Dj Wk.1

Today was the first day of DJ and we were introduced to the equipment and the teachers. We were learning the DJ course from Point Blank and our experienced DJ tutors were Nigel and Ian. They told us the name of all the equipment used and what they do and what all the buttons are there for. Nigel told us what we would be learning over the weeks and he also gave us booklets on DJing-from everything to what we're using to how to use it effectively. Nigel said to us that we would be learning how to drop-mix, beatmatching, and an acapella mix. They then demonstrated and explained how to set-up the decks. After they showed us they made us do it. When the first part was over they explained how to drop-mix. Drop-mixing is when you are playing two different songs and while one song is playing out to audience you are counting the rythym to the other song that should be playing in your headphones (along with the song playing out) and when the time is right you flick over the crossfader to play the other song (they advised us not to do this while the artist is in the middle of a verse). Nigel and Ian then made everyone go up in front of the class and try it for ourselves. After we got the hang of that, they taught us how to do beatmatching. To do beatmatching effectively you have to have song playing out into the crowd and in your headphones have another song playing, and count the beats of both songs to see what beat they are on and try to match them together. Lets say the song you are playing out is slower than the one you have in your headphones, you would then have to slow it down (or speed it up, depending if the one in your headphones are slower than the that is playing out). To slow it down you have to lightly rub your finger on the side of the record. To speed it up you have to gently push the record forward. You could use that method or you could use a more technical one. The technical way is when you use the pitch adjuster and move it left or right depending on whether you have to speed it up or slow it down. Once you have the beats aligned with each other then you slowly push over the crossfader to bring out the other song. Ian and Nigel both did it themselves then they asked everyone to try it. This was harder than the drop-mix and after the last person we spilt up into small groups and then got on separate decks and practised so more. They assured us that it would be very hard to get it in one day seeing as how the average DJ takes six months to perfect it so don't beat yourself up about it. At the end of the day we went to the front of the class and did it again for ourselves but it was still quite hard to grasp but they told us not to worry as we would be doing this every week.

Bollywood Research!!

1. List the four characters usually in a Bollywood film
• Arjun Rampal (The Mean Jealous Guy)
• Amitabh Bachchan (Dad)
• Rani Mukherjee (Deaf-Blind Girl)
• Shilpa Shetty (Love Interest)
2. What type of behaviour do characters revert to when making major decisions?

On the surface, Bollywood characters may lead modern, westernised lives, but when it comes to making major decisions they always revert to traditional modes of behaviour.

3. How many songs are there usually in a Bollywood film? They usually play six songs.

4. Name the composer that has made a big impact in recent years on the Bollywood genre?

1. R. Rahman

5. How many films are produced in Bollywood every year?

About 1000 movies are released annually in India, about twice the output of Hollywood.

6. Name the first silent feature film of India

Raja Harishchandra (1913), by Dadasaheb Phalke, was the first silent feature film made in India

7. Name the first Indian sound film

The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara (1931), was a major commercial success

8. Name the first Indian film in colour

Film poster for first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara (1931)

Hey Everyone!

Today for Creative & Media Diploma our first lesson was dance. When everyone got to dance and got settled in, our teacher was not really that pleased with us. It was because none of us did our homework and all of us had a detention that day to catch up on it! The homework was to research a dance movie that uses props and also bring in props like umbrellas, hats, gloves, scarves etc. . We wrote down what we were supposed to do and that it was due on Thursday. After we got that understood, it was time to start the lesson with a quick game - Freeze Tag!!! After 20 minutes (which actually felt like 5min.) of playing around it was time to get to serious business.

We did what we usually do: we got into our groups and Miss taught us some new moves to put into our dance. We started by putting on our gloves and after that we put on our scarves and got into a straight line. Once we got into the straight line Miss told us to stop right there. Then she added some more moves where you had to be higher than the person in front of you. Like for example, lets say there is 3 people in the line, the person in front would sit down, the next person would kneel down, and the last person would stand. So after everyone got that dance move into our heads she told us to make up two movements but still staying in the line. My group decided to have the first person put their right hand and right foot out of the line and second person put their left hand and foot out of the line, the third person in line put their right hand and right foot out of the line, and so on and so on. That was our first movement. For our second movement the people that were on the right side alternate to their left side and rub their hands together and people on the left side alternate to their right side and their hands together as well.
When we showed the teacher what we had done, she was very pleased. After that it was time to put that into our whole entire dance piece. We had to finish our storyboard. The storyboard is just a sheet of paper with writing on it explaining the dance moves your group is doing. So after finished it we rehearsed our dance moves. But not before the media class interrupted us by taking pictures of us for their class work! After we finished rehearsing it was time to film our dance. When we finished with that it was time to pack up and leave and get ready for drama.
In drama we were given a little bit of time to study our lines because we were not allowed to have our scripts when we are doing our run-through at the end of the lesson. After that it was time to rehearse our plays. We spent a while on it so we could perfect it more. Then the teacher told us it was time to perform to the class. After when both groups went, the teacher pulled us all onto the floor and we had a talk. We talked about when we will actually be performing to the primary schools. It's the week after the next and we also talked about what we will be doing for costumes. For my costume I will be wearing a suit with a hat. For the dance piece in our play everyone will be wearing a t-shirt and leggings. After that it was time to get our stuff and leave.

BOLLYWOOD MUSIC!!! ♥♥♥

Hey y'all!

At the beginning of the day we were told that the Creative & Media Diploma students are making Bollywood music. To be perfectly honest I wasn't looking forward to this and I wanted to do anything besides music. We went onto a room where we met two men were going to perform for us. One man were playing bongos and the other man was playing the sitar. The sitar is an Indian guitar. Their music was very moving and I loved the way the instruments sounded together. After they finished they introduced themselves as Neil and Jonathan-. After we got settled in with their names they told us what was going to be going on today.

We were going to be divided into 3 groups- choir, percussion, and instrumental group. I chose the instrumental group. Along with me there was Buki, Faduma, Bisola, Safia, Frencessca, Najma, and Betsy. In the instrumental group we had a variety of different instruments. We had a choice of the keyboard, violin, saxophone, trumpet, dulcimer, and last but certainly not least the sitar. I started to play the violin since I used to play a while ago but I started to get a bit bored with it (the reason why I stopped playing the violin in the first place) so I swapped my instrument with Najma's- which was the sitar. We all practised and practised our part until we thought we were near perfect. The bell went and that meant after break everyone had to get together, practise, and later on record ourselves.

Now this time the vocals, the percussionists, and the instrumental group came together as one and we all started to practise together. The drummers had african drums, bongos, and tabla's and choir had their voices- of course- and you already know what we had as instruments. We continued to practise until our work was absolutely perfect! After that it was time to record ourselves for our grade. We had to keep recording though because some people were laughing a lot but we got the hang of it and the end we were able to listen to it. And I must say...I was very impressed and happy with our work!!

Today for Creative & Media Diploma, my first lesson was drama. In drama we rehearsed our pantomime (Cinderella) and we practiced a dance that we are going to put into Cinderella. At the end we showed the whole class our performance and we gave feedback to one another. I need to learn my lines because I had my head down in the script throughout most of the play. I also need to stay focused when me and my group are up on stage because when someone messed up I kept laughing. So next Tuesday when we rehearse again I am going to be 100% focused. After we gave each other feedback everyone started to do the dance that is going to be put in Cinderella. It was like a party!! Except without food & drink. We kept dancing until the bell went.
After break it was time for dance. Eventually when every one got dressed into dance kit, we played one of my favorite games- Musical Chairs!!! Sadly I didn't win the game and got hurt in the process of playing the game, but at least I had fun!! After that game it was time for serious business, we separated into our groups and started dancing. Since nearly half of everyone that was here today wasn't here last week, some of us had to explain the dance moves. At the end we added a part where everyone was opening up gifts and eating Christmas dinner. However most of us still wasn't sure what to do and by that time it was time to film ourselves dancing. So we did what we knew and after that we just free-styled most of the dance. Miss said we did a good job and we were surprised and giggling to ourselves since we didn't really know what we were doing. When everything was over it was time to get dressed back into our original clothing and leave.

PANTOMIME RESEARCH!!!

Pantomime is a curious entertainment - a form of ritual theatre staged around the winter solstice. Originally silent (a form of mime), it is now anything but, with extensive vocalisation from both the performers and the audience.

The stories are generally well-known (drawn from popular folk-tales and similar sources), populated with stock characters, including a principal boy, generally played by a young lady with shapely legs, the heroine, also played by a young lady (which gives an added edge to the inevitable romance) and a dame, played by a man as an exaggeration of a lewd middle-aged lady. Scripts change from year to year, but generally contain four strands of humour: visual, topical, corny and downright rude. In the UK this is considered to be family entertainment.

The story of Aladdin comes from the Thousand-and-one Nights cycle. The original is set in China, but a very Arabian China (populated with the same genies and magicians that inhabit the rest of the tales). The pantomime has imported the Chinese setting, but in this case, it is a very English China - hence it is set in a Chinese laundry. There are numerous versions presented here, including Stuart Ardern's Large-Cast Aladdin, James Barry's Small-Cast Aladdin, Geoff Bamber's off-beat short version for children and a rhyming version.

The tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is also from the Thousand-and-one Nights, but is less well established in the pantomime canon - so the minor characters are not so well established. Here we present Richard Coleman's short version in verse: Rhyming Ali Baba.

Puss in Boots is a common European folk-tale, complete with a ritual dual of magical beings - in this case the cat and the ogre. As with Aladdin the original story has little or no role for the dame, nor is their any requirement for a pantomime donkey, thrown in for good measure in Stuart's Arden full-cast version. (There is also a small-cast version of Puss in Boots, by James Barry.)

Many cultures have traditional stories of ladders to the sky or the clouds. Jack and the Beanstalk (or, sometimes, Jack the Giant Killer - blending it with other stories) is an English version, dating (in written form) from the 18th century, brought up to date here by tlc Creative (the writing collective of Damian Trasler, David Lovesy and Steve Clark), in another traditional pantomime version by Bob Heather, in the shorter version (aimed at schools) Jack and his Amazing Multi-Coloured Beanstalk, by Geoff Bamber or in the shortest Rhyming Jack and the Beanstalk by Richard Coleman

Cinderella is probably the most familiar story, thanks to Charles Perrault's distillation of a variety of European rags-to-riches stories. There are three versions of the story presented on this site. The first is a full, two-act version by Stuart Ardern and Bob Heather, the second is Geoff Bamber's 30 minute version for schools and youth theatre groups, entitled Cinders, and the third version is a very short Rhyming Cinderella by Richard Coleman.
The original version of the full-length script was performed by a village company (in a village hall without a stage) and contained dozens of impenetrable local jokes. Bob Heather was so frustrated with it that he reworked it for a conventional stage (and succeeded in replacing punch-lines that include the names of village worthies with jokes which would work anywhere - no mean feat). There is still one invisible local reference: the Ministers' song (in Act 1, Scene 4) contains the names of all the ladies who had taken part in the previous season's production!

Dick Whittingtonis a true story - but only in as far as Richard Whittington really was mayor of London (co-opted for part of a term, and subsequently elected to the office three times) around the end of the fourteenth century. His claims to fame include a bequest to build the first public lavatory in London. The story about him coming to London penniless, with a cat as his only friend, began to circulate a century or two later, around the time of Shakespeare (which seems to have inspired Stuart Ardern's.)
The more common pantomime version, typified by [Dick Whittington Version 2] by Bob Heather, is a more conventional struggle between good and evil, with the hero, backed by Fairy Bow-Bells, battling with the evil and magical King Rat.
Once again, Richard Coleman provides a short rhyming version, told as Whittington and His Crazy Cat.

Annie Get Your Gun Review

The play that I am doing is 'Annie Get Your Gun'.
It was written by Irving Berlin, produced by Leslie Asplund, & directed by Richard Jones.
I saw the performance on October 20th at the Young Vic in Waterloo. This play is a musical.

'Annie Get Your Gun' is set back in the days and about how one young lady (Annie) is a excellent shooter. She falls in love with a man (Frank Butler) who just so happens to be a famous shooter himself. When these two meet for the first time, Annie and Frank make a bet. The bet was: whoever can shoot the most targets without missing a single one that person gets $100. Annie is the winner of the bet. Not only did she get $100, but she got to become Frank's partner and go with him on roadshows.
However whether or not both of them want to acknowledge it, Annie is a way better shooter than Frank. Frank also falls in love with Annie, but not before getting jealous of her fantastic shooting. Yet Frank lets his jealousy overcome his love for Annie so he ends up quitting his job. Annie, getting very excited about going to different cities and not wanting her talent to go to waste, she still continues with the roadshows. Unfortunately, her success was her downfall, causing her show to be in debt.
She decided that she wanted to see Frank and by this time Annie had tons of medals for her shooting skills. So when Frank saw them, he got extremely jealous. They end up starting to do the betting thing all over again. This time however, Annie let all the love she felt for Frank come rushing back, so they never did it. Instead, they got hitched!!
My favorite characters were Annie Oakley, played by Jane Horrocks and Frank Butler played by Julian Ovenden. The scene I liked best was when it was towards the ending when everyone was there and Annie and Frank were redoing the bet and they sung 'Anything you can do I can do better'. I like this scene the best because there was so much determination and cockiness towards each other and the lyrics were funny!! Ultz was the set designer and Nicky Gillibrand was the costume designer. My favorite costume was Annie's because they had a lot of thought put into them. Like for example when she was famous, she didn't have a modern dress like the ones you see now-a-days, she had on nice, sparkly, glamorous dresses that people in those times would have worn.
Even though Frank was one of my favorite characters, I didn't like it when he got jealous because I was thinking if you love someone, you shouldn't get jealous when that person is good at something. I also didn't like it when Annie was very cocky about her shooting.
I think this play would appeal to mostly females (since it has romance in it). The females would have to young (17 and below) or older females (45 and up). It would mostly attract females with an ethnicity of British White or American White.