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I have chosen the filmed scene over the trailer and test shots because it gives me the most wiggle room for a clear narrative and also the advantage to write (or rewrite) my own script. I’m very excited to start filming as I am very passionate about Sweeney Todd as a musical and so are my actors. I have a strong vision for how I want the final product to look, evidently clear through the visuals on this Padlet, and the set design, props, costume and acting is what I am relying on the most to really capture the lower social class of the Victorian age.

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… to transform my set to the 1800s.

Accessories: Victorian-style vases, ornaments, floral arrangements, globes, needlepoint pillowcases, and miniatures.

Wall art: Victorian wall art, antique mirrors, and antique clocks.

Ornate frames: Ornate frames to accentuate portraits or artwork.

Patterns: In wall coverings and textiles.

Jewel tones

Wallpaper

Mismatched features: e.g. red striped seat covers combined with patterned scarlet rugs and block-red upholstered sofas.

Cushions and pillows: with heavy embroidery, floral prints, damask, and chintz.

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A story about social class; pitting the upper class against the lower class.

Sweeney Todd, a lower class man who runs a barbershop, vows revenge over the rich, applying his razor to unlucky upper class customers and shuttling the bodies down to Mrs. Lovett, who uses them in her meat-pie shop. A young boy, Toby -- who Mrs. Lovett took in as her own -- suspects something evil lurking beneath the surface, vowing his protection over Mrs. Lovett against the evil Mr. T.

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After a visit to the University’s costume department, these are the possible options for completing Toby’s wardrobe.

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After a visit to the University’s costume department, these are the possible options for completing Toby’s wardrobe.

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I have decided to take inspiration from the movie musical Les Miserables and have my actors sing live. We have rehearsed this prior and I have personally coached them vocally through the song in multiple meetings, even using the radio recording studios to record a professional version of the song if needed.

We have discussed the vocal journeys the characters experience emotionally, i.e. Toby (“Tabby”) beginning as very timid and shy, then growing more confident and desperate when she notices Mrs. Lovett’s ignorance and reluctance to believe her.

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We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)

Tick, Tick… Boom! (2021)

Close (2022)

May December (2023)

A Man Called Otto (2022)

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Carol (2015)

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Wicked (2024)

Les Miserables (2013)

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Not While I'm Around - Location Release Form

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Props: For my set dressing, I had multiple large props that would have to fit in a car and withstand a journey from the university, to my house (filming location), and back to university. The chair, the main prop in the set, was the most difficult to transport because it was the largest and the heaviest. Prior to travel, I measured my room, my doorways and the car to see if it would fit and, luckily, it did. I had two pairs of hands as well as my own helping me with transporting it from university to the filming location.

Audio: As this is a musical, sound is especially important in terms of narrative rather than just technical details. I wanted to give myself the option during post-production to use live recordings from the footage of my actors singing or the recordings themselves which were recorded prior to filming in a recording booth.

Lighting: On our last shooting day, we were only given one piece of lighting equipment despite booking out two, and we knew this would make for a discontinuous production, especially during editing when trying to match up the clips in terms of lighting and colour grading. I tried to use a hand light used in previous films of mine but it was too harsh in comparison to the warm lighting I had set up/prepared during pre-production and made the shot look disjointed and out of place. To fix this, I tried to colour grade these specific clips and, although they have a blurry noise on them, the lighting is still arguably continuous.

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Audio: The first day of shooting, I had to travel back to university to pick up an XLR cable adapter in order to record from the Blackmagic camera. This is something I will make sure to have booked during future film shoots.

Shutter speed: In the first filmed shot, the content was very laggy so we had to reset the entire camera and set it up again. The Blackmagic cameras are new to us however being exposed to them now will help us further on when needed i.e. making sure the FPS is correct.

Small space: The filming space was small and the crew found it difficult to move around in so we had to get creative in order to film the shots I wanted i.e. positioning lights at a certain angle, angling the XLR cable around the set safely for wiggle room, etc.

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The actors and I had a meeting prior to any filming or audio recording to discuss character personalities, relationships and development. All three of us had our own personal ideas on individual aspects of the characters and made agreements on how this would be subtly shown through acting as well as singing.

Through singing, we decided that — vocally — Tabby’s vocal journey would begin as timid and lacking in confidence to very over-protective and almost frustrated by how she is being ignored by Mrs Lovett.

Their relationship, something we all agreed on, was a very mother and daughter relationship, although not by blood. There are many complications despite this; such as Mrs Lovett loving Tabby like a mother, yet still prioritizing the love she has for Mr T over Tabby, even going as far as to contemplate killing her to stop her from intruding on her and Mr T’s killing spree, which is what makes Mrs L such a complex character.

I wanted the actor for Mrs L, Ella Blackwell, to take inspiration from the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd rather than Tim Burton’s film. Annaleigh Ashford (broadway) conveyed much more emotional complexity than Helena Bonham Carter (film), especially in this scene, and I wanted Ella to watch the way Ashford held herself as Mrs. L and use her own twist on it. We decided that she would have to be much more subtle about her emotions, yet through her vocal intonation would be where her disagreements and pleadings would be revealed to the audience.

Tabby was agreed to be played very child-like and innocent; a young girl who is too big for her boots and feels deeply. Our first note on Tabby was that she wants to save Mrs. Lovett, and this was quickly developed into her being an intelligent girl who is often taken for granted because of her background as an obedient child-worker who is used to being manipulated and pushed around. However, her obedience dissipates in the characters journey of this scene because of her trust and love for Mrs. Lovett as a mother rather than her employer.

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I talked with my actors during the character work meeting in order to understand how they wanted to approach the singing aspect of this short film. They told me they wanted to be more connected to the words they’re singing and the performance, so would rather sing live. In terms of editing, there is still a studio recording of the song used, however I believe having them sing live rather than lip syncing was the best approach as this got the best performance out of them both.

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What Went Well

I am proud of my effort with every micro element seen in the film. I am most proud of my set design and cinematography and how accurate it is to my shot list and storyboard.

Even Better If…

I think I challenged myself too much with deciding on a musical as sound design is my weakest point and has always been in previous films. I want to improve on this yet still I am proud of how the film turned out.