mi6021poppyhodgson

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

This is a great example of how I want the sound and atmosphere to be linked in together. As one of my favourite looped pieces, it represents that soft and gentle yet mournful tones matched with the image sequences. 

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

This is a beautiful Soft sound track that I think would work really well in this film. I enjoy the deep undertones and the use of low notes to create a kind of peaceful yet sombre piece of background music. Coupled with nature sounds of birds, wind and rustling which I will acquire from freesound.org, this will be a brilliant tone to my work. 

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

This is a potential song that I like the sound of for this piece, its really soft and and gentle which I can play quietly in the background. I will have a look to see if I can find something a little slower and more gentle however because at times I feel its too dramatic for elements in this film. 

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

Story and series of events.

raeIn this animation there are multiple representations of how death and life effects one another, most are represented through my personal experience with them. 

This story is where life, bored and wondering her garden finds a dark overgrown mound, curious as to why this has grown in her garden she takes a peak to find an unusual scary creature stuck inside, death. Startled she backs away to find out he is stuck and needs help, but unable to understand him she is nervous. soon they help to free the tangle of wood Infront of him and in doing so they begin to understand each other unknowingly. Finally, once free of the brush, they stay together exhausted, friends, and able to understand one another. 

The reason for Death being stuck is due to death being a permanent part of life, there is no undoing of death. Life however is free and able to do as she wants symbolising the ever changing dynamics of everyday. They share elements of gold and blue to represent how each have rays of good, as well as rays of darkness. Finally, the mess and being unable to understand one another is how when we first encounter death, its scary and daunting, we become depressed and scared and we dont understand how to cope and handle the situation. But with a little TLC, love and dedication to help, we can learn to live with, and accept death. 

This is a little story to show how when something frightening comes our way, we can overcome it with effort, no matter how scary the situation. We learn to work around it, to accept and live in peace, knowing that we have come to terms with the permanent presence of loss.

The only spoken things in this film are:

“Thank you”

“What’s your name? I’m called Hava”

“Hello Hava, I’m Azrael”

Hava is a Hebrew name meaning ‘Alive’. I feel like Alive is a good representation of what life is, being alive. 

Azrael is the Hebrew name meaning ‘Angel of death’. I like this as death is based off of a bat in my story which links in with the idea of Angel. 

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

Basic Story Board.

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

Scenery ideas.

I enjoy how these two scenes look but I think that the one on the right is the more appropriate one for this film. This is because it encompasses all the elements that I’m wanting and has a nice range to the sides to film the separate sections. Ill be using foliage and trees made out of clay and wire, and on the left side Ill have more flowers and colours compared to the darker more ominous side. I like the tree in the left hand scene so I might incorporate that into the right scene with it on the brighter side of the set. 

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

Here is a little stop motion figure I made to see how it might play out as a stop motion piece, but I think due to the heavy bulkiness of this model it pulls away from the idea of freedom and fluidity in life. Because of this I will stay with the idea of my puppets being suspended by wire rather than being made like this. 

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

Set design idea.

These are some representations of sets and camera lay outs that I want my work to be inspired by. The way that the woodland is set up allowing the animators room to work is something that I will need to take into consideration when I am doing my piece. To do this I will need an open top to my base and to be careful when manipulating Life with the wires.

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

Here is a representation of how the inside of Death will look to be suspended in segments under the fabric to create that fluid movement. By doing this like a snakes spine it will flex easily without strain and be able to manipulate much easier than long sold pieces. 

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

These are my designs for death, and I really favour 2. This is because I incorporated skeletal features into his face yet kept him slightly fleshed out. The fur will be made out of the scrap ribbons, lace, beads and stones I have in my collection. I think that this one works better than the others but not too overall scary but more sunken and tired. This is what I wanted in piece and I feel that the others are more separated from this idea of death being a long and suffering process than a scary fast one. I will draw a more detailed version at a later time.

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

Hammer Headed Bat.

For the inspiration behind the death character Ill be basing it around this bat species. The unusual and quirky face of these creatures makes them appear almost unearthly and creepy. I want to use this in my character as bats are alos a symbolisation of death. 

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

Here is my drawings of life. I wanted her to be goat like to match how goats are the representation of life. I want her to be child like and happy as we usually associate happiness and joy with children, especially carefreeness and adventure. I will be using sunset colours in her dress, I'll be using drawing 5, and embroidered flowers and details. I really love this drawing and I look forward to creating her.

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

Moodboard: Backgrounds.

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Building the base: Part 2

Here we marked out where the rod will need to be placed due to the different measurements. This is so it sits flush with the other rods in place and will be drilled later. 

Here’s how it looks glued together.

Here we are testing that everything fits together and drilling holes for the bolts to go through, the bolts will be what keeps this piece all together. 

Finally we layered some glue on the bottom wall to add the green card on top to give a base colour to the ground. 

These two pictures are the base completely together, It fits all together nicely and has been marked to make sure when its reassembled it will be done appropriately. 

This is how it looks un-bolted for storage and transport. It’s a good small light size to make sure the best way of traveling with it wont harm or mark it further. 

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

Building the Base: Part 1

These are the basic parts of my base,  2, 4x 2 ply wood and a 1 inch square rod. These will form the walls and stability for my base. 

Here my dad is showing me how to measure and cut the wood using a Stanley knife to size, being careful not to cut ourselves as we sliced it. 

We then had to trim the excess wood off the sides that might not have been cut accurately. This is to be able to have a smooth finish and easy work to put them together. 

These are the finished pieces put together ready for the next part of gluing and screwing the supports. 

Here were measuring the square rod to 2ft to be glued onto the back of the base walls. 

This is me using a saw to cut the pieces down to size, under supervision. 

Here, dad and I applied glue to the rod and then screwed it into place on the wall of the base. This was tricky as we had to make sure that it was all lined up correctly or else it wont fit later on. 

Here I'm drilling the screws through the wall into the rod. 

Finally we had to cut these square notches out of the bottom piece so it would slide against the back piece perfectly. 

For this project its really important that I have a set up to keep everything contained and safe, as well as to help create atmosphere. I realised very soon that this was going to be a heavy project so I was going to need something strong but portable. 

As my dad used to be a joiner he helped me but together this box, he helped show me how to measure, drill, screw and glue this project to make sure it was going to be light and portable. 

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

Mune (2014)

Temple of the sun. 

Temple of the moon. 

[mi6021poppyhodgson]

Moodboard: Death

Here is my moodboard for death. Decay is a real big part of death as it is the breaking down of the once living thing. I think the harsh colours of blue, purples and reds work well in this and will reflect well in the design. I also like the idea of having skeletal elements where It looks like the puppet is part bone. I will keep this into consideration. I included in this moodboard a painting where death is represented as a woman in white clothing. I really enjoy the contrast in this painting and want to maybe show that through my character with golds to match the life character.