Thursday 3 December 2015

SWEDING: Tyrannosaur practice exercise

I've blogged on this before, but I'll bring together all you need into this post...

YOUR TASK: Take the archetypal Warp Films production Tyrannosaur, with its deeply flawed working class protagonist, disturbing social realism, low budget (mostly financed through grants and UK TV pre-sale of rights), lack of stars, critical acclaim (including TIFF) and US distribution issues contributing to a low box office ... and flip it into an equally archetypal Working Title production!

WT have produced well over 100 movies, so have worked in every genre and presented many depictions of Britain ... but you are focusing on an exaggerated snapshot of how the nature of this film, its characters, the setting/mise-en-scene, perhaps even the music, would change if this was made by them.

Your Tyrannosir swede will be rather silly, but will include versions of key scenes from the opening of the actual film. You will blog your screenplay, storyboards and any other preparation, and clearly outline how your ideas reflect your knowledge of both companies - using specific examples as illustration where possible (just as you would in the exam: EAA, with EX, and T).

Sweding is a concept that emerged from Michel Gondry's comedy Be Kind Rewind, starring Jack Black. Black's character enters a video store(!) and the magnetism he carries wipes out all of the video tapes ... so, he shoots new, no-budget versions. As part of the film's promotional campaign the audience were invited to submit their own daft 'sweded' films through a website, and the concept continues to inspire some very clever (and some not so!) UGC.

BE KIND REWIND TRAILER: