How About Downton Abbey?

I can honestly say it took some convincing for me to watch this show but boy am I glad I caved!

Based in the early 1920’s, this British period drama has the ability to lure you in alone with the incredible cinematography and specifics of each shot, along with its compelling plot line and characters.  I have watched many television shows but I am confident in saying that this is the most impressive ones I’ve ever seen.

The Cinematography: 

            Taking place in an age almost the exact opposite of todays modern society, its takes a lot of careful, minor detailing to convince us that it takes place in the 1920’s. The wardrobes of each individual depending on their class, the lighting of each room, the types of furniture, appliances, vehicles… You name it.   Its perfect! Or so it seems. I cant say I have literally experienced life back then but it doesn’t resist making me feel as though I have.  The intricacy of shots is one of the reasons this show is so great. For those who have never seen it I encourage you to at least watch the first 15 minutes of Episode 1 to see what I mean! 

 The Storyline: 

If you are looking for a show fast paced, full of action or murderous suspense maybe this isn’t the show for you. However, the plot is so compact and so relative to our past history, including the Titanic and WWII, that I think you will find yourself unable to just turn away.  There is such a range of characters and personalities its inevitable that you will love and hate more than one, and you can just imagine the kind of drama that is create within that aspect as well!

 So like I said before, if you haven’t see the show just give it a try! No matter what you will get something out of it whether it is just a history lesson.

Project Update

After discussing our ideas for the project, Hannah, Courtney, and I agreed that Lily and Rooster were the perfect characters to base our couple on. From there we have come up with multiple plot ideas. We are still attempting to finalize the end, but we are sticking to our original plan of the couple attempting to turn themselves in for a small amount of money in order to purchase more alcohol. The couple will be wanted for buying and therefore possessing alcohol, which was illegal during the 1920s prohibition times. We have planned out most of the scenes in great detail, with only a few remaining. Our only big decision left to make is whether they will be arrested or not at the end after turning themselves in or not. The script will most likely be finalized and finished before the end of break. We also have almost completed casting (some have been hard to contact due to break) and hope to have everything set by Monday to prepare to shoot.

Project

Hannah, Courtney, and I are doing our project based on the Taliban member who turned himself in for a reward, which he obviously did not receive. For our project, we want to set it in the 1920s-1930s era during prohibition. The prohibition portion is important to the piece because we want to use this in order to create the conflict and to form the story around the criminals.

I have been watching different documentaries on the 1920s to understand what the lifestyle was like under prohibition. I also realized through research on the Internet and through the library that we could set it in the period of prohibition and the Great Depression. When we were discussing it, we thought basing our couple off of Lily and Rooster from Annie would be a good idea after watching a few clips of their actions. They are not the most intelligent criminals, which fits in perfectly with turning themselves in for a reward. While watching clips, we have paid attention to the way they talk and act in order to help us know what the script should be like and how the characters should act. We want to make sure we help them capture the image of criminals in Prohibition and the Great Depression, so we will be sending them the clips after we finish casting.

During break, we all plan to rent movies on this era so that we can get the exact feel that we are looking for. In addition, we will be talking to people about casting for roles in our film, which we will be doing right after break. Finally, we will be completing the script over break in order to be prepared for shooting when we return.

The Fall

The Fall is a film set in 1920s L.A. in a hospital where we meet a little girl, Alexandria who has recently broken her arm while picking oranges with her family. She becomes friends with Roy, an actor and stunt double in silent films. He has recently broken his legs and they are possibly paralyzed. He starts telling Alexandria a beautiful story about love, revenge and adventure and uses this to get her to steal Morphine for him.

This film is actually based off another film called Yo Ho Ho,  a Bulgarian film where instead of a silent film actor, Roy's character is a stage actor and Alexandria's character is actually a boy and also is tricked by the Roy character to get drugs.

I've seen posts about this film for a while but have never seen it until now. I'm in love with Lee Pace, so after a bunch of Tumblr posts about it, I finally added it to my instant que.

The cinematography was phenomenal. Even though this film came out in 2006, I want them to resubmit the film and get all of the Oscars for cinematography  Lead Actor and Lead Actress. That little girl who played Alexandria broke my heart. She deeply cared for Roy and just wanted to stay with him and listen to his story. Roy is just so caught up on not being able to act and that his girlfriend has left him for the leading man that he doesn't see how much he's influencing this little girl.

As Roy's telling Alexandria the epic, it breaks the fourth wall within the film universe. At one point Alexandria sneezes and they incorporate that within the dialogue the epics' characters. You also get the narration from Roy and Alexandria's feedback. Once and a while she'll break in and say what she wants to hear from the story. It's an adorable way to play with the imagination of a five year old.

I cried. Yes, I admit it, I cried hard. This is one in a handful of movies that I have actually sobbed during. Lee Pace is amazing in this film. The colors were so vibrant and breath taking, I could just watch it again just to purely look at the color schemes. I mean, just look at Charles Darwin's fur coat (Yes, he's based off of the real Darwin which I found clever since he was still pretty controversial in the 20s). That red stands out so beautifully. Gah! I want to live in those colors!

If you ever get the chance to watch The Fall, I highly recommend it! Bring extra tissues because you will be surprised at how emotional you will get during this film.