Research Bible.

Schwarz Waldt The Black Forest.

By Lauren jansons

AUDIENCE.
The target audience for this feature film is aimed at children around the ages of 12+
The length of the feature film is important. You dont want it too long so that your audience gets bored, However you dont want it too short that the audience feel unfullfilled and want their money back.

The characters have to be captivating for the child, not too scary so that they dont want to watch it. But at the same time you dont to make the character dull, or els the child wont grow a connection with it. Emotions, body language and speech is vital, the child will grow attached to it were it be a bit intimidating or lovable. Needs to be captivating for the child at all times, look into humour in the form of a childs mind. What style/concept is too babyish or too grown up for children?

What is too much of an adult conent?

INFLUENCES
The artistic style shown through this film is incredibly influencial for me, The characters and background alone show strong iconic resemblence and use of colours. This film has helped me form my story and was incredibly helpfull that it too was based in a forest.

INFLUENCES
How to train your dragon.
This film is incredibly artistic, a lot like secret of kells, but is a 3D based film. I was mostly influenced by this from the humour and little subtle gags it held. It also held its serious moments. I enjoyed the bond between the dragon and Hiccup and found the love/hate bond with Hiccup and Astrid influencial for part of my story.

Secret of Kells.

influences
Dr Seuss

influences
The Illusionist

With Dr Seuss I always find his work captivating! his With the Illusionist I was incredibly intrested in the art ability to make humorous little stories from just everyfrom and the use of colour throughout the films backday objects. The art style for Dr Seuss is also inspiring grounds, the use of thick and thine lines depicting disto the art style that im working on. Dr Seusss characters tance. I found the lack of speech really fascinating aswell are largly out of proportion and odd looking. even the and concidered doing this for my film but I felt as tho trees and mountains show resemblence to icon art work, my audience would get bored easily with no jokes being and it has helped me think more in a childs mind. cracked and voices being heard.

the

Backgrounds The Black Forest.

Ive decided to choose The black Forest as my background location or, as its called in Germany, Schwarz Waldt.
The Black forest is based in the south west of Germany and is known for its wooden Mountain range. The highest mountain range/peak is the Feldberg, which is 1,493 meters high. The area is a rectangular shape with the length of about 200km. The name Black forest was given to it because when the Romans walked through the forest it was mostly dark (black) and lacked sunlight due to the large thick trees which populate the forest. The Black forest is mostly formed by a mixture of sandstone and granite. The Black forest used to be twinned with the Vosges mountains by tectonic plates.

Origionally covered by Glasiers, the Black forest now holds several lakes such as the Ammersee lake which is 17 meters deep and according to legends is inhabited by a spirit called Nix.

The

rivers.
The Black forest is part of the continental divide. This is between the Atlantic ocean drainage baisin and the Black Sea.
The Rivers that go through the Black forest are: Enz. Kinzig. Murg. Neckor. Rench. The Black forest also holds water falls such as the All saints waterfall and the Triberg water fall. Although it may not be very well known, it is rumoured for its tranquility and folk takes.

Ammersee

LAKE

Mountains
Feldberg - 1,493m Herzogenhorn - 1,415m Belchen - 1,414m Spiesshorn - 1,349m Schavinsland - 1,284m Kandel - 1,241m Hochblaven - 1,165m Hornisgrinde - 1,164m

PLANT LIFE
The forest mostly consists of:
Pines & Fir trees. (These trees are mostly farmed) A large majority of the forest was cut down due to buisness in logging (1999) leaving most high peaks and hills bare, apart

from the odd young fir trees and shrubs

Animals

Local

Most commonly found at theBLAck forest

towns and events

Popular townsFreidburg Gengenbach Staufen Haslach Altensteig Calw (Birthplace of Hermann Hesse who was a German Swiss poet, novelist and painter)

Cattle - rare breed of Hinterwalderberg cattle The giant earth worm Lumbricus badensis (only found in the Black Horses - Black forest foxes (usually used for heavy leighbour)

forest)

Eagles and owls Wild boars.

towns and villages are well known for their wood carvings. Such as cuckoo clocks which have been around since the eighteenth century.

Small clusters of houses around the forest. The little

Its in the time leading up to lent on Rosenmontag, which is commonly known by the monday before Ash wednesday.

Local events such as the fastnact is incredibly popular.

This is when the locals crowd in the streets wearing masks.

THE

Lost forest boy.

A boy walks into Berlin Claiming he has been living in the the German Forest for Five year.
This story influenced the layout towards my film, I was amazed to hear that this boy and his father had been living in the Black Forest for five years because they were in ore with the power and beauty that the Forest held.

It is as if the Forest istelf was keeping them hostage!

To me it sounded like a real life case of a twisted version of Peter Pan, a young boy living in a magical forest. I then looked into it a bit further and read that it, to some people felt like a adaptation of a brothers Grimm type story, I instantly got influenced by this Brothers Grimm Idea and started looking into the fairytails and myths and legends around that area. I wanted to create a story were fairy tales are the only way that you can escape and to use your imagination. Its brilliant for children and would hopefully influence them.

The

art style
RUSSIAN ICONS.
Presumed to be brought in by Kievan Rus after following the conversion to Orhodox christianity in 988AD.

The Russian icons then had models follow quickly after by Byzantine art, which was stabelized in the capital constantinople. But the Russians widend the vocab of styles beyond aynthing else found in the orthodox practise.

However it orgionally came from Greece.

Personal art was hard to find in the religious sector for Russians in the 17th century.
Russian icon painting became strongly influenced by religious paintings and engravings from protestant and europe based catholics.

 Russian icon

Techniques.
played on a wooden board with two doors on each side which can open and close reavealing a religious scene depicted through icon art. Mostly all icon paintings were skillfully mastered to always contain a large message from the bible. You can even find some icon work scratched and carved into copper sheets, and where always found in Russian homes in a special area. This area was mostly known as the red or even beautiful wall, where they would place the icons.

Russian Icons are typically painted on small sections of wood and can even be dis-

The figures arent displayed to represent anatomicaly correct bodies. The bodies are mostly elongated with the body framed as an outline around a detailed body.
Faces are very simplistic with not much realistic features. Incredibly flat based.
Colouring is very bold with not much shading. It feels very much like an earthy based version of stained glass windows. The surroundings are very detailed and cause a large use of the imagination. I feel that the faded affect would bring an authentic and earthy feel for my art style towards this work.

Although the most common place for Russian icons were in churches and monasteries.

Meeting an icon artist.

Silvia Dimitrova
Silvia was raised up in northan Bulgaria until she won a place in applied arts at Troyan at the age of 13. She then graduated in 1989 and studied icon painting in Sofia as an apprentice for Georgi Tchouchev.

Her work has been exhibited aswell in many cathedrals around the world. She has even been commissioned to create many pieces of work to be presented and placed inside the cathedrals.

Silvia also showed me more of her work which are adaptations of Icons in a sort of arabic approach. Silvia explained to me saying that she uses the same techniques and styles, but has adapted them into her own techniques. This gives her more freedom in experimenting, and trying different skills. Silvia also explaines to me that in these paintings she often sticks to one colour and works around it, and outlines with the gold which is a vital

colour in all icon paintings.

Influencial

Artist
Given to me by Silvia.
asked her what artist influenced her most with her work and would be benefiacial to me and my work. Silvia answered that the artist that would help me a lot would be an artist called Mikhail Vrubel. Mikhail started off in Russian icon paintings and, like Silvia, started to go in their own direction and create icon inspired work. His art style is incredibly wild in comparison, but if you notice the small details he displayes you can see the techniques of icon paintings. For instance the way Mikhail depicts the folds in the fabric and the flattend faces. Mikhail also uses the same figurative style in some of his work and often turns it into a more realistic body. As if the icon paintings themselves are transforming.

On my visite to Silvia I

I understand that this art style isnt exactly Russian icons, but its influenced by the art style and I found it incredibly usefull. The main image that stuck out in my mind and influenced my story was this image.

This painting, to me, showed excitment and energy which I want to display in my film. So, based on this painting I have decided on working my story through and around it. It is how I think the water goddess Nix to look like. Incredibly inspiring and beautiful, yet deadly and dangerous to be around.

Looking into the techniques of

RUSSIAN ICONS
During my visit with Silvia I asked if she had any books showing how to draw the basics for Russian icons, and anything that I could use for referencing, such as how to draw mountains, clouds, water even animals. Silvia then gave me a copy of a book that she had been using herself, It is called the Pahela. Which to me seemed like the bible for drawing Russian icons. It had everything that I needed to create this film.

pre - production

REPORT
My four cards to work with were: Childrens feature film, Newspaper proprietor, German Forest and Russian Icons.
At first I really wasnt looking forward to having to work in Russian icons as an art style. I remember having to study Russian icon artist in my History of art classes. I found the art style tedious and bland; I did enjoy their use of colour but found icon art work dull. However I do enjoy challenges and decided to keep my cards. When I was researching I found it hard to come up with a story. I wasnt enjoying my art style, and having to put a newspaper proprietor in a German forest seemed somewhat tricky. I decided to start off with looking into German Forests and choose which one to base my story in. This is when I came across the lost boy news article. A young boy of 16 appeared in Berlin claiming he had been living in the Black Forest with his father who suddenly became ill. The boy explained saying that if he died he must travel to Berlin. After the fathers death he buried him within the Forest and travelled to Berlin on small essentials and ripped cloths. Once I read this article I knew exactly were to base my story and what the story would be about. Originally I intended to do the lost boy story, and have my newspaper proprietor find him on the road. They then both travel to Berlin with the proprietor noting down everything he says, and later writes an article about him.

However I thought this story is leading too far away from the Forest itself and that the lost boy took over the role as the main character. So I decided to base my story around the lost boy and the cause for my newspaper proprietor to travel to The Black Forest. I looked into the Black Forest and discovered that it was most commonly known for its myths and legends which made me think about fairy tales, in particular the Brothers Grimm. I love their morbid intake on fairy tales and thought it could be a nice twist for the younger viewer. On my Black Forest research I came across the lakes in the Forest, and found that one lake had an apparent spirit living within it called the Nix. This, to me, helped build my story even more. While researching I found many interesting facts about the surroundings of the forest, and decided to have a local cattle farmer who would be a tough young woman. I called her Annette, which in German means Grace and Favour. I thought this was perfect especially because she takes my main character through the forest in search for this lost boy story. She is also to live in a small town just outside of the Forest called Calw. Calw is very well known for its wooden carvings specially cuckoo clocks with came about in the eighteenth century (when my story is based) I had my story; young proprietor in which I have named Leo. Who had just inherited his fathers business, then decides to find a good story, travels to the Black Forest in search for a story on the lost boy. Meets Annette who agrees to take him through. However they get lost and seek guidance from the water goddess Nix. Who will only let them free if they play her game, which is based on local myths on legends and Grimm fairy tales. They must defeat these and will be Free (the story is explained more in depth in the summary)

Next on my list, which admittedly, I was not looking forward too was the art style. I started of looking into Russian Icons and drawing out the style, but I wasnt connecting with the images or style and found it hard to follow. However in the holidays, Due to me feeling a bit lost I decided to go visit Silvia Dimitrova who has been creating religious icons for years. All of her work is incredibly detailed and vibrant. When I arrived I was pretty nervous, I brought my sketchbook along to show her what I had been doing so far with my character designs, but being surrounded by all her work was pretty daunting. However Silvia was so lovely and welcoming. After looking through her portfolio and explaining what my project was about and what I needed to achieve she flicked through my sketchbook to see what I had been doing. The first thing we talked about was the character designs. In all I was surprised as to how much she liked my character designs. She said I seemed to have to a fair amount of icon detail in my characters, and that they would be appealing to kids. Silvia commented on the eyes explaining that they were perhaps a bit too big for the traditional icons facial features. However she said I had done well with looking at the structure of the nose, face shape and especially the hair. She was happy to see that I had put a lot of thought into the hair detail. One thing that she pressured me into re thinking about is the detail of the folds in the clothing. In all icon paintings the clothing is to be incredibly detailed and vibrant. Silvia also mentioned to me about colour. I was worried that for my Nix character I as using colours that werent found much in icon paintings.

I thought from researching into icons they used more earthy colours such as reds, browns, greens, yellow etc but Silvia explained to me that, true, earth colours were commonly found but they did enjoy using vibrant colours such as purple and vibrant greens and blues. However the main colour that has to be displayed in my work is gold! Gold leaf is featured in all Russian icon work. When it came to creating the backgrounds I couldnt decide whether or not I wanted to do them digitally or by hand. In the end I decided that I wanted to get the actual paint brush effect. To me its more exciting and vibrant than using a digital paintbrush. Your feel the painting a lot more and see the brush strokes. The scene I decided to work on is the scene were the two come across the goddess Nix. In this scene you have the forest and lake in it which gives the viewer a better idea as to what the film is about and based in. I also thought it would be a good scene to introduce the characters that are quite large in this film.

By Lauren Jansons