Self Directed Project National Theatre: Rocket To The Moon week 5

Week 5 Monday 21st- Friday 25th March 2011

On the Monday the Tech Rehearsals started for the performance. The show would be opening on the Saturday Night and I would be able to see the Tech and the opening night  Performance.

This week I will be mainly helping with any changes the designer decides upon during the performance as the garments need to be seen under the lights on stage and how the actors and actress move on stage.

Notes are taken by the costume supervisor and passed onto the makers. the first lot of notes we received were about the red dress that keely Hawes wears. the fabric is too light on stage so it was sent up to the dying room to Rosie and it was dyed a darker red. however because the lining had already been put into the dress it had stained darker streaks across all of it and also the thread used to sew the dress together was turned black. so the buyers were sent to buy more material and we had to make another dress in two days. I was put in charge of the sleeves and lining them.

The other changes were to the Blue dress work by Keely Hawes the Designer and the supervisor worked with Sue the Head Cutter in the workroom to find out how they could make the dress stand out more. Rueben from the props department also came down as he made a hat to go with the dress. it was decided upon to put a white lace around the belt and the top of the dress to produce a sailor dress look. pictures of this will be placed in my workbook.

This really helped me see how the department work together to bring an outfit together as this included everyone to participate.

For every performance one person from the department need to stay just in case there are any repairs that need to be made.

Self Directed Project National Theatre: Rocket To The Moon week 4

Week 4 Monday 15th - Friday 18th March 2011

On Wednesday I was able to go to the New London Theatre to watch War Horse at the Dress Rehearsal with most of the ladies from the workroom. I was able to sit on the front row and it was really interesting to see again as it was with a different cast and audience as the audience was made up of school kids.

I really focused on the actors and the puppeteers this time round and how they worked together with the props. this made me want to write my essay on puppetry and the Handspring Puppet Company working on Warhorse. it was really interesting also to be working in the same workroom as rachel who is a freelance worker brought in to the National to reproduce all the garments for Warhorse in America.

During my time at the national there have been permanent members of staff however there have also been a few freelance workers who have been brought in to work on different shows. Rachel will be at the national for 6 months.

This week I have been making button with the button machine in the storeroom and also creating the button holes on the Nurses outfit. I am becoming more confident with my making skills, it took me around two weeks to settle in to the workroom and now I feel really comfortable with the team. they are very friendly and very willing to teach me. I am really finding the environment encouraging and I am gaining a lot of skills from the people here.I have had a lot of chats with the staff about how to get into the industry and where they came from to get to where they are now.

This week I have also been working on an 18th century pocket sample for my project on Candide at University. also I was able to make my buttons at the National.

Self Directed Project National Theatre: Rocket To The Moon week 3

Week 3

Monday 7th March -11th March 2011

This week has been mainly making the nurses outfits and also making a corset for the understudy for Frankenstein which is a performance on at the National at the moment. I will also be finishing the slip for Jessica Raine for the second fitting on Thursday.

I am finding making three dresses the same quite tedious now as as soon as I finished the first one I am doing exactly the same to the second and third.

So it has been quite nice to work on the slip at the same time to have a break. However there are many challenges I have come across while using the material, the first is that the sewing lines need to correct first time as the stitch marks stay clearly in the material. also I needed to put the slip onto the stand to make sure it fell properly, pin and then machine.

once this was complete I needed to work on the top of the garment once the pleats were in place I needed to bind the top this became very tricky when it came to creating the point in the middle of the Centre Front and I had to do this again which makes the fabric weaker. sue showed me how to do this properly to get a much neater sharper edge.

I machined the top of the slip to the bottom then placed on a stand on the table and pinned the hem using a ruler to make sure this was even all the way round and left it to fall over night as the weight of the material would change the shape. when I came back to it in the morning I had to re-pin parts of the hem to make it even again. I learnt that the less pins I used the better as the are heavy and pull the material down. I then tacked this ready for the second fitting.

The second fitting went well and there were not any changes to the dress or the slip. This meant that I could machine the hem for the slip and the nurses outfit.

For the corset for Frankenstein I was given the tasks of finding the correct size binding and the correct colour threads to machine in for the boning channels.

I also had to cut the boning to the correct size as it was all on one long loop. I used a metal spiral boning as this bends better on the curves for this style corset. I then had to bind the top of the corset and the bottom including the straps.

Sue gave me this task so I could improve my binding skills she asked me to bind one side with the machine line on the inside and the slip stitching on the outside and the other side to machined on both sides so I could see which on I preferred to do in the future. machining it a lot easier however if there are a lot of curves and the material is thin and moves a lot it is much better to slip stitch.

Candide Making Project

 For this project I have made a coat and breeches for an actor in the second year at Bournemouth Arts University College.

Firstly we drafted patterns from Historical Research we collected from the 18th century and from the information given to us on the character from the Designer.

We then constructed a toil from calico ready for our first fitting which also included fabric samples for the designer to choose from and trimmings.

 This is my costume finished I decided to make working pockets and for the cuffs to be attached to the sleeves this took at little longer to achieve but gave them an overall more realistic look I found. I also machined the button holes all the way down the front of the jacket and on the back opening. I also made the front flap on the breeches working even though it will not be in use as they will be opened at the back.

 The fabric used for both the breeches and the Coat is a black 100% cotton velvet. The trimming buttons and button holes are silver which was the designers choice.

The Grand Inquisitor!

Self Directed Project Learning Agreement

NAME:                                   Julia Heather Joyes

COURSE:                              BA (Hons) Costume with Performance Design           

UNIT TITLE:                          Self Directed Project                       

REF. NO./LEVEL:                  CSS518

WEIGHTING:                         2.0           

DURATION:                           9 Weeks           

HOURS OF STUDY:             300 Hours           

Unit Leader:                         Adele Keeley

DESCRIPTION:

For my self-directed project I will be completing two projects.

For the first I applied for a work placement at the National Theatre in the ladies department workroom. I will be working at the National Theatre for 5 weeks. For this assignment I will be complete Three Nurses Costumes, Two of these will be for the actress playing Cleo Singer, the other will be for the understudy which will be different measurement that the other two. I will be producing a 1930's slip and helping with alterations to three other dresses for the production and a raincoat. I will also make a corset for Frankenstein. For the 1930's production of Rocket To The Moon at the National Theatre. I will attend fittings and tech rehearsals working from 8am to 5pm in the workroom. With this I will produce a blog and a workbook which will be in more detail.

I choose this assignment because I wanted to improve my making skills up to a professional level. I wanted to experience the pace of a real working room and see what there deadlines are like. I also had concern that I had not branched out enough on my own as a maker and needed to push myself so I can build my confidence to help my working relationship with colleagues in the future. This will help me make connections within the industry and hopefully cement my aspirations to make women’s costumes when I leave university.

For the second project I will then produce a duplicate Blouse and a duplicate Shirt for the National Theatre Hire Department. This will also have a blog alongside. This project will be as self-directed as I can make it as I am aiming to teach my self the methods of the construction from my experience working at the National Theatre.

This will show how I then apply the skills I have learnt in the professional environment into my self-study.

One of my main goals for this year was to add experience and further in depth knowledge of the industry to my CV.I also want to improve my learning skills and develop my self-teaching methods to understand how I learn and apply this in my university life.

 

Aims:

A1 To provide opportunities for self-initiated, autonomous learning

            and develop the ability to plan time and work independently

A2 To provide opportunity to study the contextual development of costume and performance design

A3 To further develop the creative, intellectual and practical applications of research and contextualisation within a self initiated environment

A4            To propose, develop and evaluate professional aspirations through professional development planning

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this unit you will be able to:

LO1 Identify and define the context for the development of your own work towards professional aspirations

LO2 Demonstrate an understanding of the development of Costume with performance design

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LO3 Have developed the creative, intellectual and practical applications of research and contextualisation

LO4    Consolidate and demonstrate professional aspirations and planning through your Progress File

Self Directed Project National Theatre:Rocket To The Moon Week 2

Week 2 at the National Theatre Monday 28th February- 4th March 2011

This week I focused on making the changes that need to be done from the first fitting for the second fitting which will be next week.

I changed the sleeves and attached them properly to the garment. I changed the seam allowances to pull the dress in. we are unable to do the hem of the dress until the slip in complete which I will be starting this week.

I also found out this week that I have to complete  three Dresses in total for the Nurses outfit.

1. this is for Jessica Raine 
2. the second is also for Jessica Raine- this one is so she will have two garments to change between as sometimes the performance will be done twice a day so one can be sent of for cleaning or to be mended.
3. the third dress is for the understudy so will need to be made to different measurements.