Judge:
I had had asked several friends online their opinion of “Lamp” being a project I am pursuing on different platforms. The questions I was most interested in asking was:
1. What did they think of the contrast.
2.How much would this benefit from being animated.
3.How Apparent is the theme?
The general response I had received based on theses questions and responses in general weren’t exactly what I expected. Though it seemed generally they enjoyed the High contrast images, most actually liked the purely white/black images more than the ones with a gray background. However I felt that using stark white on black would take away more than it would give and would present itself to be a problem when animated, though It would be something to try out.
When asking about animation, some wanted to see this fully animated, some wanted to see this partially animated, and some wanted me to write this into a comic! All have valid points to a degree, but the mixed review put me more on the lines of wanting to still hit it halfway. To be more or less a hybrid media. Perhaps someday I can adapt this into a fully animated feature or turn this into a comic, but for now it’ll be assisted by animation, but not fully based on it. I guess it’ll seem somewhat like a very completed animatic gone video.
The theme was ambiguous as I assumed it to be. Not many people even thought there was an underlying meaning to all this. Some actually jokingly thought it was just a story about a lamp rather than a man. I took it into consideration, and I came to the conclusion that in the end, things should be made more clear. However, perhaps the ambiguity is a bonus, keep everyone guessing until the end, maybe never reveal it.
I don’t really know if my original scope for this project has changed at all, I’m still debating how far I want to push the story for the time I have, despite knowing what the story generally is.
Ambiguity is okay (letting people make of it what they will), but (like you said) if people are having a hard time understanding what’s going on, some thought should be put into clarify a bit (this could come through voice over too). It doesn’t need to be ‘on the nose’, everything spelled out for people, but there could be multiple interpretations. Should be leaving some bread crumbs for people to begin to make sense of this world. People generally don’t want to have to think TOO hard (if you lose your audience, they will tune out). I think a partially animated feel is fine. As far as black and white versus some shades of grey, I think thats up to you (are you leaning in one direction or another?) We’re not going to get a whole story here (doesn’t seem like). We are simply being introduced to this world and the chars. Will this be like an interactive storybook (scenes moves, voice over heard, then when people are ready, they can move to the next scene)? Can you clarify exactly how you intend to present this? Thanks TOM