One*7

Story Progress notes.

I have been struggling to get started with developing the story for this project from a base idea into an actual working concept. It's an understandably difficult thing - deciding what it is exactly that I want to focus on, what kind of story I want to tell, the mood of the film, the target audience, the stereotypes to avoid and those that are unfortunately inescapable. There is also the prospect of taking a stereotypical idea and approaching it in a way that is new and refreshing but based on previous attempts of such an approach my track record is nothing marvelous - therefore that is an approach that has been scrapped as I write this.

I must keep in mind that there is a requirement to produce a written companion to this new body of work that must reflect my objectives with this film (project). Thus my contemplation has been following these lines; what the objectives will be and many that I have thought about are important in regards to creating the film - but not necessarily a factor into my MAP specialisation (visual effects). Therefore my ideas/concepts/thoughts on all possible objective require rational sorting of this random collection and identifying which directly regard my specialisation.

Important Concepts (so far)

- Shoot the film using alternative filming methods.

- Achieve a unique visual style; evident in the characters, the world and involving the implementation of CGI elements into live action.

- Create characters with emotional depth.

- Create an environment which is both alien and familiar to the audience in both tone and physical appearance.

- Develop a story which provides a rich history to the story.

- Develop characters 'look' in an efficient way which incorporates visual effects in collaboration with existing elements.

Obviously some of the concepts in the list above do not relate to my area of focus for the MAP, from this particular list those would be;

- Achieve a unique visual style; evident in the characters, the world and involving the implementation of CGI elements into live action.

 - Develop characters 'look' in an efficient way which incorporates visual effects in collaboration with existing elements.

These two as well as the development of a 'familiar alien environment' and of course the story will be the focus of my project. Dependant upon consultation with my supervisor my main area of focus will revolve around developing a unique visual style which is evident in the film's visual effects and their implementation. Their implementation of course will depend upon what filming methods are decided upon, but finally narrowing down a goal excites me! Particular inspiration for this line of thought have been the appearance of Tim Burton's films and in particular Tron - a style which is instantly recognisable. The style of these films are there identity and it is interesting to note how the audience perceives a film based purely upon it's appearance.

Many can misinterpret the film's tone or intentions due to the style of the effects implemented. Film's such as Avatar approach visual effects with aims to achieve complete realism from unrealistic concepts and are received favorably. Other films such as those set in the real world (i.e. Die Hard, V for Vendetta etc) aim to achieve an 'invisible' extension of reality with their visual effects. Then of course there are the films such as Toy Story, Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Coraline etc which aim to create a completely fictional world which will never be believed as 'real'. These 3 approaches are typical to visual effects, but there are those that attempt to blend the barriers such as Final Fantasy which strive to create a fictional world with complete realism and fail to trick the audience into believing that it is 'real'.

To get back on topic - it does sound strange, but I believe the style and approach to the visual effects of a film can play a unique role in the identity of a film. The fact that Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks feature animations may be identified by the styling of their characters is proof of this. My aim is to develop a style of visual effect which is uniquely my own.

I do not mean in the sense that the CGI Characters appearance will reflect my personal artistic style - I mean EVERYTHING will. The way that thing's move and interact with their environment. I wish to create a film that represents my emotions, my thought processes. The way things move may not necessarily be how they move in reality, although I am sure some will be. I want the film to reflect my personality and how I perceive the world.

Throughout this process I will develop the style, review how I may achieve the style and investigate alternative methods in which to achieve said effect. This will undoubtably involve research into various plugins, various artistic methods in regards to 3D modelling, digital art and digital compositing. I am sure there will be many more aspects to this challenge but I do not want to get ahead of myself until I consult with my supervisor.

After discussion with my supervisor, pending his approval I will rapidly move ahead with the story/screenplay as well as concept art.

Nine*

Alice in Wonderland notes.

I watched Alice today - with the exception of Johnny Depps' dance sequence towards the end - I loved it!. One thing that struck me about the film was that it had a unique visual style to it - something that I was careful to notice after watching Tron and noticing how the look of the film was something which was instantly recognisable. The most notable aspect to the style of the film is that there was little that reflected Tim Burton's regular style which has been evident in the last umpteen of Burton's films of late. Some example of what I am talking about;

Gone were the monotone colours of typical Burton and it was replaced with such vibrant hues which were the direct opposite of what we had been lead to expect from the famed director. There have been other works of his which have achieved a similar change of pace such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and to a lesser extent Big Fish - and yet when alot of people think Tim Burton they think 'depressing colours'. And even those 2 films still include shapes and forms which are common traits to Burton's art.

Viewing some of Burton's art for the film it is obvious that his vision was delivered to screen - but it felt as though there were more input from other artists than there may be in other examples of his work. There were aspects that stood out to me as 'typical' Burton such as the odd tree branch.

It is nice to see something a bit different come from Burton, who I had expected to continue with much the same visual style until I saw the trailer for Alice. Hopefully trialing alternate approaches is something that he continues to do, but I have my doubts. That said as with all Burton films the visual style was evident. The computer-generated and live action characters existed in a caricatured world which allowed them to belong together - with the exception of Alice who was obviously an outsider. Fun fact - the visual effects department developed a Nuke plug-in to create the look of the Red Queen.