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Pictures/ Videos of the final performance

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Pictures/ Videos of the final performance

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Since the rest of this session we had nothing else practical to start we felt it was best to start on the tech script and pack.

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Production meeting before our shooting on the 7th of November to discuss what we were going to achieve and sort out any costume bits.

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This is the backing track we ended up using for our filmed section

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Karaoke: The Story Of Tonight (Hamilton)

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This was our rostra for our performance which we utilised for multiple numbers. We however realised after doing our dress run we needed to move the first platform forwards due to us having to squeeze around the block to get around during Hadestown.

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This is our audience set up for our performance. We wanted to put the chairs back to ensure that this was an experience where we broke the fourth wall. We did that by interacting with the audience during the start of the piece pretending to be "narcissistic actors" and full of ourselves. This meant it seemed more like the audience was part of the performance. We also made sure to switch out the people in the audience therefore it provides more variety and more realism if they came from the audience to collect trophies or people stormed off.

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These are the lyrics I put on the document for Toxic

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7/11/2024

In this rehearsal, I had to take over Celeste's role as camera operator due to the fact she had to leave midway through the lesson. Due to our contingency plan, the best person to take over this role was me since I feel like I am the best person suited since I feel like I understand the creative vision the most. Even though I took over the camera duties, I was still directing on the side as you can see in this timelapse.

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Before each rehearsal I will ensure I communicate with my cast members to get information about costume, makeup and props we need to bring in. I will also give a brief overview on what I aim to complete in each rehearsal so the members are all prepared for the day.

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Change in Script- Getting rid of a nomination section

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Change in Script- Getting rid of a nomination section

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Me and Iz when creating the script decided that we felt it was best to get rid of the section called "Best Cinematic". This is because we feel it is becoming closer to the performance and we have so much already to fit it and we had nothing done for it. It is also because we feel the best way we are going to make are performance of best quality is focus on rehearsing and completing the rest of the clips and rehearsals at hand.

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Our production meeting on the 14th November at the beginning to sort out any costume bits and also discuss what I wanted achieving this session.

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Some responsibilities my role consists of that relates to our task is planning (filming) schedules and communicating that with my group members. To achieve this I will make sure to plan what we are going to do in each rehearsal and make sure to give members good notice if I want to have any extra rehearsals to take place.

With communication, I will make sure to be continuously communicating with everyone however the main person would be the script writer. To help develop the script ideas I will have to communicate with the script writer in order to create the script. To do this, the script writer will come up with the original ideas and we will work together to edit and amend the script to make it to the best level it can be. We will also hear input from other members in order to make everyone happy with it. With costume, makeup and editor, I will make sure to communicate in order to get the right themes and ideas within the piece.

On set I will direct actors in order to achieve my creative goals for the piece. This means I will have final say to solve any disagreements but still trying to make compromises with all our group members. I also will be supervising the editing making sure it sticks to the creative vision and will do this by communicating with the editor frequently.

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This was the day before the first shooting session of our process and I messaged the groupchat a screenshot of the booking confirmation to let everyone know.

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Some skills that directors need in order to achieve a successful career is

Knowledgeable in current media

Pay attention to detail

Teamwork

Leadership

Good Initiative

Accepting criticism

Being able to work well under pressure

Ambition and desire to succeed

Some skills I am already confident in is being knowledgeable in current media since I am constantly consuming media all the time, paying attention to detail, leadership, accepting criticism and ambition to succeed. One skill I could use the most improvement on is being able to take initiative and to help with this I will try and remember to make plans for rehearsal beforehand and communicate this with my team. Being able to work under pressure is another skill I could greatly improve on since I get stressed easily when I have to fit a lot of stuff in a short amount of time. To help this, I will try and remain calm and ask for help from my other team members.

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a university course

a college course

working towards this role

producing and releasing your own films

specialist courses run by private training providers

University

You could take a course at university to get into the industry. Courses include:

film or television production

broadcast production

filmmaking

drama

TV, film and theatre studies

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

2 to 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a degree

More Information

College

You may find it helpful to take a film-making or media production course that helps you to build practical skills and make contacts in the industry.

Relevant courses include:

Level 3 Diploma in Film and Television Production

Level 3 Diploma in Performing and Production Arts

Level 3 Extended Diploma in Creative and Digital Media

T Level in Media, Broadcast and Production

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for these courses vary.

4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths for a T level

More Information

Work

Many directors start out as runners, helping out on film or TV sets, and work their way up through other jobs like 3rd and 2nd assistant director or floor manager. Others move into directing after getting experience in camera work, screenwriting or acting.

Volunteering

It's important to get as much experience as you can in film and TV, and an in-depth understanding of the production process.

You can do this by taking part in activities like student or community film or TV, and finding work experience placements on film projects.

You can search for film and TV companies to approach for experience through media business listing services like PACT and The Knowledge.

Other Routes

Another way to break into film directing is to make your own films, known as 'shorts'. You can market these to agents, post them online or enter them into film festivals and competitions. You'll need access to equipment, crew and actors to make your own films. Getting involved in community filming projects can help with this.

You could also take short courses in production skills for directors run by film schools, regional screen agencies and private training providers. You can search for relevant industry approved courses through ScreenSkills.

More Information

Career tips

Get as much experience of amateur film making as you can, to develop your skills and make industry contacts. Create a portfolio to showcase your talent.

Further information

You'll find more details about directing in film and TV through ScreenSkills.

Shooting People has information, resources and networks for independent film-makers.

You can find out more about creative careers from Discover Creative Careers.

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TV and film directors lead the creative and technical production for cinema and television.

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Here I sent a message to ensure everyone knows what to come in wearing for makeup/hair. I also let everyone know what scenes are going to be filmed therefore they can prepare for the day ahead.

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14/11/2024

Here you can see me and the camera operator working together to focus on achieving my creative ideas for the overall piece. Here we were discussing whether the camera angles fit the clips we were recreating. We thought that the room FS0005 was the best fit for our filming since it was the room that was most similar to the clip. We also used the lighting to ensure that it looked like a show rather than just using the house lights.

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Our first rehearsal was in my opinion quite difficult since most of our group have never filmed anything like this before therefore we did not complete our goal of our three scenes. Instead, I have made the decision to move this scene to the weeks that I have kept to catch up on some scenes. This means we can still attempt to keep up with the schedule we originally made to then not be behind on anything. I also took over Celeste's role here since she was not there since as the director I feel as if I am best fit for this role to cover since then I can still make sure our vision comes to life.

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This rehearsal was very successful since we ended up completing all that we needed to to be on track for this week. Everyone was here therefore we didn't really have anything we needed to change or alter due to any difficulties.

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The day before this session I sent a message to let everyone know what scenes we are going to film and give information about the filming session ahead.

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Today Immy (makeup and hair) was absent (which she let us know beforehand her reasons). This wasn't too bad since the only scene she was needed in was the group dance but to solve this we just changed the positions to fit our size of the group. We completed all the scenes we needed to do in this session therefore we are still on track to finish when planned.

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21/11/2024

Here you can see me directing the choreography to the scene we were recreating for this session using the video to compare. We thought this room would be the best to record our footage for this clip since it is set on stage so we rehearsed and recorded this in FS0005. This was the only scene we filmed this lesson since we felt it was best to just focus on this scene as we had to learn the routine on top of filming.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxkQZCjKZtE&t=5s

Our production meeting on the 21st November before our session to discuss everything we wanted to achieve and also discuss what costumes we had brought in and needed.

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Our production meeting on the 5th December to discuss what we wanted to achieve before our session.

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Again, I made everyone aware the day before of the scenes we will be filming and I also checked up on other members in the group.

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5/12/2024

In this rehearsal I took over as the camera operator since Celeste was part of this scene but I also directed on top of that behind the camera giving out instructions for the people acting. Since there were no available rooms we wanted to use originally free so therefore we had to use FS0011 to record this scene. It did not fit the same location of the clip however we were still able to film it to where the clip is recognisable

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In this session, I have made the decision to discard three of our left over scenes. This is due to the fact we over estimated how much we would be able to do in the time we were given so instead we are focusing on the more popular clips. This also means we can spend the time we have left to give time to edit our piece together but also film anymore bits if we for some reason need to redo anything.

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Since I was struggling to find the harmony for the last song we felt it was best the look at the sheet music to understand where it is placed.

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For the blocking we decided to mainly use our own ideas but we did take the overall theme from the proshot such as holding each others hand and looking to each other when singing.

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The Story of Tonight - Hamilton (Original Cast 2016 - Live) [HD]

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Since me and Iz filmed MasterChef, I felt it was best to edit this clip since I knew the chronology of this filmed piece. So I spent the time after filming putting all of the clips together and adding background music to elevate the piece making it more professional.

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Here is the discussion where we decided to change the ending note of the Wait For Me Reprise.

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Here I edited down the backing track for Toxic the opening number to use in rehearsal time and to also be ready for when James needs it for tech.

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The Bellas do Britney Spears - Toxic Karaoke - Pitch Perfect 3 Soundtrack

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Karaoke Prince - The Bellas do Britney Spears - Toxic Karaoke - Pitch Perfect 3 Soundtrack

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The Bellas do Britney Spears - Toxic Karaoke - Pitch Perfect 3 Soundtrack

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The Bellas do Britney Spears - Toxic Karaoke - Pitch Perfect 3 Soundtrack

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This folder contains all of the footage used within our final performance.

file:///C:/Users/natal/OneDrive/Unit%20H%20Footage

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Throughout our filming process we faced many challenges which we had to find solutions to. The main one was not recording as much footage as we planned therefore the finished product is not as long as we originally planned. This is due to the fact we felt we wanted to focus more on the more iconic and memorable scenes we had already planned. Another hiccup we had was with the first scene we recorded since in this scene Celeste was playing Jojo and didn't have time to record the final section. She then dyed her hair and we decided for continuity we didn't want to record the rest since it would disrupt the flow of the scene. Our aim for this piece was to create a compilation of the best moments of Dance Mom's whilst we all play the characters. I feel like we achieved this goal since we ended up creating a comedic compilation in a YouTube styled format. The only way I feel we could have improved our piece further is if we could have filmed more scenes however this could have disrupted the quality of our finished product. I effectively undertook my job role since I was able to lead my group using the skills I set out from the beginning including teamwork, leadership and paying attention to detail. This meant that our piece was completed to a high standard on the deadline. However, I could have organised my time better in order to have completed more scenes such as sorting out meetings outside of lesson time. Our communication online was successful but most of the time it was left until the day before. If we were to do this again I would ensure communications happened at least a couple days before so everyone could get there costumes sorted out more in advance. The creative decisions were mainly made by me (the director) since this is part of my job role but was discussed within our group. The main creative decision I made was the clips we picked out which I discussed with the script writer to make sure we picked the most iconic and comedic clips possible to recreate. One of my strengths throughout the filming process was that I was direct with my ideas and I was always open for discussion however, I didn't use my time effectively so we didn't get to film as much as we hoped. Within rehearsals we were quite effective at getting everything done that was planned within the time we had. I do feel though we could have been more effective with communication during filming. The main skill I improved on within our process was working under pressure since when we were filming I remained calm at all times and found this helped out when recording footage. Looking towards the next project, the thing I should concentrate on this most is my time management in completing everything set out to achieve and also planning in advance.

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Here is the rehearsal schedule for our filming process until the deadline. We have decided to do two or three scenes per week depending on how long or how complicated the scene was. I also felt it was right to leave three weeks for finalising or catching up on any scenes we may not have finishing filming or filming scenes we didn't get round to filming. We also left three weeks for Ell to complete editing and for us all to agree on the finished product.

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HADESTOWN Wait for me (Reprise) Broadway 2020 Reeve Carney Eva Noblezada

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In this production meeting we talked about how we were going to get started with our Toxic choreography.

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In this session we ensured to do a warm up before we started to make sure there were going to be no injuries vocally when we learnt the song toxic.

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Unit H - Vocal Warm Up + Learning ‘Toxic’

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In this production meeting we discussed how we would do Toxic choreography our entire lesson.

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Since we only did a small section of the first clip I wanted to recreate it as close as possible. However, I did make the decision to communicate with the editor for when I did bend over to have cricket sounds in the background to make this bit have an awkward feel to make it more comedic. I also decided to make the voice of Abby more loud and demanding to make it more entertaining and powerful than the original clip. I also made the creative decision to make the last shot longer and to zoom in to again add a comedic effect.

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For this clip, I wanted to keep everything as similar as possible since I believe it is as funny as it can be. But I did tell Iz before recording to exaggerate her voice to sound like the character Maddie but extremely over the top to add the humorous effect even more. I wanted her to sound even more childish than the character herself. I also wanted the flashbacks to the parents to be over emphasised and dramatic which adds to the drama of the show. I also wanted the location to match the clip as much as possible therefore I decided to film in the theatre since this room was the most alike the clip. I also made sure the lighting was "stage lighting" for where Maddie was onstage but when the camera went back to the parents they were more darkly lit showing they were behind all of the bright light but still enough that you could see their facial expressions.

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From (0.53)

Since this clip is in my opinion the most iconic one of them all, I wanted this to be as similar but as dramatic as the original clip. Therefore, I made sure we had the pyramid with the logo of the Abby Lee Miller Dance Company logo and also have the cutbacks to the different parents horrified reactions to Abby Lee Miller. However, since the actress playing Jojo could not cry on demand, I made the creative decision to add more and more water near her eyes so it looks like she's crying more every time we cut back and see her. To make it more dramatic, I decided to communicate with the editor to add dramatic shakes on the line "she deserves nothing" to add even more comedic effect. I also made the decision to be even louder and shout more than what Abby Lee Miller does in the original clip to add a melodramatic feel to this section.

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Dance Moms: Abby Kicks JoJo and Jess out of Pyramid (Season 5 Flashback) | Lifetime

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From (0.44)

I wanted to start this scene from after the dance since I believe this is the funniest section of the clip. Therefore we start out clip with a shot of Maddy's (played by Iz) face of happiness and pride alike the original clip. I also wanted to keep the shots similar for the rest of the clip since they seemed easy to recreate. I however, wanted the interview section of the clip to have her still dressed in the mouse costume rather than her changing back to regular clothes since this felt more comedic.

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Dance Moms: Mackenzie's "Mouse Trap" Acrobatic Solo (Season 1 Flashback) | Lifetime

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This is a very short clip that we wanted to include since we all found this clip very funny and simple to recreate. However, since this is a reality tv show, I decided to shoot some clips before that show some signs of the different room names since that is quite a common section that can happen in reality tv that we hadn't yet included. Since this clip was already short I decided to get the camera operator to film that to add some dimension to it. Another thing I wanted to change was the location since I felt it would be more effective to shoot this down a corridor rather than in a studio.

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"I cut my finger on my mom's ring, I hope I can still dance"

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"I cut my finger on my mom's ring, I hope I can still dance"

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From (0.05)

For this clip, I wanted to simplify it down more than what the clip had to offer to make it more sharp and to the point. Therefore we more focussed on the conversation with Vivi and her Mum. For the acting, I wanted Vivi's Mum to not really have cared about it since it was just a tiny cut but I wanted Vivi to be very dramatic to see the contrast between the two characters unlike the clip which is a bit flat without that. I also wanted Vivi's character to be over the top and really exaggerate the voice that the actually character has to emphasise the comedy within this clip.

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I cut my finger on my moms ring|| vivi being a queen

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"Gia do you know the order of the solos"

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"Gia do you know the order of the solos"

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For this scene I felt this was also an extremely iconic one therefore this time I wanted to embrace the drama and really overexaggerate the character of Abby and have cutbacks to the parents looking in disbelief. When we all watched this clip we felt that Abby slamming the table was funny so I thought it would be a good idea to make this even more dramatic to emphasise this. I really liked the end in the original clip where it zooms in towards Abby therefore I wanted to create that but even extra for our recreation for the added dramatisation. I also discussed with the editor about adding extra sound effects into this clip to made the reality tv element really prominent.

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Up until (0.30)

This again was an extremely popular clip from Dance Mom's therefore I decided to take lots of time on this dance. I would like to recreate this clip exactly like the original however I have made the creative decision to make the camera angles different to the original clip. In this clip there are multiple camera shots from different angles but since we will spend lots of time learning the dance, it will be quicker and easier to just record it from one angle. The only thing that differentiates this from our version is at the end we have the character Jojo "failing" her trick to add a comedic effect.

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Dance Moms: Group Dance: Boss Ladies (S6, E18) | Lifetime

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Here you can see us going over the vocals for Chant. The main thing to focus on here is as a group is to keep the backing vocals incredibly loud and powerful.

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We decided after learning the first part of Chant to extend it to the next chorus since it makes the song feel more whole and connects better to the next song.

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Here (after splitting off whilst Harry and Peter learn the instrumental and we learn the vocals), we came together to have a rough run through of Epic III.

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I made sure to research the three main characters in our project to ensure that I knew the relevant information for each. I chose these three characters since they are the only ones that are being played by only one person and that person is not playing anyone else (mostly).

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After learning the Chant choreography we ran through it and recorded it to look back on and to see how it looks altogether.

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I converted this backing track to mp3 and then edited it down with audacity to ensure it was properly altered to go behind our performance.

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"Chant I (Broadway Version)" - Hadestown [Karaoke/Instrumental]

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"Chant I (Broadway Version)" - Hadestown [Karaoke/Instrumental]

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For this backing track I converted this to an mp3 file.

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"Wait For Me II (Broadway Version)" - Hadestown [Karaoke/Instrumental]

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"Wait For Me II (Broadway Version)" - Hadestown [Karaoke/Instrumental]

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In this session me and Ell decided we wanted everyone to do a vocal warm up since we were only focusing on vocals this session.

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In this session, we recapped the vocals for Epic III then immediately went into blocking the choreography for Chant.

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Over break I listened to Wait For Me (Reprise) to see what was the best way to divide the parts up. Mainly, I felt the Fates (Me, Celeste and Maj) should primarily stay on the harmony for most of the song. Overall this was a smooth session but since this is a difficult song because there are so many parts that overlap each other, I think it is beneficial we spend some more time on the vocals at a different time.

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To start of this session we felt it would be best to do a physical warm up since we were mainly focusing on choreography for todays session.

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In this production meeting we discussed how we were going to have a tech meeting with our technician and then start focusing on Hadestown choreography.

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Here you can see us blocking and going over the choreo for the number "Epic III".

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This is our brief run through of the choreography for Wait for Me (Reprise). This was a smooth run through and now we have finished learning the vocals and choreography for all of the Hadestown section therefore we can hopefully move onto recapping these sections and award films/ live performances.

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We decided to do both a physical and vocal warm up since we were doing choreography and learning vocals.

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In the second half of this clip you can see me and Ell directing in teaching everyone the vocals for this song. Since it was a simple song everybody knew, we didn't spend much time going over it and then we can spend more time on the dancing element. I also made sure to make a document with the lyrics on and colour coded it to ensure people knew which bits they were singing.

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Unit H - Vocal Warm Up + Learning ‘Toxic’

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In this session, we learnt the start of our opening number of Toxic to the choreography the choreographer has made with the little time we had at the end of our lesson. This video is so everyone can look back on it to remember our choreo for next time.

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Amazingly Simple Graphic Design Software – Canva

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Amazingly Simple Graphic Design Software – Canva

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Here we did a tech meeting with our technician to discuss tech logistics. For example, our lighting, sound and set requirements.

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Isabella - Director (Persephone for Hadestown)

Maiya and Elloise- Musical Director (Fate and Eurydice for Hadestown)

Immy- Assistant Director (Orpheus in Hadestown)

Celeste- Choreographer (Fate in Hadestown)

Maja - Costume (Fate in Hadestown)

Peter- Costume ( Worker in Hadestown)

Josh- Editor (Worker in Hadestown)

Nat- Props (Hermes in Hadestown)

Harry- Location (Worker in Hadestown)

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These pages are our choreography notes for our performance of Take me or Leave me.

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In this production we talked about how we were going to recap Hadestown but mainly focus on our vocals for Wait for me Reprise.

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After printing out the lyrics for our live duet, we felt it was best to write down all of our ideas for blocking this performance. We also referenced the live production and the filmed version of this duet.

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Take Me or Leave Me - RENT (2008 Broadway Cast)

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Here we practiced our choreo we had planned for this duet to see if it worked and if we needed to change anything.

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In this session, we learnt the vocals for our filmed piece of Story of Tonight. Here we successfully went over the section of the song we picked out and were able to organise harmonies and lines.

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Here, we set out the overall choreography for our filmed piece. We wanted to include different level of being on the floor and standing and have an overall feeling of togetherness.

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Here we talked about how we were going to recap our Hadestown choreography and finalise any vocals.

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With all of the backing tracks I made sure to cut them down to the appropriate size in preparation for James. I also made sure to convert all of these to mp3 as requested.

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Here we felt it was best to do a physical warm up since we were focusing on choreography in this session.

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Since we had already blocked this and were confident on this last session we wanted to do another run through of this song. This was a seamless run through with little mistakes proving we were very confident on this number.

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In this production meeting we discussed how we were going to start looking at our nomination bits. I was going to focus on Take me or Leave me.

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Since we had already set some of Story of Tonight outside of delegated rehearsal time, we decided it would be beneficial to recap this blocking and show the rest of the group what we had initially put together. This was a bit of a rough run through since Celeste wasn't here with us.

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This was our first full rehearsal spent on choreographing and finishing the opening number to Toxic. This was a productive session since we were able to finish the full first number to be ahead of schedule already. However, it would be beneficial spending another session later down the line on vocals since everyone mainly was focussed on choreography rather than the singing (including myself) but I also think that will come with rehearsing it and getting used to the moves so it becomes second nature.