Only a week until I film the trailer for Lempo. So many different emotions about that fact. It's coming along well, though. Almost everything is in place.
Reva Dawn Schmidt has been busy putting together the costumes. So amazing!! Heres a little sneak peak at what she has been up to.
The make up artist Larissa Higo was unable to do the make up test that we were hoping to do, but we are going to rock it the day of! Anton Eneholm has come on board to do the make up of Lempo and Datura. He is super stoked and might even help out with some costume additions. I can't thank these three enough, as the costumes and make up are so important to these characters and this project. So, thank you, thank you, thank you!
Ludi Lin and Momona Komagata stopped by to see if their muscle suits fit. They do! I wish I would have gotten a picture of Momona in hers, as they are pretty ridiculous.. but awesome.
The pre-production for the title sequence went by pretty fast and we are already in production.
I began by looking at other title sequences, films and photos for inspiration for my title sequence.
I developed a concept and went forth. I started my search for a 3D artist to help create the scene I wanted. After a couple days, a friend and former classmate agreed to come on board the Lempo train. Nina Penopp, full of many skills, has been working with me to create a 3D hell scene that shows the world that Lempo is from. She played around in Maya a little bit and showed me some initial VFX ideas. I wish I could just "play around" in Maya and come up with this!
She also brought on board Jan Paul Hoshi Dorr to assist with the VFX. She has sent me a camera fly through test and it looks amazing, but I will just tease you with a still shot.
Chris Decap has sent off his basic sketches of Michelle and Johnny. I would like to thank him for sharing his talent and helping me create some kick ass character designs.
Ayla Radies has been busy working over the past couple weeks developing the backgrounds for the animated graphic novel. They look so good, cheers to Ayla! I can't wait to see what it all looks like when they get combined with Anthony Liang's character drawings.
Here are some of Anthony's initial sketches of Lempo, Datura and Tartarus he had done up based on Chris' original designs. I can't even describe how excited I am to see how Anthony brings it together.
I am extremely excited to work with Elisha Walker, an amazing actress who will play the part of Michelle.
Reva Dawn Schmidt is busy at her sewing machine creating the jackets for Lempo, Datura and Tartarus. They look pretty amazing so far! So pumped to see them when they are finished. I will be doing a little bit of arts and crafts over the next week to create the accessories for the characters. Looking forward to the paper mache, foam, paint and all the messes.
David Gomez, the production designer, has been busy looking up inspiration and planning on how we are going to build the hell set. We are basing the set off of the graphic novel sketches and the title sequence 3D hell scene. Here is some inspiration photos David gathered.
The second part of my casting auditions went very well. I am happy I found actors who fit the parts amazingly. A big big thanks to Sonia Bashash, Colin Roberts and Maddy Rumball for helping me out for the day.
Sonia auditioned for the role of Michelle. Let's just says she was very entertaining, unfortunately she did not get the part. Maybe next time, Sonia! :(
I am happy to introduce Marc Belanger as Lempo
and Zen Hunter as Johnny.
I am really excited to work with these guys! Stay tuned to see who will play the part of Michelle!
I was paired up with a very talented Tim Shetz as my mentor for this project. We had our first meeting yesterday where I got to brag about my experience with Rob Zombie putting his arm around me and Tim showed off his collector RZ concert poster from a few years ago.
And the fun continues as I get ready for set building, make up tests and costume development!
On to my next motion piece which will be a live action film trailer for the fake film Lempo. I will be shooting the script that is written, plus additional shots for more coverage of the story that hasn't been written yet.
I am currently recruiting my cast and crew. I have brought many talented individuals on board for my crew, although more spots are to be filled! I have held part one of my auditions for my cast, which went very well and am excited to audition more tomorrow!
The wonderful and beautiful Momona Komagata is going to play the part of Datura and the amazing and extremely built Ludi Lin is going to play the part of Tartarus.
Next on board is some make up artists, who I am really excited to work with to create these demons and sketchy human characters.
I have been speaking with a few costume makers who will assist with building the costumes based on the sketches that have been provided. I hopefully made their and my production designers job a little bit easier today by going to a former instructors huge prop house. I was able to get some pretty cool costumes and props for my set! Super excited!
A big thanks to Sonia Bashash and Maddy Rumball for assisting me today with all of this stuff!
One of two warehouses that we went to had more than enough costumes and masks.
I wish I could have gotten better pictures of what the car load actually looked like.
And us squeezing in the elevator.
Stay tuned for more about the third motion piece and how the process continues.
I had the script, the characters and now I needed to start story boarding. I attempted story boarding myself and this is what I got:
Not only is script writing something I am going to work on, but obviously my drawing skill needs some improvement as well. My good friend and classmate, York Seaton Jr, was so kind as to sit with me for hours and hours to re-draw and help me develop storyboards that were a little more clear for my illustrators when they start illustrating each panel.
I recruited a very talented Ayla Radies to complete the background illustrations for the 70+ panels that I have. Originally, Chris Decap who had done the character sketches was going to complete all of the character illustrations for all the panels. Due to time, convenience and overall mental sanity, I have recruited a local illustrator to complete the character panels instead. Anthony Liang, a current Foundation Visual Art and Design student will graciously donate his free time over our April break to complete the panels for me. I am really excited to work with him as I have heard he is very talented.
Now that I knew what my first motion piece was going to be, I needed to find an illustrator to draw up the characters based on my moodboards, references and guidelines.
I
recruited a very talented illustrator, Chris Decap to create the look
of the characters. I knew he would be perfect for the job as it was
probably his Rob Zombie CD that I first listened to back when I was 8
years old. He took my moodboards and references for the demons and designed three kick ass demons.
Lempo:
Datura:
Tartarus:
In the story, Lempo's first interaction with humans is with a drug dealer named Johnny and a prostitute named Michelle. I have been listening to Die Antwoord non-stop for the past couple months and because they are just so fokken zef I had to pay some sort of tribute to them. So, I am basing Michelle and Johnny off of Ninja and YoLandi of Die Antwoord. Character sketches are still being developed.
I was walking home one night from school trying to think about what I was going to create these three motion pieces about. Lots of ideas went through my mind, could it be about music? I want to make people happy and laugh, so should it be comedy? What about something more experimental and abstract?
I have always been a fan of Rob Zombie and as I was listening to Jesus Frankenstein, I was thinking how cool it would be to come up with my own character. I rushed home and started thinking about different types of characters. Ninjas, demons, pirates, frankenstein, cowboy, wizard, wolf, viking, zombies all went through my mind.
The idea of creating a demon stuck with me, so I began researching different mythological demons.
After researching and getting inspired by some Finnish mythology, I had my character.
I am proud to introduce, Lempo. Lempo is a God of Love Demon who's duty is to punish those who do harmful things to their loved ones on Earth once they are in hell. His bosses, Tartarus and Datura believe he is getting a little bit soft in his ways, so they send him to Earth to observe the filth of humans in order to become more evil.
Once I knew the core of the story, I needed to find a writer to help develop this story further. I had tried writing it myself, but realized quickly that creating dialogue and action are not one of my strong points. Taggart Thomson came on board to help me write this script. Under my direction, Tag did an amazing job at developing part one of the script. With a few tweaks here and there, we were able to develop the start of Lempo's adventure on Earth.
I now had to decide what kind of motion these three pieces were going to be. To be honest, I don't remember how I came to the conclusion of what the three pieces were, but I am sure that there was a lot of thought and good reason behind my decision.
The first piece is going to be a graphic novel animatic type piece. My biggest inspiration again was Rob Zombie and his music video for Lords of Salem.
Back in January, we were told to start thinking about our graduate project. Our graduate project is one of the major projects we will complete in Digital Design. We have full reign over what it is and how to execute it.
We began by thinking of our strengths, skills, qualities, interests, goals and what we want in a career. I knew I had strengths as a problem solver, coming up with big ideas, aesthetics (which always needs improvement), technical and leadership skills. I am interested in motion, live action, visual graphics, branding, music, design, group environments and tactile projects. My goals were to enhance technical and aesthetic skills, produce, make people happy, entertain people and just to have fun.
So, I began by thinking of some ideas. I thought about making a branding/motion commercial, but I didn't really grasp onto that idea. I knew I wanted to have tactile elements, musical elements, a strong concept and something that I could implement a strong production management aspect to it.
After meeting with our Head of Department, he told me about his experience as a student and what he had done for his final project. I guess you could say that he was the first inspiration I had for the core of my graduate project.
I had the skeleton. I knew I wanted to produce and develop creatively three motion pieces, but I wasn't sure what it was going to be about or what kind of motion it was going to be...
