Moving on...

To further my basic design layout in the best way for myself, I decided to sketch over my basic frame, which you will recognise from the previous post.

Firstly, I will be using the English Gothic Sub-Genre as my design base to draw five pieces and then doing the same with the Cyberpunk Sub-Genre. Then the ten designs will be mixed together to bring me closer to my final design and to help me visualise what will work well when joined.

In my next post I will be explaining each sketch, detailing where I gained the ideas and why I think they will work or not work with other features.

Basic Stage Layout.

I decided on this particular design to work with as it gave me exactly what I wanted and it is how I want my audience to view the stage. Gregors room is placed above the living area, to help me portray the idea that he may be different to them, but he is still above them both literally and mentally. I wanted the stairs/ladders/lift to be an important place on stag

e as it is pivotal to the scene I have chosen, so it is imperative that the audience are able to see properly, which is why I have decided to make it about 35% of the stage width.

The doorway has been located at the back of the stage on the right, but not right at the edge. I wanted it to be a focal point as the lodgers will be leaving the stage with disgust and horror during this scene and I like the idea that their backs will be turned as they leave the stage. It will hopefully help to show their disgust towards Gregor and discarding the family for hiding such a hideous secret from them.

The next step.

Before sketching out the 2 sub-genre ideas I have collected, I want to draw a basic design to follow. This will help me when I am bringing the sub-genres together, giving me a clearer picture of my final ideas. I also choose to design this way because I have found I work best when I can put things together in an almost puzzle like fashion, fitting pieces together and blending them in.

Below are some ideas I have drawn out in my sketchbook

The photo below was one that stood out for me. The character in the photo is trapped, gagged and unable to hear. He is bound by the futuristic ties of electricity and it make me wonder if the machine creating the ties has independent thought or is being controlled by someone out of shot. I would like to bring the electric ties into my sketches and the idea of Gregor being controlled by someone else, maybe the creature he has become on the outside.

Beyond The Matrix

Although The Matix has given me a base to work off in terms of the ideology behind the
The photos below show the more futuristic side of the cyberpunk sub-genre and demonstrate the influences I will be using in my sketches. The metal structures, almost prison like and that bright beams of light.cyberpunk sub-genre and also the idea of colours and lightening, I want to look into other classic cyberpunk looks for my theatre box.

Cyberpunk.

I chose to look at the Cyberpunk sub-genre for a number of reasons. The most important one to me is the idea that Gregor is something alien like, unexplainable and shocking. These things to me can be easily placed into the Sci-fi genre. Choosing Cyberpunk from this was purely for contrast against the English Gothic. The high technology aspect of the sub-genre will help me show the difference between the family and Gregor. He is trying to understand this futuristic, unrealised being he has become and his family are set in their ways, stubborn and unwilling to accept the fact that although he has changed on the outside, he is still the same person within.

Lawrence Person, editor of Nova Express –a science fiction fanzine- describes a classic cyberpunk character as ‘marginalized, alienated loners who lived on the edge of society’, traits I feel Gregor beholds.

The example of Cyberpunk I looked into was the film The Matrix. To summarise this film....

‘Thomas A. Anderson is a man living two lives. By day he is an average computer programmer and by night a malevolent hacker known as Neo. Neo has always questioned his reality but the truth is far beyond his imagination. Neo finds himself targeted by the police when he is contacted by Morpheus, a legendary computer hacker branded a terrorist by the government. Morpheus awakens Neo to the real world, a ravaged wasteland where most of humanity have been captured by a race of machines which live off of their body heat and imprison their minds within an artificial reality known as the Matrix. As a rebel against the machines, Neo must return to the Matrix and confront the agents, super powerful computer programs devoted to snuffing out Neo and the entire human rebellion.’

Taken from www.IMDB.com

The link below explains the ideas of imprisonment within the matrix, and how Neo becomes ‘re-born’ in the real world. I chose this example to show the idea of imprisonment in the mind, and how it is shown. There is a vast difference between the sets of the Matrix world and the Real world, with the matrix seeming to be a wash of colours with no real depth or brightness and the real world delivering a stark contrast of light and dark, brightness and gloominess.

I want to use the idea of differences in The Matrix to explain the difference between Gregor and his family. Gregors family are in the dark about this new world that Gregor has entered into, whilst Gregor is experiencing something new and hidden from the other people in his world – his family – and no one understands, including him.

English Gothic.

After looking into The Red Room, I chose to take a look at the English Gothic Horror theme. The images below offer a classic look at the theme and I will be taking ideas from them to put into my sketches.