'Domovoi and Kikimora' is a literal narrative inspired by Slavic mythology and the house deities Kikimora and Domovoi. A little girl, asleep in her bed, has her house raided by Kikimora and Domovoi, who are scavenging for food. Domovoi accidentally wakes the little girl up, and the girl instinctively knows who could be in the house, and that to see either of these house gods in the flesh will bring about a terrible omen, such as her death at the hands of these gods. Domovoi and Kikimora are essentially primal scavengers at heart, but have a deep sense of duty to their roles as house gods, and are drawn to the girls room to check whether she is awake so they can act accordingly. The film is currently ending on an ambiguous note, whereby the gods enter the little girl's bedroom, Kikimora begins to use the spinning wheel, and Domovoi sits on the edge of the girl's bed. The last shot is the girl's face as she opens her eyes. This film is another collaboration between Nicola Everill and Lily Goodchild. We have been planning this film since spring/summer 2012 and it has developed considerably since we first started creating our characters and their story. We have been living with the idea of this film for some time and, luckily, are not exhausted by it yet. If anything, we can't wait to get started. By concentrating on one character each for a short film project last term (one minute long Studio Mentor Project) enabled us to discover different materials for construction and some different ways to make films.




Last term, Nicola made an experimental time-lapse of the construction of Domovoi, where she literally started with the skeleton of the character, then added muscles, skin and hair. Domovoi was 'brought to life' through the time-lapse, and allowed Nicola to patiently animate for over a month, using different materials (such as synthetic hair and spray paint) and to simply, enjoy the process of creating a character.










I (Lily Goodchild) made a condensed, abstracted version of the story that we had planned to do for this next project. I became drawn to the idea that the little girl's dream self would be aware of its surroundings, and would be so frightened of Kikimora's appearance that it would dive back into the girl's head to hide. I also used implication rather than explicit reveals of Kikimora, so when you watch the film you are not certain who or what Kikimora actually is, but you get a general idea of her connection to the spinning wheel and her daunting presence.

Monday, 11 March 2013

Making trees for Set 3


Nicola began making trees using combed out string threaded inbetween wire that was plugged into the power drill, which meant the trees were practically twisted and complete in a minute or so.





Me and Ross having a go at creating a tree.


We made ten trees, then set them aside for another day to glue and cover in colour for the final touches.


I then trimmed the trees into shape.




Nancy and I began colouring the trees using pva glue mixed with water and the coloured substance I'd bought from the Model Making site. We dipped the trees into the glue then sprinkled the colour onto the tree until all the white of the string was covered.






...The end result of the trees was great. They looked really textural and each was slightly different in scale and shape. Variation will really help the look of the film. Also, by having as many trees as possible to fill the background of the exterior set, it means that we only need to paint a sky and cover the ground area to imply depth of space, etc. The skyline won't be a problem because it will be hidden by the trees.




The after mass ... Hulk hands




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