9/9/24
Week 1: Team Oasis to Team Scurvy
Prompt and Story Ideation Challenges
For this first week in collaboration with the Mill, we began hitting the ground running. First, we were split into groups of 4-5, then were given the opportunity to introduce ourselves to the mentors. Finally, and most importantly, we were introduced to the prompt:
To incorporate CG Food in some way.
Our group, including myself (Lookdev / Lighting), Bomin Kim (FX), Zach Jantz (FX), and Veronica Ramirez (Compositor) went through several different ideas over the course of the week, making finalizations to the storyline up until the following Sunday (9/15). Though, we knew we wanted to make a commercial and story based around a favorite drink: Sprite.
Look Development
Initially, our storyline for our commercial took place in the sand dunes, though our ideas for FX were somewhat out of place and overall too ambitious. After looking further into possible storylines and concepts branching from Sprite's branding, ingredients and marketability, we chose to follow a storyline of a pirate- which, cleverly, pirates were known to use lemons to help with Scurvy during long treks across the ocean. What's a better way to quench the thirst of a Pirate?
So, the general plot goes as follows:
Sailing the open seas, a treasure-hunting pirate leads themselves to a deserted island. Once anchored, they stumble upon something greater than any gold or jewels could be.
Given this general plot, we were able to come up with much more in terms of story details; There are very few reasons one may find themselves lost in the sand dunes, but with a pirate story, the "Why?" is answered directly.
As the group member in charge of leading lighting and look development, I wanted to look back at cinematographers who were involved with anything oceans or pirates. The obvious, being Pirates of the Caribbean, was an extremely useful point of reference in terms of a general aesthetic to take inspiration.
Here I have included some of the previz work, outlining the composition of our establishing shot and treasure chest. The first shot outlines the coastline's shipwreck, identifying an origin point to the treasure, and the second shot displays a shot revealing the Sprite. I used Blender to model the assets, then Houdini in the second shot to prepare for smoke FX.