Environment Search #1

I've been looking at some of the islands around Thailand and Italy, especially these "floating island" type rock formations. Immediately below is a place called Phi Phi in Thailand, which looks like it'd make a perfect smugglers den. 

And here are some random shots from my internet scouring.

I've mostly been looking at rocks here, not so much everything else that's going on. I'm interested to see what kind of silhouette these could create if they were entombed in mist, or back-lit. 

Basically this.

HMS Belfast

Ben told me about a ship that's docked in London, that's open for visits. It's a warship, granted, but it's still a good source of reference for ship parts and decking. I'm planning on heading down sometime before Saturday, probably Wednesday. Although first I need to know whether or not photography is allowed.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/hms-belfast

(This is for my own reference when I get home)

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/LEI/LBG/090213/0900/dep/090213/1500/dep

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