The three faces of me in the triptych above are from each of the three musical short film Edgar Allan Poe adaptations I have produced, directed, wrote the screenplay and composed the music for, and acted in.
The film noirish lurker at right is from the first one I made, “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre“; the bald mirror mask individual at left haunts the second short “The Pit and the Pendulum – a musicabre“; and the pained face in the middle is from the recently completed “The Raven – a musicabre“.
“The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” and “The Pit and the Pendulum – a musicabre” have had extensive film festival runs and received a combined 136 IMDb.com recognized awards. “The Raven – a musicabre” will start its festival run next year. After that concludes the plan is to release all three films publicly together, possibly as an anthology film called “The Poe Musicabres”.
On their respective blog pages, there is much to explore about each film: trailers, making-of articles, award listings. All Poe related blog posts are also collated in the Poe musicabres archives. Still I thought it would be good, in anticipation of the third film’s anticipated festival debut, to post this introductory piece for all three Poe Musicabres.
“The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” was a stage show before it became a short film, but my association with Poe’s macabre short story monologue goes back even further in time to a certain roommate from hell. In addition to that story, you can also read about camera tests for the two distinctive looks of the film, or the three cello-playing actors who in ghostly imagery double for the three cellos on the soundtrack, or the ambitious 450 degree tracking shot of “mortal terror”.
My favorite post is probably about me murdering my husband Ed, who here makes his first “Hitchcock Cameo” appearance, a tradition we have carried through the following two musicabres and intend to carry on with every film I direct.
Above are two posters for “The Pit and the Pendulum – a musicabre“, which by themselves already hint at the variety of imagery featured in the follow-up to Tell-Tale. The most distinctive imagery involves the mirror masks, two more screenshots of which I include below.
Still, the center image of both posters hints at a fun on-set blog post. And you may also want to read accounts of the titular slicing pendulum, or the day an on-set accident sent me to urgent care, or the epic shaving of all that hair on my head.
“The Raven – a musicabre” has only recently been completed and is not scheduled for public festival screenings until next year. So, as such, I have not yet posted much about it on the blog, keeping most of its secrets close to the vest. Nonetheless, a handful of interesting behind the scenes views are already offered on the Raven page. And you can also find the complete Poe poem presented in a distinctive look.
Much more behind the scenes posts are promised for the future. Including reveals and stories of some of the many unique locations featured in the film.
Like this one…
And this one…
And this one…
