Storyboards and Musak!

Monday and Tuesday night i roughed out some storyboards. Very rough but then as a group we padded out the first 2 scenes on Wednesday.

From doing this though it became evident to me that some of the strong points in the story are being lost in this basic storyboard that we have. Things like:-

1. when colour is introduced to suggest her becoming more comfortable with her self.
2. Studio apartment layout
3. Tech issues with environment being 3D but looking hand drawn and parts of it becoming 3D when she realises herself.

This made me aware that we will need to spend a few weeks doing research and development for certain technical things that we want to do, but i haven't put this in our production plan at this point, so i will have to revisit that.

Other things that became obvious to me was whether or not the pot plant creature part works. And even the fish...the fish doesn't do much and all its actions are reserved, but then you have this part with the pot plant that is very characterised...im wandering if perhaps we should pull the acting back a bit for this...but maybe it will make more sense in the animatic.

Speaking of animatics...Damien started one for us on Thursday in flash and it is looking really good so far. We are hoping to get this finished by Friday the 2nd of May in order to hand it over to Andrew our music composer so he can start laying a scratch soundtrack down.

Down to the Musak...

We met up with Andrew a 2nd year music composer who seems rather keen to assist us with the music for our film, which is going to be VERY important being A. we have no dialogue and B. The script is driven musically as a suggestion to whats happening.

It was really exciting and intersting to watch and listen to Andrew as he went through our storyboards with his ideas and suggestions as far as stepping away a bit from the noise and more to the melodic. He has some really great examples of his work which he thinks will work well with our script. And some of his ideas for suggestions for character and story have really helped us alot. I very much look forward to working with him on this for both the collaborative experience as people ideas and for his experience. Sitting with Andrew, also really solidified this project for me, its a real thing...not just an assessment peice for our final project...its just real...its weird.

Thursday - Met with poor bruised up Andi. She is really liking where we are at with the story, suggested if we have a few surreal moments in the story, perhaps we need to push it further like i.e. instead of toast popping from toaster have flowers or something...


So where we are at:-

Damien and Caryn are modelling Charlie.
Damien has also started the animatic.
I have started furniture design and will be doing colour scripts in order to get more of the story across.

French furniture and abodes

This site has alot of great french peices of furniture that look really cultured/refined but still girly.

new Script...Yay...and references

Today Damien and I went through his most recent script to include a few ideas that he liked from my script. We then went through it 2 or 3 times more to make sure when reading, it had a pretty good flow for the beats etc throughout. WE added a few more symbology things like the Lotus flower and Dragonfly, and a new concept that on each reply letter, there would be a little logo, wax seal or drawing to resonate with the letter it was replying too. Damien wanted the second letter to reference the coccoon stage of the butterfly metamorphosis, but I felt this would be difficult ot imply, and it also wouldn't fall in line with the "lyrical" visual asthetic of the film, so i then suggested we should keep up with the sort of asian symbolic theme we are using, and between us came up with the lotus flower....and it went on from there.

Here is a link to youtube vid on how to make origami lotus flower!


Tonight I also attempted to draw up a production schedule on a time line for us. Wow this was so not what i wanted to do. Was already to go and finish my digital paintings of charlie, but thought we better get something like this done up, as I could feel time just slipping away from us. After I got a rough schedule drawn up, I then began a production plan or scene breakdown, just to have an idea of how many we would have, and also get an idea of who wants to do what. Thought this might help with writing our Personal Learning plans for Andi, whatever the hell they are meant to consist of.

Other thoughts I had today were:

Lets have just 1 blog for our film that we all post too, this way we can set up to send alerts whenver something is added, and also we can direct people to one page, rather than 3 like sound designers or musicians who are helping us in near future.

References for scissors - i thought of how Miyazaki's Spirited Away animated bits of paper that cut up Haku when he is in his dragon state and thought we could look at this for reference for our flying scissor scene...even just to see how character animated can look. I couldn't find any images of the scene, only this one after he got chopped up, but i have it on DVD and will bring it in.




Other reference for colour scripts, environments etc - art of robots and cars books - i shall bring them in for us to gander through.

Video reference for our Film

Asked a scriptwriter friend of mine to read over the treatment/scripts Damien and I had over the weekend, and he was saying he could see the aHa video clip in his mind.

Had no idea what he wsa on about, but checked it out on youtube...pretty cool for its time...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iww6GoXtEng

My thoughts thus far...and the research it spurred

I think if we are going to attempt to delve into a surreal world for this film, we need to embrace universal symbols so that our audience doesn't go..."what the F*$K!!!". I know that we are trying to stay clear from cleches, (is that how you spell it?) and to a point I completely agree, but after writing the treatment we don't want to go shootin ourselves in the foot...and completly losing our audience.

So I began thinking about the main crux of this story and I feel it is basically, a girl feels abandoned from her one true love, therefore hides away from the world feeling worthless...but eventually finds her self again through finding a new love. So she has completed a cycle in a way, and has had to change her way of thinking and therefore goes through a kind of rediscovery, major change in life i.e a metamorphosis. The universal symbol for this used throughout art and across many cultures is the butterfly...So for starters here is some info I have found from various sources on butterfly. Please note the bold type...

Scientific research has shown that the butterfly is the only living being capable of changing entirely its genetic structure during the process of transformation: the caterpillar's DNA is totally different from the butterfly's. Thus, it is the symbol of total transformation. Butterfly represents a need for change and greater freedom, and at the same time it represents courage: one requires courage to carry out the changes necessary in the process of growth. Its Medicine is related to the air and the mental powers. It teaches us to find clarity in the mental processes, to organize projects or to figure out the next step in our internal growth. If Butterfly is your Power Animal or if you feel in any way attracted to it, this means you are ready to undergo some kind of transformation. Examine which stage calls your attention the most: the egg is the beginning, the birth of some project or idea. The larva is de decision to manifest something in the physical world. The cocoon has to do with "going inside", either through insight or the development of the project or idea. The breaking of the cocoon deals with sharing the splendor of your creation with the whole world. Once you understand the stage you are on, you can discover which is the next step.

This is found at http://www.crystalinks.com/totemanimals.html

There is also a greek/roman myth of Psyche and Eros which the more I think about it, the more I feel our story could be considered a modern adaptation of it also! Basically Psyche endeavours to Psyche's symbol is the butterfly - a glowing reminder of her miraculous transformation from mortal to immortal...from lonely princess to fullblown savior, aswell.
You can find a retelling of this myth by Dr. C. George Boeree here and some interesting side notes on butterflies.

So in concluding on the Butterfly theory...I am suggesting we have the important moment where she decides to reply to the other person a butterfly as it will suggest that she is starting to consider a change in her current lonely life. So I have amended my treatment with this information in mind.

More on symbology - Flowers

Here is where i got idea of the forget me not as flowers...thought the plant should have some relevance or symbolic meaning also...we could probably even use a rose etc...but thought you might want something not cleche. But have a look and see what you think

Modern uses and general characteristics of Forget Me Not found here.

The use of colour in our film & more on music

I watched a Danish film tonight called Dark Horse by Dagur Kári. It is shot in black and White except for one maybe 7 second part where the protaganist looks at his girlfriend in new light right near the end. It suggested he is finally ready for her in his life etc etc....and it just made such an impact.

So I got to thinking, if we slowly introduced colour scene by scene to suggest she is reconnecting with her self and ready for life and reality, would it be just as impactful or should we leave it in B&W also except for the heart beats and the last scene where the boy and girl worlds are united???

I think perhaps, the only way to really see what would work best is an animatic...let me know what you think though?

I also loved the typography and design of the DVD cover and titles for this film too...work really really well for an animation of our thematic content.

Thinking more on music

Dirty three - Cinder album - I think we should aim for these sort of sounds/music for our film

Synopsis and Treatment

SYNOPSIS

A GIRL has been living in limbo for a few years, since the love of her life left to go discover what his purpose in life is without her. She is waiting for some sort of communication from him, but as each day goes by nothing arrives. She gets more lost within herself, shying away from the rest of the world, hiding within her studio apartment; the only thread of connection to the outside world is a clothesline.

My TREATMENT...well more like a script towards the end...

Every thing is in B&W. There is a GIRL sitting in her underwear and ugg boots on the balcony of her studio, writing what looks like a love letter.

The scene is empty and grey apart from an empty pot, the painting left by her ex love, her pet goldfish in a bowl, the notepad and pen she writes with the balcony rail and a clothes line that goes off into the distance. N.B. This is symbolising that she feels she has nothing in her life…apart from the one thing she loves and trusts = her fish, the painting which is the only connection she has to the ex love and just a suggestion of where she lives.

She is endeavouring to make contact with her lost love. This has become a daily ritual cause she feels lost without him, wake up - look at his photo her heart beats hard with pulses of blue symbolising her sadness. N.B this is the only time that colour appears throughout the entire film until the end. She then goes to sit on the balcony and writes a letter, poem or a demand asking for him to return to her - the letter then folds itself into a paper aeroplane and then she lets it go out into the abyss around her; As gravity doesn’t exist in her world, the letters float off in all directions. She then walks a few steps away from the balcony rail and crawls up on the floor. She completes this ritual a few times for the audience.

On the third day she is out on the balcony struggling to write a letter, and as she looks up from the pad to search for the right words, she notices a letter pinned to the clothesline.

It’s a poem in unfamiliar handwriting…

I am still; so quietly still

A small hum resonates in the shadow’s long dark shadows that corrupt me as I lay waiting, watching the curtain drift toward me breathing lightly a gentle caress, then nothing. I awaken and my flesh is a hologram
I push it away and am floating.

I am still; so quietly still

This affects the Girl, but her emotion turns to humiliation as she scrunches the letter up and throws it over her shoulder over the balcony. A pause and the same scrunched up letter comes from in front of her and bounces off her head. She opens it up revealing a new message has been scrawled along the bottom of the page…Please stay in touch with me. Her heart starts beating again but this time its purple as she examines the letter. She hesitates but eventually writes a reply “Who ever you are, leave me alone. ” She then scrunches it back up and throws it over the edge. This time though the letter folds into a butterfly and flutters over to the clothes line and settles. The girl watches, slightly amazed, the letterfly as it slowly journeys on the clothes line into the horizon. As she turns around and walks away from the balcony, we notice a table slowly fades into the scene. N.B. this is both a prepositioning of a change that’s to come and a symbol of the girl beginning to reconnect with her life/reality.

Girl gets up, stops to looks at the photo, blue heart beats, as she makes her way out to the balcony to continue her daily ritual, she starts writing her letter. The squeaking of the clothesline as it delivers a letter, distracts her from her own writings. She just watches it for a moment until it stops right at the end. She slowly walks over and unpegs it cautiously “Thank you for responding…I assure you I am not playing games with you. Simple truth is we all need friends. So I ask…will you be mine? Looking forward to your reply!” She does with “Im sorry, but I need to know…who are you?” and then pegs it back onto the clothes line and watches it begin its journey down the line. She turns to go back inside but stops to acknowledge her goldfish as it swims closely by sort of knocking her off balance. She falls into the table, and looks at it as if seeing an old friend. She dusts off the chair and takes a seat beginning to doodle lovely things in her notepad i.e bed or wardrobe and we see them appear in her studio aparment, her heart beats with purple. She then catches a glimpse of the ex love painting; the beats stop for a moment and then restart, they are a faint blue. She gets up and walks away from the balcony to crawl up to go to sleep in the bed. The audience notices that her letter has been blown off the line.

Girl gets up, stretches and then remembers…she wanders if there is a letter waiting. She moves quicker out to the balcony, straight past the ex love painting. Its windy she pulls her cardigan tighter and squints to see if a letter is coming…there is nothing. She looks disappointed for a moment, but then recomposes herself as if she expected it. The new furniture begins to fade as she walks back to the bed.

Vignette of images – Girl writing letters, overlapped with sessions at the photo frame of the painting, overlapped with written poems/letters, overlapped with girl crawling up to sleep and then getting up robotic like.

Girl gets up, ponders over painting, blue heart beats, walks out to balcony, all the furniture is gone again. She begins writing. The clothesline squeaks, she ignores it at first and puts her head down to concentrate on writing. The squeaking gets louder as if its struggling. She looks up there is a packet. She walks over, unpegs it and examines. “Plant me” She looks around and see’s empty pot, opens the packet and pours the seeds into her hand. The pot eyes off the seeds and eats them up. A pause…a plant begins to grow. There is a message on the leaves “you will always stay just one heart beat away.” The plants grows up towards her face and carress’ it. The girls heart begins to beat a magenta pink colour. She turns to look for her notepad and we see the balcony table reappear as she reaches for the pad and scribbles something down and pegs it too the clothesline. The plant is drawing what looks like a door way and then its realised. The girl joins in drawing a window, and some more plants on the balcony, behind her we see the cityscape vaguely appear behind her – to suggest she is willing to get back into reality.

All of a sudden there is bangin at the front door, letters start to spew in through the mailbox, she picks one up. Its from her ex – the plant is trying to pull her back to the balcony, but the girl rips the letter open…

…speaking of friends; i should mention what you already
know…

The girl drops the letter to the floor. The door keeps banging and the letters are still flowing - some of them re-enact memories of that relationship. The girl grabs the lounge chair and puts it in front of the door to stop the letters…the banging doesn’t stop, but gets harder. She bolts up the door…the banging gets even harder the plant is still trying to get her to come out to the balcony, the girl follows the plant. Some letters slip through…then the door bursts down. Letters are getting blown everywhere, then scissors fly in chopping them up. They try to chop the plant but the girl distracts them, she is too late for the clothesline though, a pair of scissors cuts the line. The girl dives to grab the line before its gone forever…she just gets her finger tips on it. Mayhem is still going on in her studio, but the plant has stopped any of it from coming in close proximity to the girl as she pulls on the line. Everything begins to shake. BANG! There is a collision, colour bursts everywhere… Everything is suspended and silent…we see two sets of hands on the line. We then notice the other building and its male owner. The plant grows over onto the other building and begins blooming with forget-me-nots the flower of true love.

A letter falls it’s the letter the girl scribbled before mayhem hit…they both reach up to grab it. As the boys hand touches the girls, colour spreads into her world. She pulls away coyly, and he grabs the letter..it reads.

Whoever you are, my love, I can feel myself slowly being sewn to your side…

Easter Break & Wk 4: Update

Whoa Nelly...have we gotten the creative bug or what! I think it is fair to say we were all frustrated and anxious of the fact that we had not started this film...aghh...maybe cause...WE HAD NO CONCEPT!!! Anything we had was sort of shot down by the powers to be...a few more meetings and still no resolution...But then...

Easter Break get together:-

This meeting seen us get together and fully nut out 2 stories...

1. Grand Canon Pa


2. Love Letters

By the end of this meeting we had pretty vague ideas about Love Letters. Caryn's concern was that it would be too lovey dovey and people would shy away from it.

Grand Canon Par seemed to have more obvious story line, character animation that could be evenly split up between the group and an evident production process, which Caryn was attracted to. Damien and I though felt it was just another narrative with a twist, too many cleche's were coming forward and it didn't have that shamanistic element to it that we were both trying to achieve. We both knew we would rather work on Love Letters....but didn't know how or why.

So we decided to all go way to write a treatment on each concept. A few days later, Caryn emailed us with the concept that instead of the girl resolving a relationship with another person, what if it was her rediscovering herself and she was looking in a mirror...this would be a valid reason as to why she was in a surreal environment.

An other, non story related issue arose:- Who's in the group? This was becoming a stress pot for some of us in the group - who we would be willing to work with and who we couldnt/wouldn't work with.

Week 4:-

On the Monday back...a few more ideas were thrown around. Damien had found an image of this girl on a balcony and felt this could be a good starting point for our love letter story. By the time we were attending Animation Business and Policy on Wednesday, it seemed fairly obvious that the story that was stuck in all our minds now was the Love letters one...but by now Damien has renamed it Down the line.

Side note - Im still amazed at how many creative ideas i was able to pull out during such an analytical subject...

I suggested:-

• use colour to differentiate the characters mood throughout the story...i.e. start in complete black and white...with each step she takes in rediscovering herself, a little more colour is introduced to the scene.

• in the first scenes dont have many objects in the scene - just her, a loved object ie plant, the significant object, the balcony rail and clothes line. This is to suggest she feels she has almost nothing in her life or that she believes at this point she is completly alone.

• As the movie progresses, have things slowly reintroduced to teh scene...i.e. cityscape to realise she isn't alone, unit objects - bed. Damien suggested, we could reintroduce the paper/letter subltly with this where she is concious of the rediscovery so she draws what she wants on the paper - love this idea.

• when character is near object of that significant other, the only thing colourful in that scene was her red beating heart...later Caryn suggested, why don't we make it blue to really drive home that sense of depression...and it too could morph colour by the end to Red to suggest she has found passion in life again - great idea aswell.

• Clothes line goes to infinity and then in the end she grabs it and reels it in until 2 building collide - damiens idea...a bit corny, but has great imagery associated with it so would probably really work.

In this session of meeting it was also ascertained who was in the group:-

Groupies are Caryn "cool nut" Girardi, Damien "Harvey" Wong and myself.

We also started designing our main character and nutting out what kind of environment would she be in.

Environment:- We like the idea of a European, bohemian studio apartment. The studio idea, also strengthens the impression that she is trapped or imprisoned somewhere, loneliness. She would be in a well built up sort of city area, cause she's a 20 something and again, the city is a stereotype for lonliness etc.

Character:- Female as they tend to be more in touch with emotion. And can come up with a more stylised apartment for a girlrather than a guy.

I was suggesting we try and push her stylistically as Craig is in my head saying " Realism can't be done..." And we all know what he means. So I found this post card and thought we could use this as inspiration...

You can see a whole bunch more of these girls at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5082288

Group mission statement - something like Pixar.

Group Aim - to complete a final film that is very original, stands out from the rest but ultimately really means something to us all and hopefully to our audience.

Conclusion: So from here we are writing another treatment...well as far as I know, Im the only one writing a treatment, Damien is designing characters, and Caryn is researching.