(from Discussion 1) - Jonathon Ward (NYC): ...as we move out into space it becomes…looking at something else. And it seems to me there were tremendous little pieces in discovery in what could be done and the images that could be created. There were lots of ideas around it. The next question is: how do all of these pull together into something. 

Zoey Martinson (NYC): I thought it was cool, some of the camera movement. But I thought it was very effective when it was one or two cameras were moving and the other cameras were stationary. Then you could focus on the moving cameras or the new pace or speed of what you’re seeing without getting overstimulated and dizzy.

Francesca Bailey (London): Maybe it would be worth trying muting the sound unless you’re one of the two key players. Unless you’re A or B. Because I was finding it really hard to concentrate so much noise from different… I’m trying to put sound to which screen it was coming from…which could be useful sometimes if you don’t quite know where the sound is coming from. But in terms of actually focusing on a person, that would be a way of developing…last time we played with muting microphones.

Adam McNulty (NYC): There was a quick little moment between Francesca and I when we first started doing…both cameras started moving around and all of sudden that got my brain working. To me it was fun to all of sudden to move with her or away from her. When she moved away, I would chase after her. When she moved to me, I would come back away. To see that movement in both cameras… It could be fun to play with some more mobile units.
 

Discussion 2 Transcript

Jonathon Ward: In terms of telling story it’s interesting exploration. But in terms of getting an audience engaged, there may be ways to pass the story. At this point, you’re carrying the story… defining that in some ways.

Zoey Martinson:… this person is sleeping on this screen and you watch them go to sleep. Suddenly boink boink boink and new screens come on. You’re going to assume those new screens are part of that person’s dream or subconscious in a weird way. Like you’ve already bought that medium without having to move at all. Or you’re doing a Law & Order thing…and one person is in the squad room talking about something that’s happening or something they think will be happening…and you can actually see that this person is in the kitchen…and this person pushes open a door and strangles that person or beats them up. You can actually see that while on another screen all these people are having that conversation. And that’s the beauty of this medium…artistically compose without words.

Ward:…what Dakota is doing now. I just saw cookies. And I thought umm, cookies. And with Dakota moving it’s like upstaging what’s happening. With something happening on camera, the attention can go someplace else. Right now, Wendy and Francesca start taking it with the action.
 

Global Theatre Workshop: Discussion-2 from LoNyLa on Vimeo.

(from Discussion 2) Zoey: You have to be very specific, it's choregraphy… why I call it a ballet. Very specific to where the audience or where the people seeing or getting the information for the story are supposed to be looking and where they’re not supposed to be looking…and what’s okay to see and what’s not okay to see or pulling focus. And then you keep that camera still or in a way where people aren’t interested in the action on camera. Like looking out a window for a certain amount of time, people are going to look away unless something pops up. Keep getting it so tightly woven that you tell the story that you want to tell along with people having the freedom to look where they want to look. But in the end they don’t know that you’re allowing that.

Adam: The other thing that I was thinking along with that is taking away the hands, all the different hands that are in…trying to actually tell a story. So like we’re passing things off. And actually just creating different worlds. What was interesting to me was where you have a world like Zoey’s – where it’s just her apartment, it’s on her bed. She’s lounging around. That’s her world of stillness, that’s her own little world. And then you’ve got two other worlds where Francesca is… or where actual communication is happening. And you see all these things happening on screen and somehow they’re related but they’re not. You can take away some of the impetus to try to control the storytelling. And each little screen or each little world tells their own story in a different way. But the only thing you’re really choreographing is who’s in what room, what environment are you in? Each space is telling its own story and when you bring it all together, it ends up telling its own story in its own unique way. That then allows the audience to follow…well which screen am I going to be watching at this moment? Which also then allows every single audience member to have a completely different story.