More Ship Research

Variety Voyager.

(68m/223ft)

Expedition

(104m x 341ft)

(Expedition Trip Gallery)

Sea Dream II.

(105m/344ft)

Bremen.

(111m/365ft)

Aegean Odysee

(140m/461ft)

For reference, the Queen Elizabeth 2 is 293m/963ft in length

In descending size order. This started out as research into smaller ships and, unbeknownst to me, slowly escalated in size. The smaller ships, like the Voyager, are classified as "Mega Yachts", but once you reach the bottom of the list you're back into cruise ship territory (the Aegean is a cruise ship).

Interestingly, both the Aegean and the QE2 I covered last post are small cruise ships. Small. The Aegean can fit into ports most can't, and the QE2 was specifically designed to be smaller and more efficient than regular cruise ships. 

Back on topic though, I've been looking at these ships to get an idea of how big the ship will have to be to still carry that "foreboding" atmosphere. I feel the Voyager isn't big enough, however the Expedition is more along the lines I'm going for.

Ghost Ship (2002)

Last night I watched Ghost Ship and grabbed a load of screenies from it. Ignoring the fact that they ruined the mystery in the first five minutes by showing what happened to the crew, it was (visually) pretty much what I was looking for, in terms of inspiration  I've got to remember to thank Craig for recommending and lending me this, as I'd never heard of it before. Bizarre really, since I thought of the Ghost Ship theme before knowing about the 2002 film. 

I especially love the 50's design of the ship. It immediately gives a sense of the ships age, and through that makes the viewer feel like they're looking at a living antique. It makes the ship feel like it doesn't belong, like it's a relic of an older time, which accentuates the desired feeling of "I shouldn't be here."

The vibrant, saturated colours of the original Art Deco inspired designs bleed through past the rusted browns and mossy green, which allows the designer (le me) to inject colour into a scene that would otherwise be dominated by earthy tones. I definitely want to include this style of architecture and furnishing design into the project.

Edit (Spoilers Follow):
I totally forgot to mention. In Ghost Ship it's implied that another group discovered the ship prior to the events of the film. Hints like the finding of a digital watch give way to this mysterious sub-plot, but, predictably, the film totally blows this sub-plot apart by having the entire other crew found dead in the boiler.

It felt like a total missed opportunity. They could've used this other crew as a plot device to slowly reveal the purpose/curse of the titular ship. The whole thing about the cursed gold, greed, and the undertaker collecting souls could've been slowly been revealed as they discovered more about this ill-fate other crew.

Anyway, rambling aside, this inspired me. What if I included some hints of a former, ill-fated discovery? Discarded gear? Dropped personal effects? Maybe. 

Settling on a Ship

Initially, when I settled on my final three ideas for the FMP, I had the Ghost Ship written as a Galleon type ship. An old, wooden ship, something that would be perfect in a film like Pirates of the Carribean. The Shipwreck idea featured a sunken cruise ship, deeply inspired by a level in Tomb Raider II. When I settled on which idea I wanted to pursue, I ended merging two ideas - the Ghost Ship and the Shipwreck.

Then I was onto a second problem -- what kind of ship do I choose? If I choose a large, cruise ship, there's no way I can make all of it. If I choose a smaller ship, it may not have the same effect, thus leaving the scene feeling lacklustre.

Today I've followed up my initial musing on the Queen Elizabeth 2.

Here she is! Some facts about the QE2;

• Ordered in 1964 and launched in 1967 by Queen Elizabeth II
• Ran a service from Southampton to New York
• Retired in November 2008
• Before retirement she had sailed nearly six million miles and carried 2.5 million passengers
• The QE2's only permanent resident, Beatrice Muller, aged 89, lived on board in retirement for fourteen years

Now, there's absolutely no way I could make the entire exterior of the QE2, and the interior, by myself, in this timeframe. Ship aside, the environment containing this ship would have to be collosal, I mean just compare it to those islands behind in that second picture.

I'm trying to find a compromise here between ship presence and size. That is, after all, one of the purposes of this research.

Music Idea

It's a little early to start thinking about music for the project, but this just hit me as I was walking home. I remembered this track, and now that I've listened to it again it fits into place. It'd make a fantastic backing track.

It begins!

The start of February signals the start of the FMP. It begins!

I've already thrown together a sheet in Excel for tracking time and asset progress, complete with fancy maths that'll tell me the percentage of project completable and time remaining ect. ect. Figured it'd be useful to track my time and progress on a day-to-day basis.

I've given myself this first week to look into what ship I intend to do, to do research on locations to place it in, and drum up a layout map for the scene. Even though we have four months for this project, time is going to be short, so I need to get straight on it and not relent.

I'm currently watching Virus and plan to watch Ghost Ship later. (when I get a version which isn't in Russian) Why? As you might have guessed, they both feature ghost ships as the core focus of their story. I'm watching them mostly for inspiration, though I've grabbed some shots from the first twenty minutes of Ghost Ship, as they were interesting visually.

Edit:
Man, I'm only fifteen minutes in and already Virus is creepy as hell. Maybe it's just me, but there's something really unnerving about pushing through the fog and seeing this collosal vessel just dead in the water, surrounded by an air of death and decay. So yeah, watching this film is definitely inspiring :D

Ghost Ship - Expansion #3

So I've been thinking about what I intend to do with the expanded Ghost Ship idea, and what I hope to achieve. Since Craig showed me the cruise ship level from Uncharted 3 I've been fixated on this luxurious, grand dining hall shot. While they are muted, the colours in the scene are fantastic, and really give it an air of personality and charm.

I'd love to be able to fit this kind of environment into the project, I feel it'd add a lot of character to the scene and would really vibe with the ghost ship theme, giving both an air of majesty and tragedy. Because of this, I've been thinking about some way of fitting in both the main deck and this grand hall, in a way that feels fluid and organic. Since these two areas would usually be quite far apart from each other, I may have to improvise a little and change the layout of a normal cruise ship. Given that this project is steeped in fantasy already, I don't think this will make much of a difference..

The layout of this Disney Cruise Line ship is pretty near to what I want, as the deck and main hall are very close. Of course, here it is a theatre, but that's easy to change. If I was to pursue this idea, I'd be making just the deck and the main hall for the project, which sounds like a manageable space for the time allotted. 

Ghost Ship - Expansion #2

I've finally settled on a mix of the Ghost Ship and the Shipwreck idea. I say a mix, as I'm tipping more towards a contemporary ship than a old Galleon or Tea Clipper. I'd been trying to settle on one of the two ideas for weeks, but I just couldn't throw away that spooky luxury cruise ghost ship idea. So, a compromise!

I kept coming back to this particular image, partially because of the sense of scale it gives. Now that I think about it, it reminds me of a level in Tomb Raider 3 where you had to board an derelict tanker in Antartica for some reason or another.. probably a key. I don't understand why Tomb Raider is having such an influence on this project, particulairly as how I haven't played the classics for over 10 years now..

This was another influential image. There's just something I find alluring about these derelict vessels, maybe it's just the mystery behind them. I'm probably alone in this fascination. I'm probably playing too much Fallout these days.

Craig showed me this image, which is from Uncharted 3, I believe. I've never played the Uncharted series before, but I know it has a wide range of environments and locales. I love this image, because it effectively combines the two ideas that I was going for. It has the eeriness of the Ghost Ship, with the grandeur and style of the Shipwreck. 

I was thinking about what I was trying to achieve with the project. Part of that, I think, is a sense of an untold story. I want the scene to give off this air of discovery, like the environment is full of clues to events that occurred, to what the people were doing before they mysteriously vanished. This scene is full of little hints. The cake is clearly a wedding cake. There are poker chips strewn across the floor. The table is set for dinner. Ect, ect. There's probably more, I'm just not very observant right now.

So, I'm leaning more towards the contemporary ship right now. I think I'm in a position where I can pursue this idea, now, as see where it leads.