Costume Ideas

I didn't really have any ideas for how I wanted Ashputtel to look in particular, I knew she needed to be wearing clothes that portrayed her social status and looked worn and lived in. From watching Quills, Kate Winslet's character of Madeleine plays a chamber-maid, wash girl character with the sort of style I want to create for Ashputtel.

The following screen shots show different elements of Kate Winslet's costume:

Stage Design - Working towards a final idea!

I've decided to have the stage completely white, no colours, and no real signifiers to the time period. Making the design a combination of Louis XIV France but designed to be modern also. The Louis XIV element will come from the costumes and the modern element from the simple stage design - minimal set and the use of lighting!

The set have remained the focal point but have be moved to the side so that there is more space for the use of props (to suggest period) but also so that the stairs can be incorporated in different ways between the different scene changes e.g the stairs can be used to come down into the kitchen for Ashputtel and the stairs as the focal point when Ashputtel loses her shoe and runs away from the Prince's castle.

Lighting Projections for the scene (Using lights as up-lighting) - Lights projected onto the backdrop:

For the Prince's Castle - Red and Gold alternate panels of the backdrop. Colours to not mix where they colours meet.

**Stairs to be up-lit in a velvety red.

The red and gold sound gawdy but I almost want that to be the feel so it seems over the top and rich!

Stage Design

Moving on from my initial design I've carried on with keeping the stairs in a central position; these will be a fixed piece throughout the whole of the production so they need to be easily adaptable to each scene, I struggled with ways of how I was going to achieve this and through looking at the works of Peter Greenaway and Quills the way I will get around this is not through set changes but through the use and change of colour to compliment the mood of the scene.

The backdrop I see as being like drapes in a plain colour which can then change between the scenes using the lighting to alter colour and mood. (Ashputtels house - drapes in a grey; Prince's Castle - drapes in red and gold.)

Stage Design

This idea came from the screenshot of the Great Hall in the film Quills. I like the feeling of greatness that the room exudes as well as the obvious lack of too much colour but the feeling of grandeur still isn't lost. The period features are minimal, but too the point. The stairs I wanted as the main feature so keeping them in a central position you are immediately drawn to them. The only downside to this idea is I think it is just too literal to the Louis XIV era, I want something that hints at this period rather than is immediately a period drama!

Breaking down at the designing stage.

Images of my designs to be uploaded later! I'm finding that I'm producing design after design but on paper I'm thinking my ideas seem too simple but the fact is although they are simple in stage design and layout it's more focus on the use of colour, lighting and image projection that is going to complete my set for me!

The three main scenes of Ashputtel are:
1 - Ashputtel's House - mainly the kitchen.
2 - The Tree/Mother Spirit - Wish ("magic") element.
3 - Prince's Castle

My concern is that Ashputtel is such a fast moving play, and the story 'flits' quickly between the 3 scenes which I don't think will allow for a over-complex set design; something I wouldn't want either - so I think it is going to be better transitionally to keep the design simple but each different scene change will be identified through the lighting and projections that signal the change and contrast between the scenes.

Although the scene I am focussing on is when Ashputtel visits the Castle the third time and loses her slipper as she runs away from the Prince, I'm having to take into consideration the other scenes too because of how they transition!

Colour ideas to identify between the different scenes:
1 - Ashputtel's Kitchen - Dull tones - greys, whites and browns, based on the sort of colour use in Quills (screenshots to follow)
2 - The Tree/Mother Spirit - whites, blues, blacks
3 - Prince's castle - red, golds, patterns (patterns but be presented through video projection to bring the grandeur to life rather than just flat colours)

The Marquis de Sade inspires.

I've become quite interested in the film Quills (2000). As I mentioned in a previous post, I have ideas from the film for the stage, costume and colour.



The trailer shows sort of gives an idea of:

- The costumes I want - especially those of Kate Winslets character for the sort of clothes for Ashputtel.
- The stage design - The grand hall in Quills, with high ceilings and plain walls, simply decorated with tapestries.
- Colour - Kept to a minimum with a grey, off-white, greenish pale, although it has a clean-ness to it there is also this dirtiness to the colour palate.

Staging the Prince's Castle

Following on from looking into Louis XIV, for the stage design I wanted to look into one of Louis' greatest achievements - The Palace of Versailles to get ideas for how to design the castle.



Although I love the grand and sumptuous feel of the Palace it feels too overdone for the look I want to go for. I want to go for more of a simple elegance, a large space filled with selected decorations to suggest splendor.

I do like the ideas of the high walls and arches and alcoves, something I can incorporate into my stage design.

Quills

Bit of a random pick from the library because I knew it was a sort of 17th/18th century based film - but I've only watched half an hour already and I'm not really looking at the story but getting plenty of ideas for colour choices, stage designs and costume designs.

Colours have been kept to a minimum with a grey, off-white, black, brown and grey/green palate being the over riding theme with the odd splash of red - used to highly gory and dramatic effect.

Stage design ideas for the palace, keeping the palace feeling OTT and spacious with just detailed hints of decoration.

Costume design mainly comes in the form of Kate Winslet's servant girl style.

Ideas are floating around, images doodled, just need to pad these out and I think I'm liking the Louis XIV period of France.

If I were a rich man ....

... I'd have sat for as many portraits as Louis XIV did! There are numerous paintings of King Louis to highlight his grand lifestyle. I love the over-top'ness' of it all, there is nothing simple about his clothes, everything is detailed and over-done, the colours exploding out of the painting, this is something combined with looking into the baroque style of grand living that I want to focus on for the costume design as well as the stage design. The Palace/Castle of the Prince needs to be over the top to contrast against the kitchen that Ashputtel dwells in. I think the patterning, which I'm particularly liking in the bottom image is something that I want to work in, so not necessarily doing a full-on palace layout but giving suggestions of that through materials and colours and patterns, this being because the scenes swap around so quickly I want a clear swap between the grandeur and the hovel!!

Louis XIV ... The Sun King.

The underlying theme of Ashputtel that I broke down into heaven and hell can really be identified through the reign of Louis XIV in France.


Opulence. Grandeur. Over-indulgence.

Louis pushed for extravagance; during his reign the Palace of Versailles was built.
'...Versailles became a dazzling, awe-inspiring setting for state affairs and the reception of foreign dignitaries. At Versailles, the King alone assumed the attention, which was not shared with the Capital or People. Several reasons have been suggested for the creation of the extravagant and stately palace, as well as the relocation of the monarchy's seat. For example, Saint-Simon speculated that Louis viewed Versailles as an isolated power center where treasonous cabals could be more readily discovered and foiled.'

This quote alone I explains heaven and hell. The ideal place that Louis created; not simply just for grandeur, but to uncover treason and plots against him! Louis was very much a paranoid man constantly on the look out for those 'out to get him'.

...

In the same way I seem to be drawn to Louis' lifestyle to influence my ideas for Ashputtel. I'm wanting to look more at French paintings of this period, to get an idea of society in France during that time but also to look at the Baroque period, something that will help give me more of an understanding of the period of grandeur.

Ashputtel - 'The Real Cinderella'

For my Narrative and Genre work on the 'Grimm Tales' I read through all the tales and the one I found I liked the most was Ashputtel. You mention the name Ashputtel and not many people would be able to tell you the story; as soon as you say Cinderella then everyone knows this story. I too would be in the majority who hadn't really heard of Ashputtel but I found I much prefer this story to the 'fairy-tale' that Cinderella is ... Never would you expect a gruesome eye-gouging at the end of Cinderella!!

Following on from how I broke down The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover into 2 parts, the story and the look of the story I think on the outside I could define Ashputtel into this sort of style too. We have the story going on - portrayed through the narration and acting; then we also have the look of the story which I would break down into two different parts, 1- the squalor of Ashputtel's hell living at home, the endless chores and 'slavery' she has to endure and 2 - the escape from her life in the comfort of the wishes that come true when she visits the tree that has grown on her mother's grave and the freedom she has at the Prince's Ball.

I understand that I could break the story down even further but I like the idea of just these 2 different stories within Ashputtel. I envision it almost how Peter Greenaway does with the use of colour to contrast between Ashputtel's two stories -  her hell and her freedom!! In this way colour could be used as a powerful visual device!

I think I need to follow on this colour direction, explore the ways to work colour into my ideas! I hadn't really thought about the colour before but now I think it could be one of, if not the most important element of my design.

The Cook, The Thief, his wife and her lover!

After just one watch of The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover- some would say that was more than enough!! I however, wouldn't rush to watch the film again, but something about it makes it intriguing, you want to stop watching but somehow you get drawn into the whole idea of it. I could easily break the film down into 2 elements; the story and the look of the film, more so the colour. One doesn't work without the other, you have one eye on what is going on and the other watching for the use of colours; which are so rich and grand you can't help be drawn into this 'seedy, underground' world. The colour not only determines the mood of the scene, but the colours are so powerful they almost drag you into the scene, you feel how the colours make you feel too.

I am certainly interested now to look into more of the works of Peter Greenaway to see what kind of film-maker he is; whether he is experimental or sticks to the same 'angle' all the time!