character Biography

Premise, Logline and Step outline

New story Idea

The Story starts off with a little girl crying on quite a quiet street. A young woman walks past notices the young girl crying and asks her what's wrong. The little girl looks up frightened by the sudden appearance of this stranger and quietly whispers that she's lost. The young woman's face softens and she knees down to the child's hight and asks where her parents are, the child shrugs her shoulders. The young women then asks if the child knows where she lives, nodding she repeats her address. The young girl knows where the house is and its not to far so offers to take her home. The child is slightly reluctant and shakes her head saying that her mother always said never to go anywhere with strangers. The young women smiles and promises she will take care of her and get her home safe. The little girl agrees and takes the young woman's hand and starts walking down the street with her.
The story then cuts to when they are almost at the house the little girls face lights up when she sees the house and she thanks the young woman with a big hug. The young woman says she will make sure she gets in safely and walks her into the house. When she steps through the front door she is amazed at the grand house looking around at the big stair case with elaborate paintings on the wall and a beautiful chandelier hanging in the middle, the young women looked back down to the little girl but she was gone, confused she looks around the room again, which is suddenly darker, paint peeling in the corners of the walls the paintings that were beautiful now depicted dark and haunting images. The young woman's heart pounding a little faster starts to feel a little uneasy, hearing a creek the little girl is sitting at the top of the stairs. The cute innocent face now had a sinister look on it. The room was now cold the young woman's breath could be seen as she breathed out heavily and the room now looked like something out of a horror movie, all the paintings on the wall were one horror scene after another, all the colours in the room dulled and the wall paper torn off most of the walls. The little girl was now standing halfway down the staircase and smiling. Now terrified the young woman spins round opens the door wide open and takes one step forward before a scream rips from her throat, she's launched backwards away from the door into the darkness of the house by some type of contraption the door slams shut and you slowly move back from the house and the camera follows a butterfly that flies back over the quite serene street and lands on a little girls hair as she's crying in the middle of the street.

New Ideas

Since I was struggling so much with where to go with my story my creative partner Sam and I put together a mind map to help get the ideas flowing. Eventually arriving at an idea. Below is the mind map. 

With my idea I still need to figure out the first and second act. I know what I'm doing for my last scene and how my story will end, now I just need to work backwards and figure out how I'm going to start it. So coming up with some ideas on traps and how people lure their unsuspecting victims.

• A child crying on the street lost and can't find their house, tells you their address and you take them there walk them into the house to make sure their safe inside. Then your trapped. 
• Child's kitten is stuck on the roof they ask you to get it the only way to get up there is with a ladder that happens to be inside. 
• The house is on fire and a young women is in hysterics as her child/husband/sister/brother etc.. is still trapped inside, heroic young man runs inside to help and discovers the house is not really on fire.

I couldn't really think of any more ways of luring someone to your house, to a shop or a museum or something along those lines would be a lot easier but people are always suspicious if your like "want to come to my house?" especially to someone you don't know.

I think I'm going to run with the first idea where the child is lost, children in horror stories and always more terrifying, as you see them as innocent. 

Colour, Bump and Specular Maps

Colour Map

Bump and Specular Map

Life drawing

From Script to Screen: Further research

Research by Kym Mumford

Like for Like storyboard: Scott Pilgrim vs the world

I'm doing my like for like on Scott Pilgrim Vs the world, I found it very difficult and it took me quite a while to do, I didn't realize just how many changes to the camera angle there were. I had to play the clip quite a few times and in slow motion before I managed to get all the camera angles. I have the clip of the 30 seconds I story boarded below. My storyboard starts at 1.30 on the video clip.

Storyboard Like for Like

"La Jetée" (1962) Chris Marker

La Jetée by Kym Mumford

Old Alley: Lighting

Finished the lighting for my Old Alley scene.

Initial Influence maps

Here are just two initial influence maps for my character and haunted house environment, to get a few ideas going.

Initial Character Influence map

Initial Environment influence map

Story Telling and commission: Initial idea

Form my character I have a Butterfly Hunter, prop is a catapult and then my environment is a haunted house.
I have the basic basis to my story without my detail, keep changing how I want the story. But so far I was thinking, having my butterfly hunter outside hunting this one elusive butterfly, he's frustrated that he can't catch it especially when it flies up high so he uses a catapult to try get up high enough to catch it but it goes wrong he misses the butterfly and ends up landing right in front of the haunted house, curious he goes in wonders around, until he catches sight of the butterfly, he runs after it, but its not the butterfly, house comes alive and chases him out, where he stumbles out of the house and right in front of him is the butterfly again.
Still need to work out quite a few details but as far as the direction of the story that's what I'm thinking so far.

Life drawing

In this weeks session of life drawing we had to try and convey an emotion with our drawing, nervous and sorrow. The first image is just the quick two minute sketches we do for a warm up followed by nervous  which I found really difficult to portray and then sorrow. I really like the sorrow image think it worked really well. 

The Whimsy House: Exterior Lighting

Midday

Sunset

Romantic

Night

Dancing Christmas Tree

Before the Christmas break as a small project we had to make our own Zoetrope animation, I decided to do a simple Dancing Christmas tree, and this was my outcome.