DI Reflection #8

This last week of DI, I have been to 3 meetings in which we put the finishing touches on the set. Until Friday, we didn't really have a script. I was supposed to create two heads for the puppet, carved out of styrofoam. By Wednesday I realized that this wasn't practical and that I wouldn't be able to carve a realistic head out of styrofoam, so I suggested we take a different approach. On Thursday we used plaster strips from the theatre room to make two molds of Brian Paul's face, which meant that I had to make them presentable by Saturday. That was my main project for the night before the competition, and although it was late I was really proud of how the faces turned out. They each had a hinging jaw operated by a nutcracker-esque mechanism, and looking at the challenge I realized that points were awarded for how realistic the puppet was. With this in mind, I gave each puppet a base coat of a basic flesh tone paint that I mixed, and then I did exaggerated shadows. I have highlighting to the nose and cheekbones and shadowed the eyes and jawline, which both close and up and from far away lends the puppet a very realistic look. Then, I differentiated between the puppets by giving the jock-puppet football-player stripes of black paint on his cheeks, and the nerd one a bit of acne. Altogether they looked very realistic, and the puppet flipped well. In the meantime, Heather had come up with a tentative script which we memorized the base of and decided to improvise the specifics.

DI Reflection #7

I wasn't able to go to DI for a week, but by the time I came back the puppet was nearly finished but still being worked on. I was assigned to do some smaller tasks of creating details and props such as clothes for the puppet. Last year we won a renaissance award for the detail of our set, so I suppose a goal for me this year is to repeat that and keep craftsmanship up to par. I made a double-sided apron, the function of which is the conceal the extra limbs of the puppet when it's flipped upside down. I painted one side with a sports theme, creating an emblem for the team and writing things like "go team!" on it to convey the priorities of the jock-puppet. The other side of the apron is splatter painted to reflect the artistic talents of the character. When the puppet is flipped upside down, the side of the apron exposed will flip and add to the puppet's characterization. I am still concerned about the skit, but we are all good at improv, and so far the craftsmanship of the set I am proud of.

DI Reflection #6

This week we repeated the process of creating bricks on the other side of the set and got through that within about 20 minutes. Once the school set was finished it looked quite good, so we focused on the back of the set, which was to be an art gallery. This side of the set was less precise and more fun than the schoolhouse one, because it was essentially a spray paint/splatter paint method. We brought the set outside and painted a base color, and then each of us took a can of spray paint and painted whatever we felt like on it: doodles and patterns and lines, etc. It was a good team exercise I thought, because we were all involved with it. However, I have been concerned about finishing the puppet on time and practicing our skit, because we haven't had much time to think about all of these things. So, we were able to get our set finished in this meeting, which is great because we'll have time to put finishing touches on it before we begin. I am nervous about the puppet, especially because we decided that the puppet is going to be our character that experiences a "flip" in perspective: to illustrate this, the puppet flips upside down to reveal a different character. This is a good idea, but we need to make sure that the concept works and practice with it well before performing.

DI Reflection #5

Because the paint was dry on the set, the team decided that it would be good to split our time between working on the schoolhouse set and the puppet. I volunteered to work on the painting set. I thought that it would be good to have bricks painted onto the set, because most schools with the exception of Sturgis have brick facades. Missy and I painted a streaky darker layer of paint and then re-painted the brick red over it, to give the set depth. It looks quite realistic, I think, because it isn't just a flat color. It's nice that I can bring my interest in doing art (and nice art) into DI. I started off trying to paint white mortar in blocks so that it would look like the set was made up of rows of bricks; however this was tedious and painstaking and we didn't have any brushes fine enough to paint the lines with. I wasn't sure what to do, and looking through our other art supplies I found some colored pencils. I used these to sketch white mortar lines directly onto the set, which I shaded with the red and black and dark blue pencils to make it more realistic. I got through one side, and next week we are going to do the pencil technique on the other side so that we get the schoolhouse completed.

DI Reflection #4

This week was a bit of a shake-up for our skit and team, because we decided that we had to change our concept in the interest of time. Now our skit is set in a school, and is about a boy who undergoes a "flip" in perspective when he realizes that being popular isn't everything. We tried to make do with what work we had done, but the shingled detective's office as it was was not going to pass as a school. We spent the meeting dismantling the shingles and repainting the fabric on that side a brick color. This was a bit discouraging for me, but we were at least able to keep some of our older set pieces: for example, we re-painted the tree we had made out of paper towels a more coppery color after we painted the side of the set red. Next week we will continue to work on making the set look more school-like, and it's a bit frustrating to have all that work undone, but nothing else can really be done about it. I am at least grateful that I have the rest of the team to help me, which is good since I am not usually a team-work person and prefer to do things independently. I think that this at least shows my growth as a collaborator, because in the past I probably would have insisted on doing all the set things alone. However, I have help doing the art this time, and it makes things much easier.

DI Reflection #3

My D.I. team has been consistently working on making our set good before we worry about the script. This meeting, I was focusing on adding detail to our large set, which we constructed with wood and fabric. There are 3 frames attached at their sides, which are painted differently, and they fold in and out. Altogether, they make 3 different scenes, one of detective's office, one of a courtroom, and one side which will be used as a scrim to enact events which happened in the past. Brian and Steph worked on the puppet, and I spent the time "shingling" the office with cardboard. I got through a half of the set before I had to leave, and will continue at the next meeting. It's a lot of physical work, as well as teamwork, but I think that the set looks pretty good so far, so it's worth it.

Ballet Reflection #13

This class was another good one, and I was able to see progress in my ability to do more complex moves. I successfully did a pirouette, which is the most difficult ballet maneuvres according to my teacher. It involves the combination of a number of techniques: the dancer starts in fourth position and moves to passe while on demi (tiptoe), spins around and lands in fifth. Balance is very important, and after this class I have decided that what I need most is to work on my balance. For the most part, my balance is good, but I find that sometimes when I am on demi while balancing on one leg I can't stay in place for long. So, I have my task to improve on for next week. Other than that, I have noticed that I am definitely much more physically fit; I don't get tired over the one and a half hours that I am running around, jumping and twirling. I am also much better at splits. I cannot do one yet, but I am much closer than I was when I started the class and I have noticed generally that I am much more flexible.