What progress has been made & what skills have you developed?
I believe I have made progress in my problem solving skills; I gravely misunderstood our task for project 3 and that misunderstanding wasted about 2 weeks of time and effort working on the project.
However, within the last 45 minutes before putting on our performance, we all put our heads together as a group. We worked continuously and vigorously to rework the whole performance, which resulted in improving our show overall and aided in reaching certain goals required to fit the task’s criteria.
Level 3 Extended Diploma in Performing and Production Arts
Project 3
VIVA Questions
Name: Oliver Lloyd
How do you feel this project went? I feel that during this project I faced some difficulties due to lack of understanding, however I belief that in the end, things turned out decently.
What skills do you feel that you have developed through this project? During project 3, I feel that I developed my skills in blocking and adapting scripts. Adapting a script is never something I have really had opportunity to do much of, nor have I ever had much say in blocking scenes, but during this project my group and I were forced to adapt an entire script in 45 minutes or so, as well as re-block our entire performance. This was challenging given pressure put on by the time limit, however I think that assisted us in really putting our heads down and trying our best, even trying new things we wouldn’t have thought to try otherwise.
What were your key strengths in project 3? I feel that in project 3, my key strength was my resilience. I felt incredibly determined and certain at the beginning of this project; my classmate and I began our prep-work immediately, assigning roles to the members of our group who were missing, then moving onto printing out scripts, creating props, highlighting lines and preparing for what we’d do in case no one showed up to our rehearsals or the actual performance itself. During another session when we had more of our group present, we even finished blocking our scenes, but on the day of the performance we realized we had all done the task wrong. This was a challenging setback, but we all pushed through and remained resilient as we changed our performance to fit the task.
What were the weaknesses in project 3? My lack of understanding surrounding the task at hand was definitely my greatest weakness; in hindsight I should have asked my tutor for clarification, but in the moment, I didn’t even know we were doing it wrong. In future, I will always ask for further elaboration on my tasks, even if I think I’m certain about what we’re doing.
How effectively did you manage the rehearsal process? The rehearsal process was simple enough itself as we had allocated time to rehearse and we knew what we were doing, however with almost our entire group missing for most rehearsal sessions and certain members not putting their full focus and effort into the task, it was an arduous task. Some people were not listening and heavily distracting each other and the rest of us, however they pulled through in the end and tried better to focus.
Can you discuss any key research sources which have supported your process? One of my strongest research sources was actually one provided to myself and all of level 3 (+ extended) as work/enrichment. In Ambition Hub, our tutor gave us several tasks in which we discussed and furthered our understanding of the key plot points of Romeo & Juliet, some where we adapted excerpts from the script and we even got to sit down and watch a movie adaptation of Romeo & Juliet. All of these made for very helpful research sources, as they taught me how to adapt scripts and which parts of Romeo & Juliet are the most important to include in a summarized version of the story.
How effectively did you apply the research? I feel that applying my experiences from Ambition Hub and using those sessions as my main source of research severely benefitted me in this project; having to rework an entire performance 45 minutes before assessment is no easy task, however being given the opportunity to adapt a scene from Romeo & Juliet into different styles, just like the instructions of project 3, made the sudden understanding of where we had gone wrong and how to quickly and simply correct these mistakes in a timely manner much smoother and swiftly.
What have you learnt from this project which you will take forward on to the next step of your own personal development? I have learned that it’s always best to check things even if you think you’re 100% sure. I also learned that it’s never too late for things to change, so always prepare yourself for sudden changes!
What have you learnt about your practitioner that you didn’t know before? I have learned that whilst the term “method acting” is often attributed to Constantin Stanislavski, it was actually coined by Americans much later, and Stanislavski actually referred to his way of acting as simply “his system”.
What can you do now that you couldn’t do when you started the course? When I started the course, I wouldn’t have dared to be nearly as proactive in my work as I am now, especially not in a group. However, that is a comfortable and simple enough task now.
Why is learning this important? Being able to work with people, especially people that you don’t know very well or maybe don’t work well with, is a key skill to learn in life. Not just in performing arts, however especially so, but is something everyone needs to be able to do. You more often than not will have to work with strangers, people who distract you, difficult people, people you don’t like, etc. That’s just life, and if you aren’t going to try just because of that, then you’re no better than those people and you are part of the problem.
If you were to do the project again what would you do differently? If I did the project again, I would make sure to confirm with my tutor what exactly we were tasked with so I didn’t end up accidentally wasting 2 weeks of rehearsal and prep time, although I am thankful that this happened this time around as I learned a very valuable lesson from it.
How will you effectively apply this within your next project? I will apply my experience on adapting scripts, blocking scenes and improved understanding on the naturalistic acting style on my next project, our FMP, as I assist my team in guiding our first years through the project and planning the entire play together.
Did you enjoy the process? Yes, I thought the process was enjoyable.
What have you learned from writing the essay? I have learned several things about Stanislavski, his life and his impacting on acting as a whole.
Set yourself 3 targets for FMP:
- As I hope to be assigned a role on the costume production team, one target is to create a moodboard for each character’s costume ideas and inspirations.
2) Another target is to research costume items and to ask what people already own to see how we can construct aesthetically pleasing, accurate costumes under our budget.
3) One more target I am setting myself is to make sure all costumes are fully completed before our performing week.
Set yourself 3 targets for your scrapbook for FMP:
- I will complete my scrapbook without any elements needing to be corrected.
2) I will complete my scrapbook in a timely manner.
3) I will complete my scrapbook using the methods I know work for me and my specific support needs.