Kate Allman: 3 Minute Film

[kateallmanuclan3rd]

On the whole I am pleased with the final version of my film. Whilst certain shots could have been improved upon given the time, particularly the final shots, I still feel that the film was completed to the highest standard given the amount of time I ended up having to animate after making all my sets. Paul William's audio was particularly fitting, mixing well with the atmosphere I was trying to create with my film. The voice of Joyce, done by Rebekah Mcloughlin, provided an excellent tone of naivety, allowing me to explain the situation through atmosphere and visual description. 

I drew upon many tropes and aspects of traditional horror films in order to build the correct atmosphere for my film. The inclusion of certain horror elements, such as the abandoned mansion and the ghost child, are designed to draw upon elements of horror that we see as uncanny. These are certain designs that are different from ourselves but eerily similar, enough so to cause our minds to draw a comparison, whilst the inherent differences lead to a distinct feeling  of unease.

I made these artistic decision to draw upon a particular personal nostalgia to the traditional horror genre. Film’s such as ‘The Haunting’(1963)  inspired me towards the location of isolation. By placing the setting in the woods, far away from civilization, I made my protagonist a weakened individual, therefore being vulnerable to the dangers inherent in their new setting but at the same time being completely blind to the dangers around her. 

So overall I am happy with the outcome of my film as I feel it portrays the darker side of my art style. It shows both my 2D and stop frame animation styles. The backgrounds show my skills in traditional art while my sets show how I am able to create objects and furniture out of different materiel. I feel if I had more time I would have been able to show my technical skills better. If i could go back I would have demanded more time off my part-time job and better planned my time.

[kateallmanuclan3rd]

Part Two

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Part One

This is the last redo of my story boards that I did with Pete.

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Ghost Animation

After having a talk with Mario and Pete it was decided that animating the ghost in 2D. This is to save time so I can balance my time better so I finish on time. It is also so the 2D scenes have a better connection to the rest of the film. It will also mean the ghost stands out more and show it is not part of the world.

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This is a boarder I have created for my front covers of my essay and action plan.

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This is one of my 2D backgrounds for the first scene of my film. After talking with Pete, we have decided that all scenes outside the manor should be in 2D to save time from building sets. I am creating them all in acrylic paint.

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Animation: Stop Frame

In total I had 4 different sets that were made out of multiple materials and were constantly being reshuffled about depending on the shot.

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Last Finishing Touches to Puppet

The last few things I did to my model was adding metal to the feet so I can use magnets to secure my character while animating and then painting the feet. I then added the replaceable eye lids and pupils. My character is now ready to animate.

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Prop and Furniture Development

These images show the long finishing development of different parts of my sets. I used materials such as super sculpy, balsa wood, string, cardboard, wire and mod rock.

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Head and Hair Final Developments

I used matt enamel paints for colouring the head and each replaceable jaw. This has worked very well as the paint is not shiny and is very durable.

For the hair I wanted it to look realistic and didn't think as well if I created it out of latex rubber. In the past I have found that synthetic hair, which is used for things like wigs and dolls was hard to work with. it is extremely shiny and is extremely difficult put in the shape you want. Therefore I decided to use real hair like Mackinnon and Saunders does for their puppets. As at this point I had really long hair, I went to my normal hair dressers and asked her to chop it off and told her what I had planned. She tied my hair into multiple separate bobbles and put it all in a bag for me. While constructing the hair for my model I used multiple types of adhesive and super glue. The pony tail of my model had multiple pieces of wire inside it so I can animated it slightly. When I was finished I was very happy with the way it turned out. I feel it works very well and suits the characters design.

[kateallmanuclan3rd]

Tree Design Inspiration

My design of trees in this way has slowly developed since doing my GCSEs. I was heavily inspired by Mary Blair and Tim Burton but also art nouveau. I’ve always liked a twisted and abstract style that keeps its detail.

Mary Blair

Tim Burton

Through time I have experimented with different media for my trees. Overall Indian ink and paints work the best. The different medias create two different styles within my style. One slightly softer with colour and the other ruff and scratchy that is in black and white. I find Indian ink works best when using sticks instead of brushes as it creates an interesting textured style.

[kateallmanuclan3rd]

Cannock Chase Forest

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/black-eyed-child-returns-haunt-7846214

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/29/mystery-black-eyed-child-sightings-cannock-chase-_n_5898988.html

I have an interest in urban legends and ghost stories. I follow a few channels on YouTube that do countdowns of different facts and legends. I was going back through “Top5s” channel and watching some of his older stuff, when i came up to the video above. The second legend is of Cannock Chase Forest in Staffordshire, where a black eyed girl and woman have been seen. This caught my attention as its like the ghost I have in my film. After this I looked it up and found that the latest apparent sighting of this ghost was in 2014. Above are some of the articles I found. I’ve always been skeptical of the paranormal but also have a large interest in it. I have found a couple things that I think have a slim chance of being real but mostly everything is so easily explained by something natural or the fact that its obviously fake. Like the apparent video of the Black Eyed Woman in this video is obviously just a passer by in the forest. Even though theres lots of obviously fake apparent evidence, I still find it interesting and I feel I could make a connection between my ghost and the legend of the Black Eyed Girl from Cannock Chase Forest.

[kateallmanuclan3rd]

A concept from Simon Partridge for “Tree Top Hat”. He shared this on his twitter account. 

https://twitter.com/Slumberlessfilm

This reminds me of my own tree designs that I have developed over time. My tree designs started to develop way back in high school, while I was doing GCSE Art. I will go into more detail about my background designs and sense of style in the future but I will say that my inspiration came from Mary Blair and a bit of Tim Burton.

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Facial Expressions 

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Set Shell Deveopment

Mario helped me create a shell for my sets out of wood. This is so my sets have support and it also means I can just swap out the walls to create different rooms.

[kateallmanuclan3rd]

Hollow Girls Dress Development

Above is a variety of images showing the stages of me making the dress of the ghost. I also started making a wig for this character because I plan of having two heads. Therefore this makes it easier as I wont have to mess with hair twice. The base of the wig is made from a simple stocking that I have sewn in the shape of the characters head.

[kateallmanuclan3rd]

Foam Latex Hands Development

These photographs show how I developed hands for my character. This was a long process as it used the same technique as when I created the armature for my ghost. Everything was going well until it came to making the hands themselves. The current latex rubber we had in uni had go off and just didn’t work at all when we tried to use it. While pulling apart the molds the latex just came away and ripped. So I had to wait a week or so for a new batch to come in. Once we got the new latex rubber, I tried again and this time it work really well and I now have a pair of latex hands for my main character.