Facebook Tidbits

It seems the facebook page, although not necessarily gaining much visible activity, it seems it may have perhaps led to more traffic on my vyou.com page. Luckily, vyou.com has a link between itself and facebook, so that every reply that is made on vyou appears on facebook, for people to watch. Therefore, everyone who has Samuel Daniel as a ‘friend’ on facebook receive constant updates whenever a new message is replied to.

Most of the original people I have added on Samuel Daniel’s facebook, are also my friends on facebook, and so I could create a greater degree of separation between myself and the character. It seems to have worked in that one of my friends recently said to me that they thought that Samuel Daniel was a cousin of mine. I asked them what they had meant by that, and they had said they thought I was a boy, a feminine looking boy but a boy nonetheless who looked rather similar to me. I have to admit, to receive a response like that from a friend was very inspiring. It made me feel like the project and the character was really coming into his own in that he is able to convince people he is real via facebook and vyou.

Additionally, it seems people have taken a liking to the character on facebook, especially the Jacobean nature of it. Several people have suggested he ‘like’ a group dedicated to Shakespeare, the Globe and other Jacobean-related articles on the website. Similarly, Samuel Daniel has recently been invited to an ‘event’ on facebook which is a production of Shakespeare’s Loves Labours Lost which is to be performed in Brighton at the end of the month. It is funny to think that people are inviting a character to events and becoming his ‘friend’ via the internet. It feels like a different level of character development than that of vyou. Facebook is called ‘the Social Network’ for a reason, and it feels as though Daniel is having a wider sphere to work in when on there. I write occasional status updates for him, and have added a few webcam photos to keep the page active. I am now beginning to rather enjoy playing a character via facebook. I think, perhaps, were I to extend this section of the experiment further I might like to have a person in a similar situation as Daniel to converse and enact with. Similar to that of some of the ‘joke’ profiles and status updates made such as the World War II countries discussion. (As pictured.)

I believe someone to interact with on a similar level could create a wider story and spectrum to play with. There could be a development of a relationship between characters via facebook. Perhaps even, the secondary character could make a vyou, and the two could comment and respond to each other’s replies both on vyou and on the updates on facebook. Such an experiment and extended development would need a greater period of time in which to work in. It would be interesting perhaps to consider, or research such an experiment in the future.

Group Critique

I am not sure what to think of my group critique. On the whole everyone seemed to like it, but then it seemed everyone said that my project lacked ‘depth and meaning’. I know I have been told this before by my tutor, but the point of this was so that in my PDP I can write an essay essentially as an accompaniment to my visual work on vyou.com. My essay would be written on the ‘interaction and development of character and audience through a virtual medium’. That is supposed to be the ‘deep and meaningful’ part of the work, while the visual, vyou.com part of the work, is in a sense an on-going experiment to track and understand how character and audience react on the website.

Several artists were suggested for me to research, there are tenuous links between all of them and my own work I admit.

Artists mentioned include:
Sophie Calle

Orlan

Oreet Ashery

Stellarc

But I genuinely cannot see nor think, nor be inspired by them to make my own work ‘deeper’. Most of the artists relate to the physical nature of the body, while using the addition of technology to help enhance their concept. However, I am using technology as a way to present and sort of explore a concept which I only vaguely have the tip of. I am not changing myself, I am changing a character which I interpret as being a separate entity of myself. Part of the project is in a sense, me separating myself from the character of Samuel Daniel, whereas it seems these artists all do exactly the opposite.

Facebook Page

Samuel Daniel now has a facebook page in which all vyou updates are located on, as well as other photographs of him, notes, status updates and information on performances.

Samuel Daniel's Facebook Page

Updates as they occur:

Photography Project

Due to the fact that I had limited time to complete the costume in Phase 2, I was unable to get any good photographs of the costume in a finished setting, while I was dressed as the character in question. So one Sunday afternoon, myself, and a friend, Eleanor Conlon, visited Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, Sussex. I live very near to the location in question and felt it would be most suitable to take photographs of myself as Samuel Daniel there. For starters the house and the original grounds were built in the late 1500s, which is the period in which Samuel Daniel is from. Obviously, this manor house would not belong to an actor of such standing as himself, but it would nonetheless be a place where he would likely visit, whether with the rest of his troupe to try and persuade the owner to become a patron, or simply to present a production to the owner and his fellow peers. This would certainly have been the sort of thing to occur at the house, and although, sadly, were not given permission to take photographs inside the building, the exterior seemed wonderful and suitable enough for the minor project as it was.

When having photographs taken of my cosplays, I like to have the settings fit the character, I don't like contrast when it comes to characters rather than fashion soots. I believe it makes the character all the more believable and real to almost create a live-action world around them that fits and relates to the character. If they have a believable and fitting world for them to exist in, then it makes them seem more like they exist in and of themselves. I also like to come up with a basic story or reasoning behind as to why a character might be making such a pose, or behaving in such a way in a particular location. Again, I believe points like this add to the believability of the character themselves.

Samuel Daniel is visiting the home of patron and playwright Francis Beaumont

As per request, the King's Men troupe have been asked to perform for the evening. Daniel is tuning his mandolin before rehearsal

Daniel during rehearsal, serenading as part of his role.

Due to the summer heat, the troupe departed for the gardens to relax in the shade. Daniel discarded his sleeves due to the fact he was far too hot.

Due to his now 'rogue-ish' appearance (his lack of sleeves and points) , Daniel tries his luck at woo-ing some of the ladies attending.

Becoming Samuel Daniel

[Getting changed & hair, make-up and costume post]

Additional Character Information [Discovered pre-July 10th]

Samuel Daniel has been involved in several plays over the years, he particularly enjoys his involvement in The Faithful Shepherdess written by John Fletcher, 1609. It was one of his first lead female roles, playing Clorin, the Shepherdess of the play's title. He particularly liked the role, because he thinks he portrayed the character of Clorin very well, and he thinks he looked very good and made the audience remember him as a main character. He unfortunately isn't able to talk about the play much, however, considering the unenthusiastic response it received from its audience. Much to his frustration.

Additionally, another play that piques Daniel's interest in his performance and role is that of Isabella in the play Wit Without Money (1614) also written by Fletcher. He thinks it is one of his finer roles, as the reason he was picked was because of his acting capability, but also for his successful appearance as a very 'pretty' woman on stage. However, he is faintly bitter about the fact that he thinks the gentleman who performed Lady Hartwell got a better role than him, as the character has more lines than that of Isabella.

Due to him performing in numerous plays written by John Fletcher, Daniel has indeed met the man himself. He finds the man to be fairly friendly and approachable. Though, he does admit that sometimes he finds the playwright to get a bit 'carried away' sometimes. (This has yet to be elaborated on.) He also thinks Fletcher's dress-sense and fashion is amazing and really knows how to work an outfit - Daniel has expressed his desire to find out who Fletcher's tailor might be, so he can get an outfit from him himself.

On the matter of fashion and his clothes, he does adore his attire, having stated that he bought the doublet seperate from the rest of his outfit. He bought the French hose and the slashed sleeves together, but the matching doublet unfortunately had already been sold to someone else. Daniel states that he attended one of the many sales by Philip Henslowe, who was selling some of the costumes of his playhouse for cash. Sorely in need of a doublet to match his hose and his ("beautiful") slashed sleeves Daniel went for his current doublet. He admits he can't remember which play it was from, but there was some blood that got on it from a fight scene that got a bit out of hand, which he had to scrub out.

As much as Daniel openly seems to show his love for fashion, costume and clothes, he does however point out the fact that clothes aren't necessarily something that you just wear. He points out that your clothes are part of your wealth, they're not just there to show it, but to also account for part of it. Seeing as there were no banks during this period of history, money and wealth was put into material goods, including clothes to make up for someone's total wealth. Daniel is no different, and even points out that the reason he only wears one outfit, is because he can only afford one outfit due to the lack of money he gets paid because he is an actor. He even states that due to the fact he is in slight debt, he had to sell his sleeves to pay it off - much to his misery.

Even though Daniel comes across as very shallow due to his love for fashion and clothes, and his want to be able to get the bigger, and more important roles in plays so that the audience pay more attention to him, it has to be said that part of the reason he enjoys being an actor, is not entirely for purely selfish reasons. When asked whether he has 'touched' a lot of people, Daniel actually gets rather sentimental, he points out that being an actor is inspiring, because he is able to present and tell stories to people that they may not hear otherwise. He states he enjoys being able to make the audience watching laugh and cry and love with the characters they are presenting on stage. It seems he doesn't tend to (or perhaps doesn't like to) show this side of himself all that much, it seems he is perhaps putting up a bit of a front in his behaviour to others.

Additionally, when behaving in regards to the questions he's answered, it seems Daniel tends to take on a very defensive attitude, specifically if it involves perhaps some kind of criticism of himself. People who have pointed out his messy hair, stated that the fact he's wearing one outfit is gross and asked why he can't reply instantaneously have all received a rather sharp, heated response. He is generally defending himself in these responses, often with the tone that the people asking the questions are perhaps a bit stupid, and don't fully understand what he has to go through. Often he ends up having to explain the situation of things, in an attempt to perhaps 'educate' the person he is replying to.

The First Responses

Even though most of this project was decided because I insisted at the beginning that I did not feel comfortable performing alone in front of a physical audience in costume for this piece, it is still slightly surreal and embarrassing to be performing to a virtual audience as well.  Admittedly, it was a little embarrassing recording answers to the videos, even though I was technically not in front of a physical audience, the fact that I was aware that there would be the person who asked the question watching it, while also there would be numerous other unknown people watching, it became a little daunting, and I felt generally more nervous acting to a screen and talking to a microphone while no-one was around rather than acting in front of a crowd of people.

After doing my initial ‘waiting’ and ‘response’ video on vyou.com I started getting several questions sent to me straight away. Oddly enough they were not entirely the sort of questions I was expecting except perhaps from the ‘who are you?’ question. All the others seemed to be from people who were playing along with me dressed up, asking questions about the sort of plays I was doing as if the character was real  -  I had expected such questions to wait a little before people finally accepted that I was acting in-character, but it seemed that people were far more accepting than I expected.

One question I was asked talked about what sort of plays I had been up to, and so I replied with some of the research I had studied beforehand. The other questions however were more relating to an in-character piece of play. I was told that I looked ‘spiffy’, if I knew the playwright of ‘Wit Without Money’ and what my favourite drink was on a cold night. These were most enjoyable to respond to as I was able to behave more like the character would, and be able to understand a little bit more about him as a developing character.

Specifically with the two questions about the play ‘Wit Without Money’. In the first reply about what plays Samuel Daniel did, he replied with the title of the play and stated that he was performing as the character ‘Isabella’ because she is pretty, and he was clearly chosen because he is considerably pretty too, and that he is well-known for playing the ‘pretty’ women characters on stage. At which point, he then complains about how the Lady has better lines and banter than him. He seems genuinely annoyed with this – it seems, his character wants him to get noticed, he wants more stage time and he wants to be the one everyone remembers once the play is over and done with. Similarly, after the response to knowing the playwright of ‘Wit Without Money’, it seems Samuel Daniel is a little annoyed with him, perhaps frustrated at his success of having written with Shakespeare. Though, he does commend him on his dress sense, apparently appearance is considerably important to Samuel Daniel, and even though a person may frustrate and annoy him, he can ease up his dislike for them somewhat if they dress well.

When addressing the questions such as ‘you look rather spiffy’ and ‘show us what you’re wearing’ he is very pleased by this, and extremely smug. Clearly he thinks a lot of himself, and thinks he dresses very well – which has been established as being very important to him. He shows off his attire and agrees that he does ‘look rather spiffy’ indeed. Already it has been established that Samuel Daniel is rather confident, he takes pride in his appearance, thinking that his looks, and the way he dresses partially attributes to his work on the stage. He likes to be the centre of attention, and gets annoyed when other people show off instead of him.

So far, only six questions have been given and responded to, though already that has developed a certain personality for the character already.