Land and power: Character Design

Below are the designs for the lead charater in this film, she is a farmer who depends fully on her land and the income she makes from farming the land.

 

Storyboard Feedback

I sent me story boards to my client 2 days ago, and this morning I get there feedback;

Overall they likedit,  they really like the greneral concept and they picket out a list of element they thought were really great.

 

They also gave me a list of points to think about and possibly change;

-they want the main character to be female, lots of farmers across the contries that are being affected by land grabs are female. I happy with this as it wont really effect my story that much.

 

-There not sure about frames 6/7 (a young boy planting the seeds) it could look like child labour and detract from the real issue. so possibly we could have the childs father/mother planting the seeds.

 

-They would like more close ups of the family, to get there facial expressions

 

-Have the family shaken out the frame as well

 

-Cut frames 26-28 (plants growing into family) and replace with shots of the family living on the land

 

-Rework the market scene as its nothing like what markets are really like. They are going to send me some reference material for that.

 

-The man should use a lorry to take his crops to market as this is more like reality

 

-In rame 18 the man protecs the crops from the rain, it might be more effective if it was locusts?

 

This feed back has been really usefull, I don't agree with it all and i've sent back my thoughts on the changes but its really helpfull to have this input to make this film acurate aswell as powerful. Below are my storyboards with new notes ontop about the possible changes.

 



 

Test animation

this is a reel of tests i've done from the cycle I cut out on the laser cutter.

First draft storboards

Presentation

Land and Power: 2nd Woodcut concept piece

this is a sencond print i have made using the linocut technique. It shows the farmer stepping out of his woodcut print frame to water a plant in a diffrent frame.
I want to use the frames as a metephore the the land that the farmer owned.

 

illustrator screen shot of print to be lazercut

Land and Power: Woodcut/linocut

This weekend ive been having another go at Lino cutting for my project, ive been trying to recreate the style of Fred Mutebi. instead to woodcutting i've been using lino as its quicker and easier but gives a very similar effect. I couldn't print the colour with separate blocks as I didn't have the time so i put colour down in watercolour and then printed on top with the lino.

Im very pleased with these prints.  and i really enjoyed making them, but im unsure how i can animate in this style, id really like to lino cut and print each frame, but that would take me a very long time and cost a lot, im going to look into recreating the effect digitally or i also thought about using a Lazer cutter to cut out each frame and then printing them, this could save time and still have the nice printed effect.

Major Project: Land and Power

This year I plan to direct one major film. I have been commisioned by british charity Oxfam to create a short 2 min animation to be part of there campaign agains Land Grabbing.

• Land grabbing is the contentious issue of large-scale land acquisitions: the buying or leasing of large        pieces of land in developing countries, by domestic and transnational companies, governments, and individuals. 

After researching the topic and reading the documentation I was sent I started brainstorming ideas for a film.

Something that stood out to me was the way that people, in the various case studies I read, really depended on the land that was being taken away from them. The land was not only there home but the only source of food and only source of income, without the land they had not access to education and no way of making money or food to feed there families. 

I plan for one of the main focuses of my film to be how everything comes from the land.

A form of art that really interests me is Woodcuts and printmaking and I think it relates to the subject nicely, so i have been researching forms of woodcutting and printmakers.

Ive been having a go with my own Relief printmaking using lino, I love the look of the prints but unsure how I can make this work when animated.

I came across a ugandan printmaker named Fred Mutenbi, his work is beautiful and full of colour and life, i'm looking into a way of possibly animating in his style.

Ive had a go at reproducing a couple of his pieces, using watercolour and pen, to get a feel for his style.

Another art form i've been looking at is indonesian shadow puppetry, Ive been doing some research into traditionally made leather puppets.

Ive been putting my ideas down in quick thumbnail storyboards, and brought these together to create a very rough storyboard.

Below are a couple of character that i have picked out of the Fred Mutenbi prints, this is how i'm imagining my characters in the film to look, Im still unsure how this will be animated.

Ruth Lingford: Pleasures of War (1999)