Research
This week I finalised which character I wanted to draw on in my film, Pansy Potter. I feel like it was one with more potential plot than other ideas, and could be really fun to work on design-wise. I started progressing on this character with research into female-led bands and animated bands and musicians.
The idea of making an almost Gorillaz-like music video but with Pansy and her band sounds like it would be really fun to conceptualise and storyboard, as well as make an intriguing final product, but I would have to find a band willing to have their music used both in a short film and on the Beano website, which might prove complicated.
Design
The next thing I did was make a collage of different rock/goth/punk looks so that I had an idea of what fashion influences I wanted on Pansy and her band mates.
The collage includes pictures of the female-led bands that I researched as well as photos from catwalks, other icons and fashion blogs. I made sure to have this collage up on my laptop whilst sketching potential looks for my characters. Below are my sketchbook pages with some of my favourite concepts for Pansy enlarged.
I then went on to draw some of these concepts in a more refined manner in Photoshop:
I've gone on to colour one set of these outfits to see what they would look like more neatly drawn and rendered, but I want to experiment with my potential style a little more, looking into the way of drawing the eyes especially. I then want to progress onto character sheets for each of the characters to properly acknowledge the looks of each character.
Plot
My idea for the plot is quite simple- the three of the band members are all heading back home after a bad day at high school, and arrive back at their respective houses or flats in a bad mood. They all then go to their practice space (e.g. garage, bedroom but with headphones, shed etc.) to play so to unwind from the day. As they play they get more into the rhythm on the music, until they imagine themselves all playing together on stage, dressed elaborately for their stage personas. They play their song through triumphantly until its end when they return to their ordinary selves in separate locations, tired out from playing so extremely but much happier to have let out their emotions on their music.
I like the design that this plot would bring to the project- the casual outfits versus the stag outfits, each of their practise spaces, and their instruments- but I feel like it lacks imagination and that the ending could come off a little limp. There's not really much story to the whole thing, rather the tune that they play will take up the biggest part of the film. Part of me would still love to have a story that draws on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, where cartoon lines are drawn from the instruments with incredible musical battles. The thought of Pansy Potter fighting with her guitar just fits with her trait of being the strongest girl of her age. My very first vague idea for a plot I had last week was to have Pansy Potter as a similar character to Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where she could be part of a band but also protect others from supernatural or sci-fi creatures. I imagined her jumping down from the stage that she was performing on to hit a zombie in the head with her guitar, perhaps with her fellow band members fighting by throwing drum sticks and symbols. I will need to do more research and think more on ideas like this if they're to be covered in a short amount of time and compelling as well as understandable to the viewer.
Comments