Production Design

Ive been going around and around with the design of the film as I have been developing the story. After a few hold backs I have had some jumps forward with developing some ideas for the inside of the mans house where he was hard at work planing his journey and gathering the elements of our world. Here are a few designs of where it is heading. stay tuned for more development of the world  outside !

The Girls Progress, its all in the face!

Another great play-blast from Christine Li on the modeling progress of the girl.

Griffith Observatory

Took a trip to the Griffith observatory and saw a great display on the elements and the formation of our world. They have a great interactive display showing what elements form ed at what point to create our world from the big bang and super nova to what elements can be found in the human body. Here are a few  random pictures.

Girl Progress

Progress on girls face modeling.

Old Man occlusion Test Renders

The Old Man is coming along very nicely he will be handed over for rigging in the next few days and on to making the girl look just as good. I continue to be impressed by my modeler Christine Li and her hard work.

Old Man Facial Expressions

Maya Project Breakdown

Progress, Character, and Story

I have met with several friends and writers going over the story of The Collector's Gift in the past week.  I am working on sharpening the plot points, the characters physical and emotional journeys and overall story focus. I am working on the action driving the characters and story forward in a fun way that gives a sense of the overall world and where they fit into it.

These are a few pages from some notes on development of the girl. The old man is close to being done, as far as modeling, I will update where he is at soon. The Girl will fallow soon with more progress.

Progress on the old man modeling

I have had the privilege to bring on 2 people to work on my characters Christine Li, who has been hard at work modeling and Megan Gritzfeld, who is rigging my characters. Together they have been brainstorming and working together to bring my 2 characters to life. To catch up on the past few months, here are a few passes and notes that Christine and I have been exchanging.

Trip to the lab

I have been lucky to have Gene Bickers, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Programs, and Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, as my science adviser threw this process. Last week he introduced me to Dr. Michael Quinlan the  Director of the General Chemistry labs at USC, who showed me around the labs to take some pictures and answer some questions here are some pictures of the labs. The labs at USC are under renovation rite now so that is why they look as they do, which made for good pictures.

Character Design ( The Girl)

And here is my young girl

 

Character Design ( The Old Man)

As I am new to character design. I spent a lot of time looking at character designs and spent a long time working out my 2 characters. Here is where the old man design landed.

research

Design

This is some early visual development I have been working on.

The Story

Logline:

In a time of hardship, a man travels the world to collect and preserve all of the elements from the periodic table. When a young girl stumbles upon them left behind in a trunk, she discovers a new world forming inside.

Synopsis:

            The Collector’s Gift is about two characters that together, with the elements of the periodic table, form a new world. The story takes place in a city that is in economic and environmental decline. A young girl alone in the world is seen on the dangerous empty streets. As the night falls, she enters a boarded up storefront. Frightened, she makes her way up to the roof of the building where she finds an old abandoned house. Once inside the girl discovers a trunk filled with little jars, each holding one element from the periodic table.  She explores the trunk and the room, full of maps, charts, and scientific instruments, piecing together the origins of each element and imagining the man who brought all the elements together to preserve. As she falls asleep, safe from the streets, she, the collector and the trunk float through the stars together in her dreams.  The crumbling house shakes her awake and in her dream the elements all smash together.  When the dust settles she opens the trunk to find a new world forming within.

The Collector's Gift

 “The Collector’s Gift” will be my Thesis film to be completed in the coming year. I have applied for a grant called the Sloan Grant. It involves bringing the sciences into the arts in a fun way they are involved all over the country academically and professionally in many forms such as theater and film. After hearing a spot on the NPR show Radio lab I had an Idea that I wanted to explore for my thesis as well as felt would be great for the Sloan. It was a story about a collector who gathers all of the elements from the periodic table into a trunk and after reading this quote I found a story I wanted to tell and felt it worked perfectly for the grant.

“The periodic table is, finally, an anthropological marvel, a human artifact that

reflects all the wonderful and artful and ugly aspects of human beings and

how we interact with the physical world- the history of our species

written in a compact and elegant script.”

                                                      -Sam Kean-     

I have not yet heard back if I have received the grant so I have continued forward in development.