Evalutaion

Although we originally intended to create a podcast for our evaluation, there were some issues that forced us to have a video instead. As the previous version was sound over a black title card we decided to put a few images over the top to keep people more interested. Ideally we wanted to reshoot ourselves speaking to fill in all of the gaps however we didn't have enough time, so here's the best we could do in the time given. Thank you:

Updated verion of Lucy Firr

After noticing some problems with the video, we have edited the video introducing new intro music and a resolved sound issue, enjoy.

New intro music

Our original opening music was so commonly used that we thought that we should use another song, instead of piecing together the sound clips in iMove, we decided to get uncopyrighted music off the internet instead.

Heres the link to our new opening song:

http://www.freeplaymusic.com/index.php

As the website doesn't allow links to direct music, if you type rememberance in the search box the song is called In rememberance 30 (make sure you spell it that way rather than the correct spelling remembrance)

Poster

Evaluation uploading problems

For some reason nothing can upload to the blog so im having to create a video to put to our "podcast" to upload it to youtube, sorry about the wait.
Here it is:

Review

At last Lucy Firr may rest in piece

Ok so after 6 hours of failed uploads, long waits for youtube authorisation and kitkats I have finally got the final video uploaded to youtube :D so here it is... this is...

Lucy Firr: Rest in pieces

Troubles with uploading

Just to let everybody know we are currently trying to upload our completed pieces, we're just having a little trouble with our internet connection speeds and the video keeps being interrupted by a disconnection. I am currently working on this but can guarantee they will be up by 12pm tomorrow.

Thankyou,

Sam

Deadline tomorrow!

It's the deadline tomorrow so everyone will be able to see our Film review, poster and our animation on the blog tomorrow. Me and Sam have been working our asses of to get the final pieces done to our animation and it's really starting to all come together now. We have now been working on our evaluation questions which is being filmed tonight, we are planning to do a commentary over our animation piece this way we can talk about each section of our animation in detail and use direct links to answer the questions to show our audience how and why we done particular things. We are really looking forward to having it all done finally and our feed back from the people who have seen our animation so far have all been positive which has really lifted our spirits on it as we thought we had hit a brick wall at one point but we're really excited to finally show off our hard work. The film review text will be posted later today and then the final piece will be on here either the end of today or tomorrow, hope you enjoy it.
Hannah

Starting on the film review today it's part of one of our ancillary tasks as we have finished our poster which is the other one and that will be uploaded soon we have had some uploading issues as my laptop has broken and gone to be repaired but we will be able to over come that because our media teacher is allowing us to use her laptop to upload our work, we have come to quite a few problems, I think we underestimated the work load needed for this animation and the amount of time
We had to do It but if we really work at it we can get it finished before Easter. I'm really looking forward to finally seeing our finished and hope you enjoy it too.

Hannah

UPDATE: Poem

Just an update of the poem for everybody:

There once was a girl named Lucy Firr

Who never moans, never causes a stir
She lived in an orphanage and that's where she'll stay

The shame is her friends never ask her to play

They just run about their childish deeds

Without a thought or glance as this girl recedes

Into the darkness isolated and alone

While the orphanage owner sits high on her throne

The orphanage owner is horrible and fat

Lucy's only true friend is the orphanage cat

He pays her attention he'll let her come play

And in turn for his comfort she allows him to stay

High up in the orphanage inside a small room

Lucy and the cat will play in the gloom

Rather than games such as hide and seek

Lucy would rather play torture the weak

She scares the children with spiders through floors

And howling loudly at night throwing novels at doors

The orphanage children who are frozen with fright

Lie aware of the things that go bump in the night

One morning when Lucy lie awake in her bed

Sudden thoughts rushed through her and filled her with dread

A memory? A dream? A nightmare perhaps?

Whatever it was had caused her to collapse

When she next awoke she was surrounded by black

And when footsteps approached she was forced to step back

Impaired by the darkness leaving her blind

As she reached on wary of what she might find

In a desperate attempt Lucy grasped at the door

But found a soft comfort that she'd felt before

When she opened her eyes she felt like a prat

As she gazed up aware of the orphanage cat

Let me know what you think of the last two lines, they're meant to relieve some of the tension from the previous lines, but are they disturbing the feel of the poem? Please comment.

Target Audience

Our target audience is mainly for children and young adults because we feel it contains criteria of interest to a younger audience rather then adults but that's not to say adults will not enjoy the film. Although the animation is for a younger audience I would suggest the rating is a PG rather then a U, this is due to the fact that it contains some disturbing scenes due to our Dark , Gothic, Tim Burton inspired theme, which may scare younger children. So in terms of age range I would suggest it's targeted at 11-16 year olds, maybe even up to 18 year olds as it seems as though Tim Burton films such as The Nightmare before Christmas attracted a vast teenage audience. With this audience it allows us to be creative with our imaginations as children have an active imagination and often like to think outside the box. Using the idea of impossible worlds is also appealing for children as it's not realistic, it's a form of escapism. Hence why we are using plasticine models but what child doesn't dream about objects coming to life? So we put that into a narrative and made our characters turn from that boring block of plasticine into it's own characteristic life.

The cat has officially been molded

After debating whether the cat should be modelled realistically or with exaggerated size we decided for the purpose of detail and proportion to Lucy, the cat should be bigger rather than smaller. So after hours of fiddling about with plastacine this is the final model I have come up with which suits the original artwork perfectly.

Here are a few pictures:

Helping our characters to stand!!

We have had a delay on filming recently due to a difficulty with our character models. The main character Lucy wouldn't stand up on her own without legs that were difficult to shape. With this issue we had to consider the different ways in which we could support our characters without having ridiculously disproportional legs. Although we have managed to get the balance right to support her using wire wrapped in tape and covered in plastacine, we have created a few ideas to support characters over the scenes. In the park scene Lucy can be supported by putting wire through her feet and spiking them into the ground, this will make it easier to create body language while walking rather than having to balance her everytime. As for the town scenes we could use weights or magnets in the feet connected to wire or metal poles to help maintain a blance during movement.
Similar problems arose with the orphanage owner as her body is rather large in comparison with her short stumpy legs, to resolve this we will show her behind a pedestal for the majority of the short film, when she dismounts from the pedestal towards the end of the piece, she could have weights at the bottom of metal poles to allow her to stand.

Poster Designs

Over the past week Hannah and I have been been experimenting with Adobe Illustrator to design some poster ideas. We both decided to come up with one design each for now to allow us to get to grips with the software. The results showed how myself and Hannah took completely different routes with contrasting thoughts and ideas. Where my idea takes a mysterious effect into account using an almost fog like shading to create a mist over "Lucy Firr" with a simple focus on the character and title of the animation, Hannah's takes on a much more artistic approach involving the title being pronounced with many features which almost combine magic and fantasy with the dark genre of horror.

I believe that our poster designs appeal to our target audience well. Mainly becuase teenagers will be draw in by the dark mysertous poster which reveals little about the storyline and therefore entices people to find out more about it. Whereas Hannah's design will draw in those in love with a magical escape from reality.

Please leave comments on what you like about each of the posters and what you think could be changed about it. All comments are appreciated. Thankyou.

(Left) My Design / (Right) Hannah's Design

We have previously been writing the poem that will be featured throughout the short-film, so far the first stanza has been completed, it sets the scene and background of the characters and their lives.


There once was a girl named Lucy Firr
Who never moans, never causes a stir
She lived in an orphanaged and that's where she'll stay
The shame is her firends never ask her to playThey just run about their childish deeds
Without a thought or glance as this girl recedes
Into the darkness isolated and alone
While the orphanage owner sits high on her throne
The orphanage owner is horrible and fat
Lucy's only true friend is the orphanage cat
He pays her attention he'll let her come play
And in turn for his comfort she allows him to stay
High up in the orphanage inside a small room
Lucy and the cat will play in the gloom
Rather than games such as hide and seek
Lucy would rather play torture the weak
She scares the children with spiders through floors
And howling loudly at night throwing novels at doors
The orphanage children who are frozen with fright
Lie aware of the things that go bump in the night

As we continue to write our poem we have fod a very useful site to aid us in any difficulties with rhyming.
http://www.rhymezone.com/
Take a look at it yourself if your a budding poet.

Coraline synopsis and textual analysis

Coraline is a feature length, stop-animation film based on the children's book of the same name. Originally written by Neil Gaiman and adapted under director Henry Selick for the purpose of the movie, the story is about a young girl named Coraline who is ignored by her busy parents. After moving into a new house she discovers a small door containing a tunnel leading to a house that seems identical to her own. These assumptions are short lived after Coraline meets her 'Other Mother' and 'Other Father' along with the improved, fun and entertaining house. At first this new world seems perfect until she's asked to replace her eyes with buttons. After rejecting the offer the world around her starts to deteriorate and show it's true colours, once Coraline has left this world behind something terrible happens, her parents have disappeared. Following the sighting of her parents in a mirror Coraline knows exactly where they are. Now Coraline has to go back to her other mother and find a way to win them back.

In terms of mise-en-scene, this is where the film really flourishes. In reality Coraline's house is very dim, it is portrayed with dull shades of white, grey and brown exacerbated by low-key lighting. The Kitchen seems barren of food and the bedroom features very few home comforts such as a photo of friends and a string of birds around Coraline's bed. Her fathers office is full of unpacked boxes and a dated computer on which her father is droning away with bags under his eyes to show how tired he is. All of these contribute to the very dim outlook on their life. As nighttime arrives the rooms become very dark using chiaroscuro lighting. To show the connection between the real house and the 'other house' Coraline goes through a tunnel consisting of entrancing purple and blue lighting, almost as if to show that something magic is happening.

In contrast to the real house, the 'other' house feels a lot more "homely", the kitchen is full of food and flowers while the other mother is cooking a roast "just in time" for Coraline's arrival. The use of color shows warmth with orange and blue as apposed to the grey cracking walls of the real house. The study has crooked and disproportionate frames on he wall showing an element of German expressionism. Replacing the dated computer in the centre of the study is a piano with moving hands which plays itself by controlling the other fathers hands showing creativity through music rather than documentation. Coraline's bedroom features live toys giving the room the home comforts that it was lacking before along with that portrayal of fun and excitement.

Moving on to camerawork and editing, an establishing shot shows the house at the beginning of the scene to let the audience know where the scene is going to be set. A mid shot is used to show the family around the dinner table, showing the body language of the three characters. There is a comic effect that come from a close-up of the food being served and a tilt up to show Coraline's disgusted reaction. There is a graphic match between Coraline slumping back onto the chair and then the bed. As night time falls and mysterious events start happening the entire scene is shown with a subtle canted angle to make the audience feel unnerved until Coraline opens the small door were there is a close-up to show her reaction to what she sees followed by a reveal shot of the tunnel.
Later in the other fathers study, while playing the piano to the music the camera spins around the scene as does the other father and piano, adding a sense of craziness to the other world. Then as Coraline goes to bed there is another graphic match between the bed in the other world and the bed in the real world to blend the two scenes almost making it seem like it was all a dream.

The sound in Coraline is heavily influential on the mood, while the scene is being set a calm and tranquil sound is playing, the track resembles a peaceful yet adventurous tone which matches Coraline's character. As the happenings in the night occur there is a much more fast paced track with wind and brass instruments building up to a crescendo, this creates tension before the opening of the door to the other world. The song played by Coraline's other father is centred around Coraline and the lyrics start with "making up a song about Coraline", it's an upbeat fast tempo song played on the piano which gives off a happy aura. Once Coraline enters her bedroom there are diagetic sounds of the birds wings flapping along with the speech "hello Coraline, hello, hello, hello" this once again centres the focus of the other house around Coraline's happiness. At the dining table of the other house the merriment of dinner is short lived when the other mother mentions playing hide and seek in the rain, when Coraline asks "what rain" there is a sudden crash of thunder and a flash of lightning which silences any other sounds and draws the audience to the realisation that there's more to this other world than meets the eye.

Our schedule...

We have Put together a schedule of what we need to be doing over the next five and a half weeks, the blank white spaces have been left for a chance to catch up on any missed or delayed work.

Deadlines

We now have a deadline for our finished project which means we have to develop our own deadlines for pre-production, filming and post-production.
Our deadline for pre-production is Monday 16th November, our deadline for filming is Friday 4th December and our deadline for post-production is Friday 18th December.

Movie Poster Research

We have been looking at different movie posters for the Genre of our animation so films such as Coraline, The Nightmare Before Christmas and 9.

Coraline, as part of it's promotion had all the letters of the Alphabet come out as Posters featuring different Characters and settings of the film. This was appealing to their target audience of children. We could incorperate these ideas into our poster but since we are only making one we could incorperate introducing the characters into one poster and also attracting our target audience.

This is the main promotion poster for Coraline which shows the genre of the film and introduces the main Character Coraline herself. The dull dark colours contrast with the bright light giving an insight inro what the movie will be like itself.

This is the promotion poster for The Nightmare Before Christmas, this is more our genre and we are going to incoperate the lighting in our poster and the style of the text used which gives it that creepy gothic look.

This is the promotion poster for 9 which is the new Tim burton film which came out recently this once again fits in our genre for the dim dark lighting and the colourless settings with the contrast of a bright colour to show different emotion and life.