Tea party ideas

In reference to Alice and Wonderland and the infamous unbirthday tea party I want to create an unsettling tea part with my characters. 

The issue I face is where to put it. I have thought about placing the table into the lake in Melton it is very shallow and having this may look very effective however the realistic approach is telling me not to do this as it involves transporting a table in and out of the water. 

I will have all three characters sat around a table with different food etc. And obviously tea, however I want the tea to look a strange colour either red or green to depict that it isn't tea at all but in fact another intoxicating substance 


Update 1st march 

I have decided to capture certain things to do with food. Rather than actually having all three characters sat together I will be using and playing with food in the video. Such as Jelly, Bread and eggs. 

My Plan

Over the next following weeks up to the end of term when we break up for Christmas, I am planning to finish most of my planning stage as I have finished all of my research. This is so when I break up over Christmas it allows me a good amount of time to start filming and trying to produce my music video, allowing me to re-shoot over the break and get hopefully all of the filming I need done. Then hopefully if anything is wrong or needs changing I wont need to go and re shoot, because of my wide range of footage over the break. Although if I do need to, it will only be quick changes as the majority will be hopefully good footage from filming over the break. Therefore also when I go back into the next term I will be on top of things and ready to go ahead into the post production stages. This is what I am to produce over the short time left in the year, which I feel is do-able.

Lighting

I explain and come to decision on the type and style of lighting I would like to use and how to do it. 
Firstly, the importance of lighting it quite clear. This video shows how a woman's face can be manipulated to look a certain way under a certain colour or angle of light. 

When to film 
There’s 4 times to be aware of at early morning or night: Astronomical, Nautical & Civil Twilight, and Sunrise (or Sunset). The light changes temperature (therefore mood) depending on how many degrees the sun is below the horizon. Long story short, the sky goes from blue to average in a matter of hours. I would personally wake up at Nautical Twilight to go out and shoot.

If you shoot in Black and White, the draw of Magic Hour is beautiful, soft shadows, if you shoot Color, the colors you will get are arguably the best of the day. What I really like at Magic Hour, it’s when natural light is fighting man made light, it’s a non issue for BW shooters but when you shoot color, there’s two different light temperatures fighting for attention in the pictures. See the image to the left. 
                          

Locations

I have visualised a few locations, this is because a professional video will use multiple locations in order to look professional.

Location 1 

I wish to use a bathroom scene as this can be an intertextual reference to when Alice has cried a river full of tears in the Disney Film Animation, this wold look effective if I was to turn off the bathroom lights and use a harsh light particularly from a torch of some sort. 

Location 2 

My garden, particularly up against the brick wall, which has a deep red colour to it in the light. This will give me a good postmodern element which will confuse time and space, this is because the clothing I have bought for the characters is very vintage, therefore mixing the urban street brick wall effect with the vintage clothing will almost give a juxtaposition and make it seem as if it is Alice and Wonderland 2.0 in the current day as opposed to back in time when it was supposed to be set. 

Location 3 

Playground, although I am not entirely sure which playground I will be using (as I have 3 local playgrounds) I will go to look at the weather on the day of filming and also the variety of equipment in those areas. I want to have a swing, slide and see-saw, this will add to the idea of the childlike references, however when people go on the see-saw at night it is seen as creepy, this is exactly the look I want to go for.So therefore I must make sure whichever playground I choose will have these activities available. 

Editing Techniques

Final Cut Pro

Cloning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIIIYB19vBk
Making pupils bigger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJHMNnmGshM
Fisheye Effect

Costume Ideas

Costumes & Makeup

Queen of Hearts 

Costume Ideas are as follows, I started with a simple queen of hearts makeup tutorial idea. I feel as though the queen makeup from the Disney production was representative enough, however I may investigate and try out some more ideas. 

I used a contour palette in order to create the defined cheekbones.

The overall outcome was rather rushed.

I used a glitter eye layer ontop of a creme base. 

I  used a liquid eyeliner to create the effect of bottom lashes. 

White Rabbit 


The white rabbit is usually seen to be a rather nervous and quick moving character, however I want the rabit in y music video to be rather slow, creepy  and unsettling. Similar to the rabbit that appeared on Misfits. (As seen below) 
 
I bought a full head mask from ebay from a chinese dealer. The mask came within two to three working days. The mask is creepy and what I had hoped for. 

I had seen different versions of these full masks, such as horses which made me think of the white rabbit idea. I think that this would give an eerie effect partnered with a suit and white gloves. 

Mad Hatter

Although the Mad Hatter is designed very well by Tim Burton's production, I wanted to get away from the Disney image of the Mad Hatter and take the design and make it almost weirder than it already is. I practiced on my sister as it was much easier to do this for organisational purposes (I couldnt ask liam to come to my house for me to just practice makeup and costume design). Therefore my first attempts at constructing my Mad Hatter costumes are shown below. On holiday in a cocktail we recieved a paper parrot, this will sit in the dungarees pocket, as I thought it would provide the Mad Hatter with a good twist to his costume, and for those who notice it it will be aesthetically pleasing. 

  

Update 14/12/15

Casting

Mollie Moment

One of my friends, Mollie, lives on the same street as me. So therefore as I do not drive yet this is a really key thing. It makes organisation much easier and enables me to reorganise to film with short notice. I primarily chose Mollie for her appearance, she has a defined cheek bone and thin nose. And my ideal Alice so to speak would have been someone like that. She is also open to my makeup skills (not much I must admit) but nevertheless she is open to my designing. I like that she has ombré style hair as it is a slight twist on the original Alice and wonderland and creates a more urban and modern feel. It may actually symbolise Alice growing up showing how she took the wrong path. I'm going off track here, anyway, Mollie has a particular look and a distinctive face and bone structure so she would be perfect for my media project to be based upon. 

Nazarena Luciano

My sister is a key role, she will help me with lighting and costumes. 

I may also use her as a character in my video as I can organise it quickly and she enjoys to act on camera. 

 I have decided to use her to play the Queen of Hearts. This decision came from the idea that she knew all of the words and was open to have makeup on and test out the different characters looks before I filmed. She is very enthusiastic. 
Although she is only 13 she is good at acting and is a dream to work with. She will not ask questions and just get on with what I have said as a direction. 
Liam Graves-Pattison

Liam is a media studies and film student, therefore I thought having him on board with acting in my video was very useful as he will know what will look good. He also has a very tight bone structure in his face and the ability to act, which I therefore thought him as the Mad Hatter would look really good. 

He tends to not care about what people think therefore I knew I would be able to get him to act to his full ability and fulfill what I needed from him. 
He lives in Brough on the weekends, so this made it very convenient for me to organise filming with him on fridays/saturdays and sundays. 

Myself 

Using myself in the video is a good idea, I am the only person who truly knows what sort of thing and image I am wanting, therefore if I am in the video I will be able to give myself substantial footage to work with of a good quality of acting. I am able to change myself into looking whatever I will want for the video. 

Health and Safety

Click HERE to view my health and safety grid 

Cinematography Development

• Pan

• Dolly Shot

• Track

• Tilt

• Hand Held

• High Angle

• Low Angle

• Establishing Shot

• Close Up

• Extreme Close Up

• Pull Focus (Demonstrating Depth of Field)

• Shot Reverse Shot

• Match On Action

• Eye Line Match

• POV

• Cut Away