Character & Narrative- Week 9- Finishing Details + Script and Filming

Week 9- 

Finishing Details, Script and Filming

The script is something I have been meaning to do since the beginning. It will be very useful to follow alongside the anamatic and final editing as I can keep up with what sounds should go where and where the camera needs to be when filming at all times, and as it is a stop motion, knowing where the camera needs to be is extremely important. 

As you can see by this point as i have more faith in the characters I have built and sculpted, I am using the original story. At the beginning I switched the characters around as the faith in making a male character faulted me as I find them harder to draw so I didn't know what to expect when it came to building them. As to my surprise, he turned out looking great so the faith in my original cut of the animation makes it easier to go froward as the anamatic wouldn't need to be changed, taking up more time I dont have.

This is the material that seemed the best for the characters i'm building, its raw enough to not look plastic like some hair extension hair can look but I feel it also goes with the feel and aesthetic of what I have been building. As the female Belle, already has blonde hair it doesn't need changing for her but for him, his hair is black. I hand dyed each strand so they would still look to be the same material as the females hair. This was when I then cut the hair to short lengths so when glued onto his head, it would look short and cover his head well. I will also be attempting to give his a Quiff design so it will need experimenting with.

I start out adding the hair in small chunks to the back of his head and working round to get an even coverage, as well as making sure its the correct length at the base. To make sure it is securely attached UHU glue was a good adhesive as it also set quicker than PVA so the hair didn't have chance too move around much before it dried enough to hold.

After adding a few more layers around the back and sides to make sure his head couldn't be seen too much, the fringe needed to be done. As he is from the Victorian times, I wanted to do an older hairstyle. When designing the male character, He really suited a quiff style greaser hair do. This was not has hard as a first thought as i knew i needed to glue each strand in small sections so they all met the scalp and could be glued back. After attaching them to the scalp and letting it dry slightly, I grabbed all of the strands and pulled them back into the desired quiff and glued in place. This worked out a lot better as it dried quickly so stayed in place to get the look from below.

It was just before this stage when I thought about his eyes, as they weren't working out quite like the females, I decided to make one of his mirror hers and be all bloody as it further ties them together yet still in keeping with the opposites attract as they are a couple much alike yet one is a zombie but the other came back as a skeleton. This also lets me show most of the love they share in the body language I will be creating but also in the mouths added in the final stages if the emotions dont come across enough.

I chose not to add mouths as i didn't want to ruin the face through constant change but i hope to have enough time in the editing stages at the end to add them in, or at least show emotion through their movements.

This is his face with all of the wounds and finished eye, just as this is the final female face below.

Doing the females hair was harder than the males becuase of the way she is designed. I hadn't thought about this aspect of the pre-production as there were so many other things to get done beforehand but since she had curls and waves, I found i couldn't achieve this with the materials that I had. As the thin straw wasn't in lengths like assumed, it was in various pieces and strands so I couldn't grab chunks so I had to try and cut the curves in which hasn't really worked but i'm still happy with how she's turned out as, apart from the hair she's turned out to look quite similar to her design.

After having word with peers and my tutor about the issue with the background not working as the ground is too flat, I have carved the side and edges so they look more to be at the peak of a hill. On the lower left is the paste created to give texture to the scene. It was a mix of water, PVA, brown and black paint and salt for the grainy texture.

Since it is an outside set, texture is very important which is why I tried hard to get the headstones to look like textures concrete as it submerges the audience more than if it was squeaky clean and not as accurate.

This is what the texture looks like as well as the slowly sloping hill side looks like. I feel it really makes the characters look like they have their own section of the graveyard secluded from the bulk of the rest of the graves.

While the set was still wet from adding the textured mixture over all of it, I added the grass slowly in patches and following the path down the middle and off to the side.



This is also a change made to the set, as the path was said to go too much down the centre to the background would need to show where it was going, so i've added a small corner on the left so it curves round the upper level on the right so it looks like the path goes round and down the other side.

These are the patches i've added grass to so it breaks up the set but also brings it to life a great deal.

 These are the finished bases of the set before all of the headstones, moss and tree is added. This is the wet and dry images so you can see the distinct differences as the dry set looks a lot softer and less shiny as well as the grass blending in more.

These are the finished headstones with text and string added. I love how the older headstone turned out with the string tying the top to the bottom as it looks the most realistic and unique. These are all ready to attach to the base once I transport the set to university safely.

I've left the hands till the very end as i thought they would be the hardest things to do and i wasn't wrong, although they didn't take all that long they were still the smallest and most dainty things to try and do. These show how I added the fingers first then covered the base with plasticine before smoothing the plasticine from the fingers into the base.

I didn't think they looked skeleton enough so i painted the bones in black so the individual finger bones could be distinguished. Although i wish the black wasn't as bold i'm glad the females hands are out of the way.

Then came the males which were easier as they were all one colour, yet i'm not happy with these either as they turned out very large and chunky which I didn't want but i'm still glad that the puppets are finished, all apart from the males feet with just need bolts and plasticine to finish them off.

For the flower the male needs to give to the female, I bought a packet of  fabric roses that only came in creme. This meant i could experiment with the colour and effect that i wanted the rose to have. I was practicing between all red, splattered red or washed out red like it was covered in old blood as the female has been shot to this would create a good link and also show that the rose is hers for him to give back.

I chose the slightly faded rose as it needed that link to the female. I then got some of the thinker wire used for the characters frames and dipped it in brown paint. After it dried I cut it and stuck it into the rose so the male can pick it up and hold it, without it falling apart.

After all of these, I now just need to transport it all to university and get it all set up in order to start the stop motion filming. I have been told by another peer doing a stop motion that it takes time to set up so i have dedicated a whole day to setting up all of the set together as well as finding the right lighting for the atmosphere and trying to get it all working as i've never done anything like this before so its daunting but also exiting to get going.