Where my Interest for Behind-the-Scene Work Began

Wow, so one of my friends put up a post about one of my all time favorite movies, Labyrinth. Their post made me remember where my interest for set design and all the behind the scenes stuff began. This movie was actually the start of my curiosity and interest. I remember watching it as a little girl and falling in love with the set. I used to watch the movie just to see the design. I remember always looking forward to the very ending of the VHS because they would pass all the Behind-the-scenes footage. And right now searching through Youtube I found more behind-the-scene footage that I didn't know about. I found this youtube video on the design of one of my favorite scenes from the movies. I was always facinated with the set, props, costumes, makeup and pretty much everything of this scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtZiGI9iFdM 

"As the World Falls Down"

Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions

Content:

1) What is your essential question? What is the best answer to your question and why?

My essential questions is "What is the best way for a set designer to enhance a play?" My best answer is that the best way for a set designer to enhance a play is by making sure that they know the concept of the play like the back of their hand. By knowing the concept extremely well, a set designer is able to see what they can and cannot do with the set of the play. The entire design is built upon the concept, so it if a set designer wants to do anything that will enhance a play, it is crucial that they know the concept of the play like the back of their hand.

2) What process did you take to arrive to this answer?

This answer has always been something that kind of crossed my mind after reading the book,  Theatrical Design and Production: An Introduction to Scene Design and Construction, Lighting, Sound, Costume, and Makeup. In this book they talked alot about the set designer and the concept and how important the concept is to the set designer. Through the several chapters in the book that I read, the concept was mention quiet a bit. And throughout later research articles that I got, I also noticed just how much the concept was mentioned and how it was essential to the designer designing the set of a play. It wasn't really until my third and fourth interview that I figured this to be my best answer. Through my interviews with Mario Montenegro and Mara Gutirrez, I was able to confirm and truely understand just how essential the concept was to the designer when creating the perfect set for the production.

3) What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

One problem with my senior project would have had to been during the summer when I was looking for a topic that I could do with mentorship. There were a lot of things that I wanted to do as my topic, but the problem was that the topic I wanted to do would either cost me a lot of money, or my parent would have to drive me somewhere pretty far away in order to get mentorship. How I resolved this was by being open minded to different opportunities that came my way. I did not close my mind to just one thing.

My biggest problem though was my Science Component. It was really hard doing this component especially because of my topic. At the beginning when we had to find a reliable quote about a problem within our topic, I had a hard time finding a quote that stated a problem. It took me a long time and a lot of searching before I actually found a quote that I could use in order to do a science experiment. Another part that gave me trouble was the collecting of data. For my science experiment I ran a survey about hiring theatre technicians who had a degree in Theatre Technology versus someone who didn't. In order to do this experiment I had to call theaters all around California to conduct the survey. The problem with calling these theaters was that it was hard to actually get responses, because one, they they didn't have the time to answer a survey because they were busy or it would take me to machine that had extensions to reach someone who worked in the theatre, and two, sometimes the places I called the number no longer existed or the theatre was a non-profit theatre which means they don't hire Theatre Technicians to work for them. The way I resolved this was by simply being persistent and to keep calling to get some data for my experiment.

4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

I would have to say that my two most important sources would have to be my 4th interview with Mara Gutierrez and a book I got from the Cal-Poly library called Theatrical Design and Production: An Introduction to Scene Design and Construction, Lighting, Sound, Costume, and Makeup. These two sources helped me the most because they gave me lots of information and support for my answers. The book gave me basically the foundation of set design and the process a designer goes through to create a set. It also described in great dept the steps and the importance of the different steps a set designer takes. This book basically gave me a solid foundation on set designing and also a lot of support to use for my answers. My second source was significant, because she gave me some very useful and interesting information that helped me support my answers as well. She also helped me learn more about design in such a short amount of time. She was one of the most helpful people I've interviewed.

5) What is your product and why?

My final product I would have to say would be that my skills of working as a team improved. This topic helped me realize just how important it is to be able to work well with others. I know that all throughout iPoly we have worked in groups for projects, but I never realized just how important the skill of working together with a team really was. It took me this experience to really realize just how important being able to work with others is in real life. At iPoly our groups were only ever around 6 people max, but here I was to work with 60 other people and be able to cordinate with them to put on the production. Both my first hand experience and the articles and books I read helped me realized how in the real world, you will have to be able to work with others, and teamwork is an important skill to have especially in a field that requires one to work with other people. I learned to tolerate and get over any differences between anyone and avoid drama because when working with others on such a big project, there is no room for any of this. Through this project, I feel that my skills of working as a group has improved greatly, especially since I had to work in much larger group where you have no real option but be able to work as a team. I feel that the improvement in this skill will probably help me in the future when I enter the world of working, and I hope to be able to what I gained from this experience in real life scenerios. 

Blog 23: 2014 Interview

Blue: Me
Black: Gustavo Rios

1.  Who did you interview and what house are they in?
I interviewed Gustavo Rios, and he is in North House with Edwards.

2.  What ideas do you have for your senior project and why?
I have an idea to do theatre acting, cause acting is an interest I have and is one of my favorite subjects/hobbies to do.

3.  What do you plan to do for your summer 10 hour mentor ship experience?
I plan to volunteer at the Chino Community Theater during the summer for my summer mentor ship hours and hopefully throughout the year as well. I heard they had some really good opportunities for mentorship there. And since I am also in drama with Mr. Hogan, I hope to gain experience through there as well.

4.  What do you hope to see or expect to see in watching the 2013 2-hour presentations?

Im expecting to hopefully get ideas on what to do next year, and get some pointers on how to use my time wisely and see what worked and didn't work for the various 2 hour presentations. I hope that by seeing these presentations I can also get rid of some of the nerves that I have about the project.


5.  What questions do you have that I can answer about senior year or senior project (or what additional information did you tell them about senior year or senior project)?

How will mentorship affect our schedual next year?

Well you have to work with your mentor around your schedual. You have to talk to them and let them know that you have school things going on and that there would be days when you won't be able to attend certain days. Many times mentors are very easy to work your schedual with and are very understanding. So basically your schedual depends on the mentor you have and what you guys agree on.

If we get more than 50 hours of mentorship, will the other hours count for community service?

All of the hours of mentorship that you complete count for community/learning service hours. They will count towards your 200 hours of community service. And if you get over 50 hours of mentorship, those extra hours could be used for your independent component.

How many hours do you need for independent component?

Well for independent component you need to do 30 hours of work or 30 hours extra of mentorship.  You need to complete 2 independent components for the year, giving you a total of 60 extra hours of mentorship or work based on your topic.

If I participate in iPoly's drama and plays, will that count as hours?

You can use iPoly's drama as your independent component, so any hours done there can be used for you independent components. Do you have any more questions?

No, thank you though.

Blog 22: Final 3-Column Chart

Final 3-Column Chart

Blog 21: Independent Componenent 2

LITERAL

(a) I, Dolores Rios, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) The source that helped me complete this second independent component was my mentorship at Ontario High School's fall production of "Back to the 80s" in theater tech working on the set. The two people who helped me the most during that time were Mr. Hansen and Mr. C.

(c) Log

(d) I was able to complete and extra 30 hours of mentorship with Ontario High School's production of "Back to the 80s" working in Theater Tech on different aspects of tech. But my main focus was usually always on the creation of the set for this production. With these extra 30 hours of mentorship, I had the opportunity to learn more about the construction of a set.

INTERPRETIVE 

For this independent component I did 30 extra hours of mentorship. During my mentorship I got to work on various parts of Theatre Tech, but my main focus was on the set for the play. Due to the fact that I was in tech, getting pictures was kind of hard due to the fact that we were back stage and not supposed to have any phones. I have very few pictures but they show different aspects of the play that I helped on.

This was Mr. C, Mr. Hansen's assistant for this production, he was in charge of tech when Hansen was with the actors. The car he is in was for one of the scenes in the play. The scene included a real car being driven on stage for one of the scenes. This was the first time that Ontario High School ever brought on stage a real car.

 In this following picture are some of the main actors in their outfits for a concert scene. I was one of the people who helped pick out the costumes that would be used for this scene. Also in the back ground of this picture are some lockers that my group had to build. We had to build the lockers so that they were easy to move on and off stage, and also so that one of the doors would open up and the inside would look like. Even though the lockers were pretty much designed by Mr. Hansen and Mr. C, we were given the freedom to build the lockers how we thought was best, but of course we still had to run our plans by either Mr. C or Mr. Hansen.

Some more of he actors. The two in the front were outfits that I helped pick out for the actors according to their characters.

This was the scene where the students in the play are getting ready for prom. I got to help build most of the set pieces for this scene. We built the bleachers so that they had to purposes. We had the bleachers one one side for the scene before this one and as soon as that scene was over we went up to the bleachers and turned them around revealing a wall that was decorated for the prom scene. I helped build the bleachers and paint them as well.

This was another scene in the play were we simply used a platform that was built and used in various scenes of the play. We had to build it so that it could have multiple uses for it.

Some pictures of glances of what went on back stage during pre-production. These pictures were the few that I was able to take of what went on back stage, but pretty much sums up what we basically did to create the set for the play.

There were many more things that I wish I had pictures of, but these were a few of the ones I was able to obtain, my log has a better explanation of what I did.

APPLIED

This component helped me answer my EQ because I got to experience the designing and construction of a set first hand. Though many of the designs were already given to us, we had the liberty of also choosing and designing some things for the set. Mr. Hansen would sometimes go up to tech and tell us that he needed a certain thing for the set and he would let us make decisions on what best fit what he wanted. For example the furniture and the props used for the play were chosen by us. We had the opportunity to design and chose props for some scenes. For example we were able to design and chose some of the props for one of the characters named Cory. I also had the chance to help design the ballot boxes that were used for one of the voting scenes. I actually got complimented for them, they really liked the designs and paintings I painted on the boxes. Each of the boxes were especially made to fit each of the 3 main character's personalities. Throughout the play we had various of these kinds of opportunities appear, which really allowed me to experience set design and construction first hand. 

Being Blown Away by my 4th Interview!

I just completed my 4th interview and my mind has been completely been blown away! I am in utter shock with the person I just interviewed. By far the best interview I have had. I interviewed a scenic designer from Mexico, which my previous interview helped me get in touch with, and the information that she gave me left me baffled. The only thing I knew about her was that she worked with my mother's life long friend in the CECUT in Tijuana Mexico and was the person in charge the design. Little did I know just how amazing this interview was going to be. After the interview I searched her up online and just ended up being in more shock after reading her short bibliography.

"Mara Gutiérrez García

Originaria de la ciudad de Tijuana, es egresa de la carrera de Arte Dramático por la Asociación Nacional de Actores y de la carrera de Comunicación por la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California.
Ha tomado cursos y talleres con maestros como: Jaime Soriano, Ignacio Ortiz, Mauricio García Lozano, Gustavo Montiel, Ángel Norzagaray, Dora Arreola, Fernando Payán y los maestros Joaquín Romá, Agustín Milián, José Luis Melendo y Lorena García de España. Ha sido directora de reparto para cine y televisión a nivel nacional e internacional a lo largo de 10 años. En teatro se ha desarrollado como productora y actriz, en televisión como reportera y guionista. Ha realizado labor social en medios de comunicación en pro de la imagen de la ciudad de Tijuana. Como actriz cuenta con más de 20 montajes en su haber. Ha formado parte de diversas muestras y festivales de Teatro nacionales e internacionales como productora y actriz.
Actualmente es Gerente de Producción Escénica del Centro Cultural Tijuana, es encargada, entre otras cosas, de la Muestra Internacional de Danza Cuerpos en Tránsito, el Encuentro de Teatro, el grupo Ópera Ambulante y la producción y co-producción de espectáculos de artes escénicas con artistas locales y nacionales invitados."




It turns out that she has worked not only in theatres as a producer, scenic design, and actress, but has also worked on television as a reporter and writer. Her work has varied from local jobs to international jobs doing all of these things. She has worked on larger scale plays in Mexico City with other famous scenic designer. But the best thing is that she said that for her next production she get me and my family free tickets for the play and she would get me VIP access to the play and take be back stage to see what goes on at a professional theatre back stage.This made my night completely.

Awesome Link I Ran Into

Just ran into this Link, I thought it was pretty cool, especially because of how accuretly the sets were constructed to the pictures. This kind of thinks always amaze me!