Production Diary - Twisted Tales: Charming

Once a month I’m going to talk about a specific production, what it was like to film it, and what was involved in making it happen.  This month I’m going to talk about Twisted Tales: Charming.

Twisted Tales is a collection of short films with a common theme – taking a fairytale and giving it some sort of twist.  In Charming the twist is that four fairytale princesses meet up for a picnic and get a chance to chat and hang out for the first time in awhile.  They are actually Queens and have been married for 5-10 years.  While talking they each mention their husbands and three of the princesses start to get suspicious about similarities in their own Prince Charmings – who all turn out to be the same guy.  It’s an idea that has been done before, but my take on it is a little different and pretty funny once the actors got a hold of it. 

The Script

Charming is a script I’d had in the back of my mind for a few years and had been keeping it as an emergency script if I needed one at some point.  In December of 2009, I was in need of a few scripts and had chosen the Twisted Tales concept to give the scripts a direction.  Charming was a perfect choice to write as a Twisted Script. 

It was originally supposed to be filmed during the Twisted Tales Winter Shoot.  I had trouble getting actresses for the shoot, but managed to beg and plead to get enough to film. The original cast was Annamarie MacLeod as Snow White, Diana Neatrour as Belle, T Jones as Cinderella, Julia Mayfair as Briar Rose, and Andy H. as Prince Charming. 

However, after freezing our bits off while filming Hulde all day in the middle of a blizzard everyone was exhausted so we opted not to film Charming.  I decided to film it when the summer shoot rolled around, but had to make some major changes to the script. 

The first scene with Snow White and Belle was supposed to be filmed outdoors with Snow White decorating a Christmas tree.  The majority of the script was set inside the dwarves cottage and involved hot tea, fresh cookies, and cloaks.  Why we decided to film a movie that took place mostly outside during a blizzard instead of a movie that took place mostly inside I don’t know.  I’m not known for making sense.

Obviously I changed the script to be a picnic outside the dwarves’ cottage and rewrote most of the lines and scripted blocking to reflect the new season and surroundings.  The only line kept from the original scene that doesn’t really fit is Briar Rose insisting that she’s cold, but it lead into a fun argument with Snow White so I kept it anyway.

(Type) Casting

I had very specific criteria for casting Charming: I need four women who were available to film on June 30. They had to be able to walk, talk, and breathe – and honestly I could have worked around the walking and talking, so breathing was really the main requirement. 

That’s it. That was all I asked for. 

Honestly, actor availability is how I usually end up casting things.  Luckily I have some pretty awesome actors on standby most of the time. 

In the end, the best thing about filming Charming was not only getting to work with some of my favorite people, but getting to see the four main actresses playing parts that were very different from what they usually played.  I tend to type cast.  If someone is good at something then I tend to cast them to their strengths.  I find it hard to break that type-casting mold sometimes, and I’m trying harder these days to cast against type if possible. 

The first person cast was Brittany Ann Whalen, who agreed to play the part in early June.  Since she was the first to jump on board the project I let her pick which princess she wanted to play.  I have always cast Brittany in two main types of roles: ditzy heroines and sexy vamps.  In the Gift Bearer she played the lead role of Peri Silverstone who was a cute ditz, and then parodied herself when she played the ditzy Periara in the Cursed Destiny of Pandora’s Gift Box.  In Dream Chasers, Eidolon, and Quatrain she played a lot of sexy, sultry characters and/or angry, impatient bitches.  

Then I did the ultimate type casting in Little Red where she plays both a sweet ditz and a sexy bitch.  Left to my own casting I probably would have put her in the roll of Cinderella, but I’m glad she played Belle.  Belle is intelligent but calm over all and is very different from any other part she’s played and that was really nice to see.

Syndi Eller agreed to participate shortly after Brittany, and I let her choose as well.  She chose to play Cinderella because of the name similarity – Cinderella…Syndi Eller.  She’s kind of always wanted to play Cinderella for that reason I think.  I made Cinderella a clumsy ditz and honestly Syndi is the last person I would have cast in that part because I tend to type cast her as badass bitches.  She’s played three characters in four shows.  

In Dream Chasers and Eidolon she played the goddess of Death and was a cold but quirky bad ass.  Then she played the villain in The Cursed Destiny of Pandora’s Gift Box.  Most recently she played a determined bounty hunter in Little Red.  In my mind she will always be the goddess of death so seeing Death play Cinderella made my brain hurt.  In the end I was actually quite excited to see Syndi in a totally different kind of part and it was really fun to watch her be a klutzy ditz, which she was quite good at playing.

The next to be cast was Rachel Anderson who agreed to play the part with less than a week before the shoot after I begged and pleaded a bit.  Rachel has probably suffered from type-casting the most.  Ever since she played a bungling, hilarious bandit in Destiny in 1996, I have tended to cast her as the crazy, zany chick.  If any part called for someone to be hilariously loopy and bizarre I almost always cast Rachel in the part.  

From May in the Destiny Trilogy and the cab driver in the Perfect Combination, to France Wah in Pandora’s Box and Madame Genna in Eidolon she’s played a lot of weirdoes.  She’s played some non-weirdoes too such as Heather in The King of Elflin’s Daughter and Tilia in Mind Games, but overall the bizzaro characters far outnumber the more normal ones.  I really enjoyed casting her against type in Charming as the take charge, down-to-earth Snow White.  It makes me want to cast her in more roles like this.

The day before the shoot, I was frantically trying to find someone to play Briar Rose.  I was hoping to get Jen Weber but she was busy.  When Rachel Zoralee offered to play the part I was thrilled.  Rachel Zoralee is…hilarious.  She’s not just talented, she’s really fun to work with.  I haven’t filmed with her as much I would have liked to over the years, but I filmed enough to type cast her too.  

In The Dragon and The Unicorn she played the strong willed mentor Dottie and I had her reprise that kind of role in Pandora’s Box when she played Thebe in episodes 13 and 14.  However, I’ve also cast her in over-the-top characters like The Great El Banyo in Destiny III and Ione Aldat in Frumpy Gets It. So technically she’s not really cast against type in Charming, since she’s playing the outrageously over-the-top Briar Rose, but it’s just great seeing her play any role honestly.  I’m clearly a fan. 

The four women worked really well together and it was great to see people who haven’t been in the same shows act opposite each other. Brittany has worked with both Syndi and Rachel Anderson before, but they hadn’t worked with each other, and two of them had never met Rachel Zoralee before the June shoot.  Rachel and Rachel have been in four shows together, but have never really acted with the other in a lead role. 

And Prince Charming?  Kevin Meyer is married to Brittany Ann Whalen (-Meyer) and since I needed actors he came to the shoot with her (thanks Kevin!) Twisted Tales wasn’t his first time in an SFF production.  He was first seen as a menacing basement ghost in Episode 6 of Eidolon.  

But Little Red, The Devil & Kitta Gray, and Charming – all filmed in the same weekend – are the first chances he’s had to do any real acting because the ghost in the basement had no lines.  He just sort of stared…menacingly.  Unfortunately I seem to be type casting him already because all of the parts he’s played so far have been guys who are a bit of a bastard.  Clearly I need to cast him as a nice guy soon.

Getting in Gear

I wanted each of the princesses to be dressed in slightly different periods/styles since that’s actually easier to find in my mother’s costume storage then four dresses of the right sizes that are from the same period (unless I wanted to go Greek, I got plenty of tunics). I chose something Renaissancey for Snow White, and put Belle in an 18^th Century gown (both outfits are some of my favorite costumes by the way).  

Costuming Syndi and Rachel Zoralee was a bit more tricky because they both have big…chests, and since a lot of the costumes my mother has were gathered for high school students they were not as well…chested…as adults.  Luckily my mother had a beautiful 19^th century pastel and ivory gown that fit Syndi really well.  I wanted Briar Rose to be dressed in something medieval since she had been asleep for 100 years and was behind the times in fashion.  That actually made it a little easier and my mother helped fashion a great gown for Rachel.

Since they were princesses – actually Queens at this point – they all needed to have crowns of some sort which were not that hard to find, although Briar Rose’s crown is a bit lack luster, though it looked good and seemed fitting. (Fun Fact: Belle’s tiara is the one Brittany wore at her wedding.)  However Queens and crowns need elegant hairstyles – mostly to make sure the crowns are well anchored to their heads and won’t fall off.  Brittany’s hair was long and easy to style into a sophisticated bun.  Syndi’s was a bit more of a challenge since her hair was shorter, but it looked pretty good in the end. 

And then there are the Rachels.  Since Snow White has hair as black as ebony – and Rachel A had blond hair – a wig was needed.  I chose a nice black, curly wig that was styled after putting it on Rachel.  I think it looked pretty nice, but seeing Rachel with black hair was pretty weird.  I think she looked really cool, but…different. Although Rachel Z’s hair was brunette and Briar Rose (aka Sleeping Beauty) didn’t really have to have blonde hair, we put her in a wig anyway because her hair was too short to style.  The wig I had on hand happened to be wildly curly and hard to tame.  It was also styled after it had been attached firmly to Rachel’s head so it was a little easier to style. 

Since we had plenty of time to film and it was a short, easy script we actually took the time to get properly gussied up with not just semi-elaborate hair styles but also make up and jewelry.  Those girls were blinged out in the end.

Let's Shoot!

After everyone was ready we headed off to the Urbana Arboretum to film.  The problem with shooting in central Illinois at the end of June is that it can be pretty warm.  The day was hot and muggy with an approaching storm, which lead to an annoying wind that messed up the audio but didn’t really cool anyone off.  All the actresses found ways to keep themselves cool between takes.  Brittany was lucky and had a fan, but Rachel A’s creativity takes the cake.

We filmed the scenes the active scenes first where people were entering or meeting up, and then filmed the very long picnic scene.  Each girl was supposed to bring something and we decided to have Belle bring chocolate covered donuts.  That would be a good idea - if it was March or September, but it was the end of June.  Although the cast was wilting by the end, the real victims of the heat were the chocolate donuts.  They actually had to be used in a couple of bits and shoved in Rachel Z’s mouth at one point, which led to a rather sticky situation with melted chocolate all over.

The ladies persevered and we all had a lot of laughs.  There are several bloopers where the actors just can’t stop cracking up.  The shooting was done in about an hour and a half – less time then it took to get everyone ready – and we wrapped filming before it started to rain.  Heading back home, everyone got out of costume and de-wigged for those who had to.

Then we ordered pizza and watched the footage.  Sadly Rachel Z had to leave before then, and we said a fond farewell to her.  I had some change left over from buying the pizza and decided to once again pay the actors my going rate of 25 cents each (techies get 50 cents).  Yes, I pay slave wages.

The whole shoot from actors arriving to actors leaving took less than five hours and I think Charming is the fastest movie to be filmed.  I had a fantastic day filming with five amazing actors and I can’t wait to work with all of them again someday (hopefully soon).