By Emma Harris & Grace Brennan

FP2

Turmoil from Grace Brennan on Vimeo.

Turmoil.

Created for William Tempest

Mood:Raw

Effect:Flashing lights.

Final Thought..

Neither Grace or I had any interest in film at all beforehand, now we sit analysing programs and identifying camera angles, we are quite sad really. I have found it very interesting and had strong ideas since the beginning. I have really enjoyed everything to do with the practical film making and even regaling the tales on here to some degree. Only down point for me was doing a sketchbook too and also the feedback we got for our presentation but as I said before that really was a turning point for us and I guess the negative comments made acted as a catalyst to prove them wrong and it worked I think as all the tutors have liked our film, even the bits they said wouldn't work.

For now I am completely sick of watching our film and its dramatic effect is lost to me, but there are a few bits which still creep me out a tad just because they are so unnatural. Because we have enjoyed the process it doesn't seem like we've worked extra hard, but when I think about it we really have, we've been in uni everyday for the last two weeks from the morning until we are kicked out and then at home doing books and blogs. Yesterday for lunch me and Grace has three walnuts each, there was no time to stop.

After this project I would will definitely consider some sort of film in conjunction with my third year final as it has been very rewarding. Feel a bit sad that is is my final post now. We are both excited about the screening and plan to send out our press release to those we wish to invite mainly for the "innovative film makers" line.

I hope you enjoy enjoy our film.

Turmoil.

Created for William Tempest

Mood:Raw

Effect:Flashing lights.

Hair, Make-up, styling, concept, art direction, location scouting,filming, post production and tea making:

Emma Harris & Grace Brennan.

Special thanks to Lauren Christensen, Designer and Model.

Press Release layout.

We have used a still from our film as our press release and have also put together a small press pack containing;

• Press release (obviously)
• "William Tempest" black lace gloves
• Flutter eyelashes as seen in film.
• and some little black and white humbug mints(made of tissue)

I think I'd enjoy these pleasant gifts.

Press Release content.

Me and Grace wrote this during the panic yesterday, I think we were quite delirious. We re-read it last night and couldn't stop laughing. I hope its ok, its abit of a laugh really which wasn't the writing style we going for. Its supposed to be short and sharp, anything overly pretentious would not be representative of our film. We've wanted to keep everything very simple but precise throughout;

Compelling and intelligent, Turmoil is a short film exhibiting the severe yet sophisticated nature of William Tempest's designs.

Through its stylization, the film portrays the dark glamour subtly lacing each collection, whilst the loose narrative addresses powerful emotions of entrapment and obsession, keeping the audience transfixed. Created for William Tempest by innovative filmmakers Emma Harris and Grace Brennan, Turmoil is a disturbingly beautiful work of cinematic art and design.

We invite you to the screening of this unique collaboration on the 22nd April 2010 at 5pm, UCA Rochester

For more information please contact:

Grace Brennan
07746453628/gbrennan@ucreative.ac.uk

Emma Harris
07827563211/eharris5@ucreative.ac.uk

What I would do differently next time..

Firstly for some unknown reason Blogger isn't working AT ALL and it driving me insane.

I did have a detailed analysis of what I'd do differently and it just crashed and lost everything.

So now I will bullet point it...

1. I would know to wear less clothes in the computer rooms as its like the rain forest in there.
2. I would get cameras much earlier.
3. Probably ask for a more specific brief as some things are quite vague? Like about how many discs you should give in, in what format (cd? dvd?) Why do we have to print our blogs, do a sketchbook and blog online? and what we should be putting in the research book that is umarked or marked?? I really hope I don't get marked down for not printing my blog or lack or words in my book or something, that would be frustrating.
4. Not to ask for music before you've filmed. We were pretty set on what we we wanted to do so got some music made as a sort of motivation I guess, but then as our themes morphed during filming the original music didn't fit any more. It is quite disappointing really, but we found the perfect music the end! Dennis did tell us at the presentation not to do this, He was right.
5. Not to leave final touches until the last minute.Yesterday was such a heart attack of a day due to the program messing about,our film being finished and no one was in to rescue us!!

All in all this project has been a good learning curve, It feels good to have mastered final cut pro and produced something quite good really.

1. 
   

30.03.10 HAND IN, Our "the cut" journey.

I have just added some finishing touches to my book and written my own personal reflection in my research book. It feels so strange that this project is over!

Overall I have enjoyed it and got quite a lot from it actually. The first few weeks were quite stressful, I really don't work well having 10 weeks to do projects now, I work best under pressure and am quite impulsive, having ten weeks often leaves me confused because in that time before the final outcome is started I have so many ideas and they are morph into one and become a bit wishy washy? I think the turning point for me personally in this project was after the 5 week presentation. We did get good feed back on our idea and themes and also had a strong presentation but Dennis and Geraldine weren't sold on the test shot we showed. However since creating our sequence we have still used the flashing light effect to cut between scenes and both Olle and Geraldine really liked it. Olle asked if we got it from the internet, this felt good after the reaction we got during the presentation. This project was pretty daunting as I have no idea about film making and really am not technical at all. The filming was really fun though, we took the cameras out with us and filmed each other to get used to them, filmed each other in the house, they got a good use. We have had the same direction since the beginning, but our idea did change over time. Originally it was going to be more like a promotion film, half in a studio half on location and using effects,our inspiration was Showstudio by Gareth Pugh and Ruth Hogben. However as we started filming our film took its own direction and we just went with it. We knew we wanted to create something compelling but at the same time disturbing. As I said we had a rough plan of what we wanted to do, and both of us planned to use Lauren's creative cut dress since day one so that was sort of our inspiration as well. We didn't really plan anything to detail, just had an idea and went with it, if it changed whilst we were doing it we just let it bubble through. This was the case when setting up the first location in the room. We knew we wanted a sterile and creepy atmosphere so just went in there and did what we could with what we had. The same went for make-up and styling. We pulled everything that might work and just threw something together on the day. I find things always work best that way and I am completely happy with what we achieved. My favourite piece is the black out fit with Gareth Pugh inspired shoulders which I made out of uca tshirts and hair bands, on film it looks amazing. That is one of the things I have really enjoyed about this project, everything on film we have created and when little things like the styling, they are so primitive and stuck together with pins but on the camera it is so effective-better than anything we could have bought!

I am also so pleased I can now use final cut pro. At first me and Grace didn't even know how to open it, now we are pretty wizzy on it! I think it was good we each went in on our own and did a section of the film. I did the first white outfit sequence and grace did the monochrome alley scene. This both enabled us to put our own bit into the film and also work out the program for ourselves. We have both quite enjoyed editing our film I think, until it went wrong yesterday, then we nearly cried, but that is the only disaster we've had so far but it was pretty traumatic so close to hand in! We have mainly used variable speed, flop, and reverse actions and manually cut out clips to create the alien movement. We did test out a few more technical effects but our film is best simple and just "raw" like our brief. I think the rawness comes across well in the emotion and gritty locations and we are both very happy with the contrasting fashion. Although its dark, and a bit "modern goth" it still is sophisticated and in the grotty surroundings the clothes really stand alone. We hope we've captured the essence of William Tempest in the styling and overall stylisation of the film, we've always wanted to keep fashion the main theme of the film rather than a cheesy narrative. I hope we've created something intelligent and intense that leaves the audience a bit bemused, the short of film you would probably have to watch again as there is a lot to take in but its over before its started- all whilst being uber chic...ha, we'll see.

Research Book.

I'm really disappointed with my research book. Due to my lack of funds I bought a plain a4 sketch book and it looks so flat and pancake like. I have managed to fill it, but it still looks boring. I also think next time the brief should be a bit more clear as to what is expected? It has been hard to know what to put on here or in the book and not to just copy my blog into my book, will I be marked down for only putting in on one? or on the wrong one? I have kept my book as just my inspirations and ideas and it is pretty basic.There is no analysis because I have done that all on here? I hope this is ok...

Cash Flow

Grace and I have just checked the brief and it says we are supposed to print off our blog, but neither me or her have a penny to rub together so at the moment this seems totally impossible?! I really hope we don't get marked down for not handing in a printed copy????

Declined..

Grace and I want to make a cute little press pack to hand in. So far we have our press release, a pair of black lace "William Tempest" gloves, "designer eyelashes" and we wanted to put some little black and white humbug mints in there too but this week she got declined buying paracetamol at the garage and I at urban outfitters. Between us we have roughly £1.50 left in our over drafts so the cute little press pack is going to be rather budget.We intend to craft the humbugs out of tissue paper and will probably think of something else good to make too. Today we also had to trawl out house for loose change to enable us to print our press release....

"Turmoil, a short film created for William Tempest by innovative film makers Emma Harris & Grace Brennan"

29.03.10

We went in early today to finish of our piece, we were pretty excited and everything has gone quite smoothly so far, until today. All we had to do we re-watch the film just to make sure everything was perfect, apply our chosen colour filter to all the clips and insert credits. I don't know what we did to deserve it, but today everything that went wrong, went wrong. We started with the colouration and as we had already chosen the filter levels, only had to copy attributes to all. However it was not this easy as the clip that Olle showed us how to chance the colour on for some reason saved with this new colouration and would not blend with the rest of the piece. The only way we could change it was to delete and re-cut from the original footage which then made the timeline jump around and the music was out of sync, then for some reason any "flopping" we did un-did itself and the colouration kept disappearing. THEN for no reason at all, gaps started appearing between clips and little snippets copying next to the original scene, it was very stressful so close to the deadline and especially as we love what we've done and the thought of losing it all now was horrendous!! After several hours of sorting this problem out, then FCP was telling us the clips were in offline mode, but it still played the video??? We were so confused and panicking!! I went upstairs several times to find help but Dennis said Olle wasn't here, Robbie didn't know what to do about it and the dungeon guys were teaching. In the end we decided to get it all sorted bar the offline mode thing-The clips all went read so we couldn't even see what they were- and craft our press release.

For our Press Release we wanted to use a still from the film and also use the clip as the credits. We went for a close up of the tv and hands and inserted the text into the screen showing white noise. Me and Grace were practically brain dead after the mornings events and the press release took us about an hour to write, again it was horrific...we are good at writing but computers really numb my brain!! We eventually came up with something simple and punchy, anything to flowery or pretentious wouldn't fit our film or designer.

A nice man from the dungeon eventually came to our aide and he couldn't work out why it was reading our files as offline, apparently it was just a program malfunction?? a very scary one. When all was safe we inserted the same image we use for the press release as the backdrop for our title. Like the press release we pasted the title and definition into the screen as it flickers. Most people have got scrolling credits but we thought it was a bit cheesy and drawn out for our very short film so opted for a simple black screen with few details. The last scene is quite prominent in our piece and ridiculous credits would have lost its dramatic effect.

We then burned our film to disc, and realised we had bought a cd instead of dvd-tut tut. So will have to re-burn a dvd tomorrow. It was so good to finally get the everything tarted up and ready to be shown! I still can't believe that we made a film, from scratch. Me and grace literally did everything for our shoot, and did all the editing together as well. We have shared the same vision and ideas since the beginning and have had quite a smooth sailing on the creative front but a bit of trouble on the technical side and we are both crap at computers and I'm especially poor at dealing with macs. When we left Uni it felt so weird to have all these weeks work on a little disk, but also quite a relief that everything had worked out according to plan.

TITLE

26.03.10 SUCCESS!!

Today was probably the best day we've had on this project. We got in pretty early and reviewed the sequence and made the final minor edits we felt necessary. It was the first time Olle or Geraldine has seen what we had done and we were very nervous, part of me expected to hear the words "re-shoot"...To be honest I think we had been putting off showing anyone, just in case but Olle really liked it and said it was "one of his favourite". We were ELATED!! He asked us to cut a few of the longer scenes to make them more alien and later showed us how to add filters to the clips. Geraldine also said she really liked it and wanted us to keep it short and intense and agreed with Olle in thinking we should really cut it up and make it a completely alien sequence. So we set about chopping up any of the longer scenes and randomly rearranging them to create a deranged movement. We were both really pleased with what we had after their advice. Olle was really helpful today in showing us how to alter the colouration and direction. We altered the saturation of one of the black outfit clips and the image was really delicate, it was really quite beautiful.

After lunch we converted the music we had made for our piece, but now it was so choppy and erratic the rhythmic bass line didn't really work, we tried to speed up the music but it just didn't work which was disappointing. We went on youtube to try and find some sound effects to lay over the film, parts of the sequence the existing audio worked well so we considered just complimenting that. On searching for "white noise" we came across a very strange little electro track called "bye bye butterfly" by Pauline Oliveros.

I don't know how on earth we found it or why it came up on our search but it was perfect!! So we tried to find it online to download but had to open an itunes account and buy it, my first itunes purchase was this weird little thing! We converted the file and added it to the time line. The full track is around 8 minutes long and Pauline is some sweet looking old woman, it really is surreal but the composition is exactly what we were after. It started with alien sort of sound of sound effects and noises building into a crescendo of dramatic electro and choir boys finishing with an eery squeal. We cut out sections of the track to shorten it and keep the good bits and it just fitted perfectly. The track fits so well as though it was made for the film. We are so impressed and all our friends kept saying how disgusting our film was which is amazing. Geraldine also commented on how creepy Loz was, which was nice. We showed Olle again later, by this point Grace and I were quite delerious and couldn't stop laughing at Loz scrabbling around to the rediculous music-I think he thought we were insane but still said he liked it and showed us again to put more of a dramatic filter on the film. Robbie eventually kicked us out of the room and we felt VERY accomplished. All we have left to do now is colouring the monochrome/black scenes and credits.

We decided we wanted a hard hitting,simple title. We thought about using "Tempest" in the title. We thought about "Tempest of the Mind", "Entrapment" and "escapism" but I inventually thought simply "Turmoil" summed it up pretty well and Grace agreed. We searched its official meaning and thought it might be quite cool to use the definition as the actual title. We also agreed we both want to use a clip of the flickering tv to house the credits. We did attempt to do the credits today, but I think we had pushed our luck with FCP as it didn't do what we told it, so we'll tackle that final hurdle on Monday. We are so close to finishing now! ITS EXCITING!!

25.03.10

I was increasingly ill this week and stupidly took flu pills with added caffine, these little blighters really made me unwell so I didn't go in this morning. Grace went in at lunch and managed to convert the clips from the mac. I think she had quite some trouble as only the whole clip could be added to the time line then cut and constantly need to be rendered. I went in around 2pm with easter chick cakes and cream eggs to boost morale. We finished the end of the film, but again the room was a bit stressful and neither of us felt great so we went home after about 2 hours. Our goal for tomorrow is audio.

24.03.10

Today we finished off our sequence and did a bit of final tweeking and cutting. We really need to talk to Olle about adding in our "flashing lights" effect. We have interpreted "raw" as our location, shooting in gritty and unpolished locations- showing them for what they really are. The emotions felt throughout the film are also raw and expose the model somewhat. We also really want to know how to put colouration to our film, we found out how to do a kaleidoscope effect today which we thought was pretty cool until we watched the film back... and also found out how to apply a fade. As the computer room has been so stuffy and crowded we have done as much as we can on lower fourth and used the internet for instructions, however the flashing light clips are filmed on a mac and we are unsure how to convert them for FCP.

23.03.10

I felt so crappy today as did Grace, we went to uni to start on the black look footage however our illness and general bad moods wasn't doing our film any favours so we went home in the afternoon. In the hours we were there however, we did finish off the black sequence, cutting and speeding up footage of Loz scrabbling around on her hands and knees and furiously at a brick wall. We also placed some more white imagery for the end of the film, but as I said before we were both not very well and before our moods got the better of us called it a day.

22.03.10

Today I went in on my own to start on our final sequence. I started arranging and cutting the white clips, playing with variable speeds and jump cuts. It was quite trying as I hadn't used the program before but I'm also glad I did it so I could learn the program for myself. It got very hot and stressful at times but I am very please with the end result and feel I improved my FCP skills a great deal! Grace came in and took over once my eyes had gone square and had a go at the alley way sequence. We are both very pleased with what each other came up with and have kept the sequences we worked on individually the same since making them. Since being given this brief both Grace and my ideas have been exactly the same and its been easy to communicate our plans.

19.03.10

After converting all our files.....over 200 hundred of them, We cut out the crap and just kept the best shots and in dong so accidently deleted Graces half of the alley way footage. This was a massive bummer after a long day and both of us felt pretty crap afterwards. After we sorted them out, decided to divide the clips into black, white and monochrome folders to make selecting a frame easier. We also created a "best bits" folder to show Olle and Geraldine. It took us quite a while to pick them as we were quite nervous about showing what we had after the presentation feedback we received. HOWEVER, Geraldine's silence was very unnerving at first then after she said she was impressed at what we had and wanted us to get it on the time line in the next hour, Olle also said it was good but wanted to see in in some sort of sequence. So we grabbed some teas and started, it took a while to figure out final cut pro but we managed to get a rough edit on the line and all in all this day was very successful and filled us with confidence for the rest of the remainder of the project!

SHOOT

Over all the shoot went very smoothy and we got about 3 hours of film on both of our cameras. We were both very happy with what we had got so the next task was converting it all....FUN..

Shoot Review.

Over all the shoot went really smoothly. We cleared and set up the room in the morning and waited for Loz to get back from Uni, sat and mulled over our direction with teas then started on the transformation. We bought a thick white paste foundation, the type Goths use to pale up to use as our base make-up and used sudocreme to white up her body.

LOCATION AND LOOK THREE

LOCATION THREE.

We spotted this little gem on our way home from uni. A grimey little alley near our house connecting streets with houses either side. It caught my eye one day as the sun was reflecting off the smashed glass all over the floor, I pointed it out to Grace and we thought it would be good to show entrapment and being enclosed. It also would allow us to execute a series of jump to camera shots and provide a long shot of movement that could be sped up.

There are three steps at the top of the alley and it is on a slight decline provided a good frame. The alley is paved with crappy concrete slabs and there is litter,glass and smashed up slab everywhere.

LOOK THREE.

This look is a basic replica of blouse and cropped trousers from Tempests graduate collection. We used a sort of Victoriana ruffled blouse and black tailoring cropped trousers. We tied the length of organza we used in look two around the waist to create a over sized puffy bow. The look was complete with bare feet and the same pale make up. We shot this scene at dusk so the make-up appears even more pale and alien in the light.

LOCATION AND LOOK TWO.

LOCATION TWO.

For this scene we hopped in the car and razzed to a couple of grotty arch ways under the train tracks. They are situated just before the bridge from Rochester to Strood. They are old red brick arches, very typical of the industrial revolution. Obviously due to their age and location its all abit run down and gritty. Weathering and car pollution has caused the brick to discolour and crumble as well as the faded graffiti and over grown bushes. Over all its a very raw,severe and exposed place, not very pleasant or picturesque at all but perfect for our film.

LOOK TWO.

For this look we used a black silken maxi dress which rippled gorgeously in the wind. We used it in our test shoot and it was goo but it needed dressing up a bit. Me and Grace both wanted structure and severity and we thought that would be best from the shoulders. I had an idea that bundling something around her arms might work as a foundation. So whilst grace applied more make up and perfected her beloved wig, I wrapped a couple of UCA tshirts round Loz's arms and secured them with hair bands then bought a long piece of scraggly black organza from the small of Loz's back forward,crossing it over her boobs and wrapping it over the tshirts. I secured it with a safety pin (that grace wedged into my thumb) between her shoulder blades leaving the fabric to cascade down her back.It worked so well, better than we had ever imagined!! The shoulders looked very chic and not like a couple of old tshirts at all!! Grace had darkened up Loz's make up and applied eye liner for a more dramatic look then forced her spindly fingers into a new pair of black lace gloves. On location the look was brilliant. The wind blew the delicate fabrics so they rippled beautifully in such a harsh surrounding and Loz looked stunning. We were so immensely happy with how everything came together to create a high fashion look but still disturbing and raw as we had intended.

LOCATION AND LOOK ONE.

LOCATION ONE.

Our first location was a medium sized bedroom in our house.We considered using our own shoebox rooms but there wasn't enough light so we had to request someone else's at the price of clearing up all his crap...It actually didn't take too long and we went in there and just created a sterile and blank canvas. I wanted it to be undetermined so the audience can decide as to whether its a cell, a hospital room, some sort of secure/padded room- basically sterile and unnerving places.

I suggested we use the particular room as there is plenty of windows, its always very bright and it has a metal white bed. Whilst cleaning the room we accidentally pulled the bed out in to the middle of the room and found it looked quite good.It also gave us room to maneuver around it. The carpet in the room was blue so we stretched the bed sheet (our housemate doesn't know we did this) across the bottom of the bed legs to create a white sort of pouch and scrunched old discoloured sheets on the floor to cover the vile blue. We tried putting the tv on a white table but it looked to alien so placed it on the corner of the bed frame(we removed the mattress) with a white crochet pillow.

Overall we were very pleased with our budget location and those who saw it all said "urgh" and shuddered, which seems to be the reaction we are getting when people watch our film...

LOOK ONE.

For this shot we used white body paint to wash out our models faces and cobalt grey metallic powder to hollow the cheeks and jaw. Beneath her eyes we used a pearlescent highlighter and lilac liner to brighten her under eye and eye colour. The body paint covered her eyebrows and just extra long lashes with a small feather detail were applied. The make up looked marvellous on our model, it let through enough of her natural colouration and freckles to give her a unnatural beauty. She is natural ginger, so we found quite an impressive wig actually for £15. Grace spent many nights grooming it tenderly. It was long jet black hair to chest level with a blunt cut and block fringe. Combined with the huge lashes and alabaster complexion it looked great! Our own friends don't recognise Loz in our video-they all think she's Emily Legge! We did consider asking Emily to model but thought it may be too much with her own work also.

In this scene Loz is wearing her own dress she made for the cut. It is very reminiscent of Tempests latest collection, though I think she made it first.. It is obviously creative cut with an exaggerated boob, almost fanned skirt which hangs in elegant layers and pleats, the back low and cut on the bias and is made from starched white satin.It is beautiful. Since being briefed on this project Grace and I have wanted to use it in our piece as has Loz wanted to it be featured. She was equally impressed that she fitted into it as we thought we would need a size 6 model as it is so small!! The final touches to our look was bare feet with white nails (hands and feet) with delicate fingerless gloves. The over all look was very simple and innocent but the blackness of the hair and lashes against all the bright white was dramatic and gave our model a haunted persona.

SHOOT DATE (long over due review)

We shot our piece on Wednesday 17th in the end. There was a bit of a model crisis on Tuesday though we were all ready to roll!! After much panicking and stressing washed down with teas, we finally got it all together for the next morning.

WE HAVE INTERNET ONCE MORE!!!!!

Silent Hill

Last night a rather lovely babe graced me with his presence but also made me watch a film that he said was pretty crap and not scary, but still scared me, called Silent Hill. I did make it to the end with some inconspicuous face hiding...but the little girl in it had a good and rather gruesome hair do that would be pretty cool for our model.

However I couldn't find a picture of her post evil...but this is what she firstly looked like.

WE GOT CAMERAS!!

We were simply elated as we slung them over our shoulders and trudged home. We got up extra early and were in the que by 9.15.Booked the cams..we were dubious as to whether we'd get them that afternoon but we mused and planned and imagined over several tasty and not so tasty treats until the afternoon. Very productive day.

We have our locations ready, an dingy alleyway, cell like sterile bed room and grimey arch way, all contrasted with sharp, tempest inspired high fashion looks and moody hair and make up

..FILMING STARTS OF A MORN..

JVD

.....Oh yes..I forgot to mention how helpful James has been during this project. His Wednesday morning film break downs have given us so many ideas and much inspiration. I think we have all been a bit daunted about techniques,effects and angles as we don't know much about film, but his analysis of past students and other film makers work has made everything SO much clearer and opened our eyes to what can be achieved with a small budget but creativity and innovation by the bucket load. He shows us film makers using friends as models and bedrooms for locations and they are GREAT, but we were told on Thursday that hearing people use these everyday things in their films makes certain tutors "want to cry". Quite the conflicting message after being shown and critiqued on what can be achieved in a basement using a torch and some black paint, it does make you laugh and also wonder how the hell any of us are going to pass this brief.

This project has no consistency what so ever.

But thanks James.

1980's Tv adaptation of William Shakespeare's "The Tempest"

The tempest- William Shakespeare.

This drama is one of the great comedy plays by William Shakespeare. The themes illustrated in the play are freedom, friendship , repentance and forgiveness and feature different temperaments illustrating temperance and intemperance. The plot starts when King Alonso of Naples and his entourage sail home for Italy after attending his daughter's wedding in Tunis, Africa. They encounter a violent storm, or Tempest. Everyone jumps overboard and are washed ashore on a strange island inhabited by the magician Prospero who has deliberately conjured up the storm. Prospero and Miranda live in a cave on the island which is also inhabited by Ariel, a sprite who carries out the bidding of Prospero, and the ugly, half human Caliban. Various plots against the main characters fail thanks to the magic of Prospero. The play ends with all the plotters repenting the Tempest is calmed.

I have studied the Tempest before, and in brief is a play which asks complex questions about human nature such a nature or nuture and what makes a human,human. It has been a while since I learnt this play so this summary probably does it better. I looked into this as when I think of William Tempest, all that comes to mind is William Shakespeare-The Tempest. It is quite interesting that this play strips back and analyses human nature, Shakespeare uses a beast- Caliban who is half man half beast to explore the theory of nature or nuture and also what is it that makes a man human? Is it appearance, blood, intelligence or his human nature? The character in this play are magical and other worldly. There are many correlations between the themes running through "the tempest" and our film cross examining emotions and state of mind.

Although some scholars have speculated that Shakespeare wrote portions of The Tempest at an earlier stage in his career, most literary historians assign the entire play a composition date of 1610 or 1611. And while Shakespeare may have had a hand in The Two Noble Kinsman(written a decade or so after The Tempest and assigned to dual authorship), The Tempest is customarily identified as the Bard's last stage piece. These marginal issues aside, The Tempestis the fourth, final, and the finest of Shakespeare's great and/or late romances. Along withPericles, Cymbeline, and The Winter's Tale, The Tempest belongs to the genre of Elizabethanromance plays. It combines elements of tragedy (Prospero's revenge) with those of romantic comedy (the young lovers Miranda and Ferdinand), and like one of Shakespeare's problem plays, Measure for Measure, it poses deeper questions that are not completely resolved at the end. The romance genre is distinguished by the inclusion (and synthesis) of these tragic, comic, and problematical ingredients and further marked by a happy ending (usually concluding with a masque or dance) in which all, or most, of the characters are brought into harmony.

No reading of The Tempest can do it justice: Shakespeare's tale of Prospero's Island is inherently theatrical, unfolding in a series of spectacles that involve exotic, supra-human, and sometimes invisible characters that the audience can see but other characters cannot. The play was composed by Shakespeare as a multi-sensory theater experience, with sound, and especially music, used to complement the sights of the play, and all of it interwoven by the author with lyrical textual passages that overflow with exotic images, trifling sounds, and a palpable lushness.

The richness of The Tempest as theater is matched by the extraordinary thematic complexity of its text. Recognizing that all of the themes and accompanying figurative strands of the play cannot be discussed here, the play's topical highlights can still be approached by first noting the salience of two themes that arise from the very theatricality of the play: the opposition between reality and illusion and the tandem subject of the theater itself. The play challenges our senses and is self-consciously a performance orchestrated by Shakespeare's effigy in the master illusionist Prospero. There are, in addition, numerous interpenetrating polarities in the play, most notably between nature and civilization or Art. These thematic strands come together at multiple points of intersection. Nevertheless, from one angle on the text, The Tempest asks a single question, one that Shakespeare had posed in many and divers of his other plays: What is a human being? (or, in Elizabethan terms: What is man?)

www.enotes.com

Test Shoot.

Untitled from Grace Brennan on Vimeo.

This is the full clip we used in our presentation. Obviously this is only a demonstration of an effect we plan to use during points in the film. The long periods of black is due to the camera creating to flash reloading, this will be edited in our final spot.

Presentation....

To be honest there is not much I can say about our presentation. We were unable to get a camera, so we just made do and tried to create something worth boring the class with. However it wasn't comprehended that it was only a test shoot we did at home. We recieved the comment "well its not for me to be honest girls" before we could even break down what we'd shown and "no one cares how hard it was" after trying to explain the primitive methods we used to create the piece, we didn't say it was hard, just explained how we did it and why we did it in such a crappy way-due to lack of equipment.

Any constructive criticism would have been very helpful really, I think I can speak for the whole group in saying this project is very daunting as many have NO idea about film making as It is rather a specialist subject. Any advice would probably lifted the little confidence there is between the group. To be fair Dennis was helpful, and I did try and take in what he said but it was hard when everyone is sat there bored waiting for you to go away. I did ask around afterwards as to whether we were confusing or did not explain our concepts well, but even the most honest and brash of my friends said it was easy to grasp. Grace and I were satisfied with the TEST film we had to show, a result of no equipment to film with, no studio to film in( and I know it was explained we should book the studio well in advance but what if we had done so and couldn't get a camera?Its a waste of everyone involved time, makes us seem very unorganised reducing the chance anyone will work with us again and not to mention would piss off many who are desperate for a slot. With 3 studios and 3 year groups all after the studio and the cameras being a rare thing- everyone is tearing their hair out.) and no model as there was no definite date for a shoot.

Basically we left the presentation feeling very vague and confused as did many and it does beg the question what do our fees pay for? We can't get equipment, studios and everything we've done has been off our own backs, it feels like there is a lack of direction a bit. We finally got our cameras today....Grace and I had such a strong sense of what we wanted and I think we are now just going to go for it.

There is no way we would submit the clip we showed as an example of one type of shot we plan to use for about 5 seconds, it was a make shift piece. The presentation left me personally feeling completely deflated and questioning our idea. It was very depressing

Oh well.

But on the plus our presentation was strong and our ideas were overall liked, Dennis said if we get it right, we will "nail it". Which is cool.

MOODY B'S

This board shows the sort of garments we could possibly use to recreate the Tempest Look.

This is an overall mood board to show themes,style and the overall mood of our film.

This board shows stills from short films that have inspired us...sorry its abit confusing because its up the wrong way, but starting bottom right the films are; Consumption by Nick Knight, ShowStudio by Gareth Pugh and Ruth Hogben, a Gareth Pugh film by Nick Knight, Eclipse featuring Lisa Evangelista by Nick Knight, Tom Ford is missing by Tom Ford, two short films to promote a collection from by Pleasure principle and Strict Machine a music video by Jonas Odell for Goldfrapp.

This board shows potential makeup. We want to keep the face simple and bare exaggerating one part of the face such as eyebrows, sockets,lips to create an unnatural beauty.

These are the mood boards Grace and I created to show our themes and inspirations. We used them in our presentations to pitch our ideas..

"ooh, thats really creepy-Do it again"

Untitled from Grace Brennan on Vimeo.


Untitled from Grace Brennan on Vimeo.

Tester..

This weekend Grace and I got inventive and thew together a test film using her mac as a camera. We used our creepy housemate Loz as our lab rat, She loved it. We tested out the two makeup styles we've been musing over and I threw some black floaty clothes on her.....

Loz's hair was rather WILD at the time, so I fashioned a veil out of some netting and attached it to her head and tucked a hideous lace shawl into a maxi dress to create a Victoriana type billowing gown. We whitened her face and shadowed her bone structure for a haunting glow and she had the half and half make up below, she scarily suited the look very well.

We shot the film in our stair well and used the mirroring ap on the mac to duplicate Loz. We planned to flick the light switch on and off but in the darkness I took a photo and it looked really cool on the screen, so we decided to use the lights and sounds of the digital camera in our piece. We are actually quite happy with what we produced as it was only a test and we found something quite cool. Grace edited out our ramblings and laid our draft track over it-We did have the music on my laptop to help Loz get in the zone, but it wasn't very clear.

Below are the shots I took whilst creating the flash, its quite good because as well as a good effect, it documents the shoot.

Make up Test.....

Pattinson- Brows or Whale eyes?

On film the blacked out eye looked most effective.

Wimp.....

I've just noticed G has uploaded some highly creepy vids....I apologise now as I won't be doing the same....I am CRAP at anything paranormal and will be up for days. I get the general gist of what they are about and my general fear is a pretty good guide of what is eery and what is not....

I'l leave that bit up to Grace, she's hard as.

!!!

My brother just sent me the updated track with "intense bits". Its marvallous! even has creepy laughing bits!!

PROGRESS

Well, AGAIN we have been to the photography store and NO CAMERAS!! How on earth are we supposed to give a presentation when we have nothing to show??? This is getting truly frustrating as the longer we dally about the more our idea work is losing momentum!!

IF we had been able to get our hands on the vital equipment needed for filming- a camera, something you would assume was available? Tomorrow we would be showing a dramatic mood piece, using music as a direction split over two locations. The styling is modern but dark, goth chic perhaps? With emphasis of alabaster skin, stripped back and bare pierced with the over accentuation of the eye using black. We plan to only draw attention to one part of the eye- either a dramatic "panda eye" or "twilight eyebrows". Our look is on the whole simple, drawing attention on the face only to singular features that are not usually exaggerated. This creates an unorthodox notion beauty leaving the face abstract and of an other worldly nature. This look combined with a series of unnatural movements and clever editing, we hope to create a raw, stripped back piece that conjures emotion and exposes the model in an unconventional manner.

We intend to use plenty of "cut to" shots, giving the illusion of vanishing and unnatural spasming of the body fused with a mirroring technique in which the body is duplicated or "spliced" all in darkness, pierced only by intervals of flashing lights exposing the body .

We hope to create a captivating film leaving the audience feeling disturbed and uncomfortable but utterly compelled to watch whilst also delivering a super chic high fashion piece in the style of William Tempest.

Film Inspiration.

Gareth Pugh fashion drawing

Mood Pieces...

Live catwalk drawings....

William tEMPEST, a/w09 Illustrated by Victoria Lyons.

Tudor Inspired Collection

Pleasure Principle.

Grace found some amazing fashion still using smoke to create a mystic and creepy effect. I think they are amazing and I think we will definitely attempt to recreate it-but will probably set all the fire alarms off. She found them, So I'l just post the link to her blog....

http://gracebrennanthecut.blogspot.com/2010/03/pleasure-principle-at-showroom-romeo.html

Make Up Ideas....

Marc Jacobs

Alexander McQueen

Aquilano.Rimondi

Bottega Veneta

Comme des Garçons

Zero + Maria Cornejo

Gareth Pugh

Guy Laroche

(the Haunted Chic-a/w09)

I really like the grey hair and dark eye from Laroche...the comme des garcons isn't really relevant to us in pink-But I like its originality and distorting of the face.

Note to followers...

I am finding it really hard to communicate my ideas via this blog...I do keep a blog sort of diary of funny things that happen to me, and enjoy writing articles but for projects but I always scribble 100 drafts first, more of a rip it out, scribble all over it sort of person. I'm finding to hard to analyse the things I find and I generally find it hard reading things via the internet...much prefer magazines, books and such like. So I am sorry for the lack of coherent and detailed analysis..

Im trying to work out how to put the mp3 on here with very little success......

I've tried copy and paste and now I'm uploading as a video...Im sure both are completely ridiculous ideas...

Lyrical Stylings....

(Item a depicts me immensely enjoying Charlie's musical talent after several gins. )

Well, I requested my lanky brother compose us a piece of music to use as the direction for our piece and he came up trumps! Charlie Harris,my brother is currently studying Music and plans to study music production at leeds after the summer. He is very talented with a wide musical knowledge in both performance and the technical bit. He whipped us up this composition in one evening and sent me the rough edit yesterday and its brilliant! We feel so much more confident now we have it as a guide and are able to envision the final product. The music in our spot is such a large part of the mood we are trying to create.With no real narrative the music create the emotions we want to provoke in the audience and Chazmans piece does just that! I sent him my blog so he could get the gist of what we are up to and about and he came up with a piece so in tune with our ideas, Grace and I are very impressed! At the moment as I said I only have a rough edit.I can only describe it as like a heart beat.Very gritty and rhythmic with a dramatic double beat, it really is a mood piece and with extra sound effects it will be very effective. Charlie told me he got quite creeped out making it, which I guess is a good sign?!

I've asked him to add in a few more up tempo bars to create abit more suspense, as it stands the piece feels as though its building to something but doesn't really climax.He is sending me the reworked version tomorrow. Its a very good mood piece and is the foundations for our spot. It is completely in keeping with the mood of the styling and planned editing, we are both so happy we have such a strong base to work from.

THANKS CHAZ.