Influences

Some of my influences include:
American Horror Story (Murder House story)
The characters of Larry/Ben/Hayden. Larry and Ben both cheated on their wives, even if the outcome of being discovered was different for both of them, as Larry's wife setting their bedroom on fire with her and her children locked inside but Ben's wife simply pushed Ben away emotionally.
Hayden on the other hand influences how Amber is going to act after she dies in the story as before, she will be kind, gentle, sweet and innocent. But after she dies she will be angry towards Duncan, just as Hayden was angry towards Ben's wife, Vivienne, for having Ben even though he had been cheating on Viv with her.

American horror story (Asylum story)
Sister Jude getting hurt by what she had done before becoming an inmate at the asylum, such as electro shock therapy, being forced to listen to the same song over and over.

The play The Perfect Murder.
This will mainly help me work out what kind of things Amber can do to haunt Duncan.
In the production Victor's ghost made his wife hear his voice without seeing him, and when she did see him, he acted naturally, as if he wasn't dead (which he isn't but is not telling his wife).
He also turned on the TV and Radio from a distance, with specific things playing on them at the time, such as the song Every Breath You Take by the Police.

War of the Worlds live tour
Use of projection and other techniques that showed Liam Neesons character throughout the piece.

Songs such as
Crossfire by Eric Stuart Band
Remember by Name by Robbyn Kirmssé (From Danny Phantom). Base for the whole idea to begin 
with.
Sacrifice - Voltaire
Every Breath You Take - The Police
The Devil in Disguise - Elvis Presley 

"Description of a scene" exercise

As I said in a previous post this exercise helped me to work out some of the fine details of an important scene. What I wrote down is below.


Column 1
Description of scene

Duncan and Eric are sitting at a small table. Eric is reading a comic book, Duncan is strumming at his guitar (attempting to play Full Colour World from Comic Book: the movie). Duncan looks a little twitchy and keeps looking at his phone, Eric doesn't notice.
Duncan's phone receives a message, it beeps a few times before Duncan looks at it. When he does he sighs angrily and puts the phone back on the table without answering. This is when Eric looks up from his comic.
He asks what the problem was and Duncan tells him that some random girl has been texting him for a few days. Duncan shows Eric the message and Eric recognises the name of the girl, telling Duncan that he clearly does know her as she's listed in his contacts.
Eric tells Duncan she works in the bar they went to for Ambers birthday. Duncan question how Eric knows this and says that he's gone to the bar with out Duncan a few times.

Column 2
Specific detail from the scene

Duncan is attempting to play the song "Four Colour World" from Comic Book: the Movie. The song is about how the singer can't understand why they love the person they are singing to.
The song was chosen because this is the scene where it is revealed that Duncan has been cheating on Amber, his girlfriend, and so we don't know if he is singing about Amber or the girl who has been texting him.
Eric suddenly becomes suspicious of Duncan's reaction to him knowing who Lindsay Island begins to think and begins to think Duncan is cheating on Amber. He doesn't know how long this has been happening though.

Column 3
Context of the scene

Takes place in present day. The characters in the scene are both students and are living in student accommodations. Duncan is on a music course and Eric is on an animation course.
Takes place two months after Amber and Duncan get together, but shows that he doesn't really care about their relationship as he has been cheating on her for two weeks and has talked to Amber less and less during that time. Amber on the other hand has become unhappy because her so call 'boyfriend' is not texting her or even talking to her.

Last few weeks of work

I have learnt over the last few weeks that my idea can be expanded through a wide variety of ways, whether they be looking at one scene in detail, three columns exercise, or using objects to create a little scenario, three objects (in my scenario these objects were a pen, a piece of paper and a pair of sunglasses).

The three columns task made me add to specific details to the scene I was writing about.

Detail one
The song Duncan is trying learning on his guitar, Four Colour World, is a song where the singer cannot work out why they love who they are singing to. But because the audience and Eric learn that he has been cheating in this scene the song is meant to question which girl he is singing about.

Detail two
The comic that Eric is reading, Mad Love. Mad love is a story abut the Batman character Harley Quinn and her loving/abusive relationship with the Joker, loving only from one side (Harley's). The relationship in the book partly echoes Duncan and Amber's relationship, which can be told through Eric's dialogue.

Both of the exercises I have mentioned have helped me by developing one section of a character or scene, the song Duncan is trying to learn and the way Eric acts when he is secretly spying on Duncan when he thinks he is cheating. It has helped me to think of ways in which media can be used during the performance, unless I can find a way to put this idea on stage, I will use some sort of screen to project me onto as if watching Duncan from a far.