Mid week

Today was the second of the weeks performances this in mind I decided that the black suit would be appropriate for the evening, it was also far too cold for my liking so I took the matching waistcoat.
I like waistcoats; they are warm and smart and go with everything.
As part of group one my first session was a power point briefing, I have used PowerPoint many times before and I am proficient in it. Indeed I know tricks within the program for specific effects and I remember fondly a show I did using rear projecting.

The slide in question was an effect slide that was needed for a scene in the last moments of the show. It was a late addition and I was told about it shortly after that nights show had begun. Sitting in my castle (I made a raised platform backstage to operate the AV, It was grey and styled like a castle) I wrote the slide while operating the prepared AV simultaneously. The effect was that of typing, how it worked was every individual letter of the final subtitle were individually made to fade in on a key stroke done manually by me. It was finished at the very last moment and when it was done, the audience cheered for the effect and the director was so happy she cried; but I digress.

The second part of the day was a lecture on writing skills.
This was a treat, I know firsthand how creative types hate to write, some hate justifying themselves and others hate to be quantified. They like to think that inspiration comes to them in surges; anything else makes them common and mundane. Unfortunately this is an academic course; although I use the word quite wrongly, we still have to write a PEF.
This PEF is a short reflective report about our work and processes, as it turns out we don’t get marked solely on the end product but rather the process behind it. I agree with this as it is about learning after all not just the end product, the show is the aim but not the goal. I was expecting something filled with argument and I was right, but what surprised me was the masterful in turning the negatives he received and I was so proud of his style that during break I had to congratulate him.

Critical thinking comes naturally to me, in fact I think like that naturally, or rather I over think things and it annoys people as I tend to go into the deeper meaning than they themselves had thought. So I have learnt to stay silent, nothing alienates you more than intelligence. This particular lesson took a lot of experience to learn, so now I channel in inwards and focus on more ineffable things to distract myself from the burning ignorance of my colleges.

I also thanked Nick who likes noodles because he is, in his own words, a swan*.
After the break we talked more about the problems of the group, mainly that they didn’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t write. This I found particularly humorous as they couldn’t offer a more concrete reason other than they didn’t want to. They alleged that as creative people they aren’t able to write....... and then they stop talking. At the last moments of the day I stood over them and saw on the faces a mixture of emotions, as well as a couple of people I will have to look out for and even some that I will need to be wary of. So a profitable day all round I suppose.


*A colourful metaphor, calm on the surface legs paddling franticly underneath. I decided not to point out the fact that he was churning water rather frantically as I was the only one to notice, and it would have knocked his confidence.