Theater Reflection

 

I found that our video came together nicely by the end of the assignments, but there were many ways we could have improved our methods. Much of our class time was spent on brainstorming that in the end led to nothing, and it resulted in us having less time to explore what did work, leaving us to go with the first thing that looked nice. Some people contributed more than others, but overall I would say that people seemed invested, and everyone had an impact on the final product. I do feel as though the music was a weak point in the video, and does not fit well. I would have liked to see more dynamic movement from the people circling Ashlinn. I  found that many times people had a hard time making changes and especially with some of the movements, I don't feel as though we were expressive enough. There was not enough of a change from the first "are you fine" to the last, and I feel it took away from the overall story we attempted to convey. I did like the overall theme, and I think the way we approached it was interesting, but I am not happy with the final product. . Overall, I think we as a group need to work on our process, as there were many times we got lost in the weeds, and there was no one pulling us out or avoiding those situations. If we were to do this again, I think it would be beneficial to split the work up more, and maybe having more clear objectives could help jus avoid losing time. I liked the lighting, and I think that while they were good, we could also have gone even further and used them to do even more creatively.  I also would have liked to incorporate the camera with some different angles or perspectives, as opposed to leaving it on a tripod. I found myself getting frustrated with some of the other group members, and while I could have done a better job myself of inviting others to speak, I found some of the more dominating presences to have a negative effect, and were sometimes stifling, and took up so much space it was difficult for others to feel heard or express their ideas. Moving forward there should be more of a focus on avoiding this, I will be conscious of this on my end. I also think that the dialogue was slightly, for lack of a better term, cringe. In many ways we were grasping for a level of intellect or insight that was not there. Instead of making something within our limits, we in many ways attempted to craft something beyond us at this moment. Due to this, much of the message was lost in a performance that did not adequately convey our themes in a way that would be meaningful to an audience. This can also be found in the dialogue, which did not feel as a heartfelt and intimate portrayal of the experience being discussed. Instead, it felt like much of our work, unsophisticated and missing the point. In our effort to make a story of mental illness derived from personal experiences and general understanding of the topic, we made simply a high school theater performance. While this is not necessarily a loss, I would also not consider this to be a piece of work I am particularly proud of. I do think we are capable of more, and progress will be made. I am excited to look back on this work in the future and see growth.