I've been enjoying your atmospheric developmental work so far. Let's talk about the nuts and bolts then. If you're going to get into visual metaphors, then you need to be crystal-clear in terms of the relationship between the metaphor and the thing its substituting. I'm not convinced that a 'vulture' can be the right metaphor for a body's 'force for good', on account of the negative connotations that equate with vultures - much better, perhaps, to refer to the 'good cells' as noble birds of prey, so falcons or hawks. The idea of HIV being a kraken feels more precise and evocative. However, you need to be careful in terms of tone, as HIV is now a completely manageable disease; it doesn't mean death and it doesn't mean AIDS. I happen to know a great many people who are HIV+ and they wouldn't characterise themselves as being somehow disconnected or at the bottom of an abyss (though at the point of diagnosis, they may have felt this way certainly). In terms of messaging, how might you reflect this less doom-ridden reality? What's not clear yet is how information is actually going to be conveyed in your film: you certainly can't just assert the bird of prey and the kraken as metaphors without initiating your audience in this system of meaning. Are you going to have text elements annotating your scenes? A voice-over? If so, what is the tone of this narration - you say you don't want it to be bland, but it will need to be informative. I suppose I'm just returning you to the needs of the audience, as being above and beyond your understanding of what all of this means and how people should feel about it. I think you need to really address the nuts and bolts of how you're going to communicate the 'science bit' in line with your visual concept, and reflect too on the importance of 'message'. It would be quite wrong I think to leave your character at the bottom of the abyss, for example, enmeshed by that Kraken hopelessly. It does seem to me as if you might in fact be making something tonally that is not a million miles from this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWwZg6rLGt4
You've got something evocative and visually-arresting getting started, but I want you to think about who this film is for and what they might be left with after they've watched it...
Hey Phil, my plan is to have a voice over running over the animation that will be performed as if a doctor was diagnosing a patient, so as the doctor says something along the lines of 'Im sorry but you have tested positive for HIV' the light will come down on the character and the animation will begin. In terms of the vulture, I was actually planning to completely scrap that whole idea and just have the Kraken carry out the process on the human figure. So as the doctor can be heard talking over the top of the animation to the patient, describing the effects the virus will be having (the seven stages of the HIV lifecycle, binding, fusing etc) the kraken will be carrying out these process' and taking on the form of the virus.
In terms of the ending, I could possibly have a moment where the Kraken has essentially moved on from the host cell and is leaving the human figure in turmoil and break it up with the doctor beginning to explain the treatment and options available to the patient, maybe bringing a bright light of hope down upon the figure and burning the Kraken away?
OGR 03/03/2016
ReplyDeleteHey Lewis,
I've been enjoying your atmospheric developmental work so far. Let's talk about the nuts and bolts then. If you're going to get into visual metaphors, then you need to be crystal-clear in terms of the relationship between the metaphor and the thing its substituting. I'm not convinced that a 'vulture' can be the right metaphor for a body's 'force for good', on account of the negative connotations that equate with vultures - much better, perhaps, to refer to the 'good cells' as noble birds of prey, so falcons or hawks. The idea of HIV being a kraken feels more precise and evocative. However, you need to be careful in terms of tone, as HIV is now a completely manageable disease; it doesn't mean death and it doesn't mean AIDS. I happen to know a great many people who are HIV+ and they wouldn't characterise themselves as being somehow disconnected or at the bottom of an abyss (though at the point of diagnosis, they may have felt this way certainly). In terms of messaging, how might you reflect this less doom-ridden reality? What's not clear yet is how information is actually going to be conveyed in your film: you certainly can't just assert the bird of prey and the kraken as metaphors without initiating your audience in this system of meaning. Are you going to have text elements annotating your scenes? A voice-over? If so, what is the tone of this narration - you say you don't want it to be bland, but it will need to be informative. I suppose I'm just returning you to the needs of the audience, as being above and beyond your understanding of what all of this means and how people should feel about it. I think you need to really address the nuts and bolts of how you're going to communicate the 'science bit' in line with your visual concept, and reflect too on the importance of 'message'. It would be quite wrong I think to leave your character at the bottom of the abyss, for example, enmeshed by that Kraken hopelessly. It does seem to me as if you might in fact be making something tonally that is not a million miles from this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWwZg6rLGt4
You've got something evocative and visually-arresting getting started, but I want you to think about who this film is for and what they might be left with after they've watched it...
Hey Phil, my plan is to have a voice over running over the animation that will be performed as if a doctor was diagnosing a patient, so as the doctor says something along the lines of 'Im sorry but you have tested positive for HIV' the light will come down on the character and the animation will begin. In terms of the vulture, I was actually planning to completely scrap that whole idea and just have the Kraken carry out the process on the human figure. So as the doctor can be heard talking over the top of the animation to the patient, describing the effects the virus will be having (the seven stages of the HIV lifecycle, binding, fusing etc) the kraken will be carrying out these process' and taking on the form of the virus.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the ending, I could possibly have a moment where the Kraken has essentially moved on from the host cell and is leaving the human figure in turmoil and break it up with the doctor beginning to explain the treatment and options available to the patient, maybe bringing a bright light of hope down upon the figure and burning the Kraken away?