Concept Modelling

My vision to have a giantic hedge behind the castle front to translate the transition from castle entrance to garden behind was difficult to visualise on paper. By producing this concept model from bits of cut up foam and cocktail sticks I was able to realise my design more visually.





In comparision against the scale figure I can see this scenic element translating a grand, overwhelming structure within the design. (To add to this, I feel it will fit in well at this grand scale as to the genre of surrealist horror being communicated.)

"Around the castle was a garden"

During the performance the castle turns 180degrees on a circular revolve, revealing the garden behind.

Taken from the script:
"Half of it was bright summertime and the other half gloomy winter. One side grew the prettiest flowers, but on the other everything was dead and buried in snow.
'What a blessing!' he (the father) said to his servant, and ordered him to pick a rose from the beautiful rose bush there.
But then, as they were riding away, a ferocious lion leapt out."

Initial concept design




Idea for floor design - printed flower/foliage textures painted on to symbolise garden plants?








Details: Gigantic bush as a back-setting for garden with a gate opening reflecting the entrance from the castle to the garden. Through the gate bears a gigantic lion's tail in which it peters out to form the 'rose bush' on the summertime side of the garden. Originally I had thought of putting a elegant water fountain in the middle to form a divide between the two settings (bright summertime and gloomy winter). But then to keep to tune with this particular genre of horror/surrealism I thought a gargoyle type statue of the lion itself would give a more coherent set piece for this scene.

Photo montage of set piece

Colour Variations

Horror Genre Set Design

Stormy emerald green - fantasy yet dark and devious aspects coming through.


Darker lighting changes the overall visual impact making the set more gloomy and sinister.


Luminous foreground compliments the purple surrounding - creating a more stormy, romantic essence surrounding the play.


Redder sky thus symbolising the danger and bloody aspect of the play.


Greater intensity - strong and visually encapsulating.













Costume Realisation


By changing the colour of the Lion's costume I designed previously, one can depict the essences surrounding the horror genre. Red symbolising fear and blood the other associating with the royal status that the lion reflects.

Floor Design

Inspiration for floor design


To depict the two seasons in my design it would be very difficult to have one side summertime and the other gloomy winter - as take for example when the castle revolves each of these 'seasons' will be on the alternate side. Props / set dressing would not match the surroundings. To overcome this factor I realised lighting would be the key. By lighting each part of the stage in a separate way would distinguish the transition between bright summer time and gloomy winter. For this to work the floor design plus colour must be fairly neutral in order to not off set the balance of the light being produced onto the certain area.

So...now to focus

After delving into different genres I can see how through adapting elements, playing with colour and translating ideas under different contexts can change not only the genre of a play but also the narrative. Now I'm not to sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing when it comes to producing a 'good' play.

Personally I don't like the fact that by adapting the object to fit a particular genre would in turn change the narrative of the play. Take for example in the wild west genre, a tepee translating the Lion's castle and hence changing the Lion to an Indian to fit (well in my eyes to be completely correct in subject matter).

Although I suppose this is good in some aspects - making the play original and escape the iconic fairytale depiction of a castle and changing a traditional character interpretation into something new. So I'm undecided whether to create a set which instantly translates the narrative or one which makes you think a little before grasping the intended concept. Swaying towards the surrealist approach amongst the horror genre.

WILD WEST

The Wild West genre can be found in film, television, radio, literature, painting and other visual arts. The genre sometimes portrays the conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original inhabitants of the frontier. It holds on to visual qualities such as settings 'on the ranch', cowboys on horseback, tepees and open fires (to name a few). Vast landscapes seem to depict the openness and natural setting of the genre.

Father translated as a cowboy on horseback.


If I were to apply this genre to my set design I feel I would need to adapt some of the features of my design to fit. Take for example the castle would perhaps become a large tepee which would have the same focal point as the castle but look different, and therefore reflecting a different feeling for genre all together (in this case symbolising the home of the native-Americans). I could play around with the idea of the cactus plant and make a number of these into a wild west pathway for the characters to travel through.

Set Design
A large tepee (Lion's castle) and over exaggerated cactus's (forest) are the main focal points within this design. Scale is a large element - adding the absurdest qualities into the relative reality of the wild west. Although my aim was to produce a set which was overpowering for the performers translating to the audience a sense of fantasy and fear.
If I were to bring in another element to this design it would be to have smoke machines bellowing out dry ice - in order to cover the stage and give the set an overall sense of the wilderness. As in reality the open fires would produce a smokey atmosphere.
A large distant mountain would be panoramicly produced on a semi circular backdrop - captivating the audience into the wild west setting and overall giving the set a continuous boundary so to speak.

By playing with the process of adaptation I do feel my design has changed in a way that I am not able to communicate the original narrative as successfully in this particular genre. So the choice in subject matter (ie changing castles into tepees) would be an important decision to make when thinking about the communication between the objects and the audience's interpretation.


















Above is my interpretation of the Lion's castle (front and back), in the original script the father discovers that behind the castle is a beautiful garden, to where he tries picking a rose for his daughter. In this genre however I have changed the castle to a tepee and rose bush to a blazing camp fire. Now to keep up with the narrative of the play, I thought why not change the precious rose to a sacred ember from the fire? Developing from this I thought the Lion should be a native Indian to therefore make sense of the embers being so precious.

FUTURISM

To expand my development further I decided to look into genre of Futurism. Now I know the first thing you think about when thinking of Futurism is the art movement and all the stylistic, bold brush strokes and high intensity colours being used. But there is much more within this genre than just painting so to speak. Architecture, film, music, photography, sculpture and theatre - all these categories are very different in subject but hold similar qualities in style throughout each.

The idea of conveying a sense of movement was one of the essential features of Futurist painting. Sometimes movement was conveyed by blurring forms or overlapping images in the manner of high-speed multiple-exposure photography. The fragmented forms of cubism and the bright, broken colours of neo-Impressionism were major influences. Usually the Futurists took their subjects from modern city life, machines, and power, and this influenced cubists and constructivists.

By focusing on this idea and exploring the elements of futurism towards my stage design I'm able to translate the play of the Lady and the Lion alternatively - producing something new and visually exciting for the suspected audience.

Design for Stage

I felt the best way I could communicate my design under the genre of Futurism was to play around with the colour palette. The futurist movement involved the use of high intensity and a selection of contrasting colours. For the Lion's castle the colours I used was to depict the Lion-like qualities yet communicate the essence of love and passion (the feeling surrounding the play) with the use of pinky reds around the 'Lion's eyes'. I decided to hold onto the basic shape as for the audience to be still be able to identify the object as a castle. Although I did play around with the inner shapes, thus reflecting the futurist style.

For the forest an iconic colour palette was use to let the audience again grasp the identity of the objects themselves i.e. trees being brown and green. I must admit I deliberately increased the intensity of these colours, just to keep within the futurist parameters. Also I made the conscious decision of making the 'section' of forest into literally one block, this was to help me communicate the concept of the sense of movement found in the futurist period.

Bold block colourful overlapping shapes are used in the floor and proscenium arch to instantly catapult the audience into the genre of futurism before the objects had been introduced. I would love to see the change in setting to happen through the background lighting. A large curved backdrop screen would project rays of light, changing clolour and intensity depending on the play's moment. These rays of colour would hopefully impact the audience in a 'wow-factoring' way. The sense of movement and change of state would hopefully have been communicated in this colourful protrayal of Futurism.

Gregory Crewdson - COLOUR AND LIGHTING

Born Brooklyn, New York, 1962

'I have always been fascinated by the poetic condition of twilight. By its transformative quality. Its power of turning the ordinary into something magical and otherworldly. My wish is for the narrative in the pictures to work within that circumstance. It is that sense of in-between-ness that interests me.'
Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson reworks the American suburb into a stage-set for the inexplicable, often disturbing, events that take place at twilight. In creating what he calls 'frozen moments', he has developed a process akin to the making of a feature film. Operating on an epic scale, he uses a large crew to shoot and then develop the images during post-production.

Every detail of these images is meticulously planned and staged, in particular the lighting. In some instances, extra lighting and special effects such as artificial rain or dry ice are used to enhance a natural moment of twilight. In others, the effect of twilight is entirely artificially created.

All the images propose twilight as a poetic condition. It is a metaphor for, and backdrop to, uncanny events that momentarily transport actors from the homeliness and security of their suburban context.

From looking at Crewdson's work I can get a real feel for the mood being set. Through simple lighting changes the mood can instantly be changed from one moment to the next.

In the image above the high intensity blue sets a real, fresh yet somewhat cold and lonely feeling - hence the sense of 'aftermath' being felt.


In the middle screenshot the bright, white light is instantly recognisable of daylight (or could it be something else say an extra terrestrial light source??) Well anyway, the high intensity of the ray, brightens the whole scene. This light in my eyes enhances the beautiful colours seen in the flowers in the foreground - making them the focus. Behind is what looks to be a dowdy looking apartment, but the light source deters myself as an audience member away from the not so appealing background so the feeling is (if I can find the right word to describe this) uplifted.


Lastly I would like the comment on the colour palette used in this setting. the forest floor is wonderfully portrayed by these green and brown hues. When thinking of the colour green and brown in this context they can seem dull and unappealing in one's mind. What Crewdson has done here is deliver this restricted colour palette with a greater intensity than what the 'traditional' pigment of this colour would seem to have. By increasing the colour intensity and enhancing that with richer colours (such as the blue and yellow back and spot light) the mood is more appealing to me as the viewer and draws me in visually. And to support Crewdson's statement in the beginning I can see that he does actually somewhat transform the ordinary into something magical.

Henry Fuseli and Gothic Spectacle

As a painter, Fuseli favoured the supernatural. He pitched everything on an ideal scale, believing a certain amount of exaggeration necessary in the higher branches of historical painting.


The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli, produced in 1781. Oil on canvas 127 x 102 cm


Titania's Awakening, produced in 1785-1790. Oil on canvas, 2220 x 2800 mm

As a painter, Fuseli favoured the supernatural. He pitched everything on an ideal scale, believing a certain amount of exaggeration necessary in the higher branches of historical painting.
His work was very poetical. He used a dull colour palette but his paintings do not seem cold or languid. His figures are full of life and earnestness, and seem to have an object in view which they follow with intensity. The grotesque humour can be felt within his fairytale scenes through colour palette, lighting and distorted faces and different positions of characters.

Focusing on the ghostly figure appearing in the background of 'The Nightmare' painting.


This is a horse, we can see this through the basic figure outline yet the colours seem not to reflect a natural looking horse. Bright eyes deliver the art of being possessed and the supernatural. The green hues enhance the mysterious, non realistic delivery. Also the sketchiness production reflects an imperfect, fantasy feel about this work.

I could apply this Gothic, Romantic essence by mirroring his style and colour in my own design.

La Belle et la Bete

La Belle et la Bête is a 1946 French romantic fantasy film adaptation of two french fairy tales. The first fairy tale, from which the film took both its title and most of its content, was written by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont and published 1757 as part of a fairy tale-anthology (French: Le Magasin des Enfants, ou Dialogues entre une sage gouvernante et ses élèves, London 1757).

From the second fairy tale, (French: La Chatte Blanche) by Marie-Cathérine d'Aulnoy, published almost sixty years previously in one of the earliest fairy tale anthologies of France, (French: Les Contes des Fées, Paris 1697-1698), only a single but very evocative narrative motive was taken: servants, previously magically reduced to their arms and hands, with these still performing all servants' chores.

Directed by French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, the film stars Josette Day as Belle and Jean Marais as Avenant and The Beast and Prince Ardent.

This French translation of the childhood classic ‘Beauty and the Beast’ holds onto similar qualities to those in the plot of the Lady and the Lion. The plot of Cocteau's film revolves around Belle's father who is sentenced to death for picking a rose from Beast's garden. Belle offers to go back to the Beast in her father's place. (Similar to this, in the Lady and the Lion – the father goes into the Lion’s forest, picks a rose and is terrified by the entrance of the Lion, projective of his rose bush the Lion asks for the Father’s daughter in return). The Beast falls in love with her (like the Lion falls in love with the Princess) and proposes marriage on a nightly basis which she refuses. Belle eventually becomes more drawn to Beast, who tests her by letting her return home to her family (Likewise in the Lion’s case) telling her that if she doesn't return to him within a week, he will die of grief.

Similar to the Lady and the Lion’s plot – the Lion cannot be seen into the light as he shall be turned into a dove by magic. In ‘Belle et la Bête the beast says to Belle ‘it is night for me, yet morning for you’. This echoes the feelings felt by the mirrored characters in Lady and the Lion.
The essence of ‘magic’ is a key feature in both instances – seeing the transformation of pearls turning to rotting rope and the lion turning into a dove and beasts turning to princes.

When watching Belle et la Bête I was able to engage with the director’s very surreal approach. Take for example candelabra’s were made of arms and hands making them seem more human like. Also interactive head’s on the busts in the dining room – making the setting ‘magically’ come to life.

Medieval Gothic interiors are present in the castle and surrounding places.

Also similarities in character translation can be seen in both plays. In the Lady and the Lion, the Lady meets some surprisingly colorful characters along her journey through the world (a talking moon, wind and sun). And in Belle et la Bête /Beauty and the Beast talking furniture and interiors are a key aspect involved in the play’s production.

Costume interpretation


One final thought must go to that of the Beast's costume. The way the designer has used a human like essence to translate this great animal is wonderful. The combination of hair and fur, hands and claws, wealthy dress with lived in qualities is if one can use the word 'spellbinding' to describe in my eyes how this character's costume comes across to myself as an audience member.I feel this would be a great way to translate the Lion's character dress in my design for the Lady and the Lion, combining traditional Prince like qualities with those of a wild animal.

Costume Interpretation

Left: Goat Professor Dr Dillmond (Wicked: The Musical) Centre:Beast (Belle et la Bete) Right: My interpretation of the Lion (Lady and the Lion)
In all cases the head symbolises the animal's origin and the costume dress translates the attributes of that particular character.
For my design translation I kept with the tonality of the Lion throughout, the below the knee garters and high collar tunic with puff sleeves and a structured bodice reflects a wealthy status of medieval time. Perhaps by changing the colour of the Lion's garment would be more concise in a particular genre - say for horror I could created a red bodice to symbolise danger and fear instead of the colour to reflect just the essence of the natural Lion.

WICKED Colour Scheme

Based on the acclaimed novel by Gregory Maguire that re-imagined the stories and characters created by L. Frank Baum in ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, WICKED tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two girls who first meet as sorcery students. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfil their destinies as Glinda The Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

The main colour scheme within this musical is rich and full of greens (hence the symbolic colourful representation of Oz being translated through the use of green).



I love how this visual aspect of the play is significantly changed within an instance by adding or applying another colour to either enhance or change the feeling/mood of a particular scene or character.

Lets take a look at some examples:


Here we have the moment when Elphaba, breaks free and 'defies gravity' - the mood translated at this moment in the play is much more powerful and some what 'darker' than what had came before. This is easily seen through the visual array of colour being portrayed here. The blue/purple lighting, enhances the green hues to reflect a cooler and more sinister feel.


In a similar essence here we have bright white light being used to depict the Good Witch Glinda in a 'good light' - the 'cleanness' of this colour softens her appearance and costume colour and reflects her as a pure, kind, innocent character.
I couldn't show this picture without commenting on the strong, rich colours seen in the sky behind. these instantly reflect a passionate, magical and all together mysterious feel to me personally. The combination of colour, set style and costume is beautifully constructed and well put together to depict such a magical fantasy story.

The concepts and design ideas in colour and set design used in WICKED I feel I could develop and delve into to gain a greater understanding to hopefully enrich my own design.
The green colour scheme I love as i feel it communicates a magical, fantasy feel to the overall set simply and effectively through a restricted palette. Say I was to apply this green palette to my set to reflect my fairytale production, I could use lighting to transform certain parts to convey a different mood.
From looking back at the script I can see there are two areas/moods that need to be depicted in different colours in order to communicate the different seasons.


Photograph below: zoomed in part of sketch model - castle garden (main features: fountain, blooming flowers, dead weeds, beautiful rose bush).



Beautiful summertime (left side of the fountain seen in sketch model) would be delivered under a yellow light - this would hopefully lighten the green and give that fresh, bright summertime feel (maybe a bit of white would be needed to be added to lighten the overall look and mood).
On the other side of the fountain blue light would reflect a much cooler and more unwelcoming feel than the other - thus portraying the same garden setting just in a different season.
Thinking about all the properties in this scene, the rose bush I feel would appear beautifully under a rich red light (obviously I would need to experiment on what a rich red light would look like on a green background as I don't want the colour to become muddy - although a brownier rose bush would reflect the essence of the bush being made of the Lion's tail well).

[Practical colour experimentation would enable me to understand and grasp this idea better - development is to produce a sample colour board for this key setting]

HORROR

The main feature I see from my initial sketch model is how impacting and overpowering the entrance of the castle is by using the imagery of a Lion's head as the main focal point.

This leads me to think how by if I was to apply the qualities of a genre such as horror (i.e colours, scales, featured expression) I would be able to heighten the fearful characteristics depicted through the Lion's personality status within the play.

So lets have a look into some of these elements....

The face of terror


The expression in this single individual just represents the way in which our faces can depict horror. The raised eye brows, open jaw, widened eyes give a sense of shock and disturbance. These features could be used in my design of the castle - the door being a great focus could be the Lion's mouth wide open to depict this essence of fear and a devouring entrance.

The Clutching Hand
The withering, boney, elongated features could be mirrored in my tree design to give that overall chilling feel!



Ok so the hands seen in Pan's Labyrinth aren't clutching (I just love this character, from costume design through to on screen acting) but it still holds onto the attributes seen in horror. :)



Minuscule
From this screenshot of 'The Devil Doll (1936) I can see how scale is used to give that same feeling of terror and misfortune felt within the horror genre.

I could take this concept of scale and somehow introduce this to translate a certain obscurity over my set design. Or contrast this style - something which is colossal may have a similar affect with just an alternate approach. So lets just play with scale!

Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person.




From the 'traditional' portrayal of a vampire, key features can be used to translate the same meaning.






This image is closer to my visualization of my Lion - if it was transformed to have Vampire qualities the teeth still hold on to the Lion like qualities e.g. sharp and uninviting.



Science fiction (cross-genre)
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, ESP, and time travel, often along with futuristic elements such as spacecraft, robots, or other technologies.

Science fiction films have often been used to focus on political or social issues, and to explore philosophical issues like the human condition.









Scene from Metropolis 1927

There is a hard focus in futurism here and a heavy focus on the metal material. These factors I feel would perhaps change the narrative of my chosen play. In playing with adaptation the results could be interesting, I could change the Lion into a robotic metal creation yet still hold on to the Lion like qualities in figure shape and stance. The castle and forest would also need to change into something more scifi! I wonder if a forest made a boiling tubes and bunsen burners would communicate the same narrative of the Lion's forest as well as animals tails? I think not...although it could be interesting to adapt the design to fit the genre.

MOOD BOARD

From this board I can gain a sense of colour and feeling within this genre.

Quick ideas: Burning lion tails (decaying and rotting - results of fire on rest of skin, having bodies in the ground.





So I just had to find a image to help me visualise this....











Gothic Revival Castle

To design the castle in the horror genre - a tower type structure would be better in translation.








Idea of inspiration: a gargoyle like this one over the door way of the castle - the wings forming eyebrows of the lions face. Over sized of course to fit castle wall.

Fitting in with this narrative - should the beautiful garden be changed into a unwelcoming churchyard? Covering a grave stone (was the fountain in original design) in snow for winter and shining bright, uneasy, daybreak colours over the object for the summertime effect.


Or better idea, to mirror the words of 'beautiful garden' through a beautiful Gothic garden centre piece, such as this one I whipped up in photoshop!



A lion gargoyle on a Gothic style plinth...perfect!








Initial Set Design


















Details: Colour cloth - light is projected on to create the scene. Here I have gone for a generic colour to depict horror - a murky, green mysterious sky surrounding the stage setting. The castle is created stylistically using the elements of surrealism yet horror in colour and some of its form. Take for example the Gothic revival architectural style and the gargoyle entrance piece (also translating as the nose for the symbolic representation of a lion's head) Cross slitted windows for eyes and pointy edges on the castle top to combine horror qualities with the relative lion representations. And obviously the open jaw representing the castles unwelcoming entrance.
The forest in this design is on fire, sticking with the concept of the forest of Lions tails, having ignited tips symbolises blazing torches, those associated with man hunters in medieval times. This concept in my eyes translates the feeling of fear and danger in an instant to an on looking audience.


The main stage floor for this design is a simple colour and shape representation of a magical forest floor - inspiration taken from this floor painting by Connie Tom.

The use of shape, texture shown through painting style and colour depicts the non-perfect forest ground I was hoping for.

Surrealist qualities in initial design

The concept idea I had of the giant revolving castle - juxtaposing traditional architectural castle qualities with those of a lion in my eyes breathes the essence and styles of the surrealist genre with its elements of fantasy, imaginativeness and the unreal being applied to well distinguished objects.

The French poet, André Brenton, is known as the “Pope of Surrealism.” Brenton wrote the Surrealist Manifesto to describe how he wanted to combine the conscious and subconscious into a new “absolute reality” (de la Croix 708). He first used the word surrealism to describe work found to be a “fusion of elements of fantasy with elements of the modern world to form a kind of superior reality.” He also described it as “spontaneous writing” (Surrealism 4166-67). I feel what Brenton is saying here supports the clarification of ideas used to distinguished the style of the surrealist genre.



Man Ray (an American painter) admired the paintings of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and made a series of photographs, inspired by Ingres's languorous nudes, of the model Kiki in a turban. Painting the f-holes of a stringed instrument onto the photographic print and then rephotographing the print, Man Ray altered what was originally a classical nude. He also added the title Le Violon d'Ingres, a French idiom that means "hobby." The transformation of Kiki's body into a musical instrument with the crude addition of a few brushstrokes makes this a humorous image, but her armless form is also disturbing to contemplate. The title seems to suggest that, while playing the violin was Ingres's hobby, toying with Kiki was a pastime of Man Ray. The picture maintains a tension between objectification and appreciation of the female form.

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/surrealism/Origins-of-Surrealism.html

This sense of juxtaposing two objects gives the subject meaning visually - this is what I intend to portray by creating the castle through a visual array of the Lion (also to communicate the Lion's ownership in the same instance). Also the rose bush being a large feature, translated as the lion's furry tail end (just how the surrealists played with objects in their art). The forest where the father and his servant ride through near the being of the play; the idea to make this surreal by creating the trees and forest shrubbery using lion tails would keep the whole design within the surrealist genre.

Side track research...

Surrealist theatre
Antonin Artaud, one of the original Surrealists, rejected the majority of Western theatre as a perversion of its original intent, which he felt should be a mystical, metaphysical experience. He thought that rational discourse comprised "falsehood and illusion." Theorising a new theatrical form that would be immediate and direct, that would link the unconscious minds of performers and spectators in a sort of ritual event, Artaud created the Theatre of Cruelty, in which emotions, feelings, and the metaphysical were expressed not through language but physically, creating a mythological, archetypal, allegorical vision, closely related to the world of dreams.[10][11]

The other major theatre practitioner to have experimented with surrealism in the theatre is the Spanish playwright and director Federico García Lorca, particularly in his plays The Public (1930), When Five Years Pass (1931), and Play Without a Title (1935). Other surrealist plays include Aragon's Backs to the Wall (1925) and Roger Vitrac's The Mysteries of Love (1927) and Victor, or The Children Take Over (1928).[12] Gertrude Stein's opera Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (1938) has also been described as "American Surrealism," though it is also related to a theatrical form of cubism.[13]

GRIMM TALE: THE LADY AND THE LION

Book Summary of The Lady And The Lion
This spellbinding new fairy tale, told with shades of "Beauty and the Beast," is an exhilarating story of virtue, heroism, and how love and honor can overcome even the fiercest obstacles.

Love and honor can overcome even the fiercest obstacles, as we see in this spellbinding fairy tale, with shades of "Beauty and the Beast." To save her father, a young woman must go to the castle of a menacing lion. She fears for her life, but finds kindness rather than danger there, for the lion by day is a gentle young man by night-a prince under the spell of a wicked enchantress. Soon the lady and the lion fall in love.

Unlike the more familiar tale, however, this story has only just begun. The prince is not yet safe from the enchantress, and it will take all of the lady's strength and courage, through a seven-year quest, to rescue him. Dazzlingly romantic and visually magnificent, this is a book for the ages-an exhilarating tale of virtue, heroism, and the power of love.

MY DESIGN WILL FOCUS ON PRODUCING THE PART OF SET WHICH I FEEL MOSTLY REFLECTS THE OVERALL ESSENCE OF THE PLAYS NARRATIVE.
I AM GOING TO DELVE AND EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT GENRES TO TRY AND COMMUNICATE A DESIRED MOOD AND STYLE FOR THE PLAY WITHOUT CHANGING ITS ORIGINAL NARRATIVE. MY MAIN CONCEPT WILL BE THE TRANSLATION OF THE SET PIECES INVOLVED IN THE PLAY BETWEEN THE LINES OF 16 TO 22.

THE MAIN SET PIECE INVOLVED IN THIS PART IS THE LIONS CASTLE AND THE FOREST WITH THE TRANSITION FROM THE FOREST FLOOR TO THE CASTLE'S ENTRANCE AND THEN ONTO THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT CASTLE GARDEN - WHICH DEPICTS TWO PLACES/SEASONS/MOODS AT THE SAME TIME.

Initial design developments and ideas consisted of the idea of having the castle being the main set focal point. This would be constructed on a large revolve (hence: to enable the transformation from castle entrance to garden.)


From this you can try to imagine the concept of the revolve - with the Lion's face being the castle's entrance and the rose bush (well lump of plasticine) being the Lion's tail. I wanted to instantly depict the ownership on the castle, it was the Lion's castle - hence the use of Lion features used to create such object/ set piece.

Cross-genre

A cross-genre is a genre in fiction that blends themes and element from two or more different genres.

Examples
• Action comedy (action and comedy)
• Black comedy or tragicomedy (tragedy and comedy)
• Comedy-drama or dramedy (comedy and drama)
• Dark fantasy (horror and fantasy)
• Romantic comedy (romance and comedy)
• Romantic fantasy (romance and fantasy)
• Science fantasy (science fiction and fantasy)
• Science fiction Western (science fiction and Western)
• Supernatural drama (Supernatural fiction and drama)
• Weird West (Western and horror, science fiction and/or speculative fiction) •Crime fantasy (Crime fiction and fantasy)

Film: The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)

Genre: Drama, Romance, Art House & International, Comedy

Peter Greenaway's next film after Drowning by Numbers is this more accessible offering about sex, lust, food, gluttony, murder and revenge. It's a controversial film and has a NC-17 rating in the US. The film opens with a vulgar scatological scene, when a man is smeared with excrement by 'The Thief', Albert Spica. Most of the film is set in an elegant gourmet restaurant called Le Hollandais. Spica dines at this restaurant frequently, along with his gorgeous wife Georgina (played by solemnly sexy Helen Mirren) and his group of uncouth associates.

Spica is a vulgarian, who growls his orders towards those around him. Georgina then becomes fixated with a customer in the restaurant (Alan Howard) and the two of them have a dangerous sexual affair there. Eventually, Spica discovers their liaison, and the film draws to its memorable and shocking conclusion, which is the ultimate retribution. Sumptuous to look like at and superbly performed.

"This isn't a freak show; it's a deliberate and thoughtful film in which the characters are believable and we care about them." - Roger Ebert ****

http://petergreenaway.org.uk/ctwl.htm

Colour
Colour is a significant, key feature within this film, which is used to encourage the audience to feel different emotions throughout. I myself must say I was encouraged, taken away and greatly influenced by the use of colour palette throughout this film. The main action I would say took place within a bright intensity of red hue; this gave the immediate feeling to me personally of danger, blood red and somewhat heated passion so to speak. Colour changed throughout the film and therefore the mood was change instantly. Within the hospital scenes a white and pale yellow surrounding was used to reflect a calm, clean feeling. Green became a recurring feature too – this communicated a more calmer yet envious feel about the particular scene or character which was being portrayed. The main characters attire seemed too changed magically from one scene into another scenario. I thought this was rather good as I feel it enabled the characters to changed their stance and characteristic through simple colour change quickly and efficiently. I do find the visual impact of the colour palette was used strikingly.



The image above shows the range of colour palette being used in different scenes to depict a different mood throughout the film.

Film: Bride and Prejudice

Bride and Prejudice is a 2004 romantic musical film directed by Gurinder Chadha. The screenplay by Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges is a Bollywood-style adaptation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It was filmed primarily in English, with some Hindi and Punjabi dialogue
The plot closely follows the plot of Pride and Prejudice, with many elements compacted to brief references. Some character names remain the same, while others are changed slightly, using localized names with similar pronunciation (such as Lalita for Lizzy).
Bollywood is the informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based film industry in India.

Genre conventions
Bollywood films are usually musicals. Few movies are made without at least one song-and-dance number. Indian audiences expect full value for their money, with a good entertainer generally referred to as paisa vasool, (literally, "money's worth"). There has even been a quirky caper chick-flick - a rarity in this male-dominated industry -called Paisa Vasool. Songs and dances, love triangles, comedy and dare-devil thrills—all are mixed up in a three-hour-long extravaganza with an intermission. Such movies are called masala movies, after the Hindi word for a spice mixture, masala. Like masalas, these movies are a mixture of many things.

Plots tend to be melodramatic. They frequently employ formulaic ingredients such as star-crossed lovers and angry parents, love triangles, corrupt politicians, kidnappers, conniving villains, courtesans with hearts of gold, long-lost relatives and siblings separated by fate, dramatic reversals of fortune, and convenient coincidences.

There have always been films with more "artistic" aims and more sophisticated stories (for example, many of the films of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Guru Dutt, Shyam Benegal, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, and Gulzar among others). They often lost out at the box office to movies with more mass appeal. However, Bollywood is changing. Current films are increasingly likely either to break the mold or to ironically subvert it. There is now a significant audience of young, educated, urban Indians who want to watch Indian films, but demand a different presentation.