Pirates, Push and Performance. And Peeing.

So, it’s been a busy week, what with me taking my first steps towards a fitter and healthier moi with the vitality circuits on Monday and the health walk on Wednesday afternoon. I went on one this morning as well, that was good although a bit slippery with the ice after yesterday’s snowfall (much muttering in a “Game of Thrones” voice – “Winter Is Coming!) and I have been endeavouring to take wee Roxie dog out at least twice a day. I have been up every morning before 7am and haven’t had any disco naps. I’m watching what I eat – having a banana instead of a biscuit and cutting down of my bread intake – and drinking loads of water (and peeing like a horse as a result! They don't tell you that.), so hopefully it will make a difference.
On Wednesday I went to the first class on “Writing for Film” – I had a sense of trepidation as the last class, although good, had been a little unexciting. We are a small group – 3 women and 6 men – of varying ages and experience. The tutor is enthusiastic and knowledgeable and tells us not to bother taking notes as he has PowerPoint presentations prepared (‘scuse the alliteration there) and promises to e-mail them to us or put them on CD at the end of the ten weeks. The first meeting was mostly an introduction. There is a definite leaning towards comedy amongst the class so he has promised to tailor the content towards that. He says we will be mostly workshopping i.e. working in small groups of 3-4 where we bring an idea and brainstorm ideas, which sounds good as we didn’t really do that last year. Our homework is to come up with a premise for a film to present to the group next time. I am really looking forward to it and am working on a couple of ideas. We watched a clip of the first “Pirates Of The Caribbean” movie (which I was surprised by, as our tutor had been referencing mostly indie film-makers up to that point) – the ones where you first encounter Captain Jack Sparrow (and yes, I managed to keep my gob shut about Mr. Depp and his support for the child-rapist Polanski!) and how the director Gore Verbinski uses the music, provided by composer Klaus Badelt to move out and back and indicate a change of scene e.g. when you see Jack, it’s that heroic “rum-pa-pum” theme, then when he acknowledges the remains of the hanged pirates, it goes a bit sad but hornpipe-y, then when we first see the people on the port, it’s a bit folksy to establish the difference between them and the harbourmaster whose theme music is a bit more pompous as he collects the port fees from Jack. Our tutor David also pointed out that the character of Jack Sparrow, who has been compared to the likes of Keith Richards, is in fact based on Bugs Bunny and if you have seen the film, that makes a lot of sense. I am really looking forward to the next class.
Yesterday afternoon saw a change of pace as Vee (who had permission for me to take her out of school at lunchtime) and I went to Platform for another rehearsal for our participation in Curios Seed’s show “Push”. Unfortunately our numbers have dropped to 4 from the original 8 with one of the lassies announcing that she is now pregnant (she is still participating but not doing so much dancing) so it was just http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifwhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife two plus the two fellas John and Matt who were put through our paces by Chris, who is a fantastic choreographer. The show has changed a wee bit since we had the original workshops back in June of last year but our part is basically the same. We have another rehearsal on 9th February with a dress rehearsal on the 16th. Our shows (Glasgow has 2 shows while all the other groups only have to do one!) are on the 17th and 18th of February and you can book tickets here - www.platform-online.co.uk/index.html?s=events&ec=viewEvent&event_id=451 - if you would like to come along and see what I’m doing. You can also find out more about the show by watching these videos – www.vimeo.com/33342784 and www.vimeo.com/32790461 (Vee and I are in the second one – look out for my huge arse!). The show is also touring in Stirling, Musselburgh, Inverness, Stornoway, Mull, Banchory, Findhorn and Edinburgh – see www.curious-seed.co.uk/page20.htm for more info and please come and see it and support us if you can.
Tonight Vee and I are off out to another workshop for a new group starting up again at Platform to come up with a performance piece inspired by “Push” called “We Are All Human beings At Different Stages Of Our Lives” involving drama, movement, writing sound and film (so you can see why I want to be involved). That will be performed as a show too in Glasgow in May and you can find more details here - www.platform-online.co.uk/index.html?s=events&ec=viewEvent&event_id=461 - sorry for the lack of links but Blogger hates me!
So, you can see how busy I am and am going to be for the next couple of months at least! I’m really hoping that my body will keep up with it all but it should give me plenty to blog about. Have a relaxing weekend xxx