Second project involved producing a 5 -30 second ident for an uprising film screening project called Kino 10. The ident should be creatively minded and raise interest and intrigue what Kino 10 is all about. We are allowed to manipulate the logo, but it still has to be recognizable. I have started my research with gathering information what Kino 10. I have to say it was hard to get the sense of it, since internet doesn't provide much information about it. In the end I got a hold of a couple of words that perfectly describe it: diversity, surrealistic and colorful. The audience of Kino 10 are mostly students, artists and hipsters.
What is Kino 10?
Kino 10 explores the frontiers of short film and showcases the very best short films from around the globe. What began as a short night in 2010 has now evolved into something much more, with screening taking place in warehouses, galleries, churches, theaters and various other places around the midlands and beyond.
We also hand a chance to pitch our ideas to the father of Kino10. Presentation had to be short and consistent and include things such as research, couple of ideas, references, any tests and story boards.
Research and ideas:
I've started my research with searching for different film festival idents and opening title sequences, to get inspired and create something interesting and tactile. I was also looking at the usage of different media and how artists find a visual contact with spectator. My favorite one was ''Mirrorball ident 2005'' cut-out animation. I liked the usage of the color pallet which really brings those birds alive. It really encouraged me to try something in the same manner.
Kyiv International Film Festival
Mirrorball - Ident 2005
Document 7 Ident
A History of the Title Sequence
One of my first ideas was try and to make an origami animation. Animate 3D paper-made abstract things that will form a Kino 10 logo. But after thinking for a while I've decided that this won't suit such film screening exhibition.
Also one of the earliest ideas was to make a mosaic Kino 10 logo and animate it.
Probably my strongest idea was to make a kaleidoscopic intro for Kino 10. I have found these amazing kaleidoscope photos, which really inspired me to try and animate bits of paper. At first I wanted to produce a cut-out animation and animate the whole kaleidoscope, but with the small amount of time we had, it's practically impossible to do so. After browsing through the internet I've found that there's an easier way for that in After Effects.
For our first Business of animation project we had to choose a competition brief, working in groups we had to produce a piece of animation. I dare to say, that our team struggled the most and couldn't decide which project to choose. We were debating and voting, since everyone had their favourites. Eventually , our choose narrowed down to Clockmakers competition and Chanel 4. After a bit of negotiation we have all decided that it is going to Clockmakers brief, even though we have failed to register on time. The title of competition is "Picturing Time".
Probably the best way to start a creative project is brainstorming and mind mapping your ideas. It really helps. After a few hours of thinking how to visually portray time I've remembered reading a short french novella called "Le Petit Prince" (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This was a philosophical story about love, responsibility and devotion. Little prince opens our eyes on the wonders of our everyday life and gist of human relationships. The author with bitterness explains that when adults part with their childhood, they start forget about the internal values.
“All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it.”
“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”
“You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
After recalling the story I have decided to come up with one. I wanted it to be a tale.
The tale is about a man, who has lost his beloved wife many years ago and recently the string that was connecting him to the memories of her faded when the last life in the whole house has died - the flower. The man was blaming himself for letting that happen and was sure that with the death of the flower he had definitely forgotten his beloved. That triggered his obsessive idea of bringing the flower back to live. The man stops clean his house, which starts to pile up with dust and the truck outside rusts over the years. The main character practically locks himself up in the basement with a huge contraption build to bring back flower. Everyday he notes down the results of his project. And everyday there's no progression. Time passes the man grows old, the bookcase if full of diaries but there are still no results. Tired from all of the effortless research and tries, he sits into his old chair reading and recalling what has he done wrong. Not noticing that, the man falls asleep and will never wake up. When all of the hope seems to be lost there's always a drop of faith that give us the power move on.
This tale should encourage people not waste their lives on sitting and waiting for the perfect moment to come, but instead go and live the moment. Not only that, but I've also found that there could be an alternative way to understand this tale. One should spend his time with close ones, since there's always a chance that he may never see them.
After making a few doodles in my sketchbook, I have presented this story to my group mates. The only thing I was worried about is that I wanted this animation to be a stop-motion, but with the amount of time and work we have it's possible that we might not handle it. Apparently, my teammates have all seemed to like the story and agreed that it will look good as a stop-motion short.
After that there was researching and planning our next moves.
Character reference:
For this project I wanted a stylelized almost cartoony character. I find Ben's Whitehouse artwork inspiring. The shapes of his characters really bring out their essence.
Another character artist I have referenced was Carter Goodrich. Also extremely talented artist. I fell in love with his cross hatching.
House reference:
Truck reference:
I have also referenced an animation called ''Frankenweenie'' since I wanted our animation to be emotional as well.
The new brief has been given to us. For this task we need to explore one of two places: Digbeth or Jewellery Quarter and to produce an animation short which will unveil stories that these places hide. But constrain ourselves from making too documentary animation. Definitely not the easiest task to handle, but we'll try.
Our choice stopped on the Jewellery Quarter since it's Birmingham's' valuable heritage. First of all, we started mind mapping our ideas, searching for interesting facts, myths and legends. Based on those we wanted to create a tale of this place. We were so eager to start bringing this idea to life that after considering this with tutor we have realized that it was too far from reality and may be confusing to spectator. We came to conclusion that we must first visit the place, get all the inspiration and then decide on a decent idea.
Second, step was to pay Jewellery Quarter a visit. We stopped by Jewellery Quarter Museum, looked around for a while but did not find anything useful. It was a good thing that some tourists recommended taking a guided tour, it was a life savior. This was such an amazing experience! The guide explained how Smith & Peppers' shop was manufacturing jewellery. We found out a lot of interesting and hidden facts which probably not everyone's aware of. The guide in details told and showed us how every machine worked at that time, how people were devoted to their work.
This is just a mere fraction of images I took while was touring Jewellery Quarter Museum. These are my most favorite ones.
After taking part in this tour we wanted to share the gained knowledge with others and the best way to do that was to make an animation about it. That was our third step. We wanted to show, how the jewellery shop worked back then and concentrate on the small details, tell a story.
So our animation will start with a suitcase lock. The digits on it are going to start turning and changing from 2012 to 1910. That's the year when jewellery shops prospered. The camera will zoom out and show a man, who is going to the jewellery shop to order a necklace for his wife. As he enters the shop, we'll see an anchor symbol (next to the arch entrance) and the name of this jewellery shop which is "Smith & Pepper". The man will go up the stairs to the main office where he'll be greeted by Mr Smith (the owner of this shop). Mr Smith will knock on the table twice, that will be a signal for the lady to bring cake. She brings the tray and puts it on the table, when she starts leaving the camera is going to follow her to the next room (Mrs Olives' office). In there well see a woman packing whistles for Titanic, putting a stamp on the box and going to the next order. We're going to zoom out to the exterior of the building and move down to the first window of the first floor. There will be a man working on the jewellery, close up on his hands. After that the camera wil go up and see another worker entering this room. As he is headed to the workplace, the man is going to pass a sign, showing that all workers are not allowed to fold the bottom of their pants, as to prevent them stealing the gold. In the next workshop there will be men who are making final adjustments to the jewellery pieces. The third room will consist of women working on the stamping machines. At this time the camera will follow tea lady, who will exit the building and close the door with the sign 'end' on it.
Forth step was researching animation styles, that could be used in our own.
We began our research from this particular animation piece. The style has caught our eye. Artist used pre-inked drawings, scanned them in and gathered all the pieces together like a puzzle. Those pieces began to look like a characters. Adding this animation a bit of shadows gave it depth.
As we continued searching for the animation style examples, we came across this one. We have really considered making a cut-out animation, but with the amount of backgrounds and characters, there was no way we could pull that out in the short amount of time.
As for the colour pallet, we wanted to go for the hand drawn coloured animation. We could not decide which media would be appropriate to use, and came to conclusion that instead of colours we'll use black and white ink. But there was one thing that was stopping us from
it: characters and the backgrounds could blend. When we saw this animation we stated, that sepia pallet is going to be our backup.
This amazing piece of animation shows superb, smooth transitions that could be useful to us. The black and white pallet somewhere allowing a third colour together with music really brings that dramatic chord.
Christina showed us a valuable black and white animation. That's when it was decided that we are going to use textures for the backgrounds and just an outline for characters.
This is the reference for the time period in which our animation is set up.
Fifth step, putting our thoughts on the paper - story-boarding My first storyboard is quite chaotic and you can't tell a character from a blob. The funniest thing is that I can clearly see and understand what's happening in every shot. Second one is much more precise.
The teamwork we had was outstanding. Duties were divided quite fast. Ewelina was in charge of characters, Christina - animatic, Mr Smiths' office and a workplace at the ground floor, I had to draw the rest of the backgrounds and a couple of characters.
That's the second edited animatic. We had to change the ending since our previos one was rather akward. So now animation is going to end with a transition from a small jewellery piece (an anchor symbol) to the one at the front entrance. To show not only the prosper of the shop itself but the growth of Smiths & Peppers dreams and ambitions which colud be applied to any of us.
Here is the final Jewellery Quarter animation!
There are always things to work on, but to tell the truth I wouldn't change a thing about this animation. Every part of is a memory of a teamwork, this animation includes those moments where we laughed the most, where we had trouble finding a solution or even cheated. No matter how many times I watch this animiation it brings a smile to my face.
