Single - Devised Unit (CP) - Blog 16 (Devising) - 09/02/16

Today, I decided to work on devising Hunter's Breakdown scene. This is what I got so far (FPS is shorthand for figurative puppet strings):

• Hunter receives a call from his supervisor and gets fired. He hangs up the call and steps into centre stage.
• Clive enters stage right and walks past Hunter and Hunter looks at him, reaches out but Clive walks past like a ghost, Clive stands at front left.
• Shanice enters stage left and walks past Hunter and Hunter looks at her, reaches out but Shanice walks past like a ghost, Shanice stands at front right.
• Clive pulls Hunter gently with FPS and Hunter moves towards him slowly per pull.
• Shanice pulls Hunter a tad more vigorously and Hunter diverts off track and towards her.
• The pair perform a tug of war for Hunter until he falls to the floor on his knees.
• Clive walks behind him and lifts him up arm by arm using FPS, Shanice runs and pushes Clive away. This loosens the strings on Hunter and he falls back to the ground.
• Shanice lifts Hunter up arm by arm using FPS, Clive pushes her away letting Hunter fall to the ground once again.
• Clive pulls him up using FPS and they stand facing each other. Clive grabs Hunters hands and looks at him desperately. Shanice uses FPS to pull Hunter away from him.
• Shanice feels Hunters face and stares at him deeply, Clive uses FPS to pull Shanice away from him.
• Hunter falls to the floor as he's pulled back. Both Clive and Shanice go to help him up but they freeze mid lunge, then retreat to standing.
• Clive walks towards Hunter slowly and wraps his scarf around Hunter's neck. Hunter tries to pull it off as he's struggling for breath but gets it off quickly.
• Shanice walks towards Hunter, caresses his face then kisses him on the cheek. Hunter tries to wipe it off as if it were poisonous acid.
• Hunter lies down, face up, facing upstage. Shanice and Clive lie either side of him leaving a two foot gap between each other.
• Shanice sits up, uses FPS to pull Hunter towards her so that he's laying across her.
• Clive sits up, uses FPS to pull Hunter towards him so that he's laying across him.
• Shanice sits up, uses FPS to pull Hunter towards her, but mid roll he gets up and walks to the front seat and sits on it.
• Shanice and Clive run to him immediately and get on both knees either side of Hunter. They beg for attention but Hunter ignores them.
• Clive uses FPS to move Hunters hand toward Clive's face but Hunter resists and moves his hand away before he touched Clive's face.
• Shanice uses FPS to move Hunters hand toward Shanice's face but Hunter resists and moves his hand away before he touched Shanice's face.
• The pair go to reach out for him but their hands freeze midway and he stands and walks downstage.
• The pair stand and start pulling Hunter back using FPS but Hunter shrugs his shoulders forward and the pair jolt forward as if the strings had snapped. Shanice and Clive exit. Hunter steps backwards and performs his monologue.

I feel that this scene is very effective at portraying the loss of emotion in Hunter now as he realises the mistake he's made and that he doesn't the love of his old school friends. It's also effective at illustrating the competition between Shanice and Clive both fighting for Hunter but resulting in nothing. It represents Clive's confusion as to why Hunter left him and Shanice's forgivingness as she just wants him back.

When deciding the music to use with this scene, I wanted something along the lines of a slow song, perhaps a ballad, but one's which conveyed a similar message as the scene itself. Here are some of the songs I thought were suitable originally:

• Stitches by Shawn Mendes
• I'm A Mess by Ed Sheeran
• Jealous by Labrinth
• Angels by Robbie Williams
• When I Was Your Man by Bruno Mars
• Stay With Me by Sam Smith
• Make It Rain by Ed Sheeran

The main issue, however, with these songs, is that they were mainly compsed of actual lyrics and the instrumentals were very gappy. Make It Rain by Ed Sheeran wasn't gappy at all and was a personal favourite of mine but it didn't have enough variety and stayed pretty constant for around a minute and a half.

Upon further searching I came across Madness by MUSE. I found that the instrumental had a lot of variety and the message conveyed from the lyrics and title match very well with the state that Hunter's life has turned into: Madness!

Next lesson, I share with Hope and Charlie this new scene and workshop anything that needs to be changed and hopefully film it too!