Today I concentrated on finishing my black and white pastel concepts for Splay this afternoon. Firstly creating an initial mood board, then coming up with various landscapes/shots, referring back to some of Phil's earlier sketches:

The main aim for these thumbnails was to consider composition and experiment with lighting. Whenever I have seen rays of light shining through clouds I have always been amazed by how beautiful it can be - I think this could be a really nice touch to add to certain shots - it can be quite symbolic (new beginnings, hope, bright futures etc,) as well as add intensity and atmosphere to the environment.

After mounting pressure from (uber-bully) Dan Edgley, I will work on a few concept textures for the walls in the intensive care room in Polished Off. I hope to get these completed for tomorrow...

Day One

This is the first full day devoted to the project. I arrived at college EARLY before most of my group, I hope to keep this up..

It was a nightmare trying to find a computer to use, since most ICT facilities in the building were occupied, but we sorted it out in the end. This just can't happen every Tuesday throughout the year, so we've spoken to Mike and asked him if he could timetable the Red Cave room (for BA Animation) on those days too. Hopefully we'll have a space with computers to use next week.

While the others focussed on getting the timetable together, I was given the task of generating concept designs for Splay. My initial concepts in pastels weren't as much a success, but Phil showed me some of his earlier sketches and suggested to thumbnail my work on white paper and only stick to black and white for the time being, then progress onto colour later.


This was a much better method for me, and I was pleased I achieved something today.

EDGLEY'S DRAWING OF THE HOSPITAL

WHAT A WASTE OF EARTHS NATURAL RESOURCES

The Beginning of the End

Its been a long, but well deserved break, and now things are back to business. I had a quiet, and fairly productive summer break, but I'm relieved to be back at college and start another hectic year - and the most important one too! In terms of the final films we have to produce over the course of the BA year, I tried not to give it too much thought over the summer. I decided a while back that I didn't have any interest in directing or taking any lead role in a project. From experience in the previous year, when I was in charge of organising our degree show, it became very stressful trying to juggle everything and as a result the project I was working on at the time suffered. So I wanted to use the third year as a way of developing my skills, both working in a team and technically.

I was just as anxious as I was excited about returning to college - how would my pitch go?, what group would I be in?, what film would I be working on? blah blah blah.. well I guess everyone else felt the same. I may have not been keen on taking the directing role on a project, but I tried my best to come up with a decent concept for the final film pitch.

As expected, I was late to the pitch that day, but didn't miss much thankfully. Overall, there were a number of pitches which stood out for me, and there were those which didn't, but it was interesting to hear everyone's ideas and I found that standing up in front of everyone, however intimidating it may have been, was definitely a good experience for the future. As for my own individual pitch, it went surprisingly ok - I did feel a bit inadequate with a silly concept printout that I had made a long time ago, as opposed to full on powerpoint presentation, but oh well, I think I got my idea across clearly. I started reading from the piece of paper with the project details written on it then started to engage more with the group as I knew cobwebs and skeletons would start to appear.

In short, my idea is about a New York gangster called Alfredo Tomato who, on one fateful evening, meets his grisly end. The title of the film would be called Purée’d at Last. Here are the project details, as well as the synopsis of the story:



It was great to have some feedback from my tutors Mike and Dan, as well as Dave Bull, who is a screenwriter at Aardman Studios - I wasn't expecting that at all. It would be great to have more feedback from current industry professionals like Dave more often. They suggested that the story needed a lot of development, and possibly give some characters larger parts to play. At that point I was glad the pitch was over; if the idea was actually green lit (which I was very doubtful of) I would've wanted somebody else to direct it.

When we "officially" returned today, we heard the last few pitches, these including some from the new people who have joined the BA year. Before lunchtime we were told the final films that were green lit. I think the tutors made the right choices; there are a strong set of ideas and all of them unique in their own way. My idea wasn't chosen, which was a bit of a relief if I'm honest, but I had a good idea what film/s I wanted to work on. So now all I had to do was get myself into a group...

I am working on two projects:

SPLAY and POLISHED OFF

Both of these concepts are fun and very creative, each with very different styles. Im really looking forward to getting my teeth into the work, and I suppose just as privileged to have abuse thrown at me from particular team members *cough* Dan Edgley, Alec Smith and Phil Brooks....