Hobo Clown research

The hobo clown is not the traditional sort of stereotypical clown the audience expect.
He has a sad face and the dull and dark colours used on his face dont give him much happiness.

The hobo clown is a North American creation.
James McIntyre and Tom Heath are credited with the creation of the tramp clown characterization in 1874.
The idea of this clown comes from the homeless people who rode the trains across the country looking for jobs.
During the World War I the hobo clown became more and more popular being featured in many shows.

Face appearance:
The male version of this character has a beard that covers a neck and jaw area. The up or down shape of the eyebrows will determine if this is a sad hobo or a happy hobo.
He has quite a dirty face due to the lifestyle he leads.
His nose is red, this still keeps him similar to the other clowns so he isn't completely different.


Heres a list of some famous Hobo clowns

• Nat Wills "The Happy Tramp" (1873-1917)
• Vitaly Lazarenko (-)
• W.C. Fields “Great Tramp Juggler” (1880-1946)
• "Little Tramp" Charlie Chaplain (1889-1977)
• Otto Griebling (1896-1972)
• Emmett "Weary Willie" Kelly, Sr.(1898-1979)
• "Happy" Harold Kellems (1905-1987)
• Red "Freddie the Freeloader" Skelton (1913-1997)
• Mark "Mark Anthony" Galkowski (1915-1990)
• Irvin "Ricky the Clown" Romig (1920-2010)
• Emmett "Weary Willie" Kelly, Jr.(1923-2006)
• "Homer" Don Burda (1935-2008)
• Arthur "Vercoe" Pedlar (1932-present)
• Jim Howle (1939-present)
• W.D. "Curly" Robbins
• "Charlie the Juggling Clown" Bruce Johnson
• Kevin "Sneakers McSilly" Andrews (1964-present)

Here is some images to show examples of hobo clown makeup.

DFTA evaluation

Don't Feed The Animals Evaluation

The area I focused on was makeup.

There was 3 of us who specialised in makeup and we each chose a clown to focus on. The clown I specialised in was the hobo clown. I did research into this character and from this I realised there was a design that seemed very common so I followed this plan. I created my design several times to ensure I was confident how to do it.

Plans changed as when we got to the theatre we lost some time because of the journey which meant there wasn't much time for the cast to get ready. The tech and dress rehearsals were both done with no makeup. And for the actual performance all the actors who were supposed to have makeup decided not to have it as hasn't rehearsed with it and they felt unconfident with it.

There was one character willing to have makeup, Josh who was the first character on stage was playing a drunk clown who has a heart attack. Once he does his opening section and dies he comes off stage and has just minutes to change clothes to
a school boy. Because the decision was made for him to have makeup it meant me and Lindsey, who were working backstage on set changes, were given the job of being ready with makeup wipes to remove it as quickly as possible.

I had to make a quick decision of what makeup to do on him as hadn't planned on doing this.
I chose to make it very simple as the small amount of time to get it off.
I decided on using bright colours as these are eye catching and more clown like.                                                    This was the final look.

 

Thursday 31st January 2013

In this lesson we spent both hours of our lesson working on the tech side of Grease. Me and Jess who both are working on make up discussed together what would be the most effective way of progressing with our make up. We decided that we should start experimenting with make up. It was hard to find someone willing to have face paint put on their face at college but we did find a volunteer, Lindsey. We were very thankful of her as neither me or Jess wanted to have to walk around college with clown make up on. Jess went first and did her design on Lindsey. These are the evidence pictures of what she did.

This is the lips and base
colour of the clown Jess
was woking on. This was
created using face paint.

                              


                              

                                                      These are the eye brows designed by  Jess
                                                          which are created using face paint. They
                                                      add colour to the face and draws attention
                                                                              to the eye.

This is the final outcome of Jess' creation
 as seen on Lindsey. This design is very
 eye catching a colourful, just like a clown.
 We didnt have all the correct resources
 so when we do the real thing we will be using
different and better facepaint.

And then I tried my designs on Lindsey, we were running out of time so I decided to not do the make up fully.  Here is my evidence and some notes describing what I did.

This is the eye section of the makeup. When doing the real version the whole forehead will be white, not just around the eye. I used black face paint to draw on the eye brows, I took quite a while to get the shape. I put the white face paint on using a sponge.

 The next section I worked on was the nose. I had to use a orange shade colour for this as it was the only colour available but on the real version I would use red. This simply adds colour to the face and is a sterotypical thing for a clown to have a red nose so keeps in with tradition.

 The next section was the bottom half of the face. I used black face paint for the lower cheek, under the mouth and under the nose. This black colour represents facial hair. Because this clown is meant to be homeless he needs a rough look and I think this gives it.

Then finally I did the mouth. I chose to try the colour white for this but now I feel this isnt the colour to use and looks strange using the same colour for the head as the lips. I think I will try use red when I next do this. I chose to make the mouth look sad as he is not a happy clown.

Thursday 10th January 2012

This is my information of the production manager:

The production management team (consisting of a production manager and any number of assistants) is responsible for realizing the visions of the producer and the directoror choreographerwithin constraints of technical possibility. This involves coordinating the operations of various production sub-disciplines (scenic, wardrobe,lighting,sound,projection,automation,video,pyrotechnics,stage management, etc.) of the presentation.

In addition to management and financial skills, a production manager must have detailed knowledge of all production disciplines including a thorough understanding of the interaction of these disciplines during the production process.
This may involve dealing with matters ranging from the procurement of staff, materials and services, to freight, customs coordination, telecommunications, labor relations, logistics,information technology, government liaison, venue booking, scheduling, operations management, mending delay problems and workplace safety.

http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/industry-insight/article/theatre-production-manager

Thursday 6th December

In todays lesson we focused on evaluating Snow Queen, the production side of it all.

What did you learn during this production process that was most valuable?

I learnt that you shouldnt leave things til the last minute. In this show the whole production process was very rushed. We had ideas of what to make but didnt get on with it til the very last minute. Also I learnt how important it is that set and props are made strong and durable. There were various pieces of set/props that got made very early on and then by the time the performance came they had been broken and fixed so many times. If they are made durable and strong from the start they will last and wont need to be fixed constantly. And finally I learnt that set/props need to be atleast double the size of the real life object. This is based on the flowers. We made the flowers all quite small, they were larger than normal flowers but not by much. They need to be atleast double the size of a standard flower so the audience can clearly see them. I do feel I learnt a lot and all things that I can take on with me to future performances.

Which sessions, or part of sessions, were the most interesting?...and the least interesting?

The most interesting sessions for me where when we got the most set done. I knew we were against the time so doing loads of the set felt sucessful and that we were getting stuff done. Also this is the sessions I learnt the most it felt. I havnt done much set or props before so doing this was really interesting. The least interesting session was doing our presentations. We all had to do a presentation on a specified area of the theatre. The problem was we didnt have much time to do any work on them so overall it was just pointless us trying to do a presentation, especially when we had lots of work to do on set.

What skill or production role would you like to explore further/develop next term as a result of The Snow Queen production this term?

I would like to develop my production role in make up. I did make up for The Snow Queen but I felt the role was taken over by others and that I didnt get to take on the role much. I am fascinated by it with the designs, colours, effects, all of it. I would like to be able to create my own designs and then do them on someone who has a big role in the show. Also I would like to explore the role of set/props. In The Snow Queen everyone in the class worked on the set and props and I helped make things but never personally designed anything or made something big which I would love to do. I am fascinated at the making side of it.

How effective was your contribution to the production process of The Snow Queen?

I dont feel I contributed enough in my specified area, make up. I was doing this along side Jess but felt she took charge which was fine but meant I didnt get a chance to put across many ideas of do all the make up. I contributed a lot in the making of props, I spent a lot of time making flowers in whatever material we could find. I also made a huge load of the sparkly leaves which were used in the robber scene. I never missed an academy session and never a tech lesson so my attendance was always full for this, meaning I contributed a huge amount of time.

Is there anything you would change if you did it again?

If we could do this again one thing I would change was our timing. We left way too much til last minute which caused a lot of stress nearer the end. We spent too many lessons all just focusing on working on one thing and not all contributing fully. Another thing I would change if we did it again would be the overall flower garden. It felt very messy and looked random and unorganised. We used so many different materials that there was no theme with the flowers, all random colours and sizes and designs. If we could do this again I think all the flowers should be the same size, bigger than what we did, all made using the same design idea and the colours to be some of the same. Also I think if we did it again the sleigh should be used. A lot of people put time and effort into making it but it didnt get used at all during the perfoemance which was a shame. To ensure it got used we could of made it more accesible with getting in and out. Lizzie, who was playing the snow queen, had big trouble getting in and out of it which was what ended up stopping it being used.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed working on the tech side of The Snow Queen but wish I was involved more in my specified job role.

Here are some pictures.

This is the Flower Garden.

This is the King and Queen castle.

This is the forest scene in which the robbers take place their robbing.

Thursday 29th November 2012

I felt this was quite a relaxed lesson, although I think we underestimated how much work we have to be done.

Me and some of the girls worked on props/set in todays lesson. We mainly focused on making more flowers for the flower garden. The flowers are all made very differntly so far. Some have been made using a yoghurt pot covered in material as the centre and then material all shooting out of it.
A range of materials and colours have been used to make it various.
The sizing of the flowers also vary. At the moment they arnt that big but I think we will change that
as show set and props are meant to be like double or more the size of the real object so the audience can see them.


This is how I want the flower garden to look but obviously understand this isnt that possible.


We got a lot done in this lesson but feel we could of done more if we had more materials. We are struggling finding things to make flowers out of now and are trying to be as imaginative as possible but finding it hard.


What went well is the teamwork in this lesson. We all worked together to get as much done as we can, taking turns with glues, passing things to eachother.

Thursday 22nd November

In todays tech lesson we focused on making mood boards, these will be displayed at the showing of Snow Queen in a exhibition before the performance. We had to create a mood board on our specified areas, mine was make up. We did this using the resources we had which were newspapers, magazines and various pieces of material. We all took on a different approach of how to set it out, mine was more like a mindmap where as others chose the idea of it being more like a border around the centre piece which was the words. Doing this task was really intetersting for looking at how colours go together, also looking at patterns. I found some really interesting things in some magazines including wall paper patterns which gave me some good ideas for the snow queens makeup.

This image is me working on the mood board.

This lesson worked well in several ways. It gave me some really strong positive ideas for the make up of the snow queen. It was also nice to just sit and talk with others in the class, when doing musical theatre you have to trust and be close with your peers or it makes performing and working with them hard so its nice to have a chance to bond more.