During the improvisation stage, we decided to experiment by using paper cut outs and card to create a performance. Through this, we found a Dutch theatre company called ‘Hotel Modern’ who created a piece called The Great War. Rather than the story itself, what interested us more about the piece were the aesthetics, the making up of the performance. It had a layered effect. One layer included the story in which toy soldiers, dolls, mud, card, paper amongst other materials were used to create the world in the performance was based in. The second layer being where they had a camera pointing towards the action. Then finally a third layer where the feed was played out on a big screen for the audience to see. All the performers and materials are present on stage. It interested us to see how we could create imagery and tell a narrative or abstract story through the materials. This triggered a reminder for me of a performance that I had seen named Odyssey by ‘A Paper Cinema’. They presented a story not only from paper cut outs but from the result of experimenting with music and sound. This lead us to experimenting with our own cut outs and resources.
Firstly, we made up a barn yard scene and drew our own fences, sheep and even a farmer in a tractor. We wanted to just create a simple, few seconds long video to start with. We were also given a plastic cow and a plastic horse. We made a little video with our resources and our own hands controlling the action.
After this, we were thinking of how we could do this without having our hands in the video. So we decided to use a ‘Stop Motion’ app on a phone and create the scene again.
By Francesca Brooks
