As I got thinking about the project Haley, Hannah and I are working on, I got thinking to what other stories are similar so I could get some inspiration. Thinking about the two characters that we have envisioned (a couple in the Prohibition Era getting themselves into trouble for selling alcohol, and stupidly turning in themselves for reward money), I immediately thought of a funny couple from the childhood classic Annie.
Rooster Hannigan and Lily St. Regis from Annie are a conniving, ridiculous couple who are trying to help Mrs.Hannigan get reward money. (Gee, sound familiar?). I just couldn't believe how similar these two characters are to the characters that Haley, Hannah and I have envisioned in our heads for this project. They're silly and try to plot ridiculous schemes. I think that we should definitely use Tim Curry and Bernadette Peter's interpretation of these characters to our advantage when we think about putting this project together. Not to mention we could probably get a few costume ideas from this film as well.
Our project and Annie also take place around the same time period, the 1930's and Prohibition Era. Again, I think watching this 1982 version of Annie will help us encompass a comedic interpretation of this era. Annie is a movie that focuses on the light side of the Great Depression and 1930's, and puts a comedic twist to a time that wasn't so bright and happy. Since that is the approach our group is going for, I think it would be a smart idea to study this movie.
So I think I'm going to pop in this version of Annie, as well as the 1999 television remake of Annie directed by Rob Marshall to help come up with a more solid idea for this project while I'm home on break.
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.
