Kittypillar Narration Script

Before our recording studio time the other day, I felt it necessary to write out a general script of what I wanted saying for the narration. Sean was very compliant and did an excellent job of keeping to the script whilst maintaining a level of professionalism. Some of the phrases are a bit childish and silly, but all the same, he did well. The fact that I had written so much down, and we managed to get everything done within around half an hour, shows just how productive Sean, Alex and I can be!

ALL FIVE PAGES FULL!

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“KITTYPILLAR” SCRIPT + STARTING POINTS
25/11/2013

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#1 – INTRODUCTION

• Hello there viewers. Allow me to take you into a world of complete imagination. Let me introduce you to a charming little fellow from the deep depths of your garden. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: The Kittypillar.

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#2 – BREED DESCRIPTION

• The Kittypillar is a wondrous creature which comes in all shapes and sizes – from those resembling the common house cat, to those of a bit more fantastical description…

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#3 – MALE AND FEMALE

• The Kittypillar can be identified as either a boy or a girl, by the colour of their antennae. Like the beak of a budgerigar, a Kittypillar’s antennae will be blue for a male, and a fleshy pink for the female.

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#4 – LIFE SPAN

• All Kittypillars that are born into this world, will live a lifetime of around 20 years. For each year that they are alive, a new segment will be added to the Kittypillars body.

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#5 – HABITATS

• The natural habitats of the Kittypillar are those of the tops of trees. They sleep with their bodies wrapped around the branches, curled into a ball. A tree inhabited by Kittypillars looks as though it is bearing fruit the whole year round.

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#6 – FEEDING HABITS

• The Kittypillar is well known for being able to eat almost anything on the planet. Whilst generally, Kittypillars in the wild feed on anything from plants to mice, the Kittypillars favorite source of nutrition are gingerbread men.

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#7 – MATING HABITS

• The Kittypillar mating habits are truly something to behold. The male Kittypillar, after choosing their mate for life, Will offer their chosen female a token of their undying affection. The most valuable token a male may offer its mate are shiny things from the human world.

• When a Kittypillar is in love, the ends of their antennae will light up, and are often mistaken as fireflies by onlookers.

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#8 – BEHAVIOURS / EMOTIONAL RESPONSES

• Like other animals in the animal kingdom, the Kittypillar has different body language depending on its emotional state. Their antennae often show how they are feeling.

• When they are happy, their antennae stick up, and they make a high-pitched purr, like a tiny bell.

• When they are sad, their antennae droop and they lower their head.

• When they are angry, their fur puffs out, quite like a dandelion, and their antennae go flat – this is also a common defense mechanism.

• When scared, a Kittyillar bunches up together, and often rolls into a ball to protect itself.

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#9 – DOMESTIC KITTYPILLARS

• Like many creatures it is possible to domesticate a Kittypillar. Whether purchasing from an established breeder or capturing your own, owning a Kittypillar can be a fun and very rewarding experience.

• Depending on the size and breed of your Kittypillar, they can either be house in a terrarium or in a cat tree, which can be used by both house-cats and Kittypillars alike.

Brainstorming Session Montage

Considering my camera decides to usually work against me on the best of days, what was to be full evidence footage ended up being a collection of snippets. So, making the best of what I had collected during the previous week’s group work, I put together a small montage video of us brainstorming. With our revamp of the City of Culture project in full sway, both Alex (http://mrteaandcreamcrumpets.wordpress.com/) and I decided to document the afternoons work through video footage as well as a small collection of photographs.

You can have a look at all of our notes from the session here: http://projectbarbossa.wordpress.com/2013/11/22/brainstorming-session-notes/

I think this video acts as both a source of humor and a source of reference. It also shows the extent of the resources we went through, and how much we managed to churn out withing the allotted time. I for one am quite proud of the lot of us – GO TEAM!

City of Culture: A Bit of a Re-Think

CALLUM & ALEX GENERATING IDEAS…

Well, needless to say the majority of us in the group came to an utter dead-end for this City of Culture assignment. We weren’t really passionate about any of our ideas anymore. Whilst I’m glad that I managed to get the most-part of my initial idea done, I can’t deny that I wasn’t really ‘feeling it’ anymore.

We decided to (all in attendance, anyway) come together and have a good, focused meeting, and discuss some changes in ideas – with the notion in mind of making it a more group orientated project as opposed to having it as individuals and just lumping each video together at the end. We discussed the possible routes into doing this, but after a heavy, heavy brainstorming session using references from local publications and various sources on the internet.

It was Alex’s idea to film segments of the session for a new production blog which we have set up specifically for this project: http://projectbarbossa.wordpress.com/. We need to keep a log of all the work we do during the meanwhile, and of course that building of evidence will accumulate quicker in a group. Alex filmed the most part of the brainstorming on his phone, whilst I got a few clips from alternative angles (as well as a few photographs).

We used some leftover flip chart paper which was in our animation room, as well as a few scraps on the desk. Armed with a handful of Sharpies, we got to work in generating ideas and listing down references. I think we will continue with this next week, but more focused towards developing the visuals / narratives of the animation.

BOTH ALEX AND I FILMED THE SESSION AS EVIDENCE…

Sound Recording Session Review

Well, the sound recording session was a complete success! I managed to get all of the narrative recordings done that I needed, and Alex managed to record many more clips for his ever-growing foley database. In the beginning, I thought that it would be a lengthy session taking up our entire afternoon – but as it turned out we got everything done within about an hour!

As well as taking a few evidence photos for this production blog, I also videoed some of the proceedings. As you can see from some of these snaps, it was quite a jolly hour of work. Many thanks once again to Sean for doing the narration for me and Alex for being the man behind the tech on this occasion. You’re a top pair of workmates!

SETTING UP THE MICROPHONE

SETTING UP THE RECO

RECORDING IN PROCESS!

SETTING UP FOR CREATING FOLEY SOUNDS

Next on the Agenda: Sound Recording!

Due to some non-availability on my previous voice-actor’s behalf, which is understandable due to work issues, I have decided to re-record some narrative segments. I’m going to use one of the guys from Games Design, who has a thoroughly pleasant voice, to do the voice-over work from now on. It won’t be in the style of David Attenborough, but a quaint enough accent which will go well with the animation as a whole.

Alex Murphy (http://mrteaandcreamcrumpets.wordpress.com/) and I will be making the most of studio time by combining a session, so that we can help each other in all areas required. Seeing as the voice actor I will be using will be helping him with his foley sounds also, it is a win-win situation! Hopefully all of this will be getting done and dusted some time in the next fortnight, so I will be keeping you all posted on our progress! Will probably make a little vlog video about it too…