Tuesday 30 September 2014

Casting Photos So Far

At this current point in time, I have cast my teenage and adult male and female. I have also cast my elderly male and female.

Teenage/Adult Male
 
 This is David Connelly. David is seventeen years old, and has a passion for acting. I knew immediately that David would be ideal for this role due to his dedication to the arts. David has also had experience in A-Level Dance, which enhances his suitability for the role, due to the dancing that takes place within the film.
 
 


 
 
Teenage/Adult Female
 
 
This is Jordan Scott. Jordan is also seventeen, and similarly to David, has a dedicated love for performing arts. Both she and David takes Performing Arts as an A-Level subject. Jordan has also had dance solos during the school dance shows, reflecting her dedication to the subject. Jordan is my ideal actress due to her strong willed mind and determination to achieve the highest she can possibly get.
 



 
 
 
 
 
Elderly Male and Female
 
 
This is my ninety year old grandmother, Edith Anderson. Edith will play my elderly female. From the minute I had decided to include the characters at an elderly age, I knew my grandmother would be more than willing to partake in the film. When she was younger she loved to dance, and regularly went out with friends and even competed in dance competitions, giving her a close connection to the story of the short film.
Alongside Edith is her eighty year old partner, Maurice. Maurice has always been a grandfather figure to me, due to his close relationship to my grandmother. When I asked the pair if they were willing to act, Maurice was slightly shy, but was up to the challenge, if it meant having fun.
 
 


Tuesday 23 September 2014

Casting Ideas

For my short film, I need a fairly large cast to play two characters. I need three males and females to play the different stages in the character's lives.
I also need a dance teacher, and preferably a group of other male and female dancers to enhance the realism during the competition sequences.


Childhood years
 
I am currently looking into casting two year sevens for the childhood sequence. I will have to choose a male and female that look younger than they actually are in order to follow my plan.
I already have a male in mind. Hopefully, he agrees to take part otherwise I will struggle to find a male due to the lack of male dancers. I don't currently have a female in mind, however, I feel that it will be much easier to cast the female role.
 
For the childhood scene, I also need to cast a dance teacher. I would like to ask the official school dance teacher, however if she declines, I still should be able to cast somebody of a similar standard.
 
Teenage and Adult Years
 
In most cases, once you've hit the teenage years of your life, that's how you'll most likely look for the rest of your life. For this reason, I am going to cast a male and female for both the teenage and adult scenes of the film.
I have already cast my male actor, David Connelly. David has a passion for performing arts and I know that I can rely on him to provide a strong performance for the film.
I have also cast my female actress, Jordan Scott. Jordan also holds a strong passion for the arts; dance in particular. I can trust Jordan to bring my character to life successfully and passionately.
 
For the teenage years, I would also like to cast some other teenagers as background dancers. The idea of this scene is that it is a dance competition that they lose. So, not only will I need other groups of two to dance, but I will also need one of the pairings to feature on camera for a slightly longer period of time to appear as the winners of the competition.
To go alongside both the adult and teenage competition scenes, I need a judge (who might not even appear on camera) who will call out that they are the winners. I may ask them to hand over a trophy to the two winners in the adult scene.
 
Elderly Years
 
I have not yet cast this scene. I know that casting the two elderly characters will quite possibly be the hardest, due to the lack of willing males and females. I have intentions of asking my great grandmother and her partner, as I feel that they may be the most willing to act.
 
I will not need any extras for this scene as it will only consist of the two leading characters.
 
 

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Locke (2013)

 
I recently went to the Tyneside Cinema with two others to see "Locke", directed by the talented Steven Knight.

 
The Tyneside Cinema is situated in the heart of Newcastle, by Grey's Monument. The Tyneside not only screens independent (and some blockbusters, but only on occasion) films, but it also runs clubs for the elderly, gives tours of their cinema and facilities, and even holds workshops and film schools, such as Northern Stars, The Pop-Up Film School, and various BFI Film Academies (I attended "BFI: The Film Business" Academy, where I participated in the creation of a "Swede-a-Classic" show reel, visited London to meet successful members of the industry, and also visited Glasgow to enjoy the film festival). The Tyneside is personally one of my favourite places to visit, hence the reasoning behind my visit there on this occasion.
 
As previously mentioned, myself, Rebecca Graham, and Callum York, went to the Tyneside Cinema to watch "Locke". I had suggested we see a film that night, regardless of what was on. I suggested this, as we often enjoy going to see a film we have little knowledge on.
 
In all honesty, I didn't expect have high expectations for this film. I wondered how one could produce a full feature length film with repeated shots and one location. I wondered how one would have such skill as to maintain the interest of the audience. I wondered how the lighting would maintain during the shot. I had my doubts.
However, I was extremely pleasantly surprised!
I thoroughly enjoyed the film form start to finish. Who would have thought a film about a man making constant phone calls concerning concrete, labour, and family issues would keep the viewers so on edge, dying to see the film reach it's climax.
 
The film features Ivan Locke, a family man living an average life. We meet Locke on the night before his largest work project to date. However, from a series of phone calls, we learn of the difficulties that also face him on this fateful night. Locke has a single car journey to make the necessary phone calls and try to make things right.
 
A riveting plot with suspense from start to finish.
 
My rating: 4.5/5
 

Monday 1 September 2014

"Hotel Chevalier" by Wes Anderson (Short Film Analysis 1)


"Hotel Chevalier" (2007) is a short featured as an extra on the DVD for Wes Anderson's 2007  "The Darjeeling Limited".
The short stars Natalie Portman and Jason Schwartzman.

(P.S: Robert Yeoman does nearly all the cinematography on Wes Anderson's film, which the exception of "Fantastic Mr Fox", and he happens to be a favourite of mine)

I'm analysing this particular short mainly for it's use of colour and cinematography.

From the beginning of the short, it's clear to see how the use of colour helps portray the characters beyond words. Schwartzman's character wears a yellow dressing gown (as seen on Portman on the image above), which blends into the yellow theme of the hotel room, connoting that he is in his comfort zone here, and doesn't stand out from the background, thus disappearing into it.

Once he receives the phone call from Portman's character explaining that she'll arrive soon, he changes his attire into a grey suit, and proceeds to lie back down on the bed, standing out from the background, suggesting that he is now out of his comfort zone, and is clearly uncomfortable by her arrival.
During the outfit change, he enters the bathroom to brush his teeth. During this shot, he stares directly into the camera, which is playing as a mirror at this point. His unsure look truly unmasks the worry he feels towards Portman's character.

Portman arrives in a grey coat, white blouse, black trousers and black shoes. Her black outfit connotes that she doesn't belong in this hotel room, and that this isn't her ideal place of residence. She then proceeds to walk around the hotel room, and study some of the objects randomly placed.
She then walks into the bathroom and brushes her teeth. Contrasting to Schwartzman's actions, Portman never looks directly into the camera, connoting that she isn't afraid and doesn't feel as though she should look herself in the mirror for reassurance.

After their bedroom scene, Schwartzman's character wraps Portman's up in his dressing gown, as if enveloping her in the comfort zone that is the room. Up until that point, it comes to the audience's attention that we never view Schwartzman's character in the outdoor world or even beside a window (with exceptions of the bathroom, which doesn't give off too much light) which enhances the connotation that his character is in his comfort zone when inside the hotel room, away front he outside world. Portman's character, however, is often placed in Wes Anderson's famous centre shots (fun fact: Wes Anderson nearly always works with cinematographer Robert Yeoman), which always happen to have her placed by or behind a window, reflecting her freedom and comfort in the outside world. After being wrapped in the yellow dressing gown, pulls him to stand on the balcony, breaking Schmartzman's pattern of avoiding the outdoor world and light.

They stand on the balcony for a shot, before Portman pulls Scwartzman inside, back into his comfort zone of the hotel. This suggests that despite his rebirth into the outdoor world, Portman understands his needs and so pulls him back inside the realms of the hotel, back to where he can sink into the background in peace.