initial plans

1. Initial Plans
Ethan Colman

2. Pre-proposal

3. Skills Audit
• From writing stories in my own time, I have developed a lot of practice in writing narrative pieces and
what not to do just as much as what to do. I have also gotten used to simple flows of conversations
• I am very poor at time management. This project will most likely be limited most by how I spend my
time. However, in expectation of that the project will mainly consist of audio like an audio book with the
artwork being unrequired for its complete form, this allowing for work to be cut off if I fall behind.
• I haven’t got anywhere near as much experience on the art side of the project which means I will need
to work carefully on a few pieces and use references and lots of work to get parts of the body and
proportions to look right. This will probably stop me from creating insane amounts of artwork because it
will be slow, and I don't know how much time I'll get to spend on it.
• I have gotten a lot better with premiere pro since the audio project and music video project. I have
learnt to become comfortable with things like cutting the imported files down and using the razor tool
to even add bigger pauses or even how to cleanly lay out different audio on different tracks so you can
identify them easier than back-to-back on the same track. Also learnt how to change the volume on
audio to rebalance certain sounds into the background as well as using keyframes to use transitions like
blur to make movement between shots a lot more palatable.
• I have also gotten a lot better with photoshop which I can use for my artwork and even create a video
out of the animation before putting them into premiere pro. I can use the brush types, layers, animation
timeline, selection tools etc to work on and edit the art.

4. Mood Board

5. Mood Board

6. Mood Board

7. Mood Board Analysis
How does your mood board inspire your project?
The mood board shows much of the imagery and perspective I would
like to create. They create a beautiful perspective of the town/city and
of how small people are or how large they can be with different
perspectives. E.g. emphasising someone's actions as great by lowering
the perspective to make them appear large, or making people seem less
significant and one of many by raising the perspective a little while
showing a large crowd of people, making them seem physically smaller.
How will your mood board influence your final product?
• I will try to use these perspectives in the visual comic strip part of my
project

8. Key Influences
Christian Linke & Alex Yee
• These two were the creative designers for Arcane (working at Riot Games). This meant that the
casting, direction of the show etc came down to them. They created Arcane which was a brilliant
fusion of the video game world of League of Legends (LoL) and this animated narrative.
• This inspired me a lot because they managed to make a really compelling story out of a world that
they had to follow certain liberties with to keep the existing fan base of LoL from being upset.
While doing this they also made a great number of relationships and relatable characters including
some of my favourites with Vy trying to mend her relationship with her sister after abandoning
her in a moment of despair, cupcake (I cant remember her actual name, this is her nickname) an
upper class noble who actually wants to help people but struggles against her parents who keep
trying to control her life and keep her from leading the dangerous but heroic life she tries to lead
and Jinx who they develop as someone who clearly suffers from some form of schizophrenia or
something that drives her insane as the show goes on until she ends up serving the main
antagonist, a mobster who is trying to unite the underground so that they can overthrow the
people above them who oppress and leach off of them.
• One of the things I love most about this show is the relationship between Jinx and her almost
adoptive father (the main antagonist) Silco who raises her as a right hand. The relationship is
interesting because Jinx desperately wants to feel needed and loved and she finds that in Silco
who uses her to do his bidding. However the more interesting part is that as the season comes
towards a close, Silco shows that he has actually developed a fatherly love for her and ends up
struggling with the desire to throw everything away for her and let the people of the underground
continue suffering just to save her. This is so great because in my opinion the best shows etc
create likeable/relatable antagonists to give the audience a well of emotions when things come to
a close between these two sides they have developed likings for and then, can even bring sadness
about when they remove the antagonist. I think this is great and this show does a great job of
blurring the lines between who the real bad guys and the good guys are as we watch everyone
struggle in a very human chain of events. It’s phenomenal.

9. Key Influences
Christian Linke & Alex Yee
• Another thing that inspired me while watching Arcane was this scene they made where two characters battle
on a key bridge in the show and world. These characters are Ekko and Jinx, two young characters who know
each other from their lives before they grew up and Jinx became a henchman to the antagonist and Ekko a
leader of a much more morally good rebel group who attempts to provide somewhere safe to live to the young
and likeminded. This battle was incredible because of the mix of animation and music they used as well as the
actual scene that was going on. We have two characters we have been made to like and they’re about to fight
in one of the tensest parts of the show so there is a lot of anticipation building and the audience is most likely
worried about whether they will both come out of this or if they’re about to lose a character they like. The
scene plays out as such, it opens with Ekko swinging a pocket watch back and forth which passes in front of the
camera shot, this is already a great shot as we see Jinx in the background preparing for Ekko to attack as the
swing of the pocket watch creates a ticking sound that starts up the sound track for this scene. Then the
animation shifts into a strange splashed art style of black and white background as the characters are replaced
with their younger versions, this throws the audience back to thinking of them again as their innocent states
and builds that emotion some more. Then you see the fight commence (more Ekko rushing at Jinx who uses
guns) and Jinx’s main pistol is replaced with some sort of toy that fires paint rounds. Ekko makes a good job of
dodging his way towards her but eventually gets caught by a paint round to his chest. As the audience takes in
this moment the music is still beautifully accompanying the scene it shifts again as the we see the pocket watch
swinging again matching the beat. Now we realise that this was Ekko’s attempt at imagining how this would
play out, he is still stood in an almost Mexican stand off with his pocket watch swinging. He snatches it out of
the air and makes his dash at Jinx, this time we see the scene play out much quicker and with their actual older
characters but Ekko gets the upper hand catching Jinx off before she can get him like she had in his vision.
Pinning her to the ground he has the chance to end the fight, kill Jinx or at least harm her so she no longer
posses a threat to him but we see him falter as we can imagine he thinks of the Jinx he knew. In this split
second Jinx pulls the pin on a grenade. What was so great about this scene is how literally every piece worked
in perfect tandem to lead the audience through a pretty quick and thrilling scene. The animation hits us with
several stages, we think Ekko has been shot in the first child like version scene, then we watch him rush for real
with even more suspense but then we experience Ekko’s sympathetic moment for Jinx in a totally different way
because we have just witnessed how he thought of them through the childish version of them seen in the first
part of the scene. I think this is incredibly done because the audience is being hit with so many emotions that
are excellently delivered by the harmony but also manage not to feel forced, too long etc

10. Key Influences
Natsuki Kizu
• Given is the name of a manga that was turned into an anime. It is centred around a main
protagonist who we meet trying to find help with learning how to maintain/repair and play a
guitar. He meets the secondary main in his attempts who later introduces him to the other two
members of the band that our protagonist would go on to join.
• This show inspired me because the anime doesn’t break any of the well created atmosphere
around our quiet and lost protagonist who we don’t really understand. As the show goes on we
find out that the character is trying to learn to play the guitar because it used to be his boyfriends
who in unclear flashbacks mid-way through the season, we learn took his own life after a big fight
with our protagonist. The show explores this character working his way through these
tremendously heart-breaking emotions as he learns to play music which ends up being the perfect
medium for him to finally process his feelings in a beautiful end song that we get on the last
episode. It is beautifully set up because the band finds out he has a good singing voice and urge
him to develop some lyrics to one of their songs for a small stage debut. However, we are led to
believe that our somewhat space case protagonist has been unable to as they seem too often be
quite often mentally not all there and blocking off their emotions, which isn’t exactly a great rule
of thumb for making music. However, on the night of the performance, without telling his band
mates that he had made lyrics, he breaks into beautiful song finally letting out his emotions and
crying up on stage as he performs an incredible song. It is one of the best shows I have ever
watched, and I felt like I was being led around the entire experience by my ears and heart as
several different songs were laid throughout the show and amazingly written plot unfolded that
never felt too forced, predictable or unpleasant.

11. Key Influences
Yuyuko Takemiya
Toradora was declared complete in April 2010. It is about these two characters Taiga Aisaka and Ryuji
Takasu, both misunderstood people coming from tumultuous backgrounds. When they meet each
other, they discover each of their friendships to the people the other likes and make a deal to help
one another get with them. The plot continues as such as they meet other characters until they
become their own undoing and eventually realise after spending so much time together making each
other food, helping clean each other's places and deal with their everyday that the two are far better
suited for each other and then end up getting together themselves.
This plot is great because most things explore love as a wonderful thing that happens to you but this
talks about it as a rare thing that you must hold on to and addresses it somewhat like one of the tough
subjects' other books would avoid in that it is something so precious and hard to obtain and nobody
tells you how or teaches you, so everybody goes around struggling to find it. I really like this because it
is a frequently unexplored side to love, and it tells a wonderful story with many chilling moments like
Taiga flipping out on people for hurting Ryuji in their ignorance and how the two characters expose
their flaws to each other and accept each other beyond all in a preromantic relationship which
envelops the idea that romance isn't all about roses and beaches it can be about the right person who
loves you and sometimes you can be looking for it and miss it right in front of you.
This piece inspired me because it shows how the creators of stories can open the viewers eyes to a
way of thinking or a concept etc by creating a wonderfully thought out plot with that other
perspective present and how that can be an amazing shaping, teaching and emotional communication
and tool for understanding.