Locations!

These are the locations we used for our original shoot and our re-shoot;

• The ruins in Portishead!

• A graveyard in Clifton

• Aaaannnd Weston - In - Gordano.

First Draft

Apologies for the quality and the captions which indicate what we need to re-shoot et cetera. We thought adding those captions would be useful for us when re-scheduling. I will post updates soon. I have lots of backlogged stuff that I haven't managed to post yet so it will probably be in the wrong order.

Re - shoots

Okay, so we did out re-shoot yesterday ( 15th february) since it was an inset day. This was our only hope on having everybody avalible for the shoot. It rained unfortunatley.
There were several complications to be sorted;

• The actor who played male character two has been injured. Fortunatley, we have found another actor to play him for the re-shoots.
• The framing problems were where a few shots where heads were partially cut out of the shot or wheremodern houses were visible in the background. If you view our first draft with a keen eye, it is likely you could spot these mistakes. This will be improved upon with the re-shoot.
• Initially, both of the death scenes were shot in a cemetery located in Clifton. However, we are now going to shoot these in Weston in Gordano. Hopefully this can improve on the meaning and narrative for the viewer. We can shoot later  in the day because it is closer to our homes. Additionally the full potential of the old fashioned street lights will be facilitated.
• There were a few places in the sequence that we felt needed more emphasis or were difficult to comprehend. This reshoot will help us make the story flow better. 

Overall, the re-shoot went okay, however I hadn't any batteries for my camera and therefore could not take 'behind the scenes' style photos for the presentation and blogs, apologies for that. This would have given me more of a solid purpose during the shoot. It is also worrying that the mise-en-scene may have been compromised by shooting near a busy road.

Update

We've completed editing for our first draft and we have now completed re - shoots (since yesterday... in the rain) so we need to edit in our new footage now. Also, some of the editing is not final.

 Additionally we have created a website for our presentation, it's not completed yet but can be found at http://www.mediafilm.moonfruit.com/... I think.

Costumes

We have finished filming for our rough cut, however I will still be posting planning done but not yet published on the blog.

Whilst watching films, we have noted the cosumes used for each character, - taking particular focus on female costume - and in which setting they are worn.

This is the traditional and most iconic image of Disney's Snow White. We will be incorporating this into our own Snow White character, however, we shall be giving it a gothic twist.

Stripes in black and white are typical of Tim Burton costumes. This is a twist on the traditioanal Victorian era swimming costumes, which were very nautical and covered up much of the body.

This characters make up reflects the character himself. The white rim around the eyes makes him look friendly and the scars reflect the problem of his hands of scissors. We will be going for a more kindly look with Snow White and a more Sweeny Todd look with the male characters.

The intracate and gothic design of the dress is an inspiration to our Snow White costume. The style of the male lead is characteristic of the Victorian era w/ bilowed sleeves and a waist coat.

Plot, storyboarding and script

 Well a few weeks ago I came up with an idea and storyboarded it, ready to show to the rest of the group and get their opinions and input. The sequence followed a witch who was hunting down several of her other, old witchy friends for revenge.

However we all decided that it would be a good idea to think of more possible plots before we chose a particular one, most of our ideas included themes such as death, obsession, weddings, funerals, isolation, fairytales and other worlds. Eventually I thought about all of the ideas so far and kind of mushed them all together. The opening is as follows:

A man overhears some other villagers complimenting his wife, who is the most beautiful woman in that village and looks a bit like Snow White. He the sees his wife talking to another man, however it is purely innocent. He becomes jealous and protective over his wife. After this, he kills said man, and then his wife, using methods from the Brothers Grimm version of Snow White (seeing a theme emerging?). This all happens in flashback as he mourns over his dead wive's grave. He also thinks about the good times they had during the relationship.

I've yet to post our storyboard as it is not complete. We've been thinking about music and possibly a voice over rather than having people speaking in the actual scenes. Furthermore, we do not as of yet have a title, however we've done a mind map and we have a few concepts 

Update: I have now written a script/ screenplay. There will be a voice over. I left out the title page and the regular screenplay structure and style, here it is:

 

Fade In:

GRAVEYARD INT. MIDDAY

Joe Bloggs is standing beside a grave reading the inscription, head slightly bent. He looks up. CAMERA ZOOMS IN ON OPEN EYE. A series of scenes follow during voice over.

MYSTERIOUS FEMALE VOICE

Here is the twisted tale

         of how a pair came to ail

          She had white skin, as pale as snow

    Red lips and ebony hair, oh how her husband did know

                                                    

    Of how the others looked at her and

    of oh how they stared at her

    Of how beauty became their decline

    in that bitter realm of ice

Have you ever heard the analogous story,

regarding the ruler of jealousy?

   One day the ruler asked a friend

          were they the fairest in the land?

To which the looking glass responded

 “Alas, my leader, you come second in this province”

The ruler was incredulous

“Be you a liar? This is absolutely preposterous!”

“No magnificent ruler of great heights

There is another, she goes by the name of Snow White” 

       

The leader then thrived madly

just to be the one of greatest

Beauty

JOE BLOGGS

That’ll teach you!

MYSTERIOUS FEMALE VOICE

And regrettably I have to tell you, dear listener

The crimson apple was poisoned dear listener

 Snow White did not prevail.

CUT TO:

GRAVEYARD INT. MIDDAY

CAMERA ZOOMS away from Joe Bloggs’ open eye. One tear runs slowly down his cheek. He looks sorrowful. Joe Bloggs turns and walks away. It is revealed he had been watched as Female Joe Bloggs peers out from behind a tree. Meanwhile;

MYSTERIOUS FEMALE VOICE

At least not until she got her revenge,

Through being brought to life once again

Fade Out:

The End

Conventions of Horror

 There are several different types which can all be grouped together as horror, for instance - psychological, thriller, gore, religious, monster/alien, supernatural and true story. They are designed specifically to be unsettling and to frighten and panic us, invoke our worst fears and captivate and entertain us.

The first horror movie was a silent short film entitled "Le Manoir du Diable" which only lasted two minute, yet still captivated and entertained the audience. The budgets for horror films rose significantly in the 1960s  and the public's fascination with them led to a widespread and highly successful industry. The Exorcist (1973) broke all records for a horror film and is still said to be one of the most feared movies watched by audiences (surprisingly :] )

Copycat theory - Horrors have been said to be imitated in the real world on viewers, however it has been shown that  psychologically healthy viewers would not be influenced by them, and in face, have the opposite effect. Horrors allow us to encounter our fears and face them head on with other viewers.

According to research there is no one thing in a horror movie that scares us, but a combination of them including the music, setting, effects, make up and plot. There are always characters to be expected including; ghouls, monsters, zombies, werewolves, murderers, vampires, the mentally unstable, convicts and even, as demonstrated in the final destination movies: fate. There are normally dumb characters and smart characters (guess which ones evade the bad guy) and often there are rescuers and sets of characters that are hunted down.

Setting and costume are hugely important, there is often dim lighting and the clothes are normally dirty and torn by the end of the film. Iconography is also useful in the horror genre.

Conventions of film openings/ Titles

A title sequence is a method used in film and television present their title, plot/genre, and key production and cast members. This is not to be confused with opening credits, which are normally just a series of superimposed text.

The history of openings date back to the beginning of film, in which a card the the title will just be held up to the camera. From the 1930s, more elaborate openings were used.

At the present, you always have production and distribution logos of the main companies that worked on the film. Often these will reflect a form related to the film, such as in Harry Potter The Deathly Hallows Part 1, in which the Warner Bros. logo is tarnished and rusty.

Generally, the opening of the film will be an establishing shot or the title of the film. The opening can be useful in giving contextual information or clues to the viewer or showing shots from any prequels, as well as establishing the genre. Music is very important and the opening will usually involve a theme tune or song. This is useful for setting the mood and revealing the genre, for instance, if upbeat and loud it will probably be the same throughout the film, typical of a horror movie. If slow and melodic, the film will probably be mellow and sweet.

Additionally we have watched lots of opening titles and scenes.

Locations!

This is

Clevedon Court

, a house built in the 1700s and a National Trust site. It is fairly apt for what we want and similar to the manor house used in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I imagine that the interior could be used for the scene in which the apple is poisoned. We 

would definitely have to email and suck up to them ask permission to film there.

This is Tyntesfield Estate, another National Trust site which is in Wraxall. Again this is fairly similar to the style we want, but more gothic. When I went there a few years ago, te rooms werefaily dark and gloomy and would probably set a good atmosphere to film in.

Antony House in Cornwall. The location used in the recent Alice in 

Wonderland film. A place in Bristol also has a house that looks a bit like this.

There are several churches/graveyards we could use for the scene in which the man is mourning his wife and remembering their relationship and how he murdered her. The cemetery in Portishead is really gothic and shadowed by a lot of big old trees and would be perfect, so we could use that, however there is a busy road right beside it. There are churches in both Walton and Weston in Gordano, which are both really close to Portishead. Each of those villages have really old houses which would be useful for the era the opening is set in as there are scenes in the street. There are many of places in Clevedon and Bristol which would also be really awesome. 

Update: There are some ruins in Portishead! And they're easily accesable! They would be really useful for the scene in which we establish the couple's relationship. Additionally there is a twisty lightning struck treee nearby which looks typical of the scenery in Tim Burton films.

The Portishead/ Weston in Gordano Ruins

This is what Weston - in - Gordano looks like when it snows. Note the old fashioned lampost, lack of road markings and old houses.



Danny Elfman & His Music

Danny Elfman is known for his dark scores, particularly those he has written for Tim Burton's films. He is one of Hollywood's most famous composers. He is also largely recognized for the music he has written for TV, especially his theme song for The Simpsons.


Born in Amarillo, Texas, on May 29, 1953, Elfman was the son of  Blossom Elfman. He spent his youth in Los Angeles and moved with his brother to France at the age of 18. He then became involved with a theatre group and received an introduction to musical orchestration. He and Richard started the musical troupe Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo, which would later become known as a cult group. After spending a few years in France, Elfman moved to Africa, where he stayed until a bout with malaria forced him to move back to the United States.

Elfman wrote his first score for his brother’s film, Forbidden Zone in 1980. A few years later, Elfman met Tim Burton, who was a fan of Oingo Boingo. Elfman's composed for Burton's Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985). The two would continue to work together on most of Burton’s subsequent films, and their collaborations would become known as one of the industry's most well known partnerships. It was for another of Burton's films, the 1988 Beetlejuice, that Elfman first became known by soundtrack fans in general; his quirky, frenetic score, combined with a number of Harry Belafonte songs, were an enormous success. Elfman earned additional praise and acknowledgment for his scores for a number of other Burton films, particularly Edward Scissorhands (1990), and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). For the latter of these, Elfman also wrote the songs and provided the singing voice for the lead character, Jack Skellington. 

In addition to his work with Burton, Elfman has supplied the scores for a number of films that encompass every imaginable genre. Elfman has won over 30 awards for his music and his influences include: Bernard Herrman, Nino Rota, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Phillip Glass and Frank Zappa. Similar artists: Howard Shore, Creature Feature, Michael Nyman and Ennio Moricone. 

Source: Answers.com

Obviously we've heard the music in the Tim Burton films that we have seen. In addition to this, we've found tracks on Bee MP3 and listened to them. If we do want to use some of the music, I really hope that it isn't going to bring up a copyright problem ^^

Recearch and Planning

So we've done some research recently and we're planning at the moment, I will be posting all of this subsequently;

·                   Conventions of Tim Burton films, film openings, opening titles and weird horror genre. 

·                   Target audience

·                   Costumes, props, music and locations

·                   Plot, storyboarding and scripting

·                   Actors

·                   Production schedule