Marking The Moment - Criterion D

Marking the moment can happen when a scene has been created, and the group decides it's a significant moment in the drama, and they want to show this in some way. Why would you bother to mark a moment? At times things happen in a scene very quickly - and yet we know these moments can change the whole direction of a scene/play/skit. This is when something is needed to emphasize the moment. Marking the moment in a piece of drama work can be done in many ways. 

• We could use a spotlight to literally 'highlight' the moment.
• We could insert a thought-track.
• We could slow down time, or use a still image/freeze-frame.
• We could use narrating by another actor, or self-narrating, to draw the audience's attention to this moment.
• We could have one character speaking, while the background is frozen, to emphasise what the actor/actress is saying by drawing the audience.

On the lesson of September the 3rd, we did a task based up "train surfing". Train surfing is the term given to the act of people illegally riding on the tops of train cars. People who seek thrill climb aboard slow-moving trains and climb to the top of the box-type train. As the train picks up speed, the thrill seekers take position on the roof of the cars a lot like that of a surfer atop a surf board, hence the name "train surfing". There are several hidden dangers in train surfing that are not readily apparent to those doing the surfing. Some overhead dangers include low wires, signposts and tunnels. Dangers such as loose hand rails on train cars or loose ballast along the train tracks can all lead to the loss of grip, causing a person to fall under the wheels of the train, and lastly not going of the train on time. 

If an individual would not jump of the train on time, they would would often face the security/police at the station in which the train is stopping at. We used this danger as a synopsis for our drama piece. Let us start by discussing what lead us to this image, I order for us to better understand how the moment was marked. We had Ognjen playing a new member to Shawn's gang. Shawn started of by re-questioning and reassuring Ognjen if he was ready to take the responsibility and risk of "train surfing". This is done by Shawn delivering lines like, "Oggy, are you sure you want to do this, you know what could happen to you?” Using dialogue like this portrays that Shawn actually has empathy towards Ognjen. We then proceed to witness them actually on the train feeling the thrill, which is an aspect of the package deal, when it comes to "train surfing". Whilst on the train Ognjen and Shawn are crouching to avoid the power lines which could electrocute them resulting in death.

As the train comes to a stop, slowing down, Shawn manages to jump off the train successfully and on time. On the other hand, Ognjen, foolishly, got distracted and managed to stay on the train till it halted to a complete stop. This enabled for a police offer (Anushka) to capture her which leads us , finally, to the freeze frame presented above. 

In the freeze frame, we have Ognjen on the train, wanting to oppose some kind of threat to prevent getting arrested. Due to her not possessing a strong weapon to pose a threat, she decides to pose a threat by showing that she will commit suicide if the officers were to harm her and if they do make contact with her she will electrocute herself and the officers. This occurs since electric can pass through Ognjen's body and also affect the officers, which creates a more logical scenario, enabling the audience to get the impression of realism. This scene can actually be looked at more in depth, in the sense that, the train surfer had the will to actually die rather than go to prison. This enables the audience to question themselves on why, why does he not want to be arrested?

The moment in which Ognjen threatens to commit suicide, we felt, needed to be marked, as it was a significant nail-biting situation. Throughout the whole scene we incorporated small aspects which helped emphasise/mark the moment. We had Ognjen start of by going from talking softly, in a scared tone to a loud more buff tone. the increase in volume shown his perseverance and seriousness. Last but certainly not least, we had Ognjen ,in slow motion, reaching to touch the wire. This is more effective than quickly raising your hand as we can se the actually movement emphasised more. The scene is ended with a powerful line, leaving the audience at the edge of there seat with a cliffhanger, "I will do it, I am not afraid".