I have thought about looking at the 60's/70's to help me stylize and design the world of my film. I have started to look at Sci-Fi movies and B movies from these eras to help get a grasp on how I might incorporate that into my film. While I have started to look at creatures and clothing from these times, I have been mainly thinking about the alien character's appearance, specifically in his face.
I have done some very rough sketches below, trying to approach my design with different elements in mind in order to give myself a set of rules to follow for the overall appearance of this character, but I am still finding it very difficult to do this and find a design that looks appealing. I am very unsure on how I can design my alien that captures these eras successfully while fitting the personality and tone of my alien's character in the story. I feel that I am not making much progress in terms of my design and that I need to figure this out as soon as I can, as investing most of my time in trying to visualize this alien successfully is causing me to feel like I'm neglecting other parts of my Premise project. If there are any of the sketches that seem to look like they have potential or could be a good starting point, then any feedback would be much appreciated.
Hey Frankie - this feels like a bit of a black hole to me and I know you're almost dying from advice on this project because your tutors are circling the same gap in your/our knowledge and it's driving everyone nuts! ;)
ReplyDeleteQuestions you must answer before you go any further:
1) What film are you making? PG13 / 15/ 18 Certificate
2) Is your film 'Frankenstein'? - i.e. we are shown a monster that teaches us something about how monstrous humans are (so the monster isn't the monster after all?) Is your film 'The Shape Of Water'?
3) Is your genre 'body-horror'?
4) Is your film cliched or is it about cliches - are you using our familiarity with certain types of science-fiction stories to your advantage (pastiche/homage/parody).
For me none of these designs above are 'the answer' because I don't know what the question is - for example, as a design, I'm drawn to No 8 - because I think he looks friendly and wise - if humans were torturing him, I'd hate the humans a lot, but I'd also struggle to fear him. 1 and 3 are cliches - they are what Pulp science fiction tells us 'supreme beings' look like - they look like Star Trek aliens, or the aliens from the magazines of the 50s... again, not an issue if that is the film you are making. If you are making an 18 certificate horror/sci-fi, then none of the above are the answer to your design question, because they simply don't press any of those buttons...
If you want disgust and otherness, you need higher levels of anatomical realism and reference to the natural world: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/389913280221461817/
I guess my feeling remains that your own nature is shining out of how and what you're designing - you're drawing a similar thing over and over again: this is either a big problem for you, or it's because you know something about this world that you simply have to accept and accentuate. As a creature designer you're less Guillermo del Toro and more 'Jim Henson's muppets' - as a world-builder, you're not HP Lovecraft or Giger, you're more Futurama... Personally, I have no issue with that distinction, but I do think you need to sit on one of these thrones and understand what it means to be the king of your particular kingdom.
You're Futurama, Frankie - that's your world, I think - and in terms of tone, inside of that cartoon-y universe you can be darkly funny and even graphic - but it just seems that every line you draw, every shape you make (for your humans too) is crying out for a moment of realisation where you shout finally 'This is how I draw and this is what it means for the tone of my story!'...