Final Project - Puppet - Giovanni

Giovanni is the proprietor of the speakeasy and mentor to the narrator. As the film progresses he becomes increasingly sadistic and violent, traits he has had to adapt to in order to remain at the top of the Chicago bootlegging racket. His head has two sets of teeth, top and bottom (something that no other character has) this is for his 'death' scene, when he is institutionalised, lobotomised and put in a padded cell, where he will scream manically at the camera.

 At this stage, I was still experimenting with different armature styles, and as a result, his head has a very large balsa core, I didn't take this technique forward, as it made his head too large (but very light).

 This was the point where I had to modify the shape of the balsa core, as it was too wide at the bottom, I also changed his nose

 At this stage, I was sculpting Giovanni (at the time named Anton for some reason) as his crazy self in order to get a feel of how his teeth and jaw would work in regards to his screaming motion.

 Giovanni's skin colour is somewhat experimental, at this point I was running out of flesh tone plasticine and had to make my own, and hadn't figured out the right mix of colours (i forgot the yellow) to create the right effect. From this (failed) experiment I managed to get the correct mix (40% white, 50% pink and 10% yellow) and used it from then on. As a result, Giovanni is the only character with this skin colour. I know the film is going to be in black and white, but if I haven't mentioned it already, the entire film is also a model-making portfolio, so the colours are very important. Even if you won't see them. I will so it's OK. Also i'll be splicing bits of this film into my showreel, they'll be in colour.

 His gloves have been glossed, and as a result may limit how much they can move, which was a slight oversight on my part.

 I have never sculpted bare feet before so this was an interesting challenge. I'm quite happy with the way they turned out, but they won't be in the film for very long.

 Giovanni's 'crazy legs', which will be re used as Paddy's 'execution legs' even though the skin colour is slightly different, it will be in black and white so this won't be a problem.

Test shot of Giovanni's crazy puppet on set. The padded cell is made out of canvas panels in order to give it an 'old timey' feel. The set is not properly aligned in this shot and will look better in the final ones. The straight jacket is glossed to make it shiny, and as it won't move, the gloss won't peel off.

Final Project - Puppet - Paddy

Paddy is an irish immigrant who works for Giovanni, and is effectively second in command of the bootlegging operations. For his puppet, I repurposed the puppet of the BAA farmer from the last project and gave him suspenders and a muttonstache, I also re-did his hair and flattened the base of the puppet.
His fate in the film involves him being executed via electric chair, for this scene, I will give him legs (I will use the ones from Giovanni's 'crazy' puppet) and paint stripes to make it look like he is wearing a prison uniform.

 He looks a bit miffed that I stole his legs, he's going to be even more annoyed when he finds out that he doesn't get them back until his death scene...

Paddy as he will appear on set, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself by posting this picture, I still have a lot of other stuff to post that will lead up to the test shots. I feel I should also mention at this point that the majority of the film will be in black and white, only the framing shots in the hospital will be in colour.

Final Project - Puppet - Narrator's Mother

The narrator's mother is a prostitute. A prostitute in an abusive relationship with a violent, drunken irish immigrant, they accidentally had a kid, who was lucky not to be born with syphilis, because she's probably rife with it. Her puppet was partly based on a combination of burlesque dancers that were common in bordellos at the time, and the victims of Jack the ripper (who were killed in 1888, and this portion of the film takes place in 1906, which is close enough.) Finding images of turn of the century hookers was surprisingly difficult, I had to disregard a lot of weird steampunk pornography (apparently people will masturbate to anything these days, including, but not limited to, clockwork genitalia.)
Her armature looks terrible, but it's sturdier than it appears. I will re-use her body for the Mae puppet, replacing the head and putting a dress on it (which throws up some bizarre Oedipal connotations for the narrator) as a result, Mae is the only puppet I haven't made yet, as I need to shoot the parent scene to make the puppet available for redesign.

 I was very tempted to leave her like this, would have been good for a laugh at least.

 I am fully aware that her hands are way too big, I will correct this when I get round to it. Her shoes are made of milliput, and were then painted and glossed, i've never made high heels before, so it was pretty much touch and go, but they are a lot better than I though they would be.

The narrator and his parents, the mother looks happier here than she will in the film.

Final Project - Puppet - Narrator's Father

The body of the narrator's father is repurposed from the old body of Frank the tramp, as I decided to change Frank's body and didn't want to waste his old one. His legs will be reused for numerous characters when a whole body shot is needed, as most of the puppets only have half a body and no legs, and his legs are relatively generic.
His head and bowler hat are partly based on Giuseppe Morello, the founder of the Morello crime family, which is now the Genovese crime family, and I decided to give him a sort of 'irish cowboy' look. For some reason I originally made his mustache look like it was coming out of his nose, I don't know why I did this (it wasn't an accident, I did it on purpose, apparently I had a reason to, I just can't remember what it was), but I have recently corrected it.

It looks like really long nose hair... Why. Did. I. Do. This?...

WHY? NOSE HAIR TACHE? WHAT THE HELL?!!!

This is Giuseppe Morello by the way...

His torso is slightly elongated because he will be resting his arm on the narrator's mother's shoulder in his intro scene, and he needed to be taller than her. Also no more nose hair mustache, all is well.

Final Project - Puppet - Child Narrator

This is the narrator as a child, at around 8 years old, which will appear briefly at the beginning of the film. This is the smallest puppet in the film and weighs very little, due to balsa internal components. He was sculpted based off of photos of early 1900s 'newsboys' you know, the ones who sold papers on street corners and stereotypically shouted "EXTRA! EXTRA!" at everyone. He was originally going to be wearing one of those flat caps that newsboys often wore, but I spent a fair amount of time sculpting his hair, so sod putting a hat over it.

 Here are a couple of photos of all of the narrator's puppets, from age 8 to 78. I think he has aged quite well, for a tiny plasticine man.

Final Project - Puppet - Swanky Narrator

This is the narrator's 'swanky' puppet. At a certain point in the film, the narrator becomes more successful, and buys himself some glad rags to match. I also made him another head, an older one to meet the transition between the young narrator and the old one (although certain recent changes to the script have actually rendered this head unnecessary, but I will alter it accordingly and use it anyway).

 

He also has a ball and socket armature, as this puppet will be used in one of the most detailed scenes in the film. His suit is based on photos of 1920s clothing (as are all the costumes) and you can't really tell in these photos, but he has shiny shoes, I glossed them. I think he looks a bit like Hans Gruber from Die Hard, I'm OK with this.

Final Project - Puppet - Young Narrator

With the puppet of the elderly narrator now complete, I had to use it as a basis for the younger narrator's puppet, the one that will represent his appearance in 1920, and at this point I had already made the child version of the narrator, at around 8 years old, and the narrator's father, so I had to combine these elements to create his 22 year old self.

The young narrator is basically an un-textured version of the old one, no wrinkles, facial hair ect. with a different hairstyle and colour, and a fuller face. Considering there's supposed to be a 56 year difference between the two, I think it's worked out quite well, if anything, the old narrator doesn't look old enough...

The body of the young narrator is in a leather jacket with a fur collar, a common style back then, and a casual scruffy shirt, at this time in the film, he isn't particularly wealthy and has just turned to a life of crime, so I gave him clothes that reflected this.
He also has one of the only two professional ball and socket armatures that I have, considering that he is the main character and this puppet will be in a lot of scenes, this seemed a logical choice.

The final puppet's head is a little too big for his body as a result of me sculpting it alongside the elderly narrator's head, who was specifically designed to be slightly larger than the other puppets. Oops.

Final Project - Puppet Body - Narrator

The body of the narrator is designed to be heavier than the others, it has no balsa wood in it, and the armature is just Fimo and wire, with a Milliput core in the head and a counter weight at the bottom. This is because of the BAA farmer puppet from the BAA sting, which had a lightweight balsa armature which caused the puppet to gradually shift in the bed as I was animating it, so hopefully giving this puppet a bit more weight should prevent this.
The clothes worn by the narrator were originally going to be pyjamas, but this just ended up looking too much like a dress shirt, so I changed them to a hospital gown.

The puppets hands are a bit excessively large, I underestimated how much bigger they would become when the plasticine was added to their armatures, I was planning to make the body larger to accommodate this, but my top priority was to make the puppet the right size for the bed, which I did, so the big hands will have to stay.

Final Project - Hand Armatures

Mk I

These were the first hand armatures I created for the narrator's old man puppet, as he is bedridden, most of his movements will be somewhat limited to his hands and face, and the hands I created for the bedridden farmer in the BAA sting did not have armatures, as a result, the fingers couldn't bend very well and broke off a lot.
These armatures were ridiculously awful, I don't know what the hell I was thinking, the wire poked through the plasticine, and there was no defined jointed bend in the fingers, so they just sort of smoothly curved inward, the fingers were also too small, basically, everything I could've done wrong, I did. I'm an idiot, blah blah blah, sod that, we're supposed to learn from our mistakes, so I just tried again...

Mk II

  These were bigger, better and with less stabby potential, but there were still some issues that I was at the time unable to fix, the wire began to untwist itself when bent, due to the capped fingers, which were necessary to prevent the wire poking through the plasticine. I knew that i could fix this problem by putting heat shrink around the fingers, but I couldn't do that before capping them, as the clay had to be baked, which would destroy the heat shrink, and I couldn't do it after, as the heat shrink wouldn't fit over the caps.
I also wanted to try segmenting the fingers, giving them defined joints, but I find Fimo too soft to do very small fiddly bits, so I decided to try Milliput...

Mk III

These definitely tick all the boxes, the Milliput did the job perfectly, as Milliput, unlike Fimo, air dries over the course of several hours, so no heat is required, and you can continue to shape it even as it begins to solidify. This allowed me to heat shrink the fingers, preventing the wire twist issue, cap the fingers, preventing the poking issue, and segment the fingers, preventing the joint issue. And it only took me three goes. However, despite these successes, this took waaaaaay too long and I can't afford to do it again, so these hand armatures will be the only ones used in the film.

Plasticine added, finished.

Final Project - Puppets - Narrator's head

The puppets will not necessarily be shown in the order I made them, but anyway here's the process of constructing the narrator's old puppet, i made a stop-motion film of it, but this was the only puppet head I did this with, because it was a pain in the arse and tripled the time it took to sculpt the head.

This was the first adult narrator head I made, and as a result, it became the basis for the other two, so I tried to give it a distinctive shape. At this time in the film, the character is around 78 years old, I could have added more wrinkles, but I don't want to add too much detail, as it will likely come off during filming and I will have to constantly re-apply it.

Final Project - Basic Story - PART 3

The Narrator is shown in the speakeasy with Henri, Dave and Mae, they are celebrating their defiance of Sal, foolishly ignoring the implications of pissing off the bootlegging kingpin of Chicago. There is a knock on the speakeasy door, Dave answers and is met with a hail of gunfire, the assailant is not directly shown, but is implied to be Vincenzo. Henri grabs a tommy gun, but is also killed, the narrator is shot, but manages to shoot and kill the hitman, but not before Mae is fatally wounded. As she dies in the narrator's arms, Sal is shown smiling in his office, and Frank is shown cowering as he is approached by Friel.
The narrator is then shown lying against the speakeasy bar, with Henri's corpse slumped over it. He is holding his arm, where he was shot, and has Mae's body lying across his lap. He laments his unfathomably poor choice to snub Sal as footsteps are heard, Friel has arrived, and the Narrator's number is up.
He is then shown in a prison cell, he explains he was blamed for all the murders, even Mae's, as Sal's influence corrupted his trial. The camera zooms in on his face, and crossfades back to him as an old man.
The old narrator deplores his past actions, claiming that even though he did not kill Mae, he feels directly responsible for her death, as he grows weary, he briefly contemplates what might have happened had he accepted Sal's offer. His eyes close slowly as he passes away, the shot fades to black, and the credits roll (which will basically be my name 27 times...)
FIN.
I am aware that this story does seem very long, and I may have to make alterations to certain scenes, or cut them altogether to save time, and many of the shots will have to be drawn out to accommodate the narration, so I will shoot all of the key scenes first, so should I run out of time, I can salvage the basic plot outline, hopefully I won't have to do this...

Final Project - Basic Story - PART 2.

Mae is introduced, she is a sultry female who frequents the speakeasy, and as a result becomes the subject of the Narrator's affections. The Narrator will explain that Giovanni forbade him from pursuing these affections as it would compromise him as a valuable employee. This leads the narrator to explain that Giovanni had become greedy and cruel, and was becoming obsessed with his foothold on the bootlegging rackets of Chicago, which ultimately lead to his downfall. His arrest is not shown, but the narrator explains that he killed several prohibition agents in his arrest, was declared insane, sent to an asylum and lobotomized. He is shown in a straight jacket in a padded cell, he looks at the camera and emits a disturbing scream. The next shot shows Friel smiling as he observes his mugshot board, Giovanni is crossed out.
The Narrator is shown looking dejected in the speakeasy, he explains that without Giovanni's sadistic stranglehold, the bootlegging rackets are now dominated by a man called Sal, who is not shown at this time. On the plus side, the narrator explains that he and Mae are now an item, and the ownership of the speakeasy has passed on to Paddy, business is down, but still going steady.
7 years pass, the gang violence has escalated, but the speakeasy is still going strong. The protagonist is now wearing a sharp suit, and admits that due to Giovanni's absence and his relationship with Mae, he has become arrogant and complacent, just as Giovanni said he would. he is then shown talking to Frank, who warns him that Friel is getting dangerously close to their operations, he pompously ignores these claims, and returns to the speakeasy to find Paddy being arrested by Friel and a policeman. The narrator is not arrested, but Friel stares him down with a look that tells him he's next. Paddy is then shown being executed in the electric chair, while Friel and a policeman look on.

The Narrator now owns the speakeasy, he, Dave and Mae are struggling to keep the business afloat, until they are approached by Vincenzo, an associate of the now legendary Sal, who informs them that Sal wishes to meet the narrator. Sal is introduced, he is basically Al Capone, and is shown sat at his desk in a decadently furnished office. He offers the narrator a large sum of money for his services and the acquisition of the speakeasy. In a foolish move, the narrator rejects the offer, his misplaced bravado convincing him that he can manage without Sal's influence. This, obviously, angers Sal, and signals the beginning of the end of the narrator's career as a bootlegger.

Final Project - Basic Story - PART 1

I am currently working on the screenplay for the film, but it is quite patchy at the moment with several random scenes that haven't been linked together yet. So I am going to write a basic synopsis of the story that is currently subject to change until the screenplay has been ironed out a bit. This film may sound long, but most of the story is told through a narration, with the key plot points being shown (not everything written will physically appear on screen.) The story is primarily set in 1920s Chicago, during the prohibition era and the rise of the bootlegger, and is framed with a 1970s setting, with the majority of the story told through flashbacks. The title of the film is 'Chicago Overcoats' which is 1920's slang for coffins, and as most of the cast end up dead, i thought this would be appropriate. Other titles i briefly considered were 'Chicago Lightning' which is 1920's slang for gunfire, (but this sounded too much like a flamboyant musical, with sparkly costumes and the like), and 'XVIII', representing the eighteenth amendment to the United States constitution, which banned alcohol in America for 13 years, (but this sounded way too pretentious, as I doubt a lot of people would get the reference.)

The story will begin with the narrator as an old man being admitted to hospital after a drunken brawl in 1976. He is moved to a bed for observation. Through a voice-over narration (implied to be his internal monologue) he will explain that he is an alcoholic waster who once had it all, got greedy and pissed it all away. He will reflect on his childhood, an unhappy one on the streets of early 1900s Chicago with a drunken, abusive Irish immigrant father and a downtrodden prostitute mother. In a drunken rage, the father kills the mother, beats the young narrator and kills himself. The child is left alone.
Back in the 'present day'(1976) the narrator will then be given the news that his X-rays have revealed multiple tumors and he will not be leaving the hospital for what little time he has left. He will cryptically reveal that he feels this is retribution for his past and then resume his internal musings and flashback to his early twenties in 1920s Chicago.
Now an adult, he is working for an Italian-American crime entrepreneur called Giovanni, who has taken him under his wing. He stares at a poster for Prohibition on an alley wall, smiling to himself. He explains that the Volstead Act has opened up limitless opportunities for the downtrodden willing to break the law. He then introduces Giovanni as his mentor and the owner of the speakeasy he is supplying with booze, along with his associates, who are then introduced in a tracking shot of the bar, sat next to each other. Paddy, an Irish immigrant, is shown drunkenly swaying, and Midnight Dave, a suave con-man, who is shown carefully examining a tommy gun. The barman, a stoical French immigrant named Henri will also be introduced, looking weary and disgruntled as he wipes down the bar.
This will be followed up with a shot of the narrator and his two friends wearing face bandanas and wielding guns as they stand over a body next to several barrels of booze. He will then explain how they don't get caught, by introducing Frank, a homeless civil war veteran who is the eyes and ears of the streets, and sells the narrator information on upcoming police raids and other bootleggers activities.
This will lead to the introduction of Agent Friel, a prohibition agent who has been tracking the gangs activities, the intro will be a short one, showing him in his office carefully observing a board of mug-shots of the various characters, some of whom have yet to be introduced. This scene is not narrated, as the narrator wouldn't have been aware of these events at this time.

Final Project - Cast List

OK, so I think i mentioned that this film was going to serve as a modelmaking portfolio, and would have a large cast, well it does. 16 characters, with 19 puppets total, some characters having more than one body and others sharing similar bodies. As of writing this, the cast list is pretty much set, with no changes planned, and all but 3 of the puppets are complete. The names are subject to change.
Cast
1) Narrator - Unnamed, he has 4 puppets, one as a child, two as an adult (one in standard scruffy 1920's clothes and one in a sharp suit) and one as an old man, dying in a hospital bed.

2) Narrator's mother - She will appear briefly at the beginning and is a prostitute.

3) Narrator's father - He will also appear briefly at the beginning and is an irish immigrant.

4) Nurse - The same puppet from the BAA sting, she will be in a few of the hospital scenes (and has new arm armatures, as the old ones were crap).

5) Doctor Rothstein - He will also appear in the hospital scenes, and is the one who informs the Narrator of his ill-health.

6) A dog.

7) Sal - A gangster whose appearance resembles Al Capone's, he will lend the Narrator money at some point. He is very untrustworthy.

8) Paddy - An Irish immigrant and bootlegger, befriends the Narrator.

9) Giovanni - An Italian-American criminal entrepreneur, speakeasy owner and mentor and employer to the Narrator (he has two puppet bodies, one normal and one in a straight jacket as he is institutionalized at some point.)

10) Frank - An eccentric, elderly, homeless civil war veteran, he serves as an informant to the Narrator.

11) Midnight Dave - Another bootlegger and friend of the Narrator.

12) Henri - A French immigrant and bartender at the speakeasy.

13) Vincenzo - A Sicilian immigrant, associate of Sal and frequent patron at the speakeasy. He introduces the Narrator to Sal

14) Mae, a frequent patron at the speakeasy, and the subject of the Narrator's affections.

15) Agent Friel - A prohibition enforcer who ruthlessly pursues the Narrator and his associates. He is the primary antagonist.

16) Policeman - basically just a random policeman who will be used to give context in certain scenes.

I know I haven't gone into any explicit detail on the individual characters, but that's on the way.