Now and then, between work, I will be making a short film. It's very short and the concept is simple like most of my stuff so I can focus on the design which I enjoy. I'm going for a very flat look, this will be a no dimension film. I'm also interested in exploring cartoon expressions and icons, not quite sure how this will work yet but it's the exploring that ultimately makes it worthwhile for me. This is the first frame.
A couple of years ago I started working on a music video, it was a self driven project so there wasn't really any deadline. I had a rough idea about someone who goes on holiday and every day she can see an image of herself and what she did from the previous day. She gets stuck in a loop and ends up following herself around. The idea played out in my head very well, I thought this is going to be amazing.
I started creating backgrounds in my spare time, each background had to have a sunny, a rainy and a night version for the different days and times. I got caught up in the lighting and the mood, I thought I'll put people in later, it'll be fine. I went all isometric and flat trying to get a feel for a place out of the colours rather than the shapes.
I got about three quarters through the backgrounds before I thought I'd better put it together and start creating characters. Unfortunately It didn't work. I tried editing it different ways. I tried putting captions on the screen. I tried simplifying the idea. It really was rubbish. Eventually I had to abandon it.
Recently I had another look at the project. Seeing the backgrounds with fresh eyes I realized the backgrounds where what interested me all along, not the story. I was creating footage of an imaginary but slightly boring city. A city where all the people are at a concert or something out of sight.
Going with the footage idea I found a piece of classical music and made a mood piece.
Scenes from an abandoned Music Video
Having done all this work that went nowhere I feel like a character out of a JG Ballard short story, a character with an obsession he can't explain.
