My 4th year at university has begun and it's weird to think it is my last one. For the most part it will consist of producing a film as my final project. I also have to write a dissertation and I'm making a music video on the site - so lots of exciting projects ahead (although the dissertation is mostly haunting at this point).
Over the summer I have been thinking a lot about ideas for the film. To be honest I had too many ideas; one of the side effects when there are no limitations. I have taken some inspiration from Hayao Miyazaki (I am writing about him in my dissertation) and his working method. When he produces a film, he does not follow the usual pipeline of first creating a script, then storyboard, then animatic, then animating etc, but instead he draws lots and lots and keeps building the story that way (sometimes half of the story is still unknown when the animation process starts). I have kind of taken that approach, which means that I have not fully developed the story for my film yet, but have a lot of visuals and a character that I know I want to build the film around.
Here are some slides from the first pitch with my ideas:
It's not quite a storyboard, but I have ordered some of the images in line with my idea for the plot. First, the film introduces the character, an older woman, who is carrying her heavy shopping bags to the bus. People around her are rushing or absorbed into their phones. The city, although modern, looks rather industrial with smoke symbolizing the irresponsible ways in which we use energy (which is so often concealed nowadays). It is a very man made place, with geometric shapes and repeating patterns, giving off a very claustrophobic vibe which represents how trapped the character is feeling in this environment.
Upon not being offered a seat on the bus, she resigns and closes her eyes. When she opens them she is suddenly not in the bus anymore, and instead driving through a forest. The next scenes will take her to an encounter with the moon, where she sees the city from above and thus gaining a different perspective. When she awakes back in the city it is unclear if her trip to nature actually happened or not, but either way her outlook/mood/reality changed and it's visually affecting the city, which will be shown through plants replacing the smoke and a different colour palette to the greys from the start.
Here are some tests and examples of what I would like it to look like:
1. Ink background planes layered with digital animated elements
2. Ink background planes layered with animated ink boil and digital line boil
3. Ink background planes with animated ink and pencil on paper