Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts

Monday, January 22, 2018

Facebook to Film Ten-Part Series 'Sacred Lies', Based on The Handless Maiden

Maiden Without Hands Blythe Doll by Kat Caro
Note: The Blythe Doll art photos shown throughout are by Kat Caro and the various poses show aspects of her story. We thought it was a good time to show this tragic and touching art that we've been saving to share at the right time.

Sacred Lies is partly based on The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, a novel by Stephanie Oakes, and partly on Grimm's 'The Handless Maiden'.
(Sacred Lies is about a) handless teen who escapes from a cult and finds herself in juvenile detention, suspected of knowing who killed her cult leader. Casting is currently underway. (Deadline)

The ten-part series, is set to start production sometime between March and May this year (2018) will be screened on the new SVOD* platform Facebook Watch, which was set up last year. Facebook is partnering with Blumhouse Productions, who are known for specializing in "converting low-budget horror stories into major international hits" (eg. the Insidious franchises, the Paranormal Activity movies and the acclaimed Get Out.)
“Sacred Lies is an inventive twist on a time honored fairytale which we believe will surprise and stir the Facebook Watch audience and we’re excited to be the studio producing this provocative series.” (Marci Wiseman and Jeremy Gold, co-presidents, Blumhouse Television) 
“This a young female protagonist we’ve never seen on screen before,” said (showrunner Raelle) Tucker**. “She’s complex, brave, funny…and sometimes dangerous. And she has no hands. But she refuses to let that, or her bizarre, brutal past define her or limit her. That’s the message of our series: no matter what life throws at you – ultimately only you have the power to decide what you believe and what you become. I’m beyond excited and honored to bring this unique, inspiring, badass character to life. “
                                  
                       
             
   
Facebook Watch will be taking quite a departure from their current fare. Facebook Watch is currently known for it's "gimmicky reality shows and clips from popular internet creators" (to quote The Verge) and will be taking quite a departure for, Sacred Lies, Facebook Watch's first scripted drama, the first of many projects the social network giant is planning on, with a projected budget of $1bn on contact (yes, billion - which is still modest compared to Hulu, Amazon and Netflix for 2018), something which has intrigued filmmakers and property holders because of the "stated intent".
                     
Translation - filmmakers: time to pitch your series and movie ideas! This is a great time for fairy tales. People are finding expression, solace, hope, a new perspective - as well as escape - in old tales and in retelling old tales in new (and needed) ways rat present, and, wonderfully, lesser known ones are coming back into popular circulation. 'The Handless Maiden' is one example of this. 'Baba Yaga', in her various complex iterations, along with 'Vasilisa', is another, as well as 'Snow White and Rose Red', and it's worth also mentioning that Krampus is once again a known figure among pop culture geeks and beyond.

As a side note, it's nice to see fairy tale protagonists who deal with disability as well. It's representation that's been lacking, apart from various mermaid explorations, but mermaids are more seen to represent previously marginalized groups such as LGBT folk. Acknowledged physical disability, whether by birth, accident or other, could use some hero representation and hopeful fairy tale retellings.


* Streaming Video On Demand
** Raellee Tucker was formerly Executive Producer on the popular HBO series, True Blood

Sources: KFTV, Deadline.com, The Verge


Kat Caro's Blythe Doll art was created for and shown in the Fairies & Folklore Once Upon A Blyth International Doll Exhibition in 2015

About her art doll, Kat Caro says: "The Maiden without Hands - My submission for the Fairies and Folklore show at Auguste Clown Gallery in Melbourne, Australia in 2015. She was inspired by Grimm's fairy tale, The Maiden without Hands, which I have always been fascinated by. She specifically reenacts the moment she is told to flee the kingdom with the newborn prince to escape the devil's false message that she be executed. She has removable sterling silver hands, as given to her by the king, but she still carries her chopped off hands on her back and the prince in a sling."

Friday, June 28, 2013

Once Upon A Blog's New Visual Archive (& Katerina Shtanko's Snow White & Rose Red)

First of all - aren't these illustrations just beautiful? They're by Ukranian artist Katerina Shtanko (Катерина Штанко) and are, of course, telling the story of Snow White & Rose Red. Although she's a contemporary artist these illustrations look vintage and I adore the watercolor washes over ink. She's one of my (many) inspirations and the first artist I decided to dedicate a Pinterest board to.

And speaking of Pinterest...

ARCHIVES AT-A-GLANCE
Yep - I've been a busy bee. Still am. But you now have Once Upon A Blog "Archives At-A-Glance"!

I am currently in the process of archiving all the posts ever posted on Pinterest in batches so you have another way to browse topics and I have another way to get fairy tale news out to people.

I am working backward, so the archive is current from today (I update daily when I post the headlines on Facebook and Twitter) all the way back to the beginning of 2012 - so far. As with blogs, the newest entries are at the top of the page. I am nearly done with 2011 as well. Then there will be only two years worth to go... (except for dailies, of course).

While it's a little laborious it's also pretty wonderful revisiting all the fairy tale news (that I got to post at least - I missed a TON!). I can safely say I am NEVER at a loss for something to post. Whenever there's a lull in actual news or events I always have a backlog of things I missed, artist's whose work I want to profile, books to chat about, articles upon fascinating articles of topics all over the shop... it's amazing really. People wonder how on earth I run a daily blog of fairy tale news. And then they get a glimpse of what I've posted as opposed to what I chose to miss that time around and then I get asked: how do you have time to do anything else? (I'm actually beginning to wonder the same thing.)

Anyway - the archive is to, hopefully, make things easier for you to track, browse and to share. (Yes! Please don't keep the news to yourself! Share - get it out there! Have some fairy tale conversations. If you credit me as your source that'd be nice but my goal is to get it out there to the world - to show everyone that fairy tales are not dead and gone. They're alive, loved and one of the best gifts our different cultural heritages have given us - for lots of reasons.) The archive boards are at the top of my Once Upon A Blog page so you don't have to hunt-scroll for them and they each state the time period they cover.

Old boards will state "COMPLETE" when archiving for that period is done and won't be added to. Ones I'm actively working on say "IN PROCESS". The current one has a little pen-arrow next to the title, like this...

✒ FTNewsArchive~Jun/Jul 2013 ♛

...so you know it's being updated daily as posts go live) Each entry has a image representing the post, the headline, the date it was posted, a credit for the image (& title if applicable) and each "pin" links back to the original article.


EXTRA FAIRY TALE NEWS POSTS VIA FACEBOOK & TWITTER


You should also be aware that I AM POSTING EXTRA FAIRY TALE NEWS CONTENT ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER EVERY DAY!

Yes! You want more fairy tale news? Well now you have it. There's always more - and I'm aiming to give you as much as I possibly can.


Please note: I do not intend to try and cover every subject, tale or news story - that's impossible - and there are other truly excellent fairy tale blogs that post on their different subjects - which I try not to duplicate in general - unless I really, really want to say something about that too. Although I like it when people post different opinions on one subject and we have an (almost) inter-blog discussion (very fun!), I don't want you to feel like you're wading through the same news twice all the time either. I might very well link you to an article from FB and Twitter, though, just to help spread the love, er, news. :)

One of the things I got discouraged about before (funnily enough) is that I simply couldn't get to sharing everything I felt was important or interesting. I didn't even have the time or room to share what various readers were working on to encourage people in their own fairy tale work! It was very easy to get overwhelmed - still is - but I'm working on managing that, by doing things like this. So Facebook and Twitter both get: the daily headlines (with links back to the blog), Friday fairy tale funnies, notable fairy tale quotes & excerpts, links to short films, podcasts and other media presentations, additional news headlines I didn't get time to profile on the blog (but didn't want people to miss,) updates on blog stuff (like announcements, archiving updates, additional features and pages) and pretty much anything else I can post quickly without having to spend a lot of time researching.


Note: The Facebook page is public so you don't need an account to go check for the extra news! 

If you do have an FB account though, clicking "LIKE" on the page will send the news to your feed as it comes in (always make sure to add it to your "Interest List" on the pull-down menu - click the thing that looks like a gear wheel - to make it visible in your stream).



NEW ONCE UPON A BLOG TUMBLR (experimental)

I have also started a Once Upon A Blog... Gallery of Enchanted Arts Tumblr BUT it's definitely in the the experimental stage right now. Between the blog, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter I'm really not sure where I will fit that in.. BUT I want to try, since so many people love Tumblr and use it as their main blogging platform.


DAILY PINTEREST UPDATES

I am using Pinterest every day for fairy tale purposes - at least briefly to add the headline pins but often more than that. If you feel a little overwhelmed at how many boards I have (I have a lot!) and just want to know what I've been up to recently here's a shortcut: just check my PINS page - they'll show all my recent pins at the top as well as any new boards I've created. If you check my LIKES page you can see what I (usually hurriedly) liked but didn't necessarily end up pinning anywhere (I try to clean this up from time to time as well).

The Once Upon A Blog.. Pinterest page is continually growing but there are already a lot of boards dedicated to particular tales. I have so many I made a special page right here on the blog site (see the tabs under the blog header) so you can check if a tale is there you want to see. If you click on the title you will be direct-linked to that tale board!

See how easy and linked everything is now?

I hope all this makes your fairy tale reading and research more fun and helps you discover stories and fairy tale related goodness you wouldn't have otherwise. Now, more than ever, if you have some fairy tale news of your own, or something you've heard or seen somewhere you'd like to share, let me know and I'll do my best to get it out there. I want to encourage everyone working and creating in fairy tales and not have people feel so alone in their studies, work, art or discoveries. I'm also hoping that all this will bring you more of what I set out to give you in the first place: FAIRY TALE NEWS!

PS. Oh yes. And I most definitely have a Pinterest board dedicated to the amazing Katerina Shtanko (Катерина Штанко)! You can find that HERE. :)