Marking the Moment

In class lesson overview:

In class for the past few lessons we have looked at creating a realistic and believable drama piece/act. We have started to look at people in Rio, Brazil. We have looked at the rich and poor contrast there is in one city. For example there could be people living in big houses in a safe society with a good job and income, whereas in the same city there would be people living in horrible conditions, and their income would be difficult to manage their family. In class we looked at the different aspects that force or persuade someone to move to a different city. We have started to look at Rural to Urban living. Many people living in rural cities/town would have such factors forcing them to move to an urban city/town. Rural is the countryside and Urban is the city side. 

Many people may want to move to an urban city because of the number of pull factors it has. many people choose to go to urban cities in search for a better lifestyle, and a better job to earn good amount of money to provide for themselves or their family. In class we looked at how many people who came in search for a job and good lifestyle to Rio, later were not able to afford many facilities, and due to unemployment, they are forced to build their own homes with raw materials on the street. Making your own home can be dangerous, as it will not be as sturdy as a regular house, because it’s structure would be weak, and it could be possible that the house is built on a slope, so there is always a fear of the house collapsing. 

What are Push and Pull factors:

• Push factor: A factor that leaves one with no choice but to leave one’s current home, country or region.
• Pull factor: Good things about a place that makes people want to move there.

Some examples of push and pull factors:

Push Factors:

• Drought
• Poverty
• Poor education and health care facilities
• Unemployment
• Lack of shelter 
• Pollution
• Overcrowding

Pull Factors:

• Potential for employment
• Good residential areas (Bigger houses) 
• Better service provisions 
• Better health care facilities
• Good food suppliers
• Low crime rate
• Better weather/climate conditions
• Higher education
• High technology
• Entertainment

Now in class we have started to look at a acting technique which helps in highlighting a moment of your act or scene, this is called “Marking the Moment”. 

Different ways to Mark the Moment:

• Still Image - Freezing the key moment of the performance for a certain amount of time fixes the image into the audience’s mind. 

• Key moment - The key moment may be repeated again and again to fix into the audience’s memory. 

• Slow motion - This can be used to highlight an important scene in the play, this makes the scene stand out and helps the audience remember. 

• Narration/Thought track - Can be added as a commentary, the thought of the actor in  the scene.

• Lighting and Sound - Using a spotlight or sound affects draws the attention of the audience. 

Train Surfing & Why people do it:

Train surfing use to be a very popular sport in the 1980’s in Rio de Janeiro. It is when someone takes a ride on top of the train, while its moving. Train surfing can be dangerous and life threatening, because there is a risk of death or serious injury from falling off a moving train, electrocution from power supply, hitting bridges, tunnels, platforms, railway signals or other trains, or unsuccessful attempts to jump on a moving train or off it. 

If this sport is so dangerous then why do people do it? 

Usually, who train surf are very poor, and since they can’t afford a ticket they think that they can take a free ride on top of the train. These people are so poor that they have nothing to lose even if they get hurt. They always live on the edge, they usually live on the edge of the city where most slums are, so they feel that dying from the edge of a train will not be a problem. A reason why they might train surf could be because they might feel unworthy and unappreciated in life. So, they feel that its okay to train surf, because if they survive they will gain a huge amount of respect, especially from gang members. They also might do this because of peer pressure. Many gangs train surf, and when others want to join their gang they could be peer pressured to train surf. The gang might instruct them to train surf and survive and then only will they be able to join their gang. Some people may just do it for fun! Almost everyone living in slums would have no entertainment in life, and might feel exhilarated to train surf. 

Describing Marking the Moment Images:

This is my group's "Marking the Moment" image. This picture shows me and Aizah on the train. In this picture I am standing on the left side. The image depicts me as a train surfer who has been caught by the police (Aizah). Our marking the moment was a train surfer who is threatening that they will touch the electric cables located above the train, and electrocute themselves to death. In order to successfully depict this scene, we all had to make serious and believable emotions to capture the right moment. It took my group to convey serious emotions, but later on after a a while of practicing we all were confident doing our role. Our group was very organized with emotions, ideas, and delivering speech, because we all worked together and collaboratively helped each other to successfully complete this task. Every time anyone of us made a mistake we made a rule of starting the performance all over again, this didn't only improve our memory of the act but also made everyone in the group very cautious about making a mistake. 

Before doing our 'Marking the Moment' scene everyone in our group brainstormed ideas for most effective and concise dialogues, which will look realistic to the audience and also convey the message we want to when we perform to them. In order to make this scene effective and believable (Since our aim of this unit is realistic and believable performances/acts), we made sure the actor who was going to be the train surfer who reaches to touch the electric cable, looked a little afraid and uncertain whether they are going to do it or not. To make our scene more interesting, after the train surfer reaches the electric cable they take a deep breath and close their eyes and then reach higher, and the scene ends. Leaving the audience with a cliff hanger, for them to think and evaluate the whole performance and determine what the outcome might be. 

The expression that the train surfer had in this scene was uncertainty, and feeling of fright. The police was scared of what was going to happen next. As shown in the picture, Aizah, the police woman is pointing a gun toward me and ordering me to step down from the train. The exact words she had used was "GET DOWN NOW! YOUR UNDER ARREST", as she said this I (The train surfer), looked worried. I started to shake my head looking for a way out, and then spat out the words "DON'T, YOU DARE COME ANY CLOSER!" Then she stops to see what I am going to do next, and shakingly says "I said get down, NOW!" I then reach my hand up to the electric cable and so "DON'T, or I'll do it". She still continues to point the gun at me, and that is when I slowly look around the things happening near me, thinking about my life, whether living is even worth it. I then take a deep breath, close my eyes tightly not wanting to feel the pain, of the shock, or life. I reach my hand higher and before I touch the electric cables, the scene ends. 

The dialogues we had chosen for our 'Marking the Moment' scene, was very well structured and to make sure that everything was realistic, we made our body language depicting the real people who do this, we made sure emotions were clear to the audience, and made the scene stand out by using a strong and loud voice to say important dialogue. To make the scene more highlighted to create the best 'Marking the Moment' scene, we made sure when the train surfer says that they are going to tough the electric cable, everyone in the audience turns in shock towards the train surfer, and have scared emotions and body language. This makes the audience feel at the edge of their seat, and more interested to know what is going to happen next, this makes our 'Marking the Moment' scene very effective and clear to the audience. 

Although, I feel that if we had more time, we could further develop our scenes through a different style to create a more interesting performance. We could have used different mediums of drama acts such as the ones we have looked over in class: Thought tracking, slow motion, hot seating, freeze frame. I think that the levels that we used in our play were sufficient, as there was a scene on top of the train, which we created through placing blocks and chairs to create the train, the train surfer rides on. We also used the ground level to show the police force and regular bystanders in the crowd. To create a better screen presence of all the actors and to go into more detail, we all could have worn respective costumes for our role, and use props. This will help us further intensify the scenes. For example, when the police officer is pointing the gun at me, we can also add more scenes, like the police officer placing their gun on the floor with fright. As, they are afraid the train surfer is going to touch the electric cable. However, with the time we were given to conduct our performances, overall I feel that my group has done a really good job, although there were few more things that could be added to create a more realistic and intensified theme/act. 

This image shows the same 'Marking the Moment' scene but this time with another member of our group who is acting shocked and scared. As you can see in the picture he is raising his hand trying to stop the train surfer from touching the electric cable. 

This is my group's extended scene for the play. We decided to show the reason behind why the train surfer chose to train surf in the first place. We showed that the train surfer wanted to be part of a well known gang, so they go and at first they are nervous and scared. They then ask to join the gang, and the gang leader peer pressures the train surfer that if they train surf and survive they can join their gang. The train surfer in this scene has still not train surfed in their life, and that is why to depict a realistic scene, we made sure they look nervous, scared, and afraid. After the conversation we show the train surfer feeling a bit of confidence, who is saying to themselves "I CAN do this", and then whispers "I have too".