Composition

Finally, we're getting somewhere. I'm happy I attempted this shot, since it's the most iconic of the piece. This definitely clarifies foggy parts of the piece for me.

Salome Dances

Another early Style Frame...

Style Frames

I need to start working on Style frames for the piece. This is a first try.

The Return

Salome Comes down into the Well

Great Reference - "300" End Titles

Great Reference - Ghost in The Shell

Salome lifts the gate and looks down into the well

Great Reference - Ivan the Terrible Pt. 1

Herod Eyes Salome as she weeps on the terrace.


Interesting Salome Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BpmUPszqJU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RaDT5vbKXc

I've been away from the blog for a few weeks while I was casting actors for the film. Also, I have been enlightened by a layout workshop given by Will Weston here at USC. Ever since, I have been focusing on the composition of the film. This has been unbelievably essential to my progress as a filmmaker and I can't believe it has taken so many years to final learn the concepts of layout and composition. Above, there are some samples for Salome using abstract shapes.

The Year of Living Dangerously

The title sequence from Peter Weir's The Year of Living Dangerously features the puppetry of Wayang Kulit. The sequence was recommended to me to by Mar Elepano who lived in Jakarta for five years and who is a great resource for my research into the puppet theater of Indonesia. He explained to me that Wayang Kulit was banned by the Islamic fundamentalists in the government because it had supposed connotations of idolatry and polytheism. This tradition also has a place in Hindu culture, where they perform selections from the Ramayana. Seeing Mr. Weir's film helped me to understand how these puppets move. There is some very interesting motion blur in between each pose of the puppets. Also, the puppeteers don't always keep the puppets flush against the fabric, so the projections can become distorted. The puppets don't hide the fact that they're not three-dimensional, even though they're in a three-dimensional space. Sometimes a puppet will slightly rotate and you'll see its thin profile. The other aspect of Mr. Weir's title sequence that struck me was the music. It was full of tension and it used the instruments that accompany the Wayang Kulit.

City of God

Moving ON

With these character designs that I've done so far, I 've decide to move on and begin casting actors, finalizing the script and using these characters to block out each scene. To refine the timing and pacing, I need to record my actors.
The recent character design work has been very exciting. I think I'm discovering a look for the film. At this point, I will look between the traditional wayang kulit puppet theater of Java and the innovative film, City of God. My next move will be to develop style frames after filming my live elements, namely water, silk, fog, and dust. The scene from City of God where Lil Dice becomes Lil Ze was always the most interesting in the film for me. The Candamble priest is mystified through the lighting, the camera and the editing. The editing uses frequent punch-ins and defocusing to give the sequence and visceral feeling. I will focus on using warm tones for this film. At first, the terrace was going to be lit with the cool light of the moon, but after discovering the inspiring material mentioned above, I make my first film using the reds, yellows, blacks, and whites, with only sparing blues. Though I will need to do more detailing to the puppets before I assemble them in Maya, I am at a good place to leave the puppets for now while I work on other aspects of pre-production. Also, in my meeting with Prof. Sheila Sofian today, I realized that for a short film, including Herodias in the story just makes it much more complicated in confusing. She was more of an observer, but it was hard to develop her in tandem with Salome in such a short piece. I feel a weight has been lifted from me, because the script is simpler, yet I have to decide whether Salome is his stepdaughter or his real daughter, a decision which could greatly increase the degree of Herod's incest.