Friday, 28 September 2012
Location video...
Alice and myself decided to film a video talking about our location and the problems that we encountered...
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Take One.
Last week we tried to film at the Gateway, which is a converted bungalow on the school site. It wasn't quite appropriate because it is very clinical-looking with it's white walls, and the site was actually in use by the lower school doing homework club, so we were quite easily disturbed which wasn't very helpful however, we still tried to film with the location anyway.
We were also lacking Caitlin who was ill;Jake was playing the cat, George was playing the man, Alice was on set to handle camera shots and angles, I was operating the camera and playing Amelia.
End result: Nothing really went to plan and so we are doing it at Jake's house on Wednesday 26th.
[Video to upload]
We were also lacking Caitlin who was ill;Jake was playing the cat, George was playing the man, Alice was on set to handle camera shots and angles, I was operating the camera and playing Amelia.
End result: Nothing really went to plan and so we are doing it at Jake's house on Wednesday 26th.
[Video to upload]
SCRIPT FOR MY BEAST FRIEND
This is the script for "My Beast Friend".
INT. HALLWAY. DAY
FLUFF makes retching sound
ED BRYNE stands up from crouching over box and walks towards camera, tucking hair behind ears as he walks.
ED
Camera focuses on FLUFF who
is curling his claws
AMEILA approaches FLUFF, ED BYNE looks anxious
AMELIA strokes the real cat FLUFF and picks up luggage tag
AMEILA rubs her head against FLUFF
INT. HALLWAY. DAY
ED BRYNE enters shot through
door way, stops and shrugs and then walks across the frame. Dressed in a black
logo t-shirt and cargo green jacket and he is carrying a cardboard box full of
books. FOUL-MOUTHED MANCAT FLUFF, sat in large card board box. Dressed in a
fluffy grey cat outfit, with a luggage tag tied to him which is labelled ‘Please
look after this cat free to good home’
FLUFF
(Struggling to say the
words)
Please...Please...Please...
FLUFF
Ed, tell me what’s going on
right now or I’m going sick up all yesterdays tuna
FLUFF makes retching sound
FLUFF
Oh
No..
ED BRYNE stands up from crouching over box and walks towards camera, tucking hair behind ears as he walks.
FLUFF
It’s that girl isn’t it?
Amoeba?!
Your mad. Shes waaay out of
your league.
(turns swiftly to face
fluff)
This has nothing to do with
Amelia. I just want to sort my life out. You know, get rid of some of the dead
wood. So, I
thought I’d take you to this great, fun place just for cats. Yeah – just until I
finish tidying up.
ED
(in an over-execrated voice,
waving his hands)
It’s
called… Pleasure Land.
FLUFF
(humouring
Ed)
Pleasure
Land? Sweet...But not before time.
ED
BYNE looks pleased and walks off camera. Door bell rings shadow of AMEILA
through frosted glass, opens door. She is dressed in a black coat with a scarf.
AMELIA
I’m
so sorry Ed, I know I’m super early! Oh my god
–
AMEILA approaches FLUFF, ED BYNE looks anxious
AMELIA
Whos
this?
ED
That’s-er-Fluff
AMELIA strokes the real cat FLUFF and picks up luggage tag
AMEILA
‘Free
to good home.’
Some
monster actually abandoned this..
Fluff
becomes the man again. She tickles his chin, whilst he looks immensely happy
with himself; shooting Ed a winning look.
AMELIA
..sweet
little creature!
AMEILA
picks up FLUFF, the real cat. In her arms FLUFF turn into the mancat and pats
AMEILA’S shoulder
AMEILA
Well
– Fluff, I guess that makes me your new mummy now.
AMEILA rubs her head against FLUFF
FLUFF
(to
Ed)
You
lying Cu...
The
End. Credits Roll.
Sunday, 23 September 2012
IDEA!
_______ is a lonely puppet character. He lives in a dustbin in a shed within his human friend's garden. One day he finds a wooden artist's mannequin in the garbage and he develops strong emotions towards it because it, like himself, is an outcast and is lonely.
He decides to give her a personality and persona with the help of Jacob. Her arm joint is broken which they must fix.
After a while, _______ and his friend do everything together and so he decides to propose because they both fear being alone when they grow old.
Together, they make a wedding dress and have a wedding in the garden.
_______ is the protagonist, Jacob is the mirror, and she is the romance.
Mise-en-scene:
SET LOCATION → Jacob's garden, the garden shed, dustbin.
LIGHTING Dark in the shed, bright (and possibly snowy) in the garden and for the wedding.
COSTUME _______ has no costume in day-to-day life however, wears a tuxedo for his wedding. She wears a simple floral dress once _______ and Jacob have fixed her, and a wedding dress made out of newspaper and tracing paper.
MAKEUP None.
CAMERA SHOTS AND ANGLES Close-up shots, mid-shots, medium close-up shots.
PROPS Trash can, mini scissors, newspaper, tracing paper, bouquet, mannequin.
Possible names - Kozmo, Fuzz,
Does she have a name? Currently undecided.
He decides to give her a personality and persona with the help of Jacob. Her arm joint is broken which they must fix.
After a while, _______ and his friend do everything together and so he decides to propose because they both fear being alone when they grow old.
Together, they make a wedding dress and have a wedding in the garden.
_______ is the protagonist, Jacob is the mirror, and she is the romance.
Mise-en-scene:
SET LOCATION → Jacob's garden, the garden shed, dustbin.
LIGHTING Dark in the shed, bright (and possibly snowy) in the garden and for the wedding.
COSTUME _______ has no costume in day-to-day life however, wears a tuxedo for his wedding. She wears a simple floral dress once _______ and Jacob have fixed her, and a wedding dress made out of newspaper and tracing paper.
MAKEUP None.
CAMERA SHOTS AND ANGLES Close-up shots, mid-shots, medium close-up shots.
PROPS Trash can, mini scissors, newspaper, tracing paper, bouquet, mannequin.
Possible names - Kozmo, Fuzz,
Does she have a name? Currently undecided.
Saturday, 22 September 2012
audience research
1. How would you define a short film?
- Audience (3 years old): Good.
- Audience (35 years old): A film that is shorter in duration that a feature film which I imagine is within a defined time frame limit (for example less than an hour?).
2. Have you watched any short films before?
- Audience (3 years old): Cars Toons (Time Travel Mater, Air Mater, Heavy Metal Mater etc.), Day and Night, The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's Child
- Audience (35 years old): I don’t think so. It is difficult to define whether something like The Gruffalo is a short film. I guess is depends on the time frame limit.
3. What kind of short film would you be interested in watching?
- Audience (3 years old): Animals, cars, fun.
- Audience (35 years old): Comedy or drama.
I decided to ask a wide age range in order to gain an understanding of the types of short films watched and also whether it would affect the results. For example, I found that my 3 year old brother had actually watched more short films than the other audience member, purely because they were either Pixar/Disney related films that are quite popular amongst young children. The spectrum of short films available for adults is a bit more specific and the audience has to actually search for the films rather than them being readily available at the cinema, i.e. feature films.
The genres suggested by these audiences are very helpful because they will enable me to create a short film which is interesting and what audiences want to watch, rather than something a bit more 'out there'. I found these responses very helpful because now I have decided that I would like to create a film which can be watched by both children and adults. :)
Thursday, 20 September 2012
What is a short film?
So the big question for the year is....What is a short film?
"A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". The term featurette originally applied to a film longer than a short subject, but shorter than a standard feature film." (According to the all-knowing website, Wikipedia).
"A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". The term featurette originally applied to a film longer than a short subject, but shorter than a standard feature film." (According to the all-knowing website, Wikipedia).
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
MY BEAST FRIEND
The main problem for choosing to recreate the short film 'My Beast Friend' is the fact that we need to locate a cat costume, the location, a cat, AND SCOTTISH ACCENTS (oh dear). These elements were reasons why we were originally hesitant to choose this opening over 'Get Off My Land', however, I personally didn't like this short film because it isn't a very 'easy watch' and is quite gruesomely predictable. The main reason for not doing 'Get Off My Land' was locating the props, characters and location.
The cat costume for our piece was originally a bit of a predicament, we decided to try and contact the local fancy dress shop, The Dressing Up Box in Attleborough, to see if they had any costumes that were close to what we needed. Alice sent an email and this is the response that we received:
Dear Alice, Sorry no cat like you clip, I do have a grey fur 'donkey' costume which could possibly be customised. When did you need the cat for as I do not have time to do anything to it until after the 21st September as I have a big show to costume.
Sue, The Dressing Up Box
-----Original Message-----
From: Alice Leng [mailto:aliceleng@hotmail.co.uk]
Sent: Wed 12/09/2012 12:05
To: sue@the-dressing-up-box.co.uk
Subject: Rental Cat Costume - A2 media studies project
Dear Sue, I am writing to enquire about the rental of a cat costume. I am currently a student at wymondham high school studying A2 level media studies, and we have been set the task of re-creating a short film, attached is an image of the cat scene we have to recreate. If you have any costume that would be appropriate for us to rent for the re-creation we would be really grateful for a reply and I shall come and see it. Thank you Alice Leng
However, we have chosen to use Jake's black 'morphsuit', my rabbit ears which I have adapted to become cat ears, and George as the character.
The cat costume for our piece was originally a bit of a predicament, we decided to try and contact the local fancy dress shop, The Dressing Up Box in Attleborough, to see if they had any costumes that were close to what we needed. Alice sent an email and this is the response that we received:
Dear Alice, Sorry no cat like you clip, I do have a grey fur 'donkey' costume which could possibly be customised. When did you need the cat for as I do not have time to do anything to it until after the 21st September as I have a big show to costume.
Sue, The Dressing Up Box
-----Original Message-----
From: Alice Leng [mailto:aliceleng@hotmail.co.uk]
Sent: Wed 12/09/2012 12:05
To: sue@the-dressing-up-box.co.uk
Subject: Rental Cat Costume - A2 media studies project
Dear Sue, I am writing to enquire about the rental of a cat costume. I am currently a student at wymondham high school studying A2 level media studies, and we have been set the task of re-creating a short film, attached is an image of the cat scene we have to recreate. If you have any costume that would be appropriate for us to rent for the re-creation we would be really grateful for a reply and I shall come and see it. Thank you Alice Leng
However, we have chosen to use Jake's black 'morphsuit', my rabbit ears which I have adapted to become cat ears, and George as the character.
Photoshop work...
![]() |
| SNOW WHITE |
This is just a quick draft...
The problem I have noticed however, is that the background that I chose is black and white, which doesn't quite correspond well with the bright colours of the character foreground of Snow White. I think that I will try and use a coloured background, and to tone down the colours of the character so that the difference between the two isn't so obvious.
The Totoro piece that I created is from the poster of 'My Neighbour Totoro'. I removed the background and inserted the string to their fishing rods.
![]() |
| TOTORO |
Monday, 17 September 2012
Further fairytales...
Update on fairytales...
I have recently been watching short films and YouTube videos to find a concept or idea that I like. I found a song cover by Alex Goot, Tiffany Alvord and Luke Conard of 'We Are Young' originally by Fun. What I like about the video is that they have added SpecialFX to create little characters, people and instruments. I know that I wouldn't be able to recreate something as professional as this however, I decided to draw out some cartoon characters that could be inserted into a film opening. I drew some pictures of Bambi (Disney character), not to use, but to just establish an idea of woodland/faerie type characters.
I am also quite keen to use Adobe Photoshop CS4 to create my final piece.
[MY IMAGES]

I have recently been watching short films and YouTube videos to find a concept or idea that I like. I found a song cover by Alex Goot, Tiffany Alvord and Luke Conard of 'We Are Young' originally by Fun. What I like about the video is that they have added SpecialFX to create little characters, people and instruments. I know that I wouldn't be able to recreate something as professional as this however, I decided to draw out some cartoon characters that could be inserted into a film opening. I drew some pictures of Bambi (Disney character), not to use, but to just establish an idea of woodland/faerie type characters.
I am also quite keen to use Adobe Photoshop CS4 to create my final piece.
[MY IMAGES]
Character Profile
Spencer Hugo Lawrence
1) What is their gender and age?
Male, 28 years old.
2) What is their weight, height, build, colour of hair, eyes and skin? Are they right or left-handed? Do they have any facial expressions, a squint or any disabilities? Do they have a limp or missing finger? Do they wear spectacles or contact lenses? How do they walk or move? Do they have any mannerisms or habits? Do they smoke? What are their attitudes to each of these?
11 and a half stone, 5"10, brown hair, blue eyes, soft golden skin. Occasionally wears glasses for reading purposes, Spencer has a slightly awkward, geeky personality; doesn't smoke but did socially at university.
3) How do they speak? What do they sound like? What pitch and speed is their voice? Any favourite saying or words? Do they use slang? or swear?
Speaks in a fairly low tone and quite slowly, quite upper-class and formal from his Oxbridge education in Maths and Physics. Doesn't swear very often because of his profession.
4) Do they live alone or with other people? Do they have any children? What is their relationship to them? What kind of children are they?
Lives in a two-bedroom studio apartment with his long-term girlfriend/best friend, Maggie. Spencer used part of his allowance from his parents to pay for the apartment, the couple own it and therefore do not pay rent. It is furnished in a fairly modern way, to contrast against the old character of the property. Maggie has also made it more homely by adding a few feminine touches. Spencer has a large, open-plan room with large bay windows in which he does his artwork and graffiti.
5) Are they successful in material terms? Do they have a good job with enough money? Are they worried about their finances? Are they financially independent? Do they like their job? If not, what would they rather do? What are the power relationships in their work with co-workers, boss, or employees?
Spencer and Maggie are doing well for themselves because they both come from wealthy backgrounds and their university degrees from Oxbridge have meant that they have excelled within their professions and are very respected by their colleagues. Spencer particularly admires his jobs because as a high school teacher, he is teaching children at the age that he was when he fell in love with maths, physics and art.
6) Are their parents living? Do they like them? Was their family rich, poor, struggling to keep up appearances? What have they inherited from them, both physically and psychologically?
Spencer's parents live in Pembrokeshire, where they own a country estate; they have wealthy ancestors and grandparents so money is not a problem for them. Spencer has inherited a vast monetary inheritance and also, Spencer's desires to succeed and his work ethic are greatly inspired by his father.
7) What is their nationality? Do they live in their country of origin? If not, why not? How do they feel about this?
Nationality - British
Maggie is of French heritage and ancestry.
8) When they are at home for an evening alone, are they happy with their own company? Do they read books, magazines, newspapers, the back of cornflake packets? What music do they play to themselves? What do they eat? Can they relax? Do they knit, sew, write letters, watch television, revise their notes from an evening class? What are their hobbies, if any? Are they quirky? Are they a collector? What do their hobbies, music and books tell us about them?
When alone, Spencer either paints in his studio or marks school papers. Spencer and Maggie like to dine out at French and Italian restaurants, sight-see top British attractions, and visit art exhibitions. They both like classical and indie music, occasionally attending concerts and gigs together.
9) What is their favourite colour? What is their star sign and birth stone?
Favourite colour: Navy/red/grey
Date of Birth: 14/03/1984
Star sign: Pisces
Birth Stone: Bloodstone/Jasper
1) What is their gender and age?
Male, 28 years old.
2) What is their weight, height, build, colour of hair, eyes and skin? Are they right or left-handed? Do they have any facial expressions, a squint or any disabilities? Do they have a limp or missing finger? Do they wear spectacles or contact lenses? How do they walk or move? Do they have any mannerisms or habits? Do they smoke? What are their attitudes to each of these?
11 and a half stone, 5"10, brown hair, blue eyes, soft golden skin. Occasionally wears glasses for reading purposes, Spencer has a slightly awkward, geeky personality; doesn't smoke but did socially at university.
3) How do they speak? What do they sound like? What pitch and speed is their voice? Any favourite saying or words? Do they use slang? or swear?
Speaks in a fairly low tone and quite slowly, quite upper-class and formal from his Oxbridge education in Maths and Physics. Doesn't swear very often because of his profession.
4) Do they live alone or with other people? Do they have any children? What is their relationship to them? What kind of children are they?
Lives in a two-bedroom studio apartment with his long-term girlfriend/best friend, Maggie. Spencer used part of his allowance from his parents to pay for the apartment, the couple own it and therefore do not pay rent. It is furnished in a fairly modern way, to contrast against the old character of the property. Maggie has also made it more homely by adding a few feminine touches. Spencer has a large, open-plan room with large bay windows in which he does his artwork and graffiti.
5) Are they successful in material terms? Do they have a good job with enough money? Are they worried about their finances? Are they financially independent? Do they like their job? If not, what would they rather do? What are the power relationships in their work with co-workers, boss, or employees?
Spencer and Maggie are doing well for themselves because they both come from wealthy backgrounds and their university degrees from Oxbridge have meant that they have excelled within their professions and are very respected by their colleagues. Spencer particularly admires his jobs because as a high school teacher, he is teaching children at the age that he was when he fell in love with maths, physics and art.
6) Are their parents living? Do they like them? Was their family rich, poor, struggling to keep up appearances? What have they inherited from them, both physically and psychologically?
Spencer's parents live in Pembrokeshire, where they own a country estate; they have wealthy ancestors and grandparents so money is not a problem for them. Spencer has inherited a vast monetary inheritance and also, Spencer's desires to succeed and his work ethic are greatly inspired by his father.
7) What is their nationality? Do they live in their country of origin? If not, why not? How do they feel about this?
Nationality - British
Maggie is of French heritage and ancestry.
8) When they are at home for an evening alone, are they happy with their own company? Do they read books, magazines, newspapers, the back of cornflake packets? What music do they play to themselves? What do they eat? Can they relax? Do they knit, sew, write letters, watch television, revise their notes from an evening class? What are their hobbies, if any? Are they quirky? Are they a collector? What do their hobbies, music and books tell us about them?
When alone, Spencer either paints in his studio or marks school papers. Spencer and Maggie like to dine out at French and Italian restaurants, sight-see top British attractions, and visit art exhibitions. They both like classical and indie music, occasionally attending concerts and gigs together.
9) What is their favourite colour? What is their star sign and birth stone?
Favourite colour: Navy/red/grey
Date of Birth: 14/03/1984
Star sign: Pisces
Birth Stone: Bloodstone/Jasper
Sunday, 16 September 2012
Recreation Project
So, last year we were given the task of recreating the opening two minutes of 'The Hangover'. The time has come again where we have to get into groups to decide upon which short film we would like to recreate; 'My Beast Friend' directed by Ewan Torrance, or 'Get Off My Land' directed by Douglas Ray.
Get Off My Land - http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00gs4yj
My Beast Friend - http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p007xb6t
My group consists of me, Alice Leng, Jake Brownbill and Caitlin Robbins.
In order to execute a piece as close to the original as possible, we must take into account factors such as the gender/age/build/physical appearance as well as the role of the characters (in order to really get a feel for the characters we must create a biography for each of the main characters), the mise-en-scene (looking at the location, props, costume and make-up), the sound (luckily for us, by choosing 'My Beast Friend' we do not have the issue of the wind which we had in 'The Hangover'.
The deadline for the project is Friday 28th September (*AAAHHH SO SOON!*).
Get Off My Land - http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00gs4yj
My Beast Friend - http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p007xb6t
My group consists of me, Alice Leng, Jake Brownbill and Caitlin Robbins.
In order to execute a piece as close to the original as possible, we must take into account factors such as the gender/age/build/physical appearance as well as the role of the characters (in order to really get a feel for the characters we must create a biography for each of the main characters), the mise-en-scene (looking at the location, props, costume and make-up), the sound (luckily for us, by choosing 'My Beast Friend' we do not have the issue of the wind which we had in 'The Hangover'.
The deadline for the project is Friday 28th September (*AAAHHH SO SOON!*).
Saturday, 8 September 2012
IDEAS...
I have also been thinking of other ideas that revolve around the hero, villain, mirror and romance; I did this in a group of 3, with Caitlin Robbins and Alice Leng.
IDEA 1 - A Maths/Physics teacher is also interested in graffiti wall art (the next Banksy) however, he does it in an educational way to inspire his students. The villain is a neighbourhood-watch member who removes the teacher's paintings from the walls and is altogether very disapproving. A student in the teacher's class, Neville, is particularly enthralled by his teacher and is also in love with the neighbourhood-watch man's daughter and so his teacher uses his artistic abilities to attract her attention and so the romance of the story is Neville and his girlfriend whom he has liked for a very long time.
IDEA 2 - Valentine's Day is approaching and a young boy is in love with a girl in his class and so he sends her numerous Valentine's cards in the hope that she will understand and reciprocate his feelings for her. However, the boy's bully who also likes the girl decides to pretend that the cards and gifts were from him. The good boy's female friend, who is also friends with the girl, helps her to understand his feelings and they end up happily together.
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Fairytales...
For the past few weeks I have been researching fantasy genres and fairy tales. Fairy tales are stories that range from those originating in folk lore to more modern stories defined as literary fairy tales. A modern definition of the fairy tale, as provided by Jens Tismar's monologue in German, is a story that is written by 'a single identifiable author'; can be characterised as 'simple and anonymous'; and exists in a mutable and difficult to define genre with a close relationship to folktales.'
Little Red Riding Hood - 1695 - French - Charles Perrault
Cinderella - 1697 - French - Charles Perrault
Rapunzel - 1812 - German - Brothers Grimm
Snow White - 1823 - German - Brothers Grimm
The Little Mermaid - 1836 - Danish - Hans Christian Andersen
The Frog Prince - 1842 - German - Brothers Grimm
Fairy tales are found both in oral and literary form. The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace because only the literary forms can survive over time. Still, the evidence of literary works at least indicates that fairy tales have existed for thousands of years, although not perhaps recognised as a specific genre.
The older fairy tales were intended for an audience of adults, as well as children, but they were associated with children as early as the writings of the précieuses; the Brothers Grimm titled their collection 'Children's and Household Tales'; and the link with children has only grown stronger with time.
FILM:
Fairy tales have been enacted dramatically; records exist of this in com media dell'arte, and later in pantomime. The advent of cinema has meant that such stories could be presented in a more plausible manner, with the use of special effects and animation; the Disney movie Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs in 1937 was a ground-breaking film for fairy tales and, indeed, fantasy in general. Disney's influence helped establish this genre as a children's genre, and has been blamed for simplification of fairy tales ending in situations where everything goes right, as opposed to the pain ad suffering - and sometimes unhappy endings - of many folklore fairy tales.
I chose to research this genre of film and form of literature because as a child I was very keen in this field of work and upon seeing Rupert Sanders' 'Snow White and The Huntsman' which is based upon the original story by the Brothers Grimm. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth and Sam Claflin, and had a budget of $170 million which made $389,560,660, at the Box Office. The film trailer initially appealed to me because of the casting and I was interested to experience the darker twist to the film and storyline which was perhaps intended by the Brothers Grimm originally.
Other films which have particularly inspired me within this genre are 'Mirror, Mirror' (2012) directed by Tarsem Singh and starring Julia Roberts, Lily Collins and Armie Hammer; and 'Shrek' (2001) directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, starring Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz. I particularly like 'Shrek' because the underlying message and plot line of the story is an ogre who wants to protect his swap homeland and so Lord Farquaad plans for Shrek to rescue Princess Fiona from the tallest tower in return for a safe home. However, Shrek and Fiona end up falling in love.
The hero/protagonist of the story is Shrek; the villain/antagonist being Lord Farquaad; Donkey is the Mirror and Princess Fiona the Romance. Another element I have been inspired by is a children's product that I saw - fairy dust in a little glass/plastic bottle.

*Additional Note* 11.September.2012 - Following on from last year, I am interested in pieces that derive from famous pieces of music, art, literature etc. This is similar to the short film that I watched at the University of Westminster, 'For Elsie', which focused on Beethoven's 'FĂ¼r Elise'. Even in a minor sense I like the film 'Beethoven' in which a Saint Bernard dog is named Beethoven, this is why I particularly like the idea that we came up with about Banksy.
Little Red Riding Hood - 1695 - French - Charles Perrault
Cinderella - 1697 - French - Charles Perrault
Rapunzel - 1812 - German - Brothers Grimm
Snow White - 1823 - German - Brothers Grimm
The Little Mermaid - 1836 - Danish - Hans Christian Andersen
The Frog Prince - 1842 - German - Brothers Grimm
The Gingerbread Man - 1890 - English - Joseph Jacobs
"A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features folkloric fantasy characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants, mermaids, or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies. The stories may nonetheless be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in the veracity of the events described) and explicitly moral tales, including beast fables.Fairy tales are found both in oral and literary form. The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace because only the literary forms can survive over time. Still, the evidence of literary works at least indicates that fairy tales have existed for thousands of years, although not perhaps recognised as a specific genre.
The older fairy tales were intended for an audience of adults, as well as children, but they were associated with children as early as the writings of the précieuses; the Brothers Grimm titled their collection 'Children's and Household Tales'; and the link with children has only grown stronger with time.
FILM:
Fairy tales have been enacted dramatically; records exist of this in com media dell'arte, and later in pantomime. The advent of cinema has meant that such stories could be presented in a more plausible manner, with the use of special effects and animation; the Disney movie Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs in 1937 was a ground-breaking film for fairy tales and, indeed, fantasy in general. Disney's influence helped establish this genre as a children's genre, and has been blamed for simplification of fairy tales ending in situations where everything goes right, as opposed to the pain ad suffering - and sometimes unhappy endings - of many folklore fairy tales.
I chose to research this genre of film and form of literature because as a child I was very keen in this field of work and upon seeing Rupert Sanders' 'Snow White and The Huntsman' which is based upon the original story by the Brothers Grimm. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth and Sam Claflin, and had a budget of $170 million which made $389,560,660, at the Box Office. The film trailer initially appealed to me because of the casting and I was interested to experience the darker twist to the film and storyline which was perhaps intended by the Brothers Grimm originally.


The hero/protagonist of the story is Shrek; the villain/antagonist being Lord Farquaad; Donkey is the Mirror and Princess Fiona the Romance. Another element I have been inspired by is a children's product that I saw - fairy dust in a little glass/plastic bottle.

*Additional Note* 11.September.2012 - Following on from last year, I am interested in pieces that derive from famous pieces of music, art, literature etc. This is similar to the short film that I watched at the University of Westminster, 'For Elsie', which focused on Beethoven's 'FĂ¼r Elise'. Even in a minor sense I like the film 'Beethoven' in which a Saint Bernard dog is named Beethoven, this is why I particularly like the idea that we came up with about Banksy.
Monday, 16 July 2012
RESPONSE TO 'TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY'

Over the past few weeks, we have been gaining more of an insight to Adobe Photoshop CS4 and how to use it in conjunction with our ancillary tasks. Having already researched the film posters for Tomas Alfredson's 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', I decided to take an image and to edit it in a style that was used for the original film posters. The original poster shows Gary Oldman's character George Smiley constructed from inverted text on a simple black background. There are also many elements of text that are either made bold or written in a different colour to highlight them from the rest, for example, 'WINTER', 'AGENT' and 'THE ENEMY IS WITHIN'. The final quote illustrates possibly how a character from within the British secret service could be the one to betray them all, (foreshadowing). From this, I chose to pick out the key characters from the film and the film title.One problem that I found was that I couldn't make the text stand out enough, given that the text font itself was quite small and in white or red it isn't very visible. To resolve this I laid another layer of text on top and added drop shadows and burn effects.
The only element that I am not entirely pleased with is the titling because it isn't completely visible within the red text against the background, however this does add to the aspect of the spy/espionage genre.
Saturday, 7 July 2012
'For Elsie' 2011
On 20th June, I went to the University of Westminster Open Day and I visited the Harrow campus to look at the Film and Television Production course. After hearing about the course from the lecturers, we were able to look around the campus at the incredible facilities that they have and to watch some examples of previous students' work.
'Glenn is a disillusioned piano teacher, who once aspired to be a concert pianist. He is moving back to his parents house and is on the brink of giving up the piano for good when Kilov, a Russian gangster, offers him a unique opportunity: £10,000 if Glenn teaches his daughter Beethoven's "FĂ¼r Elise"... in a day, or have his hands broken.'
AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS:
Glenn - Blake Ritson
Mila - Eline Pauwels
Kilov - Olegar Fedoro
Mama Kilov - Caroline Blakiston
Mickey - Tom Marshall
'For Elsie' is a 23-minute short film directed by David Winstone. It is my favourite short film that I have seen so far because it is very imaginative and unlike many short films, it doesn't end with a horrible and cheesy punchline that seems very anticlimactic. Another factor which particularly intrigued me was the fact that the scenes that took place within Glenn's living room and kitchen, were actually all filmed within the film studio at the university.
'Glenn is a disillusioned piano teacher, who once aspired to be a concert pianist. He is moving back to his parents house and is on the brink of giving up the piano for good when Kilov, a Russian gangster, offers him a unique opportunity: £10,000 if Glenn teaches his daughter Beethoven's "FĂ¼r Elise"... in a day, or have his hands broken.'
AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS:
Winner: Gold Award, Foreign Film Category
39th Student Academy Awards 2012
39th Student Academy Awards 2012
Winner: Bronze Award
International Film and Video Festival of Beijing 2011
International Film and Video Festival of Beijing 2011
Winner: Audience Award
VGIK International Student Film Festival, Moscow, 2011
VGIK International Student Film Festival, Moscow, 2011
Nominated: Best Cinematography
Exposures Student Film Festival 2011
Exposures Student Film Festival 2011
Winner: Best Fiction
Royal Television Society Awards
Royal Television Society Awards
Honourable Mention
Next Reel Film Festival, Singapore
Next Reel Film Festival, Singapore
Winner: Student Production Undergraduate and Further Education Award (Sponsored by Avid)
Learning on Screen Awards 2012
Learning on Screen Awards 2012
UK Representative
One Country, One Film Festival, France, 2012
One Country, One Film Festival, France, 2012
Official Selection
Sehsuechte Film Festival 2012
Sehsuechte Film Festival 2012
Nominated
Rushes Soho Shorts 2012
CAST:Rushes Soho Shorts 2012
Glenn - Blake Ritson
Mila - Eline Pauwels
Kilov - Olegar Fedoro
Mama Kilov - Caroline Blakiston
Mickey - Tom Marshall
'For Elsie' is a 23-minute short film directed by David Winstone. It is my favourite short film that I have seen so far because it is very imaginative and unlike many short films, it doesn't end with a horrible and cheesy punchline that seems very anticlimactic. Another factor which particularly intrigued me was the fact that the scenes that took place within Glenn's living room and kitchen, were actually all filmed within the film studio at the university.
Sunday, 1 July 2012
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY




Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 2011 Anglo-French espionage film directed by Tomas Alfredson, from a screenplay written by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan based on the 1974 novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le CarrĂ©. The film stars Gary Oldman as George Smiley, and co-stars Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch and CiarĂ¡n Hinds. It is set in London in the early 1970s and follows the hunt for a Soviet double agent at the top of the British secret service.
Prior to the film's release, a number of teaser character posters were released that featured stars including Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch and Colin Firth. It is clear that the main actor being promoted to an audience because even on the character posters his name is featured in a larger type above the title of the film.
I particularly like these posters because the design of the numbers and character faces is very effective and conveys that the film will involve spies/espionage and of a detailed nature.
The official film poster features stills from the film of the key characters and also anecdotes from the likes of 'EMPIRE'. I personally don't think that this poster is as effective as the character posters because it reveals a great deal and I believe that with the genre 'spy fiction', not many details should be revealed aside from actors, title and date because it detracts from the professionalism of the poster. The key actors within the film are also very well known within the industry and to the public and so it is not quite necessary to promote the film with such high budgeting and anecdotes.
When looking at the 1979 TV mini-series of 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', it is very easy, putting technological advances aside, to define the differences and similarities between the two. The 1979 version adopts a cartoonistic approach which depicts the character of George Smiley and a number of metaphorical symbols such as the broken statues and running figure. Also, a tagline is used to sum up the film/tv series; I don't think this is particularly effective however, it may be a fairly traditional convention of the time when introducing new plot lines. A strong similarity between the two versions is the strong use of the male protagonist within the poster.
THE DARK KNIGHT
Totalfilm.com named 'The Dark Knight' 2008 as having the No.1 best movie posters, despite these actually being teaser posters.
So the question is, why were the posters so well received and what made them so popular?
"“Why so serious?” is a brilliant tagline for a start, and the fact that it’s daubed in blood amps up the sense that this is going to be a distinctly adult affair. Plus, we love the tease of showing the Joker without properly revealing his face."
The Joker is such an iconic character that he seems to be the main focus for these posters and even in the first, in which his eyes are drawn onto the wall and the red lips, the lips are actually in the shape of the Batman.
Another effective element is the lack of information conveyed and so the audience is already feeling 'teased' and intrigued into watching the already very famous film franchise. In not revealing the character's actual physical appearances, the plot line and character's real identities or even actors are not revealed.
FILM POSTERS
"Film posters have been used since the earliest public exhibitions of film. They began as outside placards listing the programme of (short) films to be shown inside the hall or movie theater. By the early 1900s, they began to feature illustrations of a scene from each individual film or an array of overlaid images from several scenes. Other film posters have used artistic interpretations of a scene or even the theme of the film, represented in a wide variety of artistic styles."
Beginning in the 1980s, the American film studios began taking over direct production and distribution of their posters from the National Screen Service and the process of making and distributing film posters became decentralised in that country.
Also known as 'Key Art'.
Beginning in the 1980s, the American film studios began taking over direct production and distribution of their posters from the National Screen Service and the process of making and distributing film posters became decentralised in that country.
Also known as 'Key Art'.
So, what is meant by the term 'key art' or a film poster? A poster used to advertise a film; there may be several versions for one film, with variations in regards to size, content and country of production of the poster.
18-year old Mathew Carpenter from Australia established on the 'webdesignerdepot' website that there are 7 elements of a great film poster design:
1. Attention – jump out from the wall.
2. Iconography – showing without telling.
3. Interest – create an incentive to see the film.
4. Appeal – create desire with fans and non-fans alike.
5. Style – a look that’s consistent with the film.
6. Lasting Appeal – a look that suits other formats.
7. Recognisability – if it’s a sequel, make it obvious.
Bill Gold
Artist Bill Gold joined the advertising department of Warner Bros. at 21 and shortly thereafter created the poster for the 1942 classic "Casablanca,". Over the next 60 years, Gold designed or worked with illustrators on about 2,000 motion pictures such as, 'The Clockwork Orange' and 'The Sting'.
Types of film posters
Thursday, 28 June 2012
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