Adapting Les Parapluies de Cherbourg - Two Scenes




Colours still need to be played around with and the red scene's composition is sparse in object relevance etc so I'll work more on that! To explain briefly, the fève is there to represent the child of Genevieve and Guy's so that objects that are related to Guy are in this scene. It then zooms out to reveal the small fève encompassing all of the previous being held in Genevieve's hands infront of her womb. The camera continues to zoom out to reveal the full image (top right) as flowers bloom and bouquets inside of Umbrellas appear. Below you see the ring that Mr. Cassard gives Genevieve and represents him. In the main scene containing Genevieve there is nothing relating to Guy and even the fève becomes a representation of Genevieve's choice of marrying Mr. Cassard. (hence the ring) The only objects that remain consistent within both "scenes" are the roses from the various wallpapers seen in Les Parapluies de Cherbourg as well as falling petals.



Example of some accompanying music. (Still searching for different musical compositions from the same piece)


Kingdoms Of Sound Speed Paint Challenge #2 In The Woodwind City - The Flute District




Adapting Les Parapluies de Cherbourg - A Different Direction



"Why is absence so heavy to bear?"

After chatting with Alan and others about the direction my project was going it seemed after all that it wasn't going the right way! After experimenting with the previous compositions it became clearer that one; it was not infact adapting Les Parapluies de Cherbourg and secondly, that I had steered away from my original goal which was to take the thought-process of a book cover. Alan suggested that I think less about a contained space where everything is "in its place" as such - and instead work with having no limits spatially. 

My concern however was with having camera movement in something that from one angle may work but from another not make sense or have any purpose. In this way I'm conscious about how to make this work whilst being reminded of those 3D constructions (?) where from the side you see something that is incongruent but from the right viewing angle shows the true picture.
Currently I have an idea of the little bean (white figure thing) floating slightly infront of Genevieve's womb, and so when the camera rotates to the front it signifies the growth of a child (as she falls pregnant in the film). The rest of what I drew around her at the current moment is serving as tacked on visual references but I don't know if I should have every single thing included in the frame to be a strong metaphor having some ulterior meaning or leave them as pretty set-pieces. Lastly I don't know if I  should deal with text elements at all i.e the title of the film or leave it as is. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

The main themes I'm trying to include right now are those of absence, making a choice, and (self)reflection. Genevieve at one point questions "Why is absence so heavy to bear? Why is Guy fading away from me? I would have died for him, why am I not dead?" I'd really like to get this across somehow!

Adapting Les Parapluies de Cherbourg - Comps


trying more compositions but i think i'm going to go with a 4:3 aspect ratio rather than 16:9 in order to have a smaller focal point which at the current moment i am trying to start from the eye leading from the head to hands (and whatever Genevieve has in her hands).

Adaptation - Colour things


I did a bunch of small compositions to test out colours and tone. There's somethin' about the vibrant pink I want to keep. As for directional elements I've changed the bean that is offly shaped in the film to the shape of a person so that it communicates a little easier. Secondly, it must be noted that Mr. Cassard gives Genevieve a ring to be wed, and so the ring represents him and the bean a choice between Guy and Mr. Cassard.

Adapting Les Parapluies de Cherbourg - Colour Research / Theming

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg has extremely distinct colour choice but is never used to signify anything in its execution. Similarly, akin to most musicals it is literal in its story and does not often use metaphors. The part that does use metaphor however comes at half way in where Genevieve (main character) finds the lucky bean within her food and thus must choose a King and make a wish. Due to Guy, her almost childhood sweetheart, leaving to go to war she must choose a man who is more financially stable. At this moment Genevieve states "I have no choice.." and looks up to the camera. Though she does this several times throughout The Umbrellas of Cherbourg it's this scene that keeps standing out to me over and over. The mix of a head-on break of the fourth wall is so effective! Somehow I want to include it in the scene I make; though having a scene where everything is facing forward and direct to the camera seems most unnatural. (Simiarly to the effect Kubrick gets with symmetry and one-point perspective. In this case it would be something to avoid..) 
         
Right now I have an idea of starting the shot from 3/4 or in a way that infers reflection/self-thought (like the above screenshot of Genevieve sitting by her dressing table) and rotating the camera round towards a portrait shot of her face that would then have some "hold" factor. (Maybe backed by a slightly slower version/melody of the infamous duo between Guy and Genevieve. ) It had crossed my mind initially that perhaps a character would not even be needed, as the Umbrella shop could speak for itself with its design, but as the story focuses on Genevieve and Guy it wouldn't make sense not to include a character element.
           
Currently I'm trying to break down the most important parts of the film (so in some ways, the three act structure of it) and from that decide what should be included. I would really like to be able to make the shot be simple yet very well put together to evoke curiosity for the film!  An ode of sorts.


Film Review - Waltz with Bashir (2008)


Waltz with Bashir Poster.jpg
The Hebrew spoken film directed by Ari Folman follows the recollections of an infantry soldier in the 1982 war in Lebanon. It uses a mix of traditional and Adobe Flash animation, as well as some 3D techniques in order to create an abstraction to a subject matter that at its core is a heavy one. Waltz with Bashir, that runs at one hour thirty minutes features reoccurring interviewees as the main character, an Israeli film-maker tries to remember his youth at 19 in the war.
          
The drawn animation appearance is used in conjunction with light documentary style footage. Light in the sense that it does not conform all the time to a documentary, and whilst towards the end comrades and thus interviewees are pinned against a solid blue background; the action scenes are far more cinematic. Waltz with Bashir strays away from a "handycam" documentative style and as such takes on a reflective tone in its execution. Among war veterans, the Israeli film-maker also visits a psychologist, journalist and an accountant. Including these people as an addition to his journey serves not only for the main character to discover more about the terrors of war and the affect it has on people, but for the audience to learn the same. Remarkably, Waltz with Bashir lets on to the brass-tacks of the war in Lebanon without being subjective. At the same time it does not ask for your opinion nor does it project onto the audience its own. However, what is conveyed is that all death no matter who of is a terrible, removed occurrence.

            As the film continues it begins to dive more into the psychological aspects of PTSD and the techniques people use in war to distract themselves from the reality they are faced with. By removing themselves from the situation whether that be by pretending they are in a film or are on a long day-trip, they gain some comfort from what is in some ways too real to even be real. This eventually results in forgetting incidents that are too traumatic.

            Waltz with Bashir does not however focus entirely on psychology; and ends with real footage of the aftermath of the massacre in the Lebanon war. There are no subtitles in this final scene; and the very conscious decision to do this as well not animate it to begin with shows the amount of sensitivity Ari Folman took in order to appropriately show the reality of the war. Though banned in Lebanon itself; the film makes strides within itself to stay accurate to real events without dramatizing them for cinematic effect. It could be said that using real footage at the end is a cheap-trick to create a quick surprise, similar to that of a jump-scare but regardless of this, stays true to Waltz with Bashir's aim of educating fairly the effects and facts of the Lebanon war.