BLINK INDUSTRIES
LOGLINE: An unsettling family cult appear to be in the middle of a sacrificial ritual, only for it to be revealed they are butchering their food for a wholesome BBQ.
SYNOPSIS: Opens to a group of intensely still characters surrounding the camera. They part in the middle to reveal a grotesque creature in chains. Camera trucks from a distant to show the crowd waiting with candles. A holy blade catches the light and strikes down, camera cuts and shows only brief splatter. A cut of meat is then carefully passed between the characters, their eyes full of excitement, until it lands on a BBQ grill. People grin with full plates of food as they sit on picnic tables/ blankets. The logo is revealed from a squirt ketchup onto a plate.
Must it be killed? Sate our tutors who enjoy the sweet features of alien. Revive him at end and reveal he is a part of the feast, the first to serve himself a slice of his missing limb. We thought it suggested a relationship of mutual benefits between the frog goat creatures and the stop motion alien, but in fact it disturbs the narrative with an additional unpredictable aspect. The overall cohesion of events is distorted. From a clear sacrificial ritual, to a fun bbq that no longer is intent to kill said sacrifice. We were playing around with the unexpected tone rather than the story elements.
Needed to escalate the shock value by increasing anticipation, which results in a more comedic reveal of the bbq setting. The leap from the bloodied close up to the chef bbqing was jarringly distinct, and offered only a vague follow up to the climatic scene previously.
Our director suggested flames flicking across the screen to fluently steer the narrative with a visual indicator between ritualism and cooking, however i felt it was more effort to add shots of a source of fire as context, and our aim was to increase clarity while keeping within time constraint. My vision was a slow camera pan for the audience to observe the violent scene with flickering shadows and gory SFX for minimal effort, maximum outcome. Think this would be appropriate, as it’s an interesting juxtaposition between food and grotesque body gore, and the exposed organs to conjure an evil atmosphere would successfully deliver genre.
Completely focused on timing for this stage as it defines the tone, weight and emotion of the action. Its essential to demonstrate the anticipation and weight of knife, as well as the power of force. The violence of the scene is both exaggerated and also softened by the cartoonish squash and stretch as the body follows the arm, the strength emphasised by the breaking of the elbow joint. This uses the whole body to portray emotion, not just facial expression. As the animator/actor, it makes me consider what the character is thinking rather than doing, and how that is revealed through body language. Slapstick comedy referenced jim carrey grinch and tim curry.
I was deeply dissatisfied with this attempt. in an attempt to stay true to the storyboard, the inaccurate foreshortening resulted in poorly translating the composition into animation. This further inhibited the flexibility of the characters, so such exaggerated movement of the anticipation was unconvincing and poorly executed. their distorted proportions masked the staging of the characters, so the overall tension of the scene was extinguished.
Disappointment in final music, as I am confident in the sound designer, Matthurin Gatte, and we had consistent communication and constructive discussions on the design. After sending our initial animatic we received the first extract of music. As a team we agreed the first half was not quite what we envisioned as it was too corporate jazz sounding, however the second part (the funky reveal of BBQ) added so much to our animation. I know nothing of sound design so my feedback, as Matt suggested, was just a description of what we wanted the atmosphere to be: froggy, alien lo-fi. Upon this, Mat delivered a piece of music that successfully fitted the pacing and environment.
Within 2 days of our deadline, our director claimed she was going to adjust the sound to fit the pacing, however she completely changed the first half of the music. While it still fits the visuals, I am disappointed for Mat whom I assured and enjoyed collaborating with. As a group it was previously decided we liked his music (at the time we did aside from pacing – I was confident pacing adjustments could be achieved through visuals alone as the approaching deadline meant there were higher priorities to focus on). Not only did this undermine the teams decision, It undervalues Mat’s musical credibility as a serious musician. I wish to continue collaborating with him and I don’t appreciate someone not only discrediting his work by revoking our group’s decision, but half plagiarise over his music as well. I would have had no problem with an adjusted sound design covering the whole score, however changing the first part of the track without the artist’s permission is unprofessional and deceptive. In future I will refuse to work with someone who wants to micromanage or disregard any collaborators especially once we’ve given them a verdict. This was beyond my control as I stepped down from director and so I must simply accept it, and continue working not letting this obstacle to defmotivate me.
FINAL FILM PRESENTED TO CLIENT https://youtu.be/6L1KbCJmysI?si=2Nyp0cIOaCoyeY4X