The wonders of Tasya Van Ree and I'm a Hunter

One of my all time favourite artist, Tasya Van Ree has influenced me in my work in Ex.Arts. Tasya Van Ree is a  L.A based artist and photgrapher, who speciales in black and white portraits/photgraphs. She has also recently directed and produce a few short films and a music video.

(Above one of Van Ree's famous and my favourite portraits of the actress, Kate Moenning).

The reason why I am talking about Tasya Van Ree is because she always shots in black and white, something which I am thinking may look good in No Light, No Light. However, this is Hannah's terroitry since it's editing. But I think it will good, espically in the flashbacks, sort of what we did in the last project, (where the character is remembering her life before she commits suicide).
The main reason however, is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWqsHFWna2k
This is a short film by Tasya, but what striked me the most was how Tasya managed to film the entire 7 minute video all in one shot. I am used to doing many shots at one time, then collabrating them in the editing process. I think this is a very good piece of film because Tasya manages to make the camera flow and study the character before the character kills herself. This is to me, extremely impressive because I am used to seeing pieces of film with stand still shots, or even seeing it with a flowing camera angles, but this is the first ever video I have seen where this works. I am considering taking the "flowing camera angles" to No Light, No Light. Of course not the entire video because it won't look good but perhaps one of the flashback/ running scenes. I think by doing this you can study the character in a intiamte way. Also, the 7 minute film is filmed in one room, and Tasya has set the room out, so the protagnist can easily move around the room but also so she caputure the protagnist expressions well.

(shot from `Silenced` by Tasya Van Ree)

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Another video which I have taken an influence from is "I'm a Hunter by ASKA" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaTP7jMPjd8 I know the first bit is a tad strange but it is choreographed by one of my favourite actresses/musician Shanynn Sossoman who is known for her weird ways. The reason why I am bringing this video up is because the set is very impressive, along with the camera angles. I love the bit at the start where, Theresa Wayman (yes, her again) is talking about the Reverend Mother and there this a still shot of the room ,to what I think imprisonment and loneliness. Then there is a close up of Theresa talking and you can see anger and somehow loyal

(above Theresa. close up)
 That's what I see from the shots and I think that might be what Shannyn was thinking whilst helping to produce this music video. Going back to the set, there is the artwork which adds a arty sense and shows a virtual side of the video. I know that sounds stupid that it seems visual in a video, but I think that the artwork plays a big part. However, the video is shot in about two rooms , one which is very cramped and shows (once again imprisonment). The other is bigger and is in front of a candles, which adds an extra-visual for the audience and somehow brightens Theresa and ASKA.

(The room with candles)

Anna Richards (Bubs)

Ghost The Musical

The preliminary study is the trailer for the Ghost The Musical which has been adapted from the 1990 film Ghost. The main outline of the story is that Sam is a New Yorker banker and is in a relationship with Molly (who professes in pottery). Sam suspects foul play in his bank and eventually finds out that it is his best friend, Carl. Carl then kills Sam and Sam turns into a ghost. Of course, Molly and everybody else can't see him. Sam then goes to see a psychic to tell Molly that he is a ghost. Once Sam is dead, Carl tries to steal Molly. I have not watched either the musical or the film so I do not know how the story ends.

However I know from the storyline and the trailer, betrayal plays a big part. Betrayal is addressed through Carl betraying Sam and even killing him for his own comfort. This film is based on friendship betrayal and I think everybody can relate to this such as be-friend somebody who is secretly "hiding" something. Furthermore, once Sam is dead, Carl tries to steal Molly so I think Carl is trying to steal Sam lives.

I think the main target audience for the musical is for fans of the 1990's film who are mainly adults in present day. Also, I think the target audience is for musical and West End fans. The genre of the musical is romantic supernatural drama, so I think some of the audience are there because they are into romantic "soppy" musicals and fans.

Personally, I am not into the storyline because I do not like romantic films and musicals but I do like traditional musicals such as The Sound Of Music and Mary Poppins, mainly because of the songs and the characters. However, I do think the production of Ghost is very impressive. I really like the projections such as the train scene I saw in the trailer. The train adds set and makes the audience feel like they are "in" the production; it also makes more emotion in the audience. I like the multi-media which is used in the production such as the lighting and costume. The lighting is very good because when Sam is a ghost, the lighting is pale shaded blue which symbols he is a ghost. Molly wears pale pastel colours, so this symbols she is alive.

The style of the work is a modern musical adapted from a film. It is modern because of the big use of projections, lighting and dancing/singing. The dancing and singing are modern to me, mainly because I am used to old fashioned musicals. But I do think I would like to experience the production of Ghost because it much different to the usual West End production. The projections are really good use because it has a dramatic effect and also because the story involves a supernatural theme, it adds a "spooky" effect to the productions. The lighting is very good as well because every character is lit up, Sam and Molly's lightning is well done because even when they are extremely close, Sam is a shaded indigo colour and

Molly is a pale white. This is very impressive technology wise and adds a lot more effect.

The dancing and singing which are shown in the trailer are mainly songs between Sam and Molly but also there is a section showing a typical New York “Aretha Franklin” song by the psychic and a jazz-hand song by Carl. I think the songs are quite good because there are chosen for the characters and helps the audience understand the characters more. Going back to the psychic’s song, from a minute of watching her musical piece, the audience can gather what her personality is. Such as, she is quite outgoing (from the fast song but also her costume which is very colourful and bright). The costume in the production seems very good such as Carl is always wearing expensive looking suits and smart styled hair. I think this shows that he is quite smug and does anything for his comfort (which is true because he even killed Sam for his comfort).

One main method used is that I can see from the trailer is that there is only one stage. I think this is a good method because if there are numerous stages, it can confuse the audience. Another way of communicating the songs and the lyrics are what the characters are feeling. I think that is a very important method because it shows the audience what exactly the characters are thinking. There is dancing as well which shows what the audience what they are thinking through the movement of the body.

Running...

We have decided to have the protagnist (who is now named Cam, named after Camila Grey from Uh Huh Her.That's a another very long story)  in different locations whilst she is running. We have got this idea from the original No Light, No Light, where Flo is running away from the voodoo. However in our video, she will be running away from her "husband/boyfriend person" because of domestic abuse and generally he's mean ways. By having her running, we can use many locations (such as the flyover because that look's vaguely urban for North Wales). We want to use an "urban" location because it suits the song and the theme. Also, we think it wouldn't work if she is running from Mrs.Evan's vegetable patch (no offence to anyone named that and has vegetable patches).  We will have Cam running past places of sinificant. Such as a bench or something where Cam and her boyfriend first kiss or hold hands or something vaguely romantic/happy. We hope to have Hannah playing Cam and Conor playing...Conor. Let's just hope Hannah and Conor don't break up soon, otherwise we will be a bit stuffed. The next place will be somewhere where something bad happend or where somewhere he began to be abusive. Then, it shall be a place where Cam tell's her friend (That will be played at the part of the song, where its says " To say it to a crowd But it's so hard, my love To say it to you out loud"...We shall still have the white room and that will have about 1 and a half minute screentime. We are doing this beacuse there isn't that much we can do in the white room and we don't want the audience bored, that kinda defeats the objective of the task. We are having her running past places because I can do a lot with set/camera angles. It will look quite good on screen and we also want to take something out of the Florence original video.

Black Paint Experiment

We did an exeriment to see how thick the bklack paint is to see if we need to add more water to make it thinner, we will also carry out tests later by throwing it against a wall to test peoples aims and to test if it works and see if we need to make any alterations.

First physical set

 Our set, inr eal life it will be bigger and th back board will be replaced by a wall, and it will be covered in white wallpaper

 This is the set with me Bubbles, to show how big it is in comparison with a person,  Frlom this we decided to make it bigger.

 The tripod reoprestents a place where we may position a camera

 Anouther possible camera

 The actual view from the camera

 Anoutehr psoition for the camera

 This is a shot from the top corner of one of the boards, I would love to use this shot but we need to find out a way to position the camera here

 A shot from thje camera too the side, I also love this shot and will use this

This is a birds eey view

White Room set

White room set camera angles and editing

Plans and Stuff

New stuff one before Chritsmas