Natal Attraction

Official Trailer

2009-09-10T12:39:00.002+01:00

To coincide with Natal Attraction's acceptance into London's Raindance Film Festival 2009, I have posted a new trailer for all to view - no password required.

I will be posting the screening date(s) as soon as I hear back from the officials.

Postnatal Updates

2009-06-27T15:06:00.006+01:00

A quick little update on Natal Attraction. Currently, it is being sent out to film festivals (hence the password protection above) and is in consideration for Raindance 2009 and more to come.

I've also found today that my course leader Adam Comiskey has kindly nominated NA for the RTS Royal Television Society Awards 2010(?) where the folk of Southampton Solent University go up against the talent at Bournemouth University. They put up a damn good fight each year, so it's fingers crossed once again that one our lot may prevail!

Postnatal Production... Harbour Lights, done!

2009-05-20T20:56:00.010+01:00

The Southampton Harbour Lights Cinema. Four years ago, I remember looking ahead to this time starry eyed wondering what film it was that I would produce and screen in my third year vowing that I would strive to work to the best of my ability and hope to inject a minute or two of enjoyment, and with a bit of luck, laughter into an unsuspecting audience member's day.

Well, with the rapid flow of time, I'm now looking back on the event beaming as through some sort of freak miscalculation of the powers that be and audience (!), Natal Attraction takes home its first two awards - Best Film 2009 and Audience Choice 2009.

"What the hell is wrong with you people!?" I said.

Apparently, an abundance of sexual innuendo, genitalia, blood and cumshots sit well with a British audience, much to my immense surprise. I suppose one of the things I've learnt from today is that taking a risk with a wild and raunchy script isn't an inherently bad thing.

Further to this, and something I've been saying all along - the production of a film, nay, art in general, is that in order to achieve success, having the support and passionate input of your peers [friends, family, tutors, etc] pays huge dividends in your ability to be creative and desire to do the very best you can. I would find it hard to understand how one could produce to the best of their ability within a purely internalised production process.

In a nutshell, what I am trying to say is that every artist who contributed their talents, every person who took a figment of interest in this film was invaluable to me. Natal Attraction would simply not exist in its current form without all these folk and, chances are if you are reading this, you are one of them too - so thank you!

I've loved every minute of it.

Postnatal Production... Development Retrospective

2009-05-18T20:57:00.011+01:00

As a means to scratch beneath the surface a little prior to Wednesday's screening, I thought I'd display some of the forms Natal Attraction has taken since its conception [pun unintended, maybe?] last November, for those few with much curiosity behind them. I'll be using a shot that has remained very much a constant throughout the development and therefore works well as an example demonstrate the sorts of changes that have occurred during production and why.

First off, the ol' storyboard image which technically came first in the development cycle, intended as the final shot where the full scale [and error] of Nancy's surgery is made apparent to the couple and poor Mrs. Wright gets it full on in the face.

Following on from this is the aesthetic mock-up which was finalised in January for the animatic hand-in. Things are a little more vague this time in terms of exactly what is happening/what is going to happen. It was at this point I began to re-consider the final shot, especially as the professional voice-work and score began to roll in and put a slightly different spin on the narrative.

In the final version, I had firmly decided to use this shot as a means to build tension and place more focus afterwards on the horror of the situation - firstly, on the act committed on Dr. Wright's manhood, and then on both his and Mrs. Wright's face after the squirting has taken place.

Another day, another few nuggets of info for the eager. The first bit of 'merchandise' [in the form of a theatrical poster for Southampton Harbour Lights] was sent off to the printers today and I will reveal the artwork on this space soon after Wednesday.

Postnatal Production... Afterbirth

2009-05-14T12:30:00.006+01:00

Although this whole blog dealie was always intended as a way for the powers that be to assess our progress, I have nonetheless become attached to the whole project and feel that it serves a secondary purpose of being a time capsule for one of the busiest periods of my life and one that I will reminisce upon fondly - it's a great joy to work towards your career doing something you truly enjoy.

As a partial way to mark the occasion for handing in the film, the blog header has now been switched to the official logo for the film and thus, the old one is relegated to the dumping ground.

There are more things I plan to do in relation to the film and I will continue to use the blog to keep those that care up to date with its goings on, including posting the Southampton Harbour Lights edit after its... um, well debut I guess - though that word sounds incredibly grandiose for what the product actually is. Very much looking forward to a screening of what has been a passionate year of film-making from everyone.

Lusts... Of the Logo

2009-04-25T04:07:00.007+01:00

As a little break from animation, I decided to harness the residual creative juices flowing through the channels and had a bash at a proper logo for Natal Attraction that could ultimately be used in the film itself and for any additional paraphernalia I choose to produce post-production. It's early days for the logo and it's merely a rough mock-up but I've aimed to include what would be the key aspects that make the design unique to the film.

The colour scheme is a mix of deep red [duh] and pale blue [not-so-duh] whilst the Wright-styled embryo is indeed white [my eyedropper tool reads F's all the way up the ya-ya!]. The colour scheme is simple really - the red represents Nancy's dress and the pale blue is Wright's shirt. It's rather subtle however so I may look to something a little more obvious - possibly the tan colour of his jacket or the dark green of his eyes. Further to this, something of an accidental discovery is the 't' in 'natal' made to look like a first aid cross which of course links to the whole surgery/surgeon thing. Mmm, graphics... More on this one soon with any luck in the animation department.

Layout Progress 2

2009-03-13T21:29:00.007Z

For those that aren't aware and are thinking "Hey! You crazy!? He still doin' layouts, whaaa!!", I'm completing all work shot-by-shot, so that means a list to describe in monotonous detail exactly how I does it:

Take one existing line-art of a layout and colour it in Photoshop with a mixture of vector shapes and dry brushes. Extra dusting of effects (glows, bloom, shadow, etc) as needed.
Import the finished .tiff into Flash and start animating the rough keys using the graphics tablet.
In between as per the usual proceedure.
Make a new layer and clean up each frame by tracing v-e-r-y carefully.
Paint bucket/floodfill each frame with the pre-selected colours for each character.
Colour in the line-art using the brush tool set to 'paint inside' mode.
Add shadows and lighting over the top with a pre-selected shadow colour on new layer(s).
Export .png sequence and composite on After Effects.
Scene for Natal Attraction. Done!

So there you have it - a basic run down of how I've been going about animating Natal Attraction. And now for the meat of the post - do you remember the layouts posted a couple of months back? I do. I remember how I was less than satisfied with a couple of them and now I've re-visited those damn trees and given them a good hiding. As a reminder, here's the old layout:

To re-iterate my previous ramblings - I stated how primarily I wasn't pleased with the state of the trees and the jaggediness - partially as a result of being too rigid with the standards put forth by my aesthetic. Since then I've loosened up a bit and am experimenting a bit more. Here's the result of looseness:

Much happier with the trees now - and though it can't be seen so clearly here, they are constructed of more segments so I can animate them swaying as Dr. Wright drives past. A blood-red sign has been added as well to help tie the composition together a bit better and divulge a little more info as to where Nancy lives and plant an extra seed or two as to the foreboding that lies ahead.

Rushes Reprisal 05.02

2009-02-07T16:31:00.003Z

For ummm... Historical purposes [?], the most recent animatic of Natal Attraction, shown on 5th February. Got about 20 seconds of finished animation in there, which I guess is progress.

Layout Progress

2009-02-01T18:05:00.006Z

Some more stuff that ought to have gone on a while ago, here are some of the [more-or-less] finalised backgrounds for a few shots across the film. The backgrounds are predominantly comprised of vectors with a bit of gritty texture added on top using a chalky brush - it's an aesthetic that has been derived from the UPA style seen in Gerald McBoing-Boing and other such works from a bygone era. First, the shot of Dr. Wright's study looking into the lounge:

Initially, I wanted something pretty minimalistic, like UPA's work, but found that things looked a tad bland, probably due to my relative lack of understanding working in that discipline. So, more detail has been added and things are a little more straight forward and, with a little help from the pro's in class, have hopefully produced something that is at least readable. Next, the great outdoors:

What's a bit tricky here is getting the organic stuff to look 'right'. At the moment I've simply gone for spiky leaves on the trees - I'm trying to add extra texture with brushes again, but that hasn't resolved the issue as of yet, mainly because it looks too messy, breaking the standards set by the aesthetic - geometric interiors are alot more straight forward. Another one:

This now needs more work, after having developed a more coherent aesthetic with the first two layouts highlighted above. First seen in my little 'Chasin' Skirt' test from a couple of weeks ago, it's lost its lustre somewhat - more texture and stronger lighting is a must.

Dr. Wright... Teaser

2009-02-01T01:39:00.008Z

As a brief update on my progress, I've taken the time to compose a fully finished shot from the film which is representative of the visual quality I'm after:

Lip-synced in full, what you see here is the first line spoken by Dr. Wright, courtesy of those talented folk at VoiceToons [the actor's name of which is yet to be revealed to me by the powers that be].

Hold the phone! Geek alert...

As a side note regarding visuals, I'm planning to produce Natal Attraction in high-definition. 1080p is an enticing prospect, but I'm playing it safe at 720p for two reasons - one it's less than half the amount of pixels being rendered, so less of a strain on the memory front and two, I don't want too many mistakes to be made visible with the increase in resolution. 720p at least allows some future proofing with the increasing proliferation of HD-content in the home, and is still a significant jump over NTSC or PAL standard-definition as it is, so I feel it's worthwhile.

Financial Aid

2009-01-26T22:56:00.003Z

Yes, I gave in, I felt the need to contact two important establishments - findmyfling.com and Sexhance! to appeal for financial aid by directing some attention their way with a little advertising here and there on the blog.

Both of these are key ingredients to Dr. Wright's search for a more upbeat sex life, and you can try them too! You buy now!

Test... Chasing Skirt

2009-01-19T20:40:00.006Z

With the layouts being worked on last week, this week I wanted to finally get cracking with some genuine, solid animation so, today I set to work on getting used to animating in Flash for the production phase. I'd laid out with my previous aesthetic blog posts that I was considering going down the 'line-less' route for the animation - a tall order considering I'd never tried it before, further to which, I'm not hugely well versed in Flash. Nonetheless, I set myself a target with the following image, created exclusively in Flash using the old tablet:

It wasn't too painful to pull off, but alas, that was only one image. I attempted some processes and then set to work on a test animation, all created within Flash [no paper used - green, man!] and then composited it with a freshly Photoshopped layout in After Effects. The result is a somewhat literal portrayal of Dr. Wright's favourite night time activity - chasing skirt.

Ah, the old carrot on a stick jig, only this time with 294.5% more backside. Though it did take the best part of a day to fully complete, I'm largely satisfied with the results as it abides fairly closely to the original proposal. I believe this will be a workable aesthetic for use in production of the film.

Nancy Heart... Done!

2009-01-04T00:34:00.004Z

So, without further ado - Nancy Heart in developmental sketch-o-rama:

I've moved away from my initial 'shark-hair' idea seen in the first sketches - I felt it was a little far-fetched and ultimately unattractive so I went down the Brooke Shields hairstyle road instead... it's a good road! Eye width is notably larger than either of the Wrights, and we have the sexy half-mast eyes á la Jessica Rabbit.

And let us not forget those Lovely Women of Bret Blevin's - those perfectly formed bodies have been squirted through the processing plant to form a Ferrari chassis for Nancy. And there we have it, the femme fatale is ready for surgical action!

Nancy Heart... Inspirations

2009-01-04T00:06:00.005Z

After the last post relating to Nancy Heart, I really hadn't given her much further thought, mainly because at the time I felt as though I'd more or less settle with what I'd created then. After a much needed mull, I've determined this is not the case, especially with the final character aesthetic nailed thanks to Dr. and Mrs. Wright.

To rewind for a second, I want to share [as I did a couple of months ago with Dr. Wright] some images of some female celebrities and characters whom I wanted to inform the look of Nancy. Firstly, Brooke Shields... a much younger Brooke Shields:

I'll be honest. The only thing that springs to mind when I see Ms. Shields is the bizarre character of Erika Ford she plays in an episode during the second season of Friends... Mainly because that's the only thing I'd care to watch with her in, nonetheless I feel that particular character is relevant in that she is beautiful, yet detrimentally marred by a screwed up perception of the world.

Secondly, Uma Thurman:

Probably no surprise to some, as many are aware she ranks highly on my list of 'tappable' women. She has a unique, yet clean facial structure, and there's a marked width between her eyes - something which adds to her attractiveness in my opinion, and so it was something I considered for Nancy.

And, undoubtedly, there will be those who draw parallels to Jessica Rabbit, and as such an iconic figure, it was hard not to draw inspiration on a general scale. So here she is, just because:

Beauu-dif-ful! Now on with the next post.

Mrs. Wright... Revealed

2009-01-02T01:23:00.007Z

First off, in my best pigeon French for no particular reason - bon annay, sivooplay. Moving on, some insightful scans of Dr. Wright's long suffering other half in sketch-o-rama.

Mrs. Wright is in her mid-late forties, and showing all the usual signs of middle age - a bit of weight around the mid-riff area, growing behind, facial sagging and a dated hairstyle - a visit from Gok Wan wouldn't go amiss. However, it has been imperative that she holds the potential to look quite attractive, if not a tad sexy [final scene considered] so hopefully, I haven't drawn her here in her everyday-form to look completely repellent.

Beneath the thick wooly polo-neck, she's simply a warm-hearted and trusting individual who doesn't wish to impose herself on her husband and is sadly quite oblivious to what he's been up to behind the scenes. It's a shame she has the news delivered to her in such a gruesome manner.

Dr. Wright... Uh-gain!

2008-12-25T01:33:00.008Z

I'm feeling better now, as if real progress has been made. A selection of rough development stuff above... looks as though I was drawing heavily upon early Hanna-Barbera there. And below, what you see I still wouldn't consider quite final, as I still want to mull it over and sketch ol' Wrighty a little more to see how he can be handled in 3D space and how rapidly I can bash out a drawing. Anyhew, feast away.

And Merry Christmas one and all - here's to hoping that you all have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny fuckin' Kaye.

Advanced Reading and Purdy Pictures

2008-12-25T00:41:00.010Z

I was milling around the internet the other day and fell into an all-too-familar time-sapping trance, specific to internet surfing - what I like to call 'The Wikipedia Effect'*. Bouncing from one hyperlink to the next I came across a few artists/works that warranted a sly right-click/'save as' proceedure and thus, I present to you some artwork that has helped me to further develop the aesthetic of my character designs [most notably Dr. Wright's] and also given me food for thought regarding inspiration for the overall, final aesthetic.

Firstly, Dr. Seuss' book Gerald Mc Boing Boing (1950) with illustrations by Mel Crawford [he's also illustrated alot of Hanna-Barbera-based books incidentally]. I've been toying with the notion of creating a 2D animation without any outlines, promoting simple, yet strong chracter design, partially for the challenge, though I don't know how workable it'll be. I don't know whether Genndy Tartakovsky [Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory] was at all inspired by work such as Crawford's, but it does remind me of him somewhat.

Next, a shot from UPA's Academy Award winning short (1951) of the book which carries a similar aesthetic [though the characters do have outlines.] What I'm more concerned with here however, is the stark simplicity of the layouts. Superb three-dimensionality and the sad mood of the scene is achieved through bold, basic tonal blocks and minimal line.

Finally, the front cover of the second [and final] issue of Dell Comic's Kookie (1962), created by John Stanley. Similar stuff going on here, albeit with more tonal detal and a rougher overall texture to the piece.

And there we have it, the so-called food for thought, some of which I have been putting into practice along with what else has been picked up along the way so far. Next up, more Dr. Wright designs.

*Not specific to using only Wikipedia, but the whole interweb. This and many other unique and useful phrases can be found in The Oxford English Dictionary of Fryisms.
Available in 2009 from all good book retailers.

To The Dumping Ground... A Prospective Shot

2008-12-25T00:30:00.007Z

With a proper title that doesn't infringe on record-related copyrights [probably] and a character design for Dr. Wright that is fast headed for 'final', the old blog header has been relegated to The Dumping Ground for those interested in the relics of this project as a new header solidifies my intentions further.

Oh, and of course, the work that went into the old header served a dual purpose. It's an illustration of the penultimate shot of the film where Mrs. Wright gets an unwarranted surprise as her husband's mutilated genitals are revealed to her in their full glory. So here it is, as if I'd reached into the future with all my might and dragged a high-definition screenshot of the film back into this blog for full scrutiny of all its errors and short-comings.

Lions, your feast is piping hot... well... microwaved to buggery.

A Potential Title

2008-12-17T14:07:00.008Z

For those who weren't already aware, Never Mind The Bollocks is a 'working title', meaning that it is subject to change. It was one of those epiphany moments when I woke up this morning that I could feel a new title stirring in my mind.

The result? Natal Attraction. Don't ask me where it came from, but it was just there. I'll mull it over and we'll see, but personally, I'm liking the sound of it. And whilst we're on the subject - obviously its a pun on the Michael Douglas/Glenn Close flick Fatal Attraction (1987), and out of curiousity I looked up some of the theatrical posters and came across this one... well, it's the main one:

For those few of you who still remember my recent animatic and haven't gone into therapy, it appears I've inadvertently referenced this [seemingly by fluke, as I don't recall this poster/cover] in one of the final shots as Dr. Wright's tackle 'rips' in two. Oh well, nice accidental homage. Maybe I should reference more heavily from here on in.

So, any thoughts or comments on the new title, let me know. Got a pithy title suggestion? Jot it down and I'd be more than happy to have a gander.

Nancy Heart... Sexy Clichés Galore

2008-12-09T15:03:00.007Z

Again, this should've been posted about four weeks back, but it slipped my mind. A few designs of the villain, Nancy Heart at two stages. Here's the begining stages of Nancy:

And moving on a week or two, some more sketches of Nancy. Yes, people are undoubtedly going to draw comparisons to Jessica Rabbit. It wasn't my intention to create a 'knock-off' character, but then again Jessica Rabbit is a walking set of clichés herself, and likewise I'm creating a similarly sexy and dark character here, so this is somewhat unavoidable. Funny thing I noticed as I was drawing however is that her hair shape resembles the head of a shark slightly... So I'm going to play on that factor - she's on the hunt for her prey after all.

So, that leaves only Mrs. Wright (whom, incidentally, is the one in the banner at the top of the blog). I'll have some designs for her up real soon, along with the second pass animatic. Good times.

'Lovely Women'... Eighties Minges

2008-12-09T14:47:00.011Z

Courtesy of Rob V's other half Charley, I have here a few sketches from an issue of DRAW! which includes the first part of Bret Blevin's How To Draw Lovely Women. I should've put this up a while ago as I've had these photocopies pinned to my wall for a while now (research purposes only!) and of course, they're highly relevant to the development of the characters of both Nancy Heart and Mrs. Wright.

That said, having designed proportionally more male characters in my time, I've found it remarkably easy produce some female character designs that I'm at least moderately satisfied with - far less of a struggle than what Dr. Wright has been.

So please, do enjoy these well-executed sketches of Mr. Blevins' - he's certainly got an eye for good female form.

Dr. Wright... Inspirations

2008-11-23T22:50:00.009Z

As I dosed off to sleep last night with thoughts of my previous post and today's upcoming post mulling away, I gave some thought to exactly who is Dr. Wright? Take a deep breath, it's a long one...

As has been already established, our Doctor is a highly learned and aldulterous man. The storyboards from the past couple of weeks [a few coloured ones of those coming up, by the way] have enabled me to further build up this character through his varied facial contortions, but hey, they don't come out of thin air.

I thought to myself about some characters from film and television who could bear resemblance to Dr. Wright in various terms [see below] which could help to inform the development of his character.

First up, everyone's familiar with him, it's Basil Fawlty:

Then, perhaps less familiar, Bill Murray as famous film actor Bob Harris in Sophia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003):

And finally, one whom I am not even terribly familiar with, Dr. Alan Statham from Channel 4's Green Wing (2004):

Now, I don't want to go into deep, profound character analysis and deconstruction here, I've merely listed these characters as; A. I find them each uniquely funny, B. They roughly match the age of Dr. Wright, and C. They all share frayed and amusing relationships with women or their spouses.

Looking over my boards/script, Dr. Wright can be seen as someone with a short fuse and something of a split personality:

At the begining he is grumpy and at the end of his tether with life and marriage.
Then, he recieves a message from Nancy, freshly invigorated.
This is followed by mesmerisation with her stunning beauty, throwing any notion of his intellect out of the window to become a gawping neanderthal.
Finally, in the third act, post scary-drugging, he is a broken shell of a man, now prepared to be humble towards his wife through guilt and remorse.

By breaking his 'modes' down this way, it can be better seen how he resembles each of the afformentioned characters:

His 'Act 1-self' - the grumpy/mid-life crisis-y one resembles Bob Harris, who is also sick and tired of his wife, ultimately finding he is happy to be away from her in another country, if only for a little while.
The 'End-of-act 1 into-act 2-self' is like Alan Statham, excitable, jumpy, and very horny - almost driven mad by it all.
And finally, Basil Fawlty, who actually covers Dr. Wright in some capacity across the three acts. He resents Sybil greatly, driving him to undermine her and spite her at many a time [and always in vain, or ultimately to bite him back in the end]. He's got the short fuse as well, and when Sybil bares her teeth, or with the knowledge that she will rain destruction on Basil, he relents with his tail in between his legs ('Act 3-self', Dr. Wright).

So, there we have a very crude break down of some strong comedy characters. With these qualities in mind, I set to having a decisive bash at Dr. Wright's look. And the result... meh, I'm disliking it with each repeated viewing, in all honesty...

I feel as though I have been struggling with Dr. Wright's look from day one - when I put pencil to paper, something very generic typically results after a couple of minutes. The result below I still feel is somewhat generic and is far from final, but I feel it is a step in the right direction, afformentioned thoughts considered.

Let's Se7en

2008-11-22T22:47:00.006Z

So, I was watching Se7en with a couple of my housemates last week... Neither of them had seen it and I thought they should be provided with a couple of hours of thrilling enlightenment.

A choice favourite of mine, director David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) presents us with a gripping story following a murder case revolving around the Seven Deadly Sins, and visually, I feel this film can send a shiver up one's spine with its tonal choices, cinematography, and most intriguingly - the opening and closing credits! I'll begin with a few screenies of them:

The still images don't quite fully do them justice, though the haphazard composition of both should give an idea of the unpredictable 'film-juddery' motion exhibited. The opening credits is a jumpy montage of the killer's preparations as we see him (or her) snipping bits of text and photographs up, writing things in a packed notebook, developing photos and so on. Images of these various actions are luma-matted onto one another for one or two frames at various intervals, with uneasy film-judder prevailent throughout. It paints a vivid and unsettling backdrop for the rest of the film to come...

Speaking of which, it was only made apparent to me only on last weekend's watch of the stark choice of tone during the case investigation versus the penultimate scene where the killer has been apprehended. An example of a typical outdoor shot in the midst of the investigation:

Not only is it consistently pouring down throughout the investigation, the tone further reflects this, even indoors with a cooler, fairly desaturated palette. It projects a sense of foreboding over the impending murders and how it will all wrap up in the end - as Morgan Freeman's character William Somerset plainly states to his partner, "This isn't going to have a happy ending."

Furthermore, here we have the result within the last ten minutes of the film:

Phew, hop out of the cold shower and into the sauna, things are quite the opposite temperature wise in the tense finale. The rain has stopped and the setting sun beats down as the journey draws to a close and a critical revelation is made. The stark difference between the two palettes only serves to create further unrest as things are wrapped up. And then, credits:

Very sad, but I think this is awesome - the credits travel downwards, which is really creepy I feel... I've never seen that before. Like the opening credits, the visuals are gnawed and gritty, composed of off-cuts of the killer's prep work, interspersed amongst the text throughout. I love how the film insists on maintaining its atmosphere, even as the majority of the audience are leaving the cinema, something that I feel would be imperative to keep a tight reign on - no stone left unturned.

When all's watched and done, this film really reminded me of its relevance to informing my own work, and so, that's another one to consider in NMTB's visual repertoire. Character designs for Dr. Wright, Mrs Wright, and twisted surgeon Nancy Heart coming up.

An Aesthetic

2008-11-12T22:48:00.003Z

Having started storyboarding, it's fast becoming apparent that I nail the aesthetic. As twisted as the script is (the level of which is somewhat new ground to me), I'm still aiming for some good laughs - the last thing I want is for people to wince at this and tug at their collars!!

So, where better place to start than with a look at an inspirational aesthetic created by Mr. John K. - most well known for creating Ren & Stimpy.

There are two main points to be examined here - firstly the humour exhibited in Ren & Stimpy is very typically of the 'gross-out/freak-out' variety and secondly, the poses/drawings are hugely exaggerated a lot of the time so as to exemplify this humour - oh, and let's not forget the psyched-out layouts that flash on screen during Ren's many spazzed out moments too (a possible device to consider for the tense moments leading up to and including the surgery scene in Act 2 of 'Never Mind The Bollocks').

As a child and up to now, this show, as one example of an aesthetic I would wish to draw inspiration from for my film, has never startled me or had me raise an eyebrow in 'wtf!?'ness - the work is so confident with its nostalgic 1950's styling and humour (even with an apparent lack of strong cohesive plot in many episodes) that it has always extracted belly laughs from me and the others whom I watch it with.

One to be watched closely for sure. In the coming days/weeks I'll also be researching relevant thriller/horror films that may also help me to develop methods to build suspense and tension in the plot, as well as expanding the aesthetic further.