Showing posts with label Retrofest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Retrofest. Show all posts

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Artistic stylisation

For this project we need to fit the visuals to a dark yet innocent style of approach to the animation. To do this we first need real evidence of visual reference, as it would be foolish to create these images that we have seemingly started without any inspirational solid background.

Here are a few Cartoons which I think work within the realms of imagery that we should be working within.


  • Dark:
  1. Ren and Stimpy


This rather dark Cartoon was once a main feature on Cartoon Network. Somehow it's sinister undertone was overlooked and it was classed as a daytime children's TV show. I find it amusing but it is full of disturbing undertones and imagery. The character design in this is simplistic, over exaggerated and their colour schemes are more evil, primal an in appearanc. You could easily make these characters become evil henchmen 

Here is an image of the toilet in which the little girl hides

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Evil School Girl concept

Here is the design for the demonic "side" to the School Girl featured within the trailer "High School Revenge".


Freemind Animations






These designs were a combination of two characters from the big screen.

  • Rhoda Penmark from "The Bad Seed". This character is an evil young twisted lady who always gets her own way with a dark, violent outcome.




  • Violet from "The Impossibles"

This is a good character with no links to the evil school girl within our animation at all however stylistically it shows a design style that we are fond on following.







Thursday, 20 October 2011

High School Revenge - Final Synopsis

The film follows a girl who suffers from the hands of malicious bullying, which gets to her and torments her life. She is innocent and shy, keeps herself to herself and doesn't put out any confidence. It is easy to see a change in someone like this, especially when this change comes from a source of ones own inner frustrations that surface to life quickly and in a physical manifestation.

One day the girl Melissa runs to the toilet crying, helpless to herself and broken down. She looks at her own image in the mirror before her, feels a strong surge of self dislike and bows her head in sadness. As she looks away however, we see her reflection still looking back at her, full of rage and anguish. The light flickers, the room goes dark and we hear a scream.

The next day a few of the bullies that victimise Melissa have gone missing, the teachers are concerned so the police are called. A Detective comes to the School to investigate the incident, where he comes to find that nobody knows anything of where these girls have gone.

One R.E lesson, a teacher notices the usually frail and quiet Melissa sat there at the front, drawing in her work book. What he comes to find is these images are not of what he would expect to see, they are demonic images suggestive to the disappearance of the girls that the detective is trying to discover. Melissa has an attitude which doesn't match her usual self, so he knows there is something seriously different about her. He lets it pass with somewhat a mindful concern to keep his eye on her in worry that she may be at harm.

One afternoon the teacher discovers Melissa standing behind a girl at the top of a flight of stairs. Using some unknown force she pushes the girl down the stairs. The teacher is both scared and stunned, he now knows who is causing the problems within the School. He decides that due to the paranormal aspect of what he witnessed and the dark images that he saw within the girls book that the only way to deal with this situation is by calling on the services of a Priest.

They get Melissa to be interviewed by the Priest and the Detective after the Teacher tells them everything that he has witnessed. The Priest reads Melissa's book and discovers the pictures suggestive to the incidents in the School and the fact that this is not who it seems to be sitting in front of them. The Detective decides to stay with the Girl and hold her in custody, while the Priest and the teacher go to the place that her picture suggests. They go to enter the Janitors closet in which the picture depicts Melissa to be and as they do the light starts subtly flickering in the corridor. As they open the door and discover Melissa to be curled up in the closet, we see the camera pan around and the lights flicker once again to reveal the evil girl to be standing behind them.

Freemind Animations

High School Revenge - Evil Girl

We have been sat down discussing a final story for the project, where we have decided that the girls possession is actually a force coming into the School, which is a result of her angst towards the bullies. The girl is locked away somewhere in the School and later in the film the only way to stop the problems is by rescuing her. Here is a perfect video that shows a way we could depict the moment that shows the girls "dark side" kicking in.




Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Artistic stylisation

For this project we need to fit the visuals to a dark yet innocent style of approach to the animation. To do this we first need real evidence of visual reference, as it would be foolish to create these images that we have seemingly started without any inspirational solid background.

Here are a few Cartoons which I think work within the realms of imagery that we should be working within.


  • Dark and innocent characters within Cartoons
  1. Ren and Stimpy


This rather dark Cartoon was once a main feature on Cartoon Network. Somehow it's sinister undertone was overlooked and it was classed as a daytime children's TV show. I find it amusing but it is full of disturbing undertones and imagery. The character design in this is simplistic and over exaggerated. Their colour schemes are more evil, primal and use the less is more approach in appearance. You could easily make these characters become evil sidekicks in another show and they would still fit their purpose. They are funny, yet dark and your not able to take them too seriously. That is how the characters seemingly get away with also being loveable amongst their many controversial doings.

     2. Sleeping Beauty




Although full of heroism and fairies, I find the imagery used within Sleeping Beauty to be classically dark. The theme is of a pretty blackened nature too, a young girl cursed to die on her 16th birthday by the evil Witch Maleficant. It sticks close to anatomical likeness to the real world, however uses fine lines and shapes to emphasis the character and their personality. The more a character is a sidekick to another character the more indirect to realism they are, or the more a character is of a supernatural background the more they have exaggerated features.

     3. Salad fingers



This Cartoon is the optimum of installing unstable emotional responses into the audience by delivering an unorthodox approach to the characters depiction. He is almost like a stranded survivor on a lost world, reminiscing of a life he has long been separated from and as a result has twisted personal and social skills. The introverted nature of this show can make the audience feel very uncomfortable and it opens up humour or darkness by making the familiar become uncanny and threatening.

        4. THE BFG



Although this film is about a big friendly giant, the actual storyline and vast majority of the scenes are set in somewhat dark, intimidating environments. The fact we come to terms with a young girl being taken away from her bed at night is strong enough to be disturbing in itself, however then we come to find the captor is a Giant from another realm that travels to Earth every night to deliver dreams to people. Although you feel safe with the Giant it's humble character covers up well for a scary undertone that is socially and morally questionable. We see other Giants in this film, all of which are evil, scary and intimidating especially considering this is a Children's film. Each of these Giants have over exaggerated features to make them stand out and perform their character's identity to the best that it can. It uses many dull colours for the darker characters and questionably dark scenes. The human characters are a step away from being realistic, still keeping to the slightly strange world of fantasy and keeping it's innocence noticeable. There are also elements to suggest a very dream like state of depiction throughout the movie, which leaves you in a sense of awe and fulfilled attention.


  • Cartoon styles within the 1950's
During the 1950's and 60's it was rare a Cartoon would be based on a female character, or include one for that matter. The approach to visual depiction was usually more aimed towards realism with a slight attention aimed away from a perfect image to being more about the shapes built to represent a character to its best while still at its most simplistic.

  1. Top Cat
  2. Snagglepuss
  3. Huckleberry Hound
  4. Fred Flintstone
  5. Tom and Jerry
All have a very similar style drawing wise, plus a similar feel when it comes to portraying the characters humour to the audience.

Chris

    Wednesday, 12 October 2011

    Character Design ideas for the Telekinetic School Girl (Chris)

    I have started drawing up sketches of what a teenage school girl with dark abilities might look like. I have used some references to assist my drawings, to get further ideas for what works for this sort of characters visual appearance and what could create the uncanny effect of a corrupt innocence.


    Until we gather together a full complete story the job of designing properly is hard. Fortunately a full Synopsis is due to be posted up the evening of this post, gathering together the different group ideas to make one collaborated story merging the different key ideas that work.


    I originally had been told by my team mates that the characters shall have exaggerated features and the stylisation will be almost sketchy in appearance. My first impressions was to create the girl to be small and cute, then after a while refraining from the supremely cartoony depiction.


    Whilst still not of the world of realism, I had tried to gather together an image of a girl who appeared a bit sterner, colder, harder to approach yet still somewhat a victim to her own inverted emotions. 



    After a brief talk with Justin the Character Design tutor, he told me to simplify the Character once again back down into its basic roots and by the power of simple shapes design the exaggerations with obvious intent. This is where the best Character so far actually has emerged, to my opinion.


    After observing the Synopsis and finalising the script I will have now got myself into the mindset to work hard at conceptual drawings and the animations theme.

    Chris

    The link between the paranormal and adolescence (Chris)

    There has always been a strong link between the wild energy of a child to the unknown forces of the paranormal world. This is because it is said that the child's innocence actually reflects the lack of social interruption to the purity of a persons soul, therefore the individual is still more tuned to the spirit world. It is also to note that Children are relatively more imaginative than that of an adult, they see the world in a different way, perceive things to be magical or intriguing which as an adult the mind will find easy to comprehend. This leaves room for a perception on the world that most adults find difficult to grasp, thus making reality closer to that of a dream world, which is linked as a closeness to the spirit world itself. Meditative states are said to bring one close to ones own id, their guardian angel, or their spirit guide. This being said, when a Child is immersed in the tense hold of adolescence at the start of their path to adulthood they will still have the general mindset of a child, therefore being theoretically still connected to their own sixth sense and potentially able to unwillingly seduce the energy around them to create certain paranormal happenings.

    • Poltergeist's

    "The word Poltergeist is German for 'Noisy Spirit' and this particular phenomenon has been recorded for many years. This is probably the most destructive and terrifying of all paranormal activity. British paranormal investigator, Harry Price didn't hold back his objectives. Price stated that poltergeist can be cruel and spiteful. He also stated ghosts seem to haunt where poltergeists infest. There is a possibility that the haunting phenomenon and the poltergeist phenomenon may not be related, however, there does not seem to be enough scientific evidence for such a theory. Some scientific establishments refer to poltergeist activity as being caused by a suppression of sexual energy which is often found in
    adolescents."

    unknown. (Unknown). Poltergeist:Strange and Paranormal activity. Available: http://strangegr.tripod.com/strangeandparanormalactivities/id32.html. Last accessed 02/10/2011.



    Image found at this link: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=poltergeist&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1680&bih=864&tbm=isch&tbnid=qhG6HkDDvZjsVM:&imgrefurl=http://www.zurichmansion.org/ghosts/video1.html&docid=3VSNlZQGWkWfgM&w=642&h=469&ei=I_OSTtO1JdDKsgbVt5H9Dw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=312&page=1&tbnh=140&tbnw=187&start=0&ndsp=32&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0&tx=135&ty=78

    There is of course a film we all know based on this subject entitled "Poltergeist". In the film, we see a young Girl becoming possessed by the spirit of a demonic force which takes hostage to the house and inhabitants of the building it dwells within.

    Movies Poltergeist

    (Pictured above, the tragic child actor Heather Michele O'Rourke, who plays the character of the possessed innocent little blonde girl Carol Anne Freeling.) Link: http://free-extras.com/images/movies_poltergeist-11257.htm

    Usually it is often found that little girls are the more likely to be more sensitive to the paranormal than boys of the same age. Therefore it is usually found that young girls are more uncanny, their intact innocence and uncompetitive, pre-social self destruction is yet to come of reality. Perhaps this is because males tend to be more corrupt to social pressures and more sensitive to upholding their real world surroundings even at a young age.


    "The book set out to claim that witches did exist, and that they were usually women, who were weaker and easier for the devil to tempt."
    Rachel Bellerby. (Jun 15, 2009). Witchcraft in the middle ages. Available: http://rachel-bellerby.suite101.com/witchcraft-in-the-middle-ages-a125228. Last accessed Jun 15, 2009.
    Of course the other well known story of a child "possession", or demonic ability that the child isn't initially able to realise would be "The Omen". In this film, however, we see the character as a Male child. This however could be due to the fact that Damien, the apparent child of Satan, is of a more direct power to the paranormal itself. It ties into the subject of sexism, where Damien is the "son" from the start, born into the world as an entity of evil and isn't of his nature due to a weakness to the power of the paranormal as he is his own power. This is basically suggesting that the Male phsycic, paranormal figure is more dangerous or dominant to the original context of the power source, that the female is merely seduced by it due to her own weakness as a Woman.

    Damien from the film "The Omen".

    •  Adolescence
    Boys and Girls change physically and mentally at seperate ages, but most prominently during the teenage years. In this period the Human being would undergo changes in strength, size, personality and sexual awareness. It is due to this transitionary stage that many beleive the weakness of a persons physical and personal well being can become supseptible to paranormal effects.


    Carole Sutton (2000). Child and adolescent behaviour problems: a multidisciplinary approach to assessment and intervention. Leicester: British Psychological Society. pg9-320.

    This chart gives some indication to the difference between Male and Female changes within the intense period of puberty. You could imagine how this behavioural pattern could be linked to something dark and distinctively unhomely, as the child's innocent apperance is undergoing real changes and new neurotic brain wave patterns that are most likely disturbed.

    This can easily be assosiated with the apperance of some form of possession, or phsycological angst brought on to the child's behavioural patterns unwillingly. Over time of course these changes develop and settle, maturing the child into the adult and taking them away from the displeasant journey of adolsecence.

    Chris

    Tuesday, 11 October 2011

    Chris new Synopsis idea

    Group Project: Freemind Animations
    Animation title: High School Revenge

    Synopsis:
    This story is based around the issues of a troubled child who in her adolescent years displays paranormal side effects in reaction to her unstable condition. The film starts when a Detective is called into a School in response to reports of a serious number of accounts relating to students being bullied, however it is the teachers themselves who are really seeking the help, as they fail to mention the strange incidents happening to them.
    This somewhat film noir setting shows the Detective witnessing himself caught into a distressing ordeal involving a teacher, leading him to sceptically approach the situation but with a sense of the uncanny at play.
    The Detective questions the troubled teachers who openly admit to the fact something demonic seems to be at the heart of these issues. He then explains about an incident a few months prior to the Detectives arrival when the problems began, which spawns the investigation in a different light.
    A Priest is called in to find the cause of the issue, who comes to find no trace of demonic entities within the School, yet while informing Professor Smart of this embarrassing ordeal he finds a young girl sitting with him crying. Her name is Melanie; she is tormented by her life at School as the other children victimize her on a daily basis. She fears going to School, not only for herself but for the people she has come to hate. She can’t have friends anymore; whatever she tries to get close to always seems to go wrong in some way or another. It is here they find the sinister twist that has become out of Melanie’s control, leading to her eventual last tantrum while being held in Detention.
    The Detective is harmed as it is him who has ordered her restraint, so the only person who can get to Melanie now with the knowledge of her issue is the Priest and Professor Smart who together overcome the unstable projections of Melanie’s subconscious emotive ability.
    Melanie is moved to a peaceful place to live and be taught by those who can relax her, with the addition of physiological drugs to help her maintain her stability.

    Thursday, 29 September 2011

    5 Week Time Table

    Here is the rough time table for the first 5 weeks of the project:

    (click to enlarge)


    Chris

    1950's Horror movie research (Chris)

    The 1950's was an era when the slightest of things would be considered taboo, therefore to a modern audience a lot of "horror" flicks of its day would be considered relatively tame to current eyes. Here are a few of the classic films from its time to see if there is any comparisons to the way in which the genre was approached.

    You will find most of the horror of the 50's was heavily influenced by Science Fiction, often involving aliens, monsters or psychotic killers with some form of power.

    1950's Horror

    Many films were based around a more Science Fictional comic book edge, or tampered with the subject of control, sexism and a lack of control.  There was nearly always the screaming blond shrieking blood into the ears of the audience while her hero goes out of his way to save her at the right time. It was a way to show how Women were seen as weak, that Men were superior and therefore they could uphold this social image. There was usually a clever way of hiding the villain, and even during their menacing acts they would be hidden away from the main screen as to observe something as controversial as a death was unheard of in its day. This also helped to create an air of mystery around character's, especially monsters. Visual effects were obviously very primitive in the 50's so any upfront visual would usually be cheap, or not very convincing.

    The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)



    An alien (Klaatu) with his mighty robot (Gort) land their spacecraft on Cold War-era Earth just after the end of World War II. They bring an important message to the planet that Klaatu wishes to tell to representatives of all nations. However, communication turns out to be difficult, so, after learning something about the natives, Klaatu decides on an alternative approach.

    Unknown. (Unknown). The Day the Earth Stood Still. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043456/. Last accessed 29/09/2011.

    The War of the Worlds (1953)



    H.G. Well's classic novel is brought to life is this tale of alien invasion. The residents of a small town in California are excited when a flaming meteor lands in the hills. Their joy is tempered somewhat when they discover that it has passengers who are not very friendly. The movie itself is understood better when you consider that it was made at the height of the Cold War--just replace Martian with Russian....

    Unknown. (Unknown). The War of the Worlds. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046534/. Last accessed 29/09/2011
    The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)



    A scientific expedition searching for fossils along the Amazon River discover a prehistoric Gill-Man in the legendary Black Lagoon. The explorers capture the mysterious creature, but it breaks free. The Gill-Man returns to kidnap the lovely Kay, fiancée of one of the expedition, with whom it has fallen in love.

    Unknown. (Unknown). The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Available:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046876/. Last accessed 29/09/2011

    The She Creature (1956)



    Using hypnosis, Dr. Carlo Lombardi claims that he can have his patients regress and recover memories from their past lives, thereby proving that reincarnation exists. He also claims that the spirit of these past lives can be brought forth to take physical form.. A series of violent murders by a creature that seems to disappear into the sea suggests that Lombardi's claim may be correct. The medical and scientific community believe him to be a complete fraud but one enterprising businessman sees the opportunity to make a small fortune with Lombardi's ability.

    Unknown. (Unknown). The She Creature. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050957/. Last accessed 29/09/2011.

    Video samples:




    This film shows somewhat of a turn table of the taboo subject of Women having any kind of power over Men, this concept in the 50's was enough to frighten any bloke from his Wife! In this film we see the "Devil Girl", an Alien being from the planet Mars, come to Earth to take Men to be breeding stock for her own race. Sexy, but scary!

    The Bad Seed


    This film is based around a little girl named Rhoda Penmark who may seem innocent at first glance but you know theres an uncanny evil lurking inside of her. As the film progresses we see Rhoda's character become caught up in her own crimes and the storyline tenses. It is a story of which is caught up in many similarities to this groups synposis for our own storyline, the concept of a young girl taking her negative emotions out on people through adolescent motives.

    Wednesday, 28 September 2011

    Freemind Animations: Note to Group Members.


    Just to let you all know I believe it is time we got together to discuss this project farther as a full team. If you could find a good time convinient to all of you to meet up then that would be most helpful.We should put what research we have done on the blog (current job) and analyse it, then create a timetable showcasing the things to do over the next few weeks. Once we decide this we should then appoint one another with key jobs (character concepts, script writing, etc) to get the ball rolling faster.

    You will also recieve this message via other forms of mail to ensure you get it.

    See you soon!
    Chris

    Thursday, 22 September 2011

    Synopsis idea (Chris)

    Freemind Animations

    Synopsis idea

    A young girl named X drags herself to School everyday, the path to the gates becoming a dark, swallowing cloud of anxiety and fear. As soon as she steps foot into the grounds, the laughing begins. White teeth gnash around her, words of vile intensity bite into her very soul. The bullying is exhausting.

    You will often find X hidden away in the janitors closet, feeling safe from harms way. Nothing can find her there, she feels peace and unlike with many other things, a control of her surroundings. She flicks on the small light. Its dull, but bright enough to know your not buried alive.

    Again the taunting begins. Tormenting acts of sheer unnecessary violence force themselves upon X as she tries to simply get through a regular School day. Smack, a bloody nose. Shout, a familiar threat.

    The janitors closet becomes lit up again with the eerie glow of the dull light, X is sobbing, bruised and on the edge of suicide. Then comes another light into the already lit room, this one however is brighter and a lot warmer than the glow from the hanging bulb infront of her.

    Before her stands the Devil giving her the chance to have power over those who hurt her. She accepts, and is hugged by the large black wings shrouding her and the light from view.

    X is never the same again, she now can control the bullies who go out to harm her. She builds friends who seem to be possessed, she can control them and make them harm others and even destroy themselves. It's when the corridors flicker and we find the main bullies being targeted and brutally murdered one by one through X's power of the mind only.

    Its always the quiet ones.

    Chris

    Monday, 19 September 2011

    Few short story ideas for the trailer (Chris)

    The Space School: A 1950's style Science Fiction Horror B-Movie about a robot caretaker who decides to take its revenge on the teacher who drops litter everywhere over a School based in Space. Comical implications by the use of cheesy "B-Movie" type narrations and visuals, with a dark atmosphere submerging the story towards a more chilling "horror" style genre (but due to being outdated, obviously failing...)

    The Bully killer: A Ghost of a young girl lurks the corridors in search for those who bullied her to her death. Using a lot of indirect visuals to atmospheric and creepy effect, this scary setting becomes a dead end story typical to that of cheep budgets used by B-Movie makers back in the 1950's era. Thus setting the scene for a lot of cringe-worthy "Ed Wood" moments.

    Peeping Tom: A dark tale based on a Male School cleaner who works at an all Girls School who has managed to get away with pedophilia, or so he thinks. One night when cleaning things seem to mysteriously start becoming messy straight away again. Little does "Tom" know a dark shadow of a little girl with pigtails and a long, sharp knife, is playing a deadly game...   

    Brief introduction to our project (Chris)

    For our first brief, we have been given the challenge of creating a small, animated 1 minute 30 second "B-Movie" style trailer.

    This team is comprised of:
    • Matt
    • Dave
    • Chris
    Together we are, well, we don't have a company title yet! Our first challenges are to create company logo's and research on High School "Horror" flicks in general. Any ideas for story lines that are conceived shall be placed on our blogs to then collectively discuss at a later date.

    Here are a few  films which jump to mind when on the subject of High School films which somewhat involve revenge or a reaction of a character.Here are a few of the films I remembered earlier in our group discussion:

    • "The Nutty Professor" (1963)


    This film shows a shy, geeky and desperate College Professor named Julius Kelp transform himself into the local adolescent heart throb "Buddy Love". This alter ego takes over his life, helps him to pursue his deepest desires for popularity which in turn leads to him craving his own personality back due to a shift in self understanding. It's full of funny, touching and  meaningful suggestions which help the audience to feel positive about who they really are.

    • Scary Movie (2000)


    This film is based upon a group of American High School Teenagers who face a masked killer stalking them down one by one in revenge of an accidental murder they caused a year previous. Although its full of comical moments, this film has its fair share of blood and gore suitable for churning any non-sadistic stomach. The way in which it pushes and pulls the audiences anxiety levels as to what happens next is well done and really reflects the attitudes of adolescent behaviour.

    We have already decided that due to the nature of our projects title, it should follow a more serious approach in both storyline and artistic direction.

    Of course we must remember that in the 1950's era of film-making what we consider as gory today wouldn't of been heard of back then. The violence needs to be presented in to what the modern audience would perceive as an almost comical fashion in comparison to a modern horror film.

    Chris

    "Team H" Team name ideas.

    As everything relating to the group project so far as been under a working title, I have decided to plot down a few ideas of my own that could be useful for a name. A good name is what gets your company noticed, sticks in peoples minds and should be original enough to get easy hits on search engines. Here are a few of my ideas:


    • The H-Team (Spoof title made in class)
    • Hands on Animations
    • Timescale Animations
    • Frame by Frame Animations
    • Pixplosion (It makes sense to me!)
    • New Blood Designs
    • Recharged
    • Primeval Designs (Just sounds cool!)
    • The Toon Wagon! (As were not making Cartoons, I doubt it would work, but it definitely made me chuckle!)
    • Freemind Productions
    • Zen Animations
    • The Resurrection
    • Second Coming Animations (Yup, a cheesy comparison of my group to a Messiah himself!)
    Any ideas for cool names, throw them my way! (Especially Dave and Matt!)

    I think we should go with something professional, not too cheesy or distant from the tone of "High School Revenge". Which when you look at my list, doesn't leave much. Its just a few ideas however as im itching to design a logo but cant as we don't have a name yet!

    Chris