Ophelia Filming

Filming for ophelia needed a lot of preparation. the director wanted to try and get ophelia wet 2 ore 3 times so we had to clean dry the actress and the costume durring 20 to 30 minutes. so we prepared ourselves with hairdryers electric heaters and cleaning stuff.

 When first saw the costume on set I realized that as nice the clash the white costume had with nature, it needed something to incorporate it more and made it look like she was actually going around the forest quite a bit. So during the day of the shoot I brought some things to distress brake down and dye the hem. when the hem was broken down it fitted to the set so much more.it also incorporated better with the makeup that the feet had(gashes, mud, wounds) . I also dirtied her cuffs as her hands also were maked-up.

 While the cameramen were trying to get the focal points, they wanted the actress to sit in a wet patch of the set that made the actress quite cold so we worked into keeping her worm with hairdryers and covering her with towels.

 the most challenging part was after the actress was covered with water and mud, whidh offcourse she wasn't very happy about, so we had to clean and get her dry as soon as possible as quick as possible as she was stating to get really miserable and was in the verge of tears.

an example of the mud before the water flooded over her

In the end of the day I was really happy with my work, what made me quite content was that the director himself was really pleased with my work. One of the main reasons I wanted to work in this film was to help the director to bring his vision to life, and a indication of success in that makes me really happy about my work. The day might have been really long but by the end of it I honestly felt like I could have worked more I think that was mainly because of the energy the crew had on the day, and my own excitement for the project.  One thing I wasn't that happy about was the fact that Holly who was assisting me in the day didn't have much to do during preproduction and during the day of filming. I feel that I have learned a lot about filming but I am not sure if most of the things that I brought with me were the right ones as we only filmed one shot and I am not sure about the things I had prepared for cleaning and drying the costume.

photoshoping the Final picture

An other plus about the first part of this project is that I get to use any other skill that I have like  using photoshop an digitally enhancing pictures. I used photoshop to play with the exposure change the background and ad the devil wings that are there instead of the angel ones the original picture has.

original image

photoshoped 1

photoshoped 2, final

I chose this particular image because the pose looks a lot more like the painting, the placement of the guitar is perfect and the models face is exactly as I wanted it to be. I like what I managed to do with photoshop and I think I made it look its best. The only thing I am not as font of is the fact that the guitar is hiding most of the outfit, but everything else is exactly as I wanted them to be. I had two different ideas for photoshop and evidently the second one is a lot better. 

Photoshoot

Today I did my final photo shoot. Before it did some make-up and hair test on the model so I could see what would fit her more or what fits the premise of the photo shoot more. I also tried on her some different outfits that I had so I could pin down exactly what I wanted. This photo shoot wasn't conducted in a studio but in a house, as I wanted to use a leather sofa. Having the shoot in a house was a bit harder than having it in a studio as even if you still use special lighting the control you have over it is not the same as the controlled environment you would have in a studio. During the photo shoot we tried a lot of different things like different poses, clothes, jewelry, angels we even tried having bubbles floating around. I really liked that the photographer tried to play around with me and my ideas thus bringing a variety of results while working from a range of views. As we were sooting I started to feel a bit unsure about the the whole concept and style that I was going for, I felt that I maybe had run with my emotions and went quite over the top, but when I put the pictures in the computer I really liked the results. I feel like I have succeeded in what I was trying to do.
Examples of photos:

planing Easter

As the films start sooting the week after we come back from easter. I have decided to try and do everything that I need to do during the easter holidays. During the easter holidays I want to:

• Finish the designs for Ophelia's dress 
• Make the dress
• Progress my sketchbook
• Work on my blog 
• Make contact with the director of "Wall in Naples"

If I manage to cross all those from my list I think that I can become more organized, and be more relaxed with my work load. 

Ophelia costume design

I have designed a costume for Ophelia and sent it to the Director attached with some of the pictures that inspired the design.
The Email :

From: 3201848 DANAI STAMATIOU
Sent: 08 April 2011 11:25
To: heartxxxattack@gmail.com
Subject: costume design ophelia 

 This is a design for ophelia's dress, I am mainly thinking of using white fabrics which I can layer on top of each other and create an interesting texture. Also I have been thinking of maybe breaking down the fabric so it looks distressed as she has beed thought a lot. I am also sending you some of the pictures that I used as inspiration. Also when you cast ophelia could you sent me her measurements, it would really help me.  

let me now your thoughts on my ideas. 

I am really looking forward in working in this film

thank you 

Danai Stamatiou

my design 

The director emailed me back  saying that he really liked my initial design so it ended up becoming my final design I was really happy that I managed to capture the directors vision right away but I am a bit unhappy that I didn't get to develop my design and ideas further. as I have no budget I decided to make the costume out of curtain fabrics that I already had, I also managed to find a corset in the costume store that I was allowed to use,as it was the older one and made was made out of calico. The corset itself was yellow tinted and looked quite distressed thing that really fits my breaking down idea. I also focused quite a bit in the making of the sleeve cuffs as I wanted that to the the royal element of the costume responding to something the director had said earlier "she's been living in the woods but she is a princess", I want the cuffs to be made out of different lace based fabrics layered in different ways. I also have discussed with the director about the chronological setting of the costume and we both agreed that something vague that doesn't look like its something in particular but looks nice and connects with the script.   

Assignment of films, Meeting with director

Today we learned which films were going to be made, two of the ones that I like are going to go on, so I decided to fight for working at least in Ophelia which was the one that I wanted to work on the most, and I managed to get it. so in the end i am designing for Ophelia among the flowers co-designing for wall in naples, which wasn't one of my choices but I am still exited about, and I am assisting for Archers which also looks quite challenging. in the whole I am really happy with the results and I cant wait to start working in all those films.

Wall in Naples

The Archers

I also had My first meeting Csongor Dombovari the director and scriptwriter of Ophelia, as I was interested with the project from early on I had already researched the ophelia character from Shakespeare's Hamlet and I proposed some of my initial ideas to him. he seemed to like all my ideas and the direction we were heading. He also seemed to be really exited with my initiative. I as well promised him to sent him my designs and ideas within three days so he can tell me his opinions. I am pretty happy with the outcome of this brief meeting I seem to have impressed the director and got him to go with my ideas, also the fact that out visions were very similar made me feel really good for our future cooperation.
I didn't get to meet with the other director I will be working with but I managed to get his email and I will be emailing him soon. when I was having my meeting Jessica who I will be assisting had hers, later on she briefly told me the contents of the meeting and I asked her to tell me when she needs any help.

Pitchings and thoughts

the pitchings were really interesting, I really liked most of the film students ideas and I thought that they looked alot more prepared than yesterday. within the pitches there were some that looked a lot more appealing and challenging for me to work on. I really liked 
1) the first one that caught my attention was a script inspired by Odilon Redon's Ophelia in the flowers. The idea of the film would be based on the visuals and little details of Ophelia's dead, drowned corpse. I really liked the way the idea was presented the director-scriptwriter seemed to be very exited and straitfoward about his idea, thing that really made me to want to work witth him in order to help him bring his vision to life 

2) an other pitch that really attracted me was for a script based for Coming the Hair painting by Degas the story was based on the relationship between the two women in the painting. I would want to work on this for the same reason I would have wanted do a photo shoot with it. I love the red hues and environment of the painting.

3) In addition there was an other pitch that caught my attention, it concerned the the Sunflowers by VanGoth. the director wanted to transport the feelings that the painting gave him (fear, alienation, panic, hostility) throughout some images like dead chickens and bloodstains. I would like to work on this project as it would be interesting to see if I could represent those felling with costumes, colors and styles.

I cant wait to hear which ones are chosen to go further but if any of those ones are, I will really really like to work in on or two of them 

National Gallery visit with film students

Today we had a trip with the film students to the national gallery. The trip was truly interesting and properly meeting the film students was something we needed badly.  It t=was quickly realized that there wasn’t much for us to do. It was highly interesting, thought to see how the film students were choosing their paintings, they seemed to focus on lighting and facial expressions of their characters instead of the story of the painting and the background of it. I actually thought that the film people would be more prepared with their ideas and concepts, so we could discus about them and contribute in the whole development. I am looking forward to the pichings tomorrow so I can hear their actual ideas and talk around them.