Creative Media Project
(Esmerelda: The Vengeful Vampire)
(Esmerelda: The Vengeful Vampire)
Secondary Research
List of Possible Areas of Research
Job Roles: Animation Concept Artist
WHAT DOES A CONCEPT ARTIST DO?
A concept artist is in charge of creating the initial sketches for the look and style of an animation. These sketches and initial designs are then used as a reference for character designers, background artists and animators when the production process begins.
Concept artists are typically hired by a studio to produce artwork for a particular concept within a set brief. The concept art production process will tend to go through a few trials and re-drafts while the artist and the studio work together to come to an agreed style and vision. It's definitely important to be able to communicate well and to take critical criticism during this as the studio will want something very specific and it may well take a few attempts to produce exactly what they want.
WHAT IS CONCEPT ART?
Concept art is the very first dive into the look and style of an animation concept. It is the initial exploration into the concept's feel from textures to colours to shapes. Concept art will tend to become more solid and built-on towards the end of this process, the first few attempts will probably be quite low detail for a fast turn around. Once you have those first attempts you can go back to the studio and gauge more understanding of what it is they want, they like this, don't like that. This simply allows for work to be done much quicker and to not waste time on things that won't be used.
Concept art is done in a multitude of mediums, both digital art and traditional. Recently, digital art seems to be the way forward when creating animation and so concept art is also typically done digitally for these pieces, however artists like artist Shelly Wan still utilise traditional mediums like paint and canvas!
Once concept art is created, it is most often used as part of a pitch for a project concept, film or TV show, to get support to bring the piece to production. Having concept art in a pitch helps to fill the gaps in the producers visualisation of the show and also gives them more encouragement in your piece as you have already started on creating work for the piece. Once in production, these pieces tend to be used a references for animators.
WHAT SKILLS DO A CONCEPT ARTIST NEED?
Illustrating: to create work to the level an animation studio expects, you will need to cultivate your art style through practise, practise, practice! a unique art style is something that is created through time but it is definitely something that can help specific studios pick you over someone else. it is a good idea to learn working with a multitude of mediums so you aren't limited in choices.
Creativity: again, using lots of mediums can help you to not be limited by your resources. researching similar works or artists with a similar style to the brief given by the studio definitely helps to get those creative cogs turning.
Communication: be able to discuss with the studio and make sure you understand what it is they want; if you don't, feed this back to them so they can further explain. another big point is taking criticism, they are trying to create a very specific vision so whatever you create first go is not going to be what they want. take the direction and criticism and follow it as closely as you can.
Knowledge of animation: you definitely need to have an interest in TV and film, especially in animation. having an interest and knowledge of animation will make your concept art more dynamic. also, if you want to widen you prospects, getting to know 3d animation is definitely a worthwhile skill as nearly all studios are adopting this type of animation so being able to create 3d character concept sculpts will be a great skill.
Freelancing: since this type of work is done mostly through freelance, you will need to be able to put yourself out there and approach studios for work. you will also need to be able to take rejection. once you have started getting work, make sure you manage your time and deadlines to make sure you keep up with work and also keep good relations with studios; they may come back to you if they like your work and you are reliable.
WHO DOES A CONCEPT ARTIST WORK WITH?
A concept artist will tend to be a freelance worker, although some studios may hire a set of concept artists. You will need to be able to put yourself out there and approach animation studios (maybe a studio will even approach you!) to get work as these are the places you are going to find your work. Once you get a commission from a studio, you will work very closely with the director and/or producer to cultivate a very specific end product.
KEVIN DART: INTRO
Kevin Dart is an animation director and animation concept artist. He has worked on productions for many studios such as Cartoon Network (Steven Universe), Pixar (Inside Out) and Disney (Big Hero Six).
He also has his own animation studio called Chromosphere. The studio is very exploratory and create things from title sequences to animatics to short films.
KEVIN DART: HIS STYLE
He has a very specific 2D digital style that seems almost like an imitation of a pop-up paper book. The shapes used are very geometric and have either very smooth streamlined curves or harsh pointed corners. The use of colour and light is very clever and pretty. The colours seem very vibrant, but also slightly muted like there is a wall over them and they're just itching to burst out.
KEVIN DART: WORK ON BIG HERO SIX
HIS EARLY CONCEPT ART
THE FINAL FILM CONCEPT
You can see that Kevin's early concept work and the final product are very different, but if you look closer you can also see how his work shaped the final piece and the design influences that came through.
During his work, he got to explore different concepts and ideas like the villains of the story. You can see in his concept work him exploring three different possible villain ideas: the San Frantokyo ninjas, the airplane guys and the Kabuki-mask villain. Kevin quotes "I think I like the airplane guys the most.", however, it was the Kabuki-mask villain who became the main villain for this story.
Kevin also explored the San Frantokyo mash-up, which is used in the final film but is adjusted to San Fransokyo. I think there was definitely more Tokyo influences in Dart's concept work, which made the mash-up more integrated and natural. For the final product, the studio appears to have decided to go for a much more all-round Americanised look, in its architecture and background characters, with hints of Tokyo influences. This, at the time of the production, would've made more sense for the studio in terms of target market, however now Disney is beginning to expand their audience so I think they may have had a similar approach to Kevin had they made the film now.
You can see how this very early concept work still affected and influenced the script and design of the film. Kevin has a concept piece of Baymax hanging off of a Tokyo-inspired tram, and in the film there is a shot of a tram going past with a very similar design to the on in Kevin's. It is likely the animators used the tram as a reference for some of the transport in the film.
Also, Kevin has a concept piece where you can see Baymax and Hiro sitting on top of a building looking out at the sky. There is a scene in the final film where Baymax and Hiro fly around San Fransokyo and then land on one of the airborne turbines that power the city. They sit and look out at the sky, it's a very heart-warming scene and is a high point in Hiro's character arch. It is likely that the director, producer or screenwriter saw this concept piece from Kevin Dart and then built off of it, looking deeper into the image to imagine how they might've got there and what emotions they are feeling.
KEVIN DART: HOW HE HAS INSPIRED ME
Looking through Kevin's work versus the final pieces from studios has definitely given me a lot of understanding of how concept work can mould and shape a final piece. His work has also given me a solid grasp on what sort of things I should be exploring when creating concept work: villains, the world, the environment and the main character designs.
Non-Western Vampires: How they are represented in media (or not)
INTRODUCTION
Since one of the main points of Esmerelda's character is to bring more diversity and inclusion to the world of fantasy, particularly to the presentation of vampires in Western and Modern media; it made sense to do some in-depth research into a few topics surrounding this:
The Presentation of Vampires in Western/Modern Media
Presentations of Black and Brown Vampires in Western/Modern Media
Asian Folklore and Myths About Vampires
How to Show The Pallor of Black and Brown Vampires
THE PRESENTATION OF VAMPIRES IN WESTERN/MODERN MEDIA
Before having conducting my research, my opinion of western presentations of vampires was of this white aristocratic vampire, typically living in very secluded environments, who would prey on innocent white women and lured them to his abode with charisma and good-looks where he would suck their bold or turn them. The presentations I have consumed felt very recycled and reused from the many, many reinterpretations of Dracula to Twilight. It didn't feel only racist to me, but also misogynistic. How could there be such a huge lack of dark-skinned representation in the sheer amount of media that has been made? Also, why is there always this narrative of the innocent white woman pining after the 'villain'?
The first article I read through on this topic was 'A Matter of Black and White: Race in the Twilight saga' by an unknown author. In the article, they went into depth about the Twilight saga's presentations of race within three character types in the films: Humans, Vampires and Werewolves. Although I only need evidence for the vampires, I still read the entire article because I found it very interesting and I felt it gave me a more whole rounded opinion of the saga's view of race and allowed me to evaluate it with a more solid understanding.
The second article I read on this topic was 'We deserve to see more Black vampires on the screen' by Andrew Keahey. The article talks about the lack of representation in vampire films, mentioning the stereotypical vampires we see on screen and then mentions a few different pieces of vampire-related media that have dark-skinned characters. The article was very powerful I felt and is definitely one to read if you haven't already. For this section, I will talk mainly about how they have felt vampires have been presented on screen.
I responded first to the Twilight article by taking a screenshot of the area I was covering and marking this up. I also added a summary of what I took from each paragraph (highlighted grey).
While I was reading this article, I also used the article 'Why Stephanie Meyers Specifically Wrote That All Vampires In 'Twilight' Must Be White' by Alice Kelly to fill in a few gaps about Stephanie Meyers, the writer and to gain more of an understanding about her influences. It was here that I learnt about Meyers' mormon inspirations and also about her very precise guidelines for a vampire's skin tone.
Next, I responded to the second article mentioned in a similar manner. The annotations are a little more cluttered on this one so I have numbered them in order from 1-11 for ease of reading.
After having gone through these articles, I feel my views haven't changed very much but have more been solidified; because of this, I decided to read through some forums with the opposing opinion on the matter of Twilight being racist. I wanted to do this to see if there are any pieces of information I have missed or anything that hasn't been told in its fullest in the article.
This was the question that people were responding to. There were quite a lot of people in defense of the piece saying it wasn't racist or they weren't 'bothered', but a lot of people still made some point about why it could at least be 'interpreted' as racist.
It's entirely possible that Meyers went in it uneducated and thought she could depict these groups of people, and that doesn't make her intentionally racist, what it does make her though is racist through bias and ignorance. The work is still racist.
I want to hone in here on the 'They're just books' a lot of people seem to have this jaded view. 'They're just books', 'It's just a film', 'It's a TV Show'. It very much has the "get over it" undertone.
So yes, okay. In and of itself, they are just fiction. But they are fiction that is mass distributed to millions of people. They are the things that we learn from, grow from and build preconceptions and opinions from. So, it is easy to state that 'They're just books' but it is another thing to be able to concretely disregard their wider effect on society.
This idea that she's white so that makes it okay because it's what she "knows", does not make it okay. She may live in a very white world and she may be Latter-Day Saint, but that doesn't excuse ignorance. I feel as though, in this day and age, it is first and foremost important to educate yourself, especially when you are creator because no matter the size of your platform you still have an influence.
I agree that creators should be able to create the way they envision their stories, there is inherently nothing wrong with that. I, myself, know what it's like to create a story so important and close to your heart that you would protect every aspect of fearlessly.
However, there is most definitely a problem when your story is so in-inclusive that I can count the number of POC characters one hand. So when you write a book like that, when you then go to make a film maybe you need to rethink some of the characters and have some flexibility to allow all of your audience to feel included.
I have decided to conclude the research into this aspect of vampires here. I feel I have used a variety of sources and have a well rounded view of the problem, more so than when I started. It appears lack of inclusion isn't just intentional but also possibly unintentional as well; this doesn't excuse it but it does shows that part of the problem lies with ignorance, and a way to solve that is through educating.
THE PRESENTATION OF BLACK + BROWN VAMPIRES IN WESTERN/MODERN MEDIA
In the article I went over previously, 'We deserve to see more Black vampires on the screen' by Andrew Keahey, Andrew goes on to talk about some of the few presentations of dark-skinned vampires that already exist.
In the other article talking about vampires in Twilight, 'A Matter of Black and White: Race in the Twilight saga' by an unknown author, they go on to talk about how blackness, both in race and as a colour connotation, is presented in the Saga.
Keahey mentions the short film Suicide by Sunlight by Nikyatu Jusu, which I watched and respond to in an annotation of a section of the article where the short is talked about.
I also responded to the second articles views on blackness in the Twilight Saga.
I also read a quora forum discussion asking whether there were any black vampires in media.
The media mentioned in the forum are Blacula (1972 film) and Blade (1998 film). They both have black male vampires as they're main characters. Although, Blacula's portrayal is described as questionable to say the least.
Overall after doing this research, I've found that there are a few presentations of black vampires in media but there does seem to be a gap in Asian (both East and South Asian) presentations of vampires. Even so, while these presentations exist, they are not all great and either way they are still hugely lacking in number.
ASIAN FOLKLORE AND MYTHS ABOUT VAMPIRES
I struggled to find much about this at first, but once I searched the right thing I hit a goldmine of myths and lore from across Asia. There are a lot of versions of the same vampire type as they differ across countries and there are also lots of different myths with varying amounts of depth to them. After having read over multiple sources, I have decided to go over three myths: the Pontianak, the Manananggal and the Jiangshi. I am talking about these myths in particular because I feel I have accessed more information on these and have a solid understanding on the lore as well as how I could implement them into my world.
PONTIANAK
I first came across the myths of this creature in a Wiki article on 'Asian Vampires'. The wiki quickly goes over a range of myths from across Asia and gives a very brief description of them.
The wiki describes a Pontianak as "a woman who died during childbirth and became undead". She can appear as an attractive woman with long hair, typically black, that covers a hole found in the back of her neck. She is said to use this hole to suck blood from children.
Preventative measures can be taken to stop a dead woman from turning into a "langsuir", the article states, one can fill the mouth with glass beads, put eggs under each underarm and place needles in the palms. If you did not manage to prevent the turning, you can also drive them away by filling the hole in the back of her neck with her hair.
According to the article, other names for a Pontianak are a Kuntilanak/ Matianak in Indonesia and in Malaysia a 'Langsuir'.
I liked the myth of the Pontianak, particularly the fact it is focused on feminine subjects rather than an alluring masculine figure, as in most European iterations of the Vampire. I also enjoyed the drive of vengeance the vampires were given, which ties in very well with Esmerelda's character.
So, because of this, I decided to research more in depth about this myth as also felt that the Wiki summary was very brief. Furthermore, I felt that there might be a better source elsewhere as anyone can contribute to a wiki article and they may not have firsthand knowledge of the myth.
I came across the article 'Pontianak: The Blood Sucking Female Vampires Of Southeast Asia' by Percy. The article retells the myths and tales of the Pontianak as told to the author by locals on a trip they took to South East Asia. This source feels much more reliable as they have heard the myth directly from its places of origin and by people who likely grew up with them.
The article describes the Pontianak as a "female vampiric ghost" that plagues both Malaysia and Indonesia. It's quick to clarify that the Pontianak is often confused with the 'Lang Suir', but the two are different and they differ in their origin stories. In Malaysian myth, the Lang Suir is a woman who died during childbirth, but the Pontianak originates from a stillborn child. The previous wiki article appears to have made this confusion so I am glad I decided to further research the lore as it has been clarified to me. Similar mythology is said to exist also in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan by different names: a 'Churl' or 'Churyal'.
Percy also goes into the word "Pontianak" meaning and origin. In Malaysian, the word 'Pontianak' is a derogatory way of saying 'perempuan mati beranak', which means 'woman who died giving birth' in English. Mantianak means 'death of a child'. In Indonesia, there is a city called 'Pontianak', it is named after the vampiric creature that preyed on the first sultan to have settled there.
Pontianak Appearance Breakdown:
pale-skinned
woman
long black hair
red eyes
white dress [smeared w/ blood]
can take on beautiful appearance
Pontianak - How to be alerted of her presence:
announces herself with high-pitched baby cries
dog howling at night > she's near
dog whining at night > she's very close [RUN]
can be detected by a nice floral scent (plumeria scent) followed by an awful stench
(Churyal specific) feet turn 180° before transformation
Pontianak - Other good-to-knows:
locates victims by scent of laundry hung outside [avoid leaving laundry outside overnight]
her spirit resides in banana trees during the day [steer clear]
can be removed from the trees with machetes
if you encounter one, plunge a nail into hole in back of her neck [will transform her into beautiful woman + good wife until removed]
Pontianak - How she kills:
digs into stomach with sharp fingernails and eats the innards
(revenge against male specific) rips out the organs with her hands
(if you have eyes open specific) suck the eyeballs from their sockets
I definitely want to include references to this myth within the story. I considered having a character that dresses similar to the description of a Pontianak that terrorises village people and having this as a subplot, however, I feel that there's a lot already going on in terms of plot and it seems unnecessary and cluttering. I think I will rather has it as a piece of folklore that is spread among the village people, particularly among the elder and young adult population.
I considered tweaking the lore slightly to make the origin of the 'creature' more specific [died through a childbirth she did not want to have] and perhaps giving it a specific motive [vengeance against men, specifically attacking men who treat women badly] other than just food. If I do this, though, I will need to ensure I do it sensitively and that I do not disrespect the mythology and its country of origin in doing so. One way to make sure I do this is to do some primary research, seeing whether or not this might offend local culture.
I have envisioned a scene in which Esmerelda is in a white dress, perhaps an elegant evening dress or something leaning more on a wedding dress, and she ends up covered in blood in some way. This scene would probably happen in her life before the point where we meet her in the forest with Sara at the beginning of her story.
MANANANGGAL
I read about the Manananggal on the site 'Owlcation' on their article '9 East Asian Vampires That Will Horrify You' by Ced Yong, who is a writer and photographer from Asia.
Yong describes this creature as a hideous mythical monster originating from Filipino folklore. A Manananggal separates its body in two and flies around using their bat-like wings.
The Mandurugo:
folktales from Capiz region
also female vampires
uses same feeding method as Manananggal
incapable of separating body
deadlier as Manananggal
can marry into villages
feed on clueless husbands
Manananggal - How they prey:
fly in the night in search of prey
favourite prey = pregnant women
uses proboscis-like tongue to suck blood
may also use this to suck heart out fetuses
death is almost certain for any victim
falls into 'Aswang' category, which is a generalised Filipino term for unpleasant mythological creatures (ghouls, goblins, werewolves, vampires)
I am happy with the research I have done on the Manananggal, the source appears trustworthy and I have a good understanding on the creature.
I can clearly envision this myth exactly as it is being in the story. I would have it as a scary story parents tell their children so that they don't leave the house at night, like their version of the 'boogeyman'. I think I will have a child ignore this and stumble upon an Esmerelda feeding on a soldier/bad guy of some form. He would shout something along the lines of "Ahhhh, your body isn't split in half!". This would probably illicit a blood-dripped smile from Esmerelda and an ominous response of "Not all of us do...". This would then in theory birth the second legend of the Mandurugo, when the child retells the tales to his parents and they use it as the perfect opportunity to ensure their child doesn't leave at night again.
JIANGSHI
Also in the previous wiki article, I came across the Chinese legend of the Jiangshi. The legend was written in much more depth and felt like it was written by someone who knew what they were talking about.
The Jiangshi is a corpse that has been reanimated through magic, and is often said to be made when a soul does not properly leave a body. The legend comes from ancient China, when people had the preference to be buried in their hometown. When a person whose family did not have the money to hire a carriage for transport died in a land not in their hometown, families would hire a sorcerer as a last resort to bring the body back. A Jiangshi is also sometimes known as a 'Chinese Vampire' in Western culture.
The sorcerer is tasked with travelling to the place of death and transport the corpse back to the hometown. The sorcerer does this by writing a spell on a slip of paper, which contains the deceased's name, birthdate and some other spell words, and sticking this paper on the corpse's forehead. This reanimates the corpse. The reanimated corpse hops around, following the sorcerer and the sorcerer leads it back to its hometown ready for burial. Typically, the sorcerer will travel with at least three Jiangshi and travel in the night.
One definitely wants to ensure the sorcerer can be paid the agreed amount on their arrival, as they may pull off the Jiangshi's spell-paper should this happen. If the spell-paper is pulled off or falls off, the reanimated corpse regains its own consciousness and the sorcerer will no longer have power over it. The Jiangshi will become "rampant and dangerous", killing living beings in a blind rage to consume and absorb their victim's life essence.
Jiangshi Features:
long, curved fingernails
possibly from appearance of growing fingernails on corpses
due to flesh recession?
greenish-white, furry skin
inspired by mould and fungus growing on corpses
Jiangshi In Media:
inspired a genre of Jiangshi films + literature
mainly in Hong Kong and East Asia
Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980) [film]
Mr. Vampire (1985) [film]
Jiangshi cinematic boom in the 1980s and 1990s
Adding on to the media, Qiqi from Genshin impact is a Jiangshi.
I want to have Jiangshi's as an actual creature/species in the world of Esmerelda. I think perhaps they will be something that was used a lot in the older days by the village people but due to the Church pillaging and conquering the lands, it was a banned art. Perhaps it still goes on in secret or perhaps, thinking about after the end of the first instalment of the story, once the King and Church are overthrown then perhaps it is a practice that is taken up once again put in a much less organised and safe manner leading for uncontrolled Jiangshi to run rampant.
HOW TO SHOW THE PALLOR OF BLACK AND BROWN VAMPIRES
I definitely struggled with this one the most. There is a fair amount of content on pallor in black skin and also quite a few presentations of pallor in black vampires that came up when I searched them. I have been struggling, however, to find much on brown skin towns and anything on south-asian skin.
My initial forms of research have been to look online at images of non-white vampires and also reading a reddit forum on how paleness might look in a non-white vampire.
Image Results When Searching: 'black vampire'
Image Results When Searching: 'brown vampire'
Image Results When Searching: 'south asian vampire'
Looking at images on google images definitely helped in terms of thinking of possible appearances of black-skinned vampire characters, however there was next to nothing for brown-skinned vampires. Images definitely helped me to visualise how I might present them.
Reddit Forum: Question + Responses
I did not really find the reddit forum of too much use as responses either repeated things I already established through the focus group or just were generally not helpful comments. It did help with one thing however, and that was to think possibly look and effects of shock in dark-skinned people.
Overall, I think my initial research here did not leave me feeling satisfied and I didn't feel anymore knowledgeable on the topic than when I started. So, I decided to do more research into this, starting with looking at effects of shock in dark-skinned people.
Image Results When Searching: 'effects of shock in brown skin'
Article by Mayo Clinic - 'Shock: First Aid'
Again, the image search result did not really help as they simply showed skin conditions rather than pale skin. The clinic article did give a more straightforward answer written answer about how dark complexions look when in shock, which gave me a bit of a better understanding in terms of colouration. However, I still had trouble properly visualising how it would look.
In frustration, I posted on my Instagram story that I was struggling with this and that I found the lack of documentation of health in varying skin tones horrendous. Through this, I found the 'Mind the Gap' online book, which was sent to me in response to the story.
The Instagram story
Pallor in Dark Skin
Greying/Pallor in Brown Skin
Healthy Brown Skin
The free online book actually helped a lot as it showed me visually how it might pallor might be seen in brown skin, as well as also having very good descriptions that gave more insight into specific colours i might use.
As a final piece of research for this, I looked on a Quora forum asking how pale skin applies dark skin.
Forum Question
I found this answer very useful as it gave specific areas on the body that might be specifically more affected by pallor. This is useful because it means when I colour Esmerelda I may colour her with her natural tone and then add in a paler brown blended in, focusing beneath her eyes and being softer around the rest of her skin.
Forum Response
Here is where I conclude my research into non-western vampires. I think I have tapped into a plethora of knowledge and have come out of this be much more confident and knowing many more things than I did before. I think it has definitely be a well-worthy use of my time as I have learnt lots of things that I can directly use to justify and develop the project, both for this final piece and in the long-term.
Similar Works
ARCANE SEASON 2 ANNOUNCEMENT TRAILER
This trailer is announcing the second season of the Netflix animated TV series Arcane. I have previously mentioned this show as I am using some of the architecture styles as inspiration for architecture in the King's Kingdom. I have watched this show and loved the animation style of Fortiche Production, which utilises 3D Characters on a 2D painted background. It creates a very layered, sleek look that makes the show appear all the more individual.
This trailer focuses on one singular animated 'A' with various coloured lighting effects coming off of it and also varying camera perspectives and close-ups. It's a very complicated animation but focusing on one subject. There are voiceovers from characters played over it that feed information of the events of the next season, but it is still very vague and tells very little about the plot.
HOW THIS AFFECTS MY PROJECT
Thinking in terms of realistic time scale, I think an approach like this could actually work very well for me. I could include a range of voiceovers to create some intrigue, but focus mainly on one animated piece, which I think I would do an animation of Esmerelda so the audience can see her. I would create a very detailed illustration on procreate to justify the use of only one subject and then animated using After Effects. On after effects I can easily use keyframes to adjust particular elements and it wouldn't be realistic in terms of time frame for me to draw out each frame if I'm making it so detailed. So the animation I think will be adjusted more to a 2D animation than a hand-drawn animation. The addition of the 'In Production' text was very smart and informative and I will include this in some way in my product so that people know it's an in progress project.
BACK TO THE FUTURE 1 TEASER TRAILER
This is a teaser trailer for the famous sci-fi film 'Back To The Future'. The film has a lot of retro vibes and I've alway adored watching it.
The trailer gives away nothing from the plot and is made up of a series of close-ups. It's a very subtle trailer and even though nothing is said about the plot, you can pick up instantly from the Art Direction that it's going to be a Science Fiction film and from the title you can gauge its going to be about time travel, which then implies that the time machine is built into the DMC DeLorean shown in the teaser.
The trailer was well-received in the comments, with many people talking about how clever it was. I think the mystery of the trailer made it so engaging as the audience has to actually piece together the little bits of information given.
HOW THIS AFFECTS MY PROJECT
This element of mystery created through close-ups is very smart and is something I think I will utilise in my project as I really want to create a similar level of intrigue that this trailer created for people at the time. I don't think I will implement the lack of talking though because I think the current generation and my target demographic would engage less and lose interest quickly. The use of a title screen was also a good way of using up time that I think I will add, perhaps with some description/explanation of the piece being a novel.
INCEPTION TEASER TRAILER
This trailer is a teaser for the 2010 Christopher Nolan film 'Inception'. The film has since been known as a mind-bending masterpiece with brilliant cinematography and a layered story.
The teaser is brilliantly epic trailer with many of the audience comments stating it gave them 'goosebumps'. It has a brilliant mix of action and sci-fi themes and while nothing is given away about the plot, you get this immediate sense that something big is on the verge of happening. This epic sense of tension is partly created through the score but also through the meticulous attention to detail. They shown very specific scenes in this that only once you have watched the film do you know their significance and iconic-ness. There is also a huge use of epic title screens and writing in between scenes that give small indications to plots, as well as credits. These are a great device to lengthen the time of the piece.
HOW THIS AFFECTS MY PROJECT
The 'epic-ness' of this trailer is something I may use although heavily toned down, but the tension created through the score is something I will definitely focus on. I need to find a score with lots of emotion in it. I think this use of writing to lengthen the piece is a technique I may use but not as heavily as it was used in this trailer because it will likely bore my target demographic if I use too much writing.
Art Style