Documentary Background Construction and Silhouette Tests

This week I built the frames for one of every type of tree that we are going to include in the forest, based on the designs I created the previous week. I had to make a few adjustments to the design when building them in reality however (for instance the strings were unable to move the branches when hidden inside the tree, so these will now be outside and will be painted out in rigging). The trees were also very unstable on the cardboard, so I replaced this with a wooden base, and tied them down with elastic band supports and screws.

Live plants:

Stinking Corpse Lily:

Teak Tree:

Fig Tree:

Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree:

Burnt/Deforested Tree:

I then gave these to Daisy to coat with latex, which is a great material for creating a bark texture. 

I also carried out some tests into the silhouette shots of the forest we are going to include at three points throughout the documentary (the first shot where the rainforest is lush and dense, the middle shot where the forest is on fire, and the last shot where the forest has been completely deforested). I started by cutting out rough outlines of trees from cardboard and paper, sticking them upright, arranging them in a way so as to recreate a dense rainforest atmosphere. These tests had varying levels of success. For the later tests, I included Daisy's air plants and bind weeds. 

First shot - Dense Rainforest:

I like the cardboard edges to the trees but otherwise the composition is very flat.

I like the hazy lighting and the composition is much better but the green is too luminescent 

This is my favourite test. I like the blue, however it's slightly too dark.

The oil effect is nice but makes the image far too dark.

The silhouette is too dark making the image too flat.

The grey-scale image is not as exciting as the blue version.

The shot looks better for having more of a foreground.

I like the mix of flat cardboard trees with real plants.

This is another of my favourite tests, which features cardboard trees covered in moss.

Middle shot - Forest on fire:

The oil patterns work well as creating a fire/smoke effect when combined with the original composition using blend modes. 

This composition includes an image with the light shinning directly through the forest towards camera (creating the bright fire in the centre). The shot looks much better for being tinted red as well.

Again, the real plants add that extra bit of detail that I think is needed for the composition.

Cardboard trees covered in moss with oil background. The moss gives even more detail to the cutout trees.

End shot - Deforested forest:

Cardboard tree stumps with dry moss and tree bark in the foreground.

Same composition with palm oil in the background.

What Went Well

• With a few tweaks, the frame building went according to plan
• The frames are sturdy and should be durable enough for animating
• The silhouette tests got me to a final shot that I like and think will fit well within the documentary
• I think the combination of real plants with cutout trees works well

Criticism 

• The initial plan to have the trees mounted on cardboard made them far too unstable
• The cut out trees were very basic for the test, however will be a lot more detailed for the real thing
• Some of the silhouette tests didn't work out so well, but I was able to see what looked wrong with them and how to improve it

Documentary Pre-Production Continued

This week, I devised a very rough storyboard idea so that everyone in the group is on the same page.

Alongside this, I worked on a rough outline the script would take. Overall, the documentary will start positively. The concept of palm oil will be introduced fairly neutrally and towards the end of the documentary, the message will flip and look into all the devastating effects palm oil has on the Indonesian rainforest. I used some facts as examples, however these will be changed when we actually go on to write the script.

I then worked on two different tests. The first test was a rough idea of how the words would appear on screen. 

Positives

• The paper flapping in the wind worked best, the fire test was also successful
• The paper fits with the subject of deforestation

Negatives

• The words will be scanned in on the scraps of paper, rather than as they are here, typed on digitally
• The water test was slightly too subtle

I then tested the transitional point between the stop-motion and the collage. This involves strips of paper (representing the palm oil crop) coming through the cardboard, taking over the floor space.

Positives

• The third test was my favourite and will work in the stop-motion set
• I liked the first test as well, and will work well if combined with the third test

Negatives

• I had to animate blindly as my camera isn't compatible with my stop-motion software
• The camera is shaky because I had to take the photo by touching the camera
• The window was open so the lighting varied from photo to photo

Me and Daisy then split up the designing and building of the plants where she'll be working on the aesthetics and outer layers of the plants and I'm working on the under-layers and mechanisms to move them. We picked 9 varieties of plants to make for the forest. I made these designs for the under-layers of the plants.

As a group, we collated our tests and work together for the pre-production pitch. The tutor was pleased with the amount of work we had managed to get done and told us to carry on with what we were doing.

What Went Well

• The rough storyboard helped me explain to the group the overall idea I had for the film
• The tests worked how I expected them to and will be used for the final film
• The designs incorporate materials that are easy to source and show as little of the nylon thread as possible (so the rig-removal stage is reduced)
• There are a variety of plants for the forest, and importantly, they're all native to Indonesia

Criticism

• Splitting the work on the plants between the outer and under layers will mean that me and Daisy will both need to get the scale right for the two layers to fit together when built
• The tests were loosely put together just so I could get the gist of the outcomes. For the real thing, we'll use a proper camera, animate with proper software, control the lighting etc.