Film Makers Influence: Camera Angles

I have some knowledge of film making and was able to put this to use. Sketching out a page from each initial storyboards to gain an understanding for how composition is going tot effect the communication of narrative. 

Below : 

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 

1. High angle shot 

• interesting composition; creates good lines and shapes.
• shows too much of whats happening around the central focus
• doesn't leave to the imagination 
• works on the bottom panels to show vastness and loneliness but the closeness of characters is lost 

2. Long shot 

• view-point from behind is interesting.cannot see the hands, integral to story-telling techniques
• we are never supposed to see the whole of the beast 
• it takes away his mystery (man or monster?)

3. High angle/long shot 

• space shows how truly alone they are 
• loneliness of existence 
• also romantic, just them and chair 
• too far away for the narrative to be furthered

4. Close-up/big close up

• shows enough to fuel story 
• leaves mystery 
• detail is evident with close-up 
• hands can be left to tell the story 
• book becomes main focus/on the floor discarded
• intimate scene/enclosed panels 

5. Tilt shot 

• too fussy 
• sets the eye of the key aspects of scene 
• no focus 

RUMPELSTILTSKIN 

1. High angle and long-shot 

• could work in close-up, less detail, although does imply vastness 
• in different comic, with different objectives, this would be an effective way of working 
• allows all characters to be seen 

2. High angle x long shot

• middle panel works, faces upturned
• too far to show expression 
• interesting composition with other characters 
• well balanced background 

3. High angle mid-shot

• no mystery 
• 2nd frame close to original image, face not needed to communicate story 
• close up more effective in showing but not giving away too much 

4. Tilt shot 

• Still messy
• throws off composition throughout 
• do not use  

5. Close-up 

• still most effective, showing expression, hands implicating whats happening 'off screen'
• background hinted too 

New Schedule/Updated Objectives: Updated After Christmas

I have changed a few aspects of my original objectives. My personal objectives remain the same, however, some elements of the final outcomes will differ. 

1. The outcome will no longer be the full graphic novel, as 50+ pages, draw inked, coloured and Photoshop will simply not be complete for the deadline and I specially want a finished piece that is Industry ready.
2. The two stories that are very well developed are Rumpelstiltskin and Beauty and the Beast. I will be Illustrating them in two separate comic books.
3. The final goal is the same, a Graphic Novel the penultimate conclusion but this would be a collection of four or five of these short comic books. I am going to produce 2 finished comic books that could, eventually, with more stories, becomes a Graphic Novel.  

• This will mean producing 2 sets of front cover and back covers and 2 end-paper designs 
• I believe there is market for this, monthly issued comic books, of Fairy Tale genre that could be subscribed to as web-comics or printed and put on shelves. 
• I can see the finished products in small company bookshops and eventually more mainstream outlooks. This will mean self-publishing my work and sending it out to comic book companies such as 'Marvel' 'Vertigo' 'Self-Made'Hero' and trying to find an interested party. 

Front/Back cover inked and coloured

Friday the (16^th April). This is a little more time than needed but it gives time for any problems I may have along the way with production.  

End-paper

1 week approx. Deadline 18th April.

Assembly of Graphic Novel

There may be issues here so I will allow myself until the (1^st April) to ensure the layout and assembly works.

Print

Send to Inky Little Fingers

2nd week in April

Arrange meetings with publishers for the book fair (London)

1^st week in April

Collate all printed work

After Returns from Printers Approx (25^th April)

Book Fair

1^st week Easter

Promotion

Indefinitely

FINALISING TEXT/LAYOUT AND DESIGN

FONT: LAYOUT AND STYLE 

Below: Experiments in Photoshop, I have written the story (text ) already so tried the two different speech bubbles I liked. All of the others were too fussy. The second of the two is more classic and I prefer it for that reason. As this project continues I will try to create my own speech bubble designs. This may be the only way I can achieve the effect I want. 

STYLE AND CONTENT (DUMMY BOOK PAGES)

COMMUNICATING STYLE AND CONTENT

Below: demonstrating the look and feel of my graphic novel . The First page has been completed to a finished level and the rest of the story has been blocked in, exactly as the layout will be presented. The colours will remain the same throughout the story, so every page will be in this style. I created the panels using a grid process , joining up the grids to make different panel variations. This is evident as the storyboard progresses. I have thought in terms of camera angles (using OUAT and Gainsborough Pictures research) to create interesting compositions. I am pleased with the final outcome because composition and colour limitation are two things I've always found difficult. Only buying three colours of the graphic markers solved the colour problems, I had no choice but to work with the three pens I had bought. I chose red because it signifies danger and it's also a reference to the red rose, an icon from the classic story. Blue, it a stereotype from the Disney movie; Belle always wears blue. I found that mixing these colours together made different tones which could be used for shading (purple/brown) and then the Indian Ink gave a contrast that set off the colours. I can, in the future, refine the image using Photoshop but for the meantime it sums up my project in one colour image. This is what I wanted to achieve in the preliminaries. 

Rumpelstiltskin: Content and Layout

Title Pages: FINALISING MEDIA

I CREATED TWO OF MY TITLE PAGES (IN ROUGH) USING MY NEW GRAPHIC MARKER PENS. I CHOSE THREE COLOUR PER STORY WHICH LIMITED THE OUTCOME IN A POSITIVE WAY-MAKING IT MORE EDGY AND SUITED TO MY CLIENT AND FINAL PIECE. COMPOSITION IS BASED ON ALL RESEARCH THAT HAS GONE BEFORE . WHEN THEY ARE DRAWN UP NEATLY THE LINES WILL BE DRAWN CLEANLY AND THERE WILL BE TYPE IN THE GAPS I HAVE LEFT TO ACCOMMODATE IT. I WILL REFER TO MY RESEARCH ON TEXT (FABLES AND OUAT). 

Story-boarding the Graphic Novel: Process and Development+ FINAL STORY RE-WRITES

1: Quick black and white sketches, getting to grips with content. Bits of these to be used in Rumpelstiltskin also. I was thinking back to my research on CAMERA ANGLES which helped greatly with composition. 

BELOW: ADDING COLOUR AND TONE TO THE IMAGES. TO GIVE AN EXAMPLE, I HAVE CHOSEN TWO SCENES FROM BEAUTY AND THE BEAST THAT ARE THE EPITOME OF THE ATMOSPHERE I WANT TO CREATE. I PICKED FOUR COLOURS TO WORK WITH, I THINK I SHOULD LIMIT THIS EVEN MORE IN THE FINAL IMAGES BECAUSE IT WILL FORCE ME TO CREATE SOMETHING CLEANER AND MORE REFINED. 

BELOW: DRAWN UP FROM THE PREVIOUS STORYBOARDS. THIS DOESN'T WORK THOUGH, THE LINES ARE NOT CLEAN ENOUGH AND THE COLOURS ARE TOO MUTED. I WILL TRY MORE STORYBOARDS IN PENCIL AND THEN EXPERIMENT WITH THE GRAPHIC PENS BECAUSE I THINK THEY WILL GIVE THE MOST CLEAN FINISH. 

The Stories: 

Rumpelstiltskin

There was once a poor old Miller, who was summoned to the King. He was so scared that before the King had time to speak he told him he had a beautiful daughter who could spin straw into gold. His daughter, although beautiful could do no such thing! The King, who was as greedy as he was rich and handsome, told the miller he better bring his daughter to him, if she had such talents! The King fell in love with the girl when he saw her but decided to test her and sent her to a tower full of straw! He told her she must spin it all to gold by morning or he would kill her! She wept after he left until a little man appeared and told her he could do what she could not...if she gave him her necklace. She did and in the morning the room was full of gold! The King was so greedy he bid her do it again, or he would kill her! The man came again, this time demanding her ring, she gave it and the room was full of gold next morning. This time the King said that, if she spent another night at the task, he would marry her the next morning! She wept, for she had nothing left to offer the little man. He demanded her first born child and she accepted, for she did not want to die and did not know if she would ever even bear a child. It was accomplished and the king married her. The next year she had a beautiful child and the little man appeared demanding his prize. The Queen wept and he took pity, giving her three days to guess his name! She sent a messenger all over the kingdom to find boys names but for the first two days, she did not guess correctly. On the last day, her messenger came across a little man in the forest rhyming his name and told the queen. That night she guessed ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ and the man ran from the room with steam coming out of his ears, never to be seen again.

Beauty and the Beast

A merchant was travelling through the rain when he came across a castle and beautiful gardens. He plucked a rose from a bush, thinking how much his daughter would like it to mark her books. At that, a horrifying monster appeared who demanded the man would die if he did not bring him the thing he most valued, as he had plucked his most beautiful rose. He bid the man bring him his beautiful daughter in payment for the rose he had taken. The man returned to his daughter and told her his plight, he said they would run for he would never give her to the monster. In the night she went to the castle, for she loved her father and he was too old travel. The monster was kind to her, gave her a beautiful room in his dark castle. She dined with him every evening and thought him misunderstood, for he was, indeed, cursed and she pitied him. The monster fell in love with the beautiful girl, she was clever and well-read and he thought, she liked him well enough. Every night he asked her to marry him but she turned him down, she could not marry a monster, even if she did like him. One day she wept, for she missed her father and the monster was sad at this, so he let her return to her father for one week. The girl reached home and her father was ill, so she forgot her promise to the monster and was late returning. When she found him, he was lying under his rose-bush. She thought he was dead, and wept for him. As her tears fell onto his face he changed. He was no longer ugly but very handsome, with auburn hair and a dark skin. He awoke and asked her again; this time she said yes.

The Wild Swans

There was once a girl called Elsie. She was Princess, with seven handsome, tall brothers who loved her. They took her on adventures, crafted her swords and bows and arrows in the castle grounds and read her stories from the large library in the castle. Their mother had died and when she was still young Elsie’s father re-married. The new Queen was vain and didn't like Elsie, who was prettier than her. She banished Elsie to live with a poor family, telling the King the girl had died in the woods while on one of her adventures. The King was heartbroken and gave his sons all of his time, so the jealous Queen turned them into seven swans and banished them. When Elsie grew she went to the palace as she wanted to see her lovely brothers. The Queen on seeing how beautiful she had become, rubbed he face with dirt and oils so the king would not recognise her. So she was sent away and got lost by the stream. She washed herself and , lovely once more, found herself surrounded by seven swans who promptly, when the moon rose, turned into the brothers. They cried at finding their beloved sister and told her of the Queens curse. They wanted to go across the sea to another kingdom to warmer climates and made Elsie a woven mat. They flew her across the sea and she dreamed. An enchantress came to her in the dream and told her to craft seven shirts from nettles; crush them and weave them with her bare hands and feet into shirts for her brothers and they would be free. She could not utter a word whilst she accomplished this. One day, while her brothers were flying a Prince found the beautiful, quiet girl and took her away to his castle. He married her and she became Queen but at night while her husband slept she made the shirts still. People said she was a witch and the Kings men took her away to be burned as a witch. Her bothers came to save her, flying to her aid as she was on the cart. She threw the shirts over them, the youngest brother’s was not finished so he still had one wing but the curse lifted! She spoke again and shouted her innocence before collapsing. The king caught her and cried for her but she awoke and they lived happily together in the new kingdom.

CHARACTER: Finalising STYLE AND DESIGN

Beauty and the Beast 

Belle and the Beast Character Development

Below. Previous Images that helped influence my choices. Especially in terms of character and costume. I began with these images and re-worked them, taking elements of composition etc. to create something new. 

STYLE: USING MY BUILD UP WORK TO DECIDE UPON AN APPROPRIATE STYLE FOR MY GRAPHIC NOVEL.

Below: The first sketch was experimental and quick but I like the composition, I wanted to make it edgier and more graphic so I played around with some new medias. 

Above: The black and white version lost all of the excitement needed to complete the image. So, I used the lightbox to trace the original image for the third version. I chose three colours (the third colour was made from mixing the first two) and used only those colours plus black to create the last image. It is still not quite clean enough, so I need to find a way to rectify this. The last image was done in watercolour and ink, which is the medium I most most confident using, I should, perhaps, try something new because this could turn the project around.  

CHARACTER INTERTWINED WITH SET AND SCENERY: USING COLOUR TO MAKE A CHARACTER STAND OUT. Below: I created Belle's room from the dark castle, inspired by the rooms I saw at Eastnor castle (I was not allowed to sketch or take photo's in there so it was drawn from memory). The first picture shows the image before I added the ink to darken it and add tone. 

Above: Final image created using inks and watercolour's. I am pleased with the feel, it is overpowering and that is how the room is supposed to be.It is not a homely room, it is an uncomfortable one. I have added elements that show how she has tried to make her room her own, the books etc. Content was my main focus in this image. 

AN OLD IMAGE OF MINE THAT I USED TO INSPIRE COMPOSITION. 

It is too inky and not clean enough for a graphic novel, so I decided to try and use a new technique.

BELOW: GOUACHE EXPERIMENTS

THE PENCIL VERSION WITH BLOCKED IN GOUACHE. DETAILS STILL TO BE ADDED. THE COULOUR ALSO NEEDS TO BE MADE FLATTER. 

GOUACHE WATERED DOWN INTO FLATTER COLOUR. IT MAKES IT SLIGHTLY CLEANER AND ALTHOUGH I WILL FINISH THE PIECE AND USE IT FOR COMPOSITION INSPIRATION LATER ON I DON'T THINK THE MEDIA IS RIGHT YET. BELOW: Final image, the composition is perfect, it tells the story, I will re-invent this image for the Beauty and the Beast title page.

BELOW: GRAPHIC MARKERS: THREE COLOURS. THIS IS THE STYLE I WILL WORK TOWARDS, THIS IS THE ROUGH FOR TITLE PAGE 1, BASED ON THE ABOVE BUILD UP WORK.I A FINALLY HAPPY WITH THE STYLE/COMPOSITION/COLOURS BECASUE IT'S DRAMATIC, SUGGESTIVE AND DANGEROUS--ALL OF THE THINGS THIS STORY SHOULD BE--!

BELLE CONT. COSTUME AND SETTING: BELOW SKETCHES IN WATERCOLOUR AND PEN SHOWING FACE/EXPRESSION/MOOD ETC. 

CONCEPT ART: GOUACHE PIECE COMPLETED BEFORE I KNEW THAT I WOULD BE WORKING IN MARKER PENS. IT HELPS INFORM CONTENT HOWEVER, AND SUMS UP THE CHARACTER. I MAY USE THE CHAIR IN THE NOVEL AT SOME POINT AS AN INTERESTING FEATURE. 

Artist Research TEXT/WORD AND IMAGE (Graphic Novels)' FABLES

HAND LETTERING: Can be found in fables. It is always interesting shapes and bold type which makes the text appear important but works in harmony with the image by following the lines. 

(ref for pages Images 2+3)