Herod Design

Animatic Coming Together

Herod loses control of his desire for wine and for his stepdaughter Salome.
Herod loses control of his authority because of his fear of Jokanaan.
Herod loses control of his kingdom because he makes a promise he cannot keep.
Herod loses his mind as he realizes the prophecy is coming true.

I am interested in portraying Herod's descent into madness through animated hallucinations and sound designed to invoke hysteria.

My goal is to create a nightmarish experience using light, animation, and sound.

Using the voice recordings I have done, the animatic is coming together, but I still have many holes to fill.

Our undergraduates presented fantastic work tonight in seminar. They have inspired me to finish my animatic and demonstrate an animation test next week.

In Memory of Thomas Siegmund

My favorite uncle passed away unexpectedly today. His passing has put a shock on my family and I. I will dedicate the making of this film to his memory. He is one of the best people I have ever known. His generosity and his wisdom inspired me. His words comforted me and taught me many things. I will miss him dearly. In his name, I push on...

Sand Animation and Set Building

I have spent lots of time this semester brainstorming ways to build the set for Salome. I will use the techniques of sand animation combined with compositing techniques to build the sets for the film. For example, the terrace will have to be built and rebuilt from different angles, according to the storyboards. When you work with sand, it is usually under-lit when photographed. This turns the sand into a grainy silhouette. I had a break through when I realized I could composite the sand constructions into my scenes using my favorite compositing tool, the Luma Key. Sand will create the organic textures necessary for the atmosphere and look of the film. In addition, thematically the sand works because the story takes place near the desert. To enhance the sands, I used one light coming from one side of the sand to give the little mounds shape and form.
In terms of animation, using sand will provide some interesting challenges for certain things, but it will also work very well for scenes like the Head of Jokanaan turning to sand then into a locust swarm that consumes Salome, and then the whole palace.

Sound Guiding the Image

Working on the Animatic for Salome, I have tried to fill in holes by reading the script and by creating a shotlist, then storyboarding. However, in order to pick out the details of a scene, to set the tension, and to hit the key moments, I am using sound in the animatic to guide the visual structure of a given scene. As as I prepare the animatic for the faculty presentation, I will use library sounds to accentuate the voices and temporary score I received from Ludwig Goransson, the composer. As I move into real production, I will include time for real sound design, where I create my own sounds, specific to this film.

Thesis Summary

Oscar Wilde's Salome is a play depicting a King's loss of control. Like King Lear, Herod's authority is challenged and then lost to his daughter or step-daughter in my case. To animate the play, I have been focusing on the mental state of Herod and the psychological/subjectively treated landscape he sees during the play. In a way, I have been researching different ways to illustrate his nightmarish situation through hallucinations and fearful thoughts that Herod has as his situation gets worse.

The purpose of my thesis is to recreate the mood and spectacle of the play through visual design, animation, lighting, editing, and compositing. I will also create an originally sound design for the piece, recording and manipulating sounds to echo the horrible night and the themes of the play.

As I work on this through the month of November, I am reaching the half-way point and I feel very differently about the project than I did this summer when I started it. I have a strong grasp on what the play is going to look like after months of visual development and research. I need to spend more time on what it will sound like. Also, I am very much still in pre-production. My puppets are not working yet and I am not ready for animation, because I have been focusing my time on the visual development and recording with the actors.

Visual Development

Storyboards

Here are some of the storyboards I've been developing, thanks to the techniques I learned in Will Weston's layout workshop. The great thing is that I've been able to compose and design with light, which compliments the way I visualize the piece. There are many holes to fill and the storyboards are not entirely in order in these samples.