Assignment 3: Re-telling Myths ‘Dear Santa… Love, Richard’

final _poster-01Dear Santa… Love, Richard

PG | Family, Drama, Fantasy | Coming Soon


Disaster unfolds after seven-year-old wealthy youth, Richard Kim writes a heartfelt letter to Santa Claus in a bid to kindle his parents’ love to him.


Writer: Foo Heng Tong

Poster Illustrated by: Foo Heng Tong

Tagline: Do YOU believe in Santa?


Based On

Based on a traditional Jewish tale, ” Can It Get Any Worse?”  (Story: Link)

and the myth of the existence of “Santa Claus”.


Storyline | Plot Synopsis

Richard Kim is a boy conceived on Christmas Day. He is fortunate, for he is the child of the wealthiest couple who lives in the largest house of the County.

Richard Kim’s father is a workaholic. He is a higher-up at an established firm and works long hours. Richard’s mother is a former beauty queen, and party animal who would turn up to any social gatherings. Both parents are too wrapped up in their own lives to take genuine care of Richard. Richard’s upbringing is left to the care of their humble housekeeper, Priya, who brought Richard up as a humble youth.

Richard has always been showered with toys from his parents. These material goods are the closest to his interactions with his parents. Richard can only catch glimpse of his Father every morning before he heads to work, and his Mother every night before she attends her social gatherings. Every night, as Priya tucks Richard into his bed, Richard falls asleep in the dead silence of the night. Richard longed for his parents’ love.

Christmas is arriving. Richard’s seventh birthday is coming up. Priya casually asks Richard what present he is anticipating this time. Richard slowly confines Priya for his long of his parents’ love. Priya tells Richard that he can make a wish to Santa Claus by writing a letter addressed to him at North Pole. Richard excitedly pens down his wish to Santa Claus. Priya brings Richard to the Post Box to deposit his letter.

It is the Eve of Christmas. Richard spends it with Priya as his Father is on a business trip and his mother is attending a Christmas party. After tucking in that night, Richard is awoken by a loud ‘Thud’ sound that broke the silence of the night. The sound grew increasing loud and eventually reaches his room. The door to his room opened. An obese white-bearded man in red suit and carrying a huge bag emerges from the shadows. Richard’s eyes widen as he sees Santa Claus standing in his bedroom. Santa Claus calms a frightened Richard down, reaches under his huge bag, takes out a letter and hands it to him. Santa Claus tells Richard to keep his presence a secret, and to only open the letter in the morning. Then Santa Claus leaves the bedroom, and the night became silent again. Richard springs up and tries to chase after Santa Claus but to no avail.

Dawn arrives. Richard wakes up from his bed thinking about the peculiar dream he had the night before. However, he realizes he is clutching on the letter sent by Santa Claus on his right hand. Richard opens the letter, and the letter writes, “ Your wish shall be granted. With love, Santa”.

Richard burst out of his bedroom and down to the kitchen to see Priya making breakfast. Richard’s parents are absent as usual. Priya wishes Richard a Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday. Richard opens his presents from under the Christmas tree but nothing seem to interest him as the bizarre happening filled his head.

Almost all at once, bizarre situations started unfolding. Mr. Kim started making errors at work. He began to be relieved off many duties and started spending more time at home. Meanwhile Mrs. Kim becomes an outcast due to Mr. Kim’s drop in reputation, and is subsequently chased out of a party.

Richard finds the newfound presence of his parents at home warming, albeit strange. Even as he started having small talks with his parents, he cannot shake off the guilty feeling that the whole situation began due to his letter to Santa Claus.

Slowly, luxurious items in the house started disappearing as Mr. Kim started having difficulty keeping up with the expense of their expensive lifestyle. Richard also started having less and less toys to play with. Their luxurious lifestyle is being relieved at an alarming rate.

Eventually, Mr. Kim is sacked, and is declared bankrupt. He goes home and finds a devastated Mrs. Kim. Meanwhile movers start moving their furniture out of the house. Mr and Mrs Kim quarrels but Mr. Kim reassures Mrs. Kim that he will make things better and that he loves her. They kiss and embrace.

The Kim Family moves into a one-bedroom apartment, of Priya’s, who no longer works for them. Priya hands the Kims the keys, pats Richard’s head and leaves. Mrs. Kim cooks for the family as Richard helps Mr. Kim unpack, and the family have a fun time together.

Night comes and Richard is sandwiched between his parents on a double mattress. Richard feels comfort in the warmth of his parents. However, Richard feels responsible for his father’s plight and finally confesses that the whole situation took a turn for the worse due to his letter to Santa Claus. Mr. Kim tells Richard that he is not to be blamed, and that he would like to thank Santa for bonding his precious family. He also tells Richard that whatever wish he has in future he can tell him, and he will do whatever it takes, for whatever wish Richard wishes for shall be granted. Mr. Kim winks at Richard.

As Richard lies in the warmth of his parents, he is disrupted by the snores of his father. Richard smiles and drifts off to sleep.

The scene zooms out of the bedroom and into the sky. A tall, skinny, ginger-bearded man dressed in red leather suit rides on his levitating motorcycle in the night sky, and fades into the horizon.


3 Act Structure Dissected

Story is retold in a Modern Context.

o   The main protagonist of the original folklore ‘Can It Get Any Worse?’ is the farmer. This story is retold in the perspective of the farmer’s child.

o   Poor farmer’s family is retold as the Wealthiest family of the County.

o   Story begins as Richard sleeps in the dead silence of the night, and ends as him sleeping with the distracting snores from his accompanying Parents. This is contrary to the original folklore as the farmer had problems sleeping with his noisy family, and ends up sleeping in peace and quiet.

o   Plays on the idea of the innocence of a child’s imagination/ that the disaster that unfolds is due to his wish (letter).

o   Infused with the myth of the existence of Santa Claus; that Santa Claus is in fact played by the Father/ Or does Santa Claus really do exist, and if so how does he look like? Has he caught up with the trends of the current era and thus dresses differently from our expectations?


Credits

Fonts used: Schoolbell Font by Font diner/ Kindergarten by Geronimo SF Movie Poster by ShyFonts


Movie Poster
Movie Poster

Heng Tong_G4_Assignment 2_Little Red Riding Hood in the Party Invitation

The Party Invitation

PG | 169s | Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy

Based on the popular fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault, innocent Little Red Riding Hood gets invited to a Party by the Sheep. However, catastrophe results when the Party turns out to be a scheme to lure Little Red Riding Hood into the hands of the Big Bad Wolf.

Beneath lies the making of the Image Sequence ‘The Party Invitation’. Be sure to catch the video from the link posted above before scrolling down!

(CONTAINS SPOILERS!)

Behind-the-Scene

The Image Sequence is based on the fairy tale ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, and shot using miniature toys as the Characters.

Due to use of toys, the exact portrayal of the Characters for each image needed to be thoroughly and carefully thought out and executed with precision.

The preparation process was the most tedious as the Settings, the casting of the Characters, as well as the Costume designs had to be sourced, if not done from scratch.

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Sourced Characters and Materials for Costumes
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Costumes are made using Needle and Thread

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Fine-tuning Backgrounds for Setting
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Workspace for the final shoot Background made of shoebox, Cutting mat made up the base
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Careful arrangement of the miniature toys for each individual frame
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Additional help from Sister/ Owner of the dolls
Red Bull kicking into the system
Red Bull kicking into the system

 

 

 

Initial Storyboard

Initial Storyboard with Initial Storyline
Initial Storyboard with Initial Storyline

3 Act Structure

Act One – Setup

Little Red Riding Hood goes into a secluded house for a Party invited by the Sheep (Inciting Incident). As she drinks the cocktail handed to her by the Sheep, she felt queasy and eventually passed out (Plot Point #1).

Act Two – Confrontation

The Sheep finally shows his true identity, as the Big Bad Wolf (Twist). Just as the Big Bad Wolf is about to kill Little Red Riding Hood, the Pig appears to safe Little Red Riding Hood (Plot Point #2).

Act Three – Resolution

The Pig confronts the Big Bad Wolf (Climax). Little Red Riding Hood wakes up the following morning to a hearty breakfast made up of the Wolf’s meat (Conclusion).

Character Profiles

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Little Red Riding Hood (played by Annabelle)

Little Red Riding Hood is portrayed as the innocent protagonist. She is seen as the feeble character that carries the plot into an interesting juncture. Red Cape is iconic to the fairy tale ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, majority audience are already able to anticipate the events to follow even in the storyline.

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the Sheep/ Big Bad Wolf (played by Wolfboy)

The Sheep/ Big Bad Wolf is portrayed as the villain. A disguise of character provides an interesting twist in the story. Character is based on the saying ‘ Wolf in Sheep’s clothing’, as well as the portrayal of Wolf from the actual fairy tale.

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the Pig (played by the Bear)

The Pig is portrayed as the hero. Played by the Bear with the use of an artificial Pig Nose. The Pig is chosen as the hero as a character based on a separate fairy tale – ‘The Three Little Pigs”. References include the dressing style of the Pig, and the Brick House that the Pig resides in in the final scene. In the story, Pig enters the fray and confronts his arch-nemesis, Big Bad Wolf. The use of a backstory further enhances the storyline, and the audience will find fun in deciphering the references.

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Extras 

The use of extras to enhance a atmosphere of the storyline. Unfortunately, due to image limitations, the scenes with the extras are cut down to a mere 1 scene.

 

 

Reflections

Through this exercise, I learnt to pay attention to really small details of planning and directing the whole image sequencing process, as each individual image needed to be carefully thought out.

The preparation process took up a lot of time as I wanted to make each image as believable as can be. Therefore each Character casted was hand picked, and the backgrounds and costumes are done from scratch.

Making the toys stand in a certain posture to emulate a certain emotion was quite difficult as well. I learnt to make use of certain aids to hold the postures but at the same time not hindering the overall credibility of the individual image. For instance,  the female protagonist (Little Red Riding Hood) needed to be planted to the ground in order for the Character to stand. Blue tac was added to her feet for her to stand, and sculpted to mimic her wearing shoes.

While editing, I realised that the timeframe for each image to be shown is the key to enhancing the mood of the video. If the frame changes too fast, the audience will not be able to fully understand each image, if too slow will hinder the flow of the story telling. The challenge was to get the speed of the story telling just right. Use of transitions can also further enhance the flow.

I also mimicked the typical styles of portraying a film, like the way the video is introduced, the use of transitions in between frames as well as how the credits are rolled.

The absence of a background audio further challenged the story telling as the emotions of each image needed to be portrayed with just the image and text.

Overall I feel really happy with my final outcome and I had fun working out the process!

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That’s a Wrap!

Project 1: Picture Story – Curating Self

A series of photographs that depicts me.

Me

Phobia/Toilet/Fear/Anxiety/Issue/Angel and Mephistopheles/Sanctuary/Prison

Me#1 Me#2__ Me#3

Task 2: Object and representation of self

Bekvam/Stepladder/Step Up/Personalised Stickers/On Top of my World/Functional/Comfort Space

Object#1 Object#2 Object#3 Object#4 Object#5



My World

Bras Basah Complex/Blend of /Time Stop/Singaporean/All Walks of Life/

World#1World#2World#3World#4