Global Contexts - Phoebe Owen

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Cover Letter

Job link: https://www.blue-zoo.co.uk/blog/blue-zoo-internships-2020 https://careers.blue-zoo.co.uk/vacancies/138/storyboard-revisionist.html

The aim of this cover letter is to apply for a 2D storyboarder internship at Blue Zoo, an animation company based in London. As internships aren’t open now, I don’t have specific details on the job requirements of it, so I have also linked a storyboard revisionist job at the same company that should offer more insight.

Dear Sir/Madam,

This is an application for the storyboarding internship that I found advertised on your website – my name is Phoebe Owen and I’m a year 2 BA Animation student at Norwich University of the Arts.

I have a great interest in storyboarding and the planning of televised animation, like a lot of the works Blue Zoo produces. I have been honing my skills in fast and clean drawing over the last few years and think I could contribute a lot through an internship such as this one.

While I have not held a job in the animation industry itself, I have received commissioned work, for which I was the sole producer, working through the planning to the final product. This gave me a good understanding of the production pipeline, and how each part of it needs to communicate well to succeed. This in particular was useful as I would like to become a children’s television show runner in the future.

Attached to this will be my CV with some more information, as well as a link to my online portfolio where you can view some of my more recent works and showreel. Of course, with the current situation, I understand if this role will be mostly online.

I would be happy to talk further about my interest in the position as well as my experience, if there is a time that suits you. Thank you for taking the time to read my email.

Sincerely,

Phoebe Owen

 Online Portfolio: phoebeowen038f.myportfolio.com/

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Finished animation from session 2 of the lip sync project.

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Storyboarding

As an extra thing, I decided to attempt an on-model storyboard for a pre-existing TV show, to see how I do at it. This is that work compiled.

As I want to get into animated television, I decided I would go for a scene from Adventure Time, as it has simplistic designs which would be good to practice on. 

While a lot of character turnarounds for adventure time are quite easy to find, the scene I chose involved two lesser seen characters. I managed to bring screen shots together to enact the role of a full turnaround.

This scene, of course, already exists, so I picked up a transcript of it and decided to try re framing it, keeping as close to on model as I could.

Script

[Time card: ON THIS DAY 996 YEARS AGO]

Simon: Huh. Marcy: Hmmmmmm... Simon: [He stops at a deserted mailbox] Ha-ha! Might be something in here, Marceline! Marcy: [Laughing] E-e-ewww! It's a dead rat! Simon: Hey! Yeah, so it is, looks like we've got a cute new traveling buddy. Marcy: Ewww, noooooooo!! Simon: [Giggling a bit] It's kinda cute... [He closes the mailbox chute and continues walking with Marceline.] Simon: [Points to a VHS tape on the ground] Hey, check it out, it's a VHS tape. You wanna watch a movie? Marcy: Yeah![They both stare at the tape for a while.] Simon: ...Man, this is a boring movie.[Marcy giggles.] Simon: I like the book much better! [He throws the tape behind him and they both laugh.] Marcy: You're so silly, Simon! Simon: He-he-he, yeah, I suppose so... Huh?[A rustling noise is heard in the bushes..] 

Example of an Adventure Time Storyboard

- Clean lines - Quite detailed backgrounds when a character is walking through them (when more attention would be brought to them)

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Second Draft (Final)

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First Draft

This is the first draft of my script. The feedback recieved was that it was too descriptive for a screenplay and read more like a novel, so the next draft will be similar but cut down to reduce filler. 

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Result of the first tutorial, creating a lip synced animation in After Effects. 

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Wider Narrative of the Script

The time period of this script will be in the early 2010s. Recently the secondary character (in this script), Juniper, will have lost one of her friends very recently in battle. For the past 2000 years she has spent on Earth, she’s seen her friends die multiple times, being reincarnated each time they pass. They’re currently waiting on the next Air Elemental to be reincarnated, but the toll of all this time in weighing down on her. 

They’re staying in plain sight of the humans to avoid suspicion, which unfortunately places them in a concrete jungle - something Juniper, the Earth elemental, despises. For 2000 years she hasn’t seen Alasdair or Time, after they sent her to Earth, and she’s losing hope on being contacted.

Alasdair has visited her, being very attached to his ‘children’, but by the request of his partner he’s kept himself hidden. He likes to check on her, to make sure she’s alright. 

This time, she’s very much not alright. 

Alasdair feels too weak to stay away from her, and, as if by instinct, walks toward her. He questions whether this was the right thing to do, and if it wasn’t, why did they do this? Why did Time suggest this? Was Time... not as ‘good’ as he thought? He’ll being to wonder about the time they’ve spent together in this new context, which will be frightening and daunting to him,. 

This will be the first time Juniper has seen another Fairy that isn’t one of the physical elementals (earth, water, fire, air), and she’ll be both scared that she hasn’t fulfilled the job they sent her to do, as well as relieved that she might be given meaning again. 

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Analysis of a Screenplay

When deciding on a screenplay, I decided to go for a film that has one of my favourite scenes ever: How to Train your Dragon. Here I’ll be both taking notes on the screenplay as a whole, as well as a particular hair-raising scene in particular. 

https://www.imsdb.com/scripts/How-to-Train-Your-Dragon.html

Notes on Writing a Screenplay

Descriptions of locations are quite vague and simple - the appearance of places will be demonstrated in visual artwork so it doesn’t need to be portrayed here. 

Longer pieces of speech (e.g. the monologue from the beginning of the movie) are split apart instead of forming one massive paragraph.

Names, onomatopoeia and special effects seem to all be capitalised - perhaps for ease of access to the sound and effects departments.

In general, characters don’t talk for long periods of time. In a medium like film, you want the visuals to talk for you (show don’t tell). If there are longer bits of speech, they’re broken up by interesting visual descriptions. 

There continues to be onomatopoeia (e.g. ‘KABLAM’).

Some sections read like a book or novel would when demonstrating characters’ surprise “Too late - she's right outside”.

The ‘action’ paragraphs are purely descriptive of the visual, and don’t go into character thoughts and feelings. These things need to be demonstrated through the visuals, even in the script. 

First Time Flying Freestyle Scene

    After a few more misses, Hiccup finally GRABS HOLD of the          harness and manages to lock in -- just in time to pull          Toothless out of his dive... barely shy of the tree tops.          They careen past the wooded cliff and directly into a          treacherous slalom course of jutting sea stacks.          Hiccup pulls the cheat sheet from his teeth and attempts to          check positions. It flaps violently in the turbulence, making          it impossible.          With no time to think, Hiccup throws it away and steers          Toothless' tail on instinct... with perfect intuition.          Together, they manage a tight, hair-rasing series of split-          second turns, making it to the open water, unscathed.          Hiccup takes a breath and glances back at the death-defying          obstacle course, now safely behind them. He beams, relieved.          He sits back and throws his arms up in victory.          HICCUP (CONT'D)          YEEAHHH!          Toothless concurs with a happy SQUEAL and a fireball.          Hiccup's glee turn to dread as they fly directly into it.          ON HICCUP'S FACE          HICCUP (CONT'D)          Ah, come on.

This scene is the first time Hiccup and Toothless have been completely in sync - they’re in a perilous situation, and they need to ‘wing’ it. After the movie has them struggling against each other, here they come together and perfect their companionship. 

This sets a precedent for their relationship for the rest of the movie, and provides further motivation for theses two characters to care about each other enough to protect them. Hiccup is the first dragon-rider (that they know of) so this in the context of their culture is revolutionary too. 

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World-Building

zThe everyday of my character is quite hard to reference. As a Space elemental, he’s able to travel throughout the universe, which is something we don’t have much experience in as humans. While I’m not entirely sure of his occupation yet as he does this, it won’t be something I can convincingly do for this project.

For my script, I’m wanting to show both sides to this character, and one of the only people that can bring out his ‘Hyde’ equivalent is Juniper, and she resides on Earth. He wouldn’t have been forbidden to meet with her, but it would be greatly frowned upon by Time, so he would keep his distance and try to make his visitations quick. The time I envisage him visiting it just prior to the last Air elemental passing - a person that would have been close friends with Juniper.

At this time the physical elementals would be camouflaging themselves among the humans as living in the forest would be too conspicuous now - humans have taken over most of the planet. 

They would live in a lower income neighborhood in London, as this is where one of their (still alive) mothers resides, so they try to stay close to her for that particular fairy’s sake. They might have jobs, but they won’t be anything higher end otherwise they might draw too much attention - they will be things like gardeners and construction workers.

For our scene, Space would check in, perhaps posing among the humans himself to get a closer look. He would try to understand their new rituals after having been gone for at least a century (time works different when you’re such a powerful entity) and he would come across his fairies. Juniper will look downtrodden, and this got more and more so each time he visited. 

He’ll observe how she’s changed since the last time he saw her - she’ll now be wearing baggy, modern looking clothing to try and hide her wings from the human public, and strangely her hair will be chopped off at one side. 

Space will struggle with himself, seeing her in such a depressed state. This is where the ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ part of the script will come in, and Space wants to reach out and help her, but that might mean admitting that Time was a problem. If he went against his wishes, it would bring danger to Juniper’s doorstep and he worries about how he could have let it get to this point. His two sides, being a ruthless elemental and being a vulnerable partner and father would war with each other. He might talk to himself or perhaps to another human about his plight (if he talks to a human, this human might pose as one of his sides). 

To introduce some of Space’s natural environment, the scene will briefly start in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. This is where he will see how advanced the humans have become, and realise that he will have to keep a lower profile on this visit. 

Sources:  https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/science/mos-upper-atmosphere.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermosphere#:~:text=The%20thermosphere%20is%20the%20layer,larger%20part%20of%20the%20ionosphere.

https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/aurora-and-the-international-space-station-what-happens-in-the-thermosphere/

Researching into what this would realistically (as realistic as a fairy in space could get, anyway) be entails seeing exactly where he would have to be to avoid human detection, and what it might be like to be there. According to a source from NASA, this would place him in the Thermosphere, as the only thing in orbit here should be the Hubble telescope, which means he would be close enough to know he needs to hide - “The thermosphere is completely uninhabited with the exception of the International Space Station”.

Due to the radiation from space, the molecules here heat up and split, creating heat, which can reach a couple thousand degrees Celsius - however this is not felt “an observer or object will experience cold temperatures in the thermosphere “, so if Space can feel temperatures, he would feel cold when in the thermosphere. 

The thermosphere is also home to the aurora borealis, which could be a good visual for when Space comes to visit. His affinity for the sciences (which could be part of his personality that comes from his element) could have him stepping back to appreciate the site. Perhaps there was more reason to sending the elemental fairies to Earth than just ‘that’s where they came from’ - maybe he likes Earth, maybe he created it himself?

Linked below is some footage from the ISS filmed in 2012 (around when I’m wanting the script to be set) of the aurora borealis. A large swath of the planet has an alien-like green glow to it, and it appears quite like how we can see it from earth. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAIyVZoXv9M

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Character Personality Building

While this character exists in theory for my cartoon, I have yet to put much into building who he is and what he cares about, so I decided to use an exercise we used in a script writing session. 

Name: Age: ∞ Profession: Space Elemental Gender: Male Species: Fae (Elemental)

Five Facts

- He’s able to create portals through space, quickly moving from one place to another. He can move through these portals, and he can bring things through them - including collapsing stars.

- 

Four Relationships

- Time. For as long as Space can remember, there has been Time, and he’s his closest relationship. What they have is essentially a romantic relationship, although it sometimes doesn’t feel like it to Space - he sometimes feels like he’s just used for his powers. 

- Juniper. When the physical elemental were created, Space invested a lot of time into their formation and raising them. While he was close with all of them, Juniper is the last of the original 4 remaining, and because of this he feels very protective and attached. He’s very fatherly toward her.

- Spirit. [Character in production, but this is the Elemental for ‘Spirit’. She may have been locked away by Space and Time for some reason].

- ?

Three Hopes and Dreams

- Space wants to be able to have constant contact with the Elementals in whatever incarnation they’re in. He sees them as his children, and has a strong paternal instinct toward them - he wishes he could see them protected. 

Two Obstacles

- Time fully controls their relationship and what the two do on a day to day basis. It seems that their schedule is always packed out and there’s never a part of the day where Space can get away to do what he wants to do. Overall, Time is one of Space’s obstacles - he’s not strong enough to get around him.

- 

One Secret

For as long as Space has been sentient, he has known Time and it’s because of this that the two have a seemingly unbreakable bond, but sometimes Space feels as if the relationship was forced and that, if given the chance, he might leave it. He’s frightened of Time in some respect, however, and doesn’t think he would survive if he opposed him. 

In order to get around Time, Space distilled some of his power into a physical elemental. He’s not sure which one got this extra power, or which incarnation of that elemental it might be, but he hopes that they will be able to help if something bad happens. 

Their Birth

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Character Designing

In my initial sketches I tried to look at my original cast of characters so I could design this new character as someone who appears to belong in the same universe but doesn’t match the designs of any of them. 

As the notes suggest, I’m thinking that he definitely needs to look more regal and ‘ancient’ due to the age and class difference. The Metaphysical Elements (Space, Time and Spirit) are vastly more powerful than the Physical Elements (Air, Fire, Earth and Water), so this needs to show through the design. While I intend for this character to join the side of good eventually he will start off as a villain. This side of him will be the ‘Hyde’ in my designing, while his kinder and possibly redeemable side will be ‘Jekyll’. 

Looking into possible references, I decided to take a look at how the elves of Lord of the Rings were designed, particularly Thranduil as he’s the Elven king and has regality due to this (on top of being an Elf).

I started off by trying some symmetrical designs, playing around with the build the character might have. He’s needs to be imposing as he’ll be the villain of my cartoon concept, but he has a softer side that needs to be uncovered. Because of this I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make him look that much bigger than the main cast or not. This design is mostly for the ‘Jekyll’ side, which I will play with to create the ‘Hyde’ side after.

I thought of having a ‘well built’ body for this character - one of the main cast has a slightly wider frame so I wanted to have this character differ slightly. While sketching I thought of the possibility of him having heterochromia - where the eyes are different colours. My current head canon for this character - which may change - is that he’s in an abusive or overall uncomfortable relationship with the main villain, and perhaps having what looks like simple heterochromia could lead on to something more in his ‘Hyde’ form. 

I played around with different periods of clothing, looking at modern fashion, fantastical and ancient types of dress. 

I also played around with the wing shape - his wings need to help make his silhouette distinct as well as set him apart from the main cast. I liked the idea of them having a ‘liquid’ kind of texture with stars inside them, almost like liquid space. I would be cool to have extra stars and such exuding from them but this would be hard to animate. 

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Fairy Research

The concept of ‘Space’ and ‘Time’ as characters have began as quite modern looking characters, reminiscent of the black and white theming used in the Youtube channel Unus Annus where one wears a black suit and the other a white, or at least semi-formal attire. 

The show’s time period is kind of unknown but it’s somewhere within the Celtic era, however this is due to some kind of ‘time reverse’, and before the show begins humanity was in the modern era. Being outside the realm of physical elements also, this means that ‘Time’ and ‘Space’ can have any period of clothing.

It might be a good idea to look into how the idea of fairies originated, however, as these characters would have played a part in humanities belief in fairies.

The Origin of Fairies

The word ‘fairie’ seems to originate from the 1300s and was defined as “something incredible or fictitious”, and has connections to terms such as “enchantment, magic, witchcraft and sorcery”. An earlier form ‘fae’ from the 1200s is from Latin and talks of “destiny” and “fate.  

Closer to modern day, the word ‘fairy’ had negative connotations when referring to an “effeminate male homosexual” around 1895.

________________________________________________________________

Etymonline.com. n.d. Fairy | Origin And Meaning Of Fairy By Online Etymology Dictionary. [online] Available at: <https://www.etymonline.com/word/fairy> [Accessed 2 December 2020]. ________________________________________________________________

The oldest fairies on record in England where described by the historian Gervase of Tilbury in the 13th century, telling stories of a subterranean world of fairies living beneath the land of humans. 

A quick glimpse at who Gervace of Tilbury was can be found in this abstract for a longer biography:

“Gervase of Tilbury (c. 1150s–c. 1222) was a university‐educated courtier‐cleric, who spent much of his life in association with the courts of figures such as Henry the Young King, Henry II, and the Emperor Otto IV. For Otto he wrote Otia imperialia (Recreations for an emperor), a description of the world filled with observations and accounts of wonders associated with various places. His work is of interest to cartographers, historians of geography, and folklorists.” ________________________________________________________________

Castelow, E., 2013. The Origins And History Of Fairies. [online] Historic UK. Available at: <https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Origins-of-Fairies/> [Accessed 2 December 2020].

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118396957.wbemlb618 [Accessed 2 December 2020] ________________________________________________________________

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Jekyll & Hyde Research II - Fairy Concept

Recently I have been using a lot of my personal time to research fairies in mythology for my cartoon concept. I’ve been looking at mentions of them primarily in Norse and Celtic mythologies, as well as a look into Witchcraft. 

An idea I currently have in development for my cartoon concept is the ‘big bad’ of the show, who the main characters are opposed to. At the moment, these characters are the ‘adoptive parents’ of my Juniper character, and they will somewhat oppose the message of the show in regards to recognizing childhood trauma and working through it. 

These characters are, so far, the metaphysical elemental fairies ‘Time’ and ‘Space’ (they currently don’t even have names). The ‘Time’ fairy is the ultimate villain of the show, being the dominant and dismissive parental figure to Juniper, while ‘Space’ is perhaps misguided but nurturing of her. The two are a parental dynamic which could be construed as abusive considering their differing beliefs on Juniper and the other elemental fairies. ‘Space’ in the context of Jekyll and Hyde would be Jekyll, the one with more of a moral compass, while ‘Time’ would be Hyde. 

I’m not sure if this would work to the brief as these are separate characters, but perhaps if I focused solely on ‘Space’ I could use this project to develop this character. While I’m doubtful that I will use these two half entirely, it could be a good way of researching abusive relationships and what could make a seemingly good person turn a blind eye to their partner’s worse behaviors. 

Here is the development I have so far for this character:

Can move things through any amount of space with ease. Is able to open up portals to create a speedy way through large distances. If this elemental surges, travel between Earth and the Otherworld is blocked, and the stars aren’t visible in Earth's night sky. (The Otherworld is referred to a lot in the research I’ve been doing and, in the case of this concept, refers to an alternate dimension that the Fae originate from, kind of like the ‘Upside Down’ in ‘Stranger Things’)/

More empathetic toward Juniper, took more care in raising her when she was acquired as a child. He embodies all of space, and has an affinity for all those that live in it, even if it contradicts logic.

Unable to stand up to Time due to the distance between their powers.

Still created the elementals, and they’re still pieces of him. The elementals would have to be a ‘labour of love’, so to speak, between Time and Space, but Space is the one who ends up caring for them more in the end. 

‘Space’ and ‘Time’ have always been put together in my development, so some of this research involves ‘Time’ as well. As a character that will have a lot of influence on ‘Space’ and their personality it might be good to determine what this character is all about too. As we are able to make a cast for this project, I might include my character design for Juniper, along with a new design for ‘Time’ as they play such big parts. 

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Jekyll & Hyde Research

Initially I would like to design characters that are similar to the canonical Jekyll and Hyde, with perhaps a simple twist to them, but this could change over the course of research. I do want to keep it to the Victorian aesthetic, but again this could change. 

Arthur (1998) ‘Arthur's Almost Live Not Real Music Festival’. Toronto: Cookie Jar Group 

This episode of Arthur features one of the main cast creating a potion that turns them into Hyde in a musical number. As seen in the short snippet above, the styling of Hyde needs to be simplistic to fit the small television slot so they go with the traditional Victorian outfitting for Hyde. Jekyll - or Brain - however, stays in modern clothing to suit the character it’s using to portray this reference. 

The musical number continues to follow the original story of Jekyll and Hyde - if simplified. It does cut out the character dying, however, and just remains as an allegory for good and evil, as referred to within the lyrics:

I started turning green; Feeling mean; It was like In the story;

I was acting strange; Quite deranged; It was pure Allegory!

The lyrics also offer a helpful insight into how people might have interpreted Hyde from the book, which could be handy in designing them. 

This was too much, I simply had to stop! I threw that potion away! (Potion away) But it didn’t matter if I drank the stuff; I just kept on changing anyway! (Changing anyway)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Directed by Henry Selick [film]. San Francisco, California: Touchstone Pictures and Skellington Productions

Within this media Hyde doesn’t have much of an appearance, but what is does have diverts quite a bit from other adaptations of the character. As seen in the image above, Hyde has quite a distinctive face with the exagerrated eyes and mouth, as well as the front facing nostrils. His body is a distinctive cone shape, giving him the feeling of being top heavy, but what really sets him apart is that he has two smaller versions of himself within his hat.   

As with the Arthur rendition, this Hyde seems to be mostly based within the Victorian style, and has a simplistic colour scheme of monotone greenish hues and blacks, contrasted by bright red on his nails and lips.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1986) Directed by Warwick Gilbert [film]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvg8DrVsmP0 [Accessed: 1/12/2020]

As the character I’m designing will be animated, I’m mostly focusing on looking at animated adaptations of the base story, and how the characters there are designed. Here is a complete animated adaptation of the story of Jekyll and Hyde, so the designing can be taken into account along with the actual plot of the book. This adaptation gives more of an insight into what happens with Jekyll and Hyde away from the narrator of the book, however. 

As can be seen on the DVD cover, the design of Hyde is an emphasized version of Jekyll - his nose is the same shape but seems elongated, and his chin is rounder. To indicate the two are the same character, they keep the muttonchops and their outfits stay very similar, however Hyde switches out Jekyll’s lab coat for a more outdoorsy top hat and suit dark jacket.

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