Concept

Week 10- Animatic

Week 9- First Storyboard

Week 8- Style Inspiration

Style influence for memory book

The link above is to an animation that heavily influenced my approach to the design of the memory book.

Simple plan for the layout of the memory book:

Below is a sample of a small mock up of the memory book, I planned out each page which specified what images will be fully animated, photographs, video footage etc

Week 8- First Storyboard of Memory Book

Week 7- Love story

Meeting his wife:

- Man walks past shop window looking at books, he notices one of interest
- As he goes to goes to pick it up, another person picks it up
- He looks up to see a pretty woman looking back at him, slightly embaressed 

- They go on date together… 
montage of things they do together… go dancing, diner, picnics, flying in plane together...

Their wedding:

- Them standing at the alter, then a shot of them leaving in his plane with a just married sign

Old couple in love:

- They have now become an old couple, anniversary> emphasise date and them in the study room.
- Wife becomes ill, hospital

Man is now alone in room, emphasising empty chair opposite to signify the loss of his wife...

** end of memory book **

Week 7- Spirit Character

The spirit figure is just a figure to begin with, but as it travels through the memory book it gets more identity… when the spirit eventually comes out of the book, it is the spirit of the old man.

OR

As the spirit comes out of the book the identity changes to the man.


Inspiration for the style of my spirit character:

Week 7- Timeline of Life

Montage of mans memories:

- Being a pilot in WWII
- Travelling to different parts of the world in his plane
- How he fell in love
- His wedding 
- His children?
- Family memories
- More present memories, him and his wife as an old couple, a family picture

 Old Man's Life Timeline:

Week 7- New rough story outline

1. Tracking shot through the woods to reveal a house

2. Man approaches door, pauses for a moment outside, goes into his pocket and pulls out a key

3. He goes into this room, panning shots of room to reveal identity of man and his reasons for being in the room. (British iconography, calendar of date next to picture of wife)

4. He grabs a book from the bookcase and sits down. Shot of an empty chair next to him

5. He opens the book, 'Memories'… he's taken back by it, catching his breath, closing his eyes, eyes getting heavier and eventually stay shut.

6. A spirit figure emerges in front of him

7. The spirit takes a moment, looking around, slightly puzzled to why he is here

8. The spirit lands on the book, and the page comes to life

9. Amazed, the spirit touches the page and gets pulled into the book

10. Montage of man life memories

11. Spirit comes out of book, looks at the old man and realises that is him. This is the old mans spirit.

12. Another spirit appears behind him, it is his wife's spirit, they hold each others hand, touch the book and disappear together.

13. (Now they can live together, forever in their memories…) Maybe message left in book? 

Week 7- Changes to story

After trying to find a relationship between the fairy character and the old man, I thought it would be best to cut the fairy character and change it to a spirit like figure. By doing this I feel the characters will have a better connection as the spirit is apart of the old mans character. 

Week 6- Character background development

Background Story:

- His wife passed away 10 years ago and he can't move on/ let her go

- Every anniversary he would go to the study which him and his wife used to sit and read every night

- He used to be a pilot in the RAF in WWII 

- He was a hopeless romantic

- Their wedding (or love story) was in the newspaper for being spectacular
    - they did something different like flying off in a war plane?
    - this is how the fairy knows about him

Week 6- Character Background

What is the relationship between the old man and fairy?

Why is she there?

Why has she chosen him?

The old man sits in his arm chair every night and reads his memory book of him and his wife.

Fairy:

- Maybe she found an old picture (from the book) of the old man and his wife and she has been frantically trying to find what book it comes from?

Some shot ideas:

- Shots to establish date and time…

- Shot of man sleeping holding a book of 'memories' with the same date on it but dated quite a few years ago…

- Maybe fairy starts off outside, looking into window- panning shot of various aspects of the room so we can learn about the old mans personality. > Then focuses on bookcase…

- Fairy gets through letterbox?

Week 6- First rough Storyboard

Week 5- Character designs

Old man Character designs:

Younger version of character

Week 4- Inspiration

Researching for style inspiration:

I have decided that I am going to use stop motion animation for the old man cottage scenes. Here are a few examples of the style that I want to achieve:

What captivated me most was the overall charm of this animation. The use of lighting stood out to me too. The contrast of warm low key lighting where the characters are gathered round the table reminiscing on happy memories. Then cutting to the wolf character where the lighting is very cold and dramatic, casting heavy shadows and silhouettes. 

The style of the characters in this animation is how I imagined my old man character to be. 

I found this animation and thought it fascinating the way the characters came alive from the books. This made me realise if I should have my fairy character interacting with the book characters when she explores the book environment. The fairy must not like the environment she is in, until she visits the old mans memory book.

Inner steppe Animation

This website shows the production method of an short stop-motion animation film. I will use this site to gain further knowledge on what methods to use for my animation.

Stop-Motion Set (CG)

A video exploring a living room set in the style of stop motion but is fully CG created using Maya, 3DS max and Vray

This image is from the film 'The Pagemaster' (1994). The fairy characters in this film are how I would like to create my fairy character. The character will have little identity, so the performance of this character will be the main focus. 

Week 4- Research

Further development:

Old Man character:

- Whats his backstory? 

His wife passed away> he keeps a book of their memories together

Book Environments:

The choice of books need to relate to the old mans personality, so I need to think of what type of books he would have in his bookcase... 

- Crime>  Crime noir> detective > Classic> Sherlock Holmes

- Old children's fantasy book> perhaps his favourite childhood book

- Classic novels> fantasy> 60, 000 Leagues under the sea

- History> War> WW2> RAF

- Sport> golf, formula one

- 'The chosen book'> diary/journal, photo album, scrap book

Room Environment:

- Old english style study room> chesterfield chairs

- British iconography> London scenery pictures, British Bulldog ornaments, Union Jack 

- Main feature> bookcase

- Lighting> Dim, warm, light coming from fire, lamps, wall lights

- Fire place

- Vinyl player or old radio

- Music playing in background> 1940's/50's love songs> Vera Lynn- We'll meet again

- Evening, snowy, winter outside, or maybe end of autumn 

Week 3- Inspiration

Whilst researching for the style of this animation, I came across this music video and found it really inspiring. 

What I found most intriguing was the 'spirit' like characters and its interaction between the live action characters. I imagined the book fairy to be a similar style as this. 

I also found the combination of different mediums such as live action, 3D and digitally painted backgrounds very interesting, especially the background designs. For my animation I would like to have a mixture of mediums too. I initially thought to have the scenes which are set in the old mans house to be either live action or stop motion animation and to have the scenes of the books in different types of animation. For example, the crime novel could be light box animation in charcoal, the fantasy adventure novel could be 3D and the horror could be digital 2D animation. 

Week 3- Idea

I have decided to develop my second idea of 'The Book Fairy'.

As I want my final project to focus on environments I have decided to use the poem as a starting point and develop the story in my own way. But still keeping key themes for the narrative.

Rough Outline: The fairy could be deciding what book she wants to live in, this will allow me to explore different environments.

- Fairy flying around bookcase looking at different books (Narration at beginning explaining the purpose of a book fairy)

- She pulls out various books and then the camera goes into the environment…
  Maybe she could choose 3 different books:
      - Fantasy Adventure 
      - Crime (1920's?)
      - Horror

- The she stumbles across a diary of the old man who lives in the house

- A piece of text from the book on screen…

- Shot of the fairy's face delighted in what she's found and disappears into the book!

Week 2- Choosing ideas

Idea 2:

Poem Interpretation: The Book Fairy

I often look for inspiration on the website 'HitRecord' created by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It is a collaboration website in which people share their ideas for others to work on. 

hitRecord

I stumbled across an illustration of 'The Book Fairy' and thought it was a beautiful image and wanted to know more about it!

 Illustration (and original idea) by Eli Hooper

The Book Fairy illustration

Several poems and stories have been written inspired from this image. This particular poem really caught my attention…

Tales of the Book Fairy

Written by Marisa Gissler

***

A book fairy has one purpose

One purpose alone

To find a book

To inhabit as home

Not to live

Within the binding there of

But to strive in the story

To find pleasure and love

                                                                 This wise little fairy                                                                                                                                      

knows what she needs

The story, the book

But she cannot proceed

In an old man's cottage

The windows are locked

She can't get inside

He can't hear her knock

As she awaits in the rain

Soggy wings and all

The old man gets sleepy

He heads down the hall

As he climbs into bed

He sees something strange

Something in his window

Is his eyesight deranged?

He opens the window

A fairy stands waiting

Without her purposes fulfilled

Her life could be fading

She can't tell him much

The search must start now

So she flies to the books

She must read them all, but how?

The man doesn't know

What she desperately wants

But he pulls out a book

As she frantically hunts

He shows her the title

Grin on his face

He knows she will like it

Mostly the setting and place

She mimics his grin

The reading unimportant

The book is made for her

It marked confident

She nods to the man

Before she leaves him behind

She's ready for love

And the life she will find

She uses her magic

To start her new life

She enters a world

With less worry and strife

This is her new home

A place she's meant to be

With her purpose fulfilled

She's a worthy book fairy

(Poem Link)

Style:

- Mixed media> live action for characters? VFX?

- Environments> Digital Matte painting

Environments:

- Old man's cottage

bedroom> must have bookcase…

sitting room

hallway

surrounding forest

Week 2- Choosing ideas

I have decided to look further into my first two initial ideas.

Idea 1: Star Signs

Element Groups:

Air
- Gemini
- Libra
- Aquarius

Earth
- Capricorn
- Taurus
- Virgo

Fire
- Sagittarius
- Leo
- Aries

Water
- Scorpio
- Pisces 
- Cancer 

I have chosen a star Sign from each element group and have researched the star signs traits to gain a further understanding of what sort of environment these signs may live in. 

Air> Gemini:

Mysterious

Knowing a little bit of everything

Greek mythology> messenger of the gods

Always on the move

Detached

Symbol> Twins

Earth> Capricorn

-       Patient

-       Cautious but willing to take unusual approaches

-       Climbing higher and higher to reach a goal

-       Symbol> Goat

Fire> Sagittarius

-       Freedom loving

-       Believe anything is possible

-       Aim their sights to what ever they want

-       Love of life

-       Symbol> Archer

Water> Cancer

-       Ruled by the moon

-       Like the moon going through phases, they live so much in internal ocean of emotions

-       Compassionate and caring but also moody

-       Can appear hard and insensitive on the outside but deep below lies a softness and sensitivity  

-       Symbol> Crab

Compatibility:

Worst> Gemini and Sagittarius

Air + Fire = hot air

Best> Capricorn and Cancer

Earth + Water = Mud

Possible Environments:

- Volcanic location (foreground), Mountains (far background), ‘safer’ in the distance

- Sky/clouds, fast moving

- High mountains, winding trails, forest location

- Calm Ocean but stormy clouds/sky, moonlight night