Press Kit

Okay, so I have a few more things to post today. :)

First, here's my trailer:

http://vimeo.com/22276115



And here's my Press Kit

Title: Vice and Virtue

Duration: approx. 3 minutes 30 seconds

Language: N/A

Completion date: April 2011

Aspect ratio: 9:6

Director: Alexie Johnson

           

Synopsis

A small character finds himself and two others trapped within a maze where none of them have control over anything.  They are unable to explore but still need to find their way out.

Artist Statement:

I started off as an illustrator helping my practice grow and change with a variety of fine arts classes such as life drawing, painting and Native art.  After being accepted into Emily Carr University I was given the opportunity to try out something I felt (at the time) was the closest I could get to illustration, animation.  While I found out it was completely different than illustration, I was surprised to find out how much I enjoyed creating motion with my images.  After taking my first classes in animation during my first year at the school I decided that that was what I wanted to strive for as a career.  I got accepted into the animation program in second year and am now about to graduate from this program with hopes of getting a job in this industry.

                                                                                   

As I entered into second year at Emily Carr as an animation student I began to see the beauty in movement and the schematics of making a character move.  I became fascinated with how people and objects move and would often play 2D and 3D games and watch animation films strictly to observe the characters move.  Being in fourth year now, I have found that this new interest for motion has begun to transfer over to how I draw my characters when illustrating.  Looking at my past character designs I find them now to be to very stiff and rigid whereas some of my most recent works I have started incorporating motion into the poses and playing with the line between the concepts of static and dynamic positions.  One of my animation professors told us that if done well one pose can tell a person everything from what the character's personality is to how they would most likely act in different situations.  I believe this one statement has changed the way I approach both my illustrations and animations.  My mind is, now, constantly thinking of how the character would move and flow throughout the picture, whether it is a single still image or many images combined together to create the illusion of this movement.  Animation has drawn me towards the wonders of motion and made me more aware of the way things move and the simple differences between similar movements such as how each person walks, for example.

My art deals with subjects such as great strength and defiance as well as the delicate nature of people and objects one can find in life.  I have the desire to capture the proud and confident features of an object or living being while still showing the ethereal aspects of it/them as well.   More recently I've been exploring humour and situations with surprise or unexpected endings.   I enjoy both making people laugh and turning the audiences expectations of my animations, especially, upside down.  I love how films with twist endings give me a sort of satisfaction when it happens while at the same time making think 'Wow, I never saw that coming'.  Afterwards I always find myself trying to piece together various clues within the earlier part of the film in an attempt to see how it all could lead to such a mind blowing ending.  That is what I like about this kind of film; the time spent thinking about it after a person has finished viewing it.  It leaves a more lasting impression and hopefully more satisfaction. 

Film Credits:

Animator: Alexie Johnson

Sound Designer: Alexie Johnson

Special Thanks:

Marilyn Cherenko

Martin Rose

Anna Fletcher

Jessica Brown

Screen Shots:

Production Schedule

Here's my task list for the rest of this month!  ONLY ONE MONTH LEFT!!

Poster Design

So here's the poster design for my film. :) I'm currently Humming and Ha-ing over 3 different fonts types any suggestions are welcome. (even if it's a completely different font.)



Image 1 -I rather like this one, my only problem with it is that it's too fat so it makes it look...off...somehow. :(

Image 2  -Thought I'd go for a font that helped reflect the fear the characters go through within the film.

Image 3  -For this one I used a font that is a heavy contrast between the frightened characters and the more 'pretty' font.  I actually like this contrast and adds to the 'Virtue' part of the film. This is likely the version I will choose.

Review of Salvador's Film

Universal Ninja   by  Salvador Nunez

The story is about a ninja who betrays the trust of a goddess and goes behind her back to stop her quest for immortality from happening.  Upon finding out, she turns him into a living statue.  Forced to be forever aware of his surroundings but unable to move or die until the next planetary alignment.

From talking with Salvador about his film I believe the principal reason for the creation of this film was to bring to life, a story he's been working on for a long time.

His Influences

Comic books

Marvel

Cap com (aka. Street fighter)

Ninja turtles

Characters

This film uses live action to portray Salvador's idea.  In his mind each character is from a different universe.  To convey this he overlays a different masking technique onto each character. 

The Goddess, Karolina, has a celestial star-like image over top her character to give her a more heavenly and majestic feel to her.  I think her design is quite beautiful and really shows off her character, my only comment on her would be that it's unfortunately we don't get to see her face and the make up that is so much apart of her personality. 

The ninja, Coaltix, is completely black and white with no grey tones in between to emphasize that his character is a shadow.  Salvador would have preferred to do the ninja in 3D; however, he didn't have the time to do so.

The second female character, Selina, is in tones of grey which gives her a more earthly feel to her.  I also found her style interesting because unless one looked closely at her, she looks as if she had been done in 3D. 

I think this technique is a very effective way to differentiate the characters.  My only suggestion is that he maintain this separation throughout the entirety of the film so as to keep continuity within his film.

Camera/Editing

I think the camera angles and editing is working so far.  As we discussed previously the film would definitely benefit from cutting back and forth between the ninja and goddess while the other is speaking.  That way the audience can see the other characters response to what they're being told as well as makes the film more interesting to look at. 

Sound

He is torn between using spoken dialogue or speech bubbles for the dialogue of his film.  He would like to give his film more of a comic feel to it by using speech bubbles rather than spoken dialogue.  My opinion would be that he stick to spoken dialogue because I believe that he already has captured that comic-like feel and having speech bubbles might end up looking a little awkward within the live action. 

We didn't discuss sfx much but I hope that he does use basic sound effects such as footfalls and ambience to help create a more real world for his characters.

My Personal Response

It made so much more sense when I could listen to the dialogue with the visuals.  I think it would be smart to show people a version with the sound so they can understand it and it would also save Salvador some grief of having to hear that people don't understand the film. 

I really enjoy the different textures and visuals that he is using for each character,  especially the Goddess character.  I also really like the make up design for all of the characters.  

I think the idea of having the pyramids moving as if they are alive is a really interesting idea and hope Salvador is able to do this.  My only concern is that people might not understand why these structures are moving.  If it's not already planned my suggestion is that he think about a way to explain the significance of these structures.  Or if the structures were randomly shaped, disfigured structures that moved and pulsed, rather than being pyramid shapes, people might be able to more easily connect them to living things.

I really liked how he animated the ninja being 'flown' up to where the Goddess was in the storyboard he presented to the class in the beginning of this semester.  He seemed to be having a bit of trouble figuring out how he was going to have the ninja 'fly' up there.  It would be really nice to see something similar in the final cut of the film.