Main character profile:

Originally I really struggled to come up with a story for my character, so I looked on line at how to write a short story and they suggested that you should know everything about your character, even if this is not used in the story, so I wrote a profile to help me come up with my idea:

Name: Herb Evans
Age: 76
Job: Retired steel worker
Ethnicity: white, welsh
Appearance: bad posture. Hunched, un-kept
Residence: End terraced house
Favorite colour: yellow (same as his wife)
Friends: none he is recluse
Favorite food: Hobnobs
Drinking patterns: whisky most days, tea to recover
Phobias: Being rejected
Faults: Stubborn and proud
Pets: A cat that he hates
Religion: Christian
Marital Status: Widowed
Children: A daughter
Temperament: Has become sarcastic and bitter
Something hated: The cat and nosey neighbours
Secrets: Alcoholic, and he is lonely
Memories: His wife, and having a purpose
Illnesses: Coughs from the cold
Nervous Gesture: Doesn’t look you in the eye
Sleep Patterns: Early nights and lots of naps through the day from the booze

Original ideas and designs:

These are some of my original sketches and ideas for the set. The frames and sewn images I have made myself and the picture of the orange chair, and the glass perfume bottles are ideas I got from researching through dolls house magazines. I am going to make something like this in my set.

Influences:

These films are some of my biggest influences in terms of style when it comes to my film. I want the character to be believable but not hyper realistic. This will have to be thought about in the design stage. However I love the colours used in Madame Tutli Putli, and the pace of The Wraith of Cobble Hill, as well as the character animation in all three will influence my work. I have also been watching films like Coraline and The curse of the Were-rabbit as well as their special features to see how they are made and how their armatures effect the movement etc.

The Hoard:

Boxes are going to play an important part in my film. I want the house to be full of clutter and stuff because they have been hoarding for so long and so I want to have a range of stuff in the house from all different eras and in different styles too. I made this box (left) out of cardboard and wallpaper and think it gave quite a nice effect! I want the house to be full of mismatch bits and pieces. I also tried these boxes using paper-mache, card, wood etc. Some I painted and some I left plain. Some will be miss-match and missing lids, others will be fairly new and well looked after. This should reflect the contents of the boxes and also the importance of what's inside them to the owner.

Presentation 1:

My goals are to develop my skills in 3D stop motion character animation, and to develop a really nice feel to the film through everything I have learnt about colour, story, lighting, character performance pace and everything else.

I really want to make a 3D stop motion film because this is where I feel my skills are, and also because 2 of my favourite animated films, and my main influence, are both stop motion: “Madame Tutli Putli” and “The Wraith of Cobble Hill”.

I like these films because, although both could have been made in live-action and haven’t strayed far from reality in their appearance, they both bring in a new sense of charm and style that can’t be created with live action. The story in “The Wraith of Cobble Hill” also could have been done in live- action, but the animation allows a fresh take on the character. The pace keeps the flow interesting and subtle reactions and expressions create atmosphere and tension even when there’s not allot going on.

I’d like to create charm and atmosphere in my film and really look at every aspect of what will make the film work in terms of lighting, props, backgrounds, what’s in the shot and the edit, as well as the sound and dialogue to convey meaning.

My film borrows from a large source of influences in my life.

The main one being from an old lady I cleaned for called Doreen. She was a mad character. She was valleys born and bred, and every Saturday morning I had to go around and clean for her. She had piles of rugs and ornaments and stuff everywhere, which made it really hard work, but she was a really vivid character and she was always dropping these little pearls of wisdom about life to me. So I really wanted to reflect this mad experience with Doreen in my film.

But…

I’ve really been struggling to come up with a story. I know how I want the film to look and feel, and also what I want to show, which is strong character performance and style. So I looked online at how to write a short story and tried to fit what I know I want to get across, into the sections a short story needs which really helped.

I’m aware that if my story is going to be mainly character driven then I need to know everything about them, so for now I have only figured the main one:

Herb is a grumpy old man. He was Christened Herbert Evans. He is 76 years old. He worked all his life in the Steel works. He went to church every Sunday, and that’s where he met his wife Meryl. They got married when they were very young. Herb likes to put together small planes. He and Meryl had a daughter together. Meryl died in the winter of 84 when it was a particularly cold night. Herb has become a recluse since this happened. He stopped going to church and hardly ever opens the curtains. He stays in and only ventures to the corner shop when he absolutely needs to. He doesn’t eat a lot, and has an on-going feud with the stray cat his wife coaxed into the house as a kitten and never left.

So… the rough story…

…is of an old widowed man who lives alone. His wife died a few years ago who he was very close too, and now he doesn’t know how to function without her. Because of this, he has become a recluse and hoards, keeping everything about his late wife tucked away safely in boxes.

He finds it very difficult to get out and be social, and begun to drink. His daughter nags at him to get out more and to move on with his life, which he finds an insulting. He has become stuck in a rut, and eventually he and his daughter fall out. His grand-daughters services are then offered to go round and help out cooking and cleaning for the old man. This is not to the liking of either the old man who just wants to be left alone, or the grand-daughter who doesn’t want to be the missing link between the feuding-family. It is the interaction between these two characters where my story will be focused.

The girl plods along with her chores ,but the old man feels patronised and has become bitter and resentful towards her. He becomes obsessed with the idea that she is stealing from him.

One day the old man reaches for his bottle of whisky to find it’s empty. He assumes the grand-daughter has done something to it. He becomes obsessed with the idea that the girl’s want him out so they can have the house. In a state of resentful, drunken madness he decides to get rid of everything he owns, and he burns his house to the ground.

The main themes are understanding and loneliness. The burning of the house was the closure that he needed.

Originally I wanted to have a slow paced film that really shows the details of the set, and the banter between my two characters, but I’m aware that this would be difficult to get across in three minutes, so my pacing and dialogue will be important.

I want the house to seem like a small haven to my main character, and very warm and cosy colours full of possessions and homely things. I think animation creates a whole new feel to a character and even though my film is going to borrow from reality, I hope the animation will give it its own charm and home-made feel.

Original idea Synopsis:

Synopsis

I want to make a film following an old man on his day, redundant in a broken town, spending all his dole on gambling machines, weed and drink, a seemingly sad state of affairs, yet the pub has become his home.

New Idea: - An old lady is rummaging around her cluttered house looking for something. While she trawls through the hundreds of boxes and bags she recollects nostalgic memories and thoughts.

Latest idea: An old widowed man is stuck in his house alone. His grand-daughter sent around to look after him, to the annoyance of both him, and the girl, until he is pushed to the edge.

Ideas...

At the moment I only have a very vague idea of what I want to do for my FMP. I want to focus on 3D stop motion, and particularly look at set building and character interaction. I think this is where my strengths are and what will show off my abilities best. I have a few films that have inspired me and that I would love to try and adopt for my film in terms of style/ skill etc. These are:

Madame Tutli Putli

The wrath of cobble hill

Peter and the wolf

These three films are all stop-motion and heavily relied on in terms of theatre through the characters performance. The set design in these three films is also very important and the characters are very tactile and physically (and sometimes emotionally) involved with the set. I would love to create a film somewhat like this where the story isn't necessarily told through dialogue or narration but through the characters performance and through their relationship with the people and the world around them. I want sentimentality to play a large part in the film and the audience to really feel for or understand the character.