Design and Concept Work

These are some of my sketches of the characters like, the mother, little girl, teenager and grandma. 




I was trying to get some idea of how they would look and stand. 

These are the hair style that i draw out for my characters. As my film has 3 different years, 1950's, 1970's and 2015. So I started to look at the ages and what hair styles that they had back then and now.  

Set and background Research

Research for Final Film

Promo Pictures

This are my Promo Pictures for my final film. In the photos these are my puppet, the little girl and the teenager.

Company Research number 6

The Smallfilms Treasury

Smallfilms made animated childrems television programmes, from 1959-1980s. Olvier Pastgate, a writer, animator and narrator, partnered up with Peter Firmin, a model-maker and illustrator, to make several very popular stop-motion animation short films. This included, ‘Noggin the Nog’, ‘Ivor the Engin’, ‘The Pogles’, ‘Pingwings’, ‘The Dragons’ Friendly Socirty’,  and my favourite ‘The Clangers’, which they now have remade in 2014. I’m not a fan of the new Clangers as it does not feel the same or have that nostalgic feel to it.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there were two overgrown boys called Oliver and Peter.

And Peter lived on a farm.

It was a rather unusual farm because it didn't grow any crops and there were no sheep or cows, but it was the home of Ivor the Engine, Noggin the Nog, the Clangers and of course Bagpuss.

And there they made the most beautiful, the most brilliant, funny old Small Films in the whole wide world or so we like to think.

 

I was inspired the way they worked and what amazing ideas they had. I will never forget sitting down and watching all of the programmes that smallfilms has made. This is why I want to become an animator and puppet maker, to be back the old fashioned animation and keep them the way there were made in the start.

Company Research Number 5

Factory Transmedia is an animation company.  Like the name suggests, Factory Transmedia works across a wide variety of media, like animation, television, advertising, VFX and post production. I feel like this company is amazing and very talented, always developing new skills in media and new media technologies.

Factory Transmedia also remake old shows, like The Clangers, which use to be my favorite children’s programs when I was younger. I was not keen on the thought of them doing the Clangers initially, but when I was able to see an episode of the remade series, I was pleased with what they had done and how it looks similar to the old Clangers. The BBC has the new series of the Clangers on television, this year, in 2015.

Mackinnon and Saunders worked very closely with Factory Transmedia on the new series of the Clangers, as they want the original style, but with a modern twist. I think this has worked very well in their favour, as not many companies can pull this off - as we have seen with remakes of Fireman Sam and Postman Pat, where the original concepts have been ruined in the transition from Stop-motion animation to CGI.

Factory Transmedia has work on many stop-motion animation children’s programs like, Raa Raa, The Noisy Lion, Muddle Earth, The Racing Car and The Clangers.

I cant wait to see what they come up with next!

Company Research number 4

Flimfair was an animation studio that made children’s television series. The company made animated cartoons, educational films and television adverts, but the company is best remembered for the stop-motion animation films, clay animation and cut-out animation.

Filmfair made two amazing stop motion animation children’s programs: The Wombles and Paddington Bear. The BBC premiered Paddington Bear in 1975, and Flimfair produced episodes for three year running. This expanded with the media and franchise.

They continued to make successful stop-motion programs in 1970s. Filmfair made a classic 2D animation series, called ‘Simon In The Land Of Chalk Drawings’.

One of my favourite childrens television promgrams was The Herbs which was made for the BBC by Filmfair.  The Herbs was written by the same person  who created Paddington Bear, Michael Bond, and directed by Ivor Wood.  Each episodes was about 15 minutes long, and there was 13 episodes. Then in 1970 The adventures of parsley was made and aired on the BBC between the end of childrens shows and the BBC evening news.

The Herbs had the mix of human and animal characters that lived in a magical walled garden of a country estate. I loved sitting down after school and watching The Herbs, as I really like Parsley the loin, he was my favourite character. I wish that they would bring this back as I miss watching the old classics.

Flimfair continued to make animation for children’s television programs for the BBC and ITV, but Flimfair is not making these beautiful animations anymore. I feel like this is a big shame, as the public are missing out on the old classics. I say bring these programmes back, with Filmfair as the animation studio!