Location Research - Prague

I think that we've seen enough of Perpignan in my research for now... So lets move on to somewhere else.

Prague is a beautiful city in the Czech Republic, and has some amazing city squares in it, which are very similar to how Rob and I envisioned the square looking in out own film. I think that we will be taking quite a bit of inspiration from this one...

I like the pastel range of colours on these buildings. When buildings are all the same colour I think it can look quite boring. By using pastel shades all of the buildings can compliment each other, while being totally different colours. Also, the tall town house design of the buildings is how I imagine the buildings in our square will be.

Definitely got quite a few things to reference from Prague. Though there's no rivers/canals we will almost definitely be referencing the building designs of the town squares.

Matty out.

Mime Plot Breakdown

I wasn't sure until now if it was a good idea to be posting our full scripts and plot things publicly on the intermabob but as this is our primary form of handing in our research and development, it has occurred to me that I should probably post everything and anything I do regarding my work this year.

So without further hesitation, here is the plot breakdown for our still un-named mime idea:

• An old timer mime sets to work, setting down his hat to collect money, and taking off and hanging up his mime coat, and begins his act.

• A new young mime turns up on the opposite side of a river, bringing with him a stereo, a coat, stool, and many other props. Eventually he begins his act.

• The old timer notices he has lost his audience to the new young mime.

• He tries to mime better, pulling out his most impressive moves, but strains his back.

• Frustrated, he looks around and spots something on the ground.

• He bends down, and pretends to pick up a rock, and throws it in the direction of the younger mime, who is struck and falls over.

• The young mime gets up rubbing his head, and glares over at the old mime, who is acting inconspicuous, but breaks and starts to laugh.

• The young mime is annoyed, and mimes blowing up a balloon and begins to bend it into something.

• The old-timer mime notices, pulls out a bow and arrow and pops the balloon before he is able to finish it.

• The young mime then strides over the bridge angrily, while miming rolling up his sleeves, and walks right up to the old timer.

• The young mime then mimes taking off his glove, finger at a time, grasps it and slaps the old mime across the face, challenging him to a duel.

• The old timer is stunned for a moment, staring at the young mime.

• He then holds up his hand, and blows mime dust in the face of the young mime and begins to run on the spot, facing away from the young mime.

• Rubbing the dust out of his eyes the young mime begins to run on the spot after the old mime (neither of whom have moved anywhere).

• The old mime the stops and sits down, pretending to read a newspaper.

• The young mime stops and after looking around, asks the old timer if he has seen a mime pass by.

• The old timer, points him off in a direction and the young mime begins to walk away.

• Realising that the it was the old mime with the newspaper, the young mime turns around looking for where he went, and spots him miming to his (young mime’s) own crowd on his side of the river.

• The young mime, ties a lasso and spins it over his head and throws it at the old mime. Pulling him towards him at the centre of the bridge.

• They are now face to face again, right across the dividing line on the bridge, and begin to argue silently, throwing fists around and pointing out that they are on each other’s patch.

• Eventually they notice that the crowd has grown, and people clapping for them now surround them.

• The 2 look at each other, smile and take a bow together.

• As the credits roll, show the 2 mimes working together, e.g. on a tandem mime bike, swinging across the river etc.  

Script writing actually began a few days ago, we're currently on our second draft, so I imagine the initial draft will be up very shortly. 

Until then! I'd better get back to work! Matty out.

Location Research - Perpignan 2!

My most recent post was about the beautiful river and bridges in Perpignan. There is however, a very nice square in the city center that I visited while I was there.

This is the square, it is called 'Plaza de la Republica'. The reason Rob and I are researching city squares is because we want the whole set to be surrounded by building, much like in these images. I quite like the diversity in the design of the buildings here. But I'm not certain if that will suit what we have envisioned...

Ideally we will be able to find a city square with a river running through it. Though that may be wishful thinking... Realistically we will probably have to take reference from multiple places and try and create our own super beautiful city square for our film.

One thing I'm not sure of, is if Rob would prefer to differ the designs of building on either side of our set... Something we can discuss later this afternoon!

Onwards and upwards!

Location Research - Perpignan

Now that we're decided on the way the set is going to be set out (at least vaguely), we decided to do some internet based location scouting to get an idea of what the set is going to actually look like.


If you have been following me, you'll know that I recently returned from a holiday in Perpignan, France. So when the need for a beautiful city (preferably with a river running through it) it was at the fore-front of my mind. Here are some images of the river running down one of the main streets in Perpignan:

I must admit the high saturation of this picture makes the place look even more beautiful.

The tall buildings on either side of the river look just like I pictured it in my head. Although this location is absolutely beautiful, the grass on either side doesn't really match up with what we need. 


Time to keep on looking!

Mimemo Layout

After a fairly busy few days Rob and I have made some serious ground with our work. We really weren't very sure which project we would be working on.

Despite some very one-sided reviews we were until a few days ago, fairly determined to work on the alien idea. But after some tweaks to the mime idea, we're (me in particular) are seeing things more from our teacher's points of view.

It is now official... We are working on the mime idea! Which has yet to get a title... Suggestions are welcome!

The last few days have been pretty much spent writing and re-writing the synopsis (not as easy as it sounds), and then creating a basic plot breakdown. Script writing began today, literally minutes in... It dawned on us that we both had different images in our minds; and so began the discussions.

This particular discussion was regarding the whole setup of the scene. We both envisioned it in opposite directions: Rob saw the bridge in the center of the stage running away from the camera, I saw it running across, with the river running down the center.

Here is couple of sketches we were doing, you can even see our angry lines and arrows! To the right was how Rob imagined the film, the rest being how I thought it was going to be set out.

After quite a while of redrawing lines and bickering like an old married couple we decided for another drawing. Luckily Rob really liked this drawing, and after some discussion we realized a lot of the shots make a lot more sense set out this way. 

So with with that out of the way, we can get back to our script writing! Wish us luck!


Also, after thinking about the layout of the website, I'll be changing my labels yet again... With a development and research label for both my 3 minute and futures projects. Just to make things easier to follow for my teachers.


Matty out.

BUTTONS!!!!!!!

As the title suggests... This is just a quick blog to upload the 'futures' and '3 minute' link buttons for Rob's and my blog. Should make arranging our blogs a little neater and easier to navigate.

Here's hoping:

Matty out!

Edit: To save some coding for now, I'm uploading some wide versions, so they appear equally spaced!

Introducing... Futures!

Something that I haven't yet mentioned in my blog is my futures project for the year. The futures project is basically practice pitching and planning an entire animated series. Synopsis, episodes, target audience, character design, merchandise, and budget are all things we have to look at. Though unlike most of our projects no actual animation is involved...

This is the project out of 3 that I, my lecturers and my class-mates have decided would be best to use:

Deep Space Explorers (working title)

The galactic council have brought together the best of various species’ astronauts and scientific minds into a single crew, dedicated to exploring the deepest stretches of the universe. As they explore they discover things which push the laws of what we know, such as binary star systems, habitable planets, new amazing species and stars who’s size would boggle the mind, and report back everything to the galactic council.

The aim of the series is to teach young teens and get them excited about physics, science and space. Showing the amazing things in the universe that we know to be true, and also to show amazing things, which theoretically could exist according to the laws physics.

This was the idea I was most excited about doing... It's about space! I love space stuff! So planning an entire series based on it is genuinely going to be a lot of fun, at least until something goes drastically wrong.

I'm back!

Like the title says, I'm finally back and able to blog again!

As I mentioned I've been away on holiday for a fortnight, and upon returning moved house... Followed by 3 nights vigorous preparation for presenting our ideas to our lecturers and class.

It turns out that we didn't need as much work as we had prepared, non-the-less the work we have done, saves us quite a chunk of time in the coming weeks... 

Anyway, it is now officially decided which project I will be working on, along with Rob (ratworks-r); drum-roll please!

Our 3 minute animation for the year will be *pause for effect* my alien idea! (We're still working on a title). We were torn between Rob's mime idea and this, but decided that the mixed media format would suit us working in a team much more.

Work continues, but work from now on is going to be much more focused as I'm now working on only 2 projects of the 6 I was before. 

See you soon! Matty out.