weekly update

Many new developments have arisen since my last post. I have met with my composer, Pierre Andre, and just received a signed copy of our contract. I'm excited to begin to hear his work as our meeting left me confident that the quality of the film will will be upheld through his involvement.

Another new addition is a spine for this piece. Much of the feedback that I have been receiving with my latest animatic is centered around the juxtaposition of man and nature, which really isn't what I'm trying to do. After a lot of digging I came upon a poem by Edgar Allan Poe called "The Domain of Arnheim." The first part discusses the philosophical and artistic aspects of composition, and ends with a two page description of a man's journey down a river into a new, fantastic realm. The sharp contrast in storyline between these two parts led me to think that Poe was giving a stage on which to practice the theories on composition that he discussed in the first part. And so this is exactly what I'll be doing. The sequence of 8 shots will still be entered and exited in the same way - through a man's (presumably the poet's) study, but now what we see inside of it will have a linear and purposeful correlation.

This also means that I can focus my designs in a story-driven manner, as opposed to generating them "randomly." Structure breeds success and that is what I have now found - structure.

In the days to come I'll be posting many of the images that I have been generating. I've been busy designing the compositions through film studies, thumbnails, and sketches, and have created quick mock-ups (collages) of each image.
Here's a taste for now:

weekly update

This week has consisted of a lot of research that will develop into pages of thumbnails over the next few days. Not only have I been looking at other artist's work, but I have also been reading a lot of poems since I've chosen to label this as a "visual poem." In particular, the work of Edgar Allan Poe. The post below (dreamland) was the first of his short form that I came across, and have since been finding a lot more that have great descriptions of all sorts of environments. The lengthy description at the end of "The Domain of Arnheim" is a goldmine in this regard.

The hardest part, despite the many sources of inspiration I've found, has been formulating what will actually be seen on the screen. Conceptually I've put a lot of work into this, but the visual aspects have yet to take off. I'm not worried however, as that's what the purpose of doing thumbnails will be in this case. I plan on doing about 50 for each of the environments, and whittling them down/developing them until they begin to take form.

I'm looking forward to uncovering some of the ideas that I have brewing through this process.