Week 3 - Drama

This task, known as drama involved going in to the studio and filming two separate scenes from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth. In the two scenes, the things that we needed to think about was the subject and what we wanted to convey through the pieces paying particular attention to the way it’s shot, design, sound and lighting. As a group we decided who would take on which roles. In this task, my role was as lighting in Hamlet and sound in Macbeth. 

Before we filmed in the studio, everyone had the chance to create their own shot list for the two scenes as experience. I felt that this was an important experience for me to have as I found it difficult at first in formatting the list, but I enjoyed deciding how I would film the shots. 

Practical: 

In the studio, we filmed Hamlet first and so my role was lighting. I worked with the director by communicating with the floor manager, who relayed all of the information. As this was my first time doing lighting and I’d never done it before, I found it quite difficult to work out what each of the controls did which I think affected how efficiently we worked as a lot of time was spent trying to figure out how it worked and what the desired effect was. Once I had become a bit more confident in how it worked, the director asked for the lighting to be blue and create a ghostly midnight atmosphere which really suited the style of the piece as it created an eerie mood. 

After filming Hamlet, my role in Macbeth was sound. I had done sound in a previous task so I had a basic understanding of what was required to make sure that all of the actor’s voices were clear and at the same level throughout. In this task I had to find sound effects, which were lighting for the opening and a drum beat for a section in the script. I went over this with the director and we looked for sound effects that would fit but couldn’t find a suitable drum beat sound effect, which affected the overall atmosphere of the piece. When we began recording, I made the mistake of continuing to play the lighting sound effect which was on You Tube and an advert played throughout the take which meant having to do another take to get it right.

In terms of improvements, I think that next time it is important that I plan in advance and source the sound effects before going to the studio to ensure that no adverts are attached to the effect. I also think that I need to become more confident in my responsibilities and the choices that I make.