Feedback

Well done, Courtney.  This is comprehensive so far with a clear sense of how the idea has been developed and changed from the initial concept.  The research and planning included offers plenty of evidence of excellence in organisation and ensuring that the product is informed by reference to real music marketing materials.

The shooting schedule needs to be redrafted with reference to specific storyboard frames so that it is clear what shots need to be covered in each set up.

James

Costume Hire

Below is a recorded copy of my contact with a Costume Hire location: 

Dear Fairy Godmother Costume Hires,

REPLY

Hi Courtney

I am sure we can supply the costumes you are after. They cost between 

store is your closest. Please call 01932 566988 to talk to jayne.

£32-£36 to hire, and the hire is up to a week. I believe that our Chertsey 

I have yet to call Jayne and speak with her - this I will do next week, when our entire production team is together. 

I am writing from Hurtwood House Media Department to enquiry about some of your costumes for hire. My production team is in the process of developing and producing an original music video as a part of our A Level Media Studies course here at Hurtwood House and after scouring the internet we found fairygodmother.co.uk. Our music video is based on a fairytale theme and - quite frankly - your costumes would be perfect for our shoot. We particularly liked the long Belle and Cinderella dresses as well as Little Red Riding Hood - I was wondering if I could reserve these costumes ahead of time. Our music video shoot is on the 16th November (but we would like to have the costumes from the 15th-17th of November just in case we 'missed a shot' or have to reshoot a sequence) and it would be great if we could reserve them now so that the main element of our music video is settled.

Please contact me for any further quieries, questions or comments. I look 

forward to hearing from you.

Warm regards,

Courtney Madincea

Hurtwood House Media Department

Holmbury St. Mary

Dorking

Surrey

RH5 6NU

Shooting Schedule

Now that we know where are locations are going to be we can roughly manage to write out a schedule:

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 16TH 2011


Start - 8:30AM - HURTWOOD STUDIO - The Tea Party Room Sequence     
                                   The Bedroom Scene
                                   The Bath-Tub Scene
                                    
        1:30PM - HURTWOOD CLASSROOM - Awaken Scene (clash and end)
        3:30PM - Travel to Location (Foxbury) - 
                                   Stairs/Exterior /Corridor Scene.
        8:00PM - Finish. 


Obviously there are no breaks and this is just a very rough first draft, when we come together on Monday we will all work together to finalize a shooting schedule as well as re-contacting our actors and officially confirming them for the shooting day. 

Set Design - And Additional Feedback from Dan (The Production Designer)

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party Room - this is the final 'fantasy' room of our music video. It is where the young girl finds solace amidst all the chaos and madness from the rest of the house. This is the final room she ends up in before waking up in her own classroom. It is also a 'sanctuary' - where she finds the band members who play to her, this is a safe room. Which is why we want it to greatly juxtapose the rest of the house. The house is very gothic and dark but this room is full of light, pastel colors and lively shrubbery. This room will be well lit - contrasting to the dark shadows of the other rooms - and overflowing with cakes, cupcakes, candy, marshmellows, streamers, party-poppers etc. It is the room where the performance element is heavily based. 

Below are two alternative ideas for the Tea Party Room:

#1

#2

After talking with Dan the production designer, we showed him the two alternative ideas we had for our Tea Party Room and we all decided to make a hybrid of the two. It will be a canopy room strewn with large shrubbery and fairy-lights. With soft lighting on the canopy itself and multiple light sources. We want this room to be "loud" but pleasing to the eye. 

The Bedroom - This is the room our main character discovers Red Riding Hood and The Wolf 'canoodling' (so to speak) in bed with each other. This room is lit with heavy shadows and candlelight that surround the bed. On the floor is the quickly discarded materials of R.R.Hood and The Wolf, such as a basket, a grannies wig, a shoe and two bras. We didn't want the bedroom to be too elaborate and draw attention away from the action and what the little girl is seeing. 

After discussing with Dan, we agreed to shoot this in the studio and make it a black room with just a simple bed in the middle. We would dress the set well and rely heavily on shadows to give the atmospheric mood of the room. We also discussed using Gobos - gobos are filters you can put over lights in order to create a lighting 'shadow' to cast over the bed. We were going to use a gobo that simulated barred windows and cast it over the bed as the only/one of the only sources of lighting. 

This main staircase is one of our main rooms - we had hoped to make it a set piece but we were told it would be too expensive. Nonetheless, we are using our location staircase (featured in a previous post) and dressing it well - this will be a lot more difficult but over half term i am going to keep experimenting with how to dress the set nicely in order for it to look like a gothic haunted mansion.

The Bathroom Scene will be executed similarly to the Bedroom Scene, it will be in a black studio and lit very dramatically so only what we want to see is visible. 

Our Corridor Scene is also being used on location - pictures will be available soon - and this too, to match the house, will be lit with heavy shadows and soft candlelight. The corridor scene is very much about "watching your back" and shadows dancing around the young girl. 

Cast List

Cast Members:

Madhatter

Tommy Lyster from Cranleigh (Outside student)

Age: 17

Role: Mad Hatter - main singing part - leader of the band "The Teacups".

Costume: Suit, pin-stripped, quite alternative, with a little emo-ish twist.

Example of the "look" below.  

The Little Girl

Alabama Jackson (Outside Student)

Age: 12

Role: Main Girl - girl scout

Costume to look like this (below):

Other Band Members

John Oldfield from Cranleigh (Outside student)

Age: 17

Role: The March Hair - Drums/Guitar

Costume? Same gothic-esque costume, with a twist, ears and face makeup probable. 

The Door Mouse 

 Eva Abeling - Hurtwood House Student (A2)

Age: 17

Role: The Door Mouse - Guitarist 

Princesses :

First Princess

Ally Blacklock - Hurtwood House Student (A2)

Age: 17

Role: Belle/Beauty

Costume Below:

Second Princess

Jasmine Sichel - Hurtwood House Student (A2)

Age: 17

Role: Princess Cinderella

Costume Below:

Third Princess

Sarah Wichall - Hurtwod House Student (A2)

Age: 18

Role: Snow White

Costume Below:

Fourth Princess

 Sabrina Salmon - Hurtwood House Student (A2)

Age: 18

Role: Sleeping Beauty

Costume Below:

Pinocchio

Paul Godeau - Hurtwood House Student (AS)

Age: 16

Role: Pinocchio wrapped up in string

Costume Like This:

Captain Hook

 Antonio Magro (Teacher at Hurtwood House)

Age: Older :)

Role: Crazy Captain Hook

Costume Like This:

Prince Charming/Big Bad Wolf

Max Voloshin - Hurtwood House Student (A2)

Age: 17

Role: Arrogant Prince Charming

Costume Like This:

Little Red Riding Hood

Courtney Madincea - Hurtwood House Student (A2)

Age: 17

Role: Red Riding Hood, sleeping with the wolf.

Costume Below:

List of Costume Sources:

Hurtwood House Costume Department: we may be able to salvage the costumes of the Mad hatter, the Girl Scout, Pinocchio, Captain Hook, the other band members and smaller costume parts like the grandma wig, the additional character costumes (extras costumes) and accessories like Little R.R.H's basket. 

Fairy Godmother Costume Hire – Cinderella Gown, Belle Gown, Red Riding Hood Outfit. 

Other websites/personal stock - Wolf mask, Dwarf mask, Girl scout sash, Black wig

Props:

Candy

Tea Set

Wig x2

Glasses

Basket

Apples

Glass Slipper

Pills

Cards

Toy Boats

Rubber Duck

Cookies

Cupcakes

Cake

Toothpicks

Bunny ears

Mouse ears

Strings

Face paint

Make up

White Gloves

Streamers

Fairy Lights (White)

Baloons (pastel)

Long table

X6 chairs

Candelabras

Vases

Cake stands

Runner

Animatic Feedback

We are one step closer to producing the real thing but, after watching this animatic and analysising it, it is clear that there is a lot to sort out. Our feedback involved a few teachers and the rest of the class.

- The biggest point we recieved is that the performance element - this needed to be MUCH more involving, meaning that we use more shots and 'cut-tos' of the band throughout the music video. Although we do still have the 'build up and reveal' of the band, we will plant little 'i want more' scenes into the music video.

- Another one was "What generates the girl to run upstairs?" - what is she running from or too. As a group we haven't yet decided on this, there are a few possibilities floating around like the Mad Hatter grabs her and throws her upstairs or she follows him or she is caught on something that practically drags her upstairs. We don't know yet but it isn't a major problem and something that can be easily decided.

- Also, a point that definitely needs to be decided is what exactly what needs is occuring in our wide shot chaos scene we need to individually pick out each aspect of the wide shot and list what exactly is going on. So who is on the stairs, how are we dressng the set? Because it is a large space, we need to really fill it and get down to specificity.