The Practical Blog

Cliona and myself worked together to produce our storyboard and animatic, and, coincidentally, we noticed some of the more fluid drawings were reminiscent of the monochrome work of Aubrey Beardsley. He was an English illustrator in the late 1800s who used ink for his drawings instead of colour. In a strange  coincidence ,  he is most famous for illustrating a play translated by Oscar Wilde, called Salome. After we learnt this, we felt it would be wrong to just ignore it, so here is some of Beardsley's work.

Opening titles Pan up Grace's street- establishing shot. Boys getting ready Mid shot of Jay putting on his jacket. Close up of Ali styling hair in mirror- camera is mirror. Close up on Jay tying shoelaces. Same shot, Ali comes back into view on camera to style hair, leaves shot. Close up on Jay's hand picking up wallet, walks out door. Camera is still, Ali bursts back in to do his hair again. Waiting on train then waiting for Ali Long shot of Jay waiting on train. Cut to Jay sitting on bench alone with earphones, Ali comes into view- wide shot. Dialog scene Over the shoulder shot, behind Jay looking upwards to Ali. Two shot of dialog to line 5. Catfish scene Close up on Jay's phone, scrolling through faux-file. Mid shot at slight up-angle of Ali's torso and face. Mid shot of them fighting over the phone, then long shot of them continuing to scuffle. Handheld shot of Ali getting phone. Return to two shot of dialog. Sl...

INT. BOYS GETTING READY THE BOYS ARE GETTING READY IN THEIR OWN HOMES, ONE IN BEDROOM, ONE IN BATHROOM. SOUNDTRACK. THEY ARE BOTH GETTING READY TO GO OUT. OPENING CREDITS ACCOMPANY THE VISUALS. EXT. CITY HALL WIDE SHOT OF JAY SITTING ON A BENCH ON HIS PHONE, A COUPLE OF SECONDS PASS AND ALI COMES INTO SHOT AND SITS DOWN. SHOT CHANGES TO MID SHOT OF THE TWO. ALI: SORRY I'M LATE, COULDN'T BE HELPED. JAY: WERE YOU DOING YOUR HAIR AGAIN? ALI: MAYBE. JAY: SO HOWS THE STUDYING GOIN'? ALI: HORRIBLE, ABSLOUTELY HORRIBLE - JAY: SERIOUS? ALI: YEAH! I'M LUCKY I WAS LET OUT TODAY- MY MUM'S GOT MY MOCK REPORT, SHE WENT MAD. JAY: OUCH. ALI: YEAH, I KNOW. ALI LOOKS AT JAY'S PHONE AND NOTICES SOMETHING, LOOKS CONFUSED. ALI: WAIT, WHOSE ACCOUNT IS THAT? IS SOMEONE STEALING YOUR PICTURES OR SOMETHING? JAY: NO? IT'S NO ONE NEVER MIND. ALI REACHES FORWARD AND TRIES TO GRAB THE PHO...

  Inspired by one of the most famous stories of all time, Macbeth is a modern take on the timeless tale of ambition and treachery. This television adaption starred Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood as Macbeth and his wife, and was directed by Rupert Goold. It was nominated for "Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie" though it lost to You don't Know Jack . I chose this as my final piece of analysis even though it's not a movie because I love this adaption.  I find it haunting and potent and very easy to follow, which not all adaptions of such old stories do well. I think the casting is excellent, but not as good as the idea to set it in a kind of Soviet Russia-esque location. The Macbeths' ambition and vices are cleverly but clearly portrayed and the three witches are more than a little creepy as war-time nurses. The target audience for this film is going to be people who know the story, so...

Inspired by the classic Romantic-Gothic, The Scarlet Letter , I felt that Easy A was another relevant choice for me when analysing movies. There are plenty of similar themes running throughout Easy A and The Importance of Being Earnest : lying, personas, reputation, society's expectations, rumours and romance. Directed by Will Gluck, Easy A was released in 2010 to critical acclaim and is one of Emma Stone's, the leading actress, most famous roles. Easy A follows the story of Olive, an unpopular, unknown girl in high-school who lies about losing her virginity to her best friend, and faces the consequences. It's a funny, romantic adaption, ticking a lot of boxes for me when it comes to finding a movie similar to The Importance of Being Earnest to analyse. I'd never seen it before watching it to study it, and I really liked it. Not unsimilar to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies , I like the comedic twist on a famous, but not necessarily hilarious, romantic novel. Th...

 For my third piece of analysis I will be looking at P ride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) which was directed by Burr Steers. Despite not being a success in the Box Office, I really love this movie, I love how it mixes humor with absurdity and even the sheer concept of it. I'm a fan of the original story and I think this comedy adaptation adds a nice twist to the classic love story. It seemed like a relevant movie to do - a comedy adaptation of a classic story. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies actually features many of the themes in The Importance of Being Earnest: social divisions, romance, comedy, first impressions being very wrong and the prospect of marriage being called into question every five seconds. It may not be the greatest movie ever made, but it really made me laugh, especially the failed purpose scene that ends with Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy beating the living daylights out of each other, and it was fun to analyse. This movie's target audience is young a...