The Green Fairy’s blog

A film maker’s choices in the first stages of a project are just like the headings in an outline. A film can end up being many things. A film could be about photography (Anything by Bertolucci). It could be about plot (Memento), about special effects (Jurassic Park), about character (The Dark Knight), about action (Rambo), about dialog (several from David Mamet). Movies seldom fall into just one category. The best movies often excel in more than one area. But the choices you make in preproduction answer the question, what kind of movie is this going to be?

What kind of movie is The Green Fairy going to be? Or to put it another way, which aspects of movie making will take forefront in The Green Fairy?

Sometimes deciding what a movie is not makes deciding what it is easier. The Green Fairy has a little bit of action in the third act, but it is essentially a script with two characters in a room. So The Green Fairy is not about action. The story does not have any innovations in the plotting or structure. It’s a standard three act script. The movie has very little dialog. So its not a movie about dialog.

While the movie is not about dialog it will require strong performances to convey the story.
Decision #1. Performance is important for The Green Fairy. (Directing, Acting, Casting)

The point I want to prove with The Green Fairy is that dedicated and talented artists can make lush films with astonishing production values on a limited budget.
Decision #2. Production values are important for The Green Fairy (Art Direction, Costume, Sets, Location)

Great performances and lush productions values would be useless if the images aren’t captured with skill.
Decision #3. Photography and lighting are central to the success of The Green Fairy. (Camera work, Storyboarding, Lighting)

The to do list for The Green Fairy:

• finding the very best actors available
• filling in the gaps about what I don’t know about directing
• Finding talented artists to design sets and costumes
• Learning which camera or cameras and lighting combinations will get the images the story needs.
• Finding a director of photography who can achieve those results.

And thats just a few preliminary decisions. There’s still many other things to think about, music for example. I’ve got lots of work to do. Let me know if you’d like to help kate@thegreenfairymovie.com

Hello film lovers. I would like to give you a short overview of The Green Fairy Video project.

The story of The Green Fairy, much like a night of absinthe drinking itself, begins with everything shiny bright and beautiful. As the evening progresses, the sinister fairy weaves his spell, and the beautiful story decays into nightmarish horror.

The script for The Green Fairy was originally intended as an entry in the AFI Directing workshop for women. On reviewing the competition I realized I didn’t have the experience to be a contender. But I thought the script was too good to go unproduced. And so The Green Fairy video project was born.

I would like to create a short film that has stunning production values in spite of a limited budget. I hope I will be able to find a group of talented film makers to help make my vision a reality.

The script is online. Please take a look and let me know what you think.