World in a room Maya Self Development

After a break form working on World in a Room project, I felt like I wanted to refresh and develop my skills working in Maya and took some time to practice making simples shapes and moving them around the screen,

Animated Reality Project. Below is the link to the completed project which was a collaboration working with the film and t.v department.  Initially when story-boarding a script for the area I had thought that it would be easy to get lots of material to use when visiting these building to the amount of people living there, however this proved not to be the case, in fact it turned out to be the opposite.

There seemed to be a reluctance to talk to anybody in the area and it for a busy built up area it seemed almost desolate of people, even though we went at different times during the day and night.

This ended being the main focus of the story as it seemed like a deserted old western style town and felt much like it in atmosphere I would reference such material as Sergio Leone's "Once upon a time in the West" and it also reminded me of the video released in the 1980's "Ghost Town" by the Specials.

The overall look was meant to feel still and eerie and also quite flat with a sense of emptyness.  I found that during this project I developed my skills within Premier Pro, Audition and After effects to a moderate level, enough to enable to put together a cohesive short animation, this also allowed my opportunities to edit and create multiple versions to compare the overall look and feel to end up with the finished version below.


https://youtu.be/KBOyjUoDCAw

Animated Reality 3

After investigation into our subject matter at Dumbiedykes High Flats we found our audience almost non existent and almost impossible to interview due to their reluctance to talk, it felt to me very like an abandoned wild west town from an old western movie.  This has proved to be a new direction in which it seemed clear to travel, taking the documentary/animation into the concept where the story is about the reluctance and the almost ghost like buildings.

One upon a time in the West Final Dual


The Specials - Ghost town

Animated Reality 2

Images taken of High Flats at HolyRood, Edinburgh for Research

Images taken of High Flats at HolyRood, Edinburgh for Research

Rough Collage, Inventing Characters for use in Animation/Documentary

A4 Collage, Inventing Characters for use in Animation/Documentary

A4 Collage, Inventing Characters

A4 Collage, Inventing Characters

Animated Reality

The Jams Project Proposal

Film/T.V/Animation Collaboration 26^th October 2015

Background

In our first discussion we very quickly bonded as a team and were enthusiastic about getting as many thoughts and ideas straight down to paper and although we had no plans at this stage we thought that this would be a place to start.

We first of all focused on the ‘Real Place’ and discussed several options from old ages pensioners homes, the military housing at the Royal Mile, Tourist Information Centers, Waverly Train station, the water of Leith, Waverly food Court and the Kirkgate shopping Center.  Whilst talking about the Kirgate we got into a discussion about the high flats there and also the Tower Blocks at Muirhouse and Holyrood this conversation included topics such as people’s preconceived ideas about people living in these types of housing and we also looked at film documentaries which had an interesting on what life is like in a modern tower block may be like.

As a team we decided that the most interesting and geographical choice for us would be the High Flats at Holyrood, this decision was made from an aesthetic point of view and because there is a contradiction between its locality and the parliament next door may also give us a different angle to use and investigate further.

We also discussed the way in which we wanted to film our scenes this discussion includes the use of machetes to substitute the real building, shooting through windows or activities on the balconies/verandas.  Thought was also given to the idea of shooting the images from a different viewpoint for example from the viewpoint of a cockroach, a pigeon or small rodent.  We then decided that our main area i.e. that the High Flats would be static and the movement would come from activity surrounding the buildings.

There was mention of a scene from the film ‘Love Actually’ in which the camera shot pans through the cityscape and the viewer is taking the view of the city and the eye is drawn to small things happening in the windows, e.g. a couple cuddling, a couple watching t.v together in other words a small snapshot of life in a big space.  This again was an interesting angle that may be used after further investigation.

From the outset we had difficulty in finding sources material or members of the public willing to discuss or go on record with any conversations around the area and although we expected a high volume of people this turned out not to be the case.  This lead to a rethink on how we would now approach the project.