I started looking at some backgrounds in books and found some really nice examples. I want my backgrounds to be simple as the focus needs to be on my character. I found a few images which had just spotlights in the background and this would definitely work for my film.

I love the texture used in this image, i will try and incorporate some textures in my backgrounds as i feel they give more depth to the images.

The following image is from the book Dream Worlds, which is full of Disney artwork at pre-production stage. I particularly love this image for its simplicity and the use of colour to dramatic effect. I will definitely use this to help with my own backgrounds.

Storyline

An ageing stripper is happy and content with her job as the only dancer in the club she works in

Young hot stripper starts working at club, she is very nervous

Old girl helps the young to get over the fears.

New girl is really good, old stripper feels she is being replaced by younger model

The battle to be top dog starts

Tries to improve body to compete with younger girl

Goes to have plastic surgery to ‘improve’ body.

Now looks inhuman and grotesque

Rejected by audience.

I visited London to view the exteriors of sex clubs to give me ideas for my animation. I photographed the outside of a few clubs in Soho to get some ideas for a typical strip club sleazy. I particularly like the neon lit signs which make the club look alluring but dubious. I want to use the bright neon lighting for the inside of the clubs as well.

The majority of women have a complex about their own body; we all have something we don’t like about ourselves. Comparing your body to another woman’s is second nature to us and there is definitely competitiveness among women to look the best. This is where my idea about bringing in my second character for Loretta to compete/compare against came from. Loretta is now a woman competing for her stage and her audience.

The idea of competition with the new girl will work well in the animation but I don’t want to concentrate too much on the new girl; if I develop her character too much it will take up too much footage time and I want the focus to be on my main character.

Just managed to pin down my concept and premise for my film:

Concept: Chasing shallow dreams will not make you happy

Premise: Ageing stripper tries to recapture her youth and beauty through drastic measures

I looked for images of strippers for influences. I really like the strong contrasts in highlights to shadow and the purple, pink and red colours create a strong palette.

After speaking to Nick, I realised that for my character I would need to look at the seedier side of life. My options that work best for my film idea are pornography, prostitution and working at a stripclub. Theses professions for my main character would work as they all strongly rely on looks. I decided to go for the least seedy option by going with the stripper idea. I realised it would suit my story best if the stripper was older; she’s put on weight, her body is starting to sag, wrinkles have set in and her youth is slipping away. I thought that as the stripper is past her prime, she would give into the pressures of changing her body more easily as she feels she needs to regain her youthful looks. This idea is more body orientated and held more interest for me than any of my other ideas.

I looked again at what my character could be and came up with some ideas for places and jobs which relate to the body/looking good.

I thought about using a celebrity for my character who could be a young girl making it in Hollywood, exposed by publicity, and being scrutinised by the world along with peer pressure she is pushed into having plastic surgery. However, I decided the idea did not focus on the body enough, so I had to give the one up.

I also discussed the idea of my character being a female life guard with Nick but it became clear that this did not fit in with the idea of plastic surgery and would not work so I considered other professions where the body is looked at or is vital to the job. So, at a bit of a dead end at the moment...

My character idea is a young woman who feels she don’t fit in. She believes she is not attractive and is self-conscious about her body.

I pretty much immediately thought of having a female character for my film as the female body has a lot more visual potential in animation with this topic. The change in appearance with plastic surgery would be more dramatic than with a male body. Also, plastic surgery is something more frequently undertaken by women than men as the pressure to look good is greater on women. There is also the fact that I would also find it easier to relate to a female character and therefore could make the character more believable.

I brainstormed some ideas to help me visualise my character more clearly.

I found some examples what can happen when cosmetic surgery goes wrong.

I would like my story to be a commentary on the obsession with beauty in today’s society. I have always had an interest in the distorted views of beauty in the modern world and this is a very topical issue that I would like to explore in my animation. Modern society has a fear of ageing and as women get older they ‘lose their looks’ and become disposable and irrelevant, are traded in for younger models and sometimes resort to plastic surgery to try and get back their youthful looks. This has been happening for a long time, whether it be men trading in their spouses for younger women or dropped from a media job for being’ too old’ e.g. Moira Stewart, the newsreader and Arlene Stewart, judge in ‘Strictly come dancing’, who were both sacked for this reason.
The idea is not just about what men think about women, but what they ‘should’ look like according to magazines and the rest of the media. The desire to look ‘young and fresh’, free of cellulite, slim but with boobs and hips and wrinkle free can for some women become obsessive.