what are the red strings of fate?

The Red String of Fate is a popular myth in both Chinese and Japanese culture.

. According to this myth, the gods tie an invisible red string around the ankles of men and women who are destined to be soul mates and will one day marry each other. According to Chinese legend, the deity in charge of "the red thread" is believed to be Yue Xia Lao, the old lunar matchmaker god who is also in charge of marriages.
The two people connected by the red thread are destined lovers, regardless of time, place or circumstances. This magical cord may stretch or tangle, but never break. This myth is similar to the Western concept of soulmates or a twin flame.
One story based apon the string of fate.
one story featuring the red string of fate involves a young boy. Walking home one night, a young boy sees an old man standing beneath the moonlight (Yue Xia Lao). The man explains to the boy that he is attached to his destined wife by a red thread. Yue Xia Lao shows the boy the young girl who is destined to be his wife. Being young and having no interest in having a wife, the young boy picks up a rock and throws it at the girl, running away. Many years later, when the boy has grown into a young man, his parents arrange a wedding for him. On the night of his wedding, his wife waits for him in their bedroom, with the traditional veil covering her face. Raising it, the man is delighted to find that his wife is one of the great beauties of his village. However, she wears an adornment on her eyebrow. He asks her why she wears it and she responds that when she was a young girl, a boy threw a rock at her that struck her, leaving a scar on her eyebrow. She self consciously wears the adornment to cover it up. The woman is, in fact, the same young girl connected to the man by the red thread shown to him by Yue Xia Lao back in his childhood.

insparation for delilahs character

The character of Naomi from 90210 a very selfish and self-centered characters which is similar to ours and, which we have related to during the construction of our character and its profile. When construction out character, she is a very kind of daddy’s girl kind of character although she didn’t grow up with her father, she is a character who gets everything she wants, and is all about the glamour and the attention.
She is represented as a master of manipulation, of peers and especially the opposite sex, who most of the time she has wrapped around her finger. Basically your typical kind of ‘bithchy’ character.

abstract story board

reality - photostory board

DATE - flash slideshow maker

shooting sheduel

location recce

call sheet

daydream sequence idea

Although cheating isn’t the best form of relationship, the film, also has aspects of romance. We intend to show this through a day dream sequence which in my head is very soft calm and peaceful, almost making the affairs,OK as it will be a perspective into her mind. This day dream has been inspired by scenes and the relationship between the characters in 500 days of summer which seem really just genuine and romantic, as well as calm and peaceful is which my vision for the day dream sequence. This is to show the soft side of Delilah, similar to the one of Zooey Deschanel which shows that she actually has some sort of attachment to these men. these pictures show what i mean

cheating women characteristics

this annotated picture is full of stereotypical representations of cheating women, some of these are essential in establishing our character as bit of a cheater, but because she inst based 100% on that action.

final film idea research

Final film idea research:

Our film is about a woman who defies the string of fate, and basically cheats on two men.
For this concept I have then researched the characters and attitudes of women who cheat. Look behind the reasons as to why they do so, and how the ones they hurt often react.

The typical cheating woman is represented as a mean and evil woman, or sometimes extremely quiet ones, sometime they say it’s the quiet ones that are the most mischievous. Our character has a little bit of both, as although she does go on to cheat on these men; she is actually attached to them.
For her cheating side I have looked into films and TV shows like:

Mistresses
Pandoras box
Eastenders
Why did I get married?
Hollyoaks.



My favorite one and most realistic is the character of Mercedes from holly oaks; who can be seen as a very beautiful, sexy, and independent woman.
Her marriage with her husband is something we would think should make her happy, however she cheats with another man in the series called Calvin.

When we look at her character we can see that she is quiet:

*A devious woman
*very opinionated
*quiet secretive about her personal life
* is a good liar
* has a loud mouth, which she uses to defend herself. To defend her self, or to avoid suspicion as well as in other things.




These character traits are very similar to all the other woman who cheat in the films which I have researched.
However thee character of Delilah is not just a cheating woman, she is kind of stuck between two men, which she really likes, which is why we intend to have the broken strings at the end of the film actually have a big impact on her, which would not be the case if she was just a cheating person without a care in the e world. From this I have decided the character traits best for the character of Delilah are

*secretive and private about her private life
*organized
*glamorous
*a good liar
*a devious woman
However at the same time
*gentle
*reasonably nice
* Easy going

This is so she doesn’t just fall into the category of a ‘cheating woman’ because although she cheats, she is much more than that

When looking at the motives behind, cheating woman there are many reasons, using the example of the character Mercedes from holly oaks,
Her reason for her affair was that her husband had was suffering from AIDS which she found lot to cope with and she found comfort in another man, which she didn’t have to care for or wouldn’t always depress her with the subject. Most importantly although she doesn’t like dealing with the AIDS she still stays with her husband, because she does in fact love him, but feels the same for Calvin, the other man. This is simply because each of the men has something that the other doesn’t making her stuck between the two, this is defiantly something which we will incorporate in our character of Delilah.

Based on my research I have also found that the top 4 reasons why women cheat are as followed:

Revenge
Self esteem
Being the bad girl
Lack of intimacy

The most interesting and achievable reason for our film would be the self esteem one
It is thought that having more than one man after a woman makes her feel more sexier, more wanted, basically much better about herself and allows her to overcome her insecurities.
Delilah could be one of those women, just searching for attention.

During filming pictures

Filming - how to create a free slideshow

These are a few pictures which we have taken during the filming process of our movie.

abstract world practice photo story board

Abstract world - flash slideshow

these pictures were taken o practice the abstract world, and see what i would end up looking like

day dream photostory board/ auditions

The Day Dream - making a free slideshow

These pictures are the ones we took during our audition process.
Our main aim was to try and get shots similar to our story board so we could see what they looked like, aswell as try and see if shots hat we were quiet unsure about whjere acheivable.
These are the actors we have chosen to have for our film.
Joshouah freeland was chosen because he worked well with rebbecca , as hey were good friends. However this didn’t mean that we didn’t have problems, with directions, sometimes they didn’t know what we ment by by “do this” so we just had to actually show them or show them the story board which wokred.

We also chose akin because he worked well with rebbecca after he let loos as he was very closed and gave the impression of discomfort in the beginning, however as ime went on he got into the role and looked on on the camera.
The shots taken are some of the shots in the day dream sequence which was our main worry as we didn’t know how we were going to execute them but this audiion also allowed us to be able to practice these hots which we kept in the end.

reality story board

film similar to ours

The book of Eli I a film which I have really enjoyed and once we found out the concept and them of our film, I decided to look at films not exactly similar to ours , but films which are based upon something like our film which will be based upon the red strings of fate. The book of Eli is one of those films based upon biblical chracters, which in this case is Eli- Eli was, according to the Books of Samuel, a Jewish High Priest of Shiloh, and one of the last Israelite Judges before the rule of kings in ancient Israel this story has been developed to make a different story, for a great movie
The story revolves around Eli, a nomad in a post-apocalyptic world, who is told by a voice to deliver his copy of a book, the last remaining bible, to a safe location on the West Coast of the United States. The history of the post-war world is explained along the way as is the importance of Eli's task.







This story and charcater although, taken from something else through constant development, it is very different to the orginal concept, which is just like our film, the original concept, is about the strings of fate, a positive I dea which claims that, two people who are ment for each other are tied to each other by red strings usually on their pinki fingers, and no matter how far or long they go from weach other this string never breaks, and reunites the two, solemates in the end. Through constant development and changes, we changed this and made it, the complete opossite as in our film the womans strings do break in the end, she is tied to more than one person and realistically you don’t have nore than one soul mate, and noone is reunited in the end, they are seperated.

This is Idea of basing films on old stories, or concepts is mostly popular in animation films, as stories are mainly aimed at children. Dysney is most popular for executing these films and have been succesfull in bringing the stroies of , conderella, beauty and the beast,herculese and snow white. Dysney have also recently, taken the original concept of the princess and the frog. This clasic story is, orgigonally about a young princess who plays out in her garden, with a wondefull golden ball, which drops into a pond. To get it basck she makes a promise to a frog who is secretly a prince, which she does not keep. In the end she does keep to her promis and finds, the frog tuning into a handsome prince which she gets married to in the end.











similar films to ours are films with elements of romance, films with twists where everyone has some sort of relation to each other, recentfilms like this are fioms such as valentines day, hes just not that ino you , whos story lines, chrcaters as well as there film posters have been an inparation to the desinging of my poster and the construction of, our chracters.

Film poster research

From my research I have found out that the main aim of a film poster is, to giver a glimpse of a film to an audience. This is why a lot of money goes into there campaign. Many films have poster campaign, more than one type of poster to show kind of show audiences “our film has a variety of interesting things come and watch it” all star cast films, do this a lot as different people may have different preferences in actors, and would maybe prefer to see a certain person on the poster than another one, these are all ways to attract your target audience especially when you know what they want. An example of this is the posters for harry potter and the deathly hallows.

This is one reason why I have chosen to produce 3 different film posters, from the same campaign for my film, especially since it is a small production, I would need all the advertising I can get.

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now for as long as I can remember I have always found the style of film posters below very interesting. Main reason being because I see it as having a lot of character because it has so much going on and it sometimes introduces all the character or maybe certain settings in the film which for me personally makes the film poster just that little more interesting than just a normal picture, of the main actors. This style inst always used, as many film posters remain quiet traditional, but tends to show up in films with a big cast, of films where all the characters have some sort of relation to each other, for example it has been done in posters for films such as valentines day, 500 days of summer, and a new And a Spanish film , loose canons.

This poster style also goes back to previous research. When I researched various styles for tittles and opening credits, the idea of stop motion animation, or montages with different pictures forming one.

FILM POSTERS

Film poster number one, is the way it is because I wanted to focus on the strings. With all my posters the men are no, seen this is to keep the mystery going of what she is holding and what it relates to, not to give too much away. As simply seeing her with two men in the background would basically give away the whole story.
The colour scheme is red black and white as they are the key colors in the film, red being the main one as this film is about the red strings of fat, the black acts as a background colour, which brings out the red a lot, and also represents the abstract world which occasionally comes up in the film. The white acts as a complimentary colour, not to make the film m look like a typical horror film, as clearly that is not what it is. The ball of string is also present in the poster to enhance the concept of the strings of fate.



This second, is done this way, once again to emphasize the whole idea of mystery, the red and the men, which is why in this one of her lovers is shown but only half way to keep the mystery going on. I chose this picture as it was a key part in out film, he whispering kind of controlling and telling the men things which make her fall for her not even knowing about each other. Once again the titles and fonts remained the same, and they do in all of my, posters because they go with the theme of stings.
string along also has aspects of romance and intimacy which is why I chose this picture as it is, intimate but not too much and gets a message a cross which may not be the clearest but would push audiences to watch the film.


Finally his poster is one of my favorite. I did it this way to switch it up, as I wanted to emphasis on the red however not make it too similar to the first one as I had the same intention in that one. Here we get a feel of the whole film but not too much. This is done through the small pictures in one end of the film this idea was taken from film posters with many different blocks with different scenes or different characters, I though this was an effective way to show the feel of a film kind of like a mood board and a poster all in one. The bigger picture on the right, of the main character Delilah, is one where she is the focus I did this because at the end of the day the whole film is basically about her life. Her lipstick is highlighted from the black and white feel of the picture, and once again, this was done to highlight the red, and the theme of the strings of fate. This is also done through the title font.

film review

The history of low budget films hasn’t always been the best. Many films have kindly illustrated this point for us exactly. This film however is bound to surprise you, as for the first time less is actually more, in this film industry. Director’s Iman Shafi and Noriane Atahy’s choice of silence and engaging story line, is what sets this small production apart from all the rest, and is to become a British success, just like slumdog millionaire

String along is about the story of a woman’s, greed for love and attention which leads to nothing but dramatic events. This short 6 minute film begins with, shits of chracters Delilah’s life and how she leads it, which near the end is changed for the better for those around her, but not exactly for the best for her.
This beautiful and very visual drama is filled with good acting (you can practically feel the emotions) which makes up for the lack of dialogue. It’s filled with many visual elements which act as clues towards helping us understand the story more. At some points of the film we are surprised with shots of out the ordinary scenes, which create less of a bore from the silence of reality. Theses shots are well filmed and fit in with the world of the film, and act as an escape as well.
Overall thumbs up to director as actors, Akin Smith, Rebecca Noble, and Joshua Freeland, know what there doing and regardless of the lack of sound we can still understand the story.
This film could be the future of, small films, and may gain recognition for many to come.

Verdict:
Moving and interesting, whose silence may not necessarily be for every one