FRANKENSTEIN: Pre-Production Meeting # 3

Frankenstein Pre-production Meeting # 3

Thursday, June 9th

9:30am

In attendance: Nicki, Chris, Ricardo, Alan, Charlotte, Dr. Taylor, & Sam

Next meeting: Monday, July 11th at 9:30am

GENERAL

- Nicki will ask the 3 creature actors about their available to come in and try the mock up. Chris has also requested their shoe sizes.

- Dr. Taylor will talk to Jessica Pearson about being interested in helping choreograph the creatures movement. If she is, Nicki can send her all the meeting notes so she can get a sense of what we’re trying to accomplish.

- Ricardo suggested some kind of symposium or talk back to discuss the artistic/production process behind this show and our particular production. Interested in investing the public in the arts in RI. Maybe collaborating with the English department or Film Studies? Local schools? Ricardo has a meeting with the Board of Ed on June 21st.

- Do we want to do a 10am Friday show for schools? Only about 100 seats available. We can discuss this further at the next meeting and need to make a decision on it at that point.

- Run time at Mixed Magic – 50 minutes for Act I, 45 minutes for Act II.

COSTUMES
- Costumes has requested an action chart for the show, especially all the small vignettes, etc…

- The vignettes suggest 1810, 1876 and 1936.

- Is Victor also playing young Victor? Once he’s on the ship, he doesn’t need to be wearing the fur. He can be wrapped in blankets and then stand up for the transformation. The coat wont probably come back until the very end.

- The bodies Victor buys will be the 3 actors playing the monster.

- Ricardo would like this to be a timeless concept. Most actors could have a base look.  The women are the only ones really trapped in time – Elizabeth and Justine.

Modern crew on the boat.

- Victor’s coat is old… had it since the beginning. Made by him or the creature to keep him alive – Various and patchy furs.

- 2 types of stilts – peg stilts and dry wall stilts. Peg stilts are lighter and quieter, but it means the person can’t really stand still. Ricardo was against that at first, but thinks that it could be an interesting idea… That the creature cannot stop.  All 3 actors would be on stilts – could stand still if all 3 connected and supported each other. Beta would be the tallest.

            - Alan brought up that this means the 3 actors couldn’t easily play other characters. Once the silts are on, they’re on for the whole show.

            - Dry wall stilts are loud and cumbersome… they do look more like feet. Alan and Chris can look at Bob’s dry wall stilts to see if they can be “de-squeaked”.

            - Ricardo can’t envision how the creature moves with Alan’s triple puppet idea. The creatures needs to be able to move with grace. We’d have to see how it developed once they started rehearsing with the rig.

            - Is there a way to make a wood or Styrofoam mock up for Ricardo to see?

            - Could we modify a set of dry wall stilts to add a second foot platform to try out the coordination?

            - Last time, the monster wore long black monks-like robes. How do we show the beauty of the creature at the beginning and then it becomes grotesque throughout the action.

            - Ricardo would like to get the actors the stilts asap so they can practice.

            - Ricardo also mentioned a tall Gene Simmons-esque shoe as an alternative? Not likely possible within our budget and people are also worried about ankle breakage.

- Ricardo wants the costumes to be lightweight – have a flow and movement to them.

SET

- Discussed how it was staged last time.

- What would be on a modern ship – not wooden crates and barrels.

- Alan’s idea – Ship would be very simple – platform with two chairs and table. Possible an upper level to look out with very simple railing. Use items in the hold to suggest locations for the vignettes.

            - Ricardo suggested using technology to suggest the modern if the ship is       simple?

- Discussed the slideshow/documentary moment. The crew is watching this documentary. The creatures comes in to this break room and kills them all. After everyone is dead, the creature watches the rest of the video.

            - The creature during this scene needs to demonstrate incredible strength – throw an actor across the room, toss a barrel, break something on the set, etc….

- Ricardo might want to use wind to suggest and reinforce outdoor location

LIGHTING

- n/a

SOUND / MUSIC

- Sound effect involved when the creature attaches and reattaches.

- Possibly another sound when the creature is wounded?

- Sound would be involved in the documentary/killing scene – Music could start in stereotypical horror vein and transitions into more modern music to underscore the death.

            - Charlotte does have access to a church pipe organ if we wanted to record something.

- Ricardo did listen to the ambient track Alan gave him… felt it more for the ice scene. Something lonely about it… modern and ancient… really supports the timelessness. Also the fact that we’re outside of human civilization.

- Sound effect – Ice breaking. The ship is stuck in the ice – Humans can perceive cold through sounds they here. Sam just saw a study on this!

- Ricardo would like to explore opportunities to take natural sounds and explode them… regular sounds are amped up and overwhelming to the creature. The creature tries to duplicate the sounds… but he can’t. His sound is too big and scary. Dramatize the sounds – what does Justine’s hanging sound like? The trap opening… the creaking of the rope… etc… Can this sound come back later to remind us of what happened to her?

- Does the creature make a sound… that can tell Victor and the audience that the creature is nearby even when we don’t see him?