The main influence for my film was Bridge To Terabithia, which is a film about two children who don't fit in and spend their spare time in the woods which, to get to, you have to swing across a creek on a rope. This 'bridge' being a metaphor for the crossing over from reality into fantasy as it is in the woods where all their adventures happen, and they meet horrible creatures who are based on people they know in reality, such as the bullies at school or the boy, Jess's father.
This trailer sums up the essence of the film. And in ways which it influenced by film include:
1)The two main protagonists - I felt that if I based my story around two young teenagers, it would be an effective way of building an interesting storyline; it would be very mundane and would probrably bore the spectator if it was just one girl who got bored and decided to go exploring. You need a friendship to make the narrative more interesting and to add dialogue, as it wouldn't really work if the only character was Zoe and she just spoke to herself. I could do a voiceover narrative suggesting her thoughts, but I find it more effective to create a friendship through two seperate characters.
The two main protagonists in my film have contrasting personalities - Zoe is innocent and naive. She is very childlike; it is Zoe that comes up with the idea of exploring, and it is Zoe that believes Eugene and decides that she and Josie should go with him to his house. Josie on the other hand is more mature and more cynical. She comments on exploring as 'no, it's for babies', and she it wary of following Eugene. So in the way that she is aware that following him could be a bad idea, it aids in creating a sense of danger. This is similar to the two protagonists Leslie and Jess in Bridge To Terabithia as whilst Leslie has an open imagination and constantly tells Jess 'just close your eyes... and keep your mind wide open', Jess is cynical and has a more pessimistic and narrow view of things.
2)The pace creating anticipation - Like in the trailer, and indeed in the film of Bridge To Terabithia, the pace of the editing increases to create a sense of excitement, adventure and anticipation which I am hoping to recreate in my film through use of editing shots in the Victorian times to create a sense of fantasy and adventure compared to the 'modern day' where my shots will be longer with a slower pace to the editing.
3)A lot of long shots to establish the settings - In Terabithia, the cinematography includes a lot of long shots which linger on the settings. In my film sequence when the girls find themselves in the Victorian times, I am going to frame a lot of my shots so that the setting is clearly visible in the background as not only do I want to establish the two protagonists as outsiders and so contrasting their 'modern' outfits to settings where they don't fit in, but also I want the settings to appear quite large and dominating to portray the girls as small and vulnerable in this 'new world'.
Another film which has influenced mine, is The Corpse Bride, (Tim Burton 2005)
The main stylistics and ideas from this film which have influenced mine include:
1)Use of colour - This film contrasts the world of the living to the dead by using lots of blacks and dark shades for the world of the living and making it appear lifeless. The world of the dead however, uses much more vivid and rich colours and is more colourful and connotes an atmosphere of excitement. This contrasts to most portrayals of the living and the dead in films as normally the land of the dead is portrayed through blacks and bleak colours, and the land of the living is bright and full of life. In a similar way, my film will contrast the Victorian world to the modern world by presenting the modern world through dull colours and light tones, whereas with the Victorian world, I will saturate the shots to brighten the colours and make them appear more vivid and use as much colour as possible to help create an exciting atmosphere. This differs from most portrayals of Victorian streets which tend to appear in tones of black and grey with a very foggy and smoky atmosphere, (as seen in Sweeney Todd, (Tim Burton, 2007)).
2)The use of outsiders - as Victor accidentally marries the corpse bride and is thrown into the Land Of The Dead, he is the only living person there. This has the effect of making him an outsider to the rest of the people residing there and they don't understand why he still has a pulse. This is similar to my film where the two girls transport into the Victorian times but are 'modern day' girls, which I have shown through their modern costumes. This establishes them as outsiders in the Victorian world, particularly when they meet Eugene who is in Victorian costume. As fantasy film conventions often follow the idea of an outsider, I thought including outsiders in my own film would help establish my film as the genre of fantasy.
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