Sunday, 1 November 2009

White Rabbit, White Rabbit, White Rabbit!

Arrggghhhh! Bloody November already..! So a whirlwind review of projects in production and in the pipeline...

Completed the second White Rabbit promo, 'Enjoy Yourself' and travelled down to Hastings to shoot video footage for the third promo, 'Bunny Girl'. Will probably have to re-shoot, however, as the space wasn't suitable and our recce also proved the need for quite detailed storyboards and choreography, even though only 20 seconds of final footage is required. We also agreed by should probably film before going down the pub next time ;)

MiLK HaRE pre-production is going well and a story outline for 'Milkhare, A Story Of Seasons' has been completed. Although research into the original Scandinavian folktale provided plenty of cold facts about the Milkhare (Mjölkhare, Bjära or Trollkatt) I couldn't find an actual rendition of the story. In summary, all I knew was that witches in remote Nordic villages would use a 'Milkhare' to steal cream from their neighbours. The Milkhare was a monstrous creature, fashioned from the bodies of animals, heddles, bessoms and string, and bought to life by the witch with her own blood.

So these facts needed to be spun into a narrative. Who are the witches? What is their relationship with the villagers (and the forest)? Why do they make the Milkhare to steal the cream..? The outline offers a taster/teaser for the narrative and feel of the production. Decisions as to whether or not this story outline will become a spoken dialogue (or villagers get their kids back) are the next steps, along with a treatment, then character and set designs.

A sketchbook of visual research materials for set/character designs is available here. This will hold photographic and pencil illustrations from my bimbles through the English countryside. A gallery for character/set designs and also storyboards is also available here.

And that's all folks! Have a lucky month you lovely people :)

White Rabbit Animation