CINEMATIC :: 02/03/16 - Design Preparation

Met with the tutors today to discuss what we had planned for our project.  Overall we have a very solid idea of a person sitting down to meditate, the third eye opening and the spirit leaving the body as a particle simulation.  It attempts to cross the threshold from our mundane world into the spirit world, a vast, cosmic place with spiritual creatures roaming about just beyond.  When it reaches the threshold, it hesitates/is interrupted (not sure yet) and ends up returning to the body as it draws the attention of a creature (or creatures), which turn terrifying and fierce.

SCRIPT:
The script is still in the works, but we should have a final one tomorrow!  I'll post it here once its been shared around.

SCHEDULE:
This is the schedule we've worked out, but its more of a guideline than set in stone.  I'm sure Jo is going to keep us on track if we fall behind.

DESIGN IDEAS:
Since I haven't felt as though I could contribute anything to our script, I spent today making sure Oscar approved of my ideas for the monster designs and working on a moodboard for the spiritual realm.  Oscar has asked for something vast and cosmic, full of stars, nebula pillars, trees and a lake.  Floating islands were another idea, and we have decided to incorporate a parallax effect to make things feel as though they're moving through space in their own time.

Below are the sorts of things I feel would work well in this idea of a cosmic realm:

As you can see, stars and colors are quite important!  I erred toward cooler tones - deep blues and purples with green and cyan, but another thing I looked into was textures of things and stylization of the landscape.  I feel like the cosmic realm should have a very natural feel to it so we've been playing with the idea organic shapes and fluid movements.  I feel like the textures and patterns in natural gemstones would play a really nice role in influencing this world, particularly in gems like the various forms of opal, and labradorite, or formations of one mineral on another.  I've also been inspired by more man-made crystals such as aura quartz, bismuth and goldstone.

Keat mentioned today that I would also have to think about how the cosmic world would change when the spirits became aware of the human soul or the soul hesitated and drew their attention.  He told me I would have to think about how the place would become darker and what I would do to accentuate the danger aspect.  So tomorrow I plan on doing another mood board in order to think out the dangerous version of the cosmos, and one to work out the kind of shapes and animals that I would like to base the creatures off.

Hamish mentioned that the style of both the creatures and the matte painted world would have to look the same and flow together, so I might do a third moodboard just for stylization.  I plan to use the weekend to sketch up a few concepts and see which my group likes best.