Poster Pitches

Today we sketched out poster ideas for our films. I drew some thumbnails in pen, aiming for a more 'teaser' poster approach, where you don't give much away in the film and keep the characters quite mysterious. Some of them are aimed at children, while others are perhaps more dark/suggestive to draw in an older audience.

I started small and drew some of the best ones a bit bigger as well. My personal favourites are the bottom left poster with the simple tree/swing and the one above that where the spirit is shown in Amber's shadow.

I've also simplified my working title to "Great Oak, Little Acorn" as previously, "Great Oaks From Little Acorns Grow" suggested some kind of investment and wasn't quite mirroring the story. Still, it's just a working title for now so further changes may be made.

You'll also notice I'm drawing the Spirit as a tear-drop shaped ghost at the moment. This is purely for early representation purposes as the look of the Spirit has not yet been finalized.

I'll be adding more poster ideas as I go, but for now I'll be concentrating on nailing down the story and drawing storyboards for our seminar next week.

Ideas Pitch

Hello and welcome to the production blog for my final film at Newport University. :)

Today was the pitching session for my fellow third years and I. Overall our ideas were well-received but there is still much to do to make our films stand out from the crowd!

My film is about an unlikely friendship between girl and tree spirit, how they grow up together and eventually move on from the loss of that friendship.

This is the synopsis that I presented today:

Upon a hill grows an ancient Oak tree, which also happens to be  home to a playful tree Spirit. Amber, an imaginative and curious youngster, befriends this Spirit and through the years and seasons they form the strongest of friendships. Eventually Amber reaches adulthood and although her personality is no different from the little girl she once was, the Spirit knows it’s time for her to grow up.

One night, the Oak and Spirit that was once the centre of Amber’s life is struck down by lightning. Heartbroken at the loss of her dearest friend, she breaks down. But when she sees a tiny sapling tree rising from the destruction, the seed of change starts to grow inside her.

And here is some of my initial concept art for my main character, Amber, and the grand old Oak Tree.

My feedback basically suggested that I put limitations on my animation to reduce the workload and avoid the "full" Disney-style animation that I'm used to as I'm working individually on this. Possibly even animating mostly in silhouette... all these decisions will be worked through in the coming months. All my progress will be posted here so do check back for more updates.

Thanks for reading, see you again soon!
Gemma