New Cinderella

Original Cinderella Story

Medium: Commercial

Major Characters: Prince Charming, Cinderella, Fairy God Mother

Plot: Prince Charming works in a shoe store. Cinderella enters the store. Prince Charming walks over to her immediately and asks if she needs help. She accepts the help excitedly and hastily. She is sort of in a rush. Prince Charming asks her what shoe she would to try on and the size. Cinderella tells him to surprise her. Prince Charming comes out with the new Yeezy shoes. Cinderella is in awe with the shoes. She loves the pretty grey color. She says that it reminds her of a spider she saw in her room. Prince Charming found this weird but was too interested to overthink. In one quick instance, Cinderella puts on the new Yeezy's and exits the store in one instant. She accidentally leaves the old silver Jordan's she originally had on. Prince Charming panics, not over the shoes though. He takes his own money and pays for the shoes she walked away with. He does not want her to be in any trouble. He ponders on how to find her. Hmmm... he thinks. Then magically, Cinderella's Fairy God Mother appears. She gives him directions on how to find Cinderella. Then she says she will notify Cinderella of his arrival. Prince Charming jumps with so much joy that he jumps out of his shoes. The End!

The characters I picked have a major role in the original Cinderella. You cannot tell a Cinderella story without them. They separate Cinderella from any other princess story. I thought of this idea from the first time we did this in class. I was trying to think of a way to sort of have a similar, but more modern plot. Something that people may find more relatable. Well hopefully no one will steal shoes. The setting is a realistic place for two people to meet and sort of hit it off.

Difficulty

Admittedly when I read this I was a bit intimidated by the prompt/ idea. Perhaps that is because I have not read much "literature" to draw from here. So I decided to take a different perspective. When we consider remixing stories, I think perspective needs to be considered. As I am knee deep in my analysis of Band of Brothers for my final paper I think its only appropriate to consider some revisionist history for this idea. Much of the 20th century has works from the perspective of soldiers, lay people, you know "normal people"... whatever that means. I think there is a need to look at pre-20th and even 19th century history and attempt to tell the stories of the ordinary people. Everyone knows about The Sun King or Peter the Great. But the perspective of people living in those time periods that were not influential has largely been omitted. I think this is the perfect time for a work in historical fiction. There may not be enough specific research or writing to make it completely accurate as it appears Band of Brothers attempts to be. Instead writers could draw from many of the classics and consider the themes we have discussed through the class to tell plausible stories about common people. While that may not be the most riveting idea on the planet as we tend to not be overly drawn into the normal, I think there is a need to recognize those people as a part of history.

On an unrelated note, the idea of a mini series based on the classic stories works really well. I just recently finished Outer Banks on Netflix and the Romeo and Juliet themes work. The rivalries between the opposing sides, the lovers who shouldn't be interested in each other but choose love over everything else. It is easy to say that this course has changed how I view modern entertainment for the near future.

Cinematic Sonnet Sequence :D

The second I read the prompt for this final assignment, I knew what I wanted to do. Nothing has filled me with more joy and meaning than reading and analyzing Shakespeare's sonnets, so I started thinking about how cool and enjoyable it would be to do short visual episodes of these sonnets that captures their essence and tell their story! Yes, this would be nearly impossible and VERY different than the original, but isn't that part of the nature of a remix? I would either do live action or animation, depending on the sonnet of course (like in The Wall, there is a combo of both to capture the album's vision). I think this would be so cool because so much of the product would rely on an intense analysis, so it really sounds like a dream lol. ALSO, I am always wanting to share the beauty of these sonnets with other people, but it is hard to do an analysis of a sonnet explaining its beauty to someone who is not used to that language or those ideas. So this video series would be like a way of translating the beauty of these sonnets to people who would otherwise not enjoy them. I would try to somehow capture the audible and structural beauty of the sonnet in a visual way, which would be challenging but so exciting and rewarding. They would be kind of trippy but the ultimate goal is to capture the sonnets original 'feel'. I would do all 151 sonnets, and the episodes would probably be between 10-15 minutes I'm guessing. This idea has me so excited I wish I could actually make it come to life in the way that I see it. Anyways, what do ya'll think?

Our Town Remix - keep it simple and do it a hundred times

The idea of the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder is to portray average, daily life and to keep it simple. I think it would do well as a special on a streaming platform like Netflix or Amazon. To maintain the simplicity, it would be filmed in an empty black box theater, the cast would be dressed in normal, casual street clothes, and, to keep true to the original, the set wouldn’t be made up of much more than two tables with a few chairs.  

I would want to keep most of the script intact because...because I think it’s well-written, and some lines are just especially remarkable. But there are parts of it that could use a facelift. I don’t think a remix would need to complete modernize it, but I also don’t think keeping it set in 1901 would be the best choice for this adaptation. An ambiguous timeframe is just fine with me. We don’t have to figure out a way to include cell phones, but at least adjust it enough that the gender norms from the late ‘30s when Wilder originally wrote it are a little less cringe to a modern audience. For example, maybe the mothers could work, maybe one of the fathers is a homemaker, maybe it’s not just the women who go to choir rehearsal...

Now, what I would really love—and this is probably a terrible idea that would be a waste of funding and maybe no one would actually watch it—is if there were multiple renditions of the play. That it would be the same updated script, same theater, same costumes, but a different Director and cast, and perhaps even change the names of the characters. Maybe there’s an installment with a Timothy marrying a Jacob instead of an Emily marrying a George. (And maybe one version could go a little off-script and wouldn’t include a marriage in the second act but concludes that people don’t have to get married to have fulfilling lives.) It’s part indulgence for me, yes. I would love to see how different actors and directors interpret various scenes. I want to cast Neil Patrick Harris and Meryl Streep and Lin Manuel Miranda as the Stage Manager, and multiple versions means I CAN HAVE IT ALL. But I do also think this particular play lends itself well to that kind of redundancy.  

For me, one of the biggest parts of the play is that it’s meant to reflect the most basic and mundane aspects of our lives to highlight that there is good in that. And it's supposed to be representative of all of us. What better way to emphasize that than doing it over and over and over again. It would show the same message no matter the race, gender, sexuality, country of origin, or ability of the cast. That we’re all human. We’re born, we grow up, many fall in love, some have kids, a bunch of good stuff happens, a bunch of not-so-good stuff happens, and we die. And we’re all just trying to find ways to enjoy and appreciate the life we have before it ends

Grimm's Fairytales Reimagined-Female Empowerment

Original Text: Grimm’s Fairy tales

I thought it would be interesting to take the tales of Snow White(Snowdrop), Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty(Briar Rose) from Grimm’s Fairy tales and recreate them into a video game.  What I have noticed is that many adaptations of these classic tales such as Disney’s versions and some modern versions such as A Cinderella Story(2004), Once Upon a Time(2011-2018), and Snow White and the Huntsman(2012) all possess some of the same elements or what I would call an adapted version of the “hero’s journey” by Joseph Campbell.  Cinderella’s call to adventure comes in the form of wanting to go to the ball/festival and being guided by her fairy godmother or spirit of her dead mother in the original tale.  While with Snow White, it is the threat of her evil stepmother wanting her dead.  In Sleeping Beauty, it is the lure of the evil fairy’s curse that is triggered on her fifteenth birthday.  All these women or girls go through a version of the hero’s journey, but ultimately they do not complete the process.  It takes a man or prince in most of their cases to save them from their fates.  Especially with the me too movement and the overall movement for women’s rights that a video game geared towards women would be a good idea to create a modern adaption of these fairytales.  It seems that a lot of video games out there are geared towards a male dominated audience, I know there are some role playing/interactive apps with a female protagonist. 

Proposed Title: Twisted Fairytales  

Plot Idea:  I have a general idea for the plot.  I want the video game to give back a sense of power and individuality to these princesses by allowing them to go on their own adventures.  Perhaps each character would be playable and their story would have multiple levels to pass before they could “win” or get their happy ending.  In the case of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, up to the point where they fell under their respective spells should be the backstory.  The game starts when they are asleep; it is in their dreams that they have to work to free themselves from the spell.  The prince could still exist but they might first encounter him in the dream world.  Cinderella could be in an alternative version of her world when the fairy godmother casts her spell.  In all their stories, the wicked stepmothers and fairy are trying to take over the kingdoms.  It is only in defeating them in the dreamworlds that they can be defeated when the spell breaks.        

Image Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/373376625353832927/

Keep the name, it's just too good!

Original text: The Great Gatsby

Although I know that The Great Gatsby had an adaptation come out not too long ago (in 2013 directed by Baz Luhrmann, starring Leonardo Dicaprio), and had a quite iconic adaptation come out only a number of decades ago (in 1974 starring Robert Redford), neither of these adaptations did the coveted "great American novel" justice. For some reason when people have gone to adapt The Great Gatsby, they have focused too much on the distracting love story between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. While this adds a nice amount of fluff to the story and might sell to some viewers, what makes this novel great, and what would make it a particularly relevant adaptation of a film to come out now is its themes on the American Dream, gender relations, and class inequality. These themes are what make this novel intriguing, and done right, would make a wonderful film.

While debating the ideas of this adaption, I wondered if I should change the time of when it takes place. The Great Gatsby *is* the essence of America in the 1920s--lavish, excessive, and glamourous. However, as much as many traditionalists would possibly hate this idea, we are in the 20s yet again! Set this story in modern times, to make a stronger argument on how this novel's themes are still largely relevant. Plot-wise I think this story should largely follow the original novel (which focuses less on the love story than the films!) with modern alterations where necessary, of course. Put the financial struggles in modern settings to show that we still largely have the class struggle now as what was portrayed in the original novel.

The character of Jay Gatsby is quite an iconic one and maybe shouldn't be messed with since I'd likely ruffle so many people's feathers by modernizing the adaptation. Gatsby as a character would largely remain much of the same, while the other characters would have a similar essence with slight modern twists:

Daisy Buchanan is still married to a loaf and stuck in an unhappy marriage, but she does have a job to give her other satisfaction in life.
Nick Carraway is still largely naïve and optimistic at the beginning of the film, only to be slowly lost as he witnesses greed and hardship lose his faith in others--except maybe now he has more of a backbone and doesn't flirt with his cousin!
Tom Buchanan still sucks. He will always just be a womanizing control freak.

Leo was perfect casting for Gatsby... I'll give Baz Luhrmann that and that alone.

Final Blog Post: Coming through the Rye

Remix and Crossover by Kelsey Ritner and Payton Mills

Original Texts: Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Apocalypse Now (1979) directed by Frances Ford Coppola, and The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Remix name: Coming through the Rye
Genre: Movie
Setting: Starts out in approximately 1977 on the Hawaiian islands. Jumps back in time to 1965 and the start of the Vietnam War.

Basic plot overview: Holden Caulfield has been in and out of school since being kicked out of Pencey Prep. He barely graduates high school, but somehow manages, only to flounder through a year of college before dropping out. Since then, he has worked odd jobs and been estranged from his family. After being forced to reunite with them--and face his demons--at his sister Phoebe's wedding, Holden decides it's finally time to change his life. The outbreak of war between the States and Vietnam provides him an easy fix--Holden enlists despite his slightly older age. The "Old Guy" throughout basic training and eventual deployment, Holden is forced to grow up and provide support for the younger men in his company. The story will alternate between the present (1977) where Holden has developed into an alcoholic, his time at war, and flashbacks to Salinger's original story. The intermix of these scenes will highlight how PTSD affected not only Holden, but an entire generation.