Development Res 1

November 15, 2021

Development Res 1

We had to make a presentation to show our tutors our progress (on the 28th october). This was mine and Lauras:

I just realised the last two dates are wrong. They´re meant to be december so the 6.12 and the deadline is the 9.12.

Tutorial with Kathleen 21.10 notes:

great topic, excellent subject (yay so we can continue with this idea)
Mariah: german exhibition of mannequins wearing rape victims clothes
hyper vigilance, surveying surroundings
pop culture: women are often portrayed as victims
Alya animation: A blink of an eye https://vimeo.com/523020044 (this animation is very powerful, and actually quiet shocking. Laura and I agree that ours wont be so dark)
paranoia, self protection for women
drama, documentray, VR?
replicating whats there, played out too literally, too much like a crime reconstruction?
paranoia becomes real, Kathleen likes the idea of a POV shot of the stalker
risky behaviour, critical edge?
mythic element, character in disguise, red riding hood esque
should we handle it differently? its too cliche, avoid repeating, how to make it authentic
work it out, give a twist aesthetically, technically interesting maybe? Camera work, castings, costumes example: dress as rabbit, as an angel, as a child. Something like that because it needs a twist
She is fearful and being prey, subvertion?
Izzy Holland is doing horror sound so we could contact her, amplifying sounds like twigs. leaves, snow, wind, imagination triggered by natural sounds
talk to other women
personal experience. what did you notice etc
talk to acting students

This was really helpful and I think we got some new ideas flowing.

Tutorial with Anne 11.11 notes:

we went through our presentation and Anne seemed happy with it
femicide
Sarah Everard
the rituals we go through, "interesting, going home rituals" like keys as a weapon, or averting eyes when walking past people, write down strategies
we should make a list of things we do
interview women
costumes could be cool, like wolf and rabbit
Anne´s story, citizen´s arrest
Women´s safety groups
6 C300 camera for filming at night
permissions, make good risk assessments and give waverley council plenty of time
crew: around five or six, minders for night time shoot
Sunset/ twilight good idea although we wont have that much time, film in february? around 18-22.h
We watched A blink of an eye
non-verbal? different scenarious in head? dialogue in her head or just titles
Are you angry? Could ask this from the women we interview. WE have to change our behaviour, not go to parties etc. Its the men that should change :(
We could have our character change her shoes at the beginning of the film, from high heels to flats
We should play around and also think about particularities: specific places, test shots, how we are going to set up story, crew, how to make it more experimental, try different kinds of endings

This tutorial too was really helpful too. I think one of the next thing Laura and I should do is to create that list. We should make our own and then put out a message (maybe to a facebook group) to ask women to call us for an interview or to just send us lists of what protective measures they take whenever they go out. From the list then we can start building our film.

Film/ Series inspirations:

The French Dispatch

The French Dispatch is Wes Andersons new 2021 movie, with an amazing star-studded cast. As you can imagine from Wes Anderson, the film is very stylised with his iconic symmetrical look. It’s a work of art, featuring both black and white as well as incredible colourful scenes. It also included some animation which I love. I am into animation and graphic design too so it was nice to see, as well as the wonderful magazine covers, illustrated by Javi Aznarez. I personally absolutely loved the visuals of the film and I believe Laura and I could use this film as inspiration for our own, as we also wanted to make it aesthetically interesting. We are also planning to go see the exhibition on this film on Sunday. I did think though, that the movie was entirely created to look great, with not much focus on the story at all. I think I am more interested in making films where there is a story, although I can absolutely appreciate a film just for its art.

One aspect that I really liked and I think we can also add to our film is the way the titles were made. There were moments in the film where the characters spoke in French, and to help English speakers, there were subtitles within the movie. They were quiet gorgeous to me, and even the way they appeared on the screen was interesting. I talked about this to Laura, and we thought we could have a similar effect with showing our characters thoughts. We were thinking that our character could go through a mental list, like a how to survive guide which could be shown with titles. For example, she could think: step 1. Send a message and your location to your friends, step 2. Hold keys in between fingers etc… I personally like this idea and think we could design the text to have a similar to that of the French dispatch.

I couldn’t find any photos of the text, but I found one of the titles he used, which I think used the same font:

Some articles I read as research:

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/film/2021/10/wes-andersons-the-french-dispatch-is-impossibly-accomplished-and-a-bit-boring

https://untappedcities.com/2021/10/22/the-french-dispatch-casa-magazines/

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/wes-anderson-french-dispatch-artists-2030232

+ Wes Anderson exhibition

Link to it:

https://wesanderson.seetickets.com/timeslot/wes-anderson-the-french-dispatch

My friends and I went to the French Disptach exhibition in London which was amazing! It´s soooo exciting to me to see the actual props, sets and outfits they used in the movie. It gets me so hyped, and I just know I´ve chosen the right career path. I loved all of it and got particularly exciting when we got to the huge paintings as seen in the movie. I also loved seeing the amount of detail that goes into filmmaking and I imagined all the amazing people that had to work on it, and the actors that used them.

You

You is another big inspiration for Laura and I. The Netflix series follows a creep named Joe, who regularly becomes obsessed with a woman, and stalks them. It´s like he´s addicted to stalking. This often ends up in murder and other trouble. Joe is the kind of character we were thinking of having in the background as the threat, although he may be imagined in our film. His victims are usually women who are completely innocent to everything he does, and he charms them into trusting him. He often also kills men that are in the way of them being together. What’s also interesting is that he eventually becomes obsessed with a woman who is not just a victim. She is just as insane as him and together they try to be a family whilst also dealing with covering up their murders. The character of Love Quinn is more subversive than the other “loves” of Joe. We were also thinking about using his iconic cap look to cover up the face of our stalker, like in the photo below:

Other films/ series:

Stepford Wives 1975

This is an absolutely classic film that I´ve been wanting to watch for a while. It´s such a classic actually that Stepford wife has become a saying. It even has its own place in the dictionary. Urban dictionary writes: Stepford wife

1.) Used to describe a servile, compliant, submissive, spineless wife who happily does her husband's bidding and serves his every whim dutifully.

2.) Can also be used to describe a wife who is cookie cutter & bland in appearance and behavior. Subscribes to a popular look and dares not deviate from that look.

This term is borrowed from the fictional suburb of Stepford, Connecticut in Ira Levin´s 1972 novel, The Stepford Wives, later made into movies (in 1975 and 2004). In the story, men of this seemingly ideal town have replaced their wives with attractive robotic dolls devoid of emotion or thought.

1.) She's such a stepford wife, I've seen her greet her husband at the door after work with a beer and a kiss 4 days in a row!

2.) I just got back from the pta meeting, I've never seen so many stepford wives.

2b.) The SNL skit "Mom Jeans" features women dressed to earn the SW distinction.

The saying is how I first knew about the film so I thought that was funny.

The film obviously deals with the idea of the “perfect wife” and how women are pressured to be that way, although in this film it is taken to a next level. The women with personalities are viewed as trouble so (spoilers!) they are replaced by clones. These clones love cleaning up, talk like they´re in adverts, compliment their husbands and do what ever they tell them to do. I thought this was a great feminist and iconic film for me to watch as research. I highly recommend this film to anyone who hasn´t seen it yet.

Behind her eyes

Behind your eyes is another Netflix series, that my dissertation tutor recommended me to watch. In the series we follow the stereotypical crazy woman, who manipulates her husband’s lover (and the viewer too) into believing he is the bad guy. She ticks all the boxes of the insane wife, even the way she looks is exactly how you would imagine. This was a very entertaining series, and in the end there is actually a big plot twist that subverts the Adele´s character.

Casablanca

Another classic film, that I watched mainly for the vintage aesthetic that I love. I think we could consider having the kind of over exaggerated lighting that is often present in black and white films.