Style and Script

I knew I wanted to create a fantasy, slightly surreal piece set in a ‘magical’ wood, which would include one main character, a female, who would wake by a tree, lost and confused, looking for an escape. My influence for this was based on Yuri Norstein’s, Hedgehog in the fog.

Hedgehog in the Fog

By Yuri Norstein

This is where a little hedgehog finds himself lost in a foggy wood. Whilst looking for a way back to his friend (a bear cub), he comes across several different forest creatures. His animation style is sophisticated even though he works with flat cut outs, his work looks more like smoothly moving paintings or sophisticated pencil sketches and has an excellent sense of depth. His color pallet in this piece as well is very similar to the one I wanted to use, with pastel blues and purples being used in the sky, and dark shades used in the forest. I really liked the contrast of these colours and felt it enhanced its magical quality. Additionally, the hedgehog, who is scared and inquisitive has a similar personality to that which I wanted to give my main character.

Writing the script was quite challenging. I found it difficult to settle on a single idea but after several thought process’s, I decided to use the idea with the girl waking alone in the forest and as she tries find her way out she comes across different things which attach themselves to her dress. Eventually she is saved by her dress which flies her out of the wood. I was much happier with this idea than previous ideas I had for the film. I could see a definite beginning, middle and end and clear movements happening within the film which helps keep the audience interested in the story. In addition to that it gave me the opportunity to incorporate fashion, styling and photography in this which is something I am interested in doing in the future.