Development Blog
In 'As You Like It' there are a lot of scenes that need to be developed, adapted and discovered so that the play can be the best it can be. Since me, Dan and Sep have been given the task of tackling Act 3 Scene 3 we needed to sit down and discuss what we wanted with the scene and how we wanted it to take its journey. We originally sat down and started to brain storm what ideas we had and put them into a spider diagram:
Me and the boys were really pleased with the idea and we decided to go ahead with this setting for the bar idea. Weather wouldn't be an issue either because we'd be inside a majority of the day, and also, the natural light would be great for filming. After discussing and comparing all of the ideas, the other two couldn't compare to this one. It was the most practical idea out of all of them and gave us the most potential in terms of characterisation, using a contemporary twist to Shakespeare and using a set that wasn't used before, a new idea and a new setting. All three of us were extremely happy with the idea and we decided to go ahead with this one. We cracked on with rehearsals and decided where everyone should go and what we needed. We thought it would be good if Audrey worked there as a barmaid and wore a revealing top, and that Touchstone were to wander in already half drunk from a previous bar and started hitting on her. Jaques would be slumped on a stool and would have his drunken say as well. We wanted a few extras, so we teamed up with Jen and Rufus's portrayal and decided to have it set in the same bar, so that the two stories would be linked and it would be a kind of "Easter Egg" in a way, a surprise for the audience, or whoever decides to watch it. There wasn't much blocking to rehearse for my character, only characterisation, I decided that I could pinch a little bit of the Essex idea and bring the dumb stereotype into play, it would really suit Audrey's character and we could again bring in the element of satire and parody, but instead of Portsmouth's night life of old rowdy men and revealing women. I learnt my lines and decided
Now while these are all great ideas (or so we thought at the time) we couldn't piece them together well enough. We sat down in a three and further discussed our ideas, deciding on what two to narrow it down too. We thought it would be best to way out the pros and cons to gain a real perspective on how well each idea would work and how we could portray them.
- The Joker, Harley Quinn and Batman
When discussing this idea Dan said it would be great for the visuals, especially if we were to set it in a forest, we could decorate the forest and make it look like a trap that Harley Quinn and The Joker set up, and before the initial trap takes place, The Joker could start randomly hitting on Harley Quinn and become distracted with his plans. It would fit the comedy of the play, and it would definitely be contemporary and different because of the use of a different franchise. Also, Batman would play a key part and have a lot of shots in action because he is assessing the situation and making sarcastic and critical notes about what's going on, it would make Jaques a key part to the scene (even though he has little to say) and it would really brighten up the character. All this aside, we came up with one big con as to why this idea can't go forward. A part of our assessment is to show characterisation and development through a Shakespearean character, however portraying another character (such as Harley Quinn) would not be the required fulfilment in our assessment and this would bring our grade down. We'd end up portraying characters that weren't in the play and in turn would make us fail the unit. Although this sort of events out in the party idea, the visuals would be less and we wanted something a little more abstract. Also, the risk still imposes on this idea and obviously not wanting to take the risk, the three of us put this idea to the side and decided to discuss the further ideas. I'm glad we came to the conclusion that this idea would get us nowhere, although we enjoyed the idea it wasn't suited to the unit or to what the grading criteria wanted us to do and it's important that we stick to our main characters. Dan and Sep are also happy to leave this idea behind, and both are glad we discussed it further and came up with this important con.
- The Essex Complex
'The Essex Complex' is an idea that was quickly spun out of stereotypical archetypes for Audrey, Touchstone and Jaques. It was originally the first idea that popped into our heads when discussing them, it's an easy go to idea that really features a satire, a parody on the life of people living in Essex. We originally found it hard to tie Jaques into the idea, which made processing the idea harder and slowed down our progress. We eventually came to the idea that Jaques could be Touchstone's adviser, but secretly jealous of his fortune he makes snide remarks about how he is trying to manipulate a much younger girl and then tries to ruin his plans further. However, what really stumped us was the setting. We wanted it to be in a posh bar somewhere with a lot of men in suits and younger rich kids all mixing together, kind of like the darker night scene, the double life of rich people. However, we couldn't think of anywhere that was cheap (or even within our area) that we could film in. We did come up with the idea of a street but thought that this would be an impractical idea due to the unpredictable weather at the time, bad weather can affect sound and filming equipment as well as the practicality of the acting. If it's too windy and rainy then no one is going to want to stand in that for ages doing lousy shots because the weather is too loud, it wouldn't be practical at all and would halt our progress in the long run. We eventually decided to scrap this idea due to lack of funding and back up plan, although an incredible set up with the use of parody and it fitting into our characters in a contemporary sense, the setting would be too much hassle and all the good work we could have put into this idea has a high potential of going to waste, this isn't something we wanted at all, we wanted something easy with our maximum potential within reach. I'm happy we came to this conclusion, it had a lot of potential in development but I personally think with this idea it can either have too much potential or too little, and with our time and taking in mind other circumstances, I don't think we could pull this idea off as clever as we wanted it to be.
- The Bar
'The Bar' is a more simple idea that doesn't give any present characterisation compared to the other ideas (An Essex Girl, Harley Quinn) this is simply Audrey as a barmaid, Touchstone as an older drunken customer and Jaques a drunk man overlooking the situation. In my opinion, this is a pro, because I can add a lot more depth into the character and I can add quirks of my own that aren't already there ready for me. This gives me a good chance to show off my characterisation, and it gives the boys a good chance too, it's more work but it definitely pays off and it gives us a chance to be more naturalistic, bringing it into the light of the contemporary. When we talked to Sally about this idea, she suggested the setting of 'The Wine Vaults' on Albert Road. I'd never heard of it before, but I went home and had a look at some photos and I thought it was a perfect place to film. It has great visuals and it looks like a proper authentic pub, it's a great setting for a visual contemporary Shakespeare project.
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| Inside The Wine Vaults, a picture of the bar Audrey will use to serve customers including Touchstone and Jaques |
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| Outside The Wine Vaults: An authentic feel, where Audrey works and Touchstone thrives. |
I'm glad we came to an initial idea and and blocked everything we needed to, although a kind of static scene, we can work with the film crew to overlook this and add shots of Sep as well to make it look professional and like a proper screen rendition of Act 3 Scene 3 from Shakespeare's 'As You Like It'. In conclusion, our idea gives us the freedom explore the full potential in terms of characterisation, filming, set and costume. I'm incredibly happy with our choice and compared to the other ideas, it shines out the most. The other ideas posed problems such as set that was either too expensive or impractical, characterisation lacking and visuals not being up to speed. I know as a group we wanted something creative and visual, but with the hint of simplicity and I can say we have achieved that. I'm glad we were able to cooperate and discuss our ideas and opinions fully, it's something we all wanted and I can't wait to start filming.
