In defiance of personal indecision about whether to join a group or pursue a solo project, I have decided to dedicate circa 10% of my time towards contributing visual development and concept art to a group and keeping the remaining 90% to develop something more personal. The group consists of Caity Kerr, Cloe Malard, Adam Bell and Amy Long, however my group work will be recorded in a separate post for clarity’s sake.
Pitch Presentation:
Up to week 3 I had a few ideas I was considering for myself, but from the start the prevailing one was that of a trail camera set in a fantasy realm, observing the environment and its inhabitants through changing seasons. This changed quite drastically, and quickly evolved into a character/environment-focused story about an old, powerful, selfish wizard who while on his deathbed is taken back to a Spring in his youth spent with someone he loved, but can no longer remember.
Here’s a better worded synopsis I used in my presentation:
An old wizard lies on his deathbed. In his last moments, after a long and selfish life, the melody of an old music box affords him an intimate memory seeping with regret and love for a forgotten person.
As a fan of Judy Garland’s, I also recalled a touching and personal poem she wrote entitled ‘My Love is Lost’, which will serve as tonal inspiration:
Here’s my Pinterest board for this project:
Since my interests lie more with visual development, design and storytelling than they do with character animation, this story would be told largely through cinematography and backgrounds, which would change style depending on whether the scene was in the past or the present. The shots in the present would take inspiration from the backgrounds of 101 Dalmatians (1961) with the line work describing forms in absolutes and the hard-edged, graphic style of colouring portraying a sense of stark reality in the context of my film. The scenes in the past would take on an approach based more around watercolour washes inspired by The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013) and the work of post-impressionist artists like Henri-Edmund Cross, with watercolour effects being utilised to convey a sense of transience and emphemerality.
101 Dalmatians (1961):
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013):
Classic Hollywood films like Citizen Kane (1941), Rebecca (1940), and Sunset Boulevard (1950) are prominent references for the wizard’s home, which is lavish and extravagant and shown as being cold, disused and deathly at the start of the film. For the memory a more poetic tone verging on slice of life, as in Garden of Words (2013) and certain scenes in Maurice (1987) would be employed to contrast the reality of the character’s present and enhance the sense of peace and nature.
Music will play a significant role in the story, as the wizard will open a music box and let the melody take him into his reverie.
Rebecca:
Sunset Boulevard:
.jpg?bwg=1547408397)
Citizen Kane:
Early Storyboards:
These storyboards were my first attempt at visualising the narrative I had in my head. They go from the present, with the tour of the Wizard’s palace, into the first part of his memory before the characters are revealed. Visually I was considering the above references while consulting a book on Chatsworth House, which is full of ornamental rooms and grand spaces.
Since cinematography will be a significant factor in the short I have suggested light and shadow to give myself a better sense of the mood. In the present I intend to lean into chiaroscuro lighting, thinking of Film Noir and German Expressionism. In the memory, as mentioned, the tone is lightened and the environments are largely stripped of heavy shadow.
In trying to evoke classic cinema, I chose to go against modern cinematic standards and use 4:3, as I feel it has the potential to further the intended atmosphere.
I liked the idea of setting the memory in a secluded, leafy glade just beyond or within the ruins of an old churchyard once a part of a village that was displaced with the expansion of the palace grounds. That way I could inject some symbolism with the old gravestones marred by time and nature continuing the theme of death and hinting at the character’s narcissism, selfishness and maybe a fear of being forgotten.
Inspiration photos taken in Lisburn Cathedral’s cemetary:
By the time I presented this work in week 3 I had changed the bird that flies into and hops around the environment to lead the viewer’s eye in the memory to a butterfly. I figured the inclusion of a creature obviously beautiful yet ephemeral would work better to conjure ideas of the impermanence of the Wizard’s life and riches. What’s more a butterfly is easier to simplify and hopefully easier to animate than a bird.
Execution and Software:
To make things as easy as possible for myself I will only work in software I have experience with, namely Krita for animation, Clip Studio Paint for my backgrounds, and Procreate for additional design/layout work. Across the last year (when I was on a Leave of Absence from the course) I used CSP and Procreate as my primary software, so I know well enough the work I’m capable of producing in them. Procreate’s assisted drawing feature will also allow me to draw in perspective with immediate accuracy and will speed up my process significantly.
The two pieces below from 2023 and last May respectively were completed in Clip Studio, coloured using the software’s watercolour brushes. They represent the kind of textures and effects I can and want to achieve in this project.
The top piece with the cat sleeping in a cozy bedroom is especially relevant to my goals. The cat is a character I created in first year for a world building assignment. I called her Liza, and she’s a wizard. Beyond the assignment I gave her a girlfriend called Millie:
I’m considering using these characters or a variation on them in my short. I figure animals would garner more sympathy from the audience, helping the story land with more emotional impact and more appeal, but this is TBD.
By way of music I would like to use a real song in the public domain. For now I intend to use a popular song published in 1910 called Let Me Call You Sweetheart. Since the song is so old the recordings of it that exist aren’t especially clean and I fear would not work so well in a cinematic context, which is why I want to use a music box as the vessel for the melody. I would record the melody of its chorus using the music box sample available for free on GarageBand.
Finally, I will edit in Premiere and use After Effects for compositing. I have little experience using After Effects, but all of what I want to use it for seems uncomplicated and there are numerous tutorials that I have saved and will follow to achieve what I need to.