Directing and Production Design Research, Black Swan

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Production Design: Thérèse DePrez

Discovered In: Screen Rant

Shadow Puppet Inspiration, The Deathly Hallows Pt.1

Interview with Animator: FX guide

More Depth into Shadow Puppetry: Suspended Blog

Here is a link to the video, embedding has been disabled.

Sources: Sandra Cuffes Minor Blog, FX guide, Suspended Blog

Cinematography, Enter the Void

"I have a phobia of movie lights," says Noé. "I dont't like having equipment on the set that would prevent me from turning the camera around. Benoit and I had an agreement on irreversible and on this film that there would be no movie lights on set." He concedes, however that exeptions were made on Void in order to create the strobe lighting for the night club, and to allow some impressionistic wahses of colors." (1)

"The danger when doing a very colorful film," he continues, "is that it can become a little gaudy. I wanted us to stay in a restrained color palette - the range is more or less between purple and orange or yellow> We tried to keep a unity to the colors." (2)

Cinematographer: Benoit Debie

Production Designer: Marc Caro

Image Source: Photo Films


Reference: (1) Benjamin B, Oct 2010, Contemplating a Coloful Afterlife, American Cinematographer, Vol. 91 No.10, p18
(2) Benjamin B, Oct 2010, Contemplating a Coloful Afterlife, American Cinematographer, Vol. 91 No.10, p22

Steam Punk Dreams

One of the main pieces of Art Direction and stories that really gave me the inspiration to make 'Graces Fall' was, 'The City Of Lost Children'. The film directed by Jean-Pierre and Marc Caro who I seem to be taking a lot of inspiration from, they really are fantastic visionary directors with other films such as 'Delicatessen' and 'MICMACS'. Both films having a specific visual style and stylistic Art direction. What this film did for me most was the 'dark', fairytale like atmosphere it presents, with its Steam punk direction and colorful Neo-Noir like lighting.

'rented a room to cram quantities of items purchased from right to left. They are disassembled, hack it, I always had a taste for transforming the object.','For the City of Lost Children was composed of machines that do not exist.' (Aline Bonetto, 1)

Im going to do further research into this style and explore similar conventions. Also in relation to the quote above I want to get into this mindset how to transform an object, to make it something original on screen.

Reference:

(1) Alexander Tsekenis, Aline Bonetto Interview, Objectif Cinema, http://www.objectif-cinema.com/spip.php?article3611(google translated)

Director:  Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro
Cinematographer: Darius Khondji
Art Direction: Jean Rabasse
Production Design: Marc Caro & Jean Rabasse

Steam Punk Adventure in Production by Director Tomas Alfredson

Product Description

Arthur (Art) Mumby and his irritating sister Myrtle live with their father in the huge and rambling house, Larklight, travelling through space on a remote orbit far beyond the Moon. One ordinary sort of morning they receive a correspondence informing them that a gentleman is on his way to visit, a Mr Webster. Visitors to Larklight are rare if not unique, and a frenzy of preparation ensues. But it is entirely the wrong sort of preparation, as they discover when their guest arrives, and a Dreadful and Terrifying (and Marvellous) adventure begins. It takes them to the furthest reaches of Known Space, where they must battle the evil First Ones in a desperate attempt to save each other - and the Universe. Recounted through the eyes of Art himself, Larklight is sumptuously designed and illustrated throughout.

About the Author

Philip Reeve's first novel Mortal Engines was published to an incredible critical acclaim which his subsequent books have emulated. He is the author of the Larklight trilogy for Bloomsbury. Philip lives in Devon. David Wyatt, has illustrated many beautiful covers for authors including Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman. He lives in Devon, and is a keen lutist, cyclist, and wanderer of the moors. (Amazon uk synopsis)

From looking around at some literature relating to Steam Punk, I came across  piece that will soon be translated into a Hollywood film. The synopsis sounds quite out there and I'm interested in how this may develop. I think I will take out the book and understand how Steam Punk translates through literature, to understand how the world is articulated through writing.

Although I find this quite interesting, I feel that my story is not very close to any sort of 'Steam Punk' literature. In fact I feel that the feel initially was meant to be within a Steam Punk style, but now i feel that its going in a direction of its own, mixed with a conjunction of styles and ideas from my previous work.


Original Source: Twitch Film ,The Hollywood Reporter

Watched! Miyazaki's 'Ponyo'

I Watched Ponyo last night. After a long 2 year wait Ponyo finally arrives to a western audience. English dubbed Japanese films are usually a bit shoddy but with Disney's backing the Ghibli films always seem to come out with a great English cast. At first i wasnt too sure about the simplicity in the animation within a still, but once I saw the animation in motion, it really has a life of its own with so much fluidity. Similar to 'My Neighbor Totoro', 'Similar in theme and tone, both films ground themselves in domestic life and simply seek to depict how emotional realities are transmitted through a child’s imagination.' (1)

Im really interested in the way the main character gets sucked into this magical atmosphere. I know that this is quite a light hearted piece, but what really grabs me about Miyazaki's films is how he creates imaginative worlds in such effective ways, through  excellent sound design, music composition and visual elements really make up this child like world.

The idea of how Caroline Mckenzie speaks about the depiction of how 'emotional realities are transmitted through a child's imagination.', is an important one for 'Graces Fall'.



Ponyo Trailer from kinodiseea on Vimeo.







Reference:
(1) Caroline McKenzie, High-water Mark, Reverse Shot, http://www.reverseshot.com/article/ponyo