When we first got our scripts, groups, and characters we sat together and read through the scene. I play Jaques, a melancholy man and the scene I am in is one where he looks on at Touchstone attempting to woo Audrey. My part is minor in the scene, for the most of it only interjecting with asides to the audience, only joining the action of the scene near the end to lend some advice to Touchstone and to play with his plan concerning Audrey.
For the first few weeks we read through the scene getting familiar with our lines and attempting new readings. I tried playing Jaques in a less traditional way, ignoring the melancholy aspect of his character instead choosing to find fascination and entertainment in what the character seems to consider dull and fickle. I felt like this worked for the character but not how the other characters react to him so I chose to stick with the conventional dissatisfied and depressed version.
We had slight difficulties with blocking because my character's lines are mostly asides to the audience and we didn't know how we could place that on camera. We didn't know if I would be in shot while Audrey and Touchstone are talking or if we would just cut to me for my asides. Now we're going to establish the position of my character when the others enter and cut to me for my asides but with a focus on Audrey and Touchstone, perhaps with Jaques in the background.
Finding a setting for the scene was proving difficult as well. We didn't know where we wanted to have it and all of us seemed to want different things. Jack had the idea of setting it in a reality show style which could work but we couldn't agree what sort of show we could set it in. Jess and I both agreed that we didn't like Shakespeare when it's brought into a contemporary setting because, I thought, it clashes with the language and makes it hard to become engrossed in. Since then we saw the documentary on Shakespeare in class and that fully turned my opinion around. Steven Berkoff's opinion that Shakespeare should always be in contemporary dress because the characters are timeless and when they were written that style of outfit was contemporary really made me rethink my position. We finally reached the decision to set it at a festival, it allows for a freer take on the script, allowing us to go further with it because it opens the possibility of our characters being drunk or even high. It's also very easy to set up, only needing two tents and rugged outdoors style clothes to make it look right.
We completed our storyboard relatively quickly. We went with rather simple ideas: an establishing shot to get the tents, Jaques, and Audrey and Touchstone as they enter; a medium shot to get Audrey and Touchstone as they're talking with close ups for interjections or parts with particular weight; a close up for Touchstone's longer monologue; and then a longer shot, perhaps another establishing shot for when Sir Oliver enters, going back to medium shots for the rest. Discussing the use of shots was interesting because we haven't done anything like it on this course and I think we felt a little lost, all we had to go on was our knowledge of TV and films from a viewer's perspective and what we would expect to see.
I found the status workshop with Alex quite useful. I really think her guidance helped me free up my interpretation of Jaques and allowed me to interact with the audience in a more interesting way than I was before. That said however I think I could have found the same thing with just a little guidance or advice on my character at any point. The workshop was ground we had covered before many times and the specific activities were mostly ones that we had done before.
When we interrogated the language techniques used in our scenes I had some problems because I could only identify two. Jaques' last line in the scene is a rhyming couplet to give a sense of conclusion to the scene, Touchstone however interjects with a comic song at Sir Oliver undermining Jaques' intended authority. He also uses a lot of direct audience address in the form of asides that place him in a position of self-appointed superiority, taking a position of being better than Audrey and Touchstone and reveling in it with the audience for comic effect.
I enjoy the play As You Like It, I think it's far off being one of Shakespeare's great plays but it's sweet and has moments of genuinely funny comedy. I'm glad that I get an opportunity to explore the character of Jaques within this scene and I hope that I can achieve an interesting interpretation of him and do the character justice.
For the first few weeks we read through the scene getting familiar with our lines and attempting new readings. I tried playing Jaques in a less traditional way, ignoring the melancholy aspect of his character instead choosing to find fascination and entertainment in what the character seems to consider dull and fickle. I felt like this worked for the character but not how the other characters react to him so I chose to stick with the conventional dissatisfied and depressed version.
We had slight difficulties with blocking because my character's lines are mostly asides to the audience and we didn't know how we could place that on camera. We didn't know if I would be in shot while Audrey and Touchstone are talking or if we would just cut to me for my asides. Now we're going to establish the position of my character when the others enter and cut to me for my asides but with a focus on Audrey and Touchstone, perhaps with Jaques in the background.
Finding a setting for the scene was proving difficult as well. We didn't know where we wanted to have it and all of us seemed to want different things. Jack had the idea of setting it in a reality show style which could work but we couldn't agree what sort of show we could set it in. Jess and I both agreed that we didn't like Shakespeare when it's brought into a contemporary setting because, I thought, it clashes with the language and makes it hard to become engrossed in. Since then we saw the documentary on Shakespeare in class and that fully turned my opinion around. Steven Berkoff's opinion that Shakespeare should always be in contemporary dress because the characters are timeless and when they were written that style of outfit was contemporary really made me rethink my position. We finally reached the decision to set it at a festival, it allows for a freer take on the script, allowing us to go further with it because it opens the possibility of our characters being drunk or even high. It's also very easy to set up, only needing two tents and rugged outdoors style clothes to make it look right.
We completed our storyboard relatively quickly. We went with rather simple ideas: an establishing shot to get the tents, Jaques, and Audrey and Touchstone as they enter; a medium shot to get Audrey and Touchstone as they're talking with close ups for interjections or parts with particular weight; a close up for Touchstone's longer monologue; and then a longer shot, perhaps another establishing shot for when Sir Oliver enters, going back to medium shots for the rest. Discussing the use of shots was interesting because we haven't done anything like it on this course and I think we felt a little lost, all we had to go on was our knowledge of TV and films from a viewer's perspective and what we would expect to see.
I found the status workshop with Alex quite useful. I really think her guidance helped me free up my interpretation of Jaques and allowed me to interact with the audience in a more interesting way than I was before. That said however I think I could have found the same thing with just a little guidance or advice on my character at any point. The workshop was ground we had covered before many times and the specific activities were mostly ones that we had done before.
When we interrogated the language techniques used in our scenes I had some problems because I could only identify two. Jaques' last line in the scene is a rhyming couplet to give a sense of conclusion to the scene, Touchstone however interjects with a comic song at Sir Oliver undermining Jaques' intended authority. He also uses a lot of direct audience address in the form of asides that place him in a position of self-appointed superiority, taking a position of being better than Audrey and Touchstone and reveling in it with the audience for comic effect.
I enjoy the play As You Like It, I think it's far off being one of Shakespeare's great plays but it's sweet and has moments of genuinely funny comedy. I'm glad that I get an opportunity to explore the character of Jaques within this scene and I hope that I can achieve an interesting interpretation of him and do the character justice.
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