Nightmare before christmas

I was watching The Nightmare before Christmas again and I noticed alot of excellent techniques that I'd not 'seen' before, mainly the use of colour and lighting in a very expressive way.
(For example, during the song where Jack tries to explain the point of christmas to the townsfolk- when he mentions 'sandy claws' in a very sinister way the lights dim and he is lit with a strong red glow)

I also thought that the different towns were very different in terms of colour. Halloween town was very desaturated and had alot of cool, dark hues, whereas Christmas town was alot more saturated and 'warm' feeling.

I thought that this was a great use of colour because it not only establishes where we are and helps to remind the audience that 'Christmas town' is supposed to be another 'world'- but I also feel that the two towns give me the same gut feeling as the actual holidays themselves- which in conclusion is what I think makes this a classic that I will always appreciate.

2nd Year Pre-production

I haven't slept for about 30-something hours now so I apologise if this doesn't read very well, but I'm hoping the visuals will be enough to entertain all of my fictional readers.
Today was my deadline (very rushed might I add) for my pre-production work for a short film. I'll spare you the pages of text and simply abbreviate the general story;

A young boy finds himself in trouble after stealing a witch doctors staff, when he realises the staff has magic properties that can bring his drawings to life..

There's a bit more to it than that, but i'm not sure if the film will ever be made so i'll leave you with some of my picks of the pre-prod process. As always, click to enlarge and enjoy!

Pre-production #1 Witch doctor!

CLICK FOR FULL SIZE

A few little sketches from some film pre-production, whaddaya think?

Dunny 2011!

My first two pulls from the 2011 series, not my favourites but I like them.
The Huck Gee zombie and Chuckboys strange bondage looking thing!

The value of value

Hello again ladies and gents- onwards we shall go through the fascinating world of colour to our next destination, value!
Put simply, value is the science of using colour in response to the lighting conditions or the need to convey emotions in your compostition. If you were to take most good compositions in any medium and make them grayscale, you'd usually find that they work in black and white too. This is, in part, thanks to that delightful chap mr Value!

If there are alot of very contrasting values, the scene with have depth to it (For example a darkened forground, and a lightened background)
Whereas if there is very little contrast in value, the image will seem very flat and connected!

What hue looking at?

After watching the first season of the HBO series 'Game of Thrones' I was absolutely enthralled- everything about it; the storytelling, the shots, the vfx and the characters were simply awesome. Realising that we had to wait until april 2012 for the second series I ordered the first 3 books and am currently battling through book number one!

But this post is about the hues, not the story- or more specifically the very common pairing of orange and blue hues (a quick warning though, once you see it you'll notice it everywhere and never get it out of your head!)
I think that orange and blue is the most common pairing purely because they are great complimentary colours, in spite of the fact that everything they do for the mood or feel of a scene completely contrasts.

I think that game of thrones does this beautifully. Without going too much into the story, incase anyone hasn't had the chance to see it yet (or simply doesn't care) We have one set of characters, tough and serious from the cold north, where danger is more prevalent and it's always dark/cold/depressing (the blues) that contrast with the warmer, more image concious, better spoken and generally 'better looking' characters from the south (the oranges)

 Using this technique they provide visual clues for the audiences. Game of thrones has a huge amount of characters that often move throughout the world, so to keep the more casual viewer on the ball with who we are watching and where we are, the north/south divide (which the show is constantly cutting between) is easily distinguished subliminally. Is it orange or blue?

For further reading I found this to be very amusing, pleading with hollywood to stop with the Blorange combo!

http://theabyssgazes.blogspot.com/2010/03/teal-and-orange-hollywood-please-stop.html

Interviewing the dead!

I was interviewed as a zombie for Mark's video!
(This was all unscripted/on the spot)

Interviewing The Dead from Mark Woodcock on Vimeo.