Lesson video

Hi everybody, I'm Mrs. Bradley.

Welcome to your first lesson in the scheme of work, becoming a critic.

If you're ready, let's get started.

In this lesson you will need an exercise book or some paper and a pen to write with.

So I hope by now you've done the intro quiz.

We'll then move on to look at the introduction to what live theatre analysis is, and we'll look at some key skills we're going to use in this unit.

We'll then look specifically at some lighting and sound terminology, which we will learn to then apply to a piece of theatre.

So we'll then describe and analyse the design skills that we see in a piece of theatre.

That will take us to the end of the lesson, and there'll be an exit quiz just to check your learning from today.

So our key words then.

We're going to be using some of these key skills, describing.

So describing is to give an account of something in detail, so to give a detailed description is to give a really detailed account.

We'll also be analysing, so analysis means to examine something in detail and explain why choices were made.

And our final key word is atmosphere.

So atmosphere is the feeling or mood created on stage, which is then felt by the audience.

So we'll be using those three key words today.

I just want to pause here and for you to reflect on the question, have you ever been to the theatre? So if you have, I want you to think about what you might've seen and it could be two years ago or three years ago or five years ago, but just try to think back, have you ever been to the theatre? And if you have, what do you remember about a production that you may have seen? So spend a couple of minutes thinking about a production that you may have seen and what really stood out to you in that production.

And this might just encourage you to think about the different effects that we see that help us really experience a theatre production and make it really memorable.

So when you're ready, we'll just move on.

In this unit, what we're going to do is explore the choices which are made by theatre makers, and that could be a choice in acting, lighting, set, sound, or costume design.

So we're going to be looking at all the different things that go into a theatre production, and make it a really exciting experience for an audience.

It's important for us to remember that in theatre, everything happens for a reason.

So whether that's the set design or a line being delivered or a lighting state.

Everything has been made for a reason, to create a specific effects for the audience and to help with storytelling.

So we're going to be focusing on choices, they are the choices or decisions made by the cast or the creative team, other than the effects of those choices, which are the outcomes, such as, it creates comedy, it creates tension, or it shows a certain atmosphere.

So those two key words, choices and effects, are words that you'll hear me say quite a lot in this unit.

Our first focus then for today is lighting design.

So lighting and sound are both really, really good ways to create atmosphere on stage and to also change the atmosphere.

So we're going to start by learning some key lighting terminology.

Before we do that, let's just recap what we understand by atmosphere.

So I've got a little statement here for you.

Atmosphere is created by the audience.

Is that true or is that false? Let's see if you got that right.

It is false, and the reason is atmosphere is created on stage by the cast and by the creative team, and it's felt for the audience, but it's not created by the audience.

All right, here we have then four new lighting terminology words.

So you may have actually seen these words before, or this may be brand new to you.

What I'd like you to do is pause and see if you can match the term on the left to the definition on the right, because what I've done here is I've jumbled up the definitions.

So pause the video and see if you can please write down the term and then write down the correct definition.

If you need to guess, see if you can just work it out by reading what the definition says.

When you've had a go, if you resume the video, we'll check your answers.

Okay, so here are the answers.

So a full wash is a light which fully covers the whole stage in one colour.

A spotlight, however, is a very tightly focused beam of light, which only illuminates one small area of the stage.

Strobe lighting is that very high intensity, very quick, bright flashing lights.

And then we've got warm and cool white.

So white light can come in two different tones, and that can give specific effects.

We're looking a little bit more at warm and cool white light now.

Here we go, so warm white light has got more amber and orange tones in it, and this is the kind of lighting we would find at home in our living rooms, or if we went to a restaurant in the evening, it's a warm, cosy type of light.

However, white light can also be cool.

This has more blue tones in it.

And you can see the difference in the images on the screen here.

So cool white light or cold white light is the kind of light we would find in bathrooms or kitchens where we need to focus and see things clearly, or at the doctors or dentists or some times in shops or offices.

So it's more of a commercial business like type of light.

So we use white light all the time in theatre, but the white light can be different and can have different tones to it.

We're going to see if we can spot that today.

Let's have a look at some images and let's try to reflect on now what we know about lighting and then how atmosphere can be created.

So I've given you three images.

As you can see in the images, the lighting is different in each one.

These are not theatre productions, these are just natural images from life.

So have a look at them, pause the video and see if you can write down what atmosphere you think is being created through the use of lighting.

When you've had a go, we'll resume and we'll just talk about what you may have seen.

Okay, so how did you get on? So in the first image, it's a sunset, isn't it? So it looks to me like a sunset over a field on a really nice warm summer's day.

So the sky is blue, we've got a lovely, warm amber light coming from the sun, which looks like it's setting.

And to me that creates a really warm, really positive, really calm, really natural atmosphere.

So they may be some of the words you've got from that image.

Image number two, however, it's very cold and white.

So there's no sort of warm undertones in that image.

So that atmosphere to me is quite cold, it's quite mysterious.

It's maybe a little bit scary because we don't know what's at the end of that tunnel, but you might've said this is quite a warm positive atmosphere because it is quite bright and it's quite nature related as well.

But you can see the source of light is very different between image one and image two.

Image three then is obviously a house, so it's the interior of a house in a lounge, and it looks warm, it's got warm white artificial light.

And to me that looks cosy, it looks like so where I'd like to be, it's quite an inviting atmosphere, warm and cosy.

So they might be some of the words that you wrote down for those images, but what's just important is that you can see the lighting's different in every one and therefore the atmosphere and the effect is different as well.

What we also need to learn today, some sound terminology.

So we're going to spend a few minutes now reflecting on some sound and seeing if we can learn some brand new terminology.

I've given you here four headings, and I'd like you to write these down, so pause the video to do this.

We've got the source of the sound, the volume of sound, the duration of sound and the type of sound.

And I've just given you the definition of each of those things.

So the source of sound is where the sound is coming from in the theatre.

The volume of sound is how loud or quiet the sound is.

Duration of sound is how long the sound plays for.

And then the type of sound is a description of it, whether it's instruments, whether it's a glass smashing, whether it's a bell ringing.

So a description of what the sound is, but also the style and the genre of the sound, if it was a piece of music, so it can be very descriptive about the type of sound we can hear as well.

So I would like you to write down these four categories, because we're going to do something with that in a minute.

So when you've written down the headings, let's resume.

Brilliant, so here you can see lots and lots of words.

I've made a table which has got 12 different terminology words in it.

And your task is to group the words below into one of the four headings you've now written down.

So you can see 12 words, are they a source of sound, volume of sound, duration of sound or type of sound? So for example, you can see the word deafening in the pink box at the top.

Is deafening word you would use to describe a source, a volume, duration or type? So pause and take your time to complete the task, putting all of the words into one of the categories.

And then when you're ready, we'll resume and we can check your answers.

Brilliant, so here are the answers.

I'd like you to just to spend a minute here, just looking at the answers, seeing if you've got them right, and moving any words if you need to into the right category, because we're then going to see if we can use this terminology today.

Great, well done.

So we're now going to watch an extract from a piece of theatre.

So this is a short extract from the theatre production of "Treasure Island" produced by the National Theatre in 2015, directed by Polly Findlay.

So in this scene, we're going to see the character Jim, talking to the audience, describing his experiences, and then a storm breaks out.

So what I want you to focus on is looking at the use of lighting and the use of sound in this extract.

So I've given you three things here to focus on, look at the use of lighting, listen out for sound effects, and focus on what atmosphere is created.

Okay, here's the clip from "Treasure Island".

So we're going to watch this together and we'll watch it three times.

The first time we watch, don't write anything, I just want you to focus on enjoying the clip and taking it all in.

The second and third times are for you to make notes.

So focus on the lighting and sound, writing what you can see and what you can hear, trying to use terminology that we've built up and learned today, and also focusing on what atmosphere is created.

So let's watch the clip now for the first time.

Even on ship, the world is an unequal place.

He's a landlubber.

Landlubbers aren't handy on the ships, particularly your Doctor.

Oh this terrible, terrible sea.

Oh the sea, the sea.

Your fine fancy friends should be back at home on dry land with a book and pipe.

He was the easiest of masters.

He was the funniest of friends.

He understood better than grandma even, my need for continuous large amounts of food.

But still my nightmare one legged man stood always somehow between us until.

Smell that salt.

One desperate night.

Oh smell the air.

Unfriendly winds waves as high as mountains.

Batten down the hatches! Aye, aye captain! Up on deck girl! Storm's coming.

How I do love a storm.

Okay let's watch the clip for the second time now.

And pens at the ready, we're going to make some notes on the use of lighting on the use of sound.

Even on ship the world is an unequal place Jim.

He's a landlubber.

Landlubbers aren't handy on the ships, particularly your doctor.

Oh this terrible, terrible sea.

Oh, the sea, the sea.

Your fine fancy friends should be back home on dry land with a book and a pipe.

He was the easiest of masters.

He was the funniest of friends.

He understood better than grandma even, my need for continuous large amounts of food.

But still, my nightmare one legged man stood always somehow between us until.

Smell that salt.

One desperate night.

Oh smell the air.

Unfriendly winds, waves as high as mountains.

Batten down the hatches! Aye aye captain! Up on deck girl.

Storm's coming.

How I do love a storm.

All right, I will watch for one final time for you to make any additional notes.

So I hope you've seen already that the lighting and the sound changes throughout the clip, it's not the same all the way through.

So try and pick up on those changes, when it changes, and thinking maybe about why it changes and what atmosphere is being created.

And again, with atmosphere, you can look at how the atmosphere changes in the clip.

So one final time now.

Even on ship the world is an unequal place Jim.

He's a landlubber.

Landlubbers aren't handy on the ships, particularly your doctor.

Oh this terrible, terrible sea.

Oh, the sea, the sea.

Your fine fancy friends should be back at home on dry land with a book and a pipe.

He was the easiest of masters, he was the funniest of friends.

He understood better than grandma even, my need for continuous large amounts of food.

But still my nightmare one legged man stood always somehow between us until.

Smell that salt.

One desperate night.

Oh I smell the air.

Unfriendly winds, waves as high as mountains.

Batten down the hatches.

Aye, aye captain.

Up on deck girl.

Storm's coming.

How I do love a storm.

And there we go.

So we should have now some really good notes on the use of lighting, the use of sound and the atmosphere that is being created.

Great, so let's have a look at some of the notes that you might've made.

So describing the lighting, first of all, here's some things I noticed.

At first, the stage is lit with a really warm whitewash.

However, when Jim starts to talk about the storm, the wash actually fades down and it's then replaced with a cool white spotlight on Jim.

We then have very fast strobe flashes of white light added into the scene as well.

So what I've highlighted there in the bold are the three different lighting states we can see in this extract.

Looking at the sound now, when Jim starts to talk about the storm, we hear a quiet sound effect which starts to creep in.

It starts off at a really low volume and it does get louder.

And this to me sounds like orchestral music made by classical instruments.

We then have the very loud sound effects of crushing thunder added in, and I also heard something that sounded like glass smashing as well as the thunder.

So again, what I've highlighted in the bold is all of the sound, the sound effects I could hear in that extract.

So see if your notes are similar to this, feel free to add anything in that you didn't get first time round, and then we'll move on to analysing the sound and the lighting.

Okay so just to recap, analyse means to examine something in more detail and to explain why choices were made.

So I want us now to really think about why the lighting and sound were used in that way and what effect that will have created for the audience and also remember you are the audience from watching this clip as well.

So in the purple box, I've given you some questions that I would like you to focus on and answer.

These are what and why questions.

So focusing on what atmosphere has created, what effect was created and why those choices were made.

I'd like you to pause here, answer the questions, and then we can move on.

Right, so it's important to remember that analysis is a personal response.

So your analysis might be different to my analysis because it's about your own personal interpretation and reaction to something.

But if it's helpful, I'll give you some of my ideas and we can see if you had those ideas as well.

So some things I thought were that the atmosphere at the start was really warm and friendly, and that was created for me by the warm white lights.

But the cool white spotlight on Jim then created some tension, and really starting to show the change that was happening in the weather.

Then we had the low rumbling sound effects, and that really helps us to realise that something might have been wrong here and that there was a change in the air.

So that created a sense of tension and a sense of fear, maybe some apprehension for the audience, because we thought something was going to change.

And the strobe lighting and the thunder were really overwhelming and frightening and created a very tense atmosphere.

Imagine being in the theatre and actually experiencing that live, that thunder would have been really deafening.

So there are some analytical terms, which help us to think about why those decisions were made by the theatre makers, remember that nothing here has been made by accident.

And well done.

So what we've done today is a huge amount of work where we've learned some brand new terminology for lighting and sound.

We focused on some new key skills of describing and analysing.

We've thought about effect, we've thought about atmosphere, and we've started to put that into words.

We've also watched a brilliant clip of live theatre.

So well done, in this lesson, you've really started to analyse live theatre and become a critic.

Great way for today and I will see you next time.