A Whole knew Bowl of Crazy...

We have found that the subject 'serial killers' will offer us a wider verity of ideas which we could use.  So Serial killers it is.

 Serial Killers-Films 
American psycho, tells the story of one Patrick Bateman.  PB is a wealthy 27 year old man living in New York City who has a dark secret.  At night he strolls out into the city butchering homeless people, animals and prostitutes to fuel his amusement.  He mentioned he has all the characteristics of a human being, flesh, bone and  blood but not one single identifiable emotion.  He is fuel by greed, envy and anger.

From American Psycho we liked the concept of having a morning routine set to perform.  We devised an exercise routine which we performed over a piece of text written by Jen martin.

Another idea which we really enjoyed was Patrick Bateman's use of decorating costumes.  The way the blood splattered on it created a beautiful image.  We managed to buy some decorating outfits which we used for a majority of our rehearsals.  They didn't half tear though.

20 Minute Showing and Feedback!!!

After showing our 20 minutes to Peter and from the feedback we received it was clear to us the changes that needed to made.  one of the aspect he wanted to keep in was the ideas of Serial Killers.

• What makes a serial killers?
• What makes us kill?
• Insanity is what?
• Masks of insanity are what?
• What can be classed as normal?

The notion of having a narrative needs to be worked on.  The idea of being characters is a risky move.

Needs to be a lot more crazy!!!

Make better use of the Scaffolding perhaps use 2 of them!  Develop writing and establish the characters more clearly.

Work out Frames!!!

The performance itself went pretty but much from this point needs to be worked on.

Staging

Stage Layout Ideas


From the get-go were fixed on the idea of using a scaffolding as part of our set mainly because it gave us the ability to work with hight and risk.

We managed to get the scaffold into the space with a couple of crash mats to practise dramatic falls.  We managed cover the mats using flats like so.

When watching the film Bronson it was mentioned that he climbed onto the roof of a prison and protested causing over £100,000 in damages. From this we decided to have a rebelling scene where we would climb the scaffold in a chaotic manor.

The rest of the stage would consist of critical aspects of a prison.  We used the elements of having a dinning area and a yard where training takes place.

Main Structure at this Point

Our structure from this point on was to show the audience around a prison were these insane prisoners are kept.  The prisoners routine will be on show for the audience with a rebelling scene at the end where the characters get shot  by the officer... officer being Ollie!!!

The Cunts

The Cunts are what we decided to name our characters.  We got the name 'Cunts' from the Film Bronson as this is the term used to describe the police officers in the prison.

The Cunts

These are our characters.  Insane, Violent and Locked up tight.

From using the psycho personae we decided to write individual monologues about the type of weapon we would preferably use on a person.

My Knife Speech

You see I'm a man who takes great pride in his work.  In many ways could could say I am an artist.  I want to create the perfect picture.  Now the tool I would prefer to use is nothing more than a Stanford 22 but to you humans out there that's nothing more than a sharp serrated blade.

Just picture it... a pale body lying in front of you with a cut so deep, black ooze pours out.  And what that ooze represents is the life being drained out onto the fur carpet.

Tell me... Have you ever seen anything so beautiful...

Violence

Violence is one of the key features of a serial killer Obviously :/

We decided to begin looking at records of violent people.  

One person which we appeared to be interested in was Charles Bronson.

Charles Bronson 

Charles Bronson is known as the most expensive prisoner in Britain.  He was sentenced to 7 years in prison for armed robbery but his sentence lasted 44 years as he was constantly violent to the inmates and officers.

He was moved around Her Majesty's Prison over 120 times and single handedly cost over half a million pounds in damage.  

Bronson was also insane, he was sent to mental hospitals numerous times for attempted suicide and domestic bodily harm.  

In 2008 their was a film made about the life of Charles Bronson which we concentrated strongly on.  Throughout this film it showed his obsesive violence and also showed his insanity coming through.

This is a scene taken from the Film Bronson showing his insanity.

This face paint influenced us to give our personal characters face paint also for the purpose of letting our insanity show through.  

From this we were able to add characteristics such as violent, insane and psycho.

From this we played around with idea of placing a group of insane prisoners in one room and see how we would get along.  

Serial Killers

What Possesses a Man to Kill???

From our Short stories we notice most of them had elements of violence and murder so we began to look at characteristics of a serial killer.

Characteristics of a serial killer 

http://truecrimes.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/serial-killer-characteristics/

De-constructing Fairy tale

Fairy tales - Walt Disney!!

Walt Disney fairy tales are reconstructions of the Grimm brothers stories. These often contained:

• Once upon a time
• Prince and Princess
• Talking Animals 
• Good and Evil
• Eternal Sleep
• Forest
• Happily ever after

Fairy tales - Grimm Brothers 

Grimm Brothers are old gruesome stories which usually consist of:

• Murder
• Rape 
• Cannibalism 
• Violence 
• Incensed
• Paedophilia 

 Exercise

We set ourselves a task on creating our own short story.  I like the concept of using a fairy tale with the same qualities from the Grimm Brothers.  For my story I decided to De-construct Hansel and Gretel.

Hansel and Gretel

I took Hansel and Gretel and changed the aesthetics with a paedophilia twist.

There was a man who would lure children deep in the woods by offering them candy.  When they were in his cabin he would abuse them, rape them, burn their bodies and scatter their ashes around the forest.  A middle age couple were on a walking that day and notices smoke in the distance.  When they found out what the man had been doing they informed the police.  

The man was convicted of  21 life sentences which he admitted to. After only serving three months he was reported missing.  2 days later he was found in one of the prisons Large ovens where he had been locked in and burnt alive.