Idea - "Danse Macabre"

Semiazas · Jul 19, 2011

A very simple, silent, experimental idea that involves three actors, two pieces of music, one location and three masks.

It takes the idea of a Danse Macabre in a literal sense (a literal dance with death)

It opens in one room, which is unidentified and rendered as dark as possible. A light is bought up on a man, who is wearing a mask. He wanders aimlessly for a while, as if trying to get his bearings or understand if the situation is real. After a short while, a women, also wearing a mask (who represents life) walks over to him. As a piece of simple, minimalist music plays, they dance together slowly.
They unmask each other and move as if to kiss, but before they do, the room is once again plunged into darkness. The music changes and the lights come up again, but in place of the woman is Death. Death and the man dance together for a while, before the man begins to lose his grip and fall into Death's embrace.

Thoughts?

CHamburger · Jul 19, 2011

Sounds pretty cool. Keeping it dark fro too long might make the audience loss interest. Kinda like whats the point but it seems like there will be some light throughout so that's covered. Have you written this yet? How long is this going to be film wise? I think the mask of the Man should be half black half white. I think when the girl first appears she could have a really vibrant mask full of color. Then as she transforms into something not a woman her mask kinda disintegrates. Just a couple thoughts. I think its cool.

Semiazas · Jul 19, 2011

I've not written it yet, I had the idea this afternoon in school. I don't see it being much longer than a few minutes, because it doesn't really need to be much longer than that.
And no, it won't be dark for long, any total darkness would be brief and as a way to bridge edits and such.

JoshL · Jul 19, 2011

Awesome idea, of the ones you've been posting lately, this one is my favorite! Definitely my cup of tea, and if you shoot it and need music, let me know!

That said, I think the music might work better in an opposite direction. Start with a big orchestral waltz, swelling as he dances with life, very rich, rhythmic and romantic. As the darkness breaks in, the music stops (either dead silence, an echoing beat or a solitary instrument holding a note, slowly breaking apart). As death is revealed, the same melody as the previous piece, but played minimal and quiet, with lots of cold ambiance. Let the melody slow down as they dance and end quiet as he falls into her embrace.

And because of my fondness for cheesy goth-y imagery, it'd be awesome to have shadows like wings come from behind her and wrap them both in darkness at the end. But it might be a better idea to go a LITTLE more subtle than that

Murdock · Jul 19, 2011

That piece of music is the reason I picked up the cello. I know its not an awsome cello piece but when you're ten years old.

Semiazas · Jul 20, 2011

JoshL said:
Awesome idea, of the ones you've been posting lately, this one is my favorite! Definitely my cup of tea, and if you shoot it and need music, let me know!

That said, I think the music might work better in an opposite direction. Start with a big orchestral waltz, swelling as he dances with life, very rich, rhythmic and romantic. As the darkness breaks in, the music stops (either dead silence, an echoing beat or a solitary instrument holding a note, slowly breaking apart). As death is revealed, the same melody as the previous piece, but played minimal and quiet, with lots of cold ambiance. Let the melody slow down as they dance and end quiet as he falls into her embrace.

And because of my fondness for cheesy goth-y imagery, it'd be awesome to have shadows like wings come from behind her and wrap them both in darkness at the end. But it might be a better idea to go a LITTLE more subtle than that

I'll most likely be writing the music myself actually. I'm glad you like the idea.
Do you think I should have life and death as the same character then? I.e played by the same actress?
I do like your idea for how to change the music, as opposed to writing two separate pieces, the second is almost like a reprise of the first.

The imagery is a nice idea, but I don't know how I'd do it as I have no software to do effects and stuff like that.

CHamburger · Jul 20, 2011

I like the wings idea also. You could probably just cut something from poster board and use them while messing with the lights to see how much shadow you get then from there just deviate a little with placement so the shadows appear behind the girl. Definitely go with teh color mask for the girl. You can probably get something online for those small special fx.

JoshL · Jul 20, 2011

Hmmm. If I was doing it, I would definitely use the same actress, to reinforce the "death as an aspect of life" and vice versa. I like to use theme and leitmotif to the point of abuse! It really depends on what you want to say with the piece, but you could do a lot of subtle things to tie the themes together; if you have death move in the way the man did while dancing with life (saying man controls the flow of life, but not only does death take the lead, the man's death is formed by the life he created).

Let us know if you make it, and of course I definitely want to hear the music you do!

Semiazas · Jul 20, 2011

Well, there's a first draft of the script here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N_boMLkFvmGnvrsEojm6SMG17U2DBv69VDxXCSHAeDw/edit?hl=en_US

That I just finished writing. It's only a page, but I see the piece lasting a few minutes, I don't want it to be too long.

And what I'm kind of aiming to show with this piece, pretentious as it sounds, is that everyone is always, in a way, dancing with both life and death (but of course the meaning is more metaphorical whereas the piece itself is more literal)

I might, if I can get the actors necessary, try and shoot it in school in September or something, since my school's drama studio has a few masks and the lights I can use, and the ability to create a total blackout, which will be useful.

JoshL · Jul 21, 2011

Sounds good! The script was basic, but it didn't really need to be anything more (simple is good!) Sounds like you've got the space to do it, and shouldn't be too hard to find people. Does your school have a dance department? You might want to find some people who dance or know enough about dance to work with you on choreography (it'll be better than just having people dance). You'll probably want to get the music done first if you want them to dance to it, but if you are planning on shooting in September, you'll have plenty of time.

And pretentious is not always a bad thing! You can't get to "art" without TRYING to! Again, it's sounding awesome and I can't wait to see what you do with it!

Semiazas · Jul 21, 2011

There's someone in my Drama class that can dance and choreograph so I'll ask her if she's Interested. I'll try and the write the music over summer so all I need to do is go over stuff with the actors and shoot it in September.
I'm fond of this idea myself (without trying to sound TOO arrogant) but I can't really think of other ideas that are similar in being abstract in nature D: