I have continued with my Siren story to the song Brave New World by Kalandra, but have developed the story considerably. I sort of combined the concept of the siren transformation with part of the romance in my woodland nymph story to the song She by Alice Phoebe Lou. The story now begins with a regency woman walking down a hallway towards the room of her girlfriend in secret at night, but they are discovered by one of their mothers. It is implied that the mother knew of this before, as a group of houseworkers pile into the room to drag the two apart. One is left in the bedroom, her mother having locked the door, as her girlfriend is dealt with.
It is revealed that the other woman has been taken to the sea where she is cursed by the mother to be turned into a siren/mermaid. She is bound, scattered with a mysterious substance, and pushed down into the water where she undergooes her transformation. This is where I'd be using similar imagery as from my previous story post of her drifting down with plants coming up around her and the background getting darker as she gets deeper. I have added a close-up tilt shot of her as she changes so that they are more obvious and painful looking too. This starts at her feet turning into the end of the tail, then progresses into her legs joining and breaking the ropes open as the tail grows, at her waist you see her hands, that were tied behind her back breaking loose of more ropes as they have grown talons of sorts, as well as webbing between the fingers. She then rips at her dress partially as blood blossoms from her new gills along her side. Finally her face is revealed, where her teeth have become long and sharp, her nose has flattened, and ending with her eyes being swallowed in black, signifying her losing herself. Once she crawls up onto a rock a fisherman is going by and she tempts him over to devour him.
We then cut back to the town, where we see the mother and daughter who are looking at a poster offering a reward for 'the creature's' capture, as news of a siren in the sea has spread. The daughter doesn't yet know what has happened to her lover so is staring at the posters with anxiety. Her mother presses that they need to get to a boat for a meeting, which at first the daughter resists due to the posters but eventually gives in to her mother's persistence. The mother meets with a man from the curse ceremony on the boat and discusses with him inside as the daughter sits up on deck, lost in thought. She looks somewhat dishevelled and like she hasn't gotten much sleep since we last saw her. Through the mist over the sea she catches sight of a strange silhouette, and as the haze parts she sees the siren and recognises her instantly. She is horrified and confused about what has happened, staring at her girlfriend who makes no show of recognising her. Just as fast as the scenario has begun, it ends as the ship turns and the siren gets covered in mists once again. We then follow her as she returns to land, walking by her mother's side trying to hide her emotions, but unable to not see the group of men planning their way to the siren to capture and kill her for the reward. We follow her still as she sits in her room being made ready for dinner by a maid, and as she sits at the table, but it becomes too much and she rushes off to get into a small fishing boat in hopes of getting to her siren before the others do.
She comes up to the rock that she saw her on before and stops her boat with her oar. The siren hisses as she reaches out a hand tentatively, but allows her to touch her face when she tries again slowly, as her hand cups her cheek and they lock eyes the black dissipates from her eyes and she is back to her own mind again. They stare at one another with a mixture of sadness and happiness as the siren places her own hand over the one on her face. I have storyboarded a reference to the illustration of Agneta and the Sea King by John Bauer where the siren is looking up at her girlfriend, both of them with hair over their eyes. The daughter offers her hand to the siren and as she takes it her clawed hand morphs back to its usual self, and as she is helped her tail morphs back into her legs so that she can step into the boat. She is wrapped in a cloak as she sits down, but they notice the torchlight flickering no the water around them, and look up to see the ship full of men approaching them. As they stare they catch sight of the mother there too, and in one last stand to be themselves they take one another's hands and stand together, facing the ship. The film ends on a series of close-ups on the three main characters- siren, daughter, and mother - and then one last shot of them facing the ship together before it cuts to black.
The ending is maybe more open than it could be but I feel like the way the song ends helps imply that sort of narrative closing, I have considered adding an allusion to the siren being granted powers after her transformation, so that when she tempts the fisherman over she controls the water to push his boat over to him, maybe she could also be responsible for pushing the ship away when the daughter first sees her so that she can remain unbothered. This would mean I could end on the same shot but holding her partner's hand she could be able to summon the power of a massive wave that come soaring towards the ship with the mother in, and it would cut to black before reaching them. This could be overcomplicating the narrative however, and the story works as it is currently.
Otherwise I have been working on developing the characters and style, here are some snippets from my sketchbook along with research from the book 'Fashion, A History from the 18th to 20th Century' from the Kyoto Costume Institute, that I've been using to get the regency clothing right.
I've enlarged some of the sketches that I feel were particularly successful, I like the idea of having the mother in the feathered hat because I feel like having such a statement piece would show here idea of superiority, but its conservative colour palette of just black speaks to the darker aspect of her character. Some that features spiky design like the feathers I drew are a typically villainous imagery too. I really enjoy the watercolour texture so I'd like to incorporate it into my film somehow. I want to make it as a sort of fake multi-plane set up in after effects but with real physical elements photographed to make the settings (background and foreground), and then digital 2D animation sandwiched between them, but with a watercolour texture imported in for the colours.
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