Psycho(ish)

Sep 2021 - Nov 2021

The brief:

This project was led by Pete Brooks, who set the brief for us to recreate Alfred Hitchcock’s *Psycho* in the style of his practice, merging live performance, film and projection together. We were to work as a collective, creating a company ecosystem which consisted of directors, designers, performers and camera crew. I chose to direct for this project; I wanted to explore and build on existing skills from my life as a performer, as well as having a hunch I would enjoy it due to previous times in life where I have had to lead a group of people. I intended to go into this project with the confidence that I was capable of directing, with the openness to learn how to do it.
As a collective, we initially established what we would need to address during the process:
- the film was to be edited and therefore run at no more than 50 minutes
- multiples of scenes would be required, therefore multiple sets and characters may have to perform simultaneously
- how many cameras (static and moving) would be required/within budget
- how could we recreate scenes from the film with as little as possible

Our poster for the show:

The team had little to no time in creating this, though it is brilliant and effective - I feel this reflects the theme of resourcefulness that ran throughout this project.

Credit: imitatingthedog.co.uk — Initial Research:

Imitating The Dog: *Dracula: The Untold Story*
A few of us went to watch Pete Brooks’ company perform Dracula during the first few weeks of the project. It was really interesting to watch how creative you can be when using live film during a live performance - as an audience member you are shown the inner workings of how a shot is set up; what is outside the frame, what you don’t see when watching a film. This opened my eyes to how we could use these similar techniques in Psycho(ish); it showed me that what you see in a shot is literally what you see, and thinking about the easiest way to recreate that.

Camera trickery: forced perspective

As a team we wanted to recreate shots with as little set as possible, as the scene changes would need to be as quick and minimal as possible. To overcome this, we looked at camera trickery within films, specifically forced perspective.

We looked into films that use forced perspective, to help better understand how we could incorporate it into the performance. This gave us some intial ideas on how we might overcome any difficult scenes, as we predicted this would be the case.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Shot by shot: creating a master spreadsheet

As directors (myself, Rachel Steele, Rebant Ruparell and Raphael Gois), it was our job to split up the edited version of the film (done by the design team) into sections that we could then plan on directing. I took my section, screen grabbed the first frame from every shot, printed it off and stuck them in a notebook, giving a page for every shot - this was advised by Pete Brooks, as he said it gives you space to work out how many of each character you’d need, where the camera would need to be positioned etc. which you can then build on in working out how many cameras and performers are needed overall. It was very time consuming but worth it, as it gave me the advantage of at least a rough understanding of what would be required when it came to casting roles and blocking scenes.

As a director’s team, we then decided a master spreadsheet of every shot would be necessary in order for us to see each other’s sections breakdowns, and be able to help each other during blocking sessions - this spreadsheet became invaluable and was shared throughout the directing and design teams, as well as the theatre team - we collectively began to add more columns for various requirements as rehearsals began.

Master spreadsheet: showing shot, shot number, camera required, character required (multiple of one character most times), props required, background for that shot

My notebook, shot by shot: numbering which Marion required (had up to 4 on stage at once), dividing shots up if large change in camera movement

Pre-rehearsal: blocking the shots

The directing team spent an entire week blocking out the show, working out camera placements, cast tracks (considering time allowed for multiple costume changes) and backgrounds (created by the design team) - I enjoyed this part even though it was long, as it prepared us for when rehearsals with the full cast and crew would start the following week. This was also a time to test out ideas for recreating shots that we had had; working alongside the design team as they made props and scene elements we collectively worked through these obstacles.

Credit: Mark Duffield — Casting and recasting:
Gender roles within Hitchcock’s films

As a group of directors, we knew who wished to perform, and alongside the blocking plan we could cast characters, and how many of each we would need. However covid and other events caused a lot of cast members to drop out, and so we had to be resourceful with existing cast members and try to pull in others where needed. I stepped in as a Marion and Arbogast to help with the situation – I knew I can learn lines and take direction quickly; this also eased the pressure off others.
During the casting process, we realised that gender becomes more ambiguous after Marion’s death, which gave us the opportunity to use cast members more freely where needed - an example of this is me taking on the role of the detective Arbogast. As Hitchcock clearly defines the men and women in his films as obvious stereotypes, this was a refreshing twist we added to the project.

The rehearsal process:

Getting into rehearsal, we would start a session with cast members required for a scene, then bring in the camera crew later on to add them into the rehearsal – everyone starting at once was too much to try and direct. We found there always needed to be one voice ensuring that everyone was up to speed, which was normally me – I was happy to take the lead on numerous times in order to ensure we stayed on schedule. Throughout these rehearsals, I enjoyed managing everyone; it was a lot to deal with at times but there were others who worked alongside me in running things. I enjoyed spending moments with the cast of figuring out how best to recapture a shot, and I enjoyed making sure everyone was happy – there were a lot of stressful moments as we were on such a tight schedule and so many obstacles kept adding pressue, however I feel that mostly we worked as a team to overcome anything in order to move on; we all wanted to put on a great show.

Final rehearsals and directing prop pre-sets

In the final few days of rehearsal, I was very concerned with working out who was responsible for props, moving things on and off stage etc –we had to figure out what was needed where; did things need to move? How about the models? Together we would go through each scene and make sure everyone was clear on this – everyone had multiple roles within the performance, both on and off stage. I felt like I took on the worry for this, however as we went through final dress runs it became clear that everyone was confident in their roles.

Final show images

Credits: Mark Duffield

Trailer of final performance:

Credit: Dimitrios Coumados

Project reflection:

I was extremely happy with the final performances; I was so proud of us as a collective for what we achieved in the time we had. Pete and Oleg steered the boat when we needed it most, however they left us to figure out a lot of things on our own which I can see now are the moments where I learnt the most; feeling out of my depth but having to come up with a solution, looking after others when I also felt stressed, trying to keep on top of everything. This project was a huge learning curve for me for all these reasons; it also gave me the opportunity to think critically and solve issues as a director, and hugely impacted my practice - it gave me the confidence to explore in other work the directing skills I had gained.

Psycho(ish)

The brief:

Our poster for the show:

Initial Research: