Concept: Mood Boards

New blog! This is my first post.

For Concept class we had to create mood boards based on our 3 favorite stories that we came up with. I got really into making the mood boards and actually made several for 2 of the stories. All story titles are tentative, just had to name them for now.

1. The price of forever.

This story is about a woman who lives in a house deep in a forest, isolated from society. She ages from child to old woman in one day. In that day, she tends obsessively to a plant in her house that before midnight bears a singular fruit and seed. The fruit must be eaten and the seed replanted, wherein the woman wakes up the next day a child again. Its a story about the fear of death, and immortality and the price you pay to keep it.

The character would age throughout the day, so at least 3 character models would be necessary- child, adult, old woman. I am very drawn to the look of female Ghibli characters, so I would want to adapt that style for this if I went with it. 

The house she lives in is inspired by fantasy-type architecture and color palettes. I especially like the look of the cottage from Sleeping Beauty and Kiki's house from Majou no Tankyuubin

The magical plant would be a combination of several existing plants that have meanings that coincide with rebirth. The fruit would resemble a peach, as the peach of immortality is a famous icon in Chinese culture.

2. escapism

This story is much more personal to me, as I developed it based on my experiences living in New York City for 3 months and riding the subway more than twice daily for up to an hour each trip. It would be a looser story, more about the concept of escapism and fantasy vs. reality. I would escape the monotony and grind of every day life (and commute) through music. Without my headphones and music player, I would not have survived! 

I decided that I would want to set this piece in a place like Tokyo. Visually, the homogeneity and conformity of large cities full of strangers has a lot more impact when done with Tokyo in mind. Not only that but I have studied Japanese for over 5 years and find it close to heart. I also wanted to explore the fact that Japan is such a conformed society, yet its people produce some of the most amazing creative and technological works I've ever seen.

The look of the sailor uniform is one that I've always loved. It also reinforces the homogeny theme by making all the young students wear matching clothing to look the same. I'm also very inspired by the works of Jun from pixiv.net, who painted surrealistic pictures of school girls.

The dream sequence will probably change as I go along, but I want to stick with the idea of firefly-like stars flooding the train car. I also like the idea of a huge bioluminescent whale swimming by.

3. Rainy day.

This one was inspired by a photo I saw shared on a blog, the one on the far left. The story isn't really that fleshed out, the images are more just evoking an atmospheric mood.