Beginning this project I created a mind map of all of the different areas associated with piers. Using this I was able to look into relevant topics such as the history of piers and the events that go on on them. Using brief descriptions I jotted down some initial ideas and developed a few of them. By doing this I was able focus most of my research into the topics that were relevant to my outcome.
Once I had written up my final storyboard I went down to the pier where I looked at the locations and worked out which area was best for which scene. Using these photos in my storyboard helped to make it more realistic, and is defiantly something that I will do for storyboards in the future. I approached this project in a structured way, which enabled me to be able to develop a clear idea of the final theme quite early on, giving me more time to research and create my final outcome. I feel this approach is best for projects with a short time frame. However I do feel that using a bit more time to develop and refine my narrative could have been useful. If I had planned ahead with regards to the filming I may have been able to create the animation that I wanted to originally do, which is something that I will consider in future projects. Overall I am pleased with the outcome of this project. I think the animation is fitting to the brief and the narrative is engaging. One of the things that I was worried about with my storyboard was the ending. I wasn't quite sure how to bring the animation to an end. However I think that the fading out of the image as well as the music works well and brings the film nicely to an end.
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My final idea was a film involving both real footage and animation, that followed the journey of a couple as they relive their youth on the pier. I am happy with the outcome although I would have liked some more time to refine the small details and to make the whole film come together better. I will revisit this project in the future as I have enjoyed working on it and think it could use some adjustments. Despite this I am pleased with the way it turned out. Now I had my storyboard I needed to go to Hastings pier and film some footage. I was able to get some footage (below) but due to the weather conditions filming was cut short.
From the footage that I did manage to get I was able to create a test animation. To do this I drew over the people in the film with the roto-brush and had them as animated characters by using an effect. The original plan was for this to be the style of the whole film with the memories also being drawn on. However due to to lack of film that I had to work with I was unable to do this. I still made the test to see how long it would take to animate and what the animated and real footage looked like when together. I think that the test animation, even though it is short, works well and had I had more time to be able to go back and reshoot I would have created the entire film in this style. I needed to come up with a way that I could stick to my storyboard but still use the style of animation that I had chosen for my film. To do this I decided to use the still images that I had taken on my first visit to the pier and make the characters using illustrator, rigging them in after effects. The next step was to put the characters into my scene, key framing the scale and position to make them look life size. Once this was done I had to animate the fairground rides and ballroom onto the scene, trying to make it as similar as possible to the amusements that were once on the pier. Although there wasn't a carousel on hastings pier it is a common feature of many other piers and memories of them.
The next step in making my film was to create a storyboard. I initially drew a quick sketch to give me a rough idea of the storyline that I wanted to follow. In order to be able to visualise the final idea better I took a trip down to hastings pier where I took some photographs of the space. By doing this I was able to see the location where my footage would be taken and be able to work out which spaces worked best for which sections of my film. Whilst on the pier I also went into the museum. This gave me a more detailed incite into the history of the pier, including information about Professor Davenport (a stunt diver from edwardian times) and the Zooquarium. One of the things that I found to be the most useful was a map of the pier that showed what attractions were placed where throughout its lifetime. Using all of the information I have gathered I began creating my storyboard. The idea was to follow a couple who are having a flashback to their youth spent on the pier. I decided that I would be good to use the images that I had taken on the pier to create the storyboard so that it could be as accurate as possible. Using the storyboarding skills that I had learnt from the projection mapping project I created the below storyboard. This more detailed storyboard will help me when I visit the pier to shoot the main footage because I can tell exactly what shots I need to get.
I began looking through the list o genres that I had made and was able to quickly rule some out because I didn't think that they would be appropriate for the brief. Some of the ones I ruled out are horror, musical, sci-fi and crime. I then looked back at the brainstorm of ideas that I had made at the beginning of this project and decided that I would make my film about memories of the pier. This could fit into the categories of comedy, adventure, documentary, silent and romance. Looking at these genres I think that the most fitting would be romance and documentary. A lot of people have fond memories of the pier and may have even met their partner whilst on holiday there. I wanted to explore these two genres in more depth. Firstly I looked up the definition of each genre and then went onto looking at what the key defining elements were for each of them. After looking through various websites I compiled a lost of the three characteristics that were the most commonly talked about for each genre.
The three main characteristics of a Romance film are:
The three main characteristics of a Documentary are:
When storyboarding my idea I will ensure that I refer back to these points so that I can maximise the potential of my story. Whilst looking at the various different styles of animation and film I was able to visualise my idea in each style and work out which works the best. Each of the above categories has its good and bad points and are best suited to different types of stories. I think that for my project I am going to use a mixture of both illustrated and live action. This will enable me to have more freedom over the direction that I want my project to go in.
I wanted to find an example of an animation style similar to the ones I want to use to give me a better understanding of the process behind them. I found a CBBC programme called Roy. It follows the life of a cartoon boy in the real world. He interacts with the other characters as if he was normal. I think this programme works well because you would never normally see a cartoon in this setting and all of the characters do not treat him any differently. Although this is the style of animation that I want to use for this project I do feel that it would work best if my characters were more lifelike than the character in this programme. This will help the audience to connect to the main characters more. I moved on to look at short films. I wanted to find out what makes a short film good. Looking at various review sites and finding some short films on youtube I discovered that the best ones have an engaging narrative, they make you connect with the characters and want to know how the story pans out. I looked at a range of short films from a variety of different genres and have linked some of the best ones below.
The reasons I feel that these are strong short films:
Whilst researching into the piers of Britain and why we love them so much, I came across the National Piers Society website, a charity which is dedicated to sustaining piers and keeping interest in them going. On their website they had a page in which all of the people that run this charity talk about why they became interested in piers and the work they do for this organisation. I found this to be interesting because it helped me to gain a better understanding of why piers mean so much to us as a nation. When I was browsing through their website I also found more information about Hastings pier. It was named Pier of the Year 2017. They talked about the history of the pier and the fires that had happened as well as some information about the history of the pier. It talks about the orchestra and animated pictures that used to play and the ballroom. In the 1930's a camera obscura was added along with a pavilion and amusement arcades. Later on in the 1960's - 1970's many famous bands played on the pier including Jimi Hendrix, The Who and The Rolling Stones. Making this a pier that would bring in visitors from all over the country. I decided to ask various people about their memories of the pier. I was looking to find out if anyone had any specific memories of what they used to do on the pier. In order to get a wider range of answers I didn't limit it to a specific pier and instead left it open. Below are some of the replies that I received. I asked people in the UK as well as people from Australia and Canada. From these responses I was able to get a clear underling of why people visit piers and the key memories that they take away from those visits. I will incorporate this into my final film in which I am aiming to draw on the memories associated with piers and reliving them.
I wanted to look at some of the most visited / highly regarded piers in the UK and find out what made people visit them. To do this I used a mixture of resources, including review websites such as trip advisor, blog posts from other people that have researched the topic and by asking people from both the UK and abroad. Below are a list of the 5 piers that I found to be most popular.
From this research I have learnt that the most popular piers are ones that have something for all ages. For example amusement parks and cafes. This is because they are places that many families go for a fun day out and to spend time together, creating memories. I think that this could be a good angle to look at for my film. Incorporating piers as they are now with what they used to be. Looking pacifically at the reasons why people continue to visit the same piers over and over again.
The first thing I wanted to look at was the history of piers. Looking at how they have evolved over time and the various elements that were associated with them. I started this by looking at hastings pier. I thought that this would be a good place to start as it was easy to get to both from uni and home and had a lot of information available about it.
I began by looking at the hastings pier website, where I found out about all of the different components that made up the pier over its past. I found this to be very helpful because there were a lot of images to help me visualise what it looked like. I also looked back at a project that I had done in level 4, which was a zine that I had based on the pier. Looking back at all of the information I had found out about it back then and applying it to potential ideas for the film was useful. |
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