Concertina

This is what Cameron, our main Gypsy plays. It's a concertina!

Building Tension

I found an article about the Action Sequences of Bolt. The section on the Quick Cut Mini-Montage especially applies to Band of Gypsies because we've got a story that would benefit from as much tension as we can fit in between 1:04 and 1:35.




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Here's a clip from The Incredibles




And here's a Britney Spears perfume commercial





In both of these clips there are calm, long camera moves (putting the viewer at "rest"- I think it's a false calm, but that's only because of the track paired with it) and a climax- where the audience is bombarded with images quickly and one after another, followed by a release. I am hoping to incorporate this into Band of Gypsies during the climax when Dalia comes out with the tambourine. I've made a quick list of cuts we can make for this montage:
-ECU's (extreme close-ups) of the characters eyes
-ECU of Dalia's tambourine
-Clouds moving maniacally (!) (How the heck are we going to do this in Maya..)
- Street singers with very open mouths. Think carolers. Rain dripping in front/behind them
-Feet tapping on ground surrounded by puddles
-flickering lights
-water streaming down side of something (brass instrument?)
-lightning


I want this to be a time where our audience is holding their breath!!

Any comments, suggestions? Add some cuts to the list if you can think of any. Thanks!

Story Thoughts

I've been working on a very rough (very ugly) initial animatic to work out the timing and here are some notes I've been making:

Transitions from one shot to another:
1. How to introduce characters (other than Cameron who is introduced right off)
-The big guy may walk into the courtyard from a doorway or he may already be sitting there. Is he on a chair or the ground? What is his attitude?
-The singers on the street: were they just standing around already or do they appear first when they begin to sing "Ohhhhhh"
2. The sheet music. We are totally going to run with Tyler's suggestion on this one.
But how will we introduce the sheet music before cutting to a whole frame of lined music flying by? Should it be on a stand in front of the musicians or should we have an OTS (Over the shoulder) shot and zoom it in. I don't want the audience to say, "What? Where did that come from?!", so we may have to subtly introduce it in the first establishing shot. Just how, I am not sure.

The Ticking Bomb

WHAT DRIVES THIS STORY ???
The Gypsies' goal is to finish the song before the rain begins to pour. They need to finish the song before their sheet music gets drenched. Finishing their song is imperative!
They don't care about getting wet. These gypsies are dedicated artists and creators (the big guy is questionable) Think of the musicians who continued to play their music on board the Titanic as it was sinking.
That leads me to these questions:

- What will happen if they don't finish the song in time?
- What happens if they do?
- How does rain prevent them from finishing? Is the ink melting down the page and becoming unreadable? (Is that even possible in 3d?!) (Can we cheat it with different sheet music textures or black smudgy fingers?)
- How does the sheet music determine how much time is left? How can we use the sheet music as if it were a clock counting down how many seconds we have left? (Yes, I'm thinking about High School Musical. Don't judge.) We should think of the sheet music as if it were a character as well.

Colors

Village Color Sketch

This is a really rough sketch of the village. Just trying to get an idea of the colors. I think, if we can do it and still make it look natural, have most of the saturation in the sky and the cloth and lights of the city.

Dalia Animation

Reference of dancing for Dalia Animators-
note:
- sharpness of movements in contrast with overlapping action
- fierceness in both expression and in poses

I know its early to be posting this, the character designs and model are not complete for the Dalia character, but this is a point of the story that I am 95% sure about.
Once the character is modeled and rigged, I am going to do a test- similar to what Pixar did when they were testing whether they could animate realistic fish movements for Dory, and basically rotoscope a few seconds of dancing side by side with the live action. We may end up opting for a very stylized version, but again- this is jumping ahead of ourselves.

Gypsy Girl Concept

I was driving in the car today listening to the song. A few shots came to mind. This is a concept painting of our gypsy girl just as the sheet of rain starts to fall. She smiles at the gypsy man, who smiles back at her.

I was also trying out some silhouettes of the Gypsy girl today, mostly her outfit design.

inspirational images

Gypsy Woman

Adira -mighty/strong

Afsana (ahf-SAH-nah) -tale/story

Ahava (ah-hah-vah) -beloved

Amara (ahm-AHR-ah) -Abyssinian legend= "paradise", 2) Kiswahili= urgent news 3) G = eternally beautiful

Ariel/ariela/Ariella/Ariel -lioness of God

Dalia -1)a branch, 2) to draw water 3) alive

Simza -Possibly a Romani feminine form of Hebrew unisex Simcha, meaning "joy."

Muneerah (moo-neer-ah) -brilliant, shining, something that reflects light

Phedre -"the shining one"

Here's what I've got so far for the Gypsy woman. I've got some possible names and this quick sketch- What do you think? I gave her a big booty, which fits with our idea of having her be an inbetween size of Cameron and the big guy.

Note the Texturing in this Student Film from Ringling

Thoughts and Inspiration

okay I was just about to start working on some sketches, and thought I'd gather some quick google images for inspiration on the kind of village. Tell me if you have a similar idea in mind.

-Grey-ish brown buildings, made from planks of wood. Resembles an old western town in a way.
-Cobblestone streets similar to old europe.
-bright tapestries and colors to balance out dull buildings. (Spanish-esque?)
-the bright colors of the sky would also balance out the buildings.

Old Western Towns:







Cobblestones:




Spanish Patterns/Fabric:

Initial Color Ideas

I played around with color ideas today. This is pretty close to what I was picturing when you were explaining the shot to me, Courtney. Aside from maybe some blue-ish lightning in the clouds(?). more to come...



I also did a google search for some images of clouds I thought may be useful.





Here's a few links too, just for kicks and inspiration.

Art of Disney Animation
Animation Backgrounds
Film Bytes
Frame Filter
Mis en Scene
Screen Musings
Screencap Heaven
The Black Island
Animation Treasures