Day 10: Decision-Making and Compromises

So first things first...
Today I made a purchase that has been a long time coming and that I believe will drastically change my life for the better.
Why I haven't bought one earlier is totally beyond me, but I am now the proud owner of a dictaphone!! (which I have named Diane).

Now how I look in my head

This will be so useful for me. Being the unusual combination of an Art Student AND and Auditory learner, I find it very difficult to take-in information in meetings or lectures if I'm constantly trying to make notes, which is an activity I so often find falls by the wayside, as my focus centres round the idea of audio interaction. In that, I really want to be fully focussing my attention on listening and processing information rather then trying to write it all down. I haven't been to one lecture where I haven't though 'oh I wish I'd recorded that because my notes just aren't good enough' and now with all the trillions of things to remember in the production meetings, it seemed like the perfect time to finally get myself a proper dictaphone. I am sure this will help me immensely, so I don't struggle so much in remembering exactly what's been said, who's said it, and what the outcome was. Maybe this is the key into turning a very disorganised person in to a seamlessly organised professional.... maybe.....
Or maybe you'll just see me skulking around the uni corridors pretending I'm in the FBI... maybe...
Today, I tried to do as much as possible, but was often stopped by the sheer fact that it was a Sunday and nowhere was open.
I had an informal meeting with Lucy (one of my makers: responsible for Leonato's Tunic), just to see how much fabric she thought she might need and also when she thought she'd need her top fabric by. Lucy informed me that she wouldn't be needing the top fabric for a while, so not to worry about going up to London to get it this week if it would just make things more difficult. She also estimated about 3.5m of fabric (depending on the width of the role) which makes me think that £15pm is our absolute maximum.
For a while now, I've been getting increasingly concerned about organising the little 'experience details' that, due to not fitting under anyone else's role description, will 100% be down to me to organise. Since August I have been trying to find garlands for the audience to be given by FOH (as per the original plan) and although you can bulk-buy some for really cheap on the Internet (like 10p for 1) none of them are quite right, the delivery is not only costly but takes up to a month, AND there is often a minimum order of between 1000-2000 pieces! So after having one last look tonight, I decided that there definitely wasn't room in the budget for this particular frivolity, when in reality, it would add very little to the play and would delay entry into the theatre somewhat. So that is now scrapped. I've made the decision, I'm confident I've made the right decision, and I'm happy that I've done it. One thing this project has taught me, is don't be embarrassed of designing for 'optimum scenarios'. If you have ambitious ideas but an equally ambitious budget then it can often seem humiliating to reveal your grandiose ideas to others. However, it is often the case that things you thought were hard to achieve are actually well within reach, and that there are ways of problem-solving that can help you achieve things visually that you thought were stupid to design in the first place as you wouldn't be able to realise them. Of course it's still important to consider budget etc and appropriateness when designing, but the logistics shouldn't rule your design. There are certain things that I've had to cut, because they are not achievable (like the garlands) but I am happy to have included them in my design concept initially. Whereas there are things that almost didn't make it into my designs because I felt them to be ridiculous or unobtainable- unachievable, that everyone has actually been happy to realise (like the washing line or the pump for example).
In the same 'experience props' vein of the show, I also had to order rose-petals for the end musical number to be thrown off the balcony, as the estimated delivery is 14 days. However, here is where I encountered a problem: my estimation skills are absolutely appalling (something that was only highlighted by my attempts at learning to drive this summer). So how many rose petals does one need? hundreds? thousands? On ebay 1000 petals are £1.99 + delivery from Hongkong.
So I decided to ask my housemates and my course-mates, eventually coming to a figure of about 8,000. Which seems like a ridiculous amount to me. But there you go...
I guess that if you split that between 4, that's 2000 per show... then there are 3 people throwing them, so 2000 divided by 3..... it's not as ridiculous as it initially sounds, AND it certainly didn't break the bank.
So some compromises, and some decision making, not the most productive day, but still an integral part of the process.