Well part of going to different culturally relevant events is I'll see some good ones and some bad ones. Sadly tonight was of the latter variety.
Tonight I went to see the Rude Mechanicals' production of what they called the Holy Harlots. It consisted of two short pieces, one called The Fall and Redemption of Mary, by Hrothsvitha, a 10th century German nun, and Mary Magdalene, by an anonymous 15th century English playwright. Both dealt with the exact same issue of a woman named Mary (in the first play, she had no real significance, she was just named Mary) falling into sin then redeeming herself after being taught the error of her ways. There was really no need for both pieces since they handled the same plot and elements. Seriously, both followed the exact same story arc, just with different circumstances. Granted Magdalene was at least an interpretation of biblical history, which would have made Mary irrelevant.
Moving on, I'd like to go over why I didn't like the play. I've been to several Rudes' shows now and I can't really say I'm surprised by the acting at this point. I'm sorry to say that the skill of the actors in these shows has never really compared to other works I've seen at Shepherd. It's always stuck around a high school level.
The acting aside what really stood out to me was the set, or rather, the lack of one. An ambiguous backdrop painted multiple shades of gray with a curtain in the middle served as the background for every scene in the two plays. A couple of painted boxes added more context to the scenes, but it didn't do enough to really pull me into the action. Lighting changes were considered set changes, where the lights focusing on RED meant that we were in Hell, and lights focusing on WHITE meant we were in Heaven. Done with some more finesse and maybe something else to sell the point, this could have been very interesting and artistic, but relying on it entirely only made it seem cheap and lazy.
Now to my biggest issue with this play. As far as I can tell the objective of the Rude Mechanicals is to bring forth medieval era plays and make them relevant to contemporary audiences. This can prove to be a daunting task I'm sure, but with the right people behind it, this endeavor could easily be accomplished. What I saw tonight was a butchery and frankenstein-like mash-up of contemporary humor, college humor, and classical work. Admittedly, the first piece had little of this, but instead involved a sickening amount of repetition in dialogue and long monologues where the actors just stood there doing nothing. It was incredibly boring, but I'll give it points for being consistent throughout.
Magdalene on the other hand started throwing me off at the beginning by introducing rhyming lines and a rhythmic method of speaking only to toss it out on the next couple of lines. Going back and forth between the two methods severely broke my illusions and kept me out of the play. The shoehorning of a choreographed dance sequence and a short rap full of foul language would have made much more sense in a modern play, but in something like this it seemed desperate and ridiculous. One of the characters, played by one of the only entertaining actors in the group, adopted a southern plantation owner style accent while heading a temple of Jupiter. There was no seamless transition to make things work on my level, it was just a dumbing down that ended up killing the whole experience. The complete lack of consistency did nothing to help with the poor acting, bad set design, and boring dialogue.
I personally know a handful of the members of the Rudes, and as I've said I've seen their other work. I know they're better than what I saw tonight. I hope that other people echo my concerns so that they can learn and improve on what they have.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Senior Capstone Project Progress: Posterboard Creation
With the completion of my Capstone Project, my next step includes making a physical and online portfolio and working on a presentation that showcases my project. As part of that presentation, I need a posterboard with a compelling and eye-catching centerpiece. For this post I'd like to talk about my process for it.
My project centered on quest design, the aspect within game design that formulates story and structure for many role-playing games. I needed a way to capture this essence of adventure and design within a single picture. For a time I thought of making a collage of some sort. By combining different heroes from noted quest-based stories and games, I could really drive home the point of quests. This idea presented the challenge of bringing in the design aspect, however, and was ultimately put aside.
My next idea was to use a fictional map of some sort and edit in a plotting system, to make the map look like it was a work in progress. I thought this idea was closer to the mark, but didn't have the eye-catching appeal I needed. So again, I threw the idea out.
Recently, if you read my earlier stuff, I experienced some trouble with the program DAZ 3D. I recalled that DAZ had different viewing options for the models and scenery, one of which included shaded wire-frame view. This gave the look of an unfinished but still sizable project. As I thought about the uses of this function, an idea began to form. Originally my plan was to find 3D modeled scenery that was still in a similar format, then find the same scenery after the textures and everything else was complete, then merge the two pictures, creating a transition from the work in progress to the finished idea. Sadly finding pictures that fit my criteria proved much more difficult than I had intended, and I began to lose hope on this idea.
I decided to work in DAZ as a last resort, not really liking my past experience with it. Creating a scene was easy, although I was sad to say it wasn't a fantasy scene, originally it was a dystopian city scene, since I didn't know that I had anything else. The concept worked well enough, using Photoshop to create an effective transition effect. Again, however, the lack of a real eye-catching element, combined with the fact that it wasn't a fantasy scene, really kept the concept from reaching its full potential.
Finally it dawned on me. After searching through the pre-made items provided with DAZ, I found a full fantasy action scene, that had action poses for a hero, a dragon, and a fantasy scene for them to fight in. After setting everything up, I quickly took screen grabs of the wire-frame view and the normal view, faded them together, and added appropriate text. The end result was this:
The action scene and the bright colors really pop out, while the detail within the picture really combine elements of design and adventure. Designing Adventure could not have had a better poster. With this poster, my presentation will be all the more impressive, and I look forward to how the whole thing will turn out.
My project centered on quest design, the aspect within game design that formulates story and structure for many role-playing games. I needed a way to capture this essence of adventure and design within a single picture. For a time I thought of making a collage of some sort. By combining different heroes from noted quest-based stories and games, I could really drive home the point of quests. This idea presented the challenge of bringing in the design aspect, however, and was ultimately put aside.
My next idea was to use a fictional map of some sort and edit in a plotting system, to make the map look like it was a work in progress. I thought this idea was closer to the mark, but didn't have the eye-catching appeal I needed. So again, I threw the idea out.
Recently, if you read my earlier stuff, I experienced some trouble with the program DAZ 3D. I recalled that DAZ had different viewing options for the models and scenery, one of which included shaded wire-frame view. This gave the look of an unfinished but still sizable project. As I thought about the uses of this function, an idea began to form. Originally my plan was to find 3D modeled scenery that was still in a similar format, then find the same scenery after the textures and everything else was complete, then merge the two pictures, creating a transition from the work in progress to the finished idea. Sadly finding pictures that fit my criteria proved much more difficult than I had intended, and I began to lose hope on this idea.
I decided to work in DAZ as a last resort, not really liking my past experience with it. Creating a scene was easy, although I was sad to say it wasn't a fantasy scene, originally it was a dystopian city scene, since I didn't know that I had anything else. The concept worked well enough, using Photoshop to create an effective transition effect. Again, however, the lack of a real eye-catching element, combined with the fact that it wasn't a fantasy scene, really kept the concept from reaching its full potential.
Finally it dawned on me. After searching through the pre-made items provided with DAZ, I found a full fantasy action scene, that had action poses for a hero, a dragon, and a fantasy scene for them to fight in. After setting everything up, I quickly took screen grabs of the wire-frame view and the normal view, faded them together, and added appropriate text. The end result was this:
Friday, March 9, 2012
Senior Capstone Project Progress: Take My Word for it
So in my last blog about the project I talked about issues I had with my original project. Issues that ultimately resulted in me scrapping the whole thing and moving on to a different project. My current project, the blogs about quest design, is underway and working out quite fine. I've been blogging once daily using WordPress.com. The website proved to be very user-friendly and simple.
Check out the blog here. I'll continue to post daily blogs, discussing different aspects of quest design, how it differs between different games and genres, and my own experiences with different quests.
Suffice to say that this project is going much more smoothly than the last one. My thanks to my director and the Capstone Professor for helping me reach this point.
Check out the blog here. I'll continue to post daily blogs, discussing different aspects of quest design, how it differs between different games and genres, and my own experiences with different quests.
Suffice to say that this project is going much more smoothly than the last one. My thanks to my director and the Capstone Professor for helping me reach this point.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Senior Capstone Cultural Response: Cashore Marionettes
Tonight I witnessed a magic and wonderment I haven't experienced since I was a child. A time when the joy of the stage transported the mind to a place where anything could happen and the world itself ran on dreams. It sounds fanciful but I'm not exaggerating. The show I was able to see tonight was just that good.
The show I'm talking about is the Cashore Marionette show. It is a puppet show done by professional puppeteer Joseph Cashore, who has been working with this medium for many years.
What makes Joseph's approach different from other marionette shows is his emphasis on realism and fluid motion. By capturing the smallest details in our most subtle movements, he succeeded in creating puppets that truly fooled the eye, if even for a moment, into believe that it was alive. I watched a mother carry a fussy baby to a rocking chair and slowly rock it to sleep before laying it in a crib. I saw a boy play with a new kite only to be carried off by it. I witnessed a little girl ignore her homework in favor of playing with her toys. Mundane activities all, but what made them special was the movement of the characters. They embodied the souls of actual people, real humans who had gone through the same events. At one point even an elephant, trudging through the Amazon, came onto the stage, and just like the others, this one truly carried the spirit of the animal it mimicked.
By far my favorite scene was a hard rocker who simply jammed out heavy rock tunes on his guitar. As he danced around the stage, his amp began to smoke. He noticed it and with some kicking "fixed" the problem. Much to our (the audience's) amusement, as he went back to playing, the amp caught again before finally blowing to end the scene. The movements of the guitarist coupled with the music and overall atmosphere of the piece screamed lightheartedness at the audience and the response was a non-stop roar of happy laughter.
The show ended with...well I won't ruin it, but it was called the Quest, and it lasted about 3 or 4 minutes. Suffice to say it was one of the best finales to any stage piece I've ever seen. It summed up Joseph's mission and his passion while giving the audience a spectacle they could appreciate, all the while keeping with the lighthearted tune of the whole show.
In the span of about an hour and 45 minutes, I was brought through happiness and joy, sadness and despair, and through it all I realized that my emotions were being manipulated by the animation of these fake people. I believed the characters to be real, and I became sympathetic to their needs, their wants, and their lives. In this light I hope Cashore considers his performance a success tonight, because I certainly would.
The show I'm talking about is the Cashore Marionette show. It is a puppet show done by professional puppeteer Joseph Cashore, who has been working with this medium for many years.
What makes Joseph's approach different from other marionette shows is his emphasis on realism and fluid motion. By capturing the smallest details in our most subtle movements, he succeeded in creating puppets that truly fooled the eye, if even for a moment, into believe that it was alive. I watched a mother carry a fussy baby to a rocking chair and slowly rock it to sleep before laying it in a crib. I saw a boy play with a new kite only to be carried off by it. I witnessed a little girl ignore her homework in favor of playing with her toys. Mundane activities all, but what made them special was the movement of the characters. They embodied the souls of actual people, real humans who had gone through the same events. At one point even an elephant, trudging through the Amazon, came onto the stage, and just like the others, this one truly carried the spirit of the animal it mimicked.
By far my favorite scene was a hard rocker who simply jammed out heavy rock tunes on his guitar. As he danced around the stage, his amp began to smoke. He noticed it and with some kicking "fixed" the problem. Much to our (the audience's) amusement, as he went back to playing, the amp caught again before finally blowing to end the scene. The movements of the guitarist coupled with the music and overall atmosphere of the piece screamed lightheartedness at the audience and the response was a non-stop roar of happy laughter.
The show ended with...well I won't ruin it, but it was called the Quest, and it lasted about 3 or 4 minutes. Suffice to say it was one of the best finales to any stage piece I've ever seen. It summed up Joseph's mission and his passion while giving the audience a spectacle they could appreciate, all the while keeping with the lighthearted tune of the whole show.
In the span of about an hour and 45 minutes, I was brought through happiness and joy, sadness and despair, and through it all I realized that my emotions were being manipulated by the animation of these fake people. I believed the characters to be real, and I became sympathetic to their needs, their wants, and their lives. In this light I hope Cashore considers his performance a success tonight, because I certainly would.
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