My Experience at Kairos!
Being in form 4D, we were the last group to go to Kairos in Maynooth to make our own TV show. I had heard so many good things and funny stories about Kairos that I was extremely excited to go there myself! We watched the TV shows made by students from previous years, and they were hilarious. These videos gave us a taster of what Kairos is like, and gave us some inspiration for our own show. At this point I was counting down the days until we would be going there. First of all we had to distribute the various roles to each individual in our class. Half of the roles were on camera, the other off camera. I am personally not a very technical person, so I prefered not to be the sound or graphics person. Also I have no particular talent with cameras or directing so I thought it wise to give those roles to people who would be better suited. I have an interest in news and although I may not be the greatest at it, I enjoy acting! So I was given the role of the news presenter along with Sophie Pierce. We called it Sophies’ news! The next step was brainstorming. Over the course of the next few English classes we all put our heads together to come up with an original and funny show. Our first idea was to interview the Irish Rowers from Skibbereen who won silver in the Olympics, called the O’Donovan brothers ( ‘It isn’t too complex really, just A to B as fasht as you can go. Close the eyes and pull like a dog.’ Does this ring a bell?!) However we changed our mind and eventually settled on a Halloween themed show, seeming as Halloween is only a few weeks away. At first I wasn’t too keen on this idea, as I am not a big fan of Halloween or scary things but as the ideas began to develop, so did the potential for our show!
Sophies' News
Having most of our show planned and prepared we headed off to Maynooth early Friday morning. It felt quite strange walking around school in my casual clothes. I had a big bag filled with props and accessories for our show. All of us, minus Ben Watson, Rory and Jeremy and plus Sinead and Paris arrived at the Kairos studios full of energy. We were introduced to the Kairos manager, Ger who firstly explained the basic rules and regulations. My first impression was that the studio seemed a lot smaller than I had expected. From the photos the other classes showed us, the studio gave an optical illusion of being very large and spacious when in fact it was actually a small room!
We were brought to a classroom with one long, large table and were given 1 hour to fully formulate and plan our TV show. Peter was our producer and took charge of the task. We all got into groups and perfected our scripts, and decided on the show name. Our show was to be named “Just Clowning Around”. While we were busy organising ourselves, the people who were off-camera followed Ger into the studio where he showed them how to use the various equipment. I was impressed by how everyone took this very seriously and how we all worked well together.
We were brought to a classroom with one long, large table and were given 1 hour to fully formulate and plan our TV show. Peter was our producer and took charge of the task. We all got into groups and perfected our scripts, and decided on the show name. Our show was to be named “Just Clowning Around”. While we were busy organising ourselves, the people who were off-camera followed Ger into the studio where he showed them how to use the various equipment. I was impressed by how everyone took this very seriously and how we all worked well together.
Let the rehearsals commence! We decided to keep the elaborate costumes for after lunch, so they didn’t come off or get ruined during the rehearsals. The format of our show was 1) The presenters’(being Lily and Isabelle) introduction 2)Interview with Brangelina 3) Sophies’ News 4) Interview with a killer clown and a good clown 5) The Sports News and 6) The weather. The first take went horrendously!! Everyone couldn’t stop laughing and messed up their lines! However by the time it was lunch, our show was looking quite promising and the rehearsals went smoothly. I must add, the lunch was delicious! One of the nicest chicken and mayo sandwiches ever!
Our lunch break was dedicated to getting on our costumes and decorating the set. The clowns looked amazing, and frightful. It was great how everyone made a contribution in bringing props and costumes. The presenters were disguised as Mario and Luigi. Sophie and me were dressed as ‘business women’ wearing blazers and ‘granny-like’ reading glasses! Angelina Jolie(Sinead) wore her wedding dress, which was an old sheet full of doodles and scribbles. Angelina actually did let her children scribble all over her wedding dress, so we incorporated this idea into our show! Emily and Aishling were the weather girls and were fully dressed up as ‘Thing 1 and Thing 2’ from ‘Cat and the Hat’, they acted like them too! I feel our show was very diverse and unique.
Our lunch break was dedicated to getting on our costumes and decorating the set. The clowns looked amazing, and frightful. It was great how everyone made a contribution in bringing props and costumes. The presenters were disguised as Mario and Luigi. Sophie and me were dressed as ‘business women’ wearing blazers and ‘granny-like’ reading glasses! Angelina Jolie(Sinead) wore her wedding dress, which was an old sheet full of doodles and scribbles. Angelina actually did let her children scribble all over her wedding dress, so we incorporated this idea into our show! Emily and Aishling were the weather girls and were fully dressed up as ‘Thing 1 and Thing 2’ from ‘Cat and the Hat’, they acted like them too! I feel our show was very diverse and unique.
A few of the costumes!
The clowns and the presenters!
We ended up having enough time to film two ‘real’ takes of our show called “Just Clowning Around”. Both were equally good and funny in my opinion. I had a wonderful time and Kairos, and will remember it for years to come! I hope our show will be entertaining for our fellow friends and family, as we sure did enjoy creating it.