Music video (case study) --- What's The Trouble On Your Mind

What's The Trouble On Your Mind is a new song in Taiwan. When I saw the music video first time I could not stop crying, because the melody was so songful, the lyric was so touching and the image of the video was so beautiful. 

The production design of the music video was exceptional, the designer used the rooms which was not big and painted on the walls. It made rooms became many kinds of space. Especially, if you see this MV carefully, you will find out some of actors and actresses are fake, they are just part of the paintings on the wall. This design made audience feel like it seemed they were looking at paintings. But because of live actors and actresses, audience also could feel the reality in this MV. On the other hand, all the rooms were behind the frames. The whole space was a gallery.

Furthermore this song was talking about "life" so the design was very appropriate. The director lead audience in to gallery to see "life"; since life is live, the characters in the paintings are also live. That is why this MV is so impressive.

What's The Trouble On Your Mind by Sodagreen 

there's no flower that never dies‭ ‬

there's no‭ ‬tide that's always high

there's no light that always shines

what's the trouble‭ ‬on‭ ‬your mind


there's no scar that never fades

there's no wound‭ ‬that always stays

there's no desperation‭ ‬that‭ ‬won't go away

so why‭ ‬the sadness on your face


Time‭ ‬goes by without a trace‭ ‬

Life‭ ‬goes on without fanfare

Don't be afraid of any moment‭ ‬that you‭ ‬have

Life goes on and on and on


On and on and on and on

 

    

  

Site-specific (case study) --- The whale

The whale is one of talking birds's show. It's a 3 mins moveable show. The show is about a  sailor who want to communicate with his lover on the land. The most special thing about it is the mini show is played in a whale-shape submarine, so audience have to go in to the submarine.

It is cute!!! I always think "the show" should be long time and play for many audience, but the whale is different. They give audience another experience about "show". It's short, just one actor in it and happen in a small space. People can pop in when they see the submarine. Not like typical show but still cool!!!!  Whatever, I think I need to broke my stereotype of anything.

Space

My supervisor recommended me that I can start thinking about what kind of space I want to use. So yesterday I spent all night to read the original story and the film which was based on the story. The original story was really hard to read because the language was about 700 years ago. And I also read some background about the generation. It makes me understand more about "Injustice to Dou E ".

Here are locations in this story:

1. Dou E's house

2. Doctor Sai's Chinese herbal medicine shop 

3. Wasteland

4. Ancient Chinese court 

5. Scaffold

6. Dou E's father's room

Here are my conditions of the space:

1. The space is separate from morden city.
(Just like Disney land, if people cannot see the morden buildings, they will feel they are in the story.)

2. The space is big enough for people to walk around.

3. It is in a massive building.
(That I can control the light even temperature and smell.)


4. the all stage include outdoor and indoor. 

To be a volunteer

I went to be a volunteer last weekend and this weekend in London. What I did was helped a team which named "You Me Bum Bum Train" built their stage.

Here is their wedsite http://bumbumtrain.co.uk/index.php

Although I didn't get the ticket (those tickets were sold out so quickly) but it was really nice that I still could go to help them. Because I already signed the contract about I couldn't leak anything about the show, what I only could say is the stage is awesome!!!!

Went to be volunteer was interesting. I could see what were they doing before the open day. They taught me do some basic work such as well papering.

Anyway, when their show finish, I will write more about what I have learn from them.    

Guang-Yan Nieh

Guang-Yan Neih

Today I read a magazine which named Performing Arts Review (It is a Taiwanese art magazine). In the magazine there is a interesting article about Guang-Yan Nieh who is a well-known theater designer in Taiwan. It's talking about him experiences, idea and etc.

Although it was a short article, I still learn many things from it. 

Gunang-Yan Neih mentioned about "design" is when you face a specific situation and then you have to try to think about questions, find the answers and solve the problems in the end. On the other words, it's about deconstruct, analyzation, organization and creation.

What I do now is exactly what he said. I have to find the questions of my research and solve them. 

He said that theater was a place which for people to communicate, connect and interact.

People could get the experiences when they went to theater. So I think when I start doing my project the first thing is thinking about what kind of experience I what to give to my audience.

Every time when he does his disgen, he start from "his life" because performance is life. It is cool!! Combine life and design together.

I believed that people who is successful because of his/her attitude. It is good to learn their attitude!   

Chinese Opera

Injustice to Dou E is one of famous chinese operas. I know this story but I have never seen the chinese opera before. I find some clips on the Internat which are really fascinating. Anyway, although I don't want to design for the typical chinese opera. But I think know the knowledge of chinese opera will help me to do my project.

The stage design of chinese opera is very different from westen opera. Almost nothing on the stage; usually there are only one table and two chairs.

    

The table and the chairs can be anything. For example, some times the table can be a mouton, a bridge or a bed etc. But most of time the desk is a desk.

The table is a bed now!

At frist I wondered about why there are only few things on the stage, after I read some information I found out that was because in the past chinese opera was played in public space, the function of the stage should be easily moved. That why in chinese opera just few stuff on the stage. Nowadays, it became a characteristic. People enjoy use their imagination when they see the play.

Not only the stage but also props were simplified.  

This is a "house".

The person is riding a house. 

Chinese opera is amazing, it shows the beauty of Chinese culture. And I think use imagination is a good idea! Sometime if things are too real, it will become not interesting any more. 

  

Injustice to Dou E

It's time to choose a story! Because I want to do oriental style work I think I should choose Chinese story. Injustice to Dou E is the first story comes to my mind. It is a famous Chinese opera. Here is the brief story.

Guan Hanqing was a famous Zaju (the Yuan Drama) playwright of the Yuan Dynasty, and one of the representative figures of ancient Chinese opera play writers as well. His best known work is Injustice to Dou E, which is one of "the four great tragedies of the Yuan Drama", the other three being Autumn in the Han Palace by Ma Zhiyuan, The Firmiana Rain by Bai Pu and The Orphan of Zhao by Ji Junxiang.

The period Guan Hanqing lived in was a time characterized by political corruption, social turbulences, and sharp class and national contradictions (mainly those between Meng and Han ethnic groups). People were living in great misery. Guan Hanqing's plays vividly reenact social reality and have a strong tinge of that period.

Injustice to Dou E exposes the dark side of the society of the Yuan Dynasty through the tragic death of a girl named Dou E. The heroine loses her mother at the age of 7 and is separated from her father at 10, when she was sold as a child bride to offset the debt. Not long after she grows up and gets married, her husband dies. Later she is subjected to the bullying and humiliation of hooligans and gangsters. As a result, she is wrongly accused of involvement in a murder case. Under the torture of the corrupt interrogating officials, she confesses to the false charge and is sentenced to death.

Being wronged, Dou E strongly condemns the corrupt officials, the heaven and the earth at the execution ground, vowing to retaliate against the injustice of real life. She makes three pledges before being executed - snowfalls in June, all her blood splitting on the 3-feet white silk sheet, and 3 years' drought in the local area. All three pledges are realized in due time. After her death, Dou E turns into a ghost and continues fighting for justice. Finally, her wrong is righted. The hooligans and corrupt officials have got what they deserve. Justice prevails.

Through the depiction of Dou E, a kindhearted and unyielding girl resisting the feudal forces, the play expresses the author's heart-felt compassion for the oppressed people and strong denouncement against the dark side of society. It is an immortal treasure shining through the history of Chinese literature.

What I would like to do

I kept thinking what I like and what I want to do since this term started. And I listed a list was about what I like. I like experimental or oriental style production design for film or theater design. So I want to do some thing like that. On the other hand, I hope my audience can feel they are part of the show (my work). And then oriental style site-specific show came to my mind.

Actually, at first I didn't know what is site-specific. In the first tutorial, I told to my supervisor what I liked and she recommended me that I can do some research about site-specific. She told me "punch drunk" was a nice team. So I searched some information about them. And I found out they are famous! now they are in New York. One of my friend who study in New York she went to the show named "sleep no more" and she told me it was awesome!!! 

The show is played in a hotel. Audience have to wear the masks which means they are invisible. The most special thing in this show is audience can walk around everywhere in the building. And my friend told me that you don't have to worry about you will miss the show somewhere. Because the sound effects is nice. It will lead you to the current place.   

I hope I can see this show one day! I love to be a invisible people!! Anyway spite-specific is really interesting. It is not like traditional theater design. So I decide to do this kind of design! but I want to mix "oriental style". I believe it will be cool! 

   

V&A --- Style & Subversion 1970-1990

Last weekend I went to London and I went to an exhibition in Victoria and Albert museum which named "Style & Subversion 1970-1990". Actually, for me who is a foreigner, I could not understand all of art works in the exhibition. Especially, the exhibition was talking about "postmodern" in 1970-1990. I am too young so I did not know what some work meant. (Or maybe just because my English is so poor. haha...) Anyway, generally speaking, I felt this exhibition was so so to me. Because I felt many works were a little bit old fashion... but they were old in fact... Whatever, I still admired for they could do that kind of cool things in that time. I mean nowadays almost every one can accept modern things but I don't thing in the past people could accept that. So it must be really cool when the artists created the works.

This is a short clip about this exhibition.

And below are the works which interested me.

Hologram of Boy George

Actually, I felt this picture was creepy... But it's cool because it was "3D". I searched it on the Internet and I found out this kind of work called "holo-portrait" I sill not really understand how to make it... 

Louis XIV by Jeff Koons

I like the material of this sculpture. It was so shiny. I also like his other works "balloon dog" those giant shiny and bright color sculptures. 

Consumer's rest chair by Frank Schreiner

I love this design because it just changed a little bit and then became another different thing! It is a great concept! Sometimes modifying can give old stuff new life.

Tea & Coffee Piazza by Michael Graves

How cute it is!!! It looks like part of Disneyland!!! A little castle. 

Miss balanche by Shiro Kuramata 

Beautiful material!!!  I love Shiro's crystal works. They are so elegant!

I like go to museum although sometimes the exhibition is not relative to my research. But I believe those cool design will give me inspiration one day!   

Some secrets you may not know about Disneyland

Yesterday I wrote about Japanese program and it reminds me of a report I have read before.  The report was talking about some Disneyland's secret service.  These such service make people feel they are really in a fantasy world. I hope I also can design a space that makes people forget the reality.


1.  We rarely see clocks in Disneyland.   
"Forget time" is very important in Disneyland.

2. We cannot see any mordan building (which is in the real world) from Disneyland.

"Forget the cruel of reality" is also important.

3. No mirror in the toilet. 

If people see the reflection in the mirror, those may remind them of reality.  

4. If you ask cleaners "what are you doing?", they will answer you "I am picking up dreams!"

5. If you say "tik tok" to Hook, he will run away.

 

Run for Money

Recently, I enjoy watching a Japanese TV program which name is "run for money".  This program is about play a game, approximately 15 people hiding in a aera and there are few hunters will try to find them.  If people are caught by the hunter then they are out. The people who can survive over one hour then they can win the money. The most interesting thing is participants not only need to escape and hide from hunters but also complete some missions. Whatever, the area actually is a big stage and a lot of actors and actresses play a big show, so the missions usually are part of the show. Oh my god! that is really hard to explain....

Let's see the program and some pictures!

This is the link of this program: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/DLbILJ_rqCk/

the actor 

the participant and the hunter 

when the participant completed the mission.

the actor interacted with participant. 

This program make me think about "Maybe I can make a show that audience can participate".  

I believe that the space design will be fascinating! I have to consider about how to decorate the space that can let audience feel they really go to the different space-time.  It's cool isn't it?