more development research stuff

hey guys and gals;

figured I would share what I have for development stuff - found some awesome gorilla designs and jungle stuff - got a few army and soldier things in there too. I just made a new folder and named it "Angels research development" so as not to confuse. figured it helps to all share the stuff so we are on the same page and can explore the same styles and context. feel free to use anything or ignore it all.

anyways, Jeremy's templates are now done and lookin spiffy so you can start sending Alexis and I your finished artwork and concepts anytime so we can start assembling the final pitch package.

later daze everyone!

Refined Template

Yo team... here is the beautified template - as you can see, pretty much the same, but more detailed. I've got the Jamaican colours all over this haha. Hope you dig ~ feel free to critique.

Natalie's Suggestions

These are the things that Natalie suggest we add or change. I'm pretty sure that we've covered everything that she mentioned, but I'm posting them so that they are available to everyone.

Meeting Notes

Hey everyone, these are the notes from our meeting (whose doing what, the rough layout thumbnails, etc).

Story Pitch Package Maquette

Hey guys and gals;

Here is an update for those of you who didn't make it to storyboarding today. The group sat down with Natalie and showed her what we had thus far. She gave us a few pointers and helped reformat for next week. She seemed to like what she was seeing thus far - so by Wednesday we should have something really solid.

The package so far...we have to make sure that each person has 2 pieces (at least) in the package. We also have to give credit to each person next to their work.

We are to combine the beat
script with the beat boards - and call it "story" next time. But Natalie seemed quite enthused by the story she got from the beats.












Need to find a more common style - tarzan apes w/ "mega man" style arm weaponry?


We need more designs for the Lead Character as well as the squad and the Guerrilla soldiers. Poses that depict the character's personality more.










we need to have more "war-torn" images for environment..


We need some more research on guerrilla type locations a well as technology (ie. nasa) to expand on for film.




We also need prop pages that show blueprints of weaponry used by both parties, as well as technology implanted in Gorillas.

We then developed some ideas in class as well as thumbnailed out a more solid presentation package for next week - approved by Natalie. Alexis should be posting the meeting notes and the thumbnails later on...

and finally, we split up all the work left to do - if you weren't there chances are that you got thrown into something - we tried to determine best placements for everyone.
When you have ANYTHING usable done for the pitch please send it via email or on msn to either Alexis or I. She and I are going to assemble the final pitch so the sooner the stuff gets to us the sooner we can get things started - and done. :)

Have a good long weekend everyone -

the bones of the story

if the image gets cut off, just click here. I *hope* it helps, I just broke down the group's ideas into the most basic format. I'm really clear right now, if you guys don't see it I'll break it down for you tomorrow.

there are only 3 possible endings, in basic format:
-ape obtains freedom (and just go around doing ape things, maybe climb trees and beat his chest being happy and free)
-ape dies
-ape gets captured again (twist ending)

then, these are the things he can do with his freewill (for the climax):
-protect baby
-try to escape from war
-try to make peace
-etc

then what happens after will be ending!


none of this has been my idea, it's just the story presented in its most basic form.

moodd

just maybe a scene where he enters the jungle forest, picture being gloomy and misty little bits of light shining through the canopy

current story

nathan, angel, dave, allison, and I met up on msn and discussed story. Here is a more solid story based on the ideas given:

Gorillas are implanted with a chip to make them fighting machines. These gorilla soldiers are in the jungle, fighting against gasmasked-human soldiers goes on for a little while until an explosion goes off, killing off all apes, except one gorilla soldier (There are still other squads of gorilla soldiers around, but he's the last one in his little section!). The remaining ape's chip has been damaged, so he begins to experience flashbacks. he shakes off the initial flashbacks which are foggy, fast and not entirely distinguishable. Continues on his mission and he comes across a broken down enemy camp and suddenly a shadow flashes by out of the corner of his eye. he immediately sets chase to the shadow, and the shadow uses flash bangs to derail him. he gets a slightly longer glimmer of a flashback (of the bright light), but still doesn't quite know what's going on. he recovers, tracks the mysterious shadow down and corners it. the shadow turns around, and it's a woman with a child. trigger THE huge flashback with gorilla being a baby, and the whole story of his life as a wild animal, then the bright light he had flashbacked about earlier is revealed to be an operating light. gorilla is enraged, is scary, until baby's cry snaps him out of it.



then we're stuck. we have an idea of a the gorilla's animal instinct of protecting young coming in, he reaches gently for the baby.... they all share a peaceful moment. then gasmasked-human that's been following him barges in. assumes our gorilla is violent, and the mother/baby needs help, and shoots the gorilla dead. the human escorts the mother/baby out, and the mother looks back with a fazed expression.

this contrasts the differences between the bad side of humans (kill first, questions later) and the good side of animals.

the problem is, the story would be:
we follow this guy, and he remembers parts of his past so you bond, he becomes fully aware, is scared, calms down at sight of baby.. and is killed on the spot.
which doesn't have much depth or point to his death.

another ending idea is that he would be protecting the mother/child from another gorilla, but how did the other gorilla find him?
the main story seems solid enough, but ending is really loose right now. just think about it guys! we'll have to discuss this tomorrow.

File Keeping

Hey guys, since were about to deal with the pitch package I just wanted to make sure everyone's scans/images are consistent on these 2 levels:

1) 300 DPI. This is standard print resolution - for quality's sake, please use this resolution at all times when SCANNING and saving.


2) High Quality. Please save your images at MAXIMUM (10-12) quality when using photoshop.

Thanks, that is all...

I dunno

Felt like doodling. Sort of how I envisioned the enemy dudes.

Jungle Layout- Work in Progress

Our pal Stalin and his tricks

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=wM46JMfjakg

Interesting, Human/Ape experiments to create "Super warriors" in the 1920's


look at part 3:12

tasty

Evidently Chimps are 97 percent close to the genetics of humans, whereas gorillas, etc are from a different "branch" of DNA - It doesnt really matter which we choose if the mind control device is involved.

I think Gorillas are better from an intimidation point of view, and I would rather make Gorilla Sounds then Chimp sounds if you know what I mean...

story directions (DQ meeting notes)

right now there's two possible ways to take this story: freewill, or humanity (animal vs human).

DQ's version:
-gorilla is implanted with 'bad' human traits (soldier)
---->emotionless, mechanical, calculating,
-his flaw is that he's an animal
-gorilla reverts back to animal, which is scary, but then we discover animals aren't that bad.
-animals have goodness comparable to humans; animals are not so different, and in some cases, can even be more 'human' than humans.
-the lines between human/animal are blurred (when he's a soldier, he has the bad human genes but then he's acting on pure 'animal instinct'. yet his animal side has been taken out)
-when he goes back to being animal, he protects the one he was about to kill when he was a soldier, showing the 'human' side of his animal. showing his animal side is more human than his human side.


'old' version:
-gorilla searches for his freewill, which he doesn't know he's lost (until the end) but feels is important.

(by the way. about freewill being good... clockwork orange was a bad example, but freewill is a fundamental thing everyone strives for, which means it is desirable, hence 'good'. I don't mean everything you can do with freewill, like raping, is 'good', only that freewill is good. like in the matrix, even though having freewill = harsh reality and becoming a virus, it's still better than an unawakened pointless life. so you guys can stop worrying about my mental health. ;)



OTHER NOTES
-whacking on head not clever enough as a method to make the control malfunction
-don't show the girl at first, focus on our character (girl can be mysterious rustling)
-setup rules of universe in beginning
-good guy (gorilla) doing bad things, why?
-what's the chase for?
-define character motivation at all times
-build up flashbacks very slowly, only reveal at end
---->giving audience too much ruins the ride, the suspense

POSSIBLE ENDING (Angel's)
-as he finally understands what's happened, getting all the flashbacks at once, he goes mad with rage. cue ES, gunshot, birds fly out, forest is suddenly quiet for a moment. audience wonders, who did he shoot? finds out he set off his gun accidentally, and the bang snaps him out of his reverie. then he gets rid of his gun since the gun is the culprit

if we use DQ's version, like Alexis said, flashbacks aren't even necessary to tell the story, since there's enough of a difference between animal/human control. soldier gorilla vs natural. another plus is that it's more visual. I think we're all headed in DQ's vision? if you've got another understanding of how the story stands, just post.

storyboards up

if anyone wants to take a look before DQ (haha not much time now), check 4shared.com. under the story folder, all in a zip.

the flash file is what I started on first but gave up since it was too unclear. the picture files are hopefully clear enough to get the story across!