Performing 'The City'

Production photo of 'The City', combining digital and live performance

‘The City’ – a group project in which 30 actors worked together across Sheffield, using only their phones, to produce a single-shot film, where digital and live performance are mixed to create an experimental performance about the city.

Our initial inspiration came from performances, such as ‘Radio Ballet’, ‘Can You See Me Now?’ and ‘Super Night Shot’, all of which integrated the unknowing public, creating ‘spect-actors’, and adding a unique and unforeseen element to each performance. We also watched clips from ‘Russian Arc’, ‘Adolescence’ and ‘Ok Go’ to get an idea of how much effort was put into one-shot films; how pacing and expectation can be played with, and subverted, to enhance a performance.

It was interesting from an audience perspective to see the characters appear on screen and then see them appear on stage later on

What began as three absurdist pictures became a three minute performance, and then a fully-fledged five-minute film with costume, music and text. We developed and refined our storyline, experimenting with different camera movements and how we could interact with our surrounding environment to make the one-shot seem more surrealist.

It took a lot of time and effort to make the film the way we wanted. We reined ourselves in from being too ambitious because of the amount of takes it took to ensure the final product was smooth and cohesive, but also made sure to be ambitious enough to be interesting.

Working in a larger group meant having animated discussions about our performance. It was amazing to have so many different ideas contributing to our performance. However, communication outside of being face-to-face was sometimes a struggle and often we had to imagine something about the group before us to make sure we achieved the brief as accurately as possible. Given more time, it would have been beneficial to dedicate longer each week to discussing the performance as a whole so we could easily work out transitions and cohesiveness.

After having spoken, characters lay down on the floor in front of the audience, creating a disturbing yet satisfying image

For the final performance, we developed written fragments, which were either dotted randomly across the whole film or spoken aloud performatively while the film played. We only rehearsed once - on the day - which was a challenge and a strength, because it made our performance more unpredictable and unique each time.

In the group as a whole, I think we did well. We worked professionally and efficiently in rehearsal as well as in the performance – both live and filmed – with costume, effective delivery of the fragments and movement in general. For future reference, I think it would have been interesting to do more with the live aspect of the performance, perhaps by further immersing the audience, enhancing the role of the ‘spect-actor’ spoken about at the beginning.

We were instructed to die spectacularly on stage in order to have our own individual moment as our characters

My group and I managed to adapt to make our film as absurdist as possible; carefully selecting music to enhance this. During the live performance, we read aloud fragments effectively and performatively, acting on feedback from the rehearsal.

To conclude, having never attempted to merge digital and live performance before, I found it was extremely interesting and enjoyable. I would love to give it another go in the future, perhaps experimenting with blurring the line between digital and live performances; having them weave in and out of each other in the space.

Each muddied and bloodied character rose from the floor at the end to face the audience

To watch my finished edit of the film go to the 'Projects' page or click the button below.

The City Project

Reference List:

Ligna, (2008, January 27). Radio Ballet Leipzig Main station Part 1. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI3pfa5QNZI&t=382s

Blast Theory, (2010, December 1). Can You See Me Now? (Tokyo) by Blast Theory. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX4kZvEllwY

Gob Squad, (2008, September 18). Super Night Shot (2004). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-anpj9LS4vg

Madman Films, (2017, July 15). Russian Ark - Official Trailer. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV1kphEEXn8&t=68s

Still Watching Netflix, (2025, March 18). The Making of Adolescence: The One-Shot Explained. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG9XUSnK9g8&t=178s

OK Go, (2014, June 17). OK Go - The Writing's On the Wall - Official Video. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m86ae_e_ptU