Progression...

This week I have been experimenting with different samples that can be made using socks. I have been dying socks, painting on them, stitching into them, using them in stitch designs and so on. The samples are not yet finished, but as soon as they are I'll pop some photos on here. I wanted to make the socks look broken down as well, as all the socks hoarded by the sock puppeteer are old used socks.

It was then I had a genious plan, our house is filled with many many odd socks, which my mum has generously agreed to donate to my worthy cause. She also agreed to give me any socks of my brothers that looked like they had a life of their own, ie hole filled and caked in mud as he plays a lot of sport. All I had to do was replace them with a crisp, clean new pair that werent completely thread-bare! Everybody wins.

Obviously I can do this for all the socks, but by the sound of the designs, there are going to be A LOT of socks used and so this is a way of saving time and money. I dyed a load of socks the other day and am really pleased with how they have turned out. I used blue, red and yellow dyes and used them singley and also to make green, brown and purple. The yellow was disappointing, it worked and dyed the socks but the other colours overpowered it, making the green fairly weak and the brown didnt work at all, it just turned purple. But I now know that i need a much stronger concentrate of the yellow dye, with a lower addition of the blue and red to make the sock turn out better. Because the blue ink was stronger than the other colours I used, it has given some of the socks an inky look, like when the dye from the insed of your shoe turns your sock blue. The socks do look very broken down and in some cases I used a couple of different colour on one sock and I like the way they turned out.

The next thing I wanted to try on the socks, was putting puff paint on the dyed socks. I wanted to make them look mouldy and gross. To do this I strategically painted on puff paint to different areas of the socks, and on some I mixed the puff paint with shades of green, and with others sponged white and green tones on top of the dried puff paint. These samples arent finished yet but I am hopeful that it will create a good finish.

Learning Agreement & Work Plan

Last week I handed in my learning agreement and workplan, now that I have heard that it is all fine and dandy, I can post it on here...yipeeeee !!

So here you have it, the learning agreement I wrote outlining what the project I am doing is, what I hope to gain, and also what I will be handing in.

NAME:                                    Joanne Perry

COURSE:                               BA (Hons) Costume with Performance Design         

UNIT TITLE:                           Self Directed Project                    

REF. NO./LEVEL:                  CSS518

WEIGHTING:              2.0     

DURATION:                           9 Weeks      

HOURS OF STUDY:  300 Hours    

Unit Leader:                         Adele Keeley

DESCRIPTION:

For self directed project, I am working with Patchwork Theatre Company to produce costumes for their upcoming production of ‘The Bogeyman,’ which opens in mid June. Patchwork are a young theatre company, who are based locally. Their version of The Bogeyman will be touring and hopefully going on to Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August. The concept of the bogeyman is based around the idea of irrational fears, and with this the idea of a fantasy element can be introduced. I chose this project because it is completely unlike anything I have worked on before. Having the fantasy element, and being devised, the piece could go in a scary direction or go in a fun and playful direction. I am looking forward to working with all different types of fabrics and new techniques to make shapes. With this project, I will also have a chance to improve on my textile art, dying and fabric manipulation skills, and I am optimistic that I will learn many new techniques working on this. In the past projects, the costumes that I have produced have only been in black or white, and have had to remain as they are made without breaking down. Needless to say I am excited to be working in colour (although I do not yet know what the designs are like!) and being able to make things look scrappy, or dirty. The outcome of the garments is based more around the concept and creation, rather than the precision and tidiness of the finish. I chose this project because it will be a challenge as it combines two roles; making and supervising. With five actors and multiple costumes for each, this project is going to push me further than any of the others and I will be outside my comfort zone. I feel I am equipped to handle this project however, as I work well when problem solving and my organisational skills have improved greatly this year alone, and this would be a great opportunity to test myself whilst working with an outside company. An advantage to this piece being devised is that both the designer and I get to be involved in the creative process.  I also get to work side by side with the designer, which is again different to past projects as most have been individual work. I am keen to see what the job of supervisor is like, as I will gain crucial experience at sourcing, organising, time management, handling a budget, as well as hopefully increasing my self-confidence when talking to new people or in front of a group. This valuable experience will improve the key skills I have acquired so far and give me more to work towards in the future, as well as establishing a link with an outside theatre company. I hope to achieve my goals by working closely with the designer and experimenting as much as possible with fabric manipulation. I will make different samples and test out various techniques to achieve the best effects I can. The outcome of this project will be a series of costumes relevant to the production of The Bogeyman, a supervisor’s Bible and an up-and-running blog following the work I have done.

Exciting News....A Concept!!

Today I also gained a copy of Harriet's workplan, which helped me come up with dates to guide me through this project. She has set us dates, or goals, for example dates of fittings etc, so when I tweek mine a tad, I shall post it on here. Watch this space!

BUT the big news of the day is that we have a concept!!! Wheyyyy :)

This is earlier than we had expected which means that we can really get going with this project and I can gracefully transform into a well oiled making machine!! The Concept that they have come up with is called 'Put a Sock In It'

The gist of the concept is:

• The day is 2022, the ozone layer is disappearing rapidly and C02 levels are climbing. So the government are forced to take drastic action. Their plan? They have banned Socks. Yes. Socks.
• Police are making night time sock raids, no sock is safe from the incinerator, and knee highs are being sold on the black market.
• The story follows a sock puppeteer as she tries to rescue the hidden socks and save them from the police.
• Comments on environmental issues and a government driven to ridiculous measures
• There will be 4 actors, 1 male and 3 female. Minimal set is to be used.
• Characters are being developed, looking at the people affected by the sock ban.
• The sock Puppeteer is inspired partly by Sharai Lewis. She is maybe too attached to her puppets and is possibly wearing a costume made entirely from hoarded and rescued socks!

This is completely not what I was expecting at all! I was expecting a typical Boogeyman character, but I am positive that this will be fun to work with!! The character breakdown should hopefully follow soon so that we know what these characters will be like. I still plan to work on my various samples and maybe I can come up with something outside the box to create a sock-hoarding puppeteer..

Wow, a lot has happened today...

Tutorial With Adele- 24/3/2011

Ok, so it has been no secret that this week I have been STRESSING!! To tell the truth, with us not having a final concept and having 5 characters and me as the only maker, I was starting to feel quite out of my depth. From the meeting with the actors a couple of weeks ago, I got the impression that there were multiple costumes needed for each character, one contemporary and one fantasy. Today Adele reassured me that there should only be one fantasy costume (two at the most) and the contemporary can be sourced. (Phew!!) Adele also assured me that the costume does not have to be completed as long as my though processes are clear throughout my work. Adele told me that the beauty of this projects is that it is more about the creative processes and my samples and artistic experimenting than it is about having a beautifully finished product.

Adele and I agreed on what I would need for the hand in. We came up with:

• A Supervisor's Folder- although in my case it would be more along the lines of a workbook, as i would need to include sampling and making ideas as well as all the supervising details.
• The Structure for the Fantasy Costume- whether it is finished or not, I hand in whatever I have for the fantasy costume ( and have designs of what it should be like)
• All the samples I have created- including ones that went well and ones that weren't used in the final piece.
• Images or a rail of contemporary costumes- All the sourced items in outfit combination pictures, or together on a rail for hand in.

Adele also gave me some helpful suggestions towards what i should do samples of or look at to make samples next week. Harriet (the designer) today gave me some images to look at as well, the colours are really bright and fun, with layering and lots of texture.

I need to look back on the photographs for Coyote Was Going There and Moonfleet as theyre of a similar style to what we're looking into. Even a bodysuit with various shapes and formations attatched. 

The samples I am going to attempt are: 

• Stitching into fabrics, or trapping fabrics in between layers. I want to make a them look scrappy, and used. Messy but in a creative way.
• I need to ask at the workshop about using vacforming. Any synthetic material can be Vacformed. I especially want to look into using Plasterzote also.
• Using Aquafilm, which is a fine plastic-like fabric that you can stitch into, and then when it comes into contact with water, the film dissolves, leaving just the stitched design.
• Adele suggested that I also talk to Alison about having a tutorial on Image Maker, as this could be a very successful way to mimic some of the pictures I am using. 
• Another thing that Adele suggested was that I use puff binding, and then screen print on top of this, as she has never seen it done and it could create some interesting effects. 

At the end of this tutorial, I felt a lot more confident about the work ahead. I now need to finalise my work plan and set myself definite deadlines and targets to make sure I stick to a plan of action. I also felt more confident about my skills as when talking about ideas for the fantasy costume, I realised that I had learnt extra skills from helping out on other projects, for example learning how to make a lycra bodysuit, which would mean that I could make one rather easily and the whole project seemed that little bit less daunting! But I still need to keep going. I feel coffee will become a close friend in the next few months...

Research for The Boogeyman

The original 'The Boogeyman' was a short story written by Stephen King, which was published in March 1973 in the Cavalier . The original idea of the Boogeyman was a fantasy and fictional figure that was created by parents to scare children into behaving. The most popular myth is that this creature hid under the child's bed and would come out during the night. Although being a take told to children, he them has been continued and ideas based around this concept for more sinister...and quite frankly terrifying horror movies.

Picture above from Pixar's Website.

Although there are also ideas linked to the bogeyman from animation films such  as Monsters, Inc. The idea for this animation came from its director Pete Docter, who as a child always believed in the beings hiding in his bedroom. This film starts claiming that 'since the first bed time,all around the world, children have known that once their mothers and fathers tuck them in, and shut off the light, that there are monsters hiding in their closets, waiting to emerge.' This film reintroduced the idea of the Boogeyman back into children's minds, even if they had not been told of the previous tale, it planted a seed about the existence of the nighttime monsters. When looking at this particular film, it got me thinking about a television show that I sometimes watched when I was younger. The show was aimed at children, on the channel Nickelodeon. The cartoon, Real Monsters, followed a group of monsters, (or 'monsters-in-training')  as they went to school/college and learnt how to scary people. Every episode followed the main characters as they tried to frighten both children and adults. This reminded me of this project as there were all the different scenarios that they scared children in, yet it was aimed at children too.

 When researching for this production, we found that many films encompass ideas of the 'boogeyman' within their plot.
Some films that Harriet had recommended were; Shutter Island, due to the idea behind it, as people start to vanish, the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio has to find out who the murderer is. Other films I looked into were the 2006 Pan's Labyrinth. I have included a picture (right) from the IMDB website. This creature looks very alien like and is just one of the interpretations I came across when researching. The way the creature's skin sags and the eyes in the hands are rather haunting. Also as I immediately associate the Boogeyman with a thing that lives under a child's bed, having eyes on the hands would be very creepy as I can imagine a boney fragile hand reaching out from under the bed and being able to see perfectly, making it even more dangerous. Other films I looked at were Jeeper's Creepers, Rumple Stiltskin and even the Christmas story of The Grinch, due to it being based at children again but having a 'baddie' play the main character. 

Whilst Researching for this Project, I also stumbled across Terry Wolfinger's artwork. To look at more I went on his official website, which was rather creepy on its own, as it used a scary looking rag doll as the curser. His images are rather scary looking for animations but remind me off the Boogeyman story.

The Bogyeman...Revealed

Earlier this week, Harriet and I met with the organisers from Patchwork Theatre Company who we are working with on this project. At the moment, there is no definite concept that we are working with. We discussed past ideas of the Bogeyman to try and develop an idea of the performance and what everyone wants from it. It was decided that the performance should go down more of a comical route opposed to the usual scary one, and elements of fantasy or dream can be incorporated in. The show opens on June 16th and should be featuring at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to which we have been invited to as well. This would be a massive opportunity to get our names out into the professional environment as well as see what others are doing at this time.

The performance is a devised piece that will be based on people's irrational fears. To back this up, a survey has been taken to find out what people's fears are, and the idea that the Bogeyman could be made up from elements of all the fears that arose. In this case the Bogeyman character could be a very fictional and alien-like form with lots of googly eyes, representing the fear of spiders which many people have, and these sort of ideas.

From the meeting with Jenny, Stuart and Rebecca, we learned a bit more about the past performances and the theatre company itself. For this performance, there will be 5 actors (the 3 named above, plus an additional 2) who will each have normal clothes, and at least one costume relating to the concept. As Patchwork Theatre company will be touring with this performance, the costumes must be easy to maintain, as well as transportable. As Rebecca is a trained dancer, the performance may have dance aspects to it, but all costumes need to have freedom of movement as it is a devised piece.

The Theatre company is based at Weymouth College, so having access to their costume store as well as our own I feel will prove very handy and give us a wider selection to choose from. As this production won't have a massive budget, I will have to source and scrounge as much as possible, being very cost effective.

SDP: Rebriefing

This week was the start of Self Directed Project. For this project, I am supervising on a production for a local theatre company, who I am meeting with on Monday the 14th March. With the designer, Harriet, away for the week, this left me time to look into the role of a supervisor for a production, and also time to look into ideas of irrational fears which is the inspiration behind the 'Bogeyman' production. I also have to write a learning agreement which we write ourselves. It includes a description of the project, what we are hoping to gain and learn from doing this project and why we chose it. We also supply the outline of what is to be handed in, as each project will have something completely different come from it.

This week, I also went to Sarina's workshop. It was mainly meant for the group working on the 'Spirit of the Sea' Carnival, but Adele suggested that it would be a good thing to go to, as the Bogeyman is based on fantasy elements. Even if it wasn't helpful to the current project, it would be a useful skill to have for future work, as it is used to create abnormal, sturdy shapes that can be covered in fabric or painted.