September 25, 2021
Greetings to anyone who reads this!
To start off the production blog, I want to introduce you to the story of my short film, Mapmaker.
Mapmaker is an adventurous, sentimental, and slightly supernatural short film about a mapmaking Owl who struggles to draw, and a lost Mouse with artistic talent. The two make a deal to help each other out in hopes that the Mouse finds his home again, and that the Owl finishes her map, with the underlying theme that letting go of your ego will help you grow.
If you're interested to see the full Asset List and Milestone Document, I have them both linked nicely down below:
Anyway, over the summer I was able to sit down and work on some concepts for the props and environmental designs. I was very inspired by native New Zealand vegetation and have incorporated a lot of native species and biomes, such as Beech trees, Kauri trees, Podocarp hardwood forests, ferns, and a whole variety of grasses. Even the props are made in consideration of the environment.
The Monolith design is inspired by a real-world collection of megalithic stones called the Carnac Stones, located near the south coast of Brittany in northwestern France. I just really enjoy how esoteric and cryptic they look and knew that they would be the perfect inspiration for the Monolith landmark in my film.
Lastly, I was able to make one small color test for an important scene in my film. I'm not perfectly satisfied with it, but it's a good start and has helped me to get an idea of how to achieve the mood of the colors that will be used in the film. I hope to make more in the future!
That's all I have for this week. Thank you for reading!
- Rebecca