Filmproject 4e jaar

Article VEP-Website: Shrek, The Movie

Once upon a time … everyone knows what will follow: an ordinary fairy tale, we all know hundreds and hundreds of those tales. Shrek began like this as well. But al those who thought this was an ordinary fairy tale, made a terrible mistake.

Our story starts in the swamp of the ugly, big, fat, green ogre Shrek. Shrek lives alone in his swamp, having fun all day and eating poisoned fish. However, one night, fairy creatures that have been driven out of their homes by the evil lord Farquaad, who wants a perfect world without the imperfect creatures, invaded his swamp. Shrek, who doesn’t like these intruders, went to lord Farquaad to make a deal: in exchange for his swamp, Shrek will rescue Princes Fiona from a castle with a fire-breathing dragon. However, the dragon isn’t the real problem it seems …

Shall this group and their photographer survive their work?

This was our quest: to find out the story line of this story, to know every detail of this tale and to change a sceptical audience into loyal fans of Shrek. Only then do we get our swamp back (or rather, do we get good marks) Every Tuesday afternoon, we went to the torture chamber, also called the poly, to do hard labour, put in long hours research and have profound discussions about everything and everyone in the film Shrek.

The Torture Chamber

As true Belgian civilians, we were democratic in our way of working, and because of that there was no real leader who guided us. We worked together, as a real team. We worked our way through a mountain of paper, full of information about actors, original books (did you know that Shrek was actually a book about an ugly ogre who was thrown out of his house by his parents, went on adventures and at the end, married a more ugly ogre woman) and much more ...

Working or Playing?

But we were able to work on all our assignments during this time, and every time, we could proudly give a positive evaluation about the work we had done. Pictures were taken, papers were written or printed, music was listened to and discussed, and special parts of the movie were seen over and over again. But the most important thing of all was the presentation, because, how can you present a fairy tale in an original, educational and funny way? And that to an audience of parents and teachers?

Concentration, concentration, nothing but concentration

A talk show became the answer, after suggestions like behaving like computers (because the whole film was made by computers) or playing a part of the movie. But not just a talk show. We wanted to add some special things. So was the host a homosexual one, whose’ name was Kenny (played by Bart Sebrechts) and the guests were special as well. There was Donkey, a character from the movie (played by Maxim Vermeulen) who was all but seduced by our host. Also there was a crazy professor called Victoria Jensen (played by Margot Van Dyck) who talked about the creation of the film and the clichés. Unfortunately she didn’t survive the presentation, she was shot by Donkey who couldn’t believe he wasn’t real (note: actor is still alive kicking asses) And there was also John Powel, a hippie (played by Annelies Timmermans) who said a lot about the voices and the songs used in the film.

Our presentation was the first to be shown, and because of that, the audience was very attentive. And we were more stressed. But we had a lovely show with success, and the people who were in the gym should by now all have seen the movie and should be enthusiastic fans of Shrek. And then, we hopefully get back that stinky swamp of ours. 

A divine intervention to aid us? Is God with us?

For those of you who are still waiting for more and more news about Shrek, I suggest you check this out: www.shrek2.com

Now up to Shrek2! We’re ready for it! (or aren’t we?)

Margot van Dyck, Maxim Vermeulen,                                                                            group 8

Annelies Timmermans and Bart Sebrechts