Early on in our filmmaking journey an interview with Alfred Hitchcock made a big impression. He was talking about the context between two different shots. The first was the close-up of an actor and the second was what he was looking at. When editing these two shots together, context is created. The edit decides what the actor is looking at, which then informs the audience’s opinion about the character.
This has been one of the main guiding principles as Tales from Black Manor has come together. How to create context from shots that at one point, had nothing to do with one another. Then from there, how do you create an entire world of fables, folklore and myth?
We created Tales from Black Manor during the Pandemic. During this time production was completely shut down. We’d had such momentum going with our last feature film which premiered March 15th 2020, and was one of the last films to play in Los Angeles, that we were still very interested in telling stories.
Tales from Black Manor is an anthology of interconnected shorts about a family whose lives are intertwined with Death. The stories leaned towards horror and dark fantasy for a genre. The BIG idea was that the stories were told entirely through stock footage.
Series 1 taught us the importance of coloring shots to feel connected. It’s really amazing what coloring can do and Premiere Pro in the Adobe Creative Suite is great at this, and super easy to use. Another amazing tool is obviously music. We found the composer team Orchestralis which has become one of the defining characteristics of the series. The music has to be done by them, aside from a few moments of source music in upcoming episodes.
After Series 1 wrapped, we weren’t able to stop thinking about the world of Black Manor.
As we continued to explore the different aspects of Black Manor, one of our favorite discussions was about the different time periods that surround the manor itself. We began to look at Medieval settings, World Wars, and the 80s. These were some of the ideas that really excited us since each tale could have such a different tone.
For “Alice & The Watch,” we started out referencing lots of Danny Boyle films such as Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. The story was very different when we started. As the episode took shape it started to drastically change in its tone and style. We began looking at more and more David Fincher films. This impacted coloring, editing choices, and the music style.
For the next episode, we have always wanted to tell a story set in World War II. With so much wonderful footage available these days, we set out crafting the tale of Mister Winter, a Nazi on the hunt for Black Manor. We really wanted this to feel gritty and real. Here we went back and looked at some of our favorite World War II films to see how they were edited their coloring, and their sound design.
If Mister Winter is a more straightforward World War II story, The Land of Death and Dreams leans much more into a Guillermo del Toro type of nightmare, especially his dark period pieces. One of our favorite films is Pan’s Labyrinth. The type of film where, despite a war raging, there is also something lurking in the woods.
One of the funnest things to do is mix references and inspiration. For “Welcome to the 80s” we were inspired by that 80s Amblin vibe that Stranger Things has done such an amazing job with. This was mixed with just a touch “The Ring” and finally for the dream sequence, we were inspired by the “Dust Covers” by Dave McKean from “The Sandman.”
We’ve really enjoyed embracing this experiment and believe there’s definitely more from the world of Black Manor to come!
To check out Tales from Black Manor, Series 2, make sure to click the link here!
And also, check out that wonderful interview with Alfred Hitchcock if you haven’t seen it:
Nick + Lexie Trivundza are an award winning directing duo. Their work has screened at Film Festivals around the world and their client list includes the biggest brands in the world.
Their most recent directorial effort, Danger! Danger! made its World Premiere at the Pasadena International Film Festival, following their debut award winning film, The West and the Ruthless, which premiered at AIFF with a global release by Sony Pictures.
Their commercial work includes clients and brands such as Apple, The Academy Awards, Visa, Google, Mattel, Harper Collins, and Adobe to name a few. They have also worked on award winning documentaries, such as the Emmy winning series, The Dead Unknown.
