For this brief I had to contact someone within the industry to set a brief for me to work on and treat this a live brief as though working for a client. When i met up with Matt Geiling from fuzzy Duck i requested if he could give me the live brief for this project and this is what he sent me:
Brief:
Create a 30-60 second motion graphic based on the following theme:
"visualise the state of mind of a man who will do anything to keep his family legacy together, but by keeping it will destroy it. Or should he give it away, to no longer own it but to allow it to be preserved for others to enjoy.
This is the fate of the last squire of Eddrig Hall in Wrexham, Wales. Feel free to take any direction you like with this, and most importantly have fun with it.
It was in 1973, that Philip Yorke, the last Squire of Erddig gave the house and estate to the National Trust as neither Philip or his brother Simon married there were no direct heirs.
Philip Yorke was born in 1905 the second son of Philip Yorke and his second wife, Louisa. His brother Simon born in 1903 was the heir. His father Philip was born in 1849, the son of Simon and Victoria Yorke. Philip was Mayor of Wrexham in 1896-7. When their father Philip Senior died in 1922 the estate began to decline. Income from the estate never high began to decline and staff were laid off and the house began to decay. Problems from mining at Bersham colliery caused the house to sink more one end than the other. Simon became a reclusive and visitors particularly officialdom were not welcome. However it did mean that the house although decayed was not altered. Philip inherited the estate in 1966. Before that he had lived a rather hand to mouth existence. He had been an actor/manager; holiday tour operator. He is remembered for riding his penny farthing around the district. The gift to the National Trust was worth 3 million but negotiations were protracted. Philip Yorke died in 1978.
The other prominent member of the family was the first Philip Yorke. 1743-1804. He inherited the estate from his uncle John Meller in 1767. He took part in the social life and local government particularly the Militia and sat in Parliament twice for pocket boroughs. He was the author of the Royal Tribes of Wales which brought together his genealogical and antiquarian research. There is a room in Erddig which features the coats of arms of the chief North Wales families. He set about improving the estate and house and dining room where his portrait was one of his improvements.
Sailors would often carve lovespoons during their long journeys, which is why anchors would often be incorporated into the carvings.
Certain symbols came to have specific meanings: a horseshoe for luck, a cross for faith, bells for marriage, hearts for love, a wheel supporting a loved one and a lock for security, among others. Caged balls indicated the number of children hoped for. Other difficult carvings, such as chains, were as much a demonstration of the carver's skill as a symbolic meaning.
I decided that this could be an interesting way to tell the tale of how Philipe York of eroding hall has no offspring to inherit the hall and how this effected his keeping of the hall as well as the coal mines crumbling beneath it.
welsh mythology and symbolisms`:
Birds are usually used to represent prophetic knowledge, (Davidson, 91) bloodshed, and skill. In an omen, birds can be either the message or the messenger. For example, Morrígan came in the shape of a bird to warn the Brown Bull (Kinsella, 98). The interpretation of their calls and movements can lead to knowledge of future events. Birds, especially ravens and crows, usually presage bloodshed and battle, when they are associated with it, sticking with the theme of prophesy. Deirdre's dream of three birds drawing blood foreshadowed death and Lleu Llaw Gyffes was shedding rotting flesh and maggots while in the form of an eagle. The Irish war goddesses were said to call the ravens down to battle fields to feast on the flesh of the slain (Davidson, 98). Even normal, modern crows and ravens descend to feed on corpses along the road.
Serpents and dragons symbolize trouble. Whenever they appear, strife and infertility follow. King Arthur's troubles with the future of his kingdom are presaged by dreams of dragons and serpents at the time of Sir Mordred's conception. King Arthur drives them out, but is wounded (Baines, 36). King Arthur is finally devoured by them in his last dream, subsequently his next battle is when Sir Mordred kills him. It is interesting to note that it is the appearance of a snake that initiates the battle. The swine herders before the Tain, Friuch and Rucht, ruin each other's land with snow during their magical fight, while in the forms of dragons (Ford, 48). Dragons should be particularly troubling to a king, because the king is the symbol of the fertility of the tribe and its land and the dragons are the counter symbol, laying waste to the land and preventing new growth.
Research for inspiration of ideas:
I like how this video encompasses al the elements of what defines leonardo and his work but in a college format and in a way that is also visual entertaining without going into too much detail so as for it to become drawn out or boring.
This is something i would like to incorporate into my pice.
INSIDE THE MIND OF LEONARDO from IAMSTATIC on Vimeo.
WILD & WELSH: So Let Eternity Start from WILD&WELSH on Vimeo.
I like the style of this video and the cut out sillhoueette shapes and transitions and flow between scenes and aspects of the video and again i like how it is visually entertaining and symbolic. which is a quality that is reflected in welch culture, again making this style relevant as inspiration for my own work.
The Sacrifice from Grasshorse on Vimeo.
I also chose to use this video as a means of inspiration for my piece as it is a showing a narrative for historical events in an entertaining and creative way and looking at the mind set and emotions of the characters as well which relates to what i am trying to do for my work.
Conan /// Foehammer from Tomfoolery Ltd on Vimeo.
Coal mines under the Hall is an important factor of the story i am trying to express and narrative the emotions of as it was one of the reasons that Philipe Yorke had to give up his legacy.
to tie my piece together i have decided to use a welsh song for the duration of my animation as the theme and events of erdig hall and philipe yorke are based in whales:
Looking at snake movements for when i animate my snake:
modeling:
cell shading for stylised effect:
I chose to use the cloudy circle to frame the majority of this piece to symbolise the mind set and the story of philpie yorke in a dream like manner.
The animation starts of showing him starting at Erdig hall to represent the stem of th problems that he is encountering. It then show a love spoon that i have animated with a snake weaving round it. The love spoon then breaks and disappears. The love spoon is to symbolise love and family and as it breaks this shows how these dreams were shattered or never happened at Philip did not have an children to inherit his legacy. The snake that i have made weave around the love spoon is to symbolise misfortune or a bad omen with this aspect of his life and to bring in some welsh cultural mythology references.
My piece then goes on to show the lamp which is a symbol of miners and the coal mines and the falling rock represent how the mining cavern beneath the house started to cause the house to become too difficult for him to upkeep and was one of the reasons that lead him to have to sacrifice it.
The chair with the cloak over it is a welsh symbol of sacrifice and shows him giving up what he thought to be his legacy.
i used a welsh song to bind my piece together and tie in the cultural historical placing of the events as this was all in wales. The song also has a tone of sadness to it which amplifies the emotions of the tale.
My Idea Development:
Subject Area:
This
is a personal project based on a client driven brief that was set for me by
Fuzzy Duck Studios in media city after I contacted them regarding the brief.
This
is the brief I was give:
Create a 30-60
second motion graphic based on the following theme:
"visualise
the state of mind of a man who will do anything to keep his family legacy
together, but by keeping it will destroy it. Or should he give it away, to no
longer own it but to allow it to be preserved for others to enjoy.
This is the
fate of the last squire of Eddrig Hall in Wrexham, Wales. Feel free to take any
direction you like with this, and most importantly have fun with it.
How i investigate the subject:
I
have done research on Erig Hall and Philip York who owned the property and had
to give it away due to coal mines making the building crumble and no children
to inherit his legacy.
I
have done research on welsh culture and mythology of symbolisms and iconography
that I can use in my piece to make it relevant to the cultural setting and the
historical time zone of the events.
Nature Of Inquiry:
The
fact that the brief mentioned to imagine the mind set of Philip made me want to
take a slightly more abstract approach to creating my animation and displaying
this story to the audience and I have decided to create quite a dream ;like
representation of Philips troubles.
Outcomes:
This
will be taking the format of a short film and story. I want it to be
interesting and intriguing and potentially interest people in research more
about Philip however it will not be intended to be informative I will just be
using the research of the events to fuel my ideas and my inspiration.
Medium/Media:
I
plan to be using cinema 4D to model and animate my ideas as I have been
enjoying this process a lot and would like to explore this process further as
this will be my last project i would like to have the opportunity to utilize
this again. Based on my research I would like to create potentially a mostly
black and white piece with cell shading visualize to create a stylized and
visually interesting piece that make the mind wander.
Rationale :
I decided to take the path of creating a more abstract story piece as I wanted the chance to be creative with my creations for this last piece and even to add a bit of my own personal style into my creation and taking the symbolic abstract route was a good way for me to do this as opposed to trying to inform people on the events. I also wanted the option to delve into 3D animation again but with the new process of using 3D program to create a 2D animation using cell shading so that I had a new skill set to explore and experiment with.
Client Feedback:
I explained my idea to matt at the alumni night for my animation and he told me that the idea of creating an abstract and imaginative piece was a good idea and a nice creative approach to the brief. He said that the idea of having silhouette style elements for my piece and bringing in welsh cultural references was a good idea and he liked that fact that i was taking a 3D approach with the use of cell shading as well as he has seen my previous 3D work and said that he was defiantly interested in seeing more.
He mentioned that It is a good idea to use the idea of going inside the mind set of Philip york and said it would be a good idea to think of how to communicate this realm i am trying to display to the audience which is where i came up with the idea of using the smokey cloud effect to frame my animation.
My finished piece:
Erdig Hall2 from rachel on Vimeo.
I feel like i do really like the flow of this piece and how i have connected each of the scenes and ideas to that opt the symbolic reference of my ideas connections to the events of erdig hall. I do think that this piece might be a little bit confusing with regards to content for a viewer who did not know about the events of philip and erdig hall however that was not my intention for this brief, my intention was to utilise the freedom that fuzzy duck gave me for the brief to creatively create a piece that was fun and intriguing and maybe getting people asking for more.
My Making of:
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