Saturday 25 March 2017
Thursday 23 March 2017
Draft for Media Article
"If you were going to kill me, you would’ve done it already." So starts director Charlotte Parry's new fantasy short, as half-nymph Sienna sits captive under the watch of protagonist Melodie.
It’s February 2017 and we’re in the English countryside. Director, Charlotte Parry, is standing in a forest with a camera, umbrellas and three pointy-eared, elf-like nymphs. Although this may sound like another trip to Middle Earth, Parry has created a unique world of her own in the darkness of the local forest overlooking the Thames. She’s yelling at her actors. “You need to be more sneering, more condescending.” Parry calls to one of the actors. She’s not cross, in fact she’s far from it, as she instructs her cast through the scene and laughs as they run through the woodland, covered in mud past dog-walkers.
It’s February 2017 and we’re in the English countryside. Director, Charlotte Parry, is standing in a forest with a camera, umbrellas and three pointy-eared, elf-like nymphs. Although this may sound like another trip to Middle Earth, Parry has created a unique world of her own in the darkness of the local forest overlooking the Thames. She’s yelling at her actors. “You need to be more sneering, more condescending.” Parry calls to one of the actors. She’s not cross, in fact she’s far from it, as she instructs her cast through the scene and laughs as they run through the woodland, covered in mud past dog-walkers.
"You want to have the DNA of a good fantasy film," says the director, "but you want the excitement and gripping storyline of a science-fiction or action film. The audience want to be part of the story, part of the action."
Like the films that inspired Parry to create this short epic, Halfbreed starts with immediate action, throwing the audience into the struggle of Sienna, a half-nymph who's hunted by the Woodland Queen and her minions. On set, today is dedicated to the scenes involving the encounters with the villain, the Woodland Queen (Olivia Bunton), as the protagonist Melodie (Sophie Slade) prepares to take her captive, Sienna (Amelia Mather), to the Woodland Queen. The weather is dull, a brief of drizzle of rain still hanging on the air, and the crew are silent as the action ensues, all clutching hold of umbrellas in case the rain returns.
As costume designer and director, Parry has had to apply and shape three pairs of prosthetic ears to her cast - rather than relying of CGI effects to add a supernatural element to the characters. “I looked at elves and other fantasy science-fiction characters,” she says, “the way they look, dress and act.” The film may be a fantasy, but if its head is in the clouds, its feet are on the ground: the spectacle looks grubby, painful, the cast and crew are all shivering from the chill of the English weather, tired from a hard day of filming in the unpredictable weather. A crew member states that they are always working fast, dedicated to as much of the action on set as possible as the day passes quickly from light into darkness in a mere couple of hours. Parry states that she “intended to film in the twilight zone between light and dark, shooting sections of the film in a dusky period where the light has begun to dim”.
Fantasy short films are notoriously difficult to pull-off, most have floundered both due to poor effects and leaving the audience unable to connect with the characters. Parry reckons the problem is initially misplaced loyalty. “Sometimes fantasy fans are too loyal to the conventions of the films they know and recognise.” Here, the decision was made to create a whole new race of characters in shape of the nymphs, separating from the fantasy conventions of elves. Melodie is a cold-hearted individual with a traumatic childhood, under the control of the Woodland Queen. “Mel is a lone wolf. She’s cynical. And she’s sceptical.” Says actress Sophie Slade. “And so it’s her journey to become something beyond herself where she can feel like she belongs.”
“It’s not like stereotypical films, where you’ve got a light and a dark side,” says Parry. “There are no singularly good and bad characters, making the audience truly think about their characters and to really get inside the characters head. The whole idea is to make the audience sit there and wonder: should I be feeling that, or should I be backing this character?”
Like the films that inspired Parry to create this short epic, Halfbreed starts with immediate action, throwing the audience into the struggle of Sienna, a half-nymph who's hunted by the Woodland Queen and her minions. On set, today is dedicated to the scenes involving the encounters with the villain, the Woodland Queen (Olivia Bunton), as the protagonist Melodie (Sophie Slade) prepares to take her captive, Sienna (Amelia Mather), to the Woodland Queen. The weather is dull, a brief of drizzle of rain still hanging on the air, and the crew are silent as the action ensues, all clutching hold of umbrellas in case the rain returns.
As costume designer and director, Parry has had to apply and shape three pairs of prosthetic ears to her cast - rather than relying of CGI effects to add a supernatural element to the characters. “I looked at elves and other fantasy science-fiction characters,” she says, “the way they look, dress and act.” The film may be a fantasy, but if its head is in the clouds, its feet are on the ground: the spectacle looks grubby, painful, the cast and crew are all shivering from the chill of the English weather, tired from a hard day of filming in the unpredictable weather. A crew member states that they are always working fast, dedicated to as much of the action on set as possible as the day passes quickly from light into darkness in a mere couple of hours. Parry states that she “intended to film in the twilight zone between light and dark, shooting sections of the film in a dusky period where the light has begun to dim”.
Fantasy short films are notoriously difficult to pull-off, most have floundered both due to poor effects and leaving the audience unable to connect with the characters. Parry reckons the problem is initially misplaced loyalty. “Sometimes fantasy fans are too loyal to the conventions of the films they know and recognise.” Here, the decision was made to create a whole new race of characters in shape of the nymphs, separating from the fantasy conventions of elves. Melodie is a cold-hearted individual with a traumatic childhood, under the control of the Woodland Queen. “Mel is a lone wolf. She’s cynical. And she’s sceptical.” Says actress Sophie Slade. “And so it’s her journey to become something beyond herself where she can feel like she belongs.”
“It’s not like stereotypical films, where you’ve got a light and a dark side,” says Parry. “There are no singularly good and bad characters, making the audience truly think about their characters and to really get inside the characters head. The whole idea is to make the audience sit there and wonder: should I be feeling that, or should I be backing this character?”
Friday 17 March 2017
Saturday 11 March 2017
Filming Day Three
Today we filmed probably about half of my coursework! I'm very pleased with how it's already starting to look and we actually didn't get rained on this time which was very helpful. This was also the first time that my entire cast met and they all got on really well together. We had a lot of fun and have already got a date planned to finish the rest.
Thursday 9 March 2017
Photoshop Tutorials
One of the obstacles that I have encountered during my media A2 coursework is that I have no experience with editing software such as Photoshop which I will be using to design my film poster for my short film. I therefore decide to look at a number of tutorials online to understand what I need to do in order to make a good film poster.
Sunday 5 March 2017
Filming Issue #2
I encountered a new filming issue today during filming. Due to the inconsistent weather throughout the day I have varied weather throughout my shots which does not seem to appeal to the aesthetic of the film that I am after. Therefore I may have to film some of the shots again.
Filming Day Two
Today I managed to get a little bit more done with my filming for my coursework. Annoyingly the weather was inconsistent today so we had spells of sunshine and torrential rain. Looking at my filming I think I will have to re-film some parts due to the weather proving an issue for the consistency of my film. However, I finally managed to film some parts with my actress playing Melodie and I'm very pleased with her acting as she has presented Melodie's character exactly as I wanted her to be.
Friday 3 March 2017
Behind the Scenes of Historic & Fantasy Films
After having started filming my coursework, I decided that I would like to have a look in more detail at behind the scenes footage of other films which might fit into the genre of my film.
I firstly started with the television series off BBC called 'The Last Kingdom' which are based off the books by Bernard Cornwell. Although this is set in Anglo-Saxon England during the Vikings invasions the aesthetic of the series is still similar to what I aim to achieve with my own film. I found the set locations very interesting as although the audience are meant to believe that the locations are in fact still in England the show was actually filmed in Hungary. The landscapes seem to be a key feature in the production of the series and I'm hoping that my choice of location for my film will also prove just as effective. Interestingly one of the men who worked on the series stated that the entire plot was about "two worlds clashing" which is similar to the basis of my plot between the Woodland Realm and the world of mortal men in which Sienna's character seems to be caught between.
I also looked at the behind the scenes footage of another historical television series called 'Vikings' which can be found on the History channel. This video was a lot shorter thankfully and I thought the comments on the design - especially hair - was very interesting in regards to the characters. One person mentions that they had to change the style of some of the characters to "freshen it up" in comparison to series one and although my film is not a series I thought this was key to creating different characters that are all unique and nothing alike.
I finally looked at 'Game of Thrones' which is actually in the fantasy genre, although it still a television series. I found Ramin Djawadi's comments on the importance of the soundtrack to be key and I would definitely agree with the choice of soundtrack for the entire series. This made me think more closely about the soundtrack that I plan to use in my own short film and to make sure that it fits to the action and mood of the film. Thankfully I will not be working with any animals on my film - although I found the animal training equally as fascinating - like they have done with the Inuit dogs and ravens in the television show. I did at a time consider having the Woodland Queen or the Guard enter leading a horse as my local stables is only a ten minutes walk from our filming location (and I know a horse who would have been happy to help) but I decided to put the idea aside as it would only complicate the filming and plot of the film. As well as this, I am fully aware of the saying "never work with animals or children" and my entire cast are all teenagers or young adults. Also, looking at the complex fight scenes it also made me grateful that I had taken out the fight scene that I initially put in my storyboard.
I firstly started with the television series off BBC called 'The Last Kingdom' which are based off the books by Bernard Cornwell. Although this is set in Anglo-Saxon England during the Vikings invasions the aesthetic of the series is still similar to what I aim to achieve with my own film. I found the set locations very interesting as although the audience are meant to believe that the locations are in fact still in England the show was actually filmed in Hungary. The landscapes seem to be a key feature in the production of the series and I'm hoping that my choice of location for my film will also prove just as effective. Interestingly one of the men who worked on the series stated that the entire plot was about "two worlds clashing" which is similar to the basis of my plot between the Woodland Realm and the world of mortal men in which Sienna's character seems to be caught between.
I also looked at the behind the scenes footage of another historical television series called 'Vikings' which can be found on the History channel. This video was a lot shorter thankfully and I thought the comments on the design - especially hair - was very interesting in regards to the characters. One person mentions that they had to change the style of some of the characters to "freshen it up" in comparison to series one and although my film is not a series I thought this was key to creating different characters that are all unique and nothing alike.
I finally looked at 'Game of Thrones' which is actually in the fantasy genre, although it still a television series. I found Ramin Djawadi's comments on the importance of the soundtrack to be key and I would definitely agree with the choice of soundtrack for the entire series. This made me think more closely about the soundtrack that I plan to use in my own short film and to make sure that it fits to the action and mood of the film. Thankfully I will not be working with any animals on my film - although I found the animal training equally as fascinating - like they have done with the Inuit dogs and ravens in the television show. I did at a time consider having the Woodland Queen or the Guard enter leading a horse as my local stables is only a ten minutes walk from our filming location (and I know a horse who would have been happy to help) but I decided to put the idea aside as it would only complicate the filming and plot of the film. As well as this, I am fully aware of the saying "never work with animals or children" and my entire cast are all teenagers or young adults. Also, looking at the complex fight scenes it also made me grateful that I had taken out the fight scene that I initially put in my storyboard.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)