My plans on what to do next go as follows:
1. make a cart to transport the heavy suitcase more easily. It could be pulled along with an attatched hobby horse to go with the 'Horsebox Theatre' name. I need to find some cheap, not rusty and not to small pram wheels
2. paint my logo on the suitcase
3. paint a mustache above the handle on the suitcase to make it look like a face
4. add travel stickers from fantasy lands such as narnia, neverland etc
5. paint the inside of the suitcase and the shalf black to make it look batter
Then it'll be properly done and it'll look awesome!
The Finishing Touches
To finish the theatre off I've added roses around the top for simple decoration that wont distract from the actual puppet show, added curtains to hide backdrop changing activities and sewed a back onto the theatre to keep the sunlight from shining through and revealing my shadow.
I'm really proud of the theatre. I think it actually looks quite professional and as far as I know it's a pretty unique idea. Everythings ready for a proper show practice!
The revised story
Jason AND THE Pelican
Jason was a foolish lad,
Who listened not to mum or dad.
Jason stared out of the window
'Who lives in that house mum I want to know'
'Who lives in that house mum I want to know'
Mother told him 'Stay Away!'
'Don't go near that house, that's all I can say!'
'Don't go near that house, that's all I can say!'
But one night whilst they thought he slept,
Out to the old house Jason crept.
As Jason’s quiet footsteps neared’
Out of the door a great head peered.
A giant beak, two beady eyes,
A pelican! to Jay’s surprise.
Jason, without fear or dread,
Slapped the pelican upon the head.
The clever bird now had no doubt,
Of how to sort the young lad out.
He stretched his great beak open wide,
In an instant, Jason was inside!
And with one giant pelican gulp,
Little Jay was turned to pulp!
Inside the belly of the bird,
He’ll never again defy mum’s word.
Mother Sighed and shook her head,
'He should have stayed at home in bed!'
'Now look what he's gone and done',
'Why does he never listen to his mum?'
'I'm missing all my soaps on telly',
She said as she squeezed the pelican's belly.
One squeeze, two squeeze, three squeeze, four,
Jason shot out and onto the floor
As the poor boy wiped tears from his eyes,
He turned to his mum and apologised.
The naughty boy had changed his ways,
Now he always listens to what mum says.
'He should have stayed at home in bed!'
'Now look what he's gone and done',
'Why does he never listen to his mum?'
'I'm missing all my soaps on telly',
She said as she squeezed the pelican's belly.
One squeeze, two squeeze, three squeeze, four,
Jason shot out and onto the floor
As the poor boy wiped tears from his eyes,
He turned to his mum and apologised.
The naughty boy had changed his ways,
Now he always listens to what mum says.
the changes to the story have made it a lot more up-beat for children and have also extended the show slightly and, in my opinion, made it slightly more exciting
Practicing with lani
Today we pretty much planned out the show. Lani will say two lines of the story and then I will do a short puppet performance, then lani will say two more lines and so on and so on. We are going to change the backdrop half way through and whilst I am doing so behind the curtains Lani will be out front with a moving pop up book to add another level to the performance and to keep the audience entertained.
we decided that the ending to the story was a bit too grim and we changed it a bit to makesure we didn't scare any children.
we're still looking for a musician but i've been making lots of contacts so it shouldn't be too long before our theatre team is complete!
Strummer camp is scarily close and i'm really nervous about our first performance. Practice practice practice !
we decided that the ending to the story was a bit too grim and we changed it a bit to makesure we didn't scare any children.
we're still looking for a musician but i've been making lots of contacts so it shouldn't be too long before our theatre team is complete!
Strummer camp is scarily close and i'm really nervous about our first performance. Practice practice practice !
The Backdrops
1. Jason's House: for the first scene; the first scene is set in jason's house. you can see the 'house of birds' out of the window. Jason has written on the wall (because he's naughty)
2. House of birds: for the second scene; the second scene is set at the house of birds which is and abandoned house full of birds rather than an avery. there is an extra entrance through the doorway for the pelican
Both backdrops are made from a seethrough silk material and painted in acrylic, they are attatched to the theater by metal loops screwed into the lid of the suitcase and a bamboo pole. The backdrops have worked really well. I can see pretty much everything and the audience can't see my face at all! I especially like the house of birds as it's dead quirky. both backdrops remind me of childrens book illustrations, which fits in well with the show.
The Puppets
1. Jason: Jason has turned out quite well. He started off with a very long neck, made worse and a little bit hilarious by the fact that he was wearing a giraffe print tshirt. I fixed his neck by adding an extra piece of material over the top. Jason has a lot of movement and scope for expression and I particularly love his hair
2. Jason's Mother: Jasons mother has turned out very stern looking and a bit punch and judy style but I like her and she is meant to be stern, what with jason being naughty all the time and getting himself into some terrible situations... Jasons mother doesn't move as well as jason but it's allright because she doesn't have to do quite as much.
Both jason and his mother are made from material (clothes) Masking tape (hands and hair), polystyrene eggs (heads) and cardboard (neck). They are painted with acyrlic and protected with a thin layer of PVA glue
3. Jason's cat: For the line; 'Jason was a foolish lad who listened not to mum or dad'. (jason will pull the cats tail and get told off by his mother) The cat is a very brief character but I think it works well to get the point across. I should probably paint the stick pink to blend in with the back drop.
The cat is made entirely from needle felt
4. The pelican: I absolutely LOVE the pelican! I reckon he's really quirky and crazy looking. his beak works really well and you can get really good expressions out of him. I love his tongue aswell!
Naughty children beware!
The pelican is made from a sock (body), buttons (eyes), feathers and a bra (beak). It is painted with acrylic
5. Jason's Feet: when the pelican eats jason they struggle before going off stage when I will then hook jasons feet into the pelicans mouth and then bring the pelican back onstage, making it look as if jason has been swallowed
The pelican, Mother and jason will all be hung upsidedown on the theatre shelf to make it quicker and easier to insert my hands during the performance. I am going to leave the cat and the feet on the shelf for easy acess.
I've had a great time making these and I'm really proud of them!
A day with my heros
I went down to Southampton on wednesday to meet up with Martin Bridle of Hand to mouth theater. It was absolutely AMAZING! He pretty much showed me everything I needed to know and gave me so much information. I got to see his workshop and all his puppets and he told me about his up and coming performances. He even took me to see one one of his performances at a primary school and I got to see how everything get set up.
I now know that the suitcase theater was the right choice more than ever! Such an inspirational day! I really can't thank them enough!
I now know that the suitcase theater was the right choice more than ever! Such an inspirational day! I really can't thank them enough!
The walls
The fabric has been sewn, the wooden rods inserted and the theater is looking great already. Of course it still needs a back, some curtains, backdrops and decoration but I think it's going really well!. I have also started on the jason puppet, I'm not really sure if i'm doing it right but I'll probably find out when I go to see 'Hand to mouth theater' This weekend which I am Really REALLY excited about. They have been an inspiration to me for a very long time and I can't beleive they agreed to meet me!
The Story
After struggling to write my own stories, I have collaborated with Lani Irving from the embroidery course at mmu. She will be out front during performances telling her stories whilst i act them out with puppets.
This is our first story, I think it's great and I am looking forward to producing puppets for it:
This is our first story, I think it's great and I am looking forward to producing puppets for it:
Jason AND THE Pelican
Jason was a foolish lad,
Who listened not to mum or dad.
Mother told him “Mark my words,
Stay away from that house of birds”
But one night whilst they thought he slept,
Out to the bird house Jason crept.
As Jason’s quiet footsteps neared’
Out of the door a great head peered.
A giant beak, two beady eyes,
A pelican! to Jay’s surprise.
Jason, without fear or dread,
Slapped the pelican upon the head.
The clever bird now had no doubt,
Of how to sort the young lad out.
He stretched his great beak open wide,
In an instant, Jason was inside!
And with one giant pelican gulp,
Little Jay was turned to pulp!
Inside the belly of the bird,
He’ll never again defy mum’s word.
Naughty children must not forget,
The fate with which young Jason met.
The Foundations
The suitcase is coming on well so far. My nan is going to help me sew the fabric to go round the outside so that it looks professional and then we'll be almost half way finished!
The suitcase
The suitcase arrived today. It looks just as expected. Nice and tatty and old looking. The final plans are to reinforce the corners of the suitcase then insert extendable metal tent poles in each corner, using the lid of the suitcase as the top of the theater. There will be a shelf in the middle to reinforce the structure and the outer layer will be made of material, reinforced around the performance hole with wooden rods. I'm really looking forward to cracking on with this project and I cant wait to get it finished!
Suitcase Theater
After the failure of the caravan theater, I have felt that my work hasn't been as good as it should have been (with the exception of the video because I really liked that). I decided to to downscale my dream project and make a SUITCASE puppet theater. This way i'll have a portable theater but it's not going to be too much of a pain in the bum. Perhaps one day we'll actually be able to work on that blummin caravan and i'll have a whole range of portable theaters in different sizes. The suitcase theater will be a full sized puppet theater which is what I was most interested in doing in the caravan anyway. I'll be going this particular project alone but me and Enya will continue to work under the umbrella of 'Horsebox Theater'.
I bought the suitcase today, I have lots ideas and I'm far too excited to see what I can do with it!
I bought the suitcase today, I have lots ideas and I'm far too excited to see what I can do with it!
Site Specific Project: Mouse Funeral
Coming back after christmas, we had a week to do a site specific project so, concentrating on All Saints park, which used to be a graveyard, and the 'Rodent Bait Points', I made a mouse funeral from air drying clay.
Overall I think it turned out pretty well. I used watery paints for the mice in an attempt to make the painting process faster and it actually turned out better than my usual models. Surprisingly dass was harder to work with than the much cheaper verision of air drying clay and took much longer to dry. I think the photographs worked out quite well aswell.
If I was to take the project further I would have made everyone do a funeral procession down to all saints park before revealing the mice... It would have made the whole experience a little more intense!
Mr Sandman MP4 1
Finally got round to uploading the video. It's a bit squashed on here but you can still get the jist
Half Year Assessment
The Assessment went fairly well I suppose and some good points were made. I do realise that the way we exhibited our rhyming animals didn't allow the audience to intereact/ play with them thus making the whole point of them obselete. I was quite dissapointed about our exhibition as a whole and felt that we could have done a lot better. We have a few ideas which could improve our project:
- make a set for the animals
-make a story book including the animals
- make a film including the animals
-Make a game about the animals
all of which I think would improve the project by allwing the audience to interact with the pieces.
However I feel that I need a fresh start, I need to forget about the lonely caravan that I can't use and I need to come up with something new. I would very much like to create a suitcase theatre in an old vintage suitcase and work with puppets again as that is what I really like doing.
- make a set for the animals
-make a story book including the animals
- make a film including the animals
-Make a game about the animals
all of which I think would improve the project by allwing the audience to interact with the pieces.
However I feel that I need a fresh start, I need to forget about the lonely caravan that I can't use and I need to come up with something new. I would very much like to create a suitcase theatre in an old vintage suitcase and work with puppets again as that is what I really like doing.
Kitten in a mitten
The first animal I made was kitten in a mitten, It was fun to make but I wasn't massively impressed with the outcome if I'm honest, I think it was the pink felty material that I used for its face that didn't really bring out its facial features but I liked how you could fold it inside out to turn it back into a mitten.
I really liked the way fox in a box turned out, it's quite cute and quirky and definately done in my particular style. It's definately my favourite of the one of the set overall.
I also really liked snail in a pail and pig in a wig which I made from needle felting, I love the pigs bright pink wig and the snails face.
They were certainly a lot of fun to make.
Enya also made: Dog in a bog, rabbit in a habbit, llama in a banana, snake in a shake and bee in a pea. I particularly liked her dog in a bog and rabbit in a habbit because of the colours and the way they moved.
We were thinking of displayining them all over the exhibition rather than have an actual specific place, that way the audience would interact with them by trying to find each one.
I really liked the way fox in a box turned out, it's quite cute and quirky and definately done in my particular style. It's definately my favourite of the one of the set overall.
I also really liked snail in a pail and pig in a wig which I made from needle felting, I love the pigs bright pink wig and the snails face.
They were certainly a lot of fun to make.
Enya also made: Dog in a bog, rabbit in a habbit, llama in a banana, snake in a shake and bee in a pea. I particularly liked her dog in a bog and rabbit in a habbit because of the colours and the way they moved.
We were thinking of displayining them all over the exhibition rather than have an actual specific place, that way the audience would interact with them by trying to find each one.
Rhyming Animals
We decided to a silly project making 3d versitile rhyming animals i.e. pig in a wig or dog in a bog. We want to show that art doesn't HAVE to have some deep personal meaning and can ultimately be just a bit of fun. we intend to make the animals out of brightly coloured fabric and have it so the viewer can interact with them, i.e. the wig comes off the pig etc. The whole idea is for us and the audience to play!
Confused
We have no idea what to do really, The caravan just seems to be stuck outside the house and aparantly the environmental agency came round to the house yesterday when I wasn't in to tell us that we can't keep it there. I Have just realised that somone I know lives 2 doors down from me and they have an actual parking bit infront of their house so I'm going to ask if i can move it there. Still wont be able to open it though. Looks like we're just going to have to sell the thing. Absolutely Gutted. It's probably time we started to forget about the caravan and concentrate on something else. We're wasting a lot of time worrying about the bloody thing!
Orange Wednesdays
We got to show our film at a local film night at the Bay Horse pub in the northern quarter. Seen as how it had no sound it was played in a loop whislt everyone turned up. There wasn't too much reaction to the film other than someone putting their hand infront of the projector and trying to pinch one of our heads. haha. Other people's films were pretty good and the cakes were nice. Overall quite a nice night.
Exhibition
We got the film finished in time! In the end we decided that it would be much better without any sound atall. I really like the outcome, everything flows really well and I personally think it's hilarious, though that might just be the embarrasment of watching myself act the fool!
The exhibition went quite well, we ended up projecting the film into a bin which took it out of the context of 'shelter' somewhat but it looked pretty good. I don't really think people understood how it linked to 'shelter' really and I was dissapointed that people didn't really laugh though that was perhaps because they didn't know if they were allowed to... We got a few helpful suggestions on our feedback sheet but I think a lot of the people commenting didn't really know what we were trying to do so most of the suggestions didn't really reflect the direction in which we would like to take the video. Overall I Like the film. It was a great experience and it really boosted our confidence. We're excited to produce more films in the future.
The exhibition went quite well, we ended up projecting the film into a bin which took it out of the context of 'shelter' somewhat but it looked pretty good. I don't really think people understood how it linked to 'shelter' really and I was dissapointed that people didn't really laugh though that was perhaps because they didn't know if they were allowed to... We got a few helpful suggestions on our feedback sheet but I think a lot of the people commenting didn't really know what we were trying to do so most of the suggestions didn't really reflect the direction in which we would like to take the video. Overall I Like the film. It was a great experience and it really boosted our confidence. We're excited to produce more films in the future.
Errrmmm.... Woops
So it would seem that I have broken my ankle. This has hindered the editing process somewhat, what with me having to sit in A and E for the most part of the morning and having to cancel the editing suite booking for the day but I still reckon we'll get it done, just maybe won't get the model house done in time which is a shame seen as how that's the thing that puts the whole project into context and brings it under the idea of 'shelter' rather than 'two idiots under a bridge' but we'll see what we come up with.
Editing
We went and got a proper induction to the editing suite and after a bit of a palava trying to find an external hardrive, we started to edit the film. We've got everything uploaded and put into a general order, it just needs tweaking and shortening down. I'm really pleased with the outcome so far. The film seems to flow overall and the shots look really good, especially in black and white. We tried to add a sepia tone but couldn't find it in the editing software. We just need to finish it and make the replica house in time for the asessment exhibition.
Filming Day
We got everything together, put on our costumes, and set off down the road, armed with a camera and tripod, two suitcases, two love heart shaped foldable chairs and a small coffee table. We got loads of funny looks and loads of people didn't even know where to look as we went past. It was embarassing at first but really funny and got us into the performance mood. The performance itself went much better than I expected seen as how neither of us had ever really done anything like that before and we didn't have any acting experience either. I think the filming itself went quite well also. We managed to get a variety of close up and far away shots which should cut together quite nicely during editing. A great day all in all. It was quite liberating to be doing something which wasn't focused on the caravan. I'm really looking forward to getting into the editing side of things and seeing how everything's turned out.
The Shelter Project
Seen as how we can't yet use the caravan, which is what we wanted to use for the shelter project, we had a MAJOR brainstorming sesh today. The final outcome of which seems to be an old black and white comedy style film inspired by our recent surrealist film lecture.
We were originally going to film a 'Mad Hatters Teaparty' style, house warming party in the caravan but have now changed it to:
Two Crazy women are looking for shelter after their husbands died (in the war?) and are no longer able to afford their house. They set up home underneath a railway bridge all damp, dripping with water and covered in graffiti. Instead of bringing the essentials they set up a table and proceed to have a tea party as if they were at home. The ladies are dillusional (possibly due to all that wine). We intend to exaggerate expressions and movements and have the movie in double time for comic affect and black and white to reflect old Charlie Chaplin/Laurel & Hardy movies. The final movie will be projected into a small replica of a house as if the two ladies think they're in a real house...
The short film is meant to be funny and will reflect the idea of shelter in that the ladies are looking for shelter itself and are also sheltering themselves from the outside world with their dillusional mindset.
We were originally going to film a 'Mad Hatters Teaparty' style, house warming party in the caravan but have now changed it to:
Two Crazy women are looking for shelter after their husbands died (in the war?) and are no longer able to afford their house. They set up home underneath a railway bridge all damp, dripping with water and covered in graffiti. Instead of bringing the essentials they set up a table and proceed to have a tea party as if they were at home. The ladies are dillusional (possibly due to all that wine). We intend to exaggerate expressions and movements and have the movie in double time for comic affect and black and white to reflect old Charlie Chaplin/Laurel & Hardy movies. The final movie will be projected into a small replica of a house as if the two ladies think they're in a real house...
The short film is meant to be funny and will reflect the idea of shelter in that the ladies are looking for shelter itself and are also sheltering themselves from the outside world with their dillusional mindset.
Fail.
Hello Caravan
The caravan was dropped off outside my house yesterday, right on the pavement, chained to the fence with a bike chain courtesy of my housemate. We DEFINATELY need to find somewhere else to put it but the prospects are't looking good!... Getting a little bit worried now but i'm hopefully it'll be fine even if do have to leave it there for a while I guess. The pavement is actually wide enough to accomodate the caravan and have space for people to walk around it, so people might not actually be that annoyed if we keep it there. It's just that we can't open it out to work on it so it's pretty useless just sat by the side of the road, plus I think I saw some of the kids from the street sat on it last night plus some of it is made of wood so it probably shouldn't be left outside all winter...
Oh...
So it turns out that we can't have the caravan in the courtyard due to building work that is/might be/will be going on.... Uh oh!... I don't really get it, there seems to be loads of space but I guess no means no eh? The Health and Safety lady said we should ask if we could put it in the studio, but I somehow doubt the tutors will think it's such a good idea seen as how there isn't a massive amount of space in there in the first place... hmm maybe it wasn't the best idea ever to impulsively buy a caravan it's just that we have SO MANY plans for it and we haven't really thought about doing anything else. Also the caravan hasn't been dropped off today like it was supposed to be. Things don't seem to be working out.
In the beginning
I think I should probably start this story by saying that we jumped in head first (as usual) and bought a Rapido Confort, Fold-able Trailer caravan for £200, which is actually a bit of an investment even if it doesn't work out in the end. We were on ebay looking for Horse boxes (Hence the name of the project) when we came across the caravan, fell in love with it immediately, rang the owner about 50 times on our way to view it, got lost in various different taxis and paid in cash after a bit of a look at it. The owner's hopefully going to drop it off tomorrow.
On the way home we stopped off at Antwerp mansion, assuming that they'd let us have the caravan there, if not collaborate with us, but no such luck as apparantly it would affect their licensing agreement or something (even though they already had another caravan in he yard) and they said we'd be in competition with them which I really don't understand?!.... oh dear.
We're going to go and beg the Health and Safetly person at MMU tomorrow to see if we can have it in the courtyard behind our university building... Fingers crossed!
On the way home we stopped off at Antwerp mansion, assuming that they'd let us have the caravan there, if not collaborate with us, but no such luck as apparantly it would affect their licensing agreement or something (even though they already had another caravan in he yard) and they said we'd be in competition with them which I really don't understand?!.... oh dear.
We're going to go and beg the Health and Safetly person at MMU tomorrow to see if we can have it in the courtyard behind our university building... Fingers crossed!
As you can see from the video, there is lots of scope to play with this caravan and lots of different ways we could use it. I can't wait to get started!
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