Pre-Production: Cancelled Project

After handing in our major pre-production package, me and Sei-Kai decided to not go put 'Fables' into production. Unfortunately due to personal issues I was unable to complete certain tasks on time, and this put a strain on our work. 

I will now be working on a new project by myself, where I will be creating a short 10-15 minute film. I still want to do something supernatural/horror themed and have a couple ideas already that I am going to expand on. 

Overall this was the best thing for me and Sei-Kai to do and we both feel happier for making this decision.

Pre-Production: Final Trailer

Unfortunately we did not end up using the trailer the animator made and we ended up doing something different. Sei-Kai and Kei was able to edit something together for our trailer.

Here is the final trailer for 'Fables':

Even though this wasn't the trailer I thought we would use, I still really like it and there are some shots in there that I particularly love. The trailer mainly uses archived footage and Sei-Kai bought the text and music from online. Overall it represents and gives a snippet on what our Fables will be about/like.

Pre-Prodcution: Floor Plans

For each script I wanted to include a rough floor plan, of how I wanted the camera and actors to b positioned in particular scenes. I used an app called 'Shot Designer', that Helen recommended to me a while ago. I was able to design the scenes on there, making the scene layout look a lot more professional, than just drawing it out.

Pre-Production: Location Recce - Salamanders

In the story 'Protecting Nature' there's a scene where the main character, Elliott goes to a mystical store, to fid out more information about the 'Asphodel' plant. 

In Maidstone, there's a store called 'Salamanders' that is full of mystical statues, crystals, incense, etc. which I thought would be perfect to use for this scene.

I went to the store, during the day and spoke to the manager. I mentioned what the film was about and how we would use the store, and she was more than happy for us to use it. All we have to do is let her know a week before, on what day to shoot and also make sure we film there either early in the morning, once the store opens or in the evening, as they are the quietest times.

Here are some images I took of the store.

The view of the shop from the outside

The view of the shop, once you've entered the store

The front door from the inside

The inside of the shop, further in

One side of the counter

Overall I'm happy that we was able to get permission to use this store as this gives the short film a more realistic feel when Elliott is researching. If we didn't get permission to film at a store, we would have had to use a plain room and make it into a mystical store, which would cost a lot of money, especially for the props.

Pre-Production: Storyboards

When it came to storyboarding the stories, I wanted to wait until I had the second draft of the scripts, as the first draft can end up changing completely. Here are the second draft of the stories in storyboard form.

'Protecting Nature' Storyboards:

1. 2.

3.4.



5.6.

'The Devourers' Storyboards:

1.2.

3.4.

5.

'The Curse of Beauty' Storyboards:

1.2.

3.4.

5.6.

Pre-Production: Chosen Actors

After many auditions, we have finally picked our actors for our short film series 'Fables'.

Leo Ulph

Leo will be playing 'Elliott' in Protecting Nature, 'Victim' in The Devourers and 'Warlock' in The Curse of Beauty

Yasmin Daniels

Yasmin will be playing the 'Nymph' in Protecting Nature, 'Scarlett' in The Devourers and 'Stephanie' in The Curse of Beauty

Matthew Sandland 

Matt will be playing the 'Old Man' in Protecting Nature, 'Jackson' in The Devourers and 'Delivery man' in The Curse of Beauty

Pre-Production: Meeting with Vikki - Animator 2

I met up with Vikki again and we went through some storyboard ideas she came up with for the animation. 

These storyboards were great first drafts, however Vikki included parts of the storyline that I didn't want to be given away in the trailer. I gave her my feedback on what I wanted cut out and changed and this is the new storyboard she came up with.

I was a lot happier with these storyboard designs! It included a taster of each story, without giving the storyline away.

In this meeting I also asked Vikki whether she would be able to do the storyboards for our scripts. She agreed to do them as well and I've sent her the scripts so that she can start on them. As we will be working over christmas, me and Vikki decided to liaise via email and have decided to keep regular contact until the trailer is done.

Pre-Production: Meeting with Vikki - Animator

Through a connection at UCA Rochester, we was able to have a meeting with a recent graduate that did Animation.

We didn't want to take on an animator without seeing what they can do, so we gave Vikki brief information on what we would like her to create. I told her that I wanted to create a little clip, where there was a lantern and small moths hovering around it. I wanted her to create something dark, with a purple colour palette, however for her to put her own creative input in.

Here is what she sent us:

I really liked the video, especially how she incorporated the lantern swinging. The colour and the overall look was what I imagined as well. We decided that Vikki would be great to have on board so we set up a meeting.

We met at a coffee shop and I roughly discussed the project, what we are looking to include in the trailer, such as colour schemes, lighting, location, etc.

Here is a document that I prepared for Vikki, on what me and Sei-Kai wanted in the trailer:


It basically outlines examples of what is to be included as well as information on the stories, to give her a better idea on what she is creating the trailer for.

Overall the meeting went very well and we will be meeting Vikki in a couple of week to see storyboards of the trailer and then she can start on the animation.

Pre-Production: Plant Research

In the story 'Protecting Nature', there's a plant that the main character needs to find, in order to help brings his dad back to life.

I had in my mind that this plant was ancient and as the Nymph in the story was inspired by something I read in Greek mythology, I thought I would match the mythology by seeing if there were any actual myths of a plant that can bring someone back to life.

After typing in different search words, I came across this website:

http://www.theoi.com/Flora1.html

It contained a list of different plants, that were mentioned in Greek myth stories, however these plants actually exist; not in a magical way though.

Out of all the plants that were on the site, the plant 'Asphodel' (Right image) stood out to me. This is what was said on the site:

Greek: Asphodelos
Species: Asphodelus Ramosus
Description:  A spring-flowering perennial with grey-green leaves and pale pink-grey-white flowers. The tubers are edibles.
Sacred to: Hades (asphodel planted around tombs), Persephone and Hekate (Statues of these goddesses were adorned with the asphodel on the island Rhodes)
Mythology: Asphodel Plains. This ghostly grey plant was believed to dominate the fields of the land of the dead. It was regarded as the food of the dead. (Source: Homer).

In mythology this plant was said to be the plant of the dead and is regarded to be the food of the dead, which is similar to the use of the plant in my story. The only difference with the plant in my story, is that it is used to bring people back from the dead. Below are some more images of the real Asphodel plant.

       

I wasn't sure whether the plant in my story should look like the actual Asphodel plant, so I decided to research into other plants for some ideas.

I came across Hypericum Balearicum, which is a yellow flowered plant with small green leaves. I mainly liked the flower to this plant, as it was bright and yellow and to me the colour represented life; which is the whole idea, as the plant is supposed to be used to bring life.

 

Even though I liked the Hypericum Balearicum, I decided to actually go with the flowers and the colour, etc. of the Asphodel plant. We obviously won't be able to get hold of the plant in the UK, however we have spoken to our costume designer, who also makes props and she said that she would make a fake version of the plant, herself.

Pre-Production: Meeting with Dani 2

Dani had roughly sketched out two different designs the nymph's dress and a jacket for the warlock.

Nymph dress design 1:

This design (Left image) wasn't really what we had in mind. Yes there was brown and green to match the forest trees, however we wanted the dress to start off brown and then blend into a moss green, similar to the image on the right. Also the dress was too long.





Nymph Dress Design 2:

This dress (Left image) was more appropriate in length to how I envisioned it in my mind and I really liked the different levels/layers to the bottom of the dress. As nice as it looks we didn't want any leaves on the dress, because it would be the end of winter when we start filming and there would be barely any leaves on the trees; and we wanted the nymph's outfit to match her surroundings. Out of the two I preferred this design, however it looked more like a fairy outfit, rather than what I envisioned the nymph to wear.



Warlock's Jacket Design:

For the warlocks jacket we wanted to have a military style. After speaking to Dani last time, she said that she would be able to make one for us, as the design we wanted was a little hard to find. I really liked the design of the jacket and we have already discussed particular materials that Dani will be using for the jacket.

Overall I think we have made progress with the warlocks jacket, however there is still a lot of work needed for the nymphs dress. Dani will be getting back to us with other designs within the next couple of weeks, hopefully we will have a better dress design next time.

Pre-Production: Costume and Meeting with Dani

For costume we wanted to try and get some students to help create some designs for our films. Sei-Kai contacted UCA Rochester, however after not getting a response I decided to contact a variety of different universities/colleges.

Here are some universities I contacted:

• University of Kent
• Canterbury Christ Church
• London College of Fashion
• University of East London
• West London College
• Fashion Retail Academy

I got a reply back from the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church, however these universities don't have any fashion courses. Unfortunately I didn't get a reply back from the other universities and decided to get into contact with someone I had previously worked with to see if they knew anyone who could design costume. We got a reply from Danielle Baylis, a seamstress and she was more than happy to help with our project.

We went round to her house in Rochester and I brought some mood boards on examples of how I would like the characters to look. There were only a couple of characters where costume would need to be made/designed and that was the Nymph from 'Protecting Nature', Jackson and Scarlett's from 'The Devourers' and the warlock from 'The Curse of Beauty'.

Here are the mood boards I created for Dani:

Nymph costume mood board 1

Nymph costume mood board 2

Nymph costume colour chart

Warlock costume mood board




Jackson and Scarlett costume mood board


Overall Dani came up with some great ideas, and our next stage will be to meet her in a couple of weeks and see what designs she has come up with.

Pre-Production: First Draft Feedback

I was able to write a first draft for each story and had a meeting with Simon, to see what I can improve on for the stories.

Here is his feedback for each story:

'Protecting Nature'

In this story there is not enough of a motive for Elliott to bring his dad back to life, is it because his dad is the only one that knows where the key to the fortune is?

The scene where Elliott finds the plant is too easy, there's not enough of a journey to find this plant, would it actually be easy to find an ancient plant?

'The Curse of Beauty'

In this story there is no motive to why Stephanie wants to be beautiful, i.e. has she got a deformity?

Also I need to decide whether this story will be modern or olden time based.

'The Devourers'

This story was the one with the less feedback. There is a lot of drama that happens in this story, however the story is very basic in the way that there are no obstacles, etc.

Overall for each story, I needed to include more of an atmospheric idea on where the characters are, I.e. more description on the locations. Also to not list what characters are wearing like a report, but incorporate it into either a movement or description in the script that visually give the reader an idea on what the character is wearing.

Unfortunately the stage of the scripts aren't scaled or big enough to work as major project so I need to work on my feedback and hopefully when he views my next draft, the stories will be a bit more developed.

Pre-Prodcution: Meeting with Jutta

After figuring out whats fables and story ideas we was going to use, one of our next stages was to look into make-up and costume designers. Make-up and costume is going to play a big role in our films, especially for the supernatural creatures.

For make-up we was lucky enough to get Jutta Russell, a professional make up artist on board. Sei-Kai has worked with Jutta in the past, after speaking to her about this project, Jutta was interested and said that she would help create make-up designs and if she is not too busy, maybe even also do the make-up as well.

Jutta has worked on many films and TV series, such as Harry Potter, Mr Selfridge, Thor: The Dark World (2013), starring Chris Hemsworth and 47 Ronin, starring Keanu Reeves.

There were only a few characters from the fable series that need make up, due to being a magical creature. The characters that Jutta will be designing and doing the make up for is the Nymph and old man from 'Protecting Nature', 'Stephanie's transformation stages and the Warlock from 'The Curse of Beauty' and Scarlett and Jackson when in their devourer form, in 'The Devourers'.

We met Jutta at her home in London and I showed her mood boards I had created for each character, to give her an idea on the style and look I wanted for each character. The meeting went really well and she said that she would be happy to help out on our project, and would try and help us fund affordable ways to create the looks we want for our small budget.

Here are the mood boards I created for Jutta, to give her an idea on the type of look I wanted for each character:

Make-up mood board for the Nymph

Make-up mood Board for Scarlett and Jackson as Devourers

Stephanie's make-up mood board

The next stage is to send her all the scripts and see what make-up designs/drawing she comes up with for each character. However it might take a while to receive them as she might be busy working on film and TV shoots.

Overall I'm excited to be working with Jutta and can't wait to see what designs she comes up with.

Pre-Production: Genre Research - Supernatural

The supernatural genre is a sub-genre to horror. Even though certain aspects of the supernatural genre can come up in the dark fantasy genre, I still wanted to research into this genre separately to have a more in-depth knowledge about it.

There are common themes that you can expect in the supernatural genre, such as a supernatural creature, either a monster or something beyond the grave, such as ghosts and demons.

The Conjuring (2013)

The conjuring is a true story based on the events of two paranormal investigators that investigate a case where a family is being attacked by a variety of different spirits in a new home they've moved into. This film is a classic example of the supernatural genre as the story involves paranormal aspects such as ghosts.

For the fables I won't use the supernatural genre as much as my main focus is magical creatures in the stories, not ghosts. However there are some parts to this film, such as camera shots and movements used. I noticed there were a lot of wide shots, medium close ups and mid shots, these are the type of shots I want to mainly use when filming the short films.

(Medium Close up shot example from 'The Conjuring')

(Wide Shot example from 'The Conjuring')

(Mid shot example from 'The Conjuring') 

Overall after doing some research on the supernatural genre I have decided that the fantasy genre is more covneiant for my research as I will be incorporating more fantasy elements to the fables rather than supernatural elements.

Pre-Production: Genre Research - Dark Fantasy

Dark Fantasy is a sub-genre to fantasy and in a way is a combination of fantasy and horror. This genre is quite dark and is known to contain violence, death and darker story themes.

Within fantasy, the worlds in the stories are different. They are either based in the past, i.e. medieval times or in the modern world, however there is some form of magical element in them, like magic and magical creatures, such as trolls, unicorns, fairies etc.

 

(Image of a unicorn)

There are a couple of films that have themes of dark fantasy, such as Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013), Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and Edward Scissorhands (1990) . Even though they might be categorised seperately under horror or fantasy, they all have the magical elements from the fantasy genre, but also include horror themes from the horror genre, which also categorises them in the dark fantasy genre.

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

This film is an adaptation to the Brothers Grimm story, Snow White. Many people associate Snow White's to the character portrayed in Disney's version, however the one written by the Brother's Grimm is a much sinister tale. In this particular film, Queen Ravenna, needs the life force of young maidens to maintain her beauty. She discovers that the only way to become immortal is to consume the heart of her stepdaughter Snow White. Snow is able to get away and makes allies to help her defeat the queen, and take back the kingdom.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)

Another adaptation is Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, this is an adaptation of the story Hansel and Gretel, written by the Brother's Grimm. This story was originally about a brother and sister who are abandoned in the woods by their father and come across a house made from candy. The house is owned by a witch, that eats children and she uses her house to lure children in. She is able to convoke Hansel and Gretel to come inside and fattens them up by feeding them sweets. She then tries to put them in the oven, however great is able to push the witch in and lock her in the over, her brother and herself are then able to escape. This film is a continuation of the brother and sister and follows them older, however they are now witch hunters after defeating the witch that tried to eat them when they were younger.

Both of these films were good examples to look at as they are adaptations of old tales and also have dark storylines. They both deal with death, violence and magical creatures, whether it is working alongside them or defeating them. These films have inspired me with particular aspects of the dark fantasy genre, such as the characters and the world. Even though these are both based in the past, Ive decided that the fables I will be creating will be set in modern day, to make it different to other films out there.