Boardwalk Empire is an HBO show created by Terence Winter. It is an American period style show based around the prohibition era of the U.S.A. It follows a group of characters that are involved in the illegal sale of alcohol throughout the New York/New Jersey area.
The show aired from September 19, 2010 to October 26, 2014 having five seasons. I have not completed the series as of now, but am in the middle of the second season. I personally love the show. It is unique and the writers have done a good job crafting creative characters for the audience to interact with. My favorite character is Jimmy, played by Michael Pitt. Jimmy is a Young man that does what needs to be done, and also has an interesting past that is unknown to him in the first season.
The show also incorporates real characters from history such as Al Capone played by Stephan Graham.
The show expands on american history to help tell a fictional story that keeps its audience on the edge of their seat and wanting more with each episode.
HBO invested a lot into this show. The pilot episode alone cost around 18 million dollars according to wikipedia, and in my opinion it payed off. The series ended up winning 2 Golden Globes and 4 Emmy's.
Well, there's not much to say about our project, as Haley covered it in her post. Right now we're finalizing our cast and our script so we're ready to shoot when we get back from break. We're also working on contacting someone about the old-fashioned car.
When we get back, we will work with our actors to figure out what scenes we will shoot and when. Our script is still in the works, as Haley mentioned, but it is coming together smoothly.
I am excited to see everyone's projects when we get back, and I hope everyone has had a great spring break!
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.
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.
