Four: Branding, Fonts and Scripts

  Taking a small break from modelling I took some time to try and refine the other elements of the project, particularly the art-of. For this, I needed a better logo for Smithston-Wessex.

  I'm still trying ot decide but I am leaning to the likes of 20, 22 and 11, but one thing I am definitely certain so far is the logo is better off without any text in the graphic. Logos need ot be simple ,but meaningful, something that can be drawn quickly or recognised at a glance so I kept the graphics bold and simple, but not too simple to be too generic. the list just needs some narrowing down.

  To accompany the logo I needed a suitably sci-fi title font. I looked on line for a few retro fonts (on the left) along with some that came with Windows (on the right). THe ones I like so far are 2, 4, 5, 9 and 12. Possibly 8, others like 6 are too horrid (the 'esse' section in 6 just blurs into one repeated letter due to the extreme stylisation).

The search for a new David continues. One thing the current voice helped with was that some of the lines David posessed were perhaps repeating themselves in some instances (such as David observing that the tubers ocntai nan egg, the moss providing nutrients that feed the egg as an embryo develops), while this might not have shortened the piece by any overall measure, I think it has halped improve the flow of the dialogue nonetheless, as there were a few moutgfuls that David was delivering.

Four Project Script V-04 by Mark Stamp on Scribd

Major Project: Voices Ready and The Base Starts

  I decided to take a minor break from making Orthographic drawings after I received the recording for Smithston-Wessex's opening advert last night. With all the recorded assets, and some time spent polishing the Wessex Representative's voiceover file the voice-overs are at a stage where they can be considered ready for presentation.

  Largest drawback so far is while my goal in the initial pitch was a 3-4 minute video, the monologues totaled around six minutes 30 seconds, and that's with only momentary breaks between dialogue sets. I can mark this as inexperience with using voice-overs but it did validate the rule-of-thumb I was using when writing the screenplay where one page equated to one minute. I might be able to trim off some of the spoken words (two examples are I decided the year can be told though the scene, not David saying "year 5/year 6" several times and I cut out his speculation that Four was only a grub when it emerged form the soil). Still, all part of the development process.

  As well as voice-overs today I decided to make a start on the locations. These are only loose frameworks for now to confirm possible camera angles, so at present I only need outlines of the rooms, hence the extremely low-poly furniture in the stills provided.

  The roof is a separate piece for now largely because it makes modeling the rest of the room far easier. When it comes to shooting with the camera, it's position is likely to be more permanent. I plan to use this principle when assembling the other rooms.

Major Project: Final Draft Script

Major Project Script - Final Draft by Mark Stamp on Scribd

  After a considerable amount of back-and-forth between myself and Phil. Mainly on the monologues, I have a version of the script I am confident with. This past week I have been looking at potential voice-over artists to speak the lines for David, Amelia and the Wessex representative.

  I estimate this to be a 3 or 4 minute long narrative despite the number of pages (the original MS Word document is six rather than nine pages long) but in fairness there is a fair amount of space in places.

  I have also discussed with Phil that the animatic might be better suited to being made in 3D, which speeds up the process of working out space within the animation.

Major Project: Script Ideas And World Investment

Major Project Draft Two Version Two by Mark Stamp on Scribd

  With work at the internship doen for now, I had a chance this week to devleo pmy major project. Looking back  I felt the last script required much improvement. So looking over and reading though I attempted to make things more fluid. To help me I called my father, a senior scientist, to understand what it was like to work in the industry. While he studies a field that is different to this scientist, there was still a worthwhile discussion that helped me understand how they get along with their colleagues, some things that can happen in the workplace, and the relationships between scientists, their support teams, and any attached engineering department.

  Shortly before working on the revised script, I watched an editorial by internet personality Doug Walker. Who discussed how recent shows like Bojack Horseman, Steven Universe, and even My Little Pony draw such interest from older audiences. One key suggestion was to provide an avenue to invest in the show. Before they could go into much deeper subjects, the audience first needed to form a connection to the world. These however are long-running series, but tackled this by starting simple. Steven Universe's first episode, long before all the exploration the show is famous for, was about Steven trying to get a popular ice lolly with his friends.

  Inspired, I considered making an advert for the company who built this base. True, this will add to the workload as it means another voice artist, more 3D assets and more render time, but I could theoretically cut the load down by providing an 'idealised' view of the outpost, before the camera explores the true base in the film itself, and most importantly keeping the advert to the point. The idea is that it's an introduction to the world. But might also say something about advertising in general in how we are shown elegance, but the reality is rarely as elegant, cheerful or glorious as the aadvert makes out..

Major Project Advert Draft One by Mark Stamp on Scribd

I might trim some of the first paragraph as it feels a little too expositionary. Or I could take influences from television adverts. The aim is the base is trying to be sold - the company wants eager pioneers and researchers for it's ambitious multi-billion-dollar project.

@Phil Second Draft and Possible Draft Rework

Major Project Draft One V2 by Mark Stamp on Scribd

  I have worked a little o nthe script. However some way through working on a version of the script with directions I realised the visual cues didn't quite fit neatly into what I had already written. Rather than try and rework the dialogue I considered starting again, the new version being below. I got into thinking that along with views in screens the shadow of the creature could haunt the environment. Only fully seen right near the very end.

  Another possibility is rather than a recording, the monologue could be some sort of host voice, replaying discussionsfrom before everything fell to ruin. So some of them will sound more like conversations than speaking into an audio journal.

Major Project Draft Two V1 by Mark Stamp on Scribd

  One current obstacle is some of the outside stuff (like messages from the scientist's family and the company) are largely shown via emails and messages. I wonder if there might be a way to convey the message with arrangement from the clutter. Or responses on post-it notes or white boards. For instance rather than an email, the scientist could have written on a board "wasting company time? Focus on the initial mission? You suits are not taking Four!"

  These are things that could be investigated in further drafts.