops focus on addiction or mental health?
Stage Management:
A list of all props require have been listed
Along with set the budget needs to be completed
Costume:
Mood boards presented.
all in agreement that the overall artistic vision is that of a ‘drug fueled distopia’
Everyone has a approved the idea of having vivid colors and grotesque clothing, in order to convey extreme nature of the piece.
How do I think this meeting went?
I feel like we achieve quite a lot in this meeting as we were able to confirm the artistic vision for the piece. Therefore we are able to go ahead and plan every element of the pitch down to which color socks Charlie will be wearing. However I feel like some people had more time to convey there ideas than others. This meant that people like me and Milly had less feedback on our ideas so far but we managed to get the basics covered and this is problem that can be easily solved through better time keeping. From an artistic view point it was really helpful to discuss the set and lighting as these go hand in hand with costume and I now know that the costumes will be designed in order to contrast greatly with the set. This is because we want to highlight personal wealth within the world of the play, an extreme selfishness. I feel like I could have spoken more coherently in the meeting about my section.
Final Designs:
Here is a sections of one of the mood boards I created, as you can see I used sketches and fabric swatches in order to portray the overall look. The fabric swatched worked well as they capture the colours and texture of the costumes. The final vision was that everything was normal but in vivid colours and exaggerated and bold. Furthermore the costume had to be representative often as one actor would be playing many roles, therefore the cravat indicates the innate britishness of Robert.
