Collaboration Project

So, it's going quite well really after alot of initial worrying and feelings of panic - I have had a few pointers/suggestions from friend and PHD Film Studies boffin concerning the look and feel of the story, some ideas of how to link the dream sequences together. I have had another meeting with the authour to obtain a brief synopsis of the short story (see end of this post) and we also chatted more concerning the opening sequence. Yesterday I had a very informative tutorial with Tom Simmons and he was very helpful with all matters time lapse and where to look at the good examples and whatnot as I am incorporating some elements of time lapse in this short. He aslo suggested that instead of getting the bear bones completed for this as in all the storyboards etc, it may be better to get just one whole scene animated and finished as an example. From this I am now collaborating with work mate and ex-NSAD photographer, Matthew Flowerday to go out to the East coast early on a hopefully bleak and grimy morning to get some nice photos and see how we can get on with the good old time lapse.

Synopsis

The Foxes Tail is an exploration of the fox in nature and folklore; it passes through real life anecdotes and dreams, traditional folk customs and the beliefs of various cultures but particularly Celtic and Christian culture, finishing with a retelling of a traditional Irish folktale. The piece explores notions of nature and the archetypal myth of the Pagan Horned God in differing aspects; both the hunter and the hunted and the notion of the universal generative force as expressed in the form of the Green Man, a symbol which counterpoints everything in the story, underpinning it. The piece also explores Christian subversion of Pagan traditions and the attempts which have been made down the centuries to demonise nature and re-classify Pagan nature deities into the devils of Christian lore.

The piece also seeks to explore notions of time and reality drawing attention to how much more real and fulfilling dreams and fantasy can seem when compared to the blandness of modern life, drawing attention on the way to the paradox inherent in this statement. Dreams are a personal mythology and mythology itself is but the collective dream of humanity; the idea of the piece was to explore this thought using the nebulous qualities of Fox both in reality and myth as a metaphor.