In our performance, we focused on corruption, and how easily someone can be bought over and put the lives of his men on the line, it shows how people profit from the war.
The planning of this performance was very complex, we had to make sure each character had around the same time and was relevant, the general and the business man had to be slightly reduced in terms of lines as the conversation could have went on for much longer, Dillon and Lethanial had a long talk with each other about the things they miss at home, originally their conversation was much shorter but we added in some words so that the audience will like the characters making the story more powerful, lighting and sound was quite difficult to plan, in some scenes we had to mix lightings and in some we improvised, at one point I have a monologue which gives the performance a more powerful story and understanding, and we could not decide a reasonable lighting so we stuck to normal white light, in other scenes however we proceeded well with it, the scene in which Dillons character gets shot we flashed the white light in complete darkness and faded in the red light with lethanial going over to try save him, the red light gave a good image and idea of death in the scene, the sound for the performance was difficult yet simple, there was not really that much sound needed, just some gun fire at perfectly timed intervals, which is quite difficult to explain to a sound guy and not someone in your group.
Originally we planned on lethanial walking into my office, whilst in a hand shake with the business man handing me money, lethanial filled with rage and anger from his brothers death would then walk infront of us, put his hand where his gun would be and the lights would black out right on that time, with just a gun shot and a flash to end the performance, however we came to realise that such an ending would require very good timing, we were recommended to just fade out the lights when lethanial walks in giving the audience a cliff hanger leaving them to think what had just happened, through out the play we planned on making the characters having their own personalities and different every time, my character (the general) is caring but can be bought over, a character that is cared by all he is friends with, harrys character, (the business man) is an arrogant person who is very sly, dillon and lethanial are brothers with the stereo-typical relatioship, one is a sore loser, one always wins, the older one always cares about the younger one like a parent, and they both make fun of each other by bringing up old bad memories.
With that kind of relationship between the brothers it makes anyone with a sibling relate and even those without a sibling will start to like them as a character, the death of dillon is will shock viewers and want lethanial to avenge him.
We have studied many things which can help us with the performance, like the ways money is made through war and how it is something which some people like.
This image shows a lot about it, and it relates to our performance a lot, the war would be good for the general, depending on how you think the ending went, and bad for everyone else who is not in a high position, our performance is not exactly based on a single war, and can be seen as being from any war, as at no point do we name a country or year.
Over all in my opinion however, i do not feel the research was insanely helpful, it gave slight helps here and there but nothing extremely different.
My character is the general, the most important character of this performance, I am given a choice to take the money or to face a huge problem with a business man and my higher ups, either way I take will change everything that happens, every move I make in the performance shapes the next, I tell the soldiers to reduce the numbers from 10 to 2 per post which results in the loss of Dillons character.
My character is also one that in usual military bases is one of the most trustworthy, which can surprise most when you I decide to choose money over the lives of my weapons cache and even my men’s lives.
This image is the moment harry (the business man) approaches me and introduces himself with me paying very little attention until he mentions war business.
This is the moment, the business man offers me money to do the dirty deed, my reaction is clearly shock and anger as seen in the image, My facial expression gives both anger and surprised reactions but my body language is definitely anger, im pressing down on the desk leaning over in an aggressive way.
This is the moment the business brings up the price, making me (the general) interested, as seen in my facial expression, i relaxed my shoulders from the previous scene of anger and give a thinking yet lost facial expression as i am not understanding fully what is happening but the money is tempting.
This is the scene in which i call in my men and tell them the fake news that the enemy has retreated, and that the soldiers will be reduced to 2 per post rather than 10, I am giving an upset, confused and uncomfortable look, my body language is uncomfortable as I do not know what and how to say what i want to say, it is not something easy to tell my men, i am practically leaving them to possibly die with a lie, my facial expression is confused and upset, i rarely look at my men in the eyes, i look around the place as i cannot lie like that to them,
This is the scene in which the job has been complete, dillon and lethanial are in another place but are left in the background to give impact to the performance, me and the business man are congratulating each other on a successful deal and are about to give each other the money, which whilst that is happening lethanial would barge into the room and the lights would fade, in the image harry is pulling out the money whilst i wait, both of us seem pretty good with the outcome, both standing high and not insecure.
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