Small selection of costume research

Here are some of the images I found that I decided to use as a reference for my costume designs. I also used some books, pinterest, online websites and some films such as Gunpowder, Treason and Plot. I did watch a few other films that related to eh date 1558-1603 however i felt that this film was the strongest piece to relate to.

 

                              

Fencing between 1558 -1603

'Recreation during the Elizabethan Era encompassed spectator blood sports, team sports, and individual amusement activities. Most of the sports of the Elizabethan era were carried over from the Medieval period.
           Fencing was one of the most popular of sports. Betting was commonplace as one of the contestants might bet that he could hit his opponent a certain number of times. In addition, much time was spent with the sport of hawking - very popular with gentlemen. Training a hawk or a falcon began with the capturing of a wild bird, then taming it by sealing its eyes with needle and thread, then tying the thread back over the head of the bird so that the trainer could open and close the bird's eyes at will. The temporary blinding made it very easy to train the hawk or falcon to hunt other birds. Bells were attached to the birds legs so that the trainer could keep track of its whereabouts.'
                                                  http://www.erasofelegance.com/history/elizabethanlife.html

Elizabethan Research

Name: Queen Elizabeth I
Born: September 7, 1533 at Greenwich Palace
Parents: Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
Relation to Elizabeth II: 1st cousin 13 times removed
House of: Tudor
Ascended to the throne: November 17, 1558 aged 25 years
Crowned: January 15, 1559 at Westminster Abbey
Married: Never Married
Children: None
Died: March 24, 1603 at Richmond Palace, Surrey, aged 69 years, 6 months, and 15 days
Buried at: Westminster
Reigned for: 44 years, 4 months, and 5 days
Succeeded by: her 3rd cousin James of Scotland

_________________________________________________________________________

'At the time Elizabeth ascended to the throne in 1558, Catholics and Protestants wrangled for political power in England. Because she was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's claim to the throne was threatened by the Roman Catholic view that her parents' marriage was not legal. As a result, Elizabeth aligned herself with the Protestants. Seeking to avoid unnecessary conflict, Elizabeth sought to chart a moderate course for England's religious establishment. However, England's defeat of the Spanish Armada during her reign marked not only a political victory but the championing of Protestantism in England and the rest of Europe.'  
     http://www.erasofelegance.com/history/elizabethanreligion.html 

Further Process...

I went to the Arts Theatre Nottingham, I went to visit the site to get a better understanding about the space. I took some picture of the stage area, particularly looking at the floor, proscenium, curtains, chairs and anything else I thought that would be beneficial to my work.

Processes...

I found the original concept of my idea really early, choosing to use the ideas of old, crumbling, decaying and destoryed themes which i thought connected to the storyline of Hamlet like a glove. I found out that it would be a good idea. The image i chose to demonstrate my idea was shown in the blogger post below this one, of the abandoned theatre. I liked the textures and thought further about the idea of having the set 'fall apart.'In this context, and for health and safety reasoning, i would have it so that during Hamlets soliloques, Hamlet himself would destroy the set. Ripping loose bricks out the wall, kicking in the theatre chairs so tha the furthest chair to the left of the picture below would be able to be punched of kick off its hinges.

Idea...

 For my set design for Hamlet, I have decided to create a play of time. Setting the play within an abandoned theatre auditorium. I liked to appearance and text of the buildings in the research I have done previously >

http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2011/02/spectacular-abandoned-theatres-cinemas-northeastern-united-states/

I have thought about the play Hamlet and how it is Shakespeare's most famous play, and how long it has been going on for.I liked the image above and thought about whether I could make a set design which depicts how the lay has travelled through time and interpreted by a theatre group, which has not got the funds to put on an extravagant play but they have been performing it for years. 

My whole idea is around time and ageing. For the set I would make it quite simple and minimal as the scene changes are very fast and fluent, so i feel that a minimal set will help the pace of the show. 

The costumes will be aged in appearance, faded and weathered. I feel that with all the idea that I could do, I feel strongest about this piece as I think it shows the loyalty to the play and the history and culture of the past.

Research...

Illogical :

• Surrealism
• Expression of the imagination
• Experience the mysterious
• 'basic human instinct' 
• Ritualistic
• Abstract

Surrealist Artist:

• Max Ernst
• Joan Miro
• Andre Brenton
• Salvador Dali
• Lee Miller
• Roberto Matta
• Dorothea Tanning
• Alberto Giacometti
• Kay Sage
• Meret Oppenheim
• RemediosVaro

Abstract Artist:

• Jackson Pollack
• Hans Hofmann
• Franz Kline 
• Jasper Johns
• Philip Guston
• Robert Rauschenburg 

Research development for Hamlet

On Wednesday the 8th of May we went to see Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Company...

Below if the Guardians review of the show...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/mar/27/hamlet-review

'Hamlet always reflects the spirit of the age. Where the 1960s gave us a rush of politicised productions, today the emphasis – as in 2011's Young Vic version with Michael Sheen – is on the play as the delusional fantasy of a disordered mind.'

This quote on the website gave me something to look into...

•  'Disordered Mind' 

- http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/24392-the-disordered-mind-an-introduction-to-philosophy-of-mind-and-mental-illness/ 

- dis-or-dered 

1. Being in a condition of confusion or disarray.
2. Physically or mentally ill.
3. Lacking organization or regularity; in confusion; disarranged 
4. Afflicted with a physical or mental disorder.
5. Thrown into a state of disarray or confusion; "troops fleeing in broken ranks". "a confused mass of papers on the desk".( links to our suitcase project!)

disordered - lacking orderly continuity; "a confused set of instructions"; "a confused dream about the end of the world"; "disconnected fragments of a story"; "scattered thoughts"

disjointed, garbled, illogical, scattered, confused, unconnected, disconnected

incoherent - without logical or meaningful connection  

                                       http://www.thefreedictionary.com/disordered

Films and books that people connect to Hamlet..

Films

1. The Lion King 
2. The Graduate
3. The Godfather
4. Gladiator (Somewhat parallels the plot of Hamlet) 

Books

(ON GOING)

SHAKESPEARE AND THE CHARACTERS

OPHELIA actresses...

Emilie Sannom - 1910
Gertrude Elliot - 1913
Muriel Pavlow - 1947 (TV)
Jean Simmons - 1948
Sarah Churchill - 1953 (TV)
Anita Bjork - 1955 (TV Swedish)
Barbara Jefford - 1959 (TV)
Dunja Mover - 1960 (TV w. German)
Jo Maxwell Muller - 1964 (TV)
Julie Harris - 1964
Linda Marsh - 1964
Marianne Faithfull - 1969 (TV)
Ciaran Madden - 1970 (TV)
Susan Fleetwood - 1972
Linda Certain - 1973 (Canadian)
Pernilla August - 1984 (TV Swedish)
Trisha Hitchcock - 1987
Mariana Denicourt - 1988 (TV French)
Helena Bonham Carter - 1990
Diane Venora - 1990
Antonia Mohr - 1994 (TV)
Kate Winslet - 1996
LindaGay Hamilton - 2000 (TV)
Julia Stiles - 2000

HAMLET actors...

Alwin NeuB - 1910
Johnston Forbes-Robertson - 1913
Jon Byron - 1947 (TV)
Sir Lawrence Oliver - 1948
Maurice Evans - 1953 (TV)
Bengt Ekerot - 1955 (TV Swedish)
HAMLET UNKNOWN- 1959 (TV)
Maximiliam Schell - 1960 (TV w. German)
Christopher Plummer - 1964 (TV)
Alfred Ryder - 1964
Richard Burton - 1964
Nicol Williamson - 1969 (TV)
Richard Chamerlain - 1970 (TV)
Ian Mckellen - 1972
Rick Mckenna - 1973 (Canadian)
Stellan Skarsgard - 1984 (TV Swedish)
HAMLET UNKNOWN - 1987
Gerard Desarthe - 1988 (TV French)
Kevin Klein - 1990
Mel Gibson - 1990
Michael Schenk - 1994 (TV)
Kennth Branaugh - 1996
Campbell Scott - 2000 (TV)
Ethan Hawke - 2000

CLAUDIUS actors...

Alfred Drake - 1964
John Woodvine - 1970 (TV)
Richard Spaul - 1987
Alan Bates - 1990
Willy Metzeler - 1994 (TV)
Derek Jacobi - 1996
Jamey Sheridan - 2000 (TV)
Kyle MacLachlan - 2000

GERTRUDE actresses...

Eileen Herlie - 1964
Faith Brook - 1970 (TV)
Melaine Revell - 1987
Glenn Close - 1990
Ingrid Birkholz- 1994 (TV)
Julie Christie - 1996
Blair Brown - 2000 (TV)
Diane Verona - 2000

Visit to Stratford-Upon-Avon

Hamlet - Trailer - The Royal Shakespeare Company

Above is the trailer of the Hamlet production we will be going to watch later today.

Themes that arose from thinking about Hamlet

• Kingship
• Murder/ revenge
• Manipulation
• Spies / secrecy / information gatehring / closed doors
• Love
• Loyalty
• Madness
• Death
• Decay
• Ambiguity / Truth / 'Seeming'
• Mistrust
• Cowardice
• Conscience ('guilt'  = 'awareness')
• Action / Inaction

Suitcase to Briefcase. The final installation.

 Our final piece for Claudius involved a lot of letters of emotions and guilt. Through writing our letters there was a mixture of those two feelings as well as a few soliloquies from the play We felt that the letter represent the feelings and emotions of Claudius and that there should be masses of letters which were able to have been read by the viewing audience.

At first the letters were collected together and stuck onto a piece of paper. I personally felt that this was too contained and manageable and neat to show a guilty conscience and so we then wrote more letters and bulked the shape out, having scrunched up pieces of paper and lose letters. I felt that having them glued down just wasn't realistic enough for me and that with a bigger mass of letters and paper they should look like they have mounted over time and accumulated over time.

We struggled with the suitcase, we felt that it was too old and out of place in the office enviroment. We changed over to a brief case which went with the whole office feel and brought everything together.

By having letters in the case it brought the theme together across the table and down onto the floor.

Our projections worked well. We did have to re-film the movements, Laura's black trousers did not show up in the projection because we had first used a black screen and they were not visible. We then changed the colour of the trousers which enabled us to see the whole image.

We added a desk lamp to highlight the letters, we did this to show the guilt ridden and emotion filled letters, they were visible to the audience and able to be read.

The final finished installation looked like this... 
The purple lighting added to the feeling and made the scene look a little nauseous and like somewhere that is private. 
The miniature human projections in the jars worked well, we decided to the change the black paper to brown and found that this connected nicely to the letters and paper on the desk and floor. 

Feedback: 

• People enjoyed looking at the jars and the miniature image visible. 
• They liked the idea of the letters and how they appeared and were displayed saying that it give a powerful visual impact.
• The OCD of the desk and the contrast of the out of control letters was a clear visual message.
• The audio, which we recorded, played in the room whilst it was silent, was quite strong and gave a big impact on the control and destruction.
• The lighting was enough to highlight the piece but not deform or fade the projection.
• Although we did not want the laptop in the installation we managed to make it so that the laptop and the projector integrated into the scene as office material and in use.
• Hand written letters are effective and give it stronger feeling of guilt.

Things to improve on:

• Some tutors felt that a performance piece would have improved the overall feel of the installation. (however as a group we thought that having a performance part in it, the attention of the audience would not be focused on the audio or the projection.) Although we had previously thought about the idea of our piece being a performance and didn't carry through with it, to have a better understanding of how it would work, we should have experimented by using other members of the class to get their opinion on the matter.
• We could have made more of the OCD aspect of the piece by using a bigger desk to display the desk and its arrangement.
• In hindsight we would have liked to have continued on our original idea which after many different directions we ended back at. This would have saved time, stress and confusion.
• For the presentation of the groups installations pieces, our piece was place third in the running order. Unfortunately that meant that the two pieces before ours gave an expectation to our pieces which it just didn't need. In hindsight again it should have been first as to not lead the audience on to expect something similar to the two group before.
• I personally would have liked to have more letters, on a large quantity and have them flowing out from beneath the desk, down the table, out from the briefcase and fill a large amount of room. To have such a quantity so that the audience have to walk through the piece, on the paper, kicking it as they walk through to get to the table and have a closer look at the main piece.

Technical Issues:

• Blind spot - Laptop blocked a direct view of the piece. 
• Spot light on desk did not make too much of a difference.
• Laptop was in the way, we would have preferred that the Laptop had been hidden from view.

Claudius Speech.

Original Speech:

To be contracted in one brow of woe, yet so far hath discretion fought with nature that we with wisest sorrow think on him together with remembrance of ourselves. Therefore our sometimes sister, now our queen, th'imperial jointress to this warlike state, have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy, with an auspicious and dropping eye, with mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, in equal scale weighing delight and dole, taken to wife. Nor have we herein barred your better wisodms, which have freely gone with this affair along. For all, our thanks.

Modern Version of the Speech:

Through the memory of our dear brother, Hamlets death is still fresh and that it was proper for us to grieve for him in our hears, and our kingdom to be united in one sorrow. Yet discretion has fought with nature so much that we now think on him with more tempered sorrow, together with remembrance of ourselves, therefore,  our former sister-in-law, now our queen, the royal dowager of this warring country we have, as it were with an unhappy joy, with a hopeful and crying eye, with joy in mourning and with lament in marriage. In equal parts weighing delight and sorrow married. We have not disregarded your good advice, which has freely gone along with this affair. To all, our thanks.

Projection day

Today we were introduced to a variety of methods of projection, some more interesting that others and some we already knew off.


Projection Mapping.

Is a projection technology used to turn objects, often irregularly shaped, into a display surface for video projection. These objects may be complex industrial landscape, such as buildings. By using specialized software, a two or three dimensional object is spatially mapped on the virtual program which mimics the real environment it is to be projected on. This way, the computer knows exactly where to project it information as it can bed ad highlight and shape or form.

Mini projector.
A mini projector can fit inside containers such as boxes and can been concealed, hidden from the public eye.
The only problem with a mini projector it that the image can't be modified much so the lighting around has to be quite dark to allow the image to been seen better.






Overhead Projector.
This image shows the use of an overhead projector and a screen. The chair on the screen is a miniature and molly was stood right next to the screen.
This is the most familiarly form of projection and the easiest in our minds. For our project, we are planning on using projection, we still are not sure about what type we should use.
If we were to use this form, we would choose to do it as a stop motion and create a narrative for Claudius.

Claudius and his Conscience...

Claudius and his Conscience ... Youtube video reference 

After Talking to Sean...

After talking to Sean this morning we realised a few things...

• Our idea of using crates to create a sort of empire behind the suitcase, we realised when trying to explain that, the original idea of crates didn't really have any connection to Claudius or what we were trying to say about him.
• Perhaps instead of using crates ( which now thinking about them) we should use something that is a bit more important, special and something which connects to a position of power.
• Our piece might be growing into a performance piece which I personally think could be very interesting to do. Using a contrast of live performance and projection to show a private and public face to represent the power and importance of King Claudius.
• Maybe for the public face, use a mask. Perhaps a box of masks?
• Perhaps look at micro expressions? (trans-media)

Claudius Haiku

Combining the short poems we each did about our work to create a Haiku for Claudius:

A hidden storm rumbles on crackling like

Fire, explosive and frantic, thundering noise echoes

Yet the surface is calm where search lights roam

Heartbeat echoing through the royal court

Flowers rooting with an unforgiving stench

Heartbreak fills the room with regretful sorrow, silence

Controlled confusions seeking its revenge

White noise rolling in the wind, smothered in secrets

The key is never far away. Hidden.

Mise en Scène

Mise-en-scène is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story"—both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction. Mise-en-scène has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term". Wikipedia. 

Media integrated performance.

- 'Putting in the scene'

- Originate's in the theatre

- French

- Characters and lighting, set design and general visual enviroment

Cutting is about time.

Editing is a way to form a narrative temporarily

Explaining 'meaning or significance'.

1. Dominant

2. Key lighting

3. Shot and camera proxemics

4. Angle

5. Colour values

6. Lens / Filters /Stock

7. Subsidiary contrast

8. Density

9. Composition

10. Form

11. Framing

12. Depth

13. Character placement

14. Staging positions

15. Character proxemics

DOF: Depth of Field

RULE OF THIRDS 

Development of ideas.

Installation piece... development of ideas...

- using projection as inner thoughts.
- containers and chains.
- As a public face - maybe moving, a live performance.
- As a private face - maybe using projection as Claudius's inner thoughts. Inner Termol. 
- Light bulb swinging / Changing the effects of the shadow. Anxious movement, interrogation feeling
- Making the piece harder to find (?) making the piece a discovery e.g like when Hamlet finds Claudius praying.
- Suitcase propped open.
- Person (projection) trapped inside the suitcase.
- Inside the suitcase could be messy, rough, stress and projection.
- Outside could be controlled and calming.

The size and scale of the projections and objects used.

Claudius: Claudius Ceasar -  why was he named what he is? Does Claudius Ceasar have influence on the character that Shakespeare was trying to put across?

Media Mogul?

Light and Shadow between the crates

This image is something a little different, something else that can symbolise the royalty  and kingdom that inder Claudius's control and what surrounds him.