Lawyer Closing Argument - SCRIPT WRITING

  After our lesson of media and politics we were given topics to pick from they were as following:

-A lawyers closing argument
-A policeman/ policewoman who was questioning a person and the officer was trying to get them to snitch on their friend who committed the crime.
-A celebrities speech at a charity event

I chose the lawyers closing argument as its an experience i've been through so i will use the knowledge i know to build up this statement.
This was to help guide us to as a class begin story writing, this is my monologue which will  be said from the lawyers perspective.


     (Looks and Positively nods to defendant/ Jacob)

Thank you your honour, thank you to for your attention ladies and gentlemen of the jury, on this very important case. May i remind your decisions must be met beyond all reasonable doubt.

(looks to Jacob Moore one last time)

The prosecutor didn’t face a threat that night.  The judge didn’t face a threat that night, and the 12 of you didn’t face a threat that night.  Only one person did.  And that is my client.  He did what he thought he had to.  None of us had to make the split second decision that he did.  And yet, we are all asked to second guess him today.  To Monday-morning quarterback him, if you will.  It was Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendall Holmes who said that “you can’t expect calm detachment in the presence of an uplifted knife.”  Now there was no knife involved in this case, but the point is the same.  People have to make split second decisions in exercising self-defence.  Sometimes people in hindsight should have, or could have, handled the matter differently.  But hindsight isn’t the measure we use when judging a defendant’s actions.  Rather we analyse what happened from the perspective of how things looked at the time to my client.

When you came to this court on November 11th 2013. I think it was, we all asked you a number of questions, and we asked the jury to keep an open mind until all the evidence was in.

The alleged victim doesn’t look so scary in the light of day, in the courtroom witness chair, all dressed up, cleaned up.  But that is not the circumstance when my client used force, is it?  The man came at my client in a dark alley behind a tavern, and no one knew or could have known his intentions.  And my client decided that he wanted to go home that night, that he wanted to survive.

Self-defence is not just the stuff of law books.  Self-defence is a defence that nature herself recognises, a recognition really that any living creature is going to act, or react a certain way when faced with a threat.

Self-defence is often something that police and prosecutors don’t really understand.  No one walks up to police and prosecutors on the street and threatens them.  That doesn’t happen because the system would come down on them like a ton of bricks.  No, it is people like my client Jacob Moore who get messed with, who get bullied.  The nobodies of this world.  My client isn’t particularly big, he isn’t important around town, and he might have looked like he was fair game for intimidation, for bullying.  But he stuck up for himself.  He reacted.  And now he is being judged.  The jury system was intended to stick up for the little guy.  Our forefathers knew that someone or something had to serve as a buffer between the individual citizen and the powerful government.  My client has no burden of proof, the state has to disprove self-defence beyond a reasonable doubt.

My client faces a serious offence.  He is charged with a violent crime.  His life is on the line.  You think the police would have done a more thorough job in the investigation.  You really would.  You would think my client would be entitled to a fair investigation before people would pass judgment on him.  The police should have tried to find independent witnesses who were at the tavern that night.  They did not.  How come none of the bartenders were subpoenaed?  Instead the police relied on the word of the alleged victim and his friends.  And you know the kind of people they are.  None of their stories matched.  Half of them admitted to drug use on the night in question.  Is that the type of scant proof that can send a man to jail?  Doesn’t my client deserve better?  Don’t we all? Hold the state to its burden.  A conviction in this case would be a travesty.  Do the right thing. 

Section 1 - Politics And Social Media

What 3 political issues have directly or indirectly had an impact on your life?

In the first part of the lesson we began discussing social media, and how this had typically impacted our lives. We first discussed 3 political issues that have impacted our lives, I chose when liberal democrats and conservative came to power in a duel election. This had side effects on my life as depending on who is in power there rights and beliefs effects my life. For example them coming into power meant that they changed laws and rights, and one that particularly had an impact on myself and others is the new law of paying for university, regardless of whether i agree with this or not its still impacted my life.

Another political issue I thought of was Barak Obama coming into power in the united states in 2008, I was in america when he was elected and this was a breakthrough across the world as Obama was the first black president to ever be elected and giving the what was seen as the 'underdog' in the past, it boosted the nation as a whole with his excellent leadership skills. This changed my life in the sense that that it has impacted the world and its history. Also the influence of america being a power country has on the world will form my society as i know it.

My final political issue that has impacted my life personally is how the justice system was affected. If you were a youth in court you would usually have had to go to a youth court, even if an adult was involved in the case they would be video linked into court so the child has the child benefits of that specific courts. However, laws changed recently meaning that if you were a youth who had to go to court and an adult was involves in the case then it would go to an adult court. This law change is a political issue that has directly affected me.

Where do you usually find out the news?

Personally i have watched BBC and itv news everyday since i can remember, via television i believe is a great way to get the main headlines across to the public. Others ways i hear the news is on the radio or on facebook from news headlines that people have shared.

What 3 social issues have you experienced?

One of the main issues i believe in the youth of todays society, comes from online. More than 1 in 3 young people have experiences cyber-threats online, and i am one of them. The most damming thing of all is that if someone creates a fake profile online then there is no way in recording who is harassing you, if you report it to the police they cannot begin to even prosecute; even if the anonymous person has a profile picture of themselves. They do this because the picture could be also used as fake, so unless investigated most cases like this get unsolved. Meaning the crime of cyber bullying will continue to uprise. 
I believe that cyber bullying should be taken more serious than it is and should be resolved in different ways, as usually the suspects are let off with warning i think if they got more of a shock they wouldn't do it again, giving them a warning gives them a chance to commit the crime again. If it were taken to court more often as cyber bullying is one of the fewer crimes seen taken to court. This would then be released into the media and would scare the younger youths of even doing it if they knew the consequences were more serious.

A second social issue i have experienced is the equality in men and women, and how women have to put up with things such a 'cat calling' from men. They think of themselves higher as they believe it is okay for them to have sexual suggestions even when walking down the street. Having to deal with this social issue on a day to day life can make you lose trust in humanity, and all of us represent the human race and i think its a shame how some people like to portray us as a race. We aren't different from one another regardless of gender we are the same as a race so why is it okay for a man to hoot and cat call at teenage girls as they innocently are walking to college or school?

My third and final social issue i have experienced is how permanent things can be on the internet. Whatever you post online is up their forever so young people in particular need to be more aware of the concequences this can have in later life. Social media is something as a nation we use every second of everyday, so it can be tempting to post or share something without giving it any thought. 
But an example of this going horrible wrong was a young MP who was elected in Essex she posted something 8 years ago on twitter about getting so so drunk and how she wanted wanted to never be sober and experiment with drugs was suggested. Well 8 years later she became MP and had to resign as all her twitter got searched through and was put into the media. Youths need to be aware of more cases like this and closer to home so they can think twice before posting something on instagram or twitter.

Who has the most power?

I believe the person who has the most power is the 'power' countries governments. The 10 most powerful countries on our world currently is:

- United Kingdom
-United States of America
-Canada
-Russia
-China
-India
-Germany 
-France
-Japan
-Israel
(based on the 2012 National Power Index)

These countries governments i believe have the most power. Yes, there are top inside corporations that have a high say in politics today, but if the world was to come into disaster these governments would conform together to decide all important decisions. So regardless of other people who are high up and wealthy for example the Queen of England, i believe in a shortened time frame these would be the people we would see pop up to help Earth and guide the nations to come together at as a human race. 

Photos from Electra

All these photos are my own photos.

Electra Show Week

Electra Show 1

For the first show, I felt like it didn't go well on my behalf and I was really disappointed as i knew all my lines which i had spent time to learn only to get on stage and mess my lines up. However, regardless of my line troubles i felt i managed to act as a professional and continue the show and try get to a part of the show where i could recall so even though i skipped part of Act 2, the show continued and everyone managed to adapt around my mistake. I spoke to an audience member after and they thought it was excellent and didn't notice any different and they still fully understood the story line.

The chorus worked really well together and managed to uplift the atmosphere of the play and kept it together and interesting. I felt the songs worked really well and were key moments and highlights of the play. The smoke machine we used helped create the atmosphere and just added to the play considerable.

After my mistake i made sure i went home and made sure i went through it to the point where i knew all the cues and lines inside out, as i was apprehensive about the next show.

Electra Show 2

This was an evening performance and to the public and I tried hard in the break to stay calm so i wouldn't panic and mess up my lines again. They still weren't perfect but it was an improvement from the first performance. We decided to change the blanket that is used when i am dead and wrapped up. We originally had a solid grey blanket but it was slightly too small, so we changed this to a white lacy blanket this fit my height better so covered my feet so looked more effective.

All the other roles i felt went really well, Chrytopholese' facial expression could have done with more as i felt they just delivered the lines instead of performing them. I still felt like i wanted to build up my anger when arguing with Electra (Katrina). The direction of this part was acted well as the movements were clear and simple so not over the top that the audience would be distracted from the text of the play.

Electra Show 3

After going home, I re-familised myself with the lines and the next day got in extra early to go through it with someone so i could boost my confidence in it. When it was my turn to go on stage i missed a few lines but was thrilled with my performance, even though there was still room for improvement i was just chuffed with the improvement since the first show as it is very recognisable.
Grace playing the third Electra performed very well as she used more psychopathic and itched her arms and face making her seem more crazy, which i enjoyed.

In this performance when i was playing dead and had the blanket covered over me, it was positioned oddly so Josh found it hard to pull it off revealing my face, it got caught on a part of my clothing which was a slight wardrobe malfunction.

The last detail we changed in this third performance was the dresses that Electra wore, we felt they needed more colour as they were the main character they needed to be the attention of the audiences eyes. So instead of them wearing black t-shirt and trousers or the layered up rag dress, they wore all the same burgundy dress of all one block colour, we made them look more authentic by rubbing dirt in them so she portrayed a more 'homeless' character.

For the other 3 performances Sophie was playing the mother and these performances all went i believe i couldn't watch it as i was in charge of the smoke machine, but from what i could hear it sounded like it all went smoothly.

Costume Design - RAPUNZEL

Here is my costume design for Rapunzel. I based my costume design from the Elizabethan era, I did costume research from that point in time, this allowed me to understand what people from that time would wear so i could adapt my costume around this style. I looked more at Elizabethan Peasant costume, as if they were royal they would be wearing a lot more extravagant clothing. On the right is an image of a modern day girl in an olden version costume style from the Elizabethan peasant era.
The reason i wanted to make it peasant instead of royal as Rapunzel's 'mother' the witch would have treated her with riches as she was an only child who captured Rapunzel to have her all to herself so she did cherish her. However, when i picture someone captured i picture them all grubby and not well cleansed so i imagine them of a lower spectrum especially when its a case told from a fairy tale, which in my mind is all olden anyway as its a tale thats been around for years.
I based the colour of Rapunzel's costume around the colour green, i did this in contrast from her traditional purple outfit.
 On the left is also an Elizabethan dress this is a very layered and heavy. This is what i based my ideas around, i have an off the shoulder light green tee shirt and then over this is an darker green material layered dress which like the dress on the left all layered up at the waist.(1)
 This was a typical style of dress where it would all be pleated in. I made it modern slightly by adapting it with the shortness of the sleeves as these would most likely be long sleeved, however this wouldn't be practical for the character as she is from a tower and does a lot of chores and works so to have long sleeves they may get in the way of her actions, so i made them shorter. (2)The dress will also be cut jagged, this isn't Elizabethan but the purpose behind it is that it looks more 'wood' like and it also portrays Rapunzel's character as she needs more practical clothing. (3)

The last part of my costume design which i looked at was her hair and wig, i had researched the wigs in another blog post. (4)

The numbers in brackets link to the part of my costume design.
Below is my costume design drawing of Rapunzels costume:

Electra Final Rehearsal

During Electra we have faced challenges that we have had to overcome as a group. One of these was using the staging space correctly as we have decided to have the audience on stage left and stage right. I felt that another struggle was the chorus and allowing them to have the movements to guide the play along, they have to keep up the atmosphere for the play to flow properly.

For me and a lot of other we struggled with line learning, this was because it was done in an older english so if we couldnt understand the lines we found it hard to have a flowing conversation and keep the play going, if one stuttered then this affected others on stage, as its not a language you can blag.
In rehersals we have struggled to stay fluent this made us feel unprepared although we had come far in the short time we had to complete Electra.
I also struggled with the story line as i hadnt seen it before and everyone had. Even though i had done my research so i tried to understand it i felt not seeing it made me misunderstand how the play is meant to flow.

For the lighting in Electra we decided to keep with the colour scheme thats involed in the programme and costumes. For the main part of the play we have a basic lighting thats used this is 4 blue tinted lights, they are all downstage and 2 are stage left and 2 are stage right. We then have 2 red fog lights which are left centre stage and right centre stage. The colour blue connates cold, this could reflect my characters cold heart as a mother as she shows little care towards Electra. The red light conntates the evil and anger involved in Electra.

Review of Electra at Old Vic

We went on a college trip to watch a production of Electra. Unfortunately, i couldn't attend this trip however with my peers feedback i still managed to gathered a lot about the production and how it they portrayed it. The seating of the theatre was set up similarly to how they would have been built in ancient greek times. The theatre was set like and old amphitheatre. This was affective as it automatically gave an audience a mindset like they were taken back in time, to the time of greek theatre.

The staging has sand floor which represented the natural environment from Greece. The set also had rocks on which captured that period in Greece, it also highlights Greeks setting which is predominately rocks. The lighting was imitating natural light and they used 360 degrees lighting so it was bright and no shadows were created. 

If shadows were created it could have set a difference ambience and portray emotions which may not have been wanted as it wouldn't be realistic. Also, the theatre was created to be similar to what it would have been like watching it in Greece in the past, and they wouldn't of had the equipment like lights to create shadows so they wanted to make it as natural as possible. Furthermore, there was a tree and a water pump as props for the set. The tree helped visually with creating levels on stage making the set more appealing from an audiences perspective.

Electra's costume was plain and ragged looking. She had a 'homeless' look about her and the costume didn't fit her properly. This portrayed that she was poor and didn't have the money to buy fresh new clothes, she looked dirty and run down. The actress playing Electra i thought was cast as too old for the role as this confused the audience slightly as she was old enough to be Orestes' mother.

The chorus in Electra was kept in the traditional form of Greek theatre. The chorus consisted of 10-15 males as women wouldn't have performed in those days. The chorus wore layered dark clothing which didn't detract away from the main characters. I thought it was disappointing that the chorus didn't sing or dance at all; however is is a drama piece and not a musical, so this was expected.

Electra cried over mums death which confused the audience as Electra hates her mother, however it showed that even though she hated her mother, she was still family and its sad to see her die. This allowed the audience to have a further understanding of electra's personality as she comes across more sincere than i would expected.

In those days if the father was killed its the sons job to seek revenge, i had a greater understanding of this by the performance. This explained why Electra put Orestes into hiding, so she could get him to then seek revenge. In the performance it didn't show the murder which is what they would have done in ancient greek times. This made it slightly boring as it intrigued me into how they would have portrayed that. However, it was still effective when the actors came out with bloody hands. On the other hand, the sound needed to be maximised when the murder took place, the sound was too plain for someone to die.