Sometimes a film I'm working on doesn't really take shape visually until I have the footage into the edit system. Other times, I have a pretty good idea before going in, having seen a painting or image that sparks an idea. With PERSEPHONE, it's been a little of both.

Early on, I had done some Photoshop work of the Deer Queen character in b/w and really liked it. Rather than being about color and shade, it focused on light and dark - very fitting for the the gray lifeless world of the shades.

Episode 2 is the first time we'll see the Underworld. We shot in the pouring rain and driving wind (my actress Carrie Anne Hunt is a real pro) backed up by a contrasting bright sky.  It was a strange sort of unpredictable rain with the sun sending a glare into the middle of the storm, from behind white clouds.  I looked around as we were setting up, and instead of the saturated colors that rain can bring, all I saw was light and dark - and the look for my Underworld was set.

Once I got the footage into my edit system, I started to play.  I love the look of Cocteau films and the Brothers Quay. They create worlds that hold familiar sites, but ones pulled through a twisted filter of shapes, shadows and lines.  I want the realm of Hades to be an unbalancing experience for Persephone, and the viewer - but not to the extent that the visuals take over the story or the emotional drive of the characters. 

There is a phrase I've always loved, "The mills of the gods start churning". It means that actions have been put into play to make someone's fate unfold. That seems to be an underlying theme of the Underworld and its inhabitants, so we'll see the shadow and hear the gears of a giant mill as an overwhelming presence of somber. Likewise, water is also a theme. In episode one, Hades drags Persephone to the Underworld through water. It's a life force, it can power the mill, and lead to other lands.  You'll see streams, falls, and rain throughout the series.  

(above - Carrie Anne Hunt as Persephone/Deer Queen)

To carry that theme through in an artistic vision, I've used footage of water, desaturated and with lowered opacity to create shadows that float like thick waves of air over the Underworld. Black clouds, shades, spirits losing their memories, all entities that she encounters in an unsettling landscape, one she tries to escape from to return home...

Episodes 2 and 3 of this exclusive Film Annex web series will be online by the end of August!

Lisa