Aims
Thumbnails! GET THEM DONE!
As you can see the main aim of this week as I have already said to Andrew is to get our thumbnails done so that we can start putting it into an animatic as soon as possible.
Best case scenario-finish storyboards and show them to a tutor.
Wish us luck
This week has been up and down. I’ve both hated and loved doing thumb nailing. At first I was clueless and pretty naf at the whole thing. I felt pretty pressurized to get the nasty things done too. However, as I got into the swing of things I started to enjoy the thumb nailing I especially liked drawing out the end-the nicest bit for me. The journey is proving very difficult as it’s quite abstract and trying to make it fit is difficult.
We want to try and find a style before we rush head long into the journey as this will dictate an awful lot. Style is very important as this will hold the story together. I would quite like it to look like the old 1930’s coloured posters but I think Andrew is seeing it differently.
As the week has ended we’ve decided it would be best to go away and research a style for the film and how people looked in the 1930’s and any images we find. I’d like to get some character sketches done as I feel they need to be dressed quite differently.
Friday, 26 October 2007
Friday, 19 October 2007
Week 3
Aims
I want to have decided upon a final story. I’m starting to think we’re wasting time now. We don’t have long. This week we address the areas that have problems and do something about them. We only change the problem areas. We only change non problem areas if we HAVE to.
I’d like to decide upon a style and time period we’re setting this in.
We’ve been doing ok this week. At the beginning we had no concrete story now we have two to choose from.
Version 1
Scene One Search for the Elusive Stamp
The stamp collector is sitting at his desk looking at his stamp collection. He keeps staring wistfully at a space where the final stamp should be but alas, he has not yet acquired it. He has never been able to get his hands on it. Around him are magazines with pictures of this elusive stamp he looks at these longingly too as if studying them.
As the post is dropped through the mail box a subscription stamp magazines is also dropped through the door. As the collector picks it up a flyer falls from the magazine advertising a new shop that specialises in rare and unusual stamps. Beneath the type is a picture of the stamp. The collector quickly grabs his hat and his piggy bank still with his nose in the flyer he hurries out of the house not noticing his neighbour waving at him across the street.
Scene Two Return of the Collector
The collector returns with a smallish parcel that he handles very carefully as if it were easily broken. He quickly sits down and starts to unwrap his parcel in which is the stamp. As he places it on the table he opens his draw to get out the adhesive and tweezers. Once he's lifted them out he notices a picture frame at the bottom of the draw. He is immediately saddened by the picture, that of his grand-daughter and himself. He cleans it a little brushing the dust and fluff off of it. He then puts it away again reluctantly.
He takes the stamp in the tweezers and is about to place it into the collection when a gust of wind blows it out the open window and down the street being carried along by the wind of the cars whizzing by.
He hurries from the house clutching his stamp collection close. As he stares the stamp is getting further away. He looks around in panic and sees a bike and rides off after the stamp.
Scene Three The Fantastical Journey
Here follows a fantastical and magical journey across the world as the stamp is blown about e.g. through the Windmills in Holland and past the Eiffel tower then through the fish shaped wind socks of Japan. All the while the Stamp collector is trying desperately to catch the stamp that always somehow manages to fly out of his reach.
Scene Four Reunited at Last
We are now in Hawaii as we can see from the environment around us. The stamp flutters into view and falls, finally settling beside a young girl who is looking intently at a book. she sees the stamp and picks it up curiously taking a look at it. A shadow falls across her and we see the stamp collector just about ready to snatch his stamp back. The little girl turns to see who is behind her and there is a moment as both of the characters freeze. A look of amazement can be seen in the collector's eyes and he glances about him for the first time. As he does this the little girl stares down at the photo album she was looking at and there is the same photo the collector had back at his house titled Grandpa and Me however her's maybe titled Grandpa and Mummy indicating that many years have passed since the collector has seen his family. He stares at his granddaughter in amazement not quite knowing what to do, his thoughts of the stamp are pushed completely to one side as something far more dear to him has suddenly appeared in his life again.
Not so sure about this bit so any suggestions would be great, they need to do something with the stamp but the more important thing to him now is his family and finding them again.
She turns and holds out the stamp to her grandfather who takes it and smiles at the stamp in his hand. She takes his stamp collection and they stick the stamp into it. She then takes his hand and they walk down to the beach where the rest of the family wait.
Version 2
Scene One Search for the Elusive Stamp
The stamp collector is sitting at his desk looking at his stamp collection. He keeps staring wistfully at a space where the final stamp should be but alas, he has not yet acquired it. He has never been able to get his hands on it. Around him are magazines with pictures of this elusive stamp he looks at these longingly too as if studying them.
As the post is dropped through the mail box a subscription stamp magazines is also dropped through the door. As the collector picks it up a flyer falls from the magazine advertising a new shop that specialises in rare and unusual stamps. Beneath the type is a picture of the stamp. The collector quickly grabs his hat and his piggy bank still with his nose in the flyer he hurries out of the house not noticing his neighbour waving at him across the street.
Scene Two Return of the Collector
The collector returns with a smallish parcel that he handles very carefully as if it were easily broken. He quickly sits down and starts to unwrap his parcel in which is the stamp. As he places it on the table he opens his draw to get out the adhesive and tweezers.
He takes the stamp in the tweezers and is about to place it into the collection when a gust of wind blows it out the open window and down the street being carried along by the wind of the cars whizzing by.
He hurries from the house clutching his stamp collection close. As he stares the stamp is getting further away. He looks around in panic and sees a bike and rides off after the stamp.
Scene Three The Fantastical Journey
Here follows a fantastical and magical journey across the world as the stamp is blown about e.g. through the Windmills in Holland and past the Eiffel tower then through the fish shaped wind socks of Japan. All the while the Stamp collector is trying desperately to catch the stamp that somehow always manages to fly out of his reach. As the scenery flies by he slowly starts to take notice of the world around him and all of it's fantastical colours. However, each time he does this he snaps back to following the stamp a few seconds later. You can see him start to take note of his surroundings though.
Scene Four End of the Journey
We are now in Hawaii as we can see from the environment around us. The stamp flutters into view and falls, finally settling beside a young girl who is looking intently at a book. She sees the stamp and picks it up curiously taking a look at it. Her face brightens as she looks at the stamp and quickly picks up a pritt stick that is lying beside her and slams the stamp into her book. The stamp collector is horrified and storms over snatching away her book wiht the stamp in it. The little girl is shocked for a moment as he is about to tear out his stamp but suddenly the collector realises what he's looking at, the little girl also has a stamp collection and this is it. He looks at as she stares at him with big, worried eyes, she is on the verge of tears. The stamp collector looks back at the stamp then shame faced hands her the book back with the stamp still inside. The little girl looks up at him gratefully smiling but the collector has sat down to look sadly at his incomplete collection. The girl looks at him sadly then hurries away. She hurries back a second later and places something into the collector's hand. As he looks down to see what it is he smiles. The girl has made a little drawn copy of the stamp herself for the collector to stick into his book. She hands him the glue stick and he sticks it into the book.
Scene Five Home Sweet Home
Finally we return to the collector's home that is now full of bright trinkets from his journey around the world and his time in Hawaii, outside we see him in the garden enjoying the sun (a stark contrast to the opening scene) and as he catches sight of his neighbour across the road he smiles and waves. The neighbour looks surprised then also smiles and waves.
The camera is placed in such a way in this scene that the final thing we see is the stamp collection open on the page with the little girl's stamp stuck in at the end.
We’ve printed out the two versions and have been asking people what they think of them. We finally got to talk to Jared and discussed the two versions. Jared preferred the one that was most like our original idea. The biggest change was at the end the little girl draws the collector a version of the stamp which he keeps.
Feeling happier Andrew, Jared and I began talking about setting and different ways to show the journey taking place.
Jared pointed out that animating a man riding a bike would be very difficult and maybe, if it’s going to feature a lot we should perhaps consider using a moped instead.
All depends on how brave I feel.
Here are our journey thoughts as this is integral to the film
Seeing only a passport office and passport being stamped. Each office, depending on where it is in the world should have different trinkets decorating it.
A map with a dotted line showing where the man and the stamp are going.
Show the collector whiz past landmarks.
Have pop-up backgrounds and paint them being very clever with planes.
We then showed Dan and he also liked the drawing idea better. We briefly mentioned it would be fun to go past Ash’s film characters in Paris and Dan seemed really keen on the idea. Ash thought it would be cool too so we’re going to try and fit that in.
We now need to decide where the collector will visit in his journey.
Goals Achieved?
Yes! This week the story is finally complete. Now onto thumbnails. I’m looking forward to doing something different! I can now start to think more clearly about style next week as we’ll be talking about transport and locations.
I’m happy how this week turned out, it’s taken longer than expected to get here but at least we have.
I’ve started work on my concept for Asa’s film and I’m enjoying it. Asa’s pretty pleased with my drawings too so I’m looking forward to doing more work for her. It’s a lot of fun but I must remember to do my work too.
I want to have decided upon a final story. I’m starting to think we’re wasting time now. We don’t have long. This week we address the areas that have problems and do something about them. We only change the problem areas. We only change non problem areas if we HAVE to.
I’d like to decide upon a style and time period we’re setting this in.
We’ve been doing ok this week. At the beginning we had no concrete story now we have two to choose from.
Version 1
Scene One Search for the Elusive Stamp
The stamp collector is sitting at his desk looking at his stamp collection. He keeps staring wistfully at a space where the final stamp should be but alas, he has not yet acquired it. He has never been able to get his hands on it. Around him are magazines with pictures of this elusive stamp he looks at these longingly too as if studying them.
As the post is dropped through the mail box a subscription stamp magazines is also dropped through the door. As the collector picks it up a flyer falls from the magazine advertising a new shop that specialises in rare and unusual stamps. Beneath the type is a picture of the stamp. The collector quickly grabs his hat and his piggy bank still with his nose in the flyer he hurries out of the house not noticing his neighbour waving at him across the street.
Scene Two Return of the Collector
The collector returns with a smallish parcel that he handles very carefully as if it were easily broken. He quickly sits down and starts to unwrap his parcel in which is the stamp. As he places it on the table he opens his draw to get out the adhesive and tweezers. Once he's lifted them out he notices a picture frame at the bottom of the draw. He is immediately saddened by the picture, that of his grand-daughter and himself. He cleans it a little brushing the dust and fluff off of it. He then puts it away again reluctantly.
He takes the stamp in the tweezers and is about to place it into the collection when a gust of wind blows it out the open window and down the street being carried along by the wind of the cars whizzing by.
He hurries from the house clutching his stamp collection close. As he stares the stamp is getting further away. He looks around in panic and sees a bike and rides off after the stamp.
Scene Three The Fantastical Journey
Here follows a fantastical and magical journey across the world as the stamp is blown about e.g. through the Windmills in Holland and past the Eiffel tower then through the fish shaped wind socks of Japan. All the while the Stamp collector is trying desperately to catch the stamp that always somehow manages to fly out of his reach.
Scene Four Reunited at Last
We are now in Hawaii as we can see from the environment around us. The stamp flutters into view and falls, finally settling beside a young girl who is looking intently at a book. she sees the stamp and picks it up curiously taking a look at it. A shadow falls across her and we see the stamp collector just about ready to snatch his stamp back. The little girl turns to see who is behind her and there is a moment as both of the characters freeze. A look of amazement can be seen in the collector's eyes and he glances about him for the first time. As he does this the little girl stares down at the photo album she was looking at and there is the same photo the collector had back at his house titled Grandpa and Me however her's maybe titled Grandpa and Mummy indicating that many years have passed since the collector has seen his family. He stares at his granddaughter in amazement not quite knowing what to do, his thoughts of the stamp are pushed completely to one side as something far more dear to him has suddenly appeared in his life again.
Not so sure about this bit so any suggestions would be great, they need to do something with the stamp but the more important thing to him now is his family and finding them again.
She turns and holds out the stamp to her grandfather who takes it and smiles at the stamp in his hand. She takes his stamp collection and they stick the stamp into it. She then takes his hand and they walk down to the beach where the rest of the family wait.
Version 2
Scene One Search for the Elusive Stamp
The stamp collector is sitting at his desk looking at his stamp collection. He keeps staring wistfully at a space where the final stamp should be but alas, he has not yet acquired it. He has never been able to get his hands on it. Around him are magazines with pictures of this elusive stamp he looks at these longingly too as if studying them.
As the post is dropped through the mail box a subscription stamp magazines is also dropped through the door. As the collector picks it up a flyer falls from the magazine advertising a new shop that specialises in rare and unusual stamps. Beneath the type is a picture of the stamp. The collector quickly grabs his hat and his piggy bank still with his nose in the flyer he hurries out of the house not noticing his neighbour waving at him across the street.
Scene Two Return of the Collector
The collector returns with a smallish parcel that he handles very carefully as if it were easily broken. He quickly sits down and starts to unwrap his parcel in which is the stamp. As he places it on the table he opens his draw to get out the adhesive and tweezers.
He takes the stamp in the tweezers and is about to place it into the collection when a gust of wind blows it out the open window and down the street being carried along by the wind of the cars whizzing by.
He hurries from the house clutching his stamp collection close. As he stares the stamp is getting further away. He looks around in panic and sees a bike and rides off after the stamp.
Scene Three The Fantastical Journey
Here follows a fantastical and magical journey across the world as the stamp is blown about e.g. through the Windmills in Holland and past the Eiffel tower then through the fish shaped wind socks of Japan. All the while the Stamp collector is trying desperately to catch the stamp that somehow always manages to fly out of his reach. As the scenery flies by he slowly starts to take notice of the world around him and all of it's fantastical colours. However, each time he does this he snaps back to following the stamp a few seconds later. You can see him start to take note of his surroundings though.
Scene Four End of the Journey
We are now in Hawaii as we can see from the environment around us. The stamp flutters into view and falls, finally settling beside a young girl who is looking intently at a book. She sees the stamp and picks it up curiously taking a look at it. Her face brightens as she looks at the stamp and quickly picks up a pritt stick that is lying beside her and slams the stamp into her book. The stamp collector is horrified and storms over snatching away her book wiht the stamp in it. The little girl is shocked for a moment as he is about to tear out his stamp but suddenly the collector realises what he's looking at, the little girl also has a stamp collection and this is it. He looks at as she stares at him with big, worried eyes, she is on the verge of tears. The stamp collector looks back at the stamp then shame faced hands her the book back with the stamp still inside. The little girl looks up at him gratefully smiling but the collector has sat down to look sadly at his incomplete collection. The girl looks at him sadly then hurries away. She hurries back a second later and places something into the collector's hand. As he looks down to see what it is he smiles. The girl has made a little drawn copy of the stamp herself for the collector to stick into his book. She hands him the glue stick and he sticks it into the book.
Scene Five Home Sweet Home
Finally we return to the collector's home that is now full of bright trinkets from his journey around the world and his time in Hawaii, outside we see him in the garden enjoying the sun (a stark contrast to the opening scene) and as he catches sight of his neighbour across the road he smiles and waves. The neighbour looks surprised then also smiles and waves.
The camera is placed in such a way in this scene that the final thing we see is the stamp collection open on the page with the little girl's stamp stuck in at the end.
We’ve printed out the two versions and have been asking people what they think of them. We finally got to talk to Jared and discussed the two versions. Jared preferred the one that was most like our original idea. The biggest change was at the end the little girl draws the collector a version of the stamp which he keeps.
Feeling happier Andrew, Jared and I began talking about setting and different ways to show the journey taking place.
Jared pointed out that animating a man riding a bike would be very difficult and maybe, if it’s going to feature a lot we should perhaps consider using a moped instead.
All depends on how brave I feel.
Here are our journey thoughts as this is integral to the film
Seeing only a passport office and passport being stamped. Each office, depending on where it is in the world should have different trinkets decorating it.
A map with a dotted line showing where the man and the stamp are going.
Show the collector whiz past landmarks.
Have pop-up backgrounds and paint them being very clever with planes.
We then showed Dan and he also liked the drawing idea better. We briefly mentioned it would be fun to go past Ash’s film characters in Paris and Dan seemed really keen on the idea. Ash thought it would be cool too so we’re going to try and fit that in.
We now need to decide where the collector will visit in his journey.
Goals Achieved?
Yes! This week the story is finally complete. Now onto thumbnails. I’m looking forward to doing something different! I can now start to think more clearly about style next week as we’ll be talking about transport and locations.
I’m happy how this week turned out, it’s taken longer than expected to get here but at least we have.
I’ve started work on my concept for Asa’s film and I’m enjoying it. Asa’s pretty pleased with my drawings too so I’m looking forward to doing more work for her. It’s a lot of fun but I must remember to do my work too.
Friday, 12 October 2007
Week 2
So, this week begins the story planning. We’ve already been warned our ideas could change completely from the original. I’m not so sure I like that trail of thought. I’ve worked pretty hard to try and think up a story that works. However, I’m more than happy to talk through ideas with Andrew because there might be something better than the original that we think of together.
Aims
I’d quite like to have the story nailed by the end of this week and possibly have started thumbnails but that’s unlikely. I also need to write up a schedule and contracts for my part time workers. These include:
James Lawrence
Rob Sidney
Dave Bates
Kyung
Caspar
Desmond
Adam Smith
Other projects I’m involved in.
I’ve offered to help out on a lot of projects- probably too many. I may have to re-think my time especially after I write out my timetable for my film. Here is what I hope to work on and how I hope to contribute.
Asa’s Film, The Day That I Died- Concept Art
Kyle’s Film, Aspiration Point- Animator
Dave Bates, The Muse- Animator
Adam Smith’s, There’s a War in Wunderland- Animator
I wanted to help out on Jessica Do’s and Jono’s but I really think I may be pushing it way too much. I’ll have to see what the schedule looks like.
End of Week 2
This has been quite eventful.
My story has been ripped to shreds. I thought it was pretty good- so much for that.
Andrew and I have been in everyday trying to get the story together. It’s very difficult. Having spoken to Dan we realised that there was a problem with the end as the stamp collector falls out of character- not that he had much character or so to speak.
Andrew and I first noticed a problem as we tried to write up the end of the story in more detail. We came to a total stand still and suddenly were re-thinking the whole story.
Over this week we’ve come up with so many different ideas that I have trouble remembering them all unless I look back at our notes of this week.
Our first attempt to improve the story was to give the old man more character in the beginning as we couldn’t do much with him in the middle as this is all a journey.
We tried to make him more grumpy and anti social so as he walks down the path to get the final stamp he sees a football in his way and a child waiting to get it. He picks up the ball and pops it finally throwing it into the bin. We also wanted the boy’s reaction to be scared. I thought this was imperative to this part as the girl at the ends reaction is more of a shock as she is upset.
I wanted there to be a difference between the reactions, people were originally scared of the collector when he was at home but when he meets the Hawaiian girl he just upsets her. This is a new experience for him.
In addition to this development we also talked about the beginning sequence starting with a squirrel just looking for some food and happen upon a bowl of nuts the stamp collector is eating while sitting by his window. Of course the grumpy collector shoos him away.
I wasn’t sure I really wanted to make the stamp collector a grumpy, angry person. To me he was always a lonely person more than anything else.
This development idea also caused problems as he doesn’t really have any time to develop as a character, the journey to Hawaii getting in the way.
Our next suggestion was to take out the journey as this was causing a lot of our problems. This suggestion didn’t go down well at all as this is the visually beautiful part of our film. This decision was quickly changed- the journey stayed.
We were still unhappy with the way things were going story wise but were determined to carry on.
I’d decided to write down what the old man could possibly be like and what the story message was.
About letting go-you can’t have everything.
Being nice is more important than getting what you want.
The need to have exactly what you want and doing anything to get it.
Grumpy, anti social old man who re-discovers his nice side.
Andrew and I finally decided to go away and think about the story for the evening both of us writing down what we thought could happen, here is my new idea.
The stamp collector is the little girl’s grandpa and when she visits him she’s clearly bored. And the grandpa shows her the stamps. He’s trying to cheer her up. At first she’s still bored but then they embark on a fantastical adventure through the stamps and the beautiful drawings.
Nice idea but it sounded like a lot of other people’s ideas that had already been pitched. The original idea was more unique.
Having got to more dead ends I reviewed what I really wanted the film to say. I tried yet again to write down what I wanted it to mean.
I want him to be a nice person at heart who has just become so obsessed and wrapped up in his stamps that he’s forgotten how to consider other people’s feelings.
He’s quite boring and mundane; there is no longer any colour in his life.
His motive is the stamp but then a dilemma arises, the little girl is the choice.
He must regain his colour.
I wasn’t a big fan of the new ideas, the original seemed much stronger and people liked that one a lot more. I was starting to wonder what the point in changing the idea. The story was becoming pointlessly complex- something I had wanted to avoid from the very beginning.
We spoke to Dan once more and he suggested putting a twist in the end maybe that would help.
Some people were suggesting that the old man was a paedophile. This had never crossed my mind and I was getting pretty frustrated that people were thinking it at all.
I was pretty angry by the time I left college this week.
Did I achieve my goals?
No, not this week. We’re now at the close of week two and I still haven’t got a firm story down. I’m quite upset by this as I thought story wouldn’t take long. I’m fed up with changing things only to decide the original is best.
If I’ve learnt one thing it’s that you can’t please everyone.
I have yet to write up schedules and contracts. Storyboards of course cannot be started without a solid story so I’m a little upset about them too.
Why Not?
Story has just proved harder than I originally planned- there are holes in the plot. For example, why after travelling all the way around the world would the collector give away the stamp if he’s a diehard collector?
On the plus side questions have been asked and flaws have been pointed out.
We still have a lot of problems to fix.
Aims
I’d quite like to have the story nailed by the end of this week and possibly have started thumbnails but that’s unlikely. I also need to write up a schedule and contracts for my part time workers. These include:
James Lawrence
Rob Sidney
Dave Bates
Kyung
Caspar
Desmond
Adam Smith
Other projects I’m involved in.
I’ve offered to help out on a lot of projects- probably too many. I may have to re-think my time especially after I write out my timetable for my film. Here is what I hope to work on and how I hope to contribute.
Asa’s Film, The Day That I Died- Concept Art
Kyle’s Film, Aspiration Point- Animator
Dave Bates, The Muse- Animator
Adam Smith’s, There’s a War in Wunderland- Animator
I wanted to help out on Jessica Do’s and Jono’s but I really think I may be pushing it way too much. I’ll have to see what the schedule looks like.
End of Week 2
This has been quite eventful.
My story has been ripped to shreds. I thought it was pretty good- so much for that.
Andrew and I have been in everyday trying to get the story together. It’s very difficult. Having spoken to Dan we realised that there was a problem with the end as the stamp collector falls out of character- not that he had much character or so to speak.
Andrew and I first noticed a problem as we tried to write up the end of the story in more detail. We came to a total stand still and suddenly were re-thinking the whole story.
Over this week we’ve come up with so many different ideas that I have trouble remembering them all unless I look back at our notes of this week.
Our first attempt to improve the story was to give the old man more character in the beginning as we couldn’t do much with him in the middle as this is all a journey.
We tried to make him more grumpy and anti social so as he walks down the path to get the final stamp he sees a football in his way and a child waiting to get it. He picks up the ball and pops it finally throwing it into the bin. We also wanted the boy’s reaction to be scared. I thought this was imperative to this part as the girl at the ends reaction is more of a shock as she is upset.
I wanted there to be a difference between the reactions, people were originally scared of the collector when he was at home but when he meets the Hawaiian girl he just upsets her. This is a new experience for him.
In addition to this development we also talked about the beginning sequence starting with a squirrel just looking for some food and happen upon a bowl of nuts the stamp collector is eating while sitting by his window. Of course the grumpy collector shoos him away.
I wasn’t sure I really wanted to make the stamp collector a grumpy, angry person. To me he was always a lonely person more than anything else.
This development idea also caused problems as he doesn’t really have any time to develop as a character, the journey to Hawaii getting in the way.
Our next suggestion was to take out the journey as this was causing a lot of our problems. This suggestion didn’t go down well at all as this is the visually beautiful part of our film. This decision was quickly changed- the journey stayed.
We were still unhappy with the way things were going story wise but were determined to carry on.
I’d decided to write down what the old man could possibly be like and what the story message was.
About letting go-you can’t have everything.
Being nice is more important than getting what you want.
The need to have exactly what you want and doing anything to get it.
Grumpy, anti social old man who re-discovers his nice side.
Andrew and I finally decided to go away and think about the story for the evening both of us writing down what we thought could happen, here is my new idea.
The stamp collector is the little girl’s grandpa and when she visits him she’s clearly bored. And the grandpa shows her the stamps. He’s trying to cheer her up. At first she’s still bored but then they embark on a fantastical adventure through the stamps and the beautiful drawings.
Nice idea but it sounded like a lot of other people’s ideas that had already been pitched. The original idea was more unique.
Having got to more dead ends I reviewed what I really wanted the film to say. I tried yet again to write down what I wanted it to mean.
I want him to be a nice person at heart who has just become so obsessed and wrapped up in his stamps that he’s forgotten how to consider other people’s feelings.
He’s quite boring and mundane; there is no longer any colour in his life.
His motive is the stamp but then a dilemma arises, the little girl is the choice.
He must regain his colour.
I wasn’t a big fan of the new ideas, the original seemed much stronger and people liked that one a lot more. I was starting to wonder what the point in changing the idea. The story was becoming pointlessly complex- something I had wanted to avoid from the very beginning.
We spoke to Dan once more and he suggested putting a twist in the end maybe that would help.
Some people were suggesting that the old man was a paedophile. This had never crossed my mind and I was getting pretty frustrated that people were thinking it at all.
I was pretty angry by the time I left college this week.
Did I achieve my goals?
No, not this week. We’re now at the close of week two and I still haven’t got a firm story down. I’m quite upset by this as I thought story wouldn’t take long. I’m fed up with changing things only to decide the original is best.
If I’ve learnt one thing it’s that you can’t please everyone.
I have yet to write up schedules and contracts. Storyboards of course cannot be started without a solid story so I’m a little upset about them too.
Why Not?
Story has just proved harder than I originally planned- there are holes in the plot. For example, why after travelling all the way around the world would the collector give away the stamp if he’s a diehard collector?
On the plus side questions have been asked and flaws have been pointed out.
We still have a lot of problems to fix.
Friday, 5 October 2007
Week 1
This week begins with everyone pitching their film ideas to the rest of the class. I was so nervous when I had to do mine. I felt that I was pretty well prepared; I knew about the characters and had drawn out some concept of environments and characters.
I wanted to keep my story idea simple so only created two main characters, one of which only appears at the very end.
My environments are going to be more complex if my film gets chosen as there will be quite a few.
Here is my pitch.
Becca Chandler
Personal pitch
Storyline, a short overview
100 Words
There was once an obsessive stamp collector who was missing the last stamp in his collection. One day he found it in a shop and bought it. Unfortunately while placing it in the collection it blew out the window and a passer by caught it and put it on their letter which they posted. The collector followed the stamp all around the world until it finally arrived in Hawaii. It was taken by a little girl who also collected stamps but the stamp collector snatched it back. She began to cry and out of the goodness of his heart the stamp collector gave it back to her. He is now pen friends with the girl and goes to Hawaii for his holidays. He has recently learnt to surf and has started to make friends again.
The longer version (with more detail)
Once upon a time there was an obsessive stamp collector. He owned every collectible stamp known to man. There was one stamp however that eluded him. He had become so obsessed that he had forgotten about all his friends and relatives and no one bothered to talk to him anymore, what was the point? All he talked about were stamps. One day while shopping he saw the elusive stamp in the window of a collectors shop. He rushed in and bought it quicker than you can say Stamp Collectors United. Once home he began to carefully put it into his collection in a place specially reserved for it. Suddenly a gust of wind blew the stamp out of the window and straight into a young man’s face.
"Oh what a bit of luck!" he thought "I needed a stamp for this letter"
And he promptly stuck it on the letter and mailed it in the post box. The stamp collector saw all this and was furious. He jumped up and ran outside only to discover the postman had just collected all the mail and was driving away. So he followed suit on his old bike.
He continued to follow the stamp all over Europe, across Asia and finally arrived in Hawaii.
Here a mother received the letter and gave the stamp to her daughter who just so happened to be an avid stamp collector too. Our old stamp collector stormed over to the little girl and 
snatched away his stamp. However upon seeing the girl’s tearful eyes and in that moment remembering, grudgingly, his good nature, gave away his prized stamp.
He retuned home without the stamp but from this day forth his house that was bare and boring is now filled with the gifts and trinkets he got on his holiday in Hawaii and where his walls were bare they are now decorated with pictures of him and his new pen friend Lani from Hawaii.
I wanted to keep my story idea simple so only created two main characters, one of which only appears at the very end.
My environments are going to be more complex if my film gets chosen as there will be quite a few.
Here is my pitch.
Becca Chandler
Personal pitch
Storyline, a short overview
100 Words
There was once an obsessive stamp collector who was missing the last stamp in his collection. One day he found it in a shop and bought it. Unfortunately while placing it in the collection it blew out the window and a passer by caught it and put it on their letter which they posted. The collector followed the stamp all around the world until it finally arrived in Hawaii. It was taken by a little girl who also collected stamps but the stamp collector snatched it back. She began to cry and out of the goodness of his heart the stamp collector gave it back to her. He is now pen friends with the girl and goes to Hawaii for his holidays. He has recently learnt to surf and has started to make friends again.The longer version (with more detail)
Once upon a time there was an obsessive stamp collector. He owned every collectible stamp known to man. There was one stamp however that eluded him. He had become so obsessed that he had forgotten about all his friends and relatives and no one bothered to talk to him anymore, what was the point? All he talked about were stamps. One day while shopping he saw the elusive stamp in the window of a collectors shop. He rushed in and bought it quicker than you can say Stamp Collectors United. Once home he began to carefully put it into his collection in a place specially reserved for it. Suddenly a gust of wind blew the stamp out of the window and straight into a young man’s face.
"Oh what a bit of luck!" he thought "I needed a stamp for this letter"
And he promptly stuck it on the letter and mailed it in the post box. The stamp collector saw all this and was furious. He jumped up and ran outside only to discover the postman had just collected all the mail and was driving away. So he followed suit on his old bike.
He continued to follow the stamp all over Europe, across Asia and finally arrived in Hawaii.
Here a mother received the letter and gave the stamp to her daughter who just so happened to be an avid stamp collector too. Our old stamp collector stormed over to the little girl and 
snatched away his stamp. However upon seeing the girl’s tearful eyes and in that moment remembering, grudgingly, his good nature, gave away his prized stamp.He retuned home without the stamp but from this day forth his house that was bare and boring is now filled with the gifts and trinkets he got on his holiday in Hawaii and where his walls were bare they are now decorated with pictures of him and his new pen friend Lani from Hawaii.
I’m glad the pitches are over but I think the most agonising part of this week has been waiting to see whose ideas get chosen. I really enjoyed making up the story and if it gets chosen I look forward to developing characters and working in a group again.
End of the week
My idea has been chosen and I’m still undecided as to whether or not I’m happy about this, of course I’m happy I’m just terrified of this year. The workload will be immense and there’s only Andrew and I as permanent members although a lot of people said they’d like to work on the film. I feel happy that many of my friends have offered to help me out.
Feelings by the end of this week.
Ok, so I’m pretty terrified. It’s only Andrew Monin and I in the group so our workload is going to be insane. That’s something to look forward to. ¬_¬
Mike suggested that if I was so worried that maybe I should drop the film. I would but it feels like quitting and I hate to just give up on something. The stress maybe awful at times but I hope that I would be able to cope.
I worry about after effects and animating at the end of the year when everyone panics. Modelling is not so bad, I’ve had people offer to do it and Andrew is pretty awesome at environments.
I’m not so worried about my story, I think it’s quite a solid story and has a nice feel about it. I’ve also already started to panic so that’s all good.
Kyle has decided to go ahead with his film too and we’ve been talking about his story in the car journey home. He’s very determined to get it done and it’s quite inspiring. We’ve changed part of Kyle’s story so that the boy and the robot are not friends at the beginning; it makes the boy’s character development much more interesting. I really like Kyle’s story.
I’m glad I have so many people ready to help me and back me up in my film even if they’re not permanent members. It’s nice.
End of the week
My idea has been chosen and I’m still undecided as to whether or not I’m happy about this, of course I’m happy I’m just terrified of this year. The workload will be immense and there’s only Andrew and I as permanent members although a lot of people said they’d like to work on the film. I feel happy that many of my friends have offered to help me out.
Feelings by the end of this week.
Ok, so I’m pretty terrified. It’s only Andrew Monin and I in the group so our workload is going to be insane. That’s something to look forward to. ¬_¬
Mike suggested that if I was so worried that maybe I should drop the film. I would but it feels like quitting and I hate to just give up on something. The stress maybe awful at times but I hope that I would be able to cope.
I worry about after effects and animating at the end of the year when everyone panics. Modelling is not so bad, I’ve had people offer to do it and Andrew is pretty awesome at environments.
I’m not so worried about my story, I think it’s quite a solid story and has a nice feel about it. I’ve also already started to panic so that’s all good.
Kyle has decided to go ahead with his film too and we’ve been talking about his story in the car journey home. He’s very determined to get it done and it’s quite inspiring. We’ve changed part of Kyle’s story so that the boy and the robot are not friends at the beginning; it makes the boy’s character development much more interesting. I really like Kyle’s story.
I’m glad I have so many people ready to help me and back me up in my film even if they’re not permanent members. It’s nice.
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