IDeas!

From my previous review and finding that the narrative is portraying what i want, i think i need to remind myself what it is i am trying to portray.

CONCEPT REMINDER: I want to portray 'orientalism' which was influence by my dissertation. From my research people who are represented as from the 'orient' are usually portrayed as negative and only the location is portrayed as exotic. My concept is taking on that people to are portrayed as 'exotic and different', due to personal experiences from moving schools.

BASIC STRUCTURE:I want to portray that the main character is physically different and i want her to be portrayed as 'different and exotic'. This shall be portrayed by other school girls crowding around her and wanting to be her 'friend' or just take an interest in her, with this portrayal i do not want any physical bullying.

At the moment it seems that i may need to change the opening, as it needs to introduce the audience that she is different and that is what the other girls find her interesting. I have one idea which actually introduces the main character as a 'new girl', which may portray the concept better. I did have this concept before storyboarding, but i decided against portraying that. As this may change the concept, to the other girls finding her interesting because she is the 'new girl' but not because she is 'different'. But this can be avoided, with a couple of point of view shots and close ups.

Second Animatic & Mid-review

So in my second animatic, have coloured in the girl characters that are being portrayed as foreign or "different". I have also extended the ending, so that it is not so quick. I have had many problems with the story at the moment, in that what i am trying to portray is not getting through. When i view the animatic, it seems so clear to me as it was a personal experience, but i must make myself objective, that way the story will be more clearer. During the mid-review, it was suggested that some scenes were unclear and looked like flashbacks. Also, i think that sound really must be added to the animatic , so that it is clearer, as sound may help me portray the concept better.
The same tutor that had suggested in my previous project that the characters should eat each other, had suggested that the main character in this one should either have a gun or rusty lawn mower, to get revenge on the other girls. XD

Concept sketch!

Another tutorial today and got some feedback from my animatic. some of the shots were still a little confusing, as some of the angles made it confusing. another point was also the ending was a little too quick, which i picked up on the other post.I also drew out one of the scenes, with an influence of the Alice in Wonderland DS game:


it seems that it is a little more effective with a slight outline where it marks the floor and the building, but that its my point of view. i will do the same with some of the angled shots, because it may work for this scene, but it may not work for the classroom scenes. Also to solve the angle problems i need to draw out a sort of blue print, to map out where the characters are in each scene, as i think this would make me more aware of the space and angles.
Another point that was raised in my tutorial was the concept of the new girl coming in at the end. At the moment I haven't distinguished whether she is different as a foreigner or maybe she is different physically. This is important as both will portray different meanings, so i need to decide on what i want to portray and then do some character designs for her.

storyboards & animatics

So i've finally done a storyboard. I did two versions of the storyboard as i had planned. One of them was telling the story without the puppet and the other with scenes with the puppet. After having looked at both the storyboards, the story without the puppet seems to be stronger and a lot clearer, though i was really into the concept of the puppet before, having looked at it together, it doesnt work that well.

This is my animatic for now. I feel that the ending ends to fast and must be developed and the middle part with the conflict, must have more close up shots and possible different shots.
After showing my storyboard to my classmates, they have suggested the same. Also on my storyboard that is not on my animatic, is that i have coloured the main characters hair and skin. As I want to distinguish the physical differences, one of classmates had suggested that visually it was better this way, leaving the main character coloured.

i had also done some styles to test, what it would look like with colour and another with a backgroud with grey scale:



It seems that it is more effective with the grey scale image. I have also been playing the new Alice in Wonderland game on DS. I think the style really works and there is very limited colours.