Monday 31 January 2011

Transcription Vlog 3: Live Action Shooting!


Last weekend, some friends and I filmed a live action video of my Transcription project. I enjoyed the shoot as I wasn't too bothered about continuity errors as it was only to get a jist of the movements to aid in my animation. We ran into some problems regarding camera battery life and sped up the filming a bit more, howoever we did have a backup camera just incase. Yoshi Slippers!

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Transcription storyboard




Transcription notes

Colour value paintings
Look at pictures from South India, and use colours that you see
Look at cultural paintings from India, and take note of COLOURS and SHAPES used

Transcription shot structure

Front-Medium shot of kid, whole body, sitting down at bus stand.

Cut to close up shot of kid reading book.

Cut to long shot of two bullies walking.

Cut to tracking medium shot of bullies walking.

Camera stops and big bully points to rice stand.

Long shot/POV of rice stand.

Medium shot of both bullies as the small bully disapproves.

Cut to Front-Medium shot of kid, with bullies walking into the frame.

Medium shot of bully's from kid's point of view.

Medium shot of kid as he covers his face with the book.

Medium shot of bully's from kid's point of view as he picks up a rock and chucks a rock at the kid.

Cut half way through the 'chuck' to a Medium shot of kid as the rocks hits the wall.

Medium shot of the small bully picking up a rock and about to chuck it until big bully drags the small bully away with him.

Tracking shot of the two bullies as they're walking. Camera stops when the big bully points at the rice stand.

Medium shot/PV shot of Rice stand.

Medium shot as small bully shakes his head again. Small bully turns around.

Close up, over the shoulder, silhouette establishing shot as the small bully realises the forbidden rice field.

Medium shot of the small bully chucking a rock at the 'forbidden rice field sign'.

Cut to medium shot of rock hitting sign.

Medium shot of lonely kid waiting for the bus looking at his watch.

Medium shot of small bully picking up another rock, and offering it to the big bully.

Close up shot of big bully shaking his head in refusal and pointing at the rice stand.

Medium shot of rice stand.

Medium shot of small bully giving the rock directly into the big bully's hand.

Close up shot of big bully sighing.

Medium shot of big bully throwing the rock.

Close up shot of big bully's foot giving way to the ground.

Medium shot from behind of big bully falling into the rice field.

Long shot of bus approaching.

Close up shot of big bully scared face as he stretches his arm out for help.

Close up shot of small bully's face as he steps back reluctantly.

Medium shot of small bully running away.

Medium shot of lonely kid about to get on bus until he realises the big guy in the rice field.

POV shot of bus conducter lookin down at lonely kid as he shakes his head.

Medium shot of lonely kid running towards big guy.

Close up shot of big guy struggling.

Medium back shot of lonely kid lending a hand.

Medium side shot of kid helping the big guy out.

Medium side shot focussing onto the small bully in the distance.

Medium shot of small bully.

Close-up shot of small bully's face looking guilty.

Medium shot of lonely kid eventually helping the big bully out.

Close up of lonely kid's foot tripping over big bully's foot.

Medium shot of lonely kid falling into rice field.

Close up of hand reaching out to him before he hits the rice field.

Close up of lonely kids face as he gets saved in surprise. Camera tracks the hand to reveal who's hand it is, small bully's!

Cross dissolve into a medium front shot of them all sitting down exhausted.

Close up shot of sun fully coming out.

Close up shot of water evaporating from rice field.

Medium shot of field turning into rice!

Medium shot of big bully nudging small bully and pointing at the rice in the rice field.

Medium shot of rice.

Medium shot of small bully reaching his hand out, grabbing rice and giving it to big bully.

Close up shot of big bully looking happy.

Close up shot of lonely kid looking happy.

Medium shot of lonely kid reading book and then zooming out as we see the two bullies sitting around the kid hanging on every word.

NEW Transcription story!

Set in South India, Lonely kid sitting at bus stand minding his own business reading a book.

Two bullies are walking, big one and small one ,the big one pauses and points to a rice stand, and looks at the small bully for approval.

The small bully disapproves and they both walk up to the kid.

Small bully chucks a rock at the kid.

The lonely kid ignores him and carries on reading.

Big bully drags the small bully with him and encourages him to carry on walking.

The big bully stops and points at the rice stand again, and again looks at the small bully for approval.

The small bully again disapproves and turns around.

In turning around, he realises that there is a 'forbidden rice field' in front of him. He sees the 'forbidden' sign, and chucks a rock at it.

The small bully tries to give the big bully a rock.

The big bully shakes his head in disapproval and points at the rice stand again.

The small bully forces the big bully to take the rock.

The big bully reluctantly agrees to throw it.

However, in throwing the rock, the big bully stumbles and falls into the rice field.

The small bully gets scared and paranoid, and decides to run instead of saving his friend.

The lonely kid, about to get on a bus to school, sees the big bully in the rice field, and decides not to get on the bus.

The lonely kid runs over to help the big guy. In doing so, the small bully looks over from a distance in guilt.

Eventually the lonely kid helps the big guy up. But once up, the lonely kid trips over his foot and is about to fall into the rice field, but something saves him.

He looks up and finds out that the person holding his hand, preventing him from falling in, is the small bully.

Exhausted, they all sit there. The big bully calls over his small bully friend, and points at the rice field. The water had evaporated and the field turned into rice. The small bully laughs, and grabs a handful of rice and gives it to the big bully.

The lonely kid is then seen reading the book to the two bullies.

Tuesday 18 January 2011

Animation coming down rope

I re-animated the two astronauts, one coming down the rope, and the other signaling.

Regaining Consciousness

Previs: Animated camera, of an the astronaut slowly getting up and regaining consciousness.

Sunday 16 January 2011

Soundtrack update!

I worked more on the two sections as separate entities, timing will ofcourse be settled once we have all the scenes rendered.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/85326383d3ad365b/

Saturday 15 January 2011

Maya Character Modeling UV Layouts






Attacking and missing blob test render

This is a render update of the scene in which the frightened astronaut attacks the blob with a piece of metal and misses. At the moment it is a little too dark, so the lighting will have to be increased.

Animation test updates





Astronaut attacking and missing the blob update

Changes to be made, astronaut will probably hang around for a bit longer after the attack. A pole will be parented to the astronauts hand.

Character development sketches




More Christmas responsibilities...

MATT
'Making of...', do a powerpoint of all our work up to now showing our development.
Previs of the scenes we asked you to do from before.
Poster, Invisible Blob from Mars

BHARATHI
Get everyones previs, and put it together with music.
Voiceover and finalise script (e.g what the astronauts say)
Music

SIMON
Teaser
Ident: BOTH idents...

ALL
Viral marketing (video?)
Get everyones msn.
Budgetting (minor, addin up costs, poster print out etc)
Give out 'Making of...' slides
Upload own work to own blog

Animation and modeling list

MODELLING AND ANIMATION

1: You see Mars. (Rotate around it)
2: Spacecraft lands.
3: Long shot of the crew walking across the surface of mars
4: Close up of one crew members visor which reflects more of the surface
5: We see the foot of one astronaut step on a crack in the surface, the crack then becomes bigger
6: He calls over the rest of the crew
7: Dialogue: Captain Shall we investigate further
8: They go back to the ship to get equipment
9: Close up of foot and ground giving way
10: The last guy to leave for the ship falls in to the hole, with the rest of the crew in the foreground
11: Guy struggles to get out of the hole, holding onto the sides, then suddenly disappears. (Maybe shouts out help?)
12: Wakes up in a daze. "Huston We have a problem" (first person view, need Charlotte’s vision)
13: Rest of the crew look over the hole (camera angle, over their shoulder looking into the hole?)
14: Looking up at the crew standing over the hole, from inside it.
15: The three remaining crew members argue about whether to save him or not (one doesn't want to help)
16: They scale down the hole (wide shot)
17: Over the shoulder shot with flashlight (Audience see the shadow of the blob, but the astronauts don't)
18: Invisible cut: Through the eyes of the blob, looking at the astronaut (straight after the flashlight scene)
19: Lucid Studios appears
20: Running heavy breathing (first person)
21: Swinging at blob and missing.
22. Hitting blob.
23: Flamethrower on blob.
24: Title shot
25:Blob attacking the screen

RED – Simon
BLUE – Charlotte
GREEN - Bharathi

Futuristic-retro Spacecraft development!

We decided that in terms of an overall look of the spacecraft, the Skylon looked the most suited, as it had a sleek contemporary look but also with some of the curves seen in retro space crafts:



We began looking for some other retro looking spacecrafts that we could implement design elements from:






Looking at some of the more modern ships, they came across as boxy and more technical, so we wanted to get the right balance between modern and retro ships:




However, we soon realised that the Skylon design was too long, and came across as more of a commercial people carrier, so we wanted to play with the size more to accommodate the 4 crew members, so as to make them look like they are part of a research mission and not on holiday. As a result, we decided to implement size restricting forms from space pod concepts such as this:



In the end, we decided that the balance lied in concepts such as these flying vehicles, where they could accommodate 4 crew members whilst maintaining a compact look, this would gel well with our contemporary spacecraft that pays homage to 50s retro designs:


Ident ideas!

Our silver background. 'Lucid studios' appears bit by bit onto the silver background with a mysterious sorta music behind it (bells, computer sounds )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lucid Studios. Black font on white background. A 'disturbance in water, ripple' effect occurs and the writing flows off screen (probably an After Effects thing).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Each letter of 'Lucid studios has like a helium, or low gravity applied to it,the letters fall onto screen, into place and knock eachother letter back off screen. (probably Maya)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Black background. Torch light searches the background and sees Lucid studios and then moves off off it.

Blob concept idea

Viral Marketing script idea

Simon: I'm here at the pre-screening of The Invisible Blob from Mars, the film should have ended so we can now get an audience reaction..."What did you think of the film?"

Matt: It was SCARY!

Simon: Are you looking forward to it's official release?

Matt: YES! I'm going to watch it again definitely, buy it on DVD, Bluray, 3D-Bluray VHS............Bharathi interrupts by coming through door

Simon: Oh! Hello, are you alright?

Bharathi: I just saw the blob....can't talk I'm sorry.

Matt: This is serious, call the ambulance, stop recording!

First 8 scenes previs

Walking on Mars music and montage idea

Let me know of any changes.
zSHARE - Lucid walking on and the falling through Mars.mp3

Poster Idea

This is really jus to get the font nailed. Let me know what you all think, but to be honest, I'm edging back towards Simon's font idea posted earlier, I think we could use that. A friend sent me this tutorial on creating a Retro Sci-Fi poster (link below), so I'll probably use that, and create another idea.

Tutorial:
http://adamlevermore.com/2010/08/19/tutorial-creating-a-retro-sci-fi-poster/


New Synopsis

It's the year 2000, and in order for the people of Earth to widen their knowledge of the planet Mars, NASA send a crew of 4 astronauts there.

Whilst walking on the surface, one of the crew members steps on a crack in the ground and it spreads.

The crew decide that they should return to the craft in order to get specialist equipment to investigate the crack.

However, immediately after they decide to go to the craft, the crack gives way and one of the crew members falls in!

Despite one out of the three crew members safe on the surface protesting against going into the hole to save their friend, they eventually agree on going in.

Once down there, they see their friend and find out he's safe. However, as soon as they've all gotten down the rope, an invisible force takes the first crew member deep into the cave.

They begin the search for the taken crewmember. Wary in their movements, they approach the cave with caution.

The blob makes another surprise attack, this time, they begin attacking it with various tools from their kit, they succeed in hitting it, and in turn are able to see it, but it still gets away.

They eventually encounter it again and use a combination of their flare and oxygen tank to use as a flamethrower and burn the blob.

They leave Mars, not knowing that part of the blob has escaped with them onto the craft......Invisible Blob from Mars 2!!!!!!! ON EARTH!

Mars Music 3rd idea - Landing

I decided to leave the suspenseful walking on Mars music for later, it's kinda doing my head in. Thanks alot for the comments Simon, I'm basically using wht advice you've given to change the music, also if anyone could even say what they want a certain piece to sound 'like' e.g. the sound in a video off of Youtube, I can try do it in a similar style.

I intended this piece of Music to be for when the Spacecraft lands on Mars. Please let me know of any changes to be made.

Download Lucid - Landing

Mars Music 2nd idea

I created this short piece for the part where the astronauts are walking on Mars. This is the bit between when they land to before they find the water/gas/hole thingy. Please comment changes.

Download Lucid - Walking On Mars

Mars Scene music idea

Hey, I've produced a short piece of Music, I reckon we could use something like this for the scene on Mars, or the journey to Mars. Let me know, what kinda Music you can imagine for each scene and I'll work on producing it, or if my composing is that bad, scrapping it, and looking for professional Music.

Download Lucid - Mars Scene

Invisible Sound motif idea

Here's a short sound motif I've produced that I reckon could be used every time a first-person shot of the blob is used. Let me know how it can changed so we can get this sound sorted as I believe it's a key sound in the trailer.

Download Lucid - Invisible Blob Sound Motif

2nd Script idea

4 crewmembers......are sent to Mars... in the hope of finding breakthrough information on the planets surface....however, they soon find out that it's what's beneath the surface that's groundbreaking...(crewmember gets dragged in)... it's silent (juxtaposition of blobs-eye-view with crew coming down rope)...it's deadly (juxtaposition of blobs-eye-view killing crewmember with crew at the bottom of rope)...it's invisible! (juxtaposition of blobs-eye-view with crew saying "what was that!")...how do you fight, what you can't see...(crew members trying to hit blob)...will the crew manage to get back to the craft before this...thing...kills them!...with a cast of talented young actors and actresses....Lucid studios present....The Night Of the Invisible Blob from Mars.

Mars music 4th idea - Walking

Another idea for Music whilst walking on Mars, and I reckon something like this could be used whilst approaching Mars too. Please comment on changes, I hope we are going somewhere with this sorta soundtrack.

Download Lucid - Walking On Mars 2

Big Astronaut character design idea


I did a quick sketch for the character design of the 'big astronaut'. I was wondering if this was the kind of thing we wanted for this guy, before I go into detail, and do turnarounds and that.

Working Script

Night of the Invisible Blob from Mars

Trailer Script

Matt’s man (V.O) (Throughout trailer)

“4 astronauts are sent to collect research on the planet Mars, but once there, they soon find out that they must explore a whole new world BENEATH Mars' surface! When a crewmember falls through a crack in the ground, the rest of the crew find themselves committed to investigating the crimson crevices of the red planet to save their friend. However, what they don't realise is that they aren't alone under there...”

Ext. Space

Look through the spacecrafts window as it approaches Mars.

Ext. Mars

Low angle shot of spacecraft landing.

Long shot of crew on Mars.

Close up of crewmember’s visor with reflection.

Close up of crewmember’s foot stepping on crack.

Medium shot of crewmember turning around and looking at crack. Hey! Come check this out!"......or......"We have an anomaly in the planet's surface Captain". (After stepping on, and seeing the crack)

Medium shot with crew surrounding crack.

"Let's dig this bad boy up"....or...."Captain, permission to investigate" (As the crew gathers around crack)……………… "Let's get some more tools from the craft".....or....."We will need to return to the craft to retrieve specialist equipment" (As the crew gathers around crack)

Off angle shot of crew walking away with 1 crewmember in the background.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh".......or......."Helpppppppppp" (Crew member falls in)

Close up of hole as crewmember falls in.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh".......or......."Helpppppppppp" (Crew member falls in)

Ext. Under Mars Surface

First person view as a flare is lit.

"Ohhhhhh shiiiiii".....or......"Houston we have a problem" (Regaining vision/Flare)

Ext. Mars

Crew looking into hole

Ext. Under Mars Surface

Looking up at hole with rocks falling down

Ext. Mars

Over the shoulder of crew member (Male)

"I'm going down".............or..........."We have to save (name)??? (Male argues)

Over the shoulder of crew member (Female)

"No! I'm going back"......or......"The procedure in an incident like this, is to return to the craft, we don't know what could be down there" (Female argues)

Over the shoulder of crewmember (Male)

"You're just gonna leave him? I'm goin down!".......or......."I Never leave a man behind" (Male argues)

Ext. Under Mars Surface

Long shot of crew coming down rope

Medium shot of crew using torch to look around area.

Blobs-eye-view of light shining on it

(fade in)

Ident: Lucid Studios

(fade out)

Ext. Under Mars Surface

Close up of torch hitting the ground

First person view of crewmember running breathing heavily.

Blobs eye view as it sneaks up on a crewmember.

Medium shot as crewmember uses flamethrower on screen.

Medium-Long shot of crewmember swinging at nothing shouting

"Where are you!" (Swinging at the invisible blob)

Title Screen

Night of the Invisible Blob from Mars

(fade out)

Close up of Blob attacking the screen.

Voiceover idea

4 astronauts are sent to collect research on the planet Mars, but once there, they soon find out that they must explore a whole new world BENEATH Mars' surface! When a crewmember falls through a crack in the ground, the rest of the crew find themselves committed to investigating the crimson crevices of the red planet to save their friend. However, what they don't realise is that they aren't alone under there...

Script ideas

Got more ideas for what each character says, I've put two different tones for each bit of text, if you could comment on the type of tone you like, or comment on a different piece of dialogue for that part.

"Hey! Come check this out!"......or......"We have an anomaly in the planet's surface Captain". (After stepping on, and seeing the crack)

"Let's dig this bad boy up"....or...."Captain, permission to investigate" (As the crew gathers around crack)

"Let's get some more tools from the craft".....or....."We will need to return to the craft to retrieve specialist equipment" (As the crew gathers around crack)

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh".......or......."Helpppppppppp" (Crew member falls in)

"I'm going down".............or..........."We have to save (name)??? (Male argues)

"No! I'm going back"......or......"The procedure in an incident like this, is to return to the craft, we don't know what could be down there" (Female argues)

"You're just gonna leave him? I'm goin down!".......or......."I Never leave a man behind" (Male argues)

"Ohhhhhh shiiiiii".....or......"Houston we have a problem" (Regaining vision/Flare)

-Montage-

"Where are you!" (Swinging at the invisible blob)

"Take this" (Using flamethrower (oxygen tank with flare))

Marketing Idea

We could create a video of one of us recording, pretending to be a reporter outside an early screening of 'Night of the Invisible Blob from Mars' (outside lecture theatre 2)...One of us comes out and pretends we have just seen the full film, and jus say how brilliant it is...we could semi-improvise this, e.g jus ravin on about how good it is, and maybe having another person come out and jus be in shock maybe drop to the floor? I'm up for this, it'll be really quick to record and upload and all we need is our presence for it!

Lucid Studio's Facebook page!

Lucid studio blog address change

Sorry about the blog address change if it has confused any of you whilst looking for the site. I felt that we should change our address for promotional purposes (e.g. poster, Facebook) as lucidstudios.blogspot.com looks alot better.

Under Mars surface concept art

I created this concept to help with the visualisation of the cave underneath Mars. Let me know of any changes that can be made.

Complete:

Stage 2:

Stage 1:

Mars surface concept art

I created this concept based on what I believed we wanted the surface of Mars to look like. Please let me know of any changes to be made.

Complete:

Stage 2:


Stage 1:

Voice and Sound ideas...

Voice over:

A crew....sent by NASA, to the planet Mars, are in for the shock of their lives as they realise the planet is hiding a beautiful secret...However, not everything is as it seems on the beautiful planet. Lurking in the midst of the crimson crevices, is a living creature, invisible to the human eye. Join the crew as they experience a journey of deadly discoveries and life-threatening challenges.

Voices and Sounds:

"What you got there?"
"Whoahh" (ground begins to break)
"Houston, we have found an extra layer of ground, permission to proceed"..."Negative, return to the craft"
"Let's head back!"
"Ahh, help!!! Ahhhhhhh" (one of the crew falls in)
"I ain't leavin him behind!"
*struggling and heavy breathing* as they go down the rope
" I'll be damned" (as we see the new Mars landscape)
"*gasp* what was that?" (as the shadow goes by)
"Cries out name" (member shouts at the member that is taken by the blob)
"Ahhhhhh" (member is taken by the blob)
"Grrrraaahhhhhh" (member hittin blob with built weapon)
"Cryyyy" (sound made by blob as it is hit)

Mars Ambient sound.
Indent sound.
Spacecraft landing sound.
Water spring and vaporization sound.
Surface breaking sound.
Lowering of Rope and against hand sound.
Blob movement sound.
Blob sound as it takes astronaut away.

New story confirmation

Can I just get confirmation from everyone that the new story, with the 'new world' under the surface of Mars is the one we're going with. I know, Matt and Charlotte are all happy with the new story, but just need confirmation/changes as I did assume alot of things while typing out the story we came up with. So, if all of you could comment whether your happy, or believe we should change parts or the whole thing. I'm mainly asking because I've started writing out the sounds we'll need and I realised that we should really have finalised a story before going onto getting some of the sounds.

Meeting summary: Monday 27th September

This is a summary of todays meeting:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Story:

Set in the year 2000.

Crew investigate Mars, looking for signs of life, e.g. Water.

They find a small amount of water, almost like a spring, pulsating upwards, and then almost instantly vaporizing.

V V V (this part of the story is subject to change) V V V
To further investigate, they begin to drill.
or
One of the crew members crashes his segway.
or
More and more crew members gather around the water. And the surface breaks.

All of these possibilities end in a hole being created, with light shooting upwards from it.

They contact Earth, NASA advise them to return to Earth as there is not enough information gathered about what's underneath the surface, to investigate it.

As they walk away from the hole, a crew members falls in.

They decide not to leave a member behind. (A fight between the crew occurs similar to the one in Alien where they argue over whether they should let the infected crew member in). Eventually they decide to investigate the hole, lowering themselves down on a rope, in order to save the fallen crew member.

They see the new world underneath the surface of Mars in all its glory (could look however we want it to).

They reach the bottom of the hole, but the fallen crew member is nowhere to be found!

They begin the search for the crew member. It is during this search, that they begin to see suspicious shadows moving around.

Another crew member is suddenly taken, by an invisible force, and carried away. The rest of the crew begin chase, but can't keep up.

Using what's available on Mars (could be anything) plus what they have on them, they begin to create weapons.

Next, a force takes hold of another crew member, but the crew member pushes himself free, in this time, they use their weapons to hit the invisible force, once its hit, it reveals the actual blob. The blob flees.

This is about up to as much the trailer could show without giving away too much of the story.

The rest of the story, involves the crew following the blobs blood trail after it is hit, and finding the other crew members. A fight entails between the blob and the crew members. After, rescuing their crew members, they begin the journey back to the spacecraft. They leave Mars, for Earth, not knowing that an invisible blob has made its way onto the spacecraft.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Memorable scenes for the trailer:

- Spacecraft landing
- Surface shot
- Search for water
- Segway crash/Drilling/surface collapses
- Decision to return to Earth
- Crew member falls in
- Decision to save crew member
- Shot of the new Mars landscape (inside the hole)
- Scene with the moving shadow
- Capturing of another astronaut
- First time seeing the blob

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More reference films:

Evolution, Nausicaa, Land of the Lost,

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Question and notes:

- Should we see the blob?
- Ident at the start, could be the 'Lucid' logo being drawn by the Invisible trail (refraction) of the blob.
- On Mars, the sunsets are blue (FACT)
- The plants could be red (satire, referencing an old belief that as Earth's plants are green, Mars' plants are red)
- Astronaut faces could reflect our (Lucid's) faces.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Responsibilities:

Bharathi: Script

Charlotte: Concept art

Matt: Storyboard

Simon: Weapon design

Everyone: Concept ideas (e.g. the Mars inside the hole), Astronaut character design ideas, Personalities of characters,

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Narrative more story ideas

THE LONGER YOU TAKE, THE BIGGER IT GETS!!!!

IT BEGINS BY EATING INSECTS AND PLANTS

THEN CHILDREN

THEN ADULTS

THEN BUILDINGS

THEN THE WORLD :O

On Mars, a team of astronauts capture a blob to take back to Earth and investigate.

They keep it in a small glass box as it is only a small blob. They give it food to find out what its diet is. They find out it can eat small fruits and vegetables. The researchers decide to keep feeding it as they believe it's harmless, feeding a blob.

After a while, it begins to get bigger and gets a bigger diet. It eventually breaks out the glass box to find food. It breaks into shops and eats the food off the shelves and sleeps in drains.

It now comes to the publics attention and gets onto the news that an unidentifiable creature has been breaking into shops and eating off the shelves.

It then gets hungrier and starts to eat small children.

Now that this blob has begun eating humans, the town panics and everyone is warned to stay indoors.

Children are all protected, and policemen patrol the streets. The blob isn't seen for a few days, until a policeman is reported dead. It is confirmed that the blob has begun eating adult humans now, and CCTV footage has shown the policemen gobbled up by an invisible force.

The government resort to contacting a secret group of individuals that only operate in code red situations. These people own some of the most enticing gadgets used to protect planet Earth.

Everyone is indoors now, except for this special group. At first they look for the blob, but can't find it. When they finally do find it, they find that everyone/everything the blob has eaten, can be seen in it's 'belly' from the outside (the blob is invisible so we just see bodies floating). The group hesitate in shooting the blob as they did not want to hurt the people inside, as a result, one of the special group members get eaten.

The group realise that the only way of destroying the blob, is by being able to see it first. So, they seek NASA for information gathered from Mars. NASA provide them with all the information they can.

The group use this information to devise a weapon. They use the weapon on the blob, but it still doesn't work.

Eventually, a 'mad scientist' working for NASA is discovered to have hidden information from them regarding Mars, this information is what is needed to devise a weapon to kill the blob.

They use their new weapon on the blob, they see the blob now. The blob knocks most of the special group unconscious. The gun used to defeat the blob falls into the hands of the mad scientist. The mad scientist hesitates, but eventually decides to shoot the blob. Everyone is now free.

Narrative font ideas

Some other font ideas, if these don't work, then I am happy with using the original, there are other ways of making it, less 'Lindt-like'.

Narrative Story ideas

NASA send their team to investigate a new planet, PLANET X. The film starts with the crew leaving the planet in their spacecraft. We see them shutting the door to their spacecraft, however the door gets stuck on something, after slamming it a few more times, it closes. What the crew don't realise is that an invisible blob has just boarded the spacecraft while they were leaving.

A NASA conference follows We see the Director of NASA announcing to reporters that their crew have arrived safely from PLANET X and have retrieved valuable information, however before he finishes his sentence we see him get wrestled to the floor by 'something'. Then, a few members of the conference get thrown to the floor, and the whole room begins to panic.

We then cut to a TV screen that shows a News Channel with the reporter saying something along the lines of "Mass panic in America, as an unidentifiable creature attacks humans, everyone is warned to stay indoors and keep all windows and doors shut!"

The astronauts take it upon themselves to destroy the blob as they feel guilty for letting it on board in the first place. They use all sorts of instruments to attack the blob.

As the astronauts attempt to kill the the blob, researchers begin to research the data taken from PLANET X. They find that the answer to killing the blob, lies in the information they have gathered from the planet. A mineral in the rock from PLANET X, is the key to the blog being seen/destroyed.



Ways of making this funny:


When the blob takes over the Director, it could make the director slap himself a few times.

A victim of the blob, could be someone who's eating jelly. We see a tear on the blob's face, after a spoonful of jelly is eaten.

At the end, the blob is frozen, and sold as ice lollys.

The blob could meet a Snail and say "look what they've done to you! They've made you carry that giant rock on your back!!!".

The blob, at the start, it's visible but can become invisible at will. We see the blob with it's angry smirk on its face as it makes it's way into the space craft, but when it gets hit by the door it goes 'ouch!'.

Narrative references

Here are some trailers for films I believe we could form a pastiche/parody/spoof for. One idea I had in mind would be to parody the 'flying saucer landing' scene from Invaders from Mars, where the kid gets out of bed and sees the flying saucer through the window, instead we could have the kid go to his window shout out "I'm trying to sleep!", and close it?





Invaders from Mars references for Narrative project



When we recieved this random retro movie title, alarm bells started ringing and films such as Invaders from Mars began to come to mind. I believe we could play on the conventions in these Sci-Fi films, and reference scenes such as the spaceship landing scene in Men In Black, which is in itself a reference to Invaders from Mars.

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Transcription notes

Lonely kid sets mood - grey dull, transition to bright!
Two bullies instead of 3?
Shot economy
Establish the dangerous rice field
Two bullies on the edge of a field setting?
Colour value paintings
Lighting book off Ruben
Tone down cliches to make them suttle

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Film reviews


I felt it appropriate to show this at the start of our Narrative unit as the film ultimately teaches you about the struggles you can face when making a professional film. Best of all, it shows one of the most problem-ridden journeys as Terry Gilliam aims to make The Man Who Kill Don Quixote, a film adaption of the book Don Quixote. After watching this film, it really motivates you to make your group projects work, because no matter how bad the journey gets, you can always tell yourself "hey, atleast this ain't no Lost in La Mancha". It was also an insight into the vast amount of details you have to consider when shooting a film from start to finish.



In some ways Ed Wood, for me, was a motivation film in the same way Lost in la Mancha was. Despite how badly Ed Wood's films were received, and how ignorant his working habits were, he enjoyed every moment of working in the film business. This helped me realise that no matter what brings you down, as long as you keep your head up, and continue making YOUR films, you will enjoy the journey. There's a quote in the film from Ed Wood that sums up how I, as an amateur filmmaker, should work by, and that is "Really? that bad? Well my next film will be better!".



This film was a hit at it's time probably due to the fact it had a simple but meaningful message about peace over war, being released after World War 2. It allowed me to identify some scenes that could, and have been, referenced, such as 'the tanks coming down the city street', 'the alien holding a girl in both arms' and 'the alien coming down from his spacecraft'. Also the use of the theremin became symbol in sci-films after the succesful use of it with Gort to create tension.



Being shown this film during our Narrative unit enforced the message that, even though we've got special effects at hand, you can't rely on CG, and that even with the best CG, the film will always be unsuccessful if the story and everything else isn't there. In this case, it was the 3D that helped promote the film, however, it wasn't the 3D that made it a success, it was the story, acting and everything else, the fact that it didn't rely on 3D that did . The story was really influential for me. Jarrod being established well at the start, helped in the shock factor, when you realise what he has become and what the sculptures really are really shocks you!!



Some of the shots in this films were really significant. shots of Dracula with his silhouette, such as at the top of the stars, were really memorable. Also, the gripping acting by Christopher Lee also helped the success of the film as he conveyed Dracula well with the various expressions required. The set design was also memorable, from the dark yet solaced basement to the furnished royal dining room where the final fight scene took place.



This film kept me at the edge of my seat throughout. I think it was mainly because everything was so well established, such as the rules that the creature obeyed by, and the various options available to the residents. The film felt like a really difficult game, where every situation you could think of would be tried by the residents, and you'd follow the whole journey with them. I honestly did not know what was coming next. The pacing of the film was also spot on, you'd have adrenalin moments where you'd be all excited and wanting to punch the air, followed by slow-paced, cooling down periods where this would be your thinking time. I liked this story, because I didn't come out of it thinking "why didn't they just....".



Before watching this, Alan said "the director makes a bold move in this, in terms of storytelling". I started watching the film thinking about what this 'bold move' could be, until about 20 minutes in, when the story just took me in. I really like how the director used a supermarket as a way of housing a whole bunch of personalities, it's so understandable as although these people are so different, it's not weird that they all go shopping in a supermarket. The development of the characters emotions, was so gradual and well timed that I grew with them. I went from thinking "that preaching lady needs to keep quiet", to thinkin "wow, after all that's happened, she may be onto something". It just goes to show, that no matter how grounded you believe you are in your morals, if something supposedly supernatural happened, how quick would you be to lost it. It wasn't until the end that I realised "ohhhh that's what Alan was on about", because at this moment in time, we always expect a certain ending from Hollywood, and that's not what we got from this, it really did shock me. The film overall moved me, and it made me look at my own life.