FTV Honours: Major Project

Render Rocket!

2009-03-27T04:08:00.000-07:00

Some really good news for the animation, Render Rocket have offered their services to help render the animation. This is extremely generous of them and solved one of my biggest problems in creating this animation.

Animation

2009-03-08T04:17:00.000-07:00

It doesn't look like much is going on, so I thought I'd post up a bit of a status report. Animation is still underway. I'm slowly getting through it, just having to find time between work. Good news is that I think I may have found a place for rendering. XYZ studios have a pretty sweet render farm setup that they don't use all the time and when I went in for a chat with Tim Kentley he suggested the possibility of rendering some things on it, but we'll see!

Low Res Models

2009-01-19T11:52:00.001-08:00

Ok so production is still underway. After a bit of a break over the christmas, new year holidays things are starting to pick up again. I've also just updated my folio at www.peteshand.com, as paying work is something that I'll need to find time for in order to survive.

Right now I'm just perfoming maintenance on models to help speed up the animation pipeline. One of the main problems I had at the end of the year was that the models were too complex to work with. Meaning that it took too much time to move them, and then play them back to watch how the movement was looking.

I've gone through and added 'low res' models into all of the characters that can be switched on and off during the animation process. This will make the process a lot faster and help keep the flow of ideas and inspiration clear.

I'm also doing maintenance at the moment because I'm in Malaysia working from my macbook. On a side note I recorded some great cicada sounds before I set off. Thanks to my handy little zoom recorder I was able to capture some high quality clips of cicadas singing as groups, individually and also mynah birds making various sounds.

Rendering

2008-11-21T05:57:00.000-08:00

Rending for submission has been very rushed due to the tight schedule and as such a lot of mistakes have been made. This is partly due to lack of organization and the computers that I'm using to render content on.

The main problem is setting something to render only to find that there is a small glitch within the scene, like a tree is missing, or the sky isn't rendering properly. These problems arise in the first place because everything isn't rendered together. The background and foreground are seperated so that more control can be achieved over them. In addition render passes are done to gain control over shadows, occlusion, reflections etc so objects have to be set accordingly.

In hind sight I think that if I had spent more time organising the renders I was going to do then I would have save time in the long run.

I've been rendering a lot of it on the computers up in pa601, and while they're quite new they have trouble keeping up with the files I'm working with. This has made them tiresome to work with.

Preparing to Render

2008-10-31T10:16:00.001-07:00

So I'm almost ready to render some of the animation. Just a bit more refinement of the animation and then tweaking the lighting setup. Below gives a better idea of how the front of the house will be lit, trying to achieve an afternoon/evening light.

Drawing from Reference

2008-10-31T10:06:00.001-07:00

Part of the animation process is planning. While I'm stretched for time I still need to find time to plan out the basic animation before laying down keyframes. Without planning the animation can quickly become unnatural and you can spend a lot of time tweaking it before you realise you need to just start fresh.

The planning process usually consists of looking at live footage and drawing out the main poses and taking note of times between them. This creates a base to begin animating from.

It's not simply a matter of copying from real life, but referencing it and then building on it to achieve the desired look and feel for the character. Below are some examples of the planning process.

Refining the Animation

2008-10-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

So at the moment I'm refining the animation in Cicada. Below is a screen grab of what I'm working with. The graph editor features every keyframe set for the character and draws out the path it will take. It's with this feature that I'm able to really smooth out the animation and make it look more natural. This is the most time consuming part of the animation process as it requires a lot of tweaking, watching, tweaking, re-watching and so on until the animation looks natural.

Post Production Workflow / Damage Control

2008-10-20T07:06:00.000-07:00

Below is the latest post production workflow for the project. It also serves as a bit of a guide as to where we are at. Unfortunately we're at a point where we are approaching submission and are not in a good position to deliver the whole thing.

As a result we are looking to cut down the amount we deliver and just complete the first 6 scenes, which is pretty much the first act. This will give us something more realistic to work towards and reduce the risks of nervous/mental breakdown. This will still amount to about 5 minutes of animation and will still be a challenge.

So how did it come to this? Well despite careful planning throughout the year and regular reviews of our progress it just comes down to it being too much work for 1 animator, 1 producer and 1 sound guy. Because despite something looking good on paper, it didn't play out that way in real life. Freelance work commitments cropping up, software errors and glitches causing back tracking, the need for revisions and sleep to name a few things. Basically there wasn't enough time given to things going wrong, which was inevitable.

What started out as a little snowball gradually grew into one of considerable size that has finally caught up to us.

Another reason we decided to continue with the project despite its length was our belief in the story. Unfortunately my pre-production side was not very sympathetic to my production side. At the beginning of the year the focus was purely on the story, and while planning was done for production, in retrospect it was a little optimistic. And while I'm not making excuses, the course is centered around film so while concerns were raised about the length they were not enforced.

As a point of comparison a prominent animation school in France for its last year has a major project of creating a short animation. Most of the projects run between 2-3 minutes and have groups of 5-6 students trained in all areas of animation. Projects can be seen at the Gobelins Animation page.

Interior Renders

2008-10-20T05:32:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd just chuck up a render of each of the rooms of the house!

Keeping things moving

2008-10-13T00:13:00.001-07:00

I'm currently having to juggle a few things for the project, today we re-recorded some lines with Amy, just because earlier we had some technical issues. I'm animating the scenes! which is good, they're starting out as being blocked out and then slowly getting polished over time. Then finally I'm getting the shaders/textures onto the sets and trying to get a nice colour scheme happening.

Below is a render of outside the house that took about 10 minutes to render. Luckily a lot of the shots in the animation are static so backgrounds can be separated from the action and rendered once as just 1 frame.

Wardrobe

2008-10-07T04:09:00.001-07:00

Below are some renders of the characters clothes. In this animation i'm going to be using a feature within Maya called nCloth. It basically allows me to turn 3d meshes into cloth objects and have them drape over the characters.

Because the clothes have to be simulated over the characters they won't be added until the end when the animation has been done. It's then a matter of "caching" the simulation so I can render!

I've also included some of the sketches that came from research into different types of clothes. I wanted the clothes to reflect a bit of nostalgic quality, what I mean but this is as if they're from the early 90's / before now :P

Title Sequence Animatic + Mood Board

2008-10-04T23:12:00.000-07:00

Here's the title sequence animatic that I recently completed for James' class. It builds on the concept that was explored earlier in a mood board.

The concept is basically that a cicada is coming to the ground after burrowing for its growth period and the title sequence tracks up the burrow to reveal the cicada and the house from the film. Titles are overlaid with childish illustrations introducing the actors and giving some hints about the story. I've kept the title sequence quite slow to help establish the tone of the piece.

- kudos to Pete G for the sound fx!

Intro Animatic from Pete on Vimeo.

More Rigging

2008-09-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

Below are the rigs for the Cicada and Myna bird. I've included a side by side pic with the viewport in maya to give an idea of how the controls are set up. These guys were a lot easier to rig as they have simpler movement, unlike the characters which require full facial rigging.

Rigging & Weighting

2008-09-12T06:46:00.000-07:00

Possibly the most tedious and arduous exercise in 3D, rigging is the process of making it possible for your character to move. It involves giving your character bones and then hooking them up to a system of controls so you can easily animate the character.

Luckily I was helped by a few plug-ins for Maya that enabled me to rig my characters in several days, rather than several weeks. I've included some quick renders below showing off their facial capabilities.

Set Models

2008-08-31T11:01:00.001-07:00

More set models! some still need a few details added but this is pretty much it!

Timelines, Extensions?

2008-08-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

We may be looking at going for an extension as we're currently running a bit behind schedule. This is due mainly to me not getting as much work done over the holidays as I had scheduled. Anyways we'll see how it goes, there's a current and proposed version of the timeline.

Storyboards

2008-08-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

Here are the storyboards for Cicada in all their entirety, they are subject to change as these are the first batch. I'm lucky enough to have a meeting with a professional storyboard artist tomorrow to get her feedback so we'll see how that goes.

I've formatted and annotated them in a zip file for easier viewing. Otherwise you can see them below in their raw unedited form!

Voice Recording - Gully & Zen

2008-08-20T21:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we did our first recordings for the animation. Everything went reasonably smoothly and we managed to get all the lines recorded. It was definitely a new experience working with kids and trying to communicate at their level. I've included a pic below with Gully (Josh), Zen (Aden) and the family.

Updated Timeline

2008-08-16T02:16:00.000-07:00

Well I've fallen a bit behind from what I had planned earlier in the year due to a little trip overseas so I've had to adjust the timeline. Things have been pushed back meaning that there will be more crunch at 'crunch time'.

The good news is that I haven't taken any time away from the animated, it still sits at 8 weeks. The bad news is that I'll be animating almost all the way to the deadline, giving me less time for compositing and editing.

House Model

2008-08-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

The 3D model for the house without textures applied.

The Family!

2008-08-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

Current 3D models for Aden, Josh and the Mum. Still with basic shaders applied.

Myna Birds and Cicadas

2008-08-10T10:45:00.000-07:00

The 3D models of the myna birds and cicadas. Note that at the moment they just have default shaders on at the moment.

I've also included a myna bird head sketch to show you how something is modeled in 3D and the sort of planning one might do before starting.

Some more animation practice

2008-07-05T05:11:00.000-07:00

11 Second Club - June Entry from Pete on Vimeo.

June entry for the '11 Second Club'.

Set Designs

2008-07-05T04:24:00.000-07:00

Final drawings before the 3D sets are created. These will also assist in creating the colour script and the story boards.

- Living Room

- Street

- Hallway

- Doctors waiting room

- House

- Tree

- Brothers' Bedroom

- Bathroom

- Mums Room

Set Research - House Features

2008-05-23T04:12:00.000-07:00

Some great pics I found a book called "The Australian House" by Balwant Saini and Ray Joyce. These really capture the look and feel of what I want to achieve with the set design of the house!

Actors Workshop

2008-05-20T04:42:00.000-07:00

Today we had a workshop with talented actors Petra and Travis. It was really valuable getting their input as they came to the script with a very character driven point of view. Being naive about all that is acting related this was exactly what I needed to better understand and write the characters.

However now with one and half pages of notes the script once again needs to be tamed.

Understanding Colour Scripts

2008-05-18T07:14:00.000-07:00

Colour scripts are very cool, they're basically a storyboard for each scene depicting the mood and tone of the scene through colour. Attached is an example by Lorelay Bove (http://lorelaybove.blogspot.com/), it's for the fairy tale 'Hansel and Gretel'. You can see the progression of colour throughout, as they get lost in the woods, they find the witches house, they face catastrophe as she tries to cook them in her oven, and then them finding their way home to their mother. This informs the film on how to look and what colours to use when the sets are made and scenes are lighted. This is something that I will be working on this week!

Rough Set Sketches

2008-05-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

Getting the idea of where things will go and how they'll be laid out. To get the finer details more research is being undertaken.

Mum Character Design

2008-05-14T07:31:00.001-07:00

Here's the design for the Mum. It's a little rough but it's something I really need to get a move on with to keep on schedule. Modeled characters and set designs to come!

Forth Draft!

2008-05-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

Up to the forth draft! I'm happy with how things are coming along. In this draft more attention is paid to the mother and her grief. I'm planning to do a bit of a run through with some actors in the next week to see how this writing will translate into actions and dialog. I want to keep pushing this so that I can really get to the heart of the characters. Another pet peeve of mine is cliche's, and there are a few that stand out. Even some of just the minor actions the characters take, it's something that will require more thought from me.

Download the forth draft here!

Character Breakdowns

2008-05-12T04:44:00.000-07:00

Josh is an 8 year old boy with a fascination with cicadas. He's quiet and sensitive and appears selfish on the surface, but underneath hides true feelings. He rejects advances for friendship from his brother Aden in favour of isolation. He pretends not to care that Aden gets more attention from his Mum but buries these feelings of resentment in his anti-social behavior. Josh confides his emotions in his interest with cicadas, creating a shell around himself that separates him from his family.

Aden is a 3 year old boy that refuses to speak. He is adventurous, playful, possessive and sensitive. He yearns for his older brothers friendship and rejects efforts by his Mum to make him talk. The reason why he doesn't talk is a mystery, however it may have something to do with the absence of his father. Aden adores his panda bear doll as it is the closest thing he has to a best friend.

The Mum is in her early thirties and is consumed with insecurities over her youngest son Adens refusal to speak. She's a little unsure of herself at times but is strong, warm and compassionate. She directs most of her attention to Aden, due to his late speech development however still cares deeply for Josh, her oldest son. She is worn out from day to day activity and this results in her having a low tolerance for misbehavior. The Mum yearns for security and will do whatever it takes to achieve it.

Father and Daughter

2008-05-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

Father and Daughter is a short animation about, you guessed it, a father and a daughter. The reason I'm posting it is because it portrays a very sweet story without the use of dialog. It also won an Oscar in 2000.

Mum Character Sketches

2008-05-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

Some sketches of the look of the Mum so far, also some research below.

Third Draft

2008-05-05T03:16:00.000-07:00

Here's the third draft of the script. I feel that I'm making progress but I'm not convinced it's clicking 100% at the moment. A few of the characters actions/reactions stand out and there's still some smaller details to be added.

Anyway, it can be downloaded here.

Director's Statement

2008-05-03T22:23:00.001-07:00

Might need a little refining but here are my thoughts on the project.

Director's Statement

Cicada is about an 8 year old boy, Josh who isolates himself from his family and turns to his fascination with cicadas for fulfillment. The story also features Josh's brother Aden, who is only 3 years old and refuses to speak. When Josh discovers a wounded cicada he decides to take care of it, however problems arise when Aden sees that it is coming between them. When Josh is faced with rising conflict he must choose between the familiar comfort he finds in solitude and the warmth of his family.

I was originally drawn to this story because of the relationships it touches on. The bond between brothers and the mother to son relationship. The ways in which people treat each other because they love them, and how these relationships can be so strong yet at the same time so fragile. As an offshoot from this main idea I wanted to look at isolation as a type on insulation from these relationships. The way people can close themselves off to avoid feeling and interaction. This is personified through Josh who, as a fairly sensitive character, represents the idea of isolation as a form of emotional comfort.

As this will be an animation I have a lot of creative freedom in the visual style that I create. I'm wanting to create a world that is very illustrative, that incorporates vivid colours and striking shapes, that could possibly resemble a picture story book. However I don't want to stray too far from reality as I feel that it may trivialize some of the story's content. The colours will be quite warm, drawing inspiration from an afternoon sun covering a suburban landscape with a soft glow. However the colours will vary as they will play an important role in communicating the tone of the scene. I plan to be fairly conventional with my framing and editing on this animation as I feel that anything else would just distract the viewer from the story.

In terms of influence and inspiration for this animation I've tried to keep myself fairly limited. While I'm aware that I'm no doubt subconsciously influenced by a myriad of films and other forms of art, I'm not actively trying to inject anything into my work. That said the Pixar films have always been a huge inspiration to me, not only for their gorgeous imagery and animation but the stories that they craft. Something I want to achieve in this animation is conflict. What I mean by this is that I want the characters in the story to clash. The last thing I want to do is have a bunch of scenes that are just exposition, that would be boring.

The crew on this project is pretty small but are going to play a pivotal role in its success. Jack Haycox is producing the short and his experience in dealing with actors and other external factors will be invaluable throughout the process. Pete Giannoukas is covering all things sound related and I will be collaborating with him closely to create sound design that will help immerse the audience in the story. Right now the use of music is still very much in the air, mainly for fear of over saturation. I don't want the music to inform people of how they should feel, I want the actions that the characters take to evoke emotion.

I'm excited to be working on this project and look forward to seeing how it grows and evolves over the coming months.

Writing sound into the script

2008-05-01T05:06:00.001-07:00

I stumbled across a great video when I opened up 'Celtx', my script editing software, it talks about the importance of sound and how it should be written into the script and into the actions. There's also a small collection of other videos that talk about acting, script form and images and feature interviews with actors, sound designers and other professionals.

More Animation Practice

2008-05-01T04:18:00.000-07:00

Here's my April entry for the 11 Second Club!.

11 Second Club - April Entry from Pete on Vimeo.

Some of the movement is a little bouncy and some of it could probably be simplified but I think it's an improvement on my last entry =)

Beats & Turning Points

2008-04-29T07:49:00.000-07:00

This is something that I'm looking at right now. Going through the scenes and picking out the beats and how they build up to turning points. If there is no turning point then it may just be that the scene is merely exposition, and in that case it could be cut. It also helps clarify what I'm wanting to achieve in scenes and how I can better communicate that to the audience.

The build up to the turning points is important too, that's why I'm really analysing the beats of the characters to ensure that there is escalating tension and gaps between expectation and what actually happens. An example is when Josh is outside his house in the street looking for Cicada shells. Rather than just have the bird fly over from nowhere, Josh goes to collect a Cicada shell, then sees the live Cicada, then sees it snatched by the bird. So that rather than jumping straight to the turning point, the audience can build up some expectations that we can hopefully break making the audience anticipate more and more the actions to come.

Something that I've been continually returning to during this process is Robert McKee's "Story". While I don't want to fall in the trap of simply following formulas and connecting the dots I still want to get a good grasp of the basic principles. McKee aptly says on the back cover "Anxious inexperienced writers obey rules; rebellious, unschooled writers break rules; an artist masters the form". When talking about McKee though I can't help thinking of the clip in Adaptation (featured below) that portrays McKee in a fairly harsh manner. I don't think this is a very accurate portrayal, it's more poking fun and presenting Kaufman's impression. Ironically McKee references Adaption in his seminars now which shows his versatility and how the basic principles can still be applied.

Character Designs - Aden & Josh

2008-04-29T07:34:00.000-07:00

Here are pretty much the finalised character designs for Aden and Josh. I'll inevitably tweak them a bit more in the modelling process but this is them in 2D. Just excuse some of the loose proportions :)

Updated Timeline

2008-04-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

New timeline! Some dates have been pushed around. In particular the character and set designs which are not finding the time they need :/

PDF can be downloaded here.

Tree Research

2008-04-16T06:00:00.001-07:00

Checking out some trees in the local area and some of the structures that would suit the animation! Looks like the Elm tree will be the way to go.

Revised Logline, Synopsis & Second Draft

2008-04-16T05:20:00.000-07:00

While I'm still a bit unsure of the way to write these documents here they are.

Logline -

Josh, an 8 year old boy isolates himself from his Mum and his 3 year old brother Aden. When Josh one day adopts a wounded Cicada tensions erupt, leading to resolution on when Josh learns the true value of family.

Synopsis -

Josh is an 8 year old boy who isolates himself from his family and turns to his fascination with Cicadas for fulfillment. Joshes life changes when he rescues a wounded Cicada from a bird and decides to adopt it. Aden, Joshes 3 year old brother who refuses to talk, becomes hostile towards the Cicada when he sees that it is coming between him and his brother. Meanwhile Aden's refusal to talk puts increasing strain on the family. When these tensions climax their Mother takes the Cicada away from both of them. The next day while Josh is at school Aden takes the Cicada from his Mums room. Unsure of what to do he takes it outside. As Josh arrives home from school the Cicada is snatched up by a bird. Josh climbs the tree to save the Cicada but when his brother slips at the top of the ladder he has no choice but to save him. Stuck in the tree their Mother comes out and begins shouting at Josh. Upon seeing Joshes face Aden begins to talk, defending his brother and startling his Mum.

While these still need work they really start to put the story into perspective, and allow us to see the bigger picture. One thing I particularly found interesting was how all the exposition in the script is immediately revealed. The plot becomes very clear and this with really help on my next pass of the script.

Script -

The second draft of the script can be found at this link. It contains quite a few revisions and should hopefully read a little tighter.

Refining Characters

2008-04-06T06:19:00.001-07:00

Here's some refinement of what the characters are shaping up to look like!
Unfortunately I've been dragging my feet with these and I really need to start getting on with the set designs, not to mention the other characters. Hopefully things will start coming faster from here.

First Draft!

2008-04-06T06:14:00.001-07:00

First draft of the script! not looking like much at the moment but hoping to beat it into line over the coming weeks!

I ended up using a program called "Celtx" which formatted everything for me and made writing it very easy.

The pdf of the first draft can be downloaded here.

Backtracking: Revisiting the Premise/Controlling Idea

2008-03-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

In reviewing some of the ideas that were explained in the Stephen Cleary workshop I found that my initial premise wasn't very accurate. This was mainly due to my lack of knowledge of the character, more specifically the protagonist. This is something that poses a problem as I still don't have a concrete image of this ever elusive protagonist however I think now I have a better understanding of him.

This understanding came when applying the idea of want vs need.

Joshua wants to isolate himself from the rest of his family and find companionship in the Cicadas he collects.
Joshua needs to change and embrace his brother to get his Mother's attention, and fill the void that he feels.

While these statements are still a little rough, they help me to better understand Joshua, and through Joshua the theme of the story. And from what I can tell, it's about isolation. About closing yourself off from people. Through the story I want to show a positive outcome that compassion/companionship prevails over isolation. This will be personified through Aden, the brother. Aden is the antagonist. He is the problem, but he also offers the solution.

Animation Practice

2008-03-29T19:13:00.000-07:00

Some practice animation to build my skills. This is an entry into the 11 Second Club. A website that every months puts out a short sound clip that animators create an animation to for practice. http://www.11secondclub.com/

11 Second Club - March Entry from Pete on Vimeo.

Stephen Cleary Workshop

2008-03-29T18:54:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we had the Stephen Cleary workshop. It really helped to clarify a lot of things in my head about structure and character and telling your story. It's good and bad, good because I have a better understanding that I can apply to my script, bad because it's going to slow me down a little more as I revisit some areas of my story.

Here's the main points I got from the workshop, this lets me revise what was said as well as document a little of what I'm doing.

- It's not the story, it's HOW you tell the story which is key.

- You should be making the audience think and feel how you want them to.

- If you know your character then the scene will write itself. You don't choose what the character will do, there's only one option.

- The script is what you write after you've done all your development work. It should just flow, if you're having to make decisions then you haven't done enough ground work. Train HARD, fight EASY!

- The dilemma of need vs want. Find out what the character needs to do to succeed, then track his willingness to change and how he comes to the realisation. Generally if it's a happy story he will change, however if it's sad then he'll be stubborn and remain as he is.

- The moment of truth where the character is faced with change, giving up a part of himself to achieve what he needs vs choosing to remain how he is and not achieving what he needs.

- The antagonist allows the possibility of change. The problem offers the solution.

- You don't make up the character, you find out who they are by asking questions. If you can't answer the questions then you're not ready.

- The 3 main turning points that make up the basis of your story. The inciting incident, that creates the imbalance and subsequently the story. The turning point where the character discovers that maybe they need to change. The climax where the character is faced with the choice to change or to remain.

Updated Timeline

2008-03-24T18:43:00.001-07:00

Below is an updated timeline for the project. You'll notice that the main areas that get attention are the Story, the Character/Set Designs, and the Animation. This will probably change and evolve throughout the year!

The PDF is here

Cicada Reference!

2008-03-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

Sketches of all kinds of Cicadas!

Sketches - Boy

2008-03-24T07:29:00.000-07:00

Some initial sketches of the boy character, still very early days.

Some reference sketches aswell!

Sketches - Younger brother

2008-03-24T07:08:00.000-07:00

Working on the younger brother character. Included are some initial sketches and research/reference. Still needs a lot of work to get to something that really expresses the character

Younger Brother Initial Sketches

Younger Brother Reference

Logline & Treatment

2008-03-16T05:21:00.000-07:00

A brother who refuses to talk, a boy who adopts a wounded Cicada, and a Mother caught in the middle. At the time of year when Cicadas come to the surface, what else will be unearthed?

^Is the current log line for my short animation.

I've also completed a rough treatment, and I stress the word rough!

It can be downloaded here.

While the story and script will still be developed from this point, a greater focus on character and set design will now begin to keep on schedule!

Visual Look

2008-03-12T01:26:00.000-07:00

Some photos taken around Canterbury and Camberwell of streets and houses. I want to achieve this sort of look in my animation. Tree lined streets, a warm evening sun, it's something that to me is a really beautiful.

Some grabs from the movie "Monster House", further illustrating the type of look I'm interested in.

Sibling Bonds

2008-03-11T17:13:00.000-07:00

A very interesting article about the different types of sibling bonds.

"Bank and Kahn in The Sibling Bond describe three kinds of sibling relationship:

extreme loyalty
rivalry
solidarity

Extreme loyalty involves putting a sibling first even above loyalty to spouse and children—and a willingness to make enormous sacrifices. Examples include taking a brother into one’s home indefinitely or acting as a parent to a sister.

Such intense attachments usually develop in childhood when there is a collapse of the family, with the parents physically or psychologically unavailable. In an attempt to create a more stable environment, the children cling to each other. Excessive dependence on brothers or sisters could hinder development of individual identities or relationships with other people in adulthood.

Sibling rivalry begun in childhood may last into adulthood. Where sibling rivalry has been dominant, a person may become obsessed with comparing achievements or failures throughout life with the rivaled brother or sister.

Sibling solidarity, a sense of cohesiveness and emotional closeness with brothers and or sister, increases with age for many people. As older people observe the aging and deaths of their parents and siblings, their sense of belonging may be threatened. They strengthen ties with remaining family members to preserve their sense of belonging to the family system of their childhood, including their brothers and sisters. Persons who maintain the closest relationships with their siblings tend to be those who have never married.

Solidarity may not develop if there were no significant interaction early in life with siblings. Lack of closeness because of significant age differences between children in a family or an unresolved conflict are examples of this.

Sibling bonds that have been distant or negative for years will often further weaken or disintegrate entirely following the death of the last parent. Crisis does bring many siblings closer together. For some, a parent’s illness or family crisis may be the first time one really learns to appreciate a brother or sister."

Source - http://fcs.tamu.edu/families/aging/elder_care/brothers_sisters_aging_parents.php

Rough Timeline

2008-03-11T17:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a rough timeline that's really about getting idea about how the project will be developed. It's something that I'm really glad I did as it made me realise that I don't have all that much time for this. Right now I need to really push forward with the story.

Real life situations

2008-03-11T16:59:00.000-07:00

I've been going through parenting forums online to get a different perspective on the story I'm developing. Here are a few excerpts that I thought were very relevant and quite interesting.

“We may have found out what was wrong we had been driven to our limit last weekend so he was sent to his room we had a talk about what was going on with him but it went in one ear and out the other so finally i said to him he was grounded to his room i gave him some paper and a pencil and told him that he couldn't come out until he wrote down on paper what was going on what has changed in his life for him to behave this way after two days (sunday afternoon and monday after school) he came out crying with something written on paper he thought he was going to get in trouble for saying it but this is what bothered him he wrote "My Mummy doesn't love me anymore she only loves Maia" (Maia is our daughter) it nearly killed my wife to hear it so we talked about it. What has happened is my wife was home all the time at the end of her preg and for the first 5 months of my daughters life but then she went back to work, My wife is in senior management at a resort running all banquets and conferences so is required at work for up to 60 hours a week she is exhausted when she gets home so likes to sit and rest my son is use to her being home after school and on weekends so is having difficulty understanding why she is not home and when she is why she always shows our daughter more attention and not him (she likes to feed, change and play with our daughter because she is having a bit of a hard time adjusting her self but always involves our son) he is missing the time they use to spend together.”
bobshell - raisingchildren.net.au

“We have three boys. The two eldest are 13 months apart at 7 & 8 yo. The eldest has just had a birthday and preceeding this he has started to enjoy his own company more and more. With the arrival of some new toys and cub scout activities he is becoming more comfortable by himself. These two boys have been very close for their whole lives and have been through family break up and moving interstate together. To say that they are close is an understatement. The 7 yo is showing signs of unrest since the 8 yo's new found independence. He can't entertain himself and needs a lot more adult attention than usual. While we do our best to give him a little more attention he needs to learn to play by himself as we have a 3 yo and a business to entertain as well. He doesn't know how to play by himself and just mopes around.”
burtbunch - raisingchildren.net.au

“My son as developmental verbal dyspraxia. He has been having speech therapy for around 3 and half years. we didnt start getting any words from him until christmas 2005 (he was 4 and half). He's speech is coming along slowly but is getting better all the time. He is in presshool this year and he has an assistant with him to help in the classroom maybe you could speak to your school about seeing if your son would be eligible for one. Also when he wasn't talk we used a basic sign language called MAKTON you should ask your speech pathlogist if this would help him. it help us it relieves the frustation they and you feel when the can't get across what they want. Remember there is light at the end of the tunnel. Hope all go's well.”
mum3939 - raisingchildren.net.au

“My son is 3 and has been having speech therapy for about 5 months, he is on the list to see a paed and occupation health. He has a few words that he uses but 2 word sentences are his limit. He has 2 older brothers and I was aware at 8 months he wasnt making the same babbles that the others did. He goes to daycare twice a week when I'm at work and have made them aware of the problem, they are usually happy to help by reinforcing whatever is being done at home or therapy. We have been told that he may have to go to a speech kindy, I hope that he does so he can get help and hopefully fit into mainstream school when he is ready, he would be starting kindy this time next year and I would hate to think of him struggling to communicate with other kids.”
Diddlie - raisingchildren.net.au

The Premise

2008-03-06T16:28:00.000-08:00

Last class we talked about the premise of our stories and how important it is to have something to come back to when writing your story. It's in the last few days that I've realised that my premise wasn't as strong as I thought it was, and as such I've been trying to really get to the heart of what I'm trying to say in this story.

Essentially what I'm looking at is the relationship between the brothers in this story. The older brother doesn't relate to his younger brother, and because he does not feel this empathy, he rejects him. The story will ultimately be about the boy discovering his brothers TRUE CHARACTER. The boy will learn that while he may not share all that much with his brother on a superficial level, their core beliefs aren't so different.

This development between the brothers will be driven by the Cicada, which will act more as a plot device.

I'm not sure how this stacks up as a premise so I might do some more research into premise just to strengthen the foundations.

Picture Story Books

2008-03-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

Looking at picture story books at the local library. There were several that dealt with sibling rivalry, most however focused on a new baby coming into the family.

Cicada Research

2008-03-06T15:33:00.000-08:00

- Cicadas are linked to Summer (when they emerge to mate).
- Many children like to collect them (this may have been truer in previous decades).
- Common cicadas (the green ones) are known as "green grocers" or "Cyclochila Australasiae".

Cicadas have 3 main stages in their life. Which are, the egg, the nymph and as an adult.

The Egg
- Eggs are roughly cigar-shaped, 1.5-3mm in length, white or pale cream.
- The female uses her "ovipositor" to cut slits in the tree where she lays her eggs. She will lay around 200-300, but can lay up to 600, usually over a few days on different branches.
- Eggs can be laid almost anywhere from grass to hard dead eucalyptus trees, however they will usually be laid near a nymphal food source (e.g. a large tree).
- Cyclochila Australasiae take about 120 days to hatch, and can be effected by rain.

The Nymph
- Hatches as a "pronymph" encased in a thin transparent skin.
- It then wriggles out of the egg and out of the slit (of the tree).
- Cyclochila Australasiae are white with black eyes when they hatch.
- They dry out easily so they quickly drop to the ground, it doesn't matter from what height as they are so light it doesn't harm them.
- After reaching the ground they find an opening to tunnel down to make their cell before looking for food.
- They suck sap from tree roots with their "rostrums".
- They usually live about 40cm-1m under the surface.
- They shed their skin a few times under ground as they grow.
- Before emergence, a tunnel is dug to the surface for easy exit when the time comes.
- One they surface they find a spot to shed their skin (usually a tree), they pump blood in their wings to expand them and then let them dry.

Mating
- Singing attracts females, once the female arrives the male will chirp softer and they will sidle for a little while before mating.
- As adults they live for 2-4 weeks under favorable conditions.
- A female in captivity lived for 6 weeks.

Predators
Birds - Cicadas are considered as quality food and everything but their wings will be eaten. They are at risk when singing or flying through the air. Often they will congregate so their collective sound deters birds from attacking them.
Cicada killer wasps - These wasps will sting a Cicada paralysing it immediately before dragging it into their next where it stores it and lays eggs beneath it so when the larvae hatch they eat it alive.
Other predators - Spiders, Ants, Praying mantis', Lizards

Information sourced from:
Australian Cicadas
M.S.Moulds 1990

Sibling Rivalry

2008-03-01T05:33:00.000-08:00

Some summarised research into Sibling Rivalry.

The main cause stems simply from jealousy and competition. However other factors can influence it as well including:

Evolving needs - kids have changing needs as they grow up. Toddlers are very protective of their toys and belongings. School age kids often have a strong concept of fairness and equality. Teenagers are developing a sense of independence and individuality.
Individual Temperaments - One child might be laid back while the other strict.
Special needs - kids may act up if there is a sick/disabled kid because he is getting more attention or maybe out of fear for his brother.

Arabic saying:
"I against my brother; my brother and I against my cousin; I, my brother and my cousin against the stranger."

Kyla Boyse, University of Michigan says:
"Each child in a family competes to define who they are as individuals and want to show that they are separate from their siblings."

Sources:
Kidshealth - http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/feelings/sibling_rivalry.html
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibling_rivalry

Initial Thoughts

2008-03-01T05:16:00.000-08:00

My initial thoughts for the Cicada idea were to focus around the theme of purpose. By looking at these insects who spend their entire life underground only to come up for 4 weeks to mate before dying. I was then going to explore this idea further through some of the human characters, being the boy and a brother. However as I've explored this idea I've come to see the relationship between the brothers as more important and the Cicada concept as merely a way of expressing this. This puts me in an awkward position as the concept evolves into something else. Some of the themes I'll be looking at now are sibling rivalry and brotherhood. Hopefully it will be something that I can weave into a story!

Initial Ideas

2008-02-29T22:06:00.001-08:00

Upon deciding to do an animated film I narrowed my initial ideas to those below:

1. A young boy finds a wounded Cicada and takes it upon himself to care for it and help find it a mate.

2. A female leopard unsuspectingly finds a baby clinging to the baboon she has just killed. Instead of killing the baby she begins to care for it as if it were her own.

The first concept comes from my interest and fascination with Cicadas as a child. A potential problem for this idea is whether or not the boy would make the connection to find a mate for the Cicada, or even if he did know, whether he'd want to find one for it.

The story of the leopard comes from a National Geographic documentary called "Eye of the Leopard". It's a really sweet story illustrating the intricacies of the natural world, and it can be easily related to human nature.

While I like both ideas I'm going to be developing the Cicada concept as it is something I know a little better and I think it can be developed into something pretty unique. However it's still in a very developmental stage and will need more research and realisation.

Film & TV Honours 2008 - The Beginning

2008-02-25T01:20:00.000-08:00

It is here that I will be documenting the short film that will come into fruition over the year. Provided I stay on track and continue to update this blog it should serve as a comprehensive document of the process. It's shaping up to be an exciting year!