Research- Surreal Films- Alice

The idea of our film being about Alice Guy, and of an Alice in Wonderland kind of theme with a surrealist twist reminded us of the film called Alice (1988) "A surrealist re-visioning of Alice in Wonderland". I found this film very inspirational with its bizarre themes and ideas being presented artistically, in a very clever ways. It uses stop/start motion which is probably how we would film ours. The lighting is very dark which reflects the dark theme and it uses extravagant props and costumes. 


            

Research: Early Cinema: Alice Guy-Blaché

When considering options for the title sequence of our film, we thought of the idea of someone sketching Melies' designs of the moon with the face etc whilst the titles appear on the screen. We thought the person would be sitting at a desk by candlelight and this would hint at the mystery person being Melies himself designing his films. However as a result of our group consisting of me and one other girl-who would be doing the drawings-we thought about the idea of instead of us getting a male actor we could do that section ourselves. This sparked the idea of basing our film on a woman around Melies' time and of a similar style rather than on Melies. We liked this idea as Melies' is more famous; (many homages have already been made to him for example "Hugo") and if we based ours on a woman (Alice Guy-Blaché) it would be more interesting as she was the first female director in the motion picture industry.

Her film-making career span more than twenty-five years involving her directing, producing, writing and/or overseeing more than 700 films. From 1896 to 1906, Alice Guy was Gaumont's head of production and is generally considered to be the first filmmaker to systematically develop narrative in films.

We thought of the idea of our film being about Alice Guy, beginning with her falling asleep in a cinema and it being a dream sequence of her being lost in cinema with ideas of designs and characters chasing her. It would be reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland however would be of an altogether different style. Alternatively the girl falling asleep in the cinema could be a girl watching an Alice Guy film and is having a dream containing everything she was just watching. We thought of it being quite surreal and then continued to look at surreal films.

Alice Guy-Blaché

Research- Title Sequences, original style

Here is an example of a modern silent film, which seems to be of the style of Georges Melies but also seems to have been influenced by Charlie Chaplin with the comedy element rather than of the science-fiction genre that Georges Melies often produced. In this silent film, I took particular notice of the title sequence and realised that the typical layout of the title and person responsible separated by dots (...) was recreated which is what I may do in my title sequence.





An example of a silent film that features this original style of title sequences is The General. Starring Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman.

Research- Title Sequences

In order to research how the titles in films are done effectively and well, I visited the website artofthetitle.com which addresses this exactly and has opening sequences of films they think have been done really well. I looked at the ones that I thought could inspire my melies-style old film and sought artistic inspiration and clever ideas. Here are a few I looked at and the main notes of analysis I wrote down:

Edward Scissorhands-1990- Artistic and imaginative    

Titles come in on a slant

Play on words- Edward scissorhands opens up like scissors

Setting is established and Tim Burton’s name is mentioned twice to emphasise his work in the film and to interest fan audiences

Dark atmosphere sets mood for film

Music is quite twinkly and magical which again sets the mood

Ends with an establishing shot of the house we have just been taken through showing it high up on a hill on its own-isolated.

Barbarella- 1968- old film

Introduces main character bizarrely reflected by music and through close-ups of hands etc

Shaky camera movements, marks and blotches on screen occasionally

One title then none for a while

Character is revealed slowly and sexually

Titles spill from her head as her hair spills out showing theme of film

Other titles (a lot of) slide in from either side

Bonnie and Clyde-1967- old film

Begins with old photographs appearing one by one to the sound of slides being inserted one by one

Music comes in slowly and quietly building and sounds like a record player

Shots alternate between shot of photograph then shot of titles which is simple and easier to understand/follow

The two main characters are introduced with information either side of their pictures and it ends with an extreme close-up of Bonnie’s lips which is the first colour shot we have seen after many black and white photographs.

Research and Planning- Georges Melies

Georges Melies

Georges Melies was a French illusionist and filmmaker renowned for his technical and narrative developments in the very early days of cinema. His creativity and originality blew the minds of his audiences and was the first filmmaker to have the idea of films having a narrative and not just being a form of documentary. His two most well-known films are "A Trip to the Moon" (1902)  and "The Impossible Voyage" (1904) are considered to be the first films of the genre of science fiction featuring bizarre costumes and sets very much reflecting ideas of fantasy and magic. He has inspired many film makers including even Walt Disney and now he will inspire me in the making of my work.

A Trip to the Moon (1902) 

Melies often hand-painted his film in order to add colour and detail to his carefully arranged films that were unarguably works of art. This has provided me with inspiration for my film. It caused me to consider editing my film so as to look like hand-painted colour rather than the typical vibrance of colour film today. Also to add more realism to it being an old film,I thought of adding crackles and blotches to the film.






After watching some of Georges Melies' films and watching a documentary on him that featured clips from his films, I have noticed common themes throughout and have thought about his style in depth. I have realised that most of his films feature a moon at one point or another whether it be in "A Trip to the Moon" or "The Astronomer's Dream" or "A Nightmare". I think the moon adds the feeling of a higher power that adds an element of magic and reflects Gothic themed ideas including skeletons, cauldrons, and magicians. Melies himself in fact began as a magician/illusionist, performing on stage and astonishing audiences with his clever tricks and unusual ideas.

I have thought that as a homage to Melies I may feature a moon at some point during my film. I found Melies' use of skeletons very inspirational as I realised this would be quite easy to recreate and is much simpler than many other of his much more exquisite/theatrical costumes.