Rough schedule

This is a plan of action I have created in order to keep my group organised (hopefully)!

Task Date completed by Completed by who? Role description Week 2 - 11th April All members Rough storyboard Beginning of week 2 All members Treatment - Visual End of week 2 Dan Treatment - Sound End of week 2 Matt Images of locations Week 2 - 13th April Charlotte Description of characters  End of week 2 Lucy Ideas for costumes/props End of week 2 All members Initial ideas presentation Week 2 - 13th All members Examples of short films involving toys End of week 2 All members Final storyboard Week 2 - 13th Charlotte Risk asessment Week 3 Charlotte Check permissions (if needed) Week 3 Charlotte Risk asessment check by tutor Week 3 Charlotte Hopefully we wll stick to this and get everything done on time!

"Interpretation" movie research.

The idea of our film project is to interperate a script that has been given to us. To see how this has been done in the past, I am going to look at some films that have been interpreated over the years.

Example 1 - Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

The first movie to be released was a 1971 musical adaptation of the novel created in 1964 by Roald Dahl.

The novel was titled "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" but the film took a little twist and named it "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". To me this is a bit odd as the novel is so well known, it seems almost rude to call it something else.

The first movie was released on 30th June 1971. Here is a trailer showing parts of the movie:

In comparison, the same movie was released again in 2005. However, it was a completely different interpretation altogether. Here is a trailer for that movie :

In both movies, the story line is kept pretty much the same. A poor boy finding the last golden ticket, nobody has ever been in the factory, Oompa loompas, everything is edible as they go in, the weird boat ride, ever lasting gob stoppers etc etc.

Only a few slight details have been changed, the story is still the same, the characters are still the same but some aspects of the film have been changed.


Example 2 - Robin Hood

Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English Folklaw. He is well known for stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. He and his "merry men" go out and do this whilst trying to avoid the Sheriff of Nottingham. Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire is a well known place due to the story of this Folklaw as this is where Robin Hood supposedly lived. Robin Hood has influenced a series of movies, but I have picked out 2 in particular.

Robin Hood Prince of Thieves was released in 1991. This movie concentrated on the traditional story of the battle between the outlaws and the Sheriff of Nottingham and his men. In the process, Robin Hood falls in love with Maid Marion and it is a never ending fight to keep her by his side. Here is the trailer from that movie.



In contrast, in 2010 another Robin Hood movie was released but was more like a prequal than a re-make. This concentrated on the story on how Robin Hood became an outlaw rather than what happened once he was one. Here is the trailer from that movie.

Obviously, this movie still contains a lot of fighting, cos that's what people like! But to say it is an "interprated" film, they are both completely different story wise. Also, I really like the phrase "Rise and rise again, until lambs become lions". Just shows that anyone can become anything they want!

Research

Seeing as our film is going to have a bear as the main character, we found this video that has a bear as the main character!

We really liked the humor behind it, and hope to portray this in our film!

My Role.

For my film project I have taken the role of Director. Even though I am not doing film next year, I still want to really challenge myself and prove I am capable of such a big role.

A director has been defined as: S: (n) film director, director (the person who directs the making of a film)

And: A film director is a person who directs the actors and crew in the making of a film. They control a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, while guiding the technical crew and actors.

To me a Director is the key person to hold the group together, a bit like glue. I think it will be important that I am organised in order to keep everything running smoothly and to allow my group to know what they are doing. People can sometimes get carried away when it comes to assigning roles. I don't want to come across as a complete bossy bitch, but if anyone is lacking, I won't be hesitant in saying something. At the end of the day, the group depend on each other and if one person doesn't make the effort, the whole group suffers!

I am actually really looking forward to this project now :) Got a good script and a nice little group going on!

My blog is gonna be a bit muddled up. Sorry!

Finally encoded my animation after it spent 37 hours rendering! Here is my test video :)

From watching the video I picked up a series of things that needed to be changed. I felt that some aspects of my ride were very bare. So i've added a couple of things in!

A blood splat to the entrance wall.

More spider webs in the spider room

Film - Day 1

Brief: 

In your allocated group of five people and working in a specific production role you should plan, film and
edit the short fiction script allocated to your group.
Roles to take are: Producer, director, camera & lighting, sound design and production and editor.
( if there are 6 in your group then this person should take lighting and camera assistant roles.
Other jobs and roles, not attached specifically to a major role in pre and post production should be divided
amongst the group in an organised way. For example a location researcher, booking equipment, risk
assessment, etc. The producer will need help to complete these tasks and should allocate the jobs in
preproduction as appropriate.

Director - Me!

Producer - Lucy Alexander

Camera & Lighting - Dan Bissill

Sound - 

Production -

Editor - Matthew Bennett

Our Script is Gaze!

1 EXT. STREET. DAY 1
SHE stands there eyes closed. In the midst of the crowd. As the crowds
pass she opens her eyes
SHE

(vo)

There'll come a time when I'll look at the

world and it will look back at me

She is obscured by the crowd
SHE

(vo)

And I won't be there to see it

2 INT. FLAT. DAY 2
The jars of provisions are extremely neat. The magazines are extremely
neat. A shopping list, pinned to the neat noticeboard has been printed
out and neatly cut so as to waste no excess space
SHE

(vo)

I've always been invisible. Had the ability.

My mum had me for a limited time only

3 INT. OFFICE. DAY 3
She walks paper under her arm and delicately places them on a
colleague's desk. The colleague is talking on the phone and doesn't
acknowledge her presence
SHE

(vo)

And if I shouted she could sometimes hear me

4 INT. LOUNGE. DAY 4
The stereo is playing. We can see the volume has been turned down to
zero
SHE

(vo)

But of course she couldn't

5 EXT. PARK. DAY 5
The empty swing gently moves back and forth
SHE

(vo)

If you let me creep up on you

6 INT. KITCHEN. DAY 6
The glass of water slowly empties
SHE

(vo)

I can make you disappear too

7 EXT. STREET. DAY 7
She stands in the street, staring at us.
SHE

I could just tell you some things. Things you

don't want to hear. Things no one should have

to hear

A passer-by temporarily obscures her. She now closes her eyes
SHE

(vo)

But it can't be your fault

A tear runs down her cheek
SHE

(vo)

I am invisible you see. And now I am gone

THE END

So, who likes my new piercing? :D

Visual essay - the opening page

I think I might be well on the way to creating my layout for the visual essay. I've come up with this intro page. 

There are 2 reasons why I particularly like this:

1. Introduces which pathway I want to take
2. Includes one of my main practitioners

Obviously this is only the intro page, so I need to come up with a main layout that flows through the rest of my website.

Fuck my life.

I actually want to cry.

Animation is almost finished!

Just got to render my animation, which will take 16 hours. Oh god. Soooo happy with the turnout of it :)

Just got to alter a couple of bits n bobs. But this is practically my finished piece! Gonna start finding some sounds and get some cool music :) Yaaaay!

Storyboard!

I missed Friday's seminar because I was poorlyyyy, so I've caught up with the work and made this storyboard :)

I've just included the main things in my ride. There will be little bits n bobs dotted around, but this just shows the key parts of my ride.

Note to self:

Things I need to finish:

• Make a swinging pendulum
• Make a spiders web
• Sort the camera out
• Do the entrance
• Think of a couple more props to dot around
• Flickering lights for some candles/chandelier

Got quite a bit to do but I'm almost there! :D Hurrah!

Almost there!

Added some trees and some creepy lookin' fog. Added 2 main lights. One to illuminate the clown face to make it stand out and one that lights up infront of the cart to create shadows as it goes past props. 

This shows how I've added the fog. Had to get Roma's help but I played around with it until I was happy with the effect :)

This is just to show off my trees. 

The 2 ghosts on my roof are just pictures! I wanted a simpler way of modelling props and was told to do it this way. The next image shows how I did it.

The 2 planes have opacity maps that allows the images to be shown and the rest to be see through.

This is a view of my grave yard on the roof along with my scary trees and my lighting! All the shadows help to add to the spooky effect!

This is a splat of slime I had added on the floor. There are also drops of slime that drop from the roof as the cart goes past it. 

These are 3 spiders I have made that drop from the roof. This is my second scare scene of the ride and with the lighting (top left) the shadows really do look pretty creepy! Eww spiders!

A shadow monster that I have created has been made the same way as my ghosts further up. I really like how it's all dark and mysterious. You don't really know what it is as it approaches which adds to the scary effect.

This just shows how my shadow monster looks! 

Overall I am really pleased with my progress. I'm just starting to get the hang of using 3Ds Max and I'm actually sad it's nearly the end of Animation! I've loved this project and feel that I have learnt an awful lot about the software :)

Weeee, more work!

Made it so the tunnel looks as if it's gonna lead into the clown's mouth. The last thing someone wants to do is get eaten by a big scary clown! I also got rid of the tunnel and made a new one. The last one wasn't exactly big enough to fit the cart through.

For the part where my cart spirals up to the upper level, I have made a giant spider! I want to make some little ones drop from the ceiling to be part pof my scare scene, but big spiders always scare people just as they are! I didn't want to over complicate my props, so i've only made a simple spider. Think this is the best I'm gonna get it!

Oops! Forgot to post this!

I was meant to post this ages ago, but completely forgot to do it :( Anyways, here are my cart designs!

I decided to go with my clown design as it goes with the "Nightmares" theme the most :)

More work updates

Just a quick update on my work that I'm slowly progressing with!

Managed to finish my cart :) I think it's pretty cool! Added some arms to the side of it and a bit of stereotypical clown make up.

For a particular scare scene, I've enlarged my clown face from my cart and used it to overlook the rider on the upper floor. The idea of the rider looking up to something scary adds to the effect of the ride, it's kind of like "ahhh shit, there's a massive scary clown above me" sort of thing. Also i've added a texture to the floor of the upper level. I chose a dead grass effect as I want to create an outdoor feel to the upper level. I want to include a graveyard and some scary looking trees to it. 

My first scare scene featuring the orbs from a couple of posts back. I've made the coffin lid open and then as the cart gets to it, a skeleton pops out suddenly. This will hopefully make some riders jump out their skin!

This is my texture for the walls on the lower level of my building. I wanted to create an abandoned building effect and make the walls look really worn out and old. Old buildings are often associated with haunted locations so thought this texture did the trick!

I still need to make loadsssss of props and I think i'm gonna struggle to get it all finished. I still need to:

• Make some trees with scary eyes
• Make some sort of shadow monster
• Make a ghost
• Make a graveyard
• Add lighting
• Add sounds
• Animate all my props
• Adjust the speed of the cart in certain areas

Plus loaadssss more! Hopefully next week I can get more help than what I've been getting so I can actually make my ride look half decent! 3D studio max WILL be the death of me.

Actually cannot wait.

With a bit of help from a second year student, I have found a really good deal on getting my portfolio PUBLISHEDDDDD! It's gonna be live as soon as I've done some more to it, which means getting dreamweaver (again). I am actually really excited and I can't wait until people start looking at it for real :D Hopefully it will be a good way of getting employed!

Updated design for my profile.

Wanted to create the same sort of feel my portfolio will have. Used the same colour scheme and I am just doing a little header for myself :)

Fed up, can't do it, want to go home & eat pancakes.

So today is the second to last seminar with Roma for my Animation project. I am sososososo stuck with everything and I just can't work out how to do stuff :( Gonna try and get loads done on Thursday when I ask Andy for some help. Haa.

Also, I think I need to start focusing on my visual essay. It's only 2 and a bit months before the hand in date and I've hardly done anything! I NEEEED DREAMWEAVER!

Progression with my work

So, after many hours of tackling the hell that is 3Ds max, I have managed to actually create something! Yay!

The view of my track from the front

The view of my track from behind. This shows the upper level on the roof and some of the ground level. Initially, the track was all on one level. But to make it that bit more exciting, I've added an upper level to maximise space I have to use and so I can include more things.

This is a tunnel I have created for my cart to travel through that is situated on the upper level.

The start of some scary clown face for the front of my cart.

 

 A couple of props! 2 floating spiritual orbs and a coffin that will contain something to pop out. The lid opens on approach to it.

So far, I am happy with my progress. But, it does seem that I have a lot to do in such a little amount of time. And to make it worse, we finish Animation in 2 weeks so i'll be practically on my own. Great.

Been doodlin'

To come up with some ideas for props, my cart and the entrance, I have been drawing some images of things to do with my theme. Kind of like a moodboard, but more organised. Haha. Anyways, here are my pics. Hope they give me some inspiration!

Nightmares Moodboard

Moodboard on my final theme.

Brainstorm.

I've been struggling to come up with ideas for a theme for my ride. I have produced this brainstorm to give me some inspiration:

I've decided to go with the 'Nightmares' idea as I feel I will be able to incorporate a lot of things. Also I think it will be the most effective theme because of the vast majority of things I can include.

To start my ideas flowing, I asked my lovely facebook friends to give me ideas as to what they're scared of or what they have dreamt about that is weird/bizzare. Some of the popular things people said included:

• Clowns
• Moths
• The feeling of falling or being chased
• Darkness
• Spiders
• Snakes

I will try and incorporate as many of these ideas into my  ride. As they are the most popular things that people said, including them into my ride will help to scare as many people as possible.