A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

SNOW EFFECTS WORK

Snow effects in a studio space

Location - WKC Dance StudioBudget - £10IdeasI have come up with 3 ideas and I will explore them more to work out which is the best and will be the most effective and will stay in budget.

Confetti machine

Tissue paper

Moving gobo

Creating a snow machineWe are creating a snow cradle to test before our college production of A Christmas Carol. This is one idea we are testing to see how effective it is, and if it is do-able on our budget. We also need to check if it is convenient and how difficult. Here is where e found the idea:We started by using a steel rule to measure out a 150mm radius semi circle out of 6ml MDF (medium density fibre). Next we then drew an inner semi circle with the radius of 130mm within the inside of the first semi circle. We then drew a 40mm radius circle on the centre point of the original circle. We also made 2 semi circles out of 4mm plybord. Then we cut out the outline using the following tools:Confetti machine -Looks effectiveCan be costly Where would it be putTime consuming to clean upTissue paper - Doesn’t look as effective Time consuming to clean upWhere would it be disposed from Moving gobo -Easy to access Can be rigged in the studio Cheap Easy to set up No cleaning up involved

I have chosen to use a moving gobo. The dance studios have rigging bars and the correct power sockets to rig a moving lights. I can transfer a moving light from a theatre and use the Congo board. I chose not to use tissue paper as it is not as effective and it will be time consuming to clear up. The confetti machine is the same and it also is out of budget.

https://youtu.be/g_1SAF9eiG0BansawDisc sanderGerbil sander

Next we got a 45mm by 45mm square pine wood

Then we drilled a 12mm hole in the centre at the top of the mount. After this we drilled a 10mm horizontal hole from left to right for the pivet.

Mentoring 

This Christmas I mentored Maddie in stage management for A Christmas Carol. As Maddie is fairly independent this did make my job slightly easier although there were a few problems. Personally I don’t think I was a very good mentor, because I could see Maddie knew what she was doing so I left her to it a lot, but I did step in when I noticed problems. 

During the tech run I spoke to Adam who was operating lights and sound and he said he found Maddies cueing hard to follow. I sat down with Maddie and went through her script and noticed she hadn’t put in standbys, something which I find very helpful and can be very useful for the person who is having the cues directed to them. I explained them to Maddie and told her how to write them in however she did not use them as she didn’t find them helpful. For the dress rehersal Tom and I sat downstairs and made notes on the technical aspects of the show to direct back at the tech crew. Afterwards we ran through the notes upstairs with the team. I have learnt that not everyone likes to have notes given to them and they don't always take your advice on board and that that is okay because everyone works in different ways. The way I cue a show is different to how Maddie cues a show, its just what works best for the individual. 

Overall I think that there are areas I can improve on, such as sitting with Maddie to go through and mark up the script as she had already done this without me. I think what I did well was I watched Maddie cue and I was able to give her solutions to problems instead of just highlighting them.