Mikee potentially is working with me on all 3 outcomes. He’s ma main man fo’ sound fo’ sure. Yes.
ANYWAY.
I went to meet Mikee in the pub yesterday to discuss ideas for each film.
Stop Motion Photo Montage - Since this is really a solo effort by me anyway, Mikee will be the only one helping me with this. I want a lo-fi, simplistic soundtrack, kinda nice and cute almost. Mikee suggested a banjo and double bass which would be amazing. This one can be done really quick I reckon.
Film Noir - After brainstorming this seems to be the outcome with the most work to do. Essentially we’re going with ‘themes’, so like the main protagonist will have a theme, a certain location has a theme etc.. I want to mix the old Film Noir sounds to a contemporary mix, think of the type of sounds they use in Batmans Dark Knight, rusty blades on violins etc. There will be an element of jazz, and little or no music in parts to help create tension and such. I need to work more on the script before we decide anything else.
Hansel and Gretel - Again, we’ll play around with the idea of themes to help things flow easier and just generally be more flexible. Once Alex has done a draft of the script for this we’ll have a better idea what exactly we can do. Our general sound is gona be a sort of grimey synth. Mixing the old and the new. We’ll be looking at Engelbert Humperdink’s score he did for the play of Hansel and Gretel, maybe even re-hash it or mix it around a bit.
Overall, I’m extremley happy with the Sound, Mikee is definitely on the same page as me and has come up with some brilliant ideas. We’ll use some of the recording studios and even some Horn and Brass players might get in on this.. exciting stuff. I’m chuffed that my Sound for this will be quite professional. Sound essentially makes the film!
Alex Cruden is my main chief of a writer for the Hansel and Gretel short film. I figured he would be a good one to include on the team as Leo mentioned previously he’s a good comedic writer and plus his blogs are always entertaining: http://alibongo.tumblr.com/.
So yeah, again, experimental twist with the Hansel and Gretel film, with a modern adaptation. This is only in the initial stages as such but I feel he’s the right man for the job (Or so help me…) as I want quite an endearing and quirky script. The main focus is on the idea of storytelling as the main narrative structure. So the narrator is telling the story of Hansel and Gretel, it’s a monologue where the actors don’t actually say anything, they just mouth the words, and the narrator does their voices (imagine it as if like a parent was reading you a story). But as well as that I want all the imperfections you get when someone tells you a story, like bits they forget, or bits they’ve just made up.
Me and Alex have flung a few e-mails at eachother and I reckon we’re on the same wavelength on what’s going down, so I’m quietly confident that something nice will be produced from this partnership.
So Amelia is helping me with Character Structure, seeing as she does Sociology she can give me a really good insight into social archetypes and stereotypes. She will be helping me mostly with the Film Noir short film.
The main character archetypes are the Detective protagonist, and the femme fatale, obviously these are both going to play big parts in this film, and so need the most attention.
Since I’m absolutely crazy for experimentation, I want to switch around character traits i.e. the Detective is actually the femme fatale, and the femme fatale is the detective, as this would make a very interesting case for gender archetypes too.
But we came to the conclusion that to translate this from the film to the audience may be a tad difficult. The audience will need to have a prior understanding of Film Noir, and be aware of the character archetypes. Also, this may not be overt enough for people to ‘get’ what it means. So this essentially means I will be making this a lot more harder for myself if I stuck to this idea, but don’t fret friends, we’ve come up with a solution…
Instead of going for the ‘clever’ switch-a-roo with the characters, Amelia came up with the brilliant idea to take a step in the opposite direction. The characters will have their traits and all, but it’s going to be exaggerated. This is to show the characters for what they’re really are, and it should be an interesting approach, like for the femme fatale, I have a rough idea of that she’s a very promiscuous girl, but she’s also incredibly manipulative. I’ll discuss these more with Amelia once we’ve done some more visual research.
Right!
A very productive week, (compared to the past 3 or so months that is) my project for the year is up and running. I’ve selected my ten person crew to help me out with different bits and bobs for each of the 3 short film outcomes. Very excited about this. I’ll post some more updates when I meet up with certain team members ( I have 3 more blogs to put up after this so you’ll see what I mean).
I’ve also created another blog, on blogspot (sorry tumblr, nothing personal) which can be found at http://formandstructure.blogspot.com if you want to have a nosey peak.
Completely forgot about this. So much for being commited!
Right happy reader, I’ll tell you what I’ve been up to in the past month and a bit.
1) Got into Camberwell. Finally. Found out 2 weeks before I started- which was this Monday that just went. I have two summer projects to do, which most people got in June, to do by next Thursday. Although my timetable is ideal. Every Thursday I have a tutorial, and my tutor is set in some design studio so I get to hang out with the cool cats in a STUDIO rather than dimmly lit classroom. Noice. Oh and I have half a day on Fridays. And that’s my timetable. I know right? 5 1/2 day weekend. I’m not one of those people who complain about lack of classroom hours compared to how much they pay with tuition fees - I can’t be fussed to care - I’d rather do my own thing at my own time rather than be told what to do every day by a 40-something-year-old looking at me with thick rimmed designer specs, intentionally groomed scruffy stubble, plaid wearing douche. Sorry, I’m bitter about tutors ever since the LCC fuck up.
2) I think I mentioned about having new housemates in an old post? And some of yousmartarses out there are gona be like “Uh look down the page Jamie you idiot” Well up yours, I’m writing this in a new post page so I can’t scroll down so I’ll lose everything I wrote. And plus it’s long. ANYWAY. We have Caroline, a french girl starting her 2nd year in Typography at LCC, and Chris, laid back guy starting Magazine publishing. Both really nice.
3) I turned 22 a week and a bit ago. Fuck. I’m so old. This is not cool. It’s weird to think how I started my foundation course 3 years ago. Corr.
4) At the mo? I’m at Amelia’s in Norwich, having a short break and doing some work for the new course. She has an exam in the next few weeks, hope it goes well. Good luck.
I can’t think of much else to say right now, but I’ll try my best to keep this more updated. You know what the summer can be like. You get a tad unproductive and out of touch with what you do in a regular routine. I remember when I was younger and in Primary School, during the whole summer holidays I would do no writing, so each September I would have this giant fear that I wouldn’t be able to write and that I’d forgotten it all. Thankfully it all came running back each time. That’s kinda what I feel like now. Deep eh? Yeah, man.
Oh some pictures will be up soon too. It’s half the effort of reading, so my blog will be more efficient! I’m on to something here…
TTFN.
