The document outlines a student film project that will parody the story of Sweeney Todd by producing a black and white silent film in the style of a Film Noir. The film will tell the story of Sweeney Todd in a comedic and satirical way by using over-the-top acting, costumes from the time period, and exaggerated uses of blood and sound effects. While parodying the dark themes of death and revenge, the film aims to have an overall light-hearted and humorous tone for a younger audience. The students acknowledge the challenges of limited resources and time but feel the ambitious stylistic choices will further contribute to the comedy.

1. A Pie with a Difference
Based on the old tale of Sweeney Todd: The
Demon Barber of Fleet Street

2. The Synopsis
There was once an urban legend, based on dubious pie
fillings… It was once thought that ‘people should only buy pies
when you know the lady has made it.’
The story of Sweeney Todd was based on this legend, however
there are publications from 1824 reporting how a barber and
wig-maker of the Rue de La Harpe in Paris cut his customer’s
throat, relieved them of their valuables and then had their
bodies made into meat pies, utilizing the services of a pastry
cook, whose establishment was on the same street.
Our film will be based on this tale.

3. The Treatment
The aim is to produce a black & white silent film,
using similar lighting that is found in the Film Noir
genre. However, the plan is to produce the film as a
parody of a) the story of Sweeney Todd, and b) black
& white films. We aim to replicate these styles by
using dramatic lighting, captioned speech and over
the top acting. We’re are going to attempt at giving
the film an old-fashioned vibe by the use of costume
and hair/make-up.
The narrative will be linear, but to keep the killer
mysterious, we will be filming in perspective of the
victims.

4. Tone & Theme
There will be a slightly satirical undertone, but the
main body of the film will be light-hearted and
comical.
The themes of the narrative are…
• Death
• Revenge
• Obsession
However, the overriding ideology will be that nothing
good ever comes out of revenge…
muhahahahaHAHAHAHA

5. ANGLAYZ
The film is taking a light-hearted stance towards
death and cannibalism… lol
We are aiming our film at a younger audience as it
will feature silly jokes and sarcastic acting.
13 – 25 would enjoy it more than an older audience.
(We realise that black & white is quite traditional but if
the Artist can do it so can we right?) (yeaaaah!!
Wooooo go team)

6. Mise en Scene
Although our film is comedy based, we will be using
blood in a humorous manner, but to also show
realism. We want to use dramatic sounds in order to
create suspense which will tie with the conventional
black and white silent films. We feel by using
dramatic sound over the top of over-the-top acting, it
will increase the comedy factor.
We hope to make-shift a set to produce authenticity
while filming the barber shop scenes.
We also plan on hiring lights from the college to
produce a lovely Chiaroscuro effect. ;)
We plan on starring in our own film and making a
point about re-using actors in not-so-obvious
disguises.

7. A little something like this…
http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=IJhOL0_mbC
Q

8. Problamos
We realise it might not be very easy to replicate a
barber shop. This is something we need to work
out… Initially we thought of maybe making
something similar looking in the photography studio
which would emphasize all the blood because of the
white space it would splatter around onto.
It’s ambitious to attempt a dated black & white movie
with such a short time-scale and limited resources,
but we hope this will add to the comedy effect and
bring a new parody element – self parody.