A couple of weeks ago I filmed a short film called Investigation directed and written by Serge Fronckevic, who was also officially self-appointed “comer upper of the songs” on set. I really enjoyed playing my character, Aimee, she had some physical differences to me including tattoos and purple hair. The make-up hair and costume team were so amazing, we all got on so well and had some good giggles, plus they really looked after me when I was cold or wet or covered in blood.
Here is me on set in character, you can sneak a peak at the tattoos and a bit of the blood. The photo is courtesy of the wonderful photographer, Matthew Rowley.
Prior to filming I was given some insight into Aimee’s character from the director. When developing the character he felt like it was useful to pose the question: What would happen to a Disney Princess if she was born into more difficult situations and suffered a number of unfortunate events throughout her life? This was the basis for Aimee and informed my character development.
In order to prepare to be Aimee I had two main phases –
1. Initial preparation, which involved researching sources of inspiration and then writing a journal from Aimee’s perspective. I also talked with the director and we had a rehearsal to help shape the scenes and guide the emotional journey. The sources of inspiration included musical compositions that reflected the palette of emotions and the youthful spirit of Aimee. Including this Scott Joplin track:
This is the kind of character that Aimee might have been had she been raised differently, I felt it was important that she always held on to the hope that exists within these characters instead of letting the situations force her to give up completely:
This was also character inspiration:
2. On-set preparation
Physical changes can be really helpful for creating strong instincts about the character and once I was made up and in costume I found it a fairly easy task to step into her shoes. I won’t give too much away about the film, but the character is in a difficult and intense situation througout the film, so I had to make sure that I developed strong foundations for the character in order to be highly reactive in the scene when the camera was rolling.
Most of my focusing and getting into the right emotional state of the character involved listening to my iPod, a very useful tool to block out all the activity on set that can pull focus. My playlist included a song from the soundtrack of the film which perfectly set the mood.
It will probably be a while before I will be able to show you much more of this film. So watch this space……….
