(Week 6-9) A Flower's Promise Musical Theatre: Stage Design Production

Contextual Studies (CTX)

Assignment 02

WEEK 6

PART 1: THE COMMISSION

Thank God...

...that I get to come in time where assignment 02 briefing had just begun (right after I took my fateful sit on that chair)!! Great news! We, the FIDs are given an opportunity to collaborate with Ms Pat and Co. on designing A Flower's Promise Musical Theatre's props. It is an honor for all of us to receive such opportunity from the director. It is going to be a wonderful experience as we get to work with them in a real-life professional level similar to what we will be doing in the future working world. It's also awesome to have something interesting to write about in my resume.

Thanks Mr. Charles for catching new opportunities for us the second time!

Well, my group is currently working on a scene of a poor traditional Malay house. No matter how the other group keep being satisfied on how easy their scene is, I'm glad and happy that Melissa chose a challenging one for us.

Again, a quote from Commander William T. Riker:

"The more difficult the task, the sweeter the victory."

Challenging tasks are not a hindrance but a standard raiser. For I'm called an overcomer!

PART 2: THE SITE MEASUREMENT

Yeap, that's me...with my team doing some measurements. 📷@Vivian Wong

The Site 📷@Vivian

PART 3: THE IDEATION

Preparing sketches for approval

PART 4: THE PROPOSAL

Time to present our sketches!

Mr. Charles is also participating in the sketching frenzy!

Rejected sketch due to wrong concept, but the drawing skills are complemented.

Today, we get to discuss and present our sketches. We have to change our sketches from a rich man house to poor man house despite the given example of their concept is a rich setting 😑. Although there are some changes needed to be done because of the insufficient elaboration and communication of the client's concept, it will be fine.

I hope so.

WEEK 7

PART 5: THE BOSS' FEEDBACK

Can't believe that Ms. Pat, the boss wanted our first sketch idea after we regenerate the second sketch based on the idea of Bryan and team (luckily we sketched the second revision roughly!) Both my team and other group members have some concerns where the ideas are not communicated fluently between the boss and her gang. Well, such thing always happens when holographic meetings are not available yet!

Pss...did some research and there is such a thing as Microsoft HoloLens!

A valuable experience indeed it is! Well, it is vital to have much patience and toleration towards clients. Do expect more of such clients knocking at my front door soon... (edit on 2021: Yeap, there are! Prophecy fulfilled!)

PART 6: THE BUILDERS' FEEDBACK

Today we are honored to meet with the builders and discuss how to improve our sketches and make it a reality. I still remember clearly the head-scratching moments of the builders after they heard how "sophisticated" the mechanism works. I'm immediately reminded what my senior once told me that this is the reason why architects and engineers often fight each other.

In a bright side, I'm satisfied that our first sketch idea is approved and is possible to make after some explanation on how to build it!

The builders did add some "legs" onto our backdrop to stabilize it. Didn't expect that our sketch idea is to be used for the dance hall (other team's scene) too!

After the briefing, we have to prepare the visuals for the poor Azman's house concept, a jungle scene and a small model of the stage. Stay tune to next week's third wave!

WEEK 8

PART 7: APPROVED

It's the third week of this awesome project and both of our sketch ideas are approved.

After showing it to Bryan and his gang, they love the traditional alternative staircase and the idea of the sticks railing!

Basically, I drew this piece free-handled and coloured it with Vivian. Too much "jungeling" around? Bryan commented that it is too detailed and complicated... well, isn't jungles back then more thick and complex? I'll just take that as a compliment.

Look how passionate Wenny is! Makes my day brighter! Notice the small and cute white stage models? All thanks to Jennifer!

Presenting our sketches

For next week's submission, we have to make a bigger up to scale model of the backdrop with a scaled drawing on both sides. Stay tune!

WEEK 9

PART 7: THE FINAL HURDLE

After one month of collaborating, has this project come to an end?

🔼Thanks to Felicia for being so generous! Sir, extra marks for Felicia in completing the video and allowing the class to use it.

"We all 1 class."- Felicia Koey

Final Submission

1. A complete scaled model of the backdrop

Approved!

2. Railing improvement (Before & After)

After the discussion, they prefer to stick on to the normal staircase and have the rail improvised (longer and have a horizontal structure for support).

3. Additional elements (tapioca plants) in jungle backdrop (Before & After)

Bryan and his team have some point in this improvisation. Clearly more research had to be done about Malaysia jungles before handing the final product to clients.

Strengths:

- Detailed drawing

- Quality of color

Weakness:

- Trees look like oak trees (Malaysia tropical trees are mainly straight and have less curves)

- Missed out on historical semiotics (tapioca plants represented as primary food source and denotes the harsh environment of WW2)

After scanning and printing the jungle backdrop, we pasted some printed tapioca plants that is carefully cut to save time.

Reflection

According to the above timeline, everything is not going smoothly right at the start, that is the second meeting on week 6. The main problems are identified in the briefing by Brain and his team and the communication between the designers and the clients on the first meeting. According to the brief by Bryan and Co., the pictures given are based on a rich traditional Malay house concept but the latter is vice versa. We have to redo the whole artist impression because the clients wanted a poor setting instead.

Here, I am aware that there are some clients who have a hard time expressing themselves via visuals but only through verbal communication. That's where the designers come into the picture. Us.

We are the visual translators.

In addition, the communication between our team and our clients further hinders the flow of this assignment. However, this is tolerable as the communication and trust are yet to be build up in this early stage because we are not yet fully comfortable and ready to voice out our concerns. All of us are also inexperienced on what key questions to ask and thought there are no problems at all!

Hmm, don't you think that this happens often in the learning environment? Then, what are the solutions in tackling this problem? #researchquestion

I also noticed that Bryan and his team are struggling whether or not to release any additional information even after we agreed to help. And that's again tolerable due to the agreement? Haha. It'll be good if we are trustworthy enough to be in the agreement.

Overall, these problems are good thing because we get to learn. However, the human nature is keen to voice out complaints in a hope to expect zero problems.

"It will be good if we can have their contact number straight from the start otherwise we don't need to redo that much. It is also a shame that we do not have direct access to the script or else we could have done a better job in going deeper in the area of semiotics..." - The Mind

Hushhhhhh!

Problems and mistakes are unavoidable and often we beat ourselves, thinking that we can avoid them right at the start if we could be more___. There is always a better way in dealing with failure by embracing it, voicing it out and not being afraid to show our weaknesses even if it effects our first impression. Because at the end, progression is what matters.

Are you willing to show your mistakes?

Now, our products have been officially approved by our clients and are ready for production. Has mistakes hinder my happiness and satisfaction?

By all means, no.

Truly, I'm grateful that I get to make as much mistakes I can which cost me nothing but only chemical energy. This assignment is the best real life stimulation I get so far! Yay!