The Rules of Justice (Dir: Adam Gunton)

The last of the Cheesemint Productions Six shorts project to showcase on my blog!

An action packed buddy cop parody, directed by Adam Gunton and produced by Cheesemint...

With Teeth (Dir: Debs Chapman)

Another fan-freakin'-tabulous Cheesemint production, a Twilight spoof that even Twihards will appreciate...voila!

Eat The Parents (Dir: Georgie Oatley)

Behold!

The latest Cheesemint Production. A romantic comedy with a carniverous twist...starring myself, Matt, Debs, Adam, Tara and Georgie...

More on the way, including Twilight parody "With Teeth" directed by Debs Chapman, "Dead Duck", a war drama based on Norse mythology directed by Matt Stogdon (filming starts June!).

Show us some support, check out our website and new blog:
www.cheesemint.com
Mint in Blog
Follow us on Twitter: @Cheesemint
Find us on Facebook and become a fan too!

Montelimar: The Finished Film

Montelimar

...My short arthouse parody film is well underway, the audio parts at least! Montelimar is centered around a female character called Martha who appears to be suffering from a maddening obsession with food. Throughout the film, three female voice actors (Myself, Debs and Georgie) will be heard reading a monologue in an almost eerie chant-like way. We've already recorded this part and it's roughly 2 minutes long meaning I can use it as a guide when it comes to editing the footage. I'm fairly happy with how it sounds however it's going to take some time to mix the audio with the music as I've had little experience in sound editing. However, with the help of Matt the musical score is complete and it is this that I will be using as the basis for my eventual editing - it seems the most logical way to go about it especially as I haven't had a great deal of editing experience.

Here are some rough drawings in chalk that relate to the film. I started doodling at work and it turned into this (When you subconsciously doodle like this- that's when you know you're working hard on something!):




I'm most looking forward to directing, setting up the shots and dressing the set. It will be interesting to see if I can match the image in my mind to the image I eventually put on screen. I see it as a learning experience so I'm not quite so anxious. The set then - 1 location, 2 rooms;

Dining Room: a dining table, set ready for guests full of food. In particular lots of sticky, sickly sweet foodstuff
Bathroom: We only see a bathroom sink and mirror.

Both the dining room and bathroom footage will be interspersed with each other hinting at the damage (literally and psychologically) that the food is having. Lots of brushing teeth shots (maybe sped up in post production), scrubbing the table, close-ups of the food - high exposure, eventually building with the music, at one point the camera pauses above a small crumb on the tablecloth, images juxtaposing each other rapidly until a crescendo when the music becomes solemn and reflective. The final shot will mimic the opening one, Martha (Debs) face down on a table - this time we see the table is set but is empty.

That's all very well, I hear you say or rather, not say "where is the humour?!"

This was my biggest hurdle and still is, which is why I've gone and left it until last. It seemed to me that parodying the arthouse genre would be quite challenging given the widespread nature of the genre. What I might ironically place visually in a scene for comic effect may well be taken seriously. This is why I feel the best possible way to go about this project is to approach it as a serious arthouse piece an then use subtitles in post production to parody the narration.

I may even end up with 2 versions, one with and one without subtitles as I'll be interested to see what comments both will gather. The narration is in a badly pronounced English non-descript foreign accent, although French seemed easiest and seemed to appropriately fit with the arthouse theme. The first line is "I lost my mind in the terrible accident" while subtitles will read (in English - also adding to the humour - I hope!) "I lost my mind in a terrible accent" and thus will continue in vain to continually mock the on-screen images and incredibly pretentious narration and repetition until the end credits.

Two more images of my doodles:




Filming can take place as soon as I have gathered necessary set dressings and food. As I will be using food I aim to complete the footage in an evening. I see this as an appropriate time frame as I have no dialogue to film and will only require Debs presence for about a third of the shoot. I am also looking into food styling tips and gathering information on how best to shoot food. Lighting and freshness of the produce being my main concerns.

Another aspect of my film will be the repetition of threes. There are three voices: Martha
Apollinia
Dymphna

All three are patron saints of particular things. Martha, spoken by Debs is the patron saint of cooks. Dymphna, voiced by Georgie is the patron saint of Madness/insanity and Apollinia, voiced by yours truly is the patron saint of dentistry - who, as a side point, had her teeth shattered as punishment!

Here we are recording the eerie narration (the other lovely young lady in the picture is Ella, Georgie's sister who also features in Still Alive!):




The music also has three strands to it, one is a piece which plays continuously and the other two are a waning violin and a piano piece.

The narration, you've guessed it - three parts. Not only does it have three voices but the first line is repeated in every stanza. How many of these are there? Yep. Three.

I went a little overboard with the power of three thing but it sort of adds to the female chanting of the audio. Strange really as my intention was spoken word, not chanting, it just sort of happened naturally in that creepy female synchronising way...plus, I really liked how it sounded.

The best way to describe how I'd like the food on screen to look is to show you the opening credits from the TV series Dexter:



I've also been painting storyboards using watercolour, not sure why I chose that particular medium - probably because of the texture, it's difficult to capture texture and vibrant saturated colours in biro...they'll be uploaded very soon, and hopefully in the next 2 weeks, so will Montelimar!

"Angel's Kiss" : Dir. M. Stogdon (rRh)

Behold! Another Cheesemint Production, this time directed by Matthew Stogdon...for your viewing pleasure...



Stay tuned...more on the way VERY soon!

"Still Alive" Dir: G. Oatley.

As promised...



Coming soon...

I AM LEGENDARY
A Science Fiction tale by Dave Chapman
WITH TEETH
A Horror story by Debs Chapman
MONTELIMAR
An Art-House piece by Emma-Jane Corsan
THE RULES OF JUSTICE
An Action blockbuster by Adam Gunton
EAT THE PARENTS
A Romantic Comedy by Georgie Oatley
ANGEL'S KISS
A Film Noir outting by Matt Stogdon

See Cheesemint for more details...

The Cake is a Lie!

The puppets I made for Still Alive directed by Georgie Oatley. Step by step to follow soon! Check out the Cheesemint website at the end of the month for the finished video where you can watch Adam and Debs trying to escape from Aperture Science!

Insert Incredibly Cliched Art-Based Phrase Here...

Yo ho ahoy to those of you who read me! I have a few new things to work on at present. One will be to help out fellow Chesseminter, Adam with one of his college projects. As it's a community action project, he has decided to help the rest of us Cheesemints to update our mad skillz and give us a chance to reach another audience. We've each been assigned a film genre. Mine is arthouse films, some of you might not agree that it deserves a whole genre of it's own however, David Bordwell has also claimed that

art cinema itself is a [film] genre, with its own distinct conventions

and he's a "Film Scholar" according to Wikipedia and I agree with him. So um, yeah, take that you arthouse genre naysayers, you!

Anyhow, I've already managed to digress...Basically, I have to write and direct an arthouse inspired short trailer (approx. 1 minute). However, it's got to be a parody...

To me, arthouse seems to be a difficult genre in which to incorporate comic material (without just relying on full-on slapstick perhaps?). I guess this is because even the arthouse films that incorporate humour are not funny on purpose and are done so in seriousness. One idea I have had however, is to use subtitles for humourous effect. That way at least, the comedic element will be a bit more subtle. Filming however, I think will be easy...there are a lot of cliched elements, icons, plot devices and themes in the genre. Also, the mise-en-scene (part of filming I really enjoy) will be fun to put together. So far, i'm thinking a few philosophy texts strewn around - nothing too obvious and a dripping tap/ticking clock plus lots of shadows, fade to black shots and obscure camera angles ought to do it. It can also be done on a tiiiiiny budget which is ideal. Most arthouse films often showcase new talent too. Not sure who'll be starring in it yet...I still need my creative vision before I decide that. Although I'm fairly sure it'll be no more than two actors.

Really looking forward to it and currently doing a bit of research for it. All of which I've included in this blog entry...








* narrative - passage from a philosophy text or classic author?
* fade to black shot at the end, followed by the over-used "FIN"?
* terrible french/german accent?
* words spoken by actor/s different to subtitles?
* ticking clock...dripping tap...day to night (general passing of time)?
* memory - use of still objects
* shots must be well though out - very aesthetic, perhaps "beauty over substance"?
* title - "Quiet, Now", "Silence, Now", a line from a book/text, something foreign, possibly one word as it has more effect?
* could incorporate past art work, like the blank canvas piece? Could be adapted into arthouse film easily...artists struggle with canvas/nothingness/the absurd? Too personal? Or perhaps it's the right kind of self-indulgence a pretentious art film needs?
* title has nothing to do with film's content?
* static TV screen/white noise
* broken sentences

Could draw on the following films/TV series/directors/influences:
~Memento (2001)
~Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
~Waking Life (2001)
~ David Lynch
~ Gus Van Sant
~ Lars Von Trier
~ L'Année dernière à Marienbad (1961)
~ The Twilight Zone (1959–1964)
~ Twin Peaks (1990)
~ Dadaism
~ Surrealism
~ Un chien andalou (1929)
~ avant-garde movememt


I definitely won't be incorporating scenes such as the eye-slicing scene in Un Chien Andalou!

New Year...New Projects!

My previous post, a letter to this year, although seemingly pessimistic only makes up a minute part of my mindset at present. I only panic when I have projects lined up and potential failures to avoid/people around me to ensure I don't disappoint etc.

I'm still excited about a number of upcoming projects this year and feel very lucky to be part of them. However, with excitement comes nerves and with nerves comes a very flustered Emma-Jane. Hence, the panic of yesterday's post.

Anyhow, one of these new projects involves illustating a children's picture book, hopefully meeting up with my friend and ex-collegue, Rob. With all his expertise in Children's Bookselling and all his contacts in publishing, it's somewhat daunting as it could be more than a fruitless project. It's something I've always longed to do too so it's no surprise that I feel under so much pressure. And we still have yet to get together to discuss it! I would feel quite disappointed by 2011 if we hadn't at least drafted it or sent it to a handful of publishers.

Still, it ought to be fun nonetheless and it's another creative project to tuck under my belt. Speaking of which, the other big creative thing lined up for this year is all down to Cheesemint.

To quickly explain, Cheesemint is a small production company I have found myself involved in, check the site for more info! So far my roles haven't been that huge - I've been making puppets for one of the videos and I will be uploading a step by step guide with pictures to the blog VERY soon and in November we all took part in a Rockathon, playing Rockband 2's infamous Endless Setlist for this amazing charity; Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust and we even got a mention on Xbox live! It's all been great so far but the scary part is yet to come in the form of a web series this year which is a little daunting for me. My previous experience of acting (what little of it there is!) has mainly been silent so it will be very interesting and a bit of a challenge. All the anticipation is rising but it's going to be an exciting project to be part of. Everyone involved is stupidly talented and I feel very happy to have been accepted so readily as one of the group. So I'd just like to say thank you for being such awesome friends, despite knowing you all for little under 4 months! Yay Cheesemint!

So, it seems I actually do have a lot to look forward to in 2010. Okay so I didn't pass my MA, but I've had all the experiences that go with it. Yes, I was made redundant and lost a job I loved. But, I've met so many new friends in 2009 and already have projects lined up. Oh and top it all off 2009 led to the meeting of my future husband (of which I have no doubt!): (rRh).

Okay so soppy sentiment aside, Happy New Year Everyone! Watch this space...