Inspirations

As mentioned before, I am taking a lot of inspiration from the videos games, Zelda. The whole fantasy element of the games really tie in well with my film.

At this moment I am working on the design for the character The Spirit of the Forest. In the Zelda games there are several strange characters which I can take influence from.

The characters in these images are not so different from humans and could be achieved as a costume in real life. This is an important factor to realise when I am designing this character. It has to look realistic enough to not look tacky, yet at the same time, it must look like a strange, surreal spirit.

The characters movements are also very interesting to note. Zant's movement ranges from slow fluid movements to fast erratic movements. His long cloak conceals is body and makes his movements seem even stranger. Zant:

The skull kids movement is more cheeky. He acts more like a playful child which could be an interesting style for my spirit of the forest. Skull Kid:

In my script, I have mentioned a desire for the Spirit of the Forest to have it's own sound. Much similar to when the Joker appears in the Dark Knight. In Zelda, it is very common for characters to have their own soundtracks. Depending on what my character is going to look like will depend on which style of music I will require. Here is an example of the a character from Zelda's soundtrack.

Scene Design

From the early stages of creating my idea, I have had a very clear image of what I want the film too look like.

As the film is more part of the fantasy genre, I decided to look at fantasy films, video games and art work to help forge the image in my mind into an achievable film look.

This first clip is a scene from the movie Twilight. The forest they use is very much like the one I had imagined in my mind. They have colour graded the scene blue to give it that cold, secluded feeling which really works well. The use of fog helps create that mystique in the forest and also helps add to the secluded feel of the scene.

I also looked at a scene from the N64 video game Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In this scene, I like bright green colours and also the large, bright floating pieces of dust. I have seen these floating particles in fantasy films before and they really help bring a magical feel to the set. I would like to incorporate these into my film but very subtly. I also love the sound in the scene. The footsteps are echoed, the ambience seems never ending and really makes it seem like they are alone in the very middle of the forest, which is exactly the mood I wish to create.

I have also come across a photographer on flickr.com who has created some fantastic images of a forest.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/haikus59/3408442567/

New Project - Drama

Third year has started and it's time to step up my game.

I have decided to do a drama for my first film, to make a change from the more documentary style I did for my last film.

Over the summer I knew I wanted to create a surreal drama. I am always eager to create something very different to what people normally see.

First I was very inspired by the music I started to listen to. Bands like "Empire of the Sun", "Temper Trap" and "Friendly Fires" all seemed to have this ethereal sound which is the mood I wish to create in my next film. "Empire of the Sun" especially have very unique videos with a style that I love. Here is one of their videos:

During this time, I was also playing the video game Zelda. As a film maker, I feel it is

important to draw inspiration from everywhere and I have always been inspired by this

particular game series.

Due to this inspiration, it seemed I had developed a strong desire to locate my film

in the forest. This location will be the starting point for my idea.