Childrens theatre - Thursday 10th November - Admin bits

In todays lesson we took care of a lot of the admin business to do with our performance to make sure we are organised and ready for the children and to perform. For example, we took character photos to send to the schools for the children to get a little taste of what they will be coming to see and start getting excited.

Also in todays lesson our group decided we would focus on creating the backstory of the story stealer. Potentially reconstructing the scene in order to make it easier to understand/more interesting to watch. Charlotte came up with the idea of creating a video flashback. Adding another multi-medial element into our performance engaging the children as well as making it far easier to transfer information to the children as they would be concentrating on the video and eagerly watching/listening to what was going on. We decided that the video would be silent and have a sepia effect put over the footage. This is to show the children that this is a 'flashback' meaning it is old and has already happened. This also meant that we didn't have to worry about locations of filming too much, and sound levels to make sure we got rid of background noise etc. We decided that Harry would narrate the video live as it played. This would mean that he could be extra dramatic and immersive when telling the story, possibly more than he would have been if he had to pre-record it. It would also make the story more realistic as he is physically telling the story. As the story is being told and the video is being projected the lights could dim down or completely go out meaning the only light is from the video gaining the attention of the children and hopefully meaning they wont get distracted by anything else.

~Video narrative~

• Shows Story Stealer as a child, happy, innocent and vulnerable.
• Shows mother of story stealer reading a good story
• Fade to black with text over the screen reading 'one fateful day'
• Shows mother reading a scary story to the Story Stealer, shows the story stealer scared, distressed.
• Shows clips of innocent story stealer, changing into the evil character by ripping out bunches, putting on glasses and destroying books.
• Shows story stealer in various locations stealing story boxes.

As I am a creative media student we thought it would be best for me to film and edit as I have experience and would be able to create it quickly and effectively.