4th Year Film - Pre-Production

It is coming to the end of semester 1 now; the phases of pre-production are coming to a close and I have started animating my film. So time to write an update on the development of my 4th year film!

Storyboarding/Animatic

I wanted the storyboard/animatic to be complete before the end of this semester, so I spent a good bit of time chopping and changing the animatic till I was happy and ready to animate the story. I have stayed fairly true to my schedule but did spend more time on the storyboarding and animatic that I had hoped. However, I also feel this is one of the most important stages in the pre-production and I wanted the story to be right for me, so I don't feel this was time wasted.

Character Design

One of the first aspects of the visual development that I wanted to tackle was the character design. Once this was finalised, I would be happy to start animating, and could continue working on things like background and colour design while animating.
The best way for me to figure out characters is by lots of sketching! So I spent a good bit of time with my sketchbook, drawing my two characters and trying to get the right look for them. I wanted the designs to be in my usual 'style' but be easy enough to animate (so not too time-consuming).

I also wanted the two characters to mirror each other somewhat. They both exhibit shared characteristics of a strong-headed and stubborn nature. They are a little unruly like the landscape.
I looked at photographs and paintings of 19th century/early 20th century fisherman for ideas of clothing. The horse is based on the hardy Highland Pony. I didn't want the horse to be too elegant or skinny legged but a heavy work animal. As I said, both characters are meant to mirror one another and I want them to be a relatively equal match, but at the same time the horse is a much more powerful animal with a much more hefty structure!

I would love the character's to have more texture and form to them than my usual flat/block colouring. This is of course dependent on time however, and will require a little bit of experimenting to see how texture/shading/lighting could be added without too much time consumed. While designing the characters, I tried out traditional-style Photoshop brushes to add texture (above images), which I liked the look of...

Setting Design


I have also been focusing on the environment/setting design in the last few weeks. I hope that the landscape will act as another character in my film - and be visualized as an integral part of the narrative and of importance to the fisherman and horse. Plus, the film should paint a picture of a real place, and I would love if the audience could be transported to these kind of remote and beautiful corners of Scotland. I guess you could say there is a theme of isolation in my film; the literal isolation of such a remote location, or being literally cut off by an island, and the isolation felt by the characters. But I also want to show that this environment is not as isolating as one might think! The characters need to engage with their environment to conquer their fears and find a sense of place. It's a harsh environment (as will be characterized in the opening scenes), but can also be a beautiful and rewarding home.

For the island's abandoned croft, I have been drawing upon croft houses near my home and from the traditional 'black houses' in the Hebrides. In the film, the fisherman also finds some old horse tack in with an ornamental harness brass in the house. This was inspired by an actual brass I found in a small museum in Orkney (top left corner of photo montage above).
The fishing boat design is based on traditional boats from the 18th/early 20th century (but isn't strictly accurate - more inspired by boats of that time than resembling any certain model/type).

I also took a wee museum break to find inspiration in the Celtic/Pictish artifacts there. I'm thinking that the animation of elements like the waves and underwater scenes will be a bit more stylised/abstract than the character animation...

Colour Script

I have also just started on a quick colour script - so far I have been working on the opening scenes. Like the setting design, I think the colour is going to be an important tool in the film, so I want to map it out in advance before I start creating the backgrounds/colouring the frames. I'm hoping to be finished with this before semester 2 starts.

So, the visual development and pre-production phase is almost at a close! I have a bit more work to do, primarily on the setting design, but am hoping to have this finished early in semester 2. Next step really is to get all the animation done! The film stands at just under 6 minutes right now, so there is a lot to do...

4th Year Film - Idea Development

I thought it was about time I wrote a bit about the progress of my final year film. Over the summer I was mulling over ideas and seeking inspiration, and in the last month or so I've been busy getting these ideas down on paper!

Inspiration and Research

First of all, the main inspiration for my film was the remote North Western corner of Scotland. I spent summer exploring the area (plus taking a trip to the Outer Hebrides), collecting stories and information, and sketching as I went.
I wanted my film to conjure up a feeling of this particular location; of the sea, the mountains, the wildness, and the rural way of life. Since the beginning I have also wanted my film to involve themes of nature and the environment - which is perfectly suited to this setting.

This brought about ideas of the relationship between the two worlds of land and sea, and between people and the environment, that are brought together dramatically on the West coast.
My own experiences of living in this kind of environment, research into folk stories and traditional ways of life, and observational work, provided me with a basis for my story!

Fishing is the most important industry here and plays a big part in many peoples lives. Crofting is the next traditional means for making a living. These livelihoods are tied to the landscape. I wanted my film to represent these two distinctive worlds that define the way of life here.
Thus I decided my main characters were to be a fisherman (the sea) and a horse (land).

The horse was initially changeable, but I liked the idea of a horse due to it being a large and powerful animal that is more than a match for the fisherman and that could hopefully echo (through the animation) the force and rage of the sea. I was also inspired by folk stories about 'water horses' and horses that could travel on both land and water. In summer, I used to help out at a local trekking centre which provided me with experience to draw upon (and living subjects to draw from) for animating the horse character!

The story so far...

To sum up my story in one sentence: a troubled fisherman must try to rescue a horse stranded on an island.

My film will revolve around three equally important characters; the fisherman, the horse, and the environment in which they both live. All three characters are connected. They all provide the problems for one another but are also needed to solve these problems, for example; nature is partly what caused the fisherman's grief and troubles, and he is a bit frightened of the horse, but he needs both these things to find his feet again. All three also share characteristics. They are all temperamental and changeable -  a bit 'rough around the ages'!

Most of the film will focus on the struggle between the man and the horse, and the landscape and weather will feature prominently in establishing the mood and the action. The fisherman has had an accident at sea and is having difficulty returning to his normal life on land. He is caught between two worlds - he doesn't want to return to sea, haunted my his bad experiences, but he is also not content on land. He feels isolated and an outcast. Then he finds the stranded horse...
The horse has been abandoned on an island. She is literally isolated and turned semi-feral, and like the fisherman, is not too happy in her situation. The fisherman decides to try and bring the horse back to land and the majority of the film will be about the undertaking of this task.

After scribbling out many notes and drawing many thumbnail storyboards, I now have the structure of the film and the general direction of the plot down. At the moment I am still storyboarding; I am working on piecing together some of the more specific action in the film (how the action will play out, trying out different shots and ideas). I have also started to create some conceptual art and thinking about the 'look' of the film.

Next steps - working on some more final character and set designs and starting to do test animation.
I've been using Gantt to create a general schedule and been checking/updating it regularly (apologies for the terrible image - just to give an idea!) It has been very useful for thinking ahead and having a visible plan to stick to. At the moment, all seems to be on schedule! I hope to start animating in November once I am completely happy with the story and design.

Illustration Work - More Animalia!

Just a wee note on some illustration work I did this semester. At the beginning of the year I spent some time making trial illustrations for a possible client on the theme of childrens book style jungle and farm animals. In the end it didn't work out, but it was still a good experience and I got to try my hand at illustrating. This was something quite new for me so I had to experiment a bit - and it was strange spending so much time on just the one drawing (a rarity in animation!). At the moment I am working with watercolour more and more, so I drew some animal characters in my usual style with a mix of watercolour, ink and pen.

 

Horse Anatomy Workshop

During 'Innovative Learning Week', I went to a horse anatomy and wire sculpture workshop at the Vet School. The workshop was run by the Vet School and the Society of Wildlife Artist's president Harriet Mead. It was a fascinating workshop where we were given a lecture and demonstration in horse anatomy, then were able to draw and create a wire sculpture from live horses. We were provided with A2 sheets of paper for drawing - I loved sketching at this scale! Here are some of my sketches from the day:

 

And here is my attempt at wire sculpture... (it wasn't as bad as I was expecting actually!)

It was an excellent day; as always the chance to draw from life was valuable practice, as well as trying something new!

Memory Project - "Paris is Always a Good Idea"

First off, as recommended to me...



...particularly fitting for my French themed memory? As well as how we remember things differently!

For the memory project I chose to talk about my travels to Paris at different points in my life. I thought comparing these two different memories/experiences could make for an interesting narrative. Myself and a friend went to Paris a couple years ago - revisiting all the places we went to on the same trip we went on 8 years ago with our parents.

“There is but one Paris and however hard living may be here, and if it became worse and harder even -the French air clears up the brain and does good- a world of good.”
― Vincent van Gogh

Now, I don't know about 'French air', but I certainly felt that our trip to Paris a few years back was an important experience. As my first proper travel (outside the UK) independently, without parents or a school, it was a learning curve! And an interested trip in how it compared to my first experience of Paris. Overall I would like the film to include themes about traveling and exploring places as a young person - finding your own feet in a vast and fast-moving world - and what effect your memories and expectations may have on this experience. There was a quote by Terry Pratchett that I quite liked in regard these ideas: "Why do you go away? So that you can come back...Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving."
I think how we saw Paris as 20-something year olds was quite different to when we were in our early teens. On our 2nd trip, it probably took us a bit longer to see that Parisian warmth and colour we remembered - as we now noticed more of those dodgy or unpleasant aspects of the busy, modern city! (Although, the experience was never not fun - that's part of the adventure...)

Anyway, that's enough rambling...



Research & Initial Ideas:

Just as I was beginning to work on this project, Google released this cute doodle to celebrate the Eiffel Tower's anniversary. Good timing; I actually found this quite inspiring as there is a lot of movement in the illustration and I really like the colours and design!

I also love this portrayal of Paris from Sylvain Chomet's film 'The Illustionist'. The city is portrayed as a dark and somewhat depressing city - much less inviting than how Paris is usually depicted. Strangely, the scene below perfectly shows how we ourselves experienced Paris on our first arrival on our 2nd trip (our hotel was near the pictured church Sacré-Cœur and it was very grey and rainy!).

(Background art by Bjorn-Erik Aschim; http://www.bjornsportfolio.com/The-illusionist-Background-Layout-artist-Django-Films)

I did make a film about Paris only last year, but it featured little the actual city, so it will be nice to revisit the visual feast that is Paris with more of an emphasis on the place itself!

At the moment I have a few ideas kicking about:

• The film title could be "In Search of Paris; I feel it refers well to how we arrived in Paris on our 2nd trip with memories and expectations planted in our minds and how we had to search for the Paris we remembered. I guess as we become more comfortable and used to the ways of the city, we began to see the awesome parts of Paris again - but not quite as we remembered it perhaps. The little things like details and patterns. Learning to look at somewhere in a different light...

• I like the aesthetics of maps and the Paris Metro. Having metamorphosing map lines is one idea for the animation - travelers can create their own maps of a place as they find their own way perhaps?

• Colour could be an important element in this film - continuing on the theme mentioned first of us getting used to Paris and seeing it's beauty again. The beginning could start of with the gentle, pastel colours of our Parisian memories, which turns to a moody and rainy greyscale as we move to our more recent adventure. As we become more comfortable in the city and discover new things about it, the palette would become more bright and colourful again - possibly ending in a warm, pastel sunset that mirrors the beginning.

Some shot ideas so far:

•   It would also be good to use animation to do something fun and different with the story. At the moment I am thinking of having Paris as a bit of a playground or maze. Inspired by the statues on Notre Dame, I had an idea of us on top of the cathedral having to take a step out and leap into the unknown and find our feet in Paris

Next...
I haven't had much time in the semester to work on this project (mainly due to the time-consuming nature of the zoo film), but I am hoping to create a finished film in the next few weeks before the summer!