Frantic Assembly - Lesson 1

The day after the Frantic Assembly workshop we had a 3 hour lesson in which we had an opportunity to take what we did in the workshop in order to apply them to our own performance. The image to the right is the things that we remembered doing in this workshop or in the workshop in July 2017. We also included what frantic assembly would add to a piece to make it more complex and add more character which include music/tech/stage design as well as the ability to maintain focus and the ability to be synchronised in our movements.

This image is the parts of the workshop which we really liked and wanted to include in our final group piece of the Big BTECs. As is visible, it would be impossible to include all of the pieces on this board into a small performance so it was vital that they fit with the relationship theme that we decided to go with. The themes that we wanted to discuss can be seen at the bottom of the board which include how relationships change over time and the loss of identity apparently all within a high rise building. This high rise building idea was suggested because all the pieces that we suggested appeared to be of different relationships and thus it wouldn't make sense for the pieces to be mashed together - it is important to maintain the piece integrity of what we had already worked on to maintain the level of emotion that we had in the workshop.

We then discussed the high rise building theme in greater detail by discussing the set that we could have. Although this is not really in Frantic Assembly's style it did give us a starting point for the introduction for the piece which I will discuss later in this blog. We discussed that the set of the risers would represent the windows and a climbing frame for the high rise building so that we could do various lifts after climbing up the risers. Additionally, as the three pieces that we would use - Marlon and Jade's, Hannah1 and Leah's and Maya and Bruce's - all appeared to be in different time zones, it was suggested that each riser step would be in a different time zone. The photo opposite details what we were going to complete in terms of improvisation for the first attempt at an introduction to the piece that will be discussed later in the blog.

The first thing that was done was that we were put into groups so that we could learn the movement that we wanted to use from the workshop. The usage of the title of the music is how I will define the groups:

The Very Thought Of You (TVTOU) - myself, Marlon, Bella, Lauren.
Time - Maya, Bruce, Alex, Izzy, Kathryn, Joel.
Sex for Breakfast (SFB) - Hannah1, Leah, Peter.

It was Marlon and Jade's piece that we used for TVTOU. As seen in the video opposite, Marlon was partnered with Bella and I was partnered with Lauren initially because out of all of us in the group, myself and Marlon are probably the strongest and heaviest, both of which contribute to the lift. I found it somewhat easy to copy what Marlon was doing with Bella but in some respects (i.e. where to put Lauren down after the lift) were harder to remember. The switching parts were done to highlight Marlon's role in the piece because he dances with all females in the group. This links to what I was saying about Flirty Disco in the previous blog whereby the movement could be showing someone going around a club and hooking up with every person - this is the vibe that we were trying to achieve with this piece. However, with the music and as our piece is the earliest in the History of Romance (potentially the name of the piece which hasn't been strictly confirmed) it didn't fit with the time period. This theme that we were initially trying to go for is enhanced by Marlon walking away at the end of the video, leaving myself, Bella, and Lauren alone. To be honest, this didn't work very well as Bella and I continued with the movement even when Marlon had moved onto 'dancing' with Lauren. For me, the hardest part of the piece was having to learn both parts of the movement as I move from being the man within the piece with Lauren and Bella, to having the woman's role with Marlon. I think that in future rehearsals this, alongside trying to shorten the length of the piece down and adapting it slightly to show romance in a much more positive way, should be something that we try to improve.

The next piece in the performance we thought should be Time as it has elements of old style dancing and a modern interpretation so we thought it would be an appropriate linking sequence between TVTOU and SFB. The use of three pieces occurring at the same time not only allows for a quicker rehearsal period, it also has more movement, keeping the audience entertained for longer. A major criticism of the piece would be that the three couples hadn't managed to coordinate where their impressive movements would be and thus some of these would not be seen by an audience. I do, however, like the way that different relationships are portrayed. It is clear that Kathryn's and Joel's results in tragedy even though their relationship is loving. Izzy maintains her cruelty and manipulative behaviour with Alex, her grip becoming stronger with each movement - this clearly shows an abusive relationship and shows how romance can turn sour. It appears that Bruce and Maya's piece is the one that lasts even though there was a lot of both of them trying to leave but staying to make the relationship work which it clearly does. In order to maintain the impressive movement on the wall by Kathryn and Joel it would be important to have a Promenade theatre whereby the camera would have to move around to capture this movement.

The final piece in the performance is SFB which is shown in the video opposite. Leah and Hannah1 had to teach and adapt their movement around Peter and thus have created a rather impressive cheating storyline that also uses some of the workshop parts from Maya and Bruce's line drawing exercise (as they work-shopped their piece on the floor and this can be seen in this piece at the end where Peter rolls over Leah).  This piece brings a much faster paced piece of action compared with the slower pieces before it which alters the pace of the emtire performance. Moreover, with the implementation of this piece, it allows for another interpretation of a relationship to be shown as mentioned above. This means that a large number of different interpretations of relationships will be shown and thus the performance will appear to tell the story that we want it to tell. We decided to put this piece last because the music sounds much more modern than the previous two pieces of music.

After a break, we experimented with the introduction to the entire piece. This was the hardest thing to create because, not only were there a large number of us, there were also many conflicting ideas about how to stage the piece which comes with the discipline. We now all realise that the introduction opposite wasn't in the style of Frantic Assembly and seemed much more planned than what Frantic would put on. It also felt like we weren't experimental enough as we used set too much before we had tried to build up an introduction that we wanted.

We started with the slow movement as seen in the video because we wanted a variation in pace to come throughout the piece. Additionally, we were all spread around in interesting shapes that didn't add much meaning to the piece. It felt too rushed and not at all like the workshop we had done the previous day. In the next few rehearsals we will need to severely adapt the piece not only to suit our means but to suit the style of Frantic Assembly much more than we have been doing.