First Ideas - the 3/4 monthly blog!

3 weeks in.

As this project is to do with interactive environments I started by thinking about how the environment could physically change and the problems the changes could present to an actor in the environment.

A few basic ideas were:
1) A Shrinking person trying to escape something. This would be good to try because it would be a constantly growing/changing environment and the actor would have to think ahead to make sure they could reach certain bits etc. This is kinda like 'Honey I shrunk the kids' or 'The Borrowers' both of which i enjoyed as a kid. The idea of how everything we build is built for our needs and how we interact with the environment from a different perspective. This reminds me of a book I read when i was younger called 'The Time and Space of Uncle Albert' (http://www.greenwich-observatory.co.uk/ualbert.html) Where they looked at how ants interacted with their environment and came up with different ideas, which were completely different from a different perspective.

2) A person running through a warzone with buildings falling over etc
I really wouldnt like to simulate a game though as this could look quite naff, and would require really stylised/realistic graphics. Could be in the style of the game 'Gears of War.'

3) A Hamster or some sort of brainy pet (pinky and the brain brainy) escaping a basement using massivly oversized power tools and a complex plan. Once it finally escapes to the street it gets run over. This would be inspired by the Honda advert style
(http://youtube.com/watch?v=g2VCfOC69jc)

As a kid I always enjoyed seeing what inventive machines they came up with each episode and how they always failed in the end.

I think the kitchen scene from 'Ratatouille' is probably the perfect piece of animation for this project, but unfortunatly, they thought of it first! Theres nothing more to say, its perfect.

4) A futuristic World overtaken by nature. The basic Idea: A fast paced film of An actor running through the streets of his rusting city (jumping on fast growing vines and trees, and in and out of falling buildings) trying to make it to some escape pods.
Ive always been interested in the idea of nature taking back whats rightfully hers, Aztec ruins, dereliction, and the such like, and thought this could represent the shifts between nature and technology. Opening scene would be a green world with a date of 2010 and then cut to a grey world overrun with skyscrapers and a date of 3010, then the chase scene, then an end scene of a green world again and a date of 3011. (Storyboard will be uploaded soon)

This could be similar to the scene from jumanji where the weeds are overtaking the house.

5) A world being flooded following an actor trying to get to higher ground. This would be relatively east to do but would concentrate more on the character animation than the environment. Would be fun to have a 'frogger' style scene though with floating cars etc.

This is similar to the film 'the day after tomorrow.' I could also use the photos of venice I took over the summer for reference.

I did concept work which I will upload once I get my scanner working too..

Anyway im going finish this blog now and make a new one about Dennis Severs house which I went to see last monday..