My name is Kira Wilson and my performance piece was based off from the stimulus of ‘coronavirus’ and ‘lockdown’ and everything that’s happening with the pandemic in this time. I didn't have a name for the piece when creating the piece, but once I had completed my piece, I decided it should be named ‘on hold’. This is because reoccurring theme throughout the piece is the idea that time is on pause and the act of waiting. My piece is also based off a lot more than just time and being on hold during this pandemic. It is about showing how it can effect anyone’s life in different ways. It also shows how its has changed different events in life (for example I mentioned a birthday) are now different. Before the pandemic, you might have family over, but now you can’t do that as it’s unsafe and can cause so many problems. I also wanted to explore what it’s like being a teen during this time as well as this relates to  me. I put some ideas that I felt and made it a section in the piece. The main thing I wanted to show was how’s it’s changed and what’s happening to stop Coronavirus from spreading and all the important parts of what’s going on in the world.

When I was originally thinking about how I wanted to create the peice, I knew straight away that I didn’t want to just do a monologue or a dance or something. I wanted it to be different and make something I have not created to this extent before. I wanted to show my ideas in a simplistic but powerful way to make the audience feel emotions and relate to it in a way as well. I liked the idea of using different clips instead of just using one take and it made it more interesting and gave me a chance to really think about what I wanted to show to my audience. I used old videos I had to find or I had on my phone and also filmed some of the main clips, such as the leave house part and the governments slogan section, as well. These additional clips gave me a chance to showcase my acting skills while showing my editing skills as well. I had seen videos like mine in the past and when coming up with ideas, I searched into videos like that to get inspiration for YouTube and other platforms. This helped a lot in giving me ideas in the lay out of the video. When I did watch the videos, I loved how powerful and how well it could bring across emotion- which is exactly what I wanted to do for my audience which helped when editing. It also inspired me to work with the music, as the music plays a massive role when creating emotions. I used different editing cuts to help show help my ideas as again, it makes it powerful. That’s probably another reason why I was inspired by that idea.

I found working from home more of a challenge than normal but when coming up with the idea, I found ways to make sure it was all possible to create from home. I have places around me that made it easy to film and also because it was based of being at home, that was really helpful as that meant I already had set made and had everything around me. A big part in my piece is showing past clip, which I had already on my phone or I just had to find them on old CDs which was easy to do. Editing it all together took a long time as I wanted it to really portray what I wanted to say and bring across and to really work well. Having to put clip after clip took a long time to put all together, but I’m proud of the outcome of my editing. The hardest bit to figure out was the music because I wanted it to be powerful and create the emotions sad and happy in one as the clip show both happiness and sadness within the piece.I found it hard to find the right music and I looked everywhere, all over YouTube, trying to find the music I could picture working. I finally found the song ‘farewell life’, which sounds really sad, but it has so much power and beauty in it that I knew I could make it work and in the end, I did! I’m so happy I found that that music. Being at home and trying to film clips and think carefully about what I wanted to show subtly was hard but I had family helping in some points. If I had an idea that didn’t fully work or I needed some one to help film they would help, so having family at home helped as well when creating. 

Overall, working from home is very different than normal and has its advantages and disadvantages. I made it work to my best abilities and made the piece work with what I had around me. I’m proud of how it turned out and worked incredibly hard to make it something that I am proud of as well. It shows everything I wanted to show with what I had to create it and I’m so happy with the outcome.

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I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed creating it!