The combination of being DOP, camera operator and editor meant that throughout the shoot I was constantly thinking 1. What do I need? 2. What would I like? The shot lists I formed were a sort of mid-way between the two and after assessing the spaces, and logistical elements on the day i.e. the large amount of people in the very small space, I colour-coded the shot lists: green for need, pink for want. The green shots were the vital shots needed to set up relationships, characters and narrative and the pink tended to be more stylistic ones which we decided upon as the days went on. The pink shots were (typically) more handheld which was what I used most of the time compared to Patrick and Craig who tended to shoot the static ones on Patrick’s camera.

Something I will take with me next time I’m in a shoot (if I were to direct) is to allow the scene to flow and give the actors the time they need to convey what they want to after they have finished talking. In some feedback, people mentioned that some edits should be held longer to get the full reaction of the actor but unfortunately in many cases, “cut” has been called too early, disrupting the flow of the scene and the actors come to an awkward halt mid-reaction, this then impacted the ease of editing. The fact that we were working with an 11 year old and a non-actor made this harder and I think it impacted on their performance – it would have made a lot more sense to film the scene from start to finish multiple times, but with the time constraints we had that may be too idealistic.

These are the posters I created for the disappearance and capture of Hansel. The first one will be uploaded onto our social media sites (tumblr and twitter) when Hansel disappears and the next day, the poster will be uploaded again with the witches’ demand for 100 MBS (magic beans). Anthony will also use these on the game. It will be hanging up on a tree and after clicking it, Gretel realises her task and this sets things in motion for the rest of the gameplay.

• I think that maybe Philippa dropping out of the role of Ania came as a blessing in disguise as that would have been a whole other person and character to account for lighting, framing and blocking wise on the days of shooting. We had a lot to portray about the dynamics of the family in a very short amount of time.
• As a group, especially the ones who worked on the film from the beginnings of the script through to the end, I think we severely underestimated what is possible to portray in a short film. There is so much going on in that family as it is without having a nanny involved too. There simply would not have been the time or the space on the day.
• The shock of being let down made us compromise and be strategic, sacrificing our original, re-worked and heavily pawed over script for a more reasonable and easily achievable one. We spent a solid and intense two days re-writing the script without Ania and I also adjusted the shot lists accordingly.
• There was no way of finding two actors this late in the day but luckily I have managed to convince a friend to try to act for us as Sophia.

This is one of the propaganda posters which I made to be used for the social media side of the project. I stuck it up on a tree and shared it with my team so that they can distribute the images through twitter sites when they fancy it. I started by drawing a simple outline of six ‘candy houses’, combining tropes from the different cultures and styles that we have taken inspiration from. I tried to combine elements from the witches house from the original Hansel and Gretel fairytale with modern, cartoony style elements while trying to incorporate a propaganda-like bitter-sweet sarcasm as well.

Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2010/11: Supplementary Volume 2 to Crime in England and Wales 2010/11: Kevin Smith (Ed.), Sarah Osborne, Ivy Lau and Andrew Britton

I selected the table above to convey how rare the case in our film is. It shows the shocking difference between the percentage of female compared to male homicides which are committed by their partner/ex-partner. It it far more likely for a man to be murdered by someone else he knows (45%) or a stranger (27%) than a partner (5%).

“The Homicide Index also holds information about the circumstances of each homicide. Just over a half (53%, or 335 offences) of homicide cases in 2010/11 resulted from a quarrel, a revenge attack or a loss of temper. This proportion was higher where the principal suspect was known to the victim (60%), compared with when the suspect was unknown to the victim (39%).”

I examined the tables above to find out what the odds are of a 26 year old woman poisoning her 29 year old partner. The age range actually has the second highest percentage of offences. In the last table, I was drawn to the drastic influx of poisoning cases in 2002/3 with 66 cases, three times more than the year previous. I did research into this, and discovered that on Jan 5th 2003 seven people were arrested in North London after police found 22 castor oil beans – the raw material for the poison ricin among cyanide recipes.

 

http://hellohanselsblog.tumblr.com/ This is the link to the personal blog for Hansel

These modern day propaganda posters definitely suit the tone for more ideas for posters, logos and slogans which we could design. They would be associated with Little Red’s Resistance and targeted towards the oppressed inhabitants of the forest, warning them of the witches cruel regime. This would help to develop an immersive story world, adding to the overall interactive user experience.

The set of four posters are based on the game Super Mario, which was interesting as it shows that other companies (especially game companies) are using this format to advertise. I think they’re really great because they’re different: we are all familiar to the WWII propaganda posters which is what catches our eye first of all, but then after closer reading and looking deeper into the images, it’s clear how witty the creators were in their word play and designs.

During my research, I discovered the work of a street artist (who identifies as Herr Nilsson) from Stockholm who combines the innocent with the controversial, creating comical, truthful and hard-hitting works of art. He refers to himself as “a street artist and visual activist” and it is the political statements he makes combined with the familiar pop culture characters which makes his works so compelling.

“All my paintings have to communicate their message through a great laugh, together with a deep darkness,” says Herr. “If an image doesn’t have both, I won’t let it pass through. I wouldn’t do a painting that makes fun of victims from the Holocaust or sexual abuses without any other purpose than just mocking with them.” Context, he continues, is also key: “If I had pasted the Hell Kitty on a Jewish gravestone, the final reading would have been totally different.” – Herr Nilsson – http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jan/30/hello-kitty-herr-nilsson-nazi-graffiti-street-art-protest

The reason I have included these in my journal is because I feel that Nilsson’s work is very inspiring and relate-able to the posters, prints and visual elements I will produce which will act as possible marketing campaigns and key elements of or project, Sweet Hostage. The clashing contrast of tropes paired with the bitter-sweet delivery of honesty used by Nilsson is truly inspiring and something I hope I can take away and think about in a fairy tale genre.

In today’s session, we received a lecture all about creating and developing an immersive and expansive story world. We then had a meeting where we talked in depth about characters, themes and predominantly on story world.

Our story world is based in a medieval landscape with many tropes remaining loyal to the original tale of Hansel and Gretel and the general fairy tale genre. However, we are bringing in many characters and elements from many other tales. For example, The Little Red Revolution is based on Little Red Riding hood but her the story has been skewed so that now her plan is to overthrow the ‘witch’. The witches character is based on a combination of traditional fairy tale witches but will be physically presented as a flashy, cruel businesswoman.

We have had ideas about bringing in other easily recognizable characters into the world of Sweet Hostage, like having the three blind mice trying their hardest to cross a horse-drawn cart congested road, and Sleeping Beauty not really asleep but lying in bed watching Netflix all day.

 

 

This is an idea I had for a poster which would be a product of the Little Red Resistance and could be an interesting way of promoting the interactive experience as it is something from the story world but could also be used as marketing both online and physically in the real world.

I received positive feedback from tutors and peers when I took the design into a tutorial which bought up ideas like photo-shopping the image onto trees/walls e.t.c to use for Hansel’s tumblr blog and other social media sites or creating posters to draw in members of our target audience over the web.