marketing plan

Market research

Analysis of the current market in which the brand is in. Information gathered would include what the competition are doing and what the brand can do to exceed the services offered by the rivals. It would also offer a swot analysis allowing a marketing plan to be built around the opportunities highlighted.

Progress tracking

Reviewing the level of production of the campaign and attain feedback. Feedback may be collected from online surveys and blogs. Analysis can be used to keep track of the aspects that are working from the campaign and in return consumers may be offered a chance to win a prize.

Social media

Keeps the brand connected to its consumers, which makes them feel valued and forms an emotional bond with the brand. This can be a useful tool for the build up to a campaign. It also enhances publicity as the internet travels faster than word of mouth.

Marketing Goals

What the company aims to achieve from the campaign these may vary from profitable (financial sale boosts) to informative (enhance brand popularity and objectives)

Marketing mix

Analysis of the 4 P’s of marketing to help promote and deliver an effective campaign to the selected target audience.

Target Audience

Bring in the value for the value created by the brand.     

Segmentation

Allows marketers to produce a product tailored to specific consumers.

5 senses

Trigger memories, enhance brand attachment.

Promotional mix (how brand is promoted)

 BRANDING            who you are and what consumers should expect from the company 

http://marketsmarts.co.nz/business-touch-points/marketsmarts/10-components-for-a-good-marketing-plan-2/

http://www.inc.com/theupsstore/seven-essential-components-to-a-marketing-plan.html

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/list-components-strategic-marketing-plan-5043.html 

https://articles.extension.org/pages/35374/what-are-the-components-of-a-marketing-plan

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77408

segmantation

Allows companies to target a segment of people with particular needs. Bussineses can segment the market through demographic , geographic, pschographic and behavioval segments.

Segmenting consumers by their age, income levels , education/occupation and gender. A product targeting teachers may not sale very well because teachers range in age. Marketers need to incoperate multiple segements within the demographic segment. A company looking to sell an expensive technological device may look to target teenagers that come from families with high income levels as that age group are very influencial in family decisions such as holiday destinations.  

Strategically placing a product that would function effectively in a location to satisfy consumer needs. Selling solar panels in England would not be a wise idea because it rains throughout the year in contrast to Spain where its sunny for longer over the year. Urban and rural areas have contrasting needs as urban areas generally have less space therefore selling bigger equipment to rural areas would generate more profits.

Segmenting consumers dependant on their lifestyle interests and attitudes.More effective strategy because it overcomes gender and age aspects allowing the marketer to target a bigger yet specific segment. I think that this would be the most effective for my campaign because the brand is worn mainly by athlets (lifestyle resinating hardwork and archiving self optimum level)

Targeting consumers through their purchases. There is a weak corolation to what people say they will buy or do to what they actually do making this strategy the most effective. 

mahara bits

The brand's broad target audience is the young urban millennial generation (Retro models sell more that new models) as they grew up when Michael Jordan was the news of the Nation Basketball league (NBAcom 2013)

Fashion enthusiasts are one of two main targets. The shoes sell at a premium prize with low quantity production making them a must have for those keeping up with trend. A small percentage of the urban fashion conscious que up in long ques to buy the shoes so they can resale them online or keep them as the retro models are a collector's must have. 

Young athletes make up the other half as they aspire to have a similar impact like Jordan had on the NBA. Subconsciously young athlete think that the shoes had a significant impact in his performances. The media influence also plays a part for example the ‘Space Jump’ 11 shoes are seen adored by the looney tunes in the movie ‘Space jam’

Also in the movie ‘Like Mike’ the significance of shoes is enforced when a young basketball player with average skills becomes an NBA star over night when he wears a pair of shoes believed to have been worn by Michael Jordan himself.

Perception created from the media influence and sole impact of Jordan in the NBA makes consumers feel to have acquired enhanced air attributes reflected in Jordan's prime. Athletes outside the basketball sport would purchase brand products because the brand is driven by athlete attributes like hard work. 

how music affects our everyday lives

Considering its social and psychological funtions , discuss the role and importance of music to our everyday life

Self-identity, mood, interpersonal relationships(Hargreaves and North, 2004)

Who we are affects how we act and interact with others ?

How we feel and manage our lives, co-ordinate large numbers of people and offer a sense of group identity (Hallam, Cross, and Thaut, 2009)

Something people can relate to and relate to others with …...

Escape from reality –healing mechanism (bad day, play music connect to something else, lose yourself) or listen music to happy music to change your mood, babies and lullabies?

Express themselves

What is music --- (Indian music---music is like emotional paint –colour the mind)

Expression of emotion—music

Link to music and emotion? ---music is emotion????

The message –lance Richardson>>>>>>>>>’we use music to help us in our learning process …. children can use it to learn alphabetical letters for example

Spiritual link to music??

Means of communication --- communicate values and identity (

Bring back memories, improve focus and creativity, affect our personalities –

bring people together--- sense of belonging

making music --- groups – increase trust (requires co operation)

reciprocal—the same

cohesion –state of togetherness

social cohesion ---allow people to transcend beyond the physical connection
divent behaiviour ---

need to belong – isolation (stress links and other health problems ) ---fundamental (marslows higher archy of needs—middle of the pyramid---archieve the lower needs before we can attain the top ones) , drives us to take part in social activities –sport teams , religious groups --- belonging allows us to experience companionship and acceptance (self esteem) –(higher level in the pryramid)

concerts (feel good)

strength in numbers , more people more knowledge –more can be accomplished in larger numbers

when we are born –sense of belonging –family 

Dance for Camera - Final Piece

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reT58Sm-D2g

CATS evaluation

Overall I enjoyed the making and performance of this project as it was my first musical however there were a few things I improved as we progressed with the shows and also some things I would look at if I was to do the show again.

The first point of improvement would be working on the vocals for the song Old Deuteronomy, this is something that I flagged on the day before the show. In the play I had three songs my character had solo lines in therefore I focused most of my attention on the two big ones as I only had a verse in Old Deuteronomy. Within this song there were notes that I wasn't hitting and that was due to not getting enough vocal training. My practise time was reflected  on my vocals because I was uncomfortable with the song which held me back from going for it. If I was to perform cats again playing the same character I would designate my rehearsal time equally to all the songs I am in.

While the vocals could have been better getting used to using the whole musical theatre package is something that came with time. Dancing , acting and singing can be difficult when done at the same time while you push yourself to your limit. Balancing the three proved hard because as soon as I put focus on the vocals my movements we not to their best. A week before the show we started to put everything together because we had dance lessons that were separate to vocal lessons so the two never got to be done together. This made it hard for myself and a few others making us look uncertain on stage.

The body language I had on stage was one of my main strengths because I reacted to the other characters and clued the audience as to what kind of relationship I had with others . An example can be taken from the song Rum Tum Tugger. this was the main song from my character and how I danced with Bombalourina in contrast to all the other female characters implies that I may have had a thing for her. Body language can also help foreshadow the story to the audience because staying on the Tugger and Bombalourina.

Audition evaluations

Evaluations

Fringe -- FE awards --Cats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJXQEqnpajY&feature=youtu.be


 This is one of the most popular songs that have been produced this year and because of this it has been featured in much of the media. Its popularity makes it a hit with both the young people and their parents. Many people have made their own choreography and flash mobs therefore obtaining inspiration would not be difficult. On that popularity subject the song just makes the cut because unlike the song happy produced last year people have made flash mobs for it but not as many as there are for the song happy. It is also fairly new therefore it is not at the point were people are getting annoyed with the song because they have heard too many times.


FE Awards


For this performance we incorporated numerous songs from musicals that have been done in our college allowing us to work with the ex students from the college. I think what made our piece special was that it was a mash up in contrast to having one five minute song like the other colleges did. In a space of 5 minutes we sang six songs that  had different energy levels allowing us to take the audience in an emotional journey. The other colleges had one song which I thought was of a high standard because they lots of time to focus on it and that showed in their performance however if that was someone's first time encounting musical theatre they would have felt left out. Another element to why our performance worked was that we tried to keep the movement to a minimum but not just stand still like a choir because no one wants to eat a meal to a choir.


Cats


The two songs I chose contrasted each other and I think that they helped express my strengths and weaknesses in my vocals which would contribute to the director's decision. One of the songs I sang was written by the author of the musical. This helped show that I could cop with songs of that genre and tone , while the other song helped express one of my strengths which was holding notes. This would make a good candidate for the songs that require a male role holding notes. Having tried tried a few other songs I chose these two because they allowed me to keep the same key while moving up and down the scales

Rehearsal Log

Rehearsal video


This was the first video evidence we recorded for the Brighton fringe festival performance. In this rehearsal it was starting to come together in contrast to the previous rehearsals were we didn't have much material. I think that it was hard for us to start because of the number of people in the group , having six heads all wanting to have their own way to start the piece was a challenging because I thought we were going to be having trouble coming up with any sort of material. I pictured the piece starting with one person followed by another till we were all in almost like a flash mob effect because we were the opening act of the second half therefore we needed to grab their attention. As the rehearsal went on we agreed to run in and hype up the crowd because it was an upbeat song. In the rehearsal we polished all we had planned last few rehearsals and watching it back I think that it looks great even though we could be a bit more fluid and uniform with our movements.


Uptown funk is a 3 minute and at this point we  have about a minute worth of material therefore in the next rehearsal we will start to play around with choreographic devices to enhance our piece. A choreographic device we could use is repetition, I think that  if we had a motif that was repeated we stand a good chance of leaving a mark on the audience as they would think of our routine every time they hear the song. Repetition would also extended length of our piece plus it could be used alongside other choreographic devices like fragmentation to spice up our choreography.


Another obstacle we faced in this rehearsal was not having all the members of the group in the rehearsal. This had an effect on the ideas we generated because we had less brains in the room plus if we were all in we could have worked on tiding up how we looked as group. Everyone is allocated a solo in the song therefore not having people in means we just stand through their part(s) which reduces our feel of what it will be like when we perform it next week.












Fringe Performance Tech Run






Above is our tech run just before the show , it looks great however there are tiny little bits were some members don't remember the routine therefore when we get there we will run through them quickly to ensure we perform to the best of our abilities.








Final performance

Variety Report

Variety is were different types of acts are put together to form one show. What one may classify as a variety performance can be anything from dancing to circuit to comedy , any type of performance qualifies. Popular acts back when it all started would have been comical singing however some acts were 'were unashamedly patriotic or sentimental, about true love, mother love, moon and June, idyllic villages, shady trees and wandering streams' which enforces that variety can be any type of performance.








Its origins can be traced back to the 18th century where it first appeared in music halls and supper rooms. Supper rooms was where working class citizens gathered for some food and entertainment as the owners noticed that providing entertainment increased their sales in alcohol. In Britain these supper halls had a rough audience that talked over the performers and sometimes attacked them with food if they didn't enjoy the performance.  At the end of a long day the middle class men would attend these supper rooms and for an affordable price provide food and entertainment for them. The acts that were mainly successful were comical songs written for the working class about the rich for example songs mocking their bosses that they would sing along to. This type of entertainment saw the birth of Sam Cowell and other comical singers like Sam Collins.






Super rooms were male only and as time went some evolved to music halls that provided more professional singers, allowed females to attend and also a less harsher crowd. The London pavilion is an example of this because it started as a supper room and in 1861 became a Music Hall. Music halls did not enforce social divide however you were likely to find more working class in super rooms than in music halls.




The evolution of variety turn a slight turn with the induction of music halls because singers kept the comedy element from super rooms singing about everyday life (bosses, rent, unfaithful wives etc.) and addressed social issues in their entertainment. an example can be found in on the VAM website 'Many songs, and much of the comedy, were a comment on social conditions. They reflected working class life. Marie Lloyd’s hit 'My Old Man Said Follow the Van, and Don’t Dilly-Dally on the Way' was about doing a moonlight flit to avoid paying the rent and Gus Elen’s 'If it Wasn’t for the Houses in Between' was about the overcrowded living conditions in London’s East End'  This was a form of one of the popular acts known as character songs.




The Victorian Era saw rise of Lion Comique and George Leybourne was noted the best in Comiques. This was the birth of boy bands that have now evolved to groups such as the modern one direction and take that. During the Victorian Era these were young character singers that sang about the high life and their attitudes were 'distinctly laddish' in contrast to modern boy bands.






Surprisingly audiences would go back time after time to see the same acts which allowed them to memorise the songs and sing along to them just like people at football games would go watch their team and chant the same songs match after match. I think that media played a big part in their society because they didn't have any sort of media therefore they had to the halls to see and listen to their favourite songs. Think had a knock on effect to modern variety because people can now access thousands of entertainment however variety is still popular in modern context for example shows like


Britain's Got Talent are still a big hit and there are also other nation loved programmes that originated from variety for example the X Factor (offers a range of different singing genres.)




These super rooms turned to music halls that encouraged women to attend and offered different entertainments on different days. The Canterbury music hall was the first of the music hall kind. It provided free entry making profit through food sales. I think that this place had a significant impact on the evolution of Variety because it was the first to provide tables and seats (700 seat capacity as the business improved) for the audiences to comfortably enjoy their food and entertainment. Music halls were a big hit with the society because it allowed women to dine with men and not just sit at home all day this meant more sales in alcohol and food for the owner therefore more places like this started to open.






Variety continued to evolve as the early 20th century saw large purpose built theatres like the Edwardian Theatres mainly designed by Frank Matcham. These theatres were beautiful with golf leaf traits and red chairs that were fixed in contrast to the table settings in music halls. Eating and drinking faded away in these sort of theatres and the darkening of the auditorium minimised the interaction between the audience. Its capacity and pricing was a big hit for the upper class and still affordable by the average working class which meant that it generated larger audiences.This the beginning of modern theatre as we know it because our theatres have red seats that are not in table settings. We have now added surround sound and 3D viewing as adaptations from the 20th century plus some places now offer 4D screenings.






Music halls provided more professional singers such Sam Cowell however the 20th century saw new built theatres that provided top end performers and everything was controlled by the new developed role of producers. This was the beginning of the large number of jobs that the theatre offers. Many traits of modern theatre originated from variety for Oswald Stoll owned a string of music halls and tried to pay his actors as little as possible which is something that we modern times leading to minimum actors pay laws to be introduced.






Historically media (writing and performing) was used mainly to consult social issues because people did not have the right to speak up to authority or go against them because punishments were extreme in modern views. Nowadays media is still used to consult social issues for example Malala used Facebook to get support on fighting for girl's rights to attend school in Islamic states. As technology has advance media has grown and most use it for entertainment purposes and the media industry generates lots of money through providing entertainment.






Variety has grown overtime and there are lots of programmes seen in Morden television that enforce this for example there are plenty of dancing / singing / comedy shows that offer different types acts within the same genre. Apart from being separated into categories some people have kept it original proving performers in their bars ,others offering karaoke nights. The evolution of variety is mother to stand up comedy and open mic evening provided in theatres.






Britain's Got Talent offers the general public a chance to perform in the royal variety show and sum prize of £250 000. The awards provide them with publicity and thousands of people enter the show which means thousands watch the show which generates them thousands of pounds plus people get to vote for their favourite acts making them even more money. In the eyes of the public they are offering a large sum of money for next to nothing however from that they get lots of money just like the alcohol provided lots of money behind the acts performing back when variety started. X Factor works just about the same way which reflects the evolution of variety and how media is used to get these events/ programmes popular.






In 1912 the Royal King George V and Queen Mary attended the 'Royal Command Performance' which is the equivalent of the Royal Variety Show where only a chosen few get to perform in front of the Royals. This still happens every year and it is a big owner to even get a ticket to be a member of the audience in this event let alone to perform in this occasion. The first royal theatre saw 'Vesta Tilley appear on stage in trousers'  which was a big deal because it was not considered moderate for a women to be seen in a pair of trousers at that time.




The contrast between the famous acts back when it all started to modern context is quite sublime as more acts have been added to variety performance for example Britain's Got talent the last two year his been won by dog acts. Out of thousands of performers trained animals seem to a hit with modern society. When variety first started it was all about comical singing for example performers like Sam Cowell were a hit with the public. 'The theme of the ballad is the traditional one of lovers parted by parental interference who then commit suicide and are buried in one grave'  something along the lines of Romeo and Juliet.


Two acts I might do would be a solo in our variety show or a group performance in the Brighton Fringe festival. I that the main difference between the two would be audience that come to see it for example in the college variety show friends and parents would come and watch therefore it is guaranteed  not to be a harsh crowd. On the other hand a bigger audience is guaranteed however most members of the audience may have had a bit to drink and maybe not so friendly towards the acts that they don't like just like the super room set up in the super rooms. Another important factor with the differences between the two would be that in a solo I will have to generate the ideas by myself in contrast to the group one were I will be working alongside others to come up with material. Both have cons and pros because the trouble with having more people is that there are more chances of conflict leading to slow progress being made in contrast to a solo where I could just get on with my idea and there would be no clash of ideas.


After considering a few factors I decided to go for the Brighton fringe because it will be a chance to represent my college. The group setting will enhance hard work because of the motivation given to be by others and some that I give out. I find it easy getting along with others in a project and I think that it will also help me perform at my best.I would have more rehearsal time as it would take the group longer to be in sync.
































(sources used-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_show    http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/music-hall-character-acts/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9NWMmiXtWw
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZTliSF_c9s

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/music-hall-character-acts/ )

production role

For this production I was assigned the marketing role with Saxona. Overall it didn't go well because I didn't not manage to secure any donations or sponsorships. I think that the main aspect for the failure in the production role was time. I didn't manage to get hold of Sax outside college times therefore I decided to take matters to my own hand by writing the letter. I hoped that she was going to help me spread the letter round to potential targets since the production was based around fashion. After a few weeks of no progress I started sending the letter to big companies such as H&M , Next , New look and others. The emails I sent were straight to their administrators and some took a week for the replies. All the replies gave me an email to redirect my enquiry. At this point it was a fortnight away from the show and I sent out the emails. Some of the companies notified me that their charity enquiries can take up to six weeks for me to get a response , others said they don't support charity works as they run their own charities and some said they will get back to me a decision in the coming weeks. Having received the production role I should have done my research to how long it takes and what companies Do and what companies Don't support individual projects. A positive would have been that I attempted my role and if I was going to be assigned this role in the future I would have my later ready earlier and reach out to more companies because the more companies I required with the higher the chance of us getting some sponsorship.

Hi my name is Magic Sine Sibanda currently studying musical theatre at Worthing College. I have been put in charge of the marketing for this production. Cats will be our last performance and by far the most memorable because of the sheer amount of dedication and preparation that is going into it.

Our version of the traditional Musical, reflects on the different roles & personalities that can be found in the Fashion Industry and also touches on the concept of people having another chance in life through a character who is despised by all the others in the play. Fashion is very important to people because it represents who they are and can portray different aspects of their personalities.

In order to accurately reflect our theme we need to have lots of glamorous clothing and it made sense to turn to you for donations of any shiny or sparkly clothing that you do not use or need!

Anything donated would be very much appreciated, as we are planning to have two rails filed with clothing. In return you will get your logo in our program, free tickets to all your staff members that may be interested in attending the show and lots of happy faces.

 

 

 

 

Dr Faustus (summary and context)

Play plot summary


Faustus is respected professor  who wanted  to have more knowledge than he had already obtained. He then decides that he wanted to practise black magic and calls upon Mephastophilis (a devil) who warns him of the horrors of hell however Faustus does not listen. He commands Mephastophilis  to go back to his 'master with an offer of Faustus' soul in return of 24 years of service from Mephastophilis'. During this process things go bad for the professor which makes him wonder if he should go ahead with the deal, however when Mephastophilis returns with an accepted offer Faustus takes it. Upon offer acceptance branded words on the professor's arms appear and he has even more doubts but the devils blinds him with 'riches and a book of spells to learn' and answers all his questions. The devil however does not tell him who made the universe which yet again brings doubts then the devil and Lucifer push the  seven deadly sins into the doctor's life pushing away any remaining doubts.


Having all these powers Faustus goes round playing series of pranks on people including visiting the pop in invisible form and playing tricks on him and also demanding to meet Alexander the great which could be the equivalent of demanding to meet Obama just because you want to meet him. After years of silly tricks Faustus awakes an ancient beauty to impress a group of scholars an occasion in which an old man warns Faustus to repent , not knowing that this was his last chance to repent he drives him away.


The last thing the professor decided to do as time was coming to a close was telling the scholars about his pact, this shocked the respected man who started praying for him but at this point it was too late. At midnight the devils came to pick up his soul as agreed and Faustus is taken to hell, with his limbs left behind and buried by the scholars.


The writer


Christopher Marlow was actor and script writer who lived in the Elizabethan times. During this era earning a living as a writer was unheard of. Having graduated from Cambridge university with the Crown stepping in when the university declined to give him his qualification because they believed he had converted to Catholism in a protestant England led many scholars to believe that he was an agent for the crown. After getting his qualification he challenged the religion and society at the time through his writing. Marlow made his trademark by figuring out what his audience wanted (violent fiction) and giving them exactly that.

Four plays written by Marlow provided the famous William Shakespeare to create his four well known plays. Christopher provided Shakespeare with plots that he then explored in the majority of his plays. Jew of Malta became Massacre of Paris ; Faustus became Macbeth ; Edward the second became Richard the II and Timberlake was developed by William into the Henry plays. Shakespeare was much appreciated in his time however Marlow wasn't which is reflected in his early death at 29. History records suggest he was stubbed in the eye and accused of trison just before his death.


Elizabethan Era

This was an Era that was new to theatre, people didn't know how to take the idea of people challenging the church through writing however they started to ease up as time went on. I think that this is reflected on how Marlow was treated in contrast to William Shakespeare. This era also saw the war of the roses which was a 32 years of war for power from two branches of Edward III descendants. When I was looking up the war of the roses I came across the Tudor family rein (royal family at the time.)

This family's rein enforces that religion was a big factor in people's life in that era because it influenced how the country was run for example during this time we saw Henry VIII separate the church of England from the Catholics turning the nation protestant. Marlow was not given his qualifications because they believed he turn to catholism which shows the power of the religious separation at the time.

This religious war did not stop when Henry had decided the nation was to be protestant because Catholism was previously in power and people don't really like change therefore the war went on and in from 55 for three years the nation was once again catholic under bloody Mary.

Mary was the most hated queen in the country of England because of her horrific decisions of burning those that were against Catholism. There is a lot of hate towards this women however she didn't have it easy. Her father wanted a son but his mum had 4 miscarriages before her. He then had another wife then another till he got a son. The public celebrated the birth of the son which mentally took a blow to Mary's head , during this time there were rumours of Mary's execution which made her live in fear plus she was scared to be poisoned and I can only imagine how miserable this must have been for her. Years down her father passed away and her 9 year old brother was put in power and he grew up a strong protestant white washing churches and taking his father's steps to the next level. Edward asks Mary to turn away from Catholism however Mary refused as she had grew closer to her religion during the tough times in her life. Edward decided alongside the protestant  church leaders that Mary Jane a cousin to Edward was going to take over because Mary was not protestant. This enhanced Mary's anger therefore she started a movement to get in power expressing that she was blood to Henry. People supported her but little did they know that giving her power was going to bring hell to those against Catholism. Everyone who had made her life a misery paid back through being burnt alongside anyone against Catholism , inserting fear in the public. The blood spilt got her the name bloody Mary and she decided to Mary a men who later on left her because she was barren which mentally attacked her putting her in a bad physical and mental state. This led her to think that she had upset God making her die a disappointed women an her sister taking over and uniting the nation through removing catholism.

DFF Evaluation

This was a tough assignment to get going but after a while I started putting the video together. My initial idea was based around toys, this was because toys are controlled and I wanted to focus on robotic hip hop dancing. I created a mind map of all the connotations of toys and the one that stood out the most was the word feel. This helped me develop my piece because there are a few different emotions that I could choose from. I looked around for music to go with this theme because I could improvise to the music to come up with some material. The song that I found was Logic under pressure intro. The song contained lyrics about feeling (the singer mentions that he used to 'wonder what it feels like') which was a great start as it left the conclusion open as it didn't mention what emotion it was about. I watched some hip hop dance videos for inspiration but looking at other people's choreography didn't help at all so I started improvising and devising from my own head. I played the song over and over again dancing along to it until I had 30sec worth of choreography.

After the 30 seconds of the choreography I started scanning the internet for some dance moves I could Inco-operate to make my choreography better from which I came across some robotic hand dance moves. I found out that they fell under a genre called tutting which is famous in street dancing. I then spent a few days learning this type of dance , at first it was difficult to make the 90 degree shapes but with time I started making straighter lines and started to pick up speed which is reflected in my first draft. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbBqtuYvags After watching this video about tutting I decided that I wanted to explore the dance and the following are some links from which I learnt the core basics of this dance which allowed me to create and develop my own moves within the dance.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0rV2qcbEgc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkpvM2AfvTc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyMfpJh3h4A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lZ_1ZqJ9vg

After developing my skills in tutting and the material I created I had about 45 seconds worth and I needed a minute minimum for the criteria. I started thinking about exploring the location in depth for example have a few seconds of the song showing the location. That gave me a few more seconds however didn't really do much therefore I included some of my personal life into the story which got me even more engaged with the project. At this point I was learning to play a guitar and the first song I learnt was all of me therefore I got emotionally attached to it and dancing to it brought back memories which set me up with a  storyline for the video---we see the character tuning a guitar and starts strumming the first melody of the song then stops gets up and starts dancing then gets back to picking up guitar in the end---I wanted this to show that nothing comes easy therefore if you want something then you need to work for it and not give up.


I then showed It to my friends and they seemed to like it therefore I recorded the progress which I then showed to the rest of the class. Showing the clip to the rest of the class paid off as I received some valuable feedback which is what I needed to improve my piece. Costume was one of the factors most touched upon as the majority of the class thought I could improve from my mickey mouse jumper to something more professional looking like a shirt. Originally I did take costume into consideration even though it may not come across that way. The idea of wearing the jumper was to empathise and enforce my stimulus because humans emotionally respond to the sense of touch.

The second most raised point was location. Shooting at Josh's place allowed me to access high angle shots and provided a warm wash light setting which are things that are not accessible everywhere. Indoors filming also meant that we could film despite what the weather was like outside.

Overall the feedback was amazing from my class mates which gave me a good feeling about working on this project. Many people complimented my lyrical movements which I later on found to be something I could also strengthen. Watching myself back I thought that the piece needed lots of improvement as some of my dance moves were not sharp or to the level that I was aiming to reach.

I decided to keep the idea of toys and controlling but have fluid control which visually looks better because when you include waving your body looks like its flowing in one motion. The music however did not let me go ahead with this idea and at the time I liked the song all of me and spent some time thinking about the stimulus and choreography link. Fluid made me think of water therefore I decided to film it on the beach which was visually appealing and complimented the fluid body movements I choreographed. While I practising my movements John legend's 'All of me' started playing and I didn't skip it and continued to improvise using the material I already created and surprisingly it seemed to work. Having spent weeks learning how to tut I had to include it in my choreography and from the first draft a friend had asked how quick I can because it looked impressive when done very quickly. Playing around with the speed allowed me to create more material however as a beginner I could only tut so fast and inside I just wanted to tut very fast like I saw some the guys on YouTube doing. Unfortunately that required years of practise therefore having it very fast was no longer and option. I then thought what would happen if I slowed it down instead of increasing the speed, I tried it out and showed to a friend who said it looked good. Having it slower allowed me to make cleaner shapes which visually looked better than doing it very fast and not keeping the right angles. The music went well with this therefore it was a win win situation.

Having a media student as a friend allowed me to play around with the music slowing and speeding it up however I wanted a violin playing in the background because it gave the song some uniqueness. Fortunately Josh could do just that for me. Having changed the music , I decided to pay a bit more attention to my costume. Filming on the beach I decided to wear a white shirt to compliment the beautiful background. White also enforced the perfection implication from the lyrics which provided a link of the song and choreography. I wore a black tie to help reflect the pureness of the white shirt. Since the song was about love I decided to contribute other themes of love , this was because it doesn't always go well therefore the black trousers showed that there can be a bad side such as a heartbreak which is something that we don't see in the song. For footwear I decided to wear my Nike rose runs because they wear blue and had a sunrise beach image which blended well with the location we were shooting at.

After filming I realised that it had all been done in ultra slow motion which was a big let down and I feared all the hard work had gone to waste ,however with the help of some media students I managed work with what I had and end up with a an improved dance project in contrast to the first take.

Response to the script

When we first got the script I was excited and worried because this was my first musical, I hadn't sang before because I never gave it a go so I found the auditions tough. The first thing I did was flick to the songs that my given character was involved in. The first line I sang was 'Can you say of your bite that its worse than your bark' and I honestly could not see how I was going to sing that. I then saw a song about my character that I had to sing, the lyrics initially seemed boring
and repetitive. Throughout the song it says you give him this then he would rather have something else then you give him what he would rather have then he would only want what you initially offered him. As I read through the lyrics I began to visualise playing this ungrateful arrogant character. I thought that my character would have been one of the least favourites in the musical which I later on found out that I was
wrong because everyone loved him. I then watched some videos on the internet and started to think of ways in which I could push my character.


 The rest of the songs that Tugger was involved in , I started to see them in a whole new light for example Old Deuteronomy is the song for the character in charge whom everyone respects therefore initially I though that my character would have turned down a bit to show respect for this character but after the research I concluded that even though he was being lovely he still was expressing his cheekiness. Concluding that Tugger was still being a bit cheeky in this respected song worked well with the lyrics because he makes a joke about Old Deuteronomy's age. This enforced that he was different from the rest of the characters and made me think that he was not afraid to do what the other characters would have not dared to do giving me a bit more freedom with the creativity of the this character's development. Later on in the script we saw Tugger introducing another character and saying how great they are. This made me think that he wanted to show the others that its not all about him and that his not that self obsessed as the older cats would think therefore he was ought to do a good job on that maybe be underdressed. I that it would have been funny if he still did a few gestures from his song to express the irony of him trying to show that his not all about himself but yet do a few things to attract attention.

Trying not to make it all about me like my character, I looked at a few of the other songs and I was confused to how we were going to express this fashion context in songs that involved fighting and shouting like the peaks and pollicles. The script says they barked at each other and at this point I think maybe they can shout at each other to express this in our context because I think models wouldn't shout at each other I think that they would just talk about each other behind the other's backs. Not really sure how we are going to go about with some of the songs but hope it all works out well.

The group songs probably will be the most challenging because there are going to be a lot of ideas at the same time and I fear that it will be hard to get started because people will want different things. This can be a disadvantage however it could be worse for example some people may not speak up but not like what the group has decided to go forward with therefore perform the choreography half hearted and hate the whole rehearsal process which will hugely affect the morale. 

Auditions Evaluations

Electra audition was the first of four that we went through for this unit. Building up to the audition i was slightly nervous because as I wasn't sure how it was going to pan out. We were then told that it was going to be a workshop audition which had less pressure in contrast to other auditions an actor may come across with. Having less pressure came at a cost of showing group setting qualities like working in a team and complimenting each other during the audition process.

 During this audition we were introduced to masks which already had emotional expressions on them. Having the masks forced me to use more body expressions because the mask covered my face. I also felt like I had to match my body posture to the emotion my mask had. 

In Greek theatre they would have used masks to help the audience seating far see how the characters were feeling. All their body language movements would have exaggerated for the same purpose. I think that this is what influenced the over the top Shakespearean acting that those who don't relate to theatre think theatre is.

I think that this audition worked well because there was no pressure which enabled people to express themselves. We also performed improvised pieces that I later on realized were plots from the play. The director wanted to se how we would react to the scenarios to help determine who we could play. In another audition we could have walked in alone and given the scenario and the word go which is much tougher because you have nothing to react to in contrast to having another person you can feed off.

For the purposes of the play I think that this type of audition worked. Some modern films require the actor to act by themselves and react to a fictional character that wont be physically be there on set but is later on added on the computers.

CV

name: magic sine sibanda
height: 5'9
ethnicity: black african
skin colour: black
eye colour: brown
build : muscular athletic

character range:

skills:

multilingual
roller blading
athletic (semi pro football , ex county representative in 1500m )
ice skating
public speaking
accents: south african, jamaicain, nigerian, southern english, received pronunciation

Costume Evaluation

The final costume I had designed for my character was completely different to what I ended up wearing in the performance. I wanted to have my character in a tiger coated tracksuit. The track suit would have allowed comfortable movement for my character as the musical included a lot of dancing alongside the singing. The tiger coating infused with black and white spots enforced my character’s characteristics provided in the song. Tigers are among the top end of all the cat species therefore this would have reflected Tugger’s status. I wanted to keep some aspects from the original production because a lot of people completely moved away from the cat wear clothing seen in the original production therefore keeping some of those aspects would have helped my character stand out from the rest.

Wearing track suits may not seem like top end fashionable clothing however after developing my character as rehearsals passed I decided that my character is loved so much about the others that he doesn’t care what they think of him. I also thought that because of his reputation they would still love him no matter what he wears and potentially start a trend among the models. ‘When you let me in then I want to go out’ and ‘If you put me in a house I would much prefer a flat’ are lines from the script that enforce that he is always doing the opposite of what is expected from him, in reality one would not expect a top end model to turn up to big events in a tracksuit.

Having been unable to bring my design to life, I ended up changing costume twice. First reason was because that was as close as I could get them to the concept and my designs. The second reason was changing it after meeting the director for the dress run. Having decided on wearing high end tracksuits that will contrast other characters in the play, I then evaluated what the other characters decided to wear. Gus was the character I decided to contrast because he was wearing a grey suit. At home I had a silver suit and I thought that the contrast in the two would help reflect our character’s differences for example Gus’ suit reflected his age as it blended well with his grey hair. My suit on the other hand was shiny, slim fit with a darker shade of silver on its collar. This made it clear that my character was bold and thought highly of him.

The nature of the songs made me change my costume ideas as well because while I was designing costumes for my character one of my weaknesses was not considering in depth what each song resembled. After going through my costume folder I decided to incorporate back an idea I first had for my character. The idea was for my character to have different costumes in the musical. Thinking about it back then it was an idea to help my character stand out from the rest however after developing that I idea it was to going to help reflect the context of each song I was involved in. I then went through my folder to see if there were and images I could pick out aspects of in my research. The fur coats stood out the most and I knew I had to get my hands on one. Some of the songs needed specific wear for example for the song ‘Old Deuteronomy’ we were meeting the top designer and the press were involved therefore we needed to wear formal clothing. Another song that required special clothing was Gus because the song is sang at a ball therefore we needed to wear suits and dresses.  After Gus songs we had the big dance number therefore clothing needed to allow movement, I wore jeans and they may have not been the best chose as they limited my movements. In the future I would maybe wear designer tracksuit bottoms, potentially my final costume design.

 

After the dress run the director indicated that my costume was too similar to what I would normally wear and I needed to make adjustments. The first thing I changed my footwear as I was wearing Nike Roshes that I normally wear as that is what I like to wear. I changed those top a pair of top end cowboy shoes that I borrowed from a friend. The shoe transformation made my character look a different man because it they didn’t only change my visual appearance but the way I moved on stage because they felt different.  

 

                                           

 

Having moved my footwear out of my comfort zone I decided to go down the charity shop and by a fur coat that i then cut up for personalisation. I also bought a sparkly belt to reflect on our colour theme which linked back to my research were I wanted to accecorise my character with silver and gold clothing. For the final touch I got a shiney scarf that i ended up not using because of the movements involved in some of the songs however my final costume featured a gold necklace and spike wrist bracelet to keep some of that rock legend character we see in the original production.

 

 

 

 If I was to redisign the costume I would keep the idea of having different costumes because it worked well. I think that even though i couldnt make my costume i should have bought clothing that is close to it as posible for example instead of the jeans I could have used the tracksuit bottoms to enable me to move better on stage.

Dance development points

 From the first draft I have decided to have a think about my physical setting. Filming in a house was good because it provided great lighting and I was able to include some high angle shots that I would not get with the considering the tech I have available for me. Changing the physical setting has a domino effect on my camera angles therefore I need to think about. I am thinking of including more long shots as it will express the beautiful sea view alongside enforcing my water stimuli. My choreography is based around water. I wrote down some connotations of water and the one that stood out the most to me was flow. This helped shape my movements because they had to flow with the music and reflect the sea. Originally when I started I used the word toys as my starting point and from it came up with some connotations that I intended to use in my choreography . Control was my main focus because toys are controlled therefore I thought I can focus on robotic dance movements. Robot dancing requires sharp controlled movements in contrast to the flowing movements that I have developed my piece into.

Cats Material Analysis

Cats Dance Audition

Above is a link to the final video of my cats audition. At first I wanted to audition with a different genre of dance because I didn't feel comfortable and confident with the dancing in the musical. After a few dance lessons I grew in confidence and decided to audition with the jellicle ball song which the majority of the class used to audition. Choosing this song allowed me to focus on my rehearsing during the dance lessons because this was the song that was played out-loud in the speakers because almost everyone was using it. Jellicle song was from the musical therefore it was appropriate for the musical. Another reason I chose this song was because it was fast tempo and allowed me to express different skills I possessed. Considering the journey I had for this audition i would not change the song because I grew in confidence the more more I listened to it. The only alteration I would make to my audition if I was to do it again in the future.


The singing audition could have gone better, I think that I should have changed my second song. Some of the notes in the song I couldn't hit or hold for long because I hadn't received any vocal training.

CATS points of improvement

After having a run through of both acts I didn't feel as comfortable as I should have been at this stage because the this was the day before the show was put up. The first point of improvement that affected myself and a few others was performing the dance choreography confidently. Having practiced for months I knew the choreography for the songs however what was proving a challenge was  the jellicle songs because there were three appearances of the same song in the play. The order in which they were in confused me, this translated in my body language on stage and made me stand out from the others around me because they knew what they were doing. This was also mentioned in the notes after the run. To improve on this I will go to college early and put in some hours learning the dances so I don't stand out as the one who doesn't know what they are doing and drags the performance down.

The second point of improvement was on the second song 'naming of the cats' were my group seemed to be squashed in the office corner. Due to the design of the set the left side had less space making it difficult for us to stick to the choreography originally planned. I think that we need to adapt to the set and move upstage to allow ourselves more space. Playing around with the space would allow us to walk in symmetry to the other group creating a better visual effect than where we are currently positioned. If I was in the director's shoes I would have one of the groups stay in the office and say their verse then the other group upstage right leaving the other group on the catwalk. having that alongside with some good lighting would add a bit of mystery and suspense which is what we were trying to achieve with the song as its all about 'who will it be' who gets chosen for the Heavyside layer.

Rum Tum Tugger is the song in which my character is represented. The journey of the song went very well and at these late stages I am just looking to tweak the little things in the song. Last week I suggested having more year 12s in my song so that I could interact with them for the first verse which I excluded in the choreography process. After discussions with my teacher we concluded having two girls that I come in with, this instantly made me think of them as my assistants. Linking that to the context and my character it made no sense because why would a model have assistants for? After the run the director mentioned me thinking of a reason why they went off when after the first verse. This got me thinking about developing their characters which led to the idea of having the as super fans and instead of the leaving the stage they would stay on. The next step for tomorrow is to create some choreography to enforce that they are Tugger's super fans. Completing this point of improvement will give purpose to my first verse which is what I was originally trying to accomplish by having some year 12 girls.

With the show tomorrow then run was an eye opener to how much we had to cover to reach the level of performance we have been rehearsing for the past few months. From a personal perspective I had a lot of tiding up to do. One of the songs I found challenging was Bustopher Jones because its meant to be funny but non of us seem to get the comedy. With the show a day away we really should be laughing our brains off. I think that one of the main reasons why myself and a few others are not finding this funny is because it is not at all funny. The people impersonating this overweight character need to go for it a bit more and maybe analyse the scripts to understand the jokes. In the beginning we are all Bustopher Jones therefore I think I could improve my entrance for example the way I walk. I think if I walk in a funny walk the audience might laugh a bit which will change the atmosphere and allow us to go for a it which will then allow the song to fulfil its purpose. The vibe that that is currently expressed in this song makes it harder for us to fully portray the choreography that we have because I think everyone is a bit tentative because we are not sure if its working. Personally need to step up my game because if everyone did that for tomorrow then it will look good as we would all be putting in the effort. This is one of the songs we spent less time on because there is no Bustopher Jones in our cast , another obstacle we faced with this song was having enough hats. I think it looked odd to the audience we had during the run through as some people had hats and other didn't which could have led the audience to imply that there was a reason for this decision when it was just lack of detail from the prop team. Having the show tomorrow I think that I cannot rely on others therefore I should set my own hat tomorrow for example have a sticker on it with my name on it.

The next point of improvement I noted after today's run was my improvement needed in my vocals in a few of the songs. The songs included the addressing of cats which was a group song that seemed to need a lot of work. I think that one of the factors affecting this song would be the time spent on it. When I get home I will listen to the song over and over to help me get confident with it. Another song that needed vocal lifting was Old Deuteronomy were I had a solo that I was struggling with. During the rehearsal process I focused a lot of my attention to the songs I felt more confident with. My plan to improve on this for tomorrow is to come in early and get one of the voice teachers to help me with vocals of this song. My confidence in this song affected my body language on stage which made it difficult for me top help enforce the purpose of the song. I think that this had a knock on effect to the other characters on stage because they seemed less confident after I had sang.

The last point of improvement that we touched upon in the notes was the song Mr Mistofelees.  This song has undergone the longest journey in contrast to all the songs in the play. First we had choreography which excluded Niamh then changed it to help her fit in but that didn't work out well therefore today we decided to have her as a dictactive. This new idea worked very well with the previous song which is something we lacked at rehearsals. Tomorrow if we have her as a dictactive it would give her something to be doing while she is on stage because currently she just stand in the middle which looks odd. Having her as a dictactive also enforces the importance of Deuteronomy to the play and shows why she is often mentioned in the majority of the songs and why she gets to choose who makes it to the heavyside Layer.

choreography contribution

Mr Mistoffelees

This is one of two songs that my character is mainly involved in therefore contributing to the choreography was essential. For this song I was paired with Niamh, this being one of the long songs in the musical we decided to plan a half each. The second half which I was assigned was mainly showing what Mr Mistoffelees was capable of in contrast to the first half which was all about introducing him to the rest of the cats. In the original cats production we see him perform magical tricks which did not go with our context therefore I wanted her to the majority of the second half performing her solo. My original plan was to have the rest of the group perform some choreography I had planned to reflect through dance that Mr Mistoffelees could performing things that the other cats could not. On the day we had to pitch our idea to the rest of the class Niamh did not turn up which meant I had to cover the whole song. To start with I had no idea what I could do with the beginning of the song but the rest of the group helped me pull through the choreography. The teacher asked questions of how I was going to reflect our context in the song which got me thinking and helped get the choreography on its feet. In the original we see the first half of the song describe and introduce this cat therefore I decided to go along with that idea ,adding our context to it as a group we decided that Mr Mistoffelees was a new designer. When you are going into a new competitive environment you need to show that you are there to stay therefore first impressions needed to be good from Mr Mistoffelees. From this we decided to have her make a big entrance from the audience with two other characters alongside her to reflect her status. Tugger helps present this new designer and shows off her work therefore I decided that models should walk down the cat walk wearing something designed by this cat for example it could be accessories such as hats or jewellery and scarfs. The models then stroke a pose at the end of the catwalk which enforced that Mr Mistoffelees was a great designer because some of the top models were wearing her designs. The next stage was to take down the huge instrumental that covered the majority of the song. I then separated the group in fours and gave them 32 beats to create a small choreography that they were to perform to the rest of the class. We started brain storming ideas in our little group and we started to drift towards the dance style used in the original cats production which was something I wanted to avoid. I then asked people in my group to just improvise to the section we had and everyone came up different pieces which we then put together and ended up with a piece of choreography that was different from the rest of the groups. I then I asked everyone to show what they had devised and ran through what we had a few times. therefore was still a section of the instrumental left which I then decided to allow Mr Mistoffelees to perform her solo since this was her song instead of cutting out that remainder. Left was some repeated chorus verses which I then decided to have the group divided in the categories of models/designer/agents. I was to sing the first verse then the designers had a verse and during the verse they were doing the final touches to their models with Mr Mistoffelees helping them. the next verse was for the models who walked down the catwalk with the agents watching them. After that it was the agents  singing while the models were on the catwalk and some agents talking to designers about the models. The last two verses we sang together and gathered around Mr Mistoffelees who  then made her exit while the rest of the group sang the last verse.

Script writing 1st draft review

My first draft was a good start as I managed to write three scenes. I found it hard to progress after I had wrote those three scenes because I went through all the points I wanted to mention about the experiences of my main character in his new school. The next steps would be to develop the characters that I introduced around my character. I am looking to explore further how ‘Tams’ friends influence the way he behaves at school and potentially how that would affect his future.

Originally I wanted to contrast schools in Zimbabwe and schools in England through how the teachers treat the pupils and how pupils treat each other due to their environment. This idea works well because of the differences in political influence we find  in education. Every country have different influence from politics in their educational system there i wanted to juxtapose the two system so that some people can relate to the story while enabling others to see a different perspective in the influence of education. 

Environmental influence has a significant amount on children’s futures for example if you are raised in a lower class, and you don’t get an education you are more likely to grow up into criminal activities than someone of a higher class who may be forced continue the family business. This is enforced by cultural ethics for example a lot lower class foreign countries push their children to archive higher than they have. 

In my story ‘Carl’ is ‘Tams’ first friend that he meets at school therefore I’m looking to explore conflict through their friendship. Friendship or any other relationship comes at the cost of trust; I’m looking to place one of my characters in a dilemma were they either say the truth or lie to protect their loved ones. 

At this point I am clueless about my ending maybe my character dies or knows someone who dies due to events that happened when they were at school and have now led to death, maybe he ends up in a home telling his story to someone who moved from England to grow up in an African country. This would work because there are always consequences to the actions that one takes there touching on that would give my script that extra bit of weight it needs. 

next steps : politics in education , mention girls not allowed to learn -people getting shot at schools --question why i was sent to the school i was sent to in Zim (better education , scrict school --very religious --- more likely to end up with a good career--)