• 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.