I came up with an idea in second year for maps and journeys, before joining "The Brain" group, and decided not to do it due to lack of confidence and not really sure where to take it in terms of visuals. 

My original idea was a dance film based around the idea of anxiety movements, with exaggerated sounds from the movements themselves creating a sort of rhythm.  The focus would not be so much on how the dancer looks, keeping her/ him ambiguous, but on how body parts such as hands contort, move and react when a person is feeling anxious. I wanted the audience to feel more tension as the piece went a long, making the rhythm faster, the sounds amplified and the cuts quicker, reflecting the build up someone feels anxiously. 

This was quite a personal piece to me as it's something I suffer a lot from in every aspect of life, but it's not something I talk about very much and seem to hide how I'm feeling a lot. The idea came to me when we were put under pressure last year to say our ideas to the class, and as it travelled around the circle until my turn, I noticed how interesting and uncontrollable my movements were. Things like shivering, tapping my feet on the floor, squeezing my hands together to the point where they were sore...I thought it might make quite a nice movement based piece. I'm aware anxiety is a universal thing, and a lot of people get it to some degree, so I was hoping the piece would be relatable, as well as personal. 

After re-presenting it this year as an idea I didn't really think would actually develop any more, I began talking to Laura about it as she was pitching and interested in something similar. She showed me this video, the music video for Stromae's Quand C'est : 

The video represents the struggles of a cancer patient, with the idea that cancer can sneak up at any time. The title of the song, Quand C'est emphasises this, as with the correct pronunciation can sound like "cancer" without even realising it.  

We really liked the claw like projections used in the video and the way they interact with the dancer and Laura suggested incorporating this in our film. Tree branches and vines would weave in, possibly restricting her movement more and more and enclose the space, adding claustrophobia. I want the film to go in a similar style to the original idea, focussing on the gestures associated with anxiety,  but with also having this over-looming thing (the trees) gaining more control - the thing the performer is anxious about. In real life this can just represent more normal things, for example the knowledge that I'd have to say my idea out loud to the class that day. The trees are basically the problem the dancer is facing. 

However this is something that needs to be discussed and developed more, but I'm very excited about working with a mixture of live action and animation, as I really enjoy the style. 

We also liked the idea of having a character give a look to the camera instead of using dialogue, to give away how they're feeling. This brings me back to the Chuck Jones documentary discussed in a previous blog post, about questioning how the character moves. It says that how the individual moves is dictated by what is going on inside, so hopefully using a mood specific look to the camera at some points will achieve this for our own film in an interesting manner. I think this works well as it doesn't exactly spell out what exactly is happening through a normal dialogue to the audience and gives something a bit different, and much more animated to the visual aspect of the scene. Here are some examples from Parks and Rec and The Office :

Today we had scheduled for the completion of the script, so we took the laptop and decided to work in Starbucks for a change of scenery. I actually found this really progressive, as there weren't many distractions and we were able to stay very focussed throughout.

Tom had begun writing a rough version of the script over summer, however a lot of work had to be done, especially after all the research that we've been looking at, such as how to do comedy. We started from the beginning of the rough draft and re-wrote things / added new material accordingly to how we felt they would sound and work from our imaginations of what the film looks like to us. 

We swapped the order of the timeline around a lot, to make it flow better and tried imagining how we would react to scenarios - "What would you say if you were the character?" was asked a lot!

The one thing we had to decide on, previously not discussed was a conclusion. We tried to think about what we wanted to say from the film and work further on that. I didn't really want to have a complete "animation vs animation" film, where one over ruled the other, so that played a key piece in how I wanted the ending to go.  We decided to show love for both animations. 

I actually really enjoyed writing the script today, even though I consider myself to be far from a scriptwriter. I feel like my confidence with developing ideas is getting stronger and I feel more comfortable with the process. One of the things I enjoyed most was seeing my ideas in my head actually become some sort of substance that is making sense - it's exciting when you see things starting to come together and form! I'm excited! I am very happy with the progress today and we shall be motoring on to get more done in the next couple of weeks!

I found this Google Talk while searching for behind the scenes of various animations on Youtube, and after watching the first five minutes I thought it would be very beneficial for both Tom and I to watch it. The directors of The Boxtrolls, Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable, discuss various aspects from the making of the film as part of Laika Animation Studios. 

Firstly they show one of the trailers for The Boxtrolls which features a lot of behind the scenes, such as the puppet and landscape modelling and designing. This can be quickly seen below :

Originally when the directors saw this trailer for the first time they suggested that they couldn't show a trailer that displays such behind the scenes before the film even comes out, joking about showing the characters with no faces. However they admit that they were "totally wrong" as it turned out that it was what audiences were most interested in due to how they were "hand-made" and really existing in the real world alongside us.  I find this element really interesting as personally it's what appeals about stopmotion to me quite a bit. I like being able to see and feel these characters and how much substance they have to them. I feel like they have a deeper connection to our world, yet they can still have that cartoony - animated, magical vibe / style to them. I could picture myself being very excited at that google talk, and not just to hear what the directors were talking about, but also to see the characters in person and how intricately detailed they are. It's funny seeing the film with these animated characters and sets and then suddenly seeing them in real life, so still but being able to use your senses to explore them. 

They talked about how the key was to find one sequence,  referred to as a "tent-pole sequence," which really works and makes you know that this is the movie. Once you find this, then you can expand outward to the rest of the film. Finding the core of the story is very important for building up the film. 

The advice they gave in the talk from Joe Ranft (who used to work for Disney / Pixar) was to trust the process and even if it feels like you're not progressing and hitting dead ends, just trust that you actually are progressing and will find the story eventually. This meant a lot to me as there have been plenty of times over the past 3 years of making pieces where I've felt the project isn't good enough or questioning will it actually be made *cough Elysian cough* but after working very hard it's always came through (to some extent).  So maybe be more relaxed and confident in trusting in my abilities and that things will hopefully be okay, even in darker, seemingly unproductive times. 

It was very interesting learning how everything has to be made that's in front of the camera. They can't just take pieces from other Laika films, such as Coraline or Paranorman, because each film has a different style and therefore the props have to be made in co-ordinance with with the style of the film. 

I think the main goal for our film is to keep it simple. Find clever ways, such as framing or story-writing that means we can achieve our goal without over-doing anything and making it too complicated. 

Ever since summer when I developed the idea for the animation I always had Lawrence Simpson in mind for the roles. I remember on the alumni days his amazing reels and demonstration for voice acting and his element of fun in them really pushed me to want him for my characters. I was like 'Tom we NEED to get him for our animation!' so when Rosie and Kathleen suggested him as a possible voice actor in the presentations I was like 'Yes - exactly what I've been thinking!' So naturally, right away we composed an email to send to him, enquiring if he was interested. 

I composed a synopsis and some, brief personality traits of each character to give to Tom to include in the email, as well as a quick description of who we were and what we were doing (obviously name dropping DFSA ;) ). 

Luckily Lawrence got back to us, saying he was interested in helping with the project - exciting news! We are currently keeping him up to date with all of the progress of the project and asking him for any feedback he wishes to give as I find it very important that everyone involved has their own creative input. I am really looking forward to hearing his interpretations of the characters, once they've been developed more!