Global Contexts - Phoebe Owen

Dear Sir/Madam,

This is an application for the storyboarding internship that I found advertised on your website – my name is Phoebe Owen and I’m a year 2 BA Animation student at Norwich University of the Arts.

I have a great interest in storyboarding and the planning of televised animation, like a lot of the works Blue Zoo produces. I have been honing my skills in fast and clean drawing over the last few years and think I could contribute a lot through an internship such as this one.

While I have not held a job in the animation industry itself, I have received commissioned work, for which I was the sole producer, working through the planning to the final product. This gave me a good understanding of the production pipeline, and how each part of it needs to communicate well to succeed. This in particular was useful as I would like to become a children’s television show runner in the future.

Attached to this will be my CV with some more information, as well as a link to my online portfolio where you can view some of my more recent works and showreel. Of course, with the current situation, I understand if this role will be mostly online.

I would be happy to talk further about my interest in the position as well as my experience, if there is a time that suits you. Thank you for taking the time to read my email.

Sincerely,

Phoebe Owen

This scene, of course, already exists, so I picked up a transcript of it and decided to try re framing it, keeping as close to on model as I could.

Script

[Time card: ON THIS DAY 996 YEARS AGO]

Simon: Huh. Marcy: Hmmmmmm... Simon: [He stops at a deserted mailbox] Ha-ha! Might be something in here, Marceline! Marcy: [Laughing] E-e-ewww! It's a dead rat! Simon: Hey! Yeah, so it is, looks like we've got a cute new traveling buddy. Marcy: Ewww, noooooooo!! Simon: [Giggling a bit] It's kinda cute... [He closes the mailbox chute and continues walking with Marceline.] Simon: [Points to a VHS tape on the ground] Hey, check it out, it's a VHS tape. You wanna watch a movie? Marcy: Yeah![They both stare at the tape for a while.] Simon: ...Man, this is a boring movie.[Marcy giggles.] Simon: I like the book much better! [He throws the tape behind him and they both laugh.] Marcy: You're so silly, Simon! Simon: He-he-he, yeah, I suppose so... Huh?[A rustling noise is heard in the bushes..] 

Example of an Adventure Time Storyboard

First Time Flying Freestyle Scene

    After a few more misses, Hiccup finally GRABS HOLD of the          harness and manages to lock in -- just in time to pull          Toothless out of his dive... barely shy of the tree tops.          They careen past the wooded cliff and directly into a          treacherous slalom course of jutting sea stacks.          Hiccup pulls the cheat sheet from his teeth and attempts to          check positions. It flaps violently in the turbulence, making          it impossible.          With no time to think, Hiccup throws it away and steers          Toothless' tail on instinct... with perfect intuition.          Together, they manage a tight, hair-rasing series of split-          second turns, making it to the open water, unscathed.          Hiccup takes a breath and glances back at the death-defying          obstacle course, now safely behind them. He beams, relieved.          He sits back and throws his arms up in victory.          HICCUP (CONT'D)          YEEAHHH!          Toothless concurs with a happy SQUEAL and a fireball.          Hiccup's glee turn to dread as they fly directly into it.          ON HICCUP'S FACE          HICCUP (CONT'D)          Ah, come on.

This scene is the first time Hiccup and Toothless have been completely in sync - they’re in a perilous situation, and they need to ‘wing’ it. After the movie has them struggling against each other, here they come together and perfect their companionship. 

They would live in a lower income neighborhood in London, as this is where one of their (still alive) mothers resides, so they try to stay close to her for that particular fairy’s sake. They might have jobs, but they won’t be anything higher end otherwise they might draw too much attention - they will be things like gardeners and construction workers.

For our scene, Space would check in, perhaps posing among the humans himself to get a closer look. He would try to understand their new rituals after having been gone for at least a century (time works different when you’re such a powerful entity) and he would come across his fairies. Juniper will look downtrodden, and this got more and more so each time he visited. 

He’ll observe how she’s changed since the last time he saw her - she’ll now be wearing baggy, modern looking clothing to try and hide her wings from the human public, and strangely her hair will be chopped off at one side. 

Space will struggle with himself, seeing her in such a depressed state. This is where the ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ part of the script will come in, and Space wants to reach out and help her, but that might mean admitting that Time was a problem. If he went against his wishes, it would bring danger to Juniper’s doorstep and he worries about how he could have let it get to this point. His two sides, being a ruthless elemental and being a vulnerable partner and father would war with each other. He might talk to himself or perhaps to another human about his plight (if he talks to a human, this human might pose as one of his sides). 

To introduce some of Space’s natural environment, the scene will briefly start in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. This is where he will see how advanced the humans have become, and realise that he will have to keep a lower profile on this visit. 

Sources:  https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/science/mos-upper-atmosphere.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermosphere#:~:text=The%20thermosphere%20is%20the%20layer,larger%20part%20of%20the%20ionosphere.

https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/aurora-and-the-international-space-station-what-happens-in-the-thermosphere/

Researching into what this would realistically (as realistic as a fairy in space could get, anyway) be entails seeing exactly where he would have to be to avoid human detection, and what it might be like to be there. According to a source from NASA, this would place him in the Thermosphere, as the only thing in orbit here should be the Hubble telescope, which means he would be close enough to know he needs to hide - “The thermosphere is completely uninhabited with the exception of the International Space Station”.

Due to the radiation from space, the molecules here heat up and split, creating heat, which can reach a couple thousand degrees Celsius - however this is not felt “an observer or object will experience cold temperatures in the thermosphere “, so if Space can feel temperatures, he would feel cold when in the thermosphere. 

The thermosphere is also home to the aurora borealis, which could be a good visual for when Space comes to visit. His affinity for the sciences (which could be part of his personality that comes from his element) could have him stepping back to appreciate the site. Perhaps there was more reason to sending the elemental fairies to Earth than just ‘that’s where they came from’ - maybe he likes Earth, maybe he created it himself?

Linked below is some footage from the ISS filmed in 2012 (around when I’m wanting the script to be set) of the aurora borealis. A large swath of the planet has an alien-like green glow to it, and it appears quite like how we can see it from earth. 

Looking into possible references, I decided to take a look at how the elves of Lord of the Rings were designed, particularly Thranduil as he’s the Elven king and has regality due to this (on top of being an Elf).

I started off by trying some symmetrical designs, playing around with the build the character might have. He’s needs to be imposing as he’ll be the villain of my cartoon concept, but he has a softer side that needs to be uncovered. Because of this I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make him look that much bigger than the main cast or not. This design is mostly for the ‘Jekyll’ side, which I will play with to create the ‘Hyde’ side after.

I thought of having a ‘well built’ body for this character - one of the main cast has a slightly wider frame so I wanted to have this character differ slightly. While sketching I thought of the possibility of him having heterochromia - where the eyes are different colours. My current head canon for this character - which may change - is that he’s in an abusive or overall uncomfortable relationship with the main villain, and perhaps having what looks like simple heterochromia could lead on to something more in his ‘Hyde’ form. 

I played around with different periods of clothing, looking at modern fashion, fantastical and ancient types of dress. 

I also played around with the wing shape - his wings need to help make his silhouette distinct as well as set him apart from the main cast. I liked the idea of them having a ‘liquid’ kind of texture with stars inside them, almost like liquid space. I would be cool to have extra stars and such exuding from them but this would be hard to animate. 

The Origin of Fairies

The word ‘fairie’ seems to originate from the 1300s and was defined as “something incredible or fictitious”, and has connections to terms such as “enchantment, magic, witchcraft and sorcery”. An earlier form ‘fae’ from the 1200s is from Latin and talks of “destiny” and “fate.  

Closer to modern day, the word ‘fairy’ had negative connotations when referring to an “effeminate male homosexual” around 1895.

________________________________________________________________

Etymonline.com. n.d. Fairy | Origin And Meaning Of Fairy By Online Etymology Dictionary. [online] Available at: <https://www.etymonline.com/word/fairy> [Accessed 2 December 2020]. ________________________________________________________________

The oldest fairies on record in England where described by the historian Gervase of Tilbury in the 13th century, telling stories of a subterranean world of fairies living beneath the land of humans. 

A quick glimpse at who Gervace of Tilbury was can be found in this abstract for a longer biography:

“Gervase of Tilbury (c. 1150s–c. 1222) was a university‐educated courtier‐cleric, who spent much of his life in association with the courts of figures such as Henry the Young King, Henry II, and the Emperor Otto IV. For Otto he wrote Otia imperialia (Recreations for an emperor), a description of the world filled with observations and accounts of wonders associated with various places. His work is of interest to cartographers, historians of geography, and folklorists.” ________________________________________________________________

Castelow, E., 2013. The Origins And History Of Fairies. [online] Historic UK. Available at: <https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Origins-of-Fairies/> [Accessed 2 December 2020].

Here is the development I have so far for this character:

Can move things through any amount of space with ease. Is able to open up portals to create a speedy way through large distances. If this elemental surges, travel between Earth and the Otherworld is blocked, and the stars aren’t visible in Earth's night sky. (The Otherworld is referred to a lot in the research I’ve been doing and, in the case of this concept, refers to an alternate dimension that the Fae originate from, kind of like the ‘Upside Down’ in ‘Stranger Things’)/

More empathetic toward Juniper, took more care in raising her when she was acquired as a child. He embodies all of space, and has an affinity for all those that live in it, even if it contradicts logic.

Unable to stand up to Time due to the distance between their powers.

Still created the elementals, and they’re still pieces of him. The elementals would have to be a ‘labour of love’, so to speak, between Time and Space, but Space is the one who ends up caring for them more in the end. 

‘Space’ and ‘Time’ have always been put together in my development, so some of this research involves ‘Time’ as well. As a character that will have a lot of influence on ‘Space’ and their personality it might be good to determine what this character is all about too. As we are able to make a cast for this project, I might include my character design for Juniper, along with a new design for ‘Time’ as they play such big parts. 

The musical number continues to follow the original story of Jekyll and Hyde - if simplified. It does cut out the character dying, however, and just remains as an allegory for good and evil, as referred to within the lyrics:

I started turning green; Feeling mean; It was like In the story;

I was acting strange; Quite deranged; It was pure Allegory!

The lyrics also offer a helpful insight into how people might have interpreted Hyde from the book, which could be handy in designing them. 

This was too much, I simply had to stop! I threw that potion away! (Potion away) But it didn’t matter if I drank the stuff; I just kept on changing anyway! (Changing anyway)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Directed by Henry Selick [film]. San Francisco, California: Touchstone Pictures and Skellington Productions

Within this media Hyde doesn’t have much of an appearance, but what is does have diverts quite a bit from other adaptations of the character. As seen in the image above, Hyde has quite a distinctive face with the exagerrated eyes and mouth, as well as the front facing nostrils. His body is a distinctive cone shape, giving him the feeling of being top heavy, but what really sets him apart is that he has two smaller versions of himself within his hat.   

As with the Arthur rendition, this Hyde seems to be mostly based within the Victorian style, and has a simplistic colour scheme of monotone greenish hues and blacks, contrasted by bright red on his nails and lips.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1986) Directed by Warwick Gilbert [film]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvg8DrVsmP0 [Accessed: 1/12/2020]

As the character I’m designing will be animated, I’m mostly focusing on looking at animated adaptations of the base story, and how the characters there are designed. Here is a complete animated adaptation of the story of Jekyll and Hyde, so the designing can be taken into account along with the actual plot of the book. This adaptation gives more of an insight into what happens with Jekyll and Hyde away from the narrator of the book, however.