Crackin' Down On Knuckles!!

Brutus "Knuckles" Adras, the full name I created for the character I am playing in Bugsy Malone, Knuckles. I created this name because, in both the film and Broadway show, their real name is never shown or told, they are referred to only as Knuckles. As I have previously mentioned in my last blog post, Knuckles is named so because of their habit of cracking their knuckles so often.

Here is their character profile!!

Name: Brutus "Knuckles" Adras, the names Brutus and Adras each have different meanings, Brutus meaning 'stupid', I chose the meaning for obvious reasons, Knuckles being one of Fat Sam's dumb gang members. Adras means 'horseman', I was originally looking for a name that plainly meant man, so that the two names would come together to mean 'stupid man', but for some reason, 'stupid horseman' sounds a bit funnier, more original and unique, doesn't it?

Age: In the film and Broadway shows Knuckles is played by a tween, which is one of the things that makes 'Bugsy Malone' so different, the entire cast are children and tweens. Even so, if this had been a production with older, more suitable, cast, I believe that Knuckles would have been portrayed as someone either in their late teens or early twenties.

Most Common Emotion: Fear, I believe that Knuckles would be in either constant fear of the gang leader, Fat Sam, or in admiration.

Physical Characteristics: The cracking of the Knuckles, as discussed.

Fears: Fat Sam, can you blame him? The guys always yelling about how stupid they are and often threatening to kill them. Even still, Knuckles could never leave him, Fat Sam would hunt him down.

Strengths: Knuckles strength is his strength, it is often mentioned how dumb the gang members are and Fat Sam even says 'You've got muscle where you ought to have brains,'. It is stated quite a bit how Fat Sam's gang member s are slow and dumb, having no other better characteristics.

Early Life: Brutus grew up as a down and out until he walked into Becker's Book Emporium while trying to get away with stealing some food from a shopkeeper. He was allowed in and Fat Sam offered him a job for some good cash. Since learning that Fat Sam was also a down and out when he was young, Knuckles has been in constant admiration of the gang leader who built an entire empire out of nothing.

Makeup Ideas: With Knuckles, I think it would be best that, if there was any makeup, it could be depictions of scarred skin and dirt covering their face.

Costume Ideas: A suit of some kind would be best for a character like Knuckles, but seeing as I don't have something like that. I imagine it would be something along the lines of a plain white shirt, dress black jacket, and black jeans or tights.

https://www.google.co.nz/searchq=bugsy+malone+fat+sam&rlz=1CAACAJ_enNZ690NZ691&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwid067gk-HeAhVTOSsKHZlRD1kQ_AUIDigB&biw=1366&bih=618&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=CG3teRjSlI1oSM:
https://www.google.co.nz/searchq=makeup+dirty+face&rlz=1CAACAJ_enNZ690NZ691&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwid_5ajlOHeAhVHdCsKHXTlAoEQ_AUIDigB&biw=1366&bih=618&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=6hOVN7BZm4VV-M:

The Very Beginning Of Bugsy Malone!

This year, instead of the Festival of The Arts, we have Passion Projects, although there is really not much of a difference to me, seeing as I've been doing the same type of project for the last two years as well, those plays being Annie and The Lion King. But, this year, we're doing the play production of the movie, Bugsy Malone, a play about two gangs going to war in the 1920's, the gang led by Sam 'Fat Sam' Stacetto and the other led by Dandy Dan, yes, that is his name, yes, it does sound really stupid when we rehearse the script, but we can't exactly change it. This year, I am playing a character nicknamed 'Knuckles', known to be named that because they crack their knuckles, this character is in Fat Sam's gang and the leader of this gang actually played Scar in The Lion King last year, so I'm their lackey once again, except we're kind of the good guys.

What were the buildings like?

The buildings, in the 1920's, were commonly skyscrapers and other forms of tall buildings, they were commonly duller and grey colours with straight and flat walls for architecture. 

What was fashion like?

The fashion in 1920 was clean and outrageous, with shiny, and frilly skirts for the women, and tight, and bold suits for the men. The hairstyles were really short cut, ending as bobs for the women and cut even shorter for all of the men. Most people wore hats, headbands and all other forms of different head accessories. The shoes were often high heels/stilettos for all of the women and leather dress shoes, coming mostly in either black or brown. 

What was home life like?

The home life is a broad subject so I'll start off with gender roles. Even with women being viewed as more individualistic and rebellious in this age, many of them were still housewives, cleaning, cooking, and taking care of children. All of this while their husbands worked for long hours of the day.  Moving on, The Roaring Twenties is often a nickname for this set of years, named so because in this time, in America, women earned the right to vote, great technological advancements were made, more children than ever started to get an education, more women than ever got a job outside of their household and attended school's and universities, and men and women began to marry for love.

What was entertainment like?

The entertainment of the 1920's included the first commercial radio stations, where they broadcasted across America. By 1929, ten million houses had radios, there were 800 different stations and sales of the radio's reached $426 million US dollars. Radios weren't the only form of entertainment though, as 'movie palaces' began to appear in all of America's major cities, costing a quarter (25 cents) for a double feature and a live show. Movie Palaces were able to seat thousands at a time and by the end of the decade, the weekly average of people became 90 million, some even going more than twice a week! Even so, the movies were just in development, and during this time, they were still colourless, and silent!

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/rise-to-world-power/1920s-america/a/movies-cinema-sports-1920s

https://sites.google.com/site/unitedstatestakesontheworld/entertainment-of-the-1920-s

https://1920sentertainmentbybrianna.weebly.com/entertainment-in-the-1920s.html

https://family.lovetoknow.com/about-family-values/family-life-1920s

https://glamourdaze.com/history-of-womens-fashion/1920-to-1929

https://classroom.synonym.com/home-life-1920s-18988.html

https://geeks.media/bugsy-malone-cast-then-and-now

https://vintagedancer.com/1920s/1920s-fashion-men/

http://owwmedia.com/2016/09/the-roaring-twenties/
https://www.widewalls.ch/1920s-architecture/

Anika Moa

What am I learning?

I am about a New Zealand icon who has gone up the ladder so far and still came from such a small community in Hornby. 

How does this work show my learning?

It shows that I looked into her story, given in-depth details and taken the time to look up the perfect pictures I needed.

What am I wondering?

Who taught her while she attended Hornby High? Would I know the teacher?

THE FAIR GO AD AWARDS ARE OVER

WE FINALLY FINISHED THE AD, kinda because the editors still need to edit it properly. But, I'm sure it'll be fine. OKAY, questions.

What have I learnt over this term?

•  Over the past term, I have learnt about advertising and the importance of it. We have talked about so many things and how they made up the ad, even the things we couldn't see or hear. When we look back at the ad, we know all about the letters we had to write, the phone calls we made, how long we spent in that recording booth and how many tries it took, there are so many things that have gone into ads that you can't see.

What challenges did the class face while creating our advert and how have we fixed them?

•  We faced the challenge of deciding the tune and what instruments we were going to use in the jingle but in the end, we overcame this by not having any instruments and just having lyrics in there. We are still facing challenges now as our editors work to edit the video so the clips align with the lyrics and jingle. 

What would we do differently and how?

•  I think the entire class would've wanted to be a bit more focused and have worked quicker and harder to help out others, I think we would've also wanted to add some instruments to make the jingle catchier and easier to get stuck in your head.

What were the highlights of this process and why?

•  I think my personal highlight was getting to write the letter to our principal and going to all the parks to films as it was like a big day out with the entire class altogether.

What am I hoping to do in Music next?

•  I'm hoping to maybe to learn some piano songs like Dying in LA or Royals because I started to learn piano a while ago and stopped, but I would like to relearn.

Mirror, mirror, in the hall, who's is the greatest ad of all?

For music we have done so much, I was able to help with the jingle after writing the letter to our principal on my own and it was so great, I love writing and even after all of this I was able to help with writing letters to businesses and I am even still going to be in the ad as an actor. This is not all though, I will be doing a duet with my friend Nadia for the ad's jingle and I am so excited to be able to participate in this because this is the first time a year nine group has ever done this in Music and my and another class are the first ones to do this. I am really looking forward to doing all the filming around the parks because the entire class will be coming along and we basically just get to play around and have fun in front of a camera. The most challenging part of all of this was when we had to write the jingle and make sure it was within a thirty-second time-frame so it would fit in when the editors are going to edit with it and the recordings.

I have learnt from this the necessity of advertising and how important it can be to get everything out there to the public and attract them to the place or product. All of this work going into the advertisement shows my learning because of all the little things you don't get see be done compared to the things you get to see and hear in the ad. From this now I'm wondering what is more likely to get a place or a product out there, an ad online, or a poster?

Fair Go Ad Awards is a Go!!!

What are we doing for Music?

This term for Music we are creating an Advertisement to enter in the Fair Go Ad Awards competition. We are writing an original jingle and we are going to film it all ourselves, we will be advertising Hornby as a location.
https://www.google.co.nz/search?rlz=1CAACAJ_enNZ690NZ691&biw=1366&bih=629&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=HxN6W7HgG8ik-QaSsq3YBQ&q=music+notes+png&oq=music+notes+png&gs_l=img.3..0l10.2896.4007.0.4779.4.4.0.0.0.0.398.906.2-2j1.3.0....0...1c.1.64.img..1.3.905...0i67k1.0.LJRM5w29FZ0&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=S_A92ka8JasUPM:



What is your job?

My job is to write a letter to our principal to request permission to leave our school's grounds and other things among that. I am also doing this job all alone.

How will you ensure that this is successful?

I will check over this with my teacher and have others go over and check it before I send it off to him.

What am I learning?

I am learning about how advertisements contribute to the selling of a product or location.

How does this work show my learning?

It shows my learning because this shows what I have learnt about needing to advertise products which will contribute to my up and coming third year of Business and Enterprise.

What am I wondering?

Will writing this letter and actually starring in the ad be my only contribution? Or will I be able to help in another way?

10 Steps to a Perfect Advertising Jingle

In Music class, we are working on what makes a catchy jingle. Here, I have created ten requirements for a good jingle.

For our work, we also had to rate four popular jingles on a scale of ten using our ten requirements for a catchy jingle. I chose from the ads shown to us and picked the Band-Aid jingle, Kit Kat jingle, The Watties Tomato Sauce jingle and finally the Fruju jingle.













I give, out of ten, an eight, to the Watties Tomato Sauce Ad, it didn't get a full ten for me because it didn't use the company slogan and it was quite a long ad. It appealed to every audience, and was straight to the point about what they were trying to advertise.









The Fruju jingle, for me, has an earned a nine out of ten, it didn't get a perfect score, to me, because there was no use of the company slogan. The jingle was catchy, easy to understand and very straight-forward.










This Band-Aid jingle, like the Fruju Ad, also gets a nine out of ten, it would have gotten a perfect ten had appealed more to parents. But, other than that it is a winning ad in my books.










When I was watching this Kit Kat jingle, I was amazed to find that I couldn't flaw it, and I just had to give it a ten out of ten. The ad engages every age, race and gender into listening and watching the ad. It is simple, short and sweet.

What am I learning?

From this work I have learnt about catchy jingles and how they can entice people into watching and listening to advertisements. I know that this learning will help me in the future as Business and Enterprise is right around the corner and that advertising is the key to business.

How does this work show my learning?

I think this work shows my learning by showing how I observe ads and I pinpoint the key points in the advertisements.

What am I wondering?

I am wondering what others in my class may have given these advertisements, mark wise.

Small note, this is all my opinion, none of this coincides with what anything a professional may say.

WE DID IT!!!!

WE DID IT

WE DID IT

WE DID IT





WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!

From this experience I have learnt that choreography is a lot harder than it looks, Revolting Children was my favourite of out it and the Time Warp, Time Warp was our class production and on the day when we went on stage, Nadia and I went to the front as we knew the moves by heart, but when we went onto the stage, about six of the class didn't actually go onto the stage. That is not counting the people that were away on the day so quite a few people didn't get to actually perform. One of the only things I enjoyed was dancing with Nadia as she is energetic.

Revolting Children,  however, went much better than the Time Warp, with a lot more people going onto the stage and participated. That and we got a lot more time to work on it. It was a lot more fun because we all did the choreography almost perfectly and the singing was quite clear. If did this again I think we would try to get a lot more time to practice and maybe get some costumes or make sure we're all in perfect school uniform.

Festival Of Fun

Today I learnt a little of the Afrikaans 
pronunciation from Circle Of Life myself and we also learnt some new vocal warm ups. We also got to spend some short time with a tutor with two others to audition to have a solo in the musical. In the end I would like to either be Simba or Ed, but, i'd really be happy with any role I get.

Musical Theater - Festival Of The Arts

This year for Festival Of The Arts I have been chosen for Musical Theatre, much like last year, except this year instead of Annie we will be doing The Lion King Musical. This year over 30 people have been chosen for musical theatre.

Today we did some warm ups and games to work on our acting, vocals and dancing. Including games like tequila, and activities like doing a short part of one of the songs. 

I know much like last year that the choreography will be a challenge, 

and there will be a lot of opportunities for everyone. 

My Performance

The first performance of Music, a nerve racking experience.

I had worked with my friends, Kayne and Kristie, at first tried to wright a song from scratch, but it didn't work out so we changed it, in the end we did a originally written mash up of 

Shape of you (by Ed Sheeran)

Say you won't let go (by James Arthur)

Kayne made a beat using a app on his phone, Kristie played the guitar to Shape of you, And I sang the song.

I felt like keeping up with the guitar was one of the problems I had while making the song and singing it at times.

I think I was happy with everything in the song and the performance and I may have changed a few of the lyrics but other than that I was happy with it.