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The third title in the ‘Penny dreadful theatre’ project ‘The Screaming Skull‘ has reached completion,within budget and on schedule and as previously announced the film will be released in two editions : a ‘Festival cut’ for the ‘Animated Exeter festival’ and general release, and a ‘Directors cut‘ which will be released later in the year. Running time will differ between the two cuts (an estimated two minutes of additional scenes and an extended opening title sequence) and as a result each version will vary slightly in tone and reading.

A key scene in the extended cut is the ‘Act III : End corridor ‘ – a sequence that showcases composer Mick Grierson’s extraordinary audio/visual textures.“I initially had my doubts that it would work as I hoped, but I knew that we really had something with this sequence when the first reviewer was so unnerved by it that she was caught watching it between her fingers!” Director Ashley Thorpe.

He commented further on Mick Grierson’s work on the score.

“This particular score was a greater challenge than ‘Scayrecrow’ I suspect, as unlike that film, this has a significant change in tone about two thirds of the way through it…We start in Hammer / Amicus territory, quintessentially English horror evoked through the requiem,but soon descend into something far more textural and challenging…One of the things that amazed me was seeing how Mick physically composes to the film as he watches it,noting every movement within frame, and as he’s doing so he’s glancing sideways at me to get a reaction…a real artist at work. I’m very pleased with the end result. The score for ‘The Screaming Skull’ is immensely powerful…it’s rich, dark and painful, but scored very compassionately.”

The next confirmed general public screenings will take place on Saturday November 29th 2008 as part of the ‘Two short nights‘ film festival to be held at the Exeter Phoenix Arts centre. Screenings begin at 7:30pm and further details and tickets can be obtained via www.twoshortnights.co.uk.

Further screenings will be held throughout February 2009 as part of ‘Animated Exeter’. Additional preview screenings, dates and venues, will be confirmed here.

A number of select private screenings will also take place on Halloween 2008 in London and the South West.

WARNING : The Directors cut, should you be lucky enough to see it, is not for the faint hearted…

Shooting concluded today on the third Penny Dreadful animation ‘The Screaming skull‘.

The filming concluded at Poltimore house, wherein additional sequences were shot for the films finale. The director, Ashley Thorpe had this to say :

“Its interesting now that primary photography is complete to see how the film has developed. Initially ‘Screaming skull’ was conceived as something relatively simple; it was ‘a guy comes home from the war sick and tired of bullshit, tries to get rid of the skull (wondering why no-one else has ever done it before) and discovers that the skull is as much a part of the house as he is’. It was a pretty straight gothic retelling of the myths, but throughout the shoot other thematic elements rose from the source material that captured my interest and have perhaps revealed why I was drawn to the tales in the first place. First and foremost the aspect of burying memory, literally in this case the skull being a symbol of guilt and suppression. This theme  is now represented in numerous visual ways; from the 1st World war trench flashbacks to the surreal images of the finale… Family  and ancestral anxieties are the other theme that leapt at me; not family as blessing, but family as burden; the investment of fears as opposed to hopes…a family curse wherein the family IS the curse. This of course is Poe territory and like the House of Usher this family tree is rooted in sour earth … “

“And the skull…symbol of our family…of our legacy. When I look at it I grow afraid. Truly afraid. But not of ghosts. I fear that the deepest parts of our hearts are inherited, and our family’s heart may be a heart of darkness.” – The Screaming skull.

With photography concluded (and animation due for completion mid September), sound mixing and score construction will commence towards the end of September with long time collaborator Mick Grierson.

Carrion film’s resident composer Mick Grierson has recently been interviewed by the BBC to discuss his software called ‘Lumisonic‘ that allows deaf children to see sound. This project is part of ongoing experiments examining real-time interactive audio-visual developments, with specific focus on cognition and perception.

To see the interview and for further information on Mick’s research, follow the links below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7558017.stm

http://doc.gold.ac.uk/~mus02mg/

Mick’s next project for Carrion film will be the soundtrack for ‘The Screaming Skull‘.

Penny Dreadful 2 : ‘Scayrecrow’ has been selected to run as support feature to an open air screening of the Zack Snyder /Frank Miller feature ‘300‘.

The event is to be held at Rougemont gardens, Exeter, on Saturday 16th August. Gates open at 7:30pm with screenings aimed to begin at 8:30pm. Refreshments are available on site and age restrictions may apply.

Rougemont House was built in 1769 by John Patch, a surgeon at the Devon and Exeter Hospital, on a site that had formerly been part of the moat and defences for the Norman castle (It was the site of one of England’s most dramatic 12th-century sieges).  The landscaping and the planting belong to the late 18th century and to this day the grounds remain a dramatic setting for open air theatre and local events.

For the un-initiated ‘300‘ is an adaptation of the epic graphic novel by Frank Miller (Sin City). Zack Snyder faithfully recreates his bloody ferocious visual style in an intense blend of live-action and CGI animation. Retelling the ancient Battle of Thermopylae it depicts the titanic clash in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his massive Persian army.

These open air events attract quite a crowd… so get there early to avoid disappointment.

As part of Art week across the junior curriculum I was asked to go to Exwick heights School  and teach years 3 and 4  the basics of animation, using some of the tamer clips from ‘Scayrecrow‘ as catalyst.

“To grasp the basic principle of animation they were encouraged to make their own flick-a-books. Then we moved on to storyboarding for a digital short. We discussed the importance of music, backgrounds etc all the while demonstrating the relevance of each with  film clips. Bright as buttons. They absolutely got it and the end results were fantastic, a real imaginative riot…with Daleks fighting Pirates..Gorillas escaping sinking ships on a courgette, absolute moments of the surreal genius that children express so instinctively. Great fun. A very rewarding experience and very inspiring.” – Ashley Thorpe

Many thanks to all  the Teachers involved, especially Lynn West for organising the day. Here’s looking forward to next year.

Derren Brown, star of Channel 4’s ‘Trick or Treat’ has posted a ‘Scayrecrow‘ review on www.thesmalls.com:

“Absolutely love it, and in awe at the amount of painstaking work involved. Hugely captivating. Thank you.”

If you look carefully (and I mean carefully) you’ll spot Derren in the final graveyard scene at the end of Penny Dreadful 1: ‘The Vampire’.

The following Derren Brown Bio is taken from his official site:

After recently seeing ‘Scayrecrow‘, Founder and President of premier Horror magazine ‘Rue Morgue‘, Rod Gudino, praised the film as : “A cool film…really impressive” and has urged for a copy be sent to the magazine for possible review.

Apart from founding ‘Rue Morgue magazine’ Rod Guidino  is himself a short-film maker with films such as ‘The Eyes of Edward James‘, ‘The Demonology of Desire‘ and now ‘The Facts in the case of Mister Hollow‘ winning critical acclaim across indie and horror festival circuits.

To find out more about his body of work visit : www.rue-morgue.com/rmp_rm_cinema_hollow.php

or

http://www.rodrigogudino.com/

The Second major location shoot for ‘The Screaming skull‘ commenced at the Two Bridges hotel on the edge of Dartmoor. Situated near Postbridge (not far from the B3212 – as folklorists will know is the home of the legendary Hairy hand haunting) It was chosen for its Jacobean style antique furnishings (one room was actually the favourite of actress Vivien Leigh), lending the many bedroom sequences in ‘Screaming skull‘ a certain gothic grandeur.

The hotel was built in 1794 as a coaching inn at the opening of the trans-moor turnpike, the property originally being called ‘The Saracen’s head’. It gained its present name in the early 1900’s. Opulent, historical and beautiful.

Thanks once again extended to the staff for their hospitality.

www.twobridges.co.uk/

www.thesmalls.com is a site aimed to expose short films to a greater international audience. For a limited time (dont expect it to be there much past September…) Penny Dreadful 2: The Scayrecrow has been posted for instant access / viewing.

To visit and watch click here: www.thesmalls.com/members/ashley-thorpe/films/scayrecrow.go

First location shoot for ‘The Screaming skull‘ commenced today at Poltimore house; a house with a long and distinguished history. Indeed it was here in 1646 that the treaty of Exeter was signed which ended the civil war in the south west.

The house, which narrowly missed out on a lottery grant bid in the BBC’s ‘Restoration’ project, is now all but a derelict. For the purpose of the film however, Poltimore will represent the crumbling quarters of the Penraddon estate, whilst period photos kindly sourced by the Trust, will provide backgrounds for earlier sequences.

“As Keith Whedon (friends of Poltimore house) kindly gave me a run down of which areas of the house were safe to film in…and which definitely were not…he pointed out a room at the far end of a dank corridor and calmly told me that it had been the site of a suicide; a doctor had cut his own throat. He then left me alone with my camera…”– Ashley Thorpe

www.poltimore.org