The session kicked off with everybody sitting in the circle and telling each other what number we rated our moods (between 1 and 10 - 10 being really great)
Warm Up
As a warm up and team building exercise we had to keep a balloon in the air. By working as a team we had to tap it in the air and on the fifth hit, we had to hit it with anything but our hands. The point of the activity was to show the importance of team work.
Team Exercises
We all stood in a circle and had to pass a beanbag in a sequence. We had to keep eye contact to be able to throw the beanbag to the catcher. More beanbags were added and we had to concentrate and work as a team to keep 4/5 beanbags in the air at all times. This was another team building exercise to emphasis trust within the group.
Planning A Trailer And Advert For Our Play
We split up into two groups to put our ideas together and produce an acted out trailer and an advert for our play. It was challenging, but we all worked together and they both looked great.
Reviewing Our Ideas
We all discussed our ideas and decided that it would be a good idea to merge both together in some way.
The Advert Idea: A boy stabs somebody and his conscience haunts him all the way through, he then has the challenge of telling his mum, who begs him to hand himself in.
The Trailer Idea: A girl has her phone stolen by a boy at a party. She is with her gang and she sees him at a bus stop. Her gang put pressure on her to stab him. We hear her conscience deciding whether she will use the knife or not at the end.
Warm Down:
We all reviewed how we were feeling and generally everybody's numbers had gone up, which meant that we were all feeling a lot more positive.
We all need to bring in our ideas after Christmas to show Tunde how our ideas have progressed.
Tuesday, 20 December 2011
Monday, 12 December 2011
Session 4 - Image Theatre - 9/12/11
Check In
Today’s session started with everyone choosing a colour to suit how we were all feeling.
Today’s session started with everyone choosing a colour to suit how we were all feeling.
Group Activity
We were then each given a piece of paper with a word each, which were RESPECT, SAFETY & COMMITMENT. Tunde asked everyone to create a spider diagram around each word and write what came to mind when we thought of the word.
We were then each given a piece of paper with a word each, which were RESPECT, SAFETY & COMMITMENT. Tunde asked everyone to create a spider diagram around each word and write what came to mind when we thought of the word.
Warm Up
Tunde got everybody to participate in a warm up exercise, where we had to throw beanbags to one another in a sequence and repeat it without dropping them. This was to help everyone understand the importance of working as a team. We had to add another beanbag in but this time they had to reverse the sequence. This made the exercise more difficult and everyone was confused easily but determined to get it right.
Improvisation
After the warm up exercise the group then learnt about creating image theatre. We had to improvise with still images of the words RESPECT, COMMITMENT & SAFETY. We created three unique still images of the words and worked very well as a team completing the exercise successfully.
After the warm up exercise the group then learnt about creating image theatre. We had to improvise with still images of the words RESPECT, COMMITMENT & SAFETY. We created three unique still images of the words and worked very well as a team completing the exercise successfully.
Planning A Trailer
We began working on the trailer for our play. We all had to produce a thirty second piece which highlighted the best parts of the play to intrigue our audience. As we haven't worked on the play yet, it was an interesting task as we were starting from scratch.
We began working on the trailer for our play. We all had to produce a thirty second piece which highlighted the best parts of the play to intrigue our audience. As we haven't worked on the play yet, it was an interesting task as we were starting from scratch.
Check Out
To finish the session we had to see if our mood and colour had changed. The majority of the group's colours had changed.
To finish the session we had to see if our mood and colour had changed. The majority of the group's colours had changed.
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Session 3 - Scenarios, Making It Happen - 02/12/11
For this session we had a new group member, Melissa, and were also joined by theatre professional, Tunde, who will be helping us with the play campaign.
The group filled the newcomers in on their ideas so far.
We talked about the idea of starting a mock fight in the playground to get people's attention, then have teachers come in to break it up and do a short interactive theatre piece with the children who come running over.
What steps do we need to take to create the play?
1. Research
2. Write the script/scenario
3. Choose director/actors/characters/music
4. Sort locations and props
5. Do advertising/promotion
What do we need to make this happen?
- An experienced campaigner - Katy Dawe from Art Against Knives?
- An experience playwright and director - Tunde
- Experience of knife crime
With the experiences of knife crime the group have had and Tunde's experience in theatre, we have all the experience we need right here in this room.
If we want to bring in artists/celebrities we need to have the idea more tailored and make a direct approach. We need to think about what their involvement will say about us as a collective. They might want to catch a ride on OUR reputation.
We discussed the age of our audience and whether it's better to target younger children, as young as Year 6.
Everyone had a story to tell so we thought it would work well if we could incorporate this into our play.
In creating the story we decided we wanted it to be:
- True
- Based on real life experiences (our experiences)
- Simplified so that young people can understand the message.
The group filled the newcomers in on their ideas so far.
We talked about the idea of starting a mock fight in the playground to get people's attention, then have teachers come in to break it up and do a short interactive theatre piece with the children who come running over.
What steps do we need to take to create the play?
1. Research
2. Write the script/scenario
3. Choose director/actors/characters/music
4. Sort locations and props
5. Do advertising/promotion
What do we need to make this happen?
- An experienced campaigner - Katy Dawe from Art Against Knives?
- An experience playwright and director - Tunde
- Experience of knife crime
With the experiences of knife crime the group have had and Tunde's experience in theatre, we have all the experience we need right here in this room.
If we want to bring in artists/celebrities we need to have the idea more tailored and make a direct approach. We need to think about what their involvement will say about us as a collective. They might want to catch a ride on OUR reputation.
We discussed the age of our audience and whether it's better to target younger children, as young as Year 6.
Everyone had a story to tell so we thought it would work well if we could incorporate this into our play.
In creating the story we decided we wanted it to be:
- True
- Based on real life experiences (our experiences)
- Simplified so that young people can understand the message.
Friday, 2 December 2011
Session 2 - Planning A Campaign - 25/11/11
The campaign's purpose:
- To raise awareness of knife crime and its impact among young people aged 10-18 years old.
Reasons for the campaign:
- Get people's interest
- Be role models to others
- When people see something for themselves they think about it more
- Opportunity to talk about the issues afterwards
- To get feedback
We all discussed ideas for the play:
- Go to schools - not on the street - send out letters to parents prior to the play
- Trailer for kids on YouTube and leaflets to families and teachers
- Play starts with a fight in the playground
- Participative theatre (Punch Drunk is a good example of this).
- Social media is key!
- Play out scenarios - say stop - let the audience decide what happens next
- An interactive multi-choice PowerPoint presentation - primary schools
- Performance - secondary schools
- Show them a video - who wants to be the hardest? like a quiz game
We talked about stories that have alternative endings and/or that you can choose the ending:
- Goosebumps books
- Sliding Doors film
- Final Destination film
We discussed things that we may need and our thoughts:
- One way or the other you get caught
- being neek (cross between a nerd and a geek) is good
- Knife crime affects everyone in some way
- Get hard facts and stats! - on injuries, deaths (hospitals, police, YOT, courts), crime on the geographical map (what parts of London are worse?) and anecdotal evidence (what people have told you)
Interview activity:
We went into another room to work on interviewing each other and what everyone wants to get out of the project.
To finish up the session we looked at some video campaigns that have used plays and/or some kind of performance to demonstrate their purpose:
- Romeo and Juliet - modern - with gangs (Verona Road)
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Session 1 - Introduction To Campaigning - 18/11/11
This is the first session and everyone is really excited and full of ideas. We all introduced ourselves and looked at the question 'What is a campaign?'
A campaign is:
- about trying to change something
- usually created to change people's behaviours
- Don't Trigger Campaign - one of the group was involved with this campaign - they are a group of young people making music and videos to give the message that 'carrying guns and knives isn't cool'.
Dictionary definition of the word 'Campaign' is to engage in an operation planned to achieve a certain goal.
Examples of campaigns:
- The Bring Back Wispa Campaign - successfully brought back the Wispa bar.
- Fish Fight - a campaign created to raise awarness about the number of fish thrown dead back into the sea after they have been caught with fishing trawlers.
- Occupy - an international campaign to get people to make a stand against banks and big business. Many people have been camping in London.
Things to consider about a campaign:
- Any campaign that you do, you need to know what you are talking about!
- Think about what has been effective about other campaigns.
Everybody had some great campaign ideas:
- Do a play for the West End, schools - then get people's thoughts on gun and knife crime and violence.
- It's not just about us it's about people!
- Make YouTube videos of the play.
- A skydive with campaign t-shirts - with no to knife crime written on them - or written on the parachute.
- The skydive saying could be saying "Using a knife is like jumping out of a plane without a parachute."
- Clothing design - t-shirt designs.
- Choose life not a knife - don't live in the fast lane.
- Could merge together and do a clothing range and a skydive
- Something through music - do a song with a message to catch their attention - like a mix tape - and get a celeb on it.
- With the skydive everyone could land with the words, don't use a knife, on their t-shirts - it could be used as a promotional event.
- A game for Playstation (gangs) - story and online mode - shows you the repocussions.
- Phone app or a game for Miniclip.com.
- We can do an advert for our game.
We will look into what is already out there and make ours different - this is very important!
The main idea that the group are swaying towards is do do a play for two different audiences and film it. The video will then possibly be used to promote the campaign.
Location ideas for the play:
- schools
- theatre
- on the streets
- colleges.
We all discussed a list of things that we may need for the project, including people we'd like to work with:
- Adam Deacon - to help with script and writing
- Asher D/Ashley Walters
- Megaman
- Noel Clarke - to help out with script and writing
- Wiley - to help out with music
- Skepta
- SBTV - advice on videos/promotion
A campaign is:
- about trying to change something
- usually created to change people's behaviours
- Don't Trigger Campaign - one of the group was involved with this campaign - they are a group of young people making music and videos to give the message that 'carrying guns and knives isn't cool'.
Dictionary definition of the word 'Campaign' is to engage in an operation planned to achieve a certain goal.
Examples of campaigns:
- The Bring Back Wispa Campaign - successfully brought back the Wispa bar.
- Fish Fight - a campaign created to raise awarness about the number of fish thrown dead back into the sea after they have been caught with fishing trawlers.
- Occupy - an international campaign to get people to make a stand against banks and big business. Many people have been camping in London.
Things to consider about a campaign:
- Any campaign that you do, you need to know what you are talking about!
- Think about what has been effective about other campaigns.
Everybody had some great campaign ideas:
- Do a play for the West End, schools - then get people's thoughts on gun and knife crime and violence.
- It's not just about us it's about people!
- Make YouTube videos of the play.
- A skydive with campaign t-shirts - with no to knife crime written on them - or written on the parachute.
- The skydive saying could be saying "Using a knife is like jumping out of a plane without a parachute."
- Clothing design - t-shirt designs.
- Choose life not a knife - don't live in the fast lane.
- Could merge together and do a clothing range and a skydive
- Something through music - do a song with a message to catch their attention - like a mix tape - and get a celeb on it.
- With the skydive everyone could land with the words, don't use a knife, on their t-shirts - it could be used as a promotional event.
- A game for Playstation (gangs) - story and online mode - shows you the repocussions.
- Phone app or a game for Miniclip.com.
- We can do an advert for our game.
We will look into what is already out there and make ours different - this is very important!
The main idea that the group are swaying towards is do do a play for two different audiences and film it. The video will then possibly be used to promote the campaign.
Location ideas for the play:
- schools
- theatre
- on the streets
- colleges.
We all discussed a list of things that we may need for the project, including people we'd like to work with:
- Adam Deacon - to help with script and writing
- Asher D/Ashley Walters
- Megaman
- Noel Clarke - to help out with script and writing
- Wiley - to help out with music
- Skepta
- SBTV - advice on videos/promotion
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)