I was cleaning up my apartment and found a couple old sketchbooks. One is maybe 5 years old, and another one about 2 years. I found scribbles and sketches of Pickled before it really took shape. I found storyboards, storyboard revisions, layout roughs and even old character design ideas. And a few life drawings. I'm glad I hung onto those sketchbooks. Take a look at some of my rough stuff:
ancient character design ideas

ancient character design ideas

ancient character design ideas

This are the oldest storyboards that found for Pickled.
This is waaay back in summer of 2008 when I had the idea that maybe Birdie could be a mail order bride robot.

Pickled storyboard revision drawings

Pickled storyboard revision drawings

Pickled storyboard revision drawings

Pickled storyboard revision drawings

a rough kitchen layout drawing

Pickled storyboard revision drawings

Dr. Sketchy's Toronto

Dr. Sketchy's Toronto

Dr. Sketchy's Toronto

Posted
AuthorAndrea K Haid
Well, I thought my leica had seen it's last revision but not so. There is a sequence where Birdie is thinking to herself/fantasizing and I think that in general it's a little confusing. More importantly I feel like I am missing out on a great opportunity by boarding something more "fantastical" as it is a sequence depicting a character's thoughts. One of my all time favourite films is Dumbo. When I was a kid I was mesmerized by the sequence depicting Timothy and Dumbo drinking the spiked water and having a nightmarish vision/fantasy of "pink elephants on parade". I also adored watching Winnie the Pooh have bad dreams of "Heffalumps and Woozles" stealing his precious honey.

I've sketched out the main shots of my film already. There are 7 main sets (aside from the unique ones, like the title, credits and simpler graphic music segments). These sketches depict the sets in angles with the most information. I can't scan them right now as my scanner is small and these are massive. I'm not ready to go through the scanning process but taking photos is a great way to get a very decent visual of these sets digitized. I'll crop them and put them here. I would love if you leave a comment! Are the backgrounds clear or confusing? Interesting? Do they have some depth? Are they informative, i.e. do you feel like you could imagine a character at home in these settings? Please take a look!

Below: chapel hallway, chapel interior, the kitchen, the cellar, the tabletop, the backyard





On a side note, I guess these Heffalump and the Pink Elephants sequences frightened a lot of kids. Looking at the comments in reply to these clips on youtube, one comment reads (in regards to the Heffalumps nightmare) "it did used to freak me out as a kid, it's still not as scary as the pink elephants scene from Dumbo... :S still can't watch that..." and another comment; "i'm tempted to get high and watch this just to make it more fucked up, though i like the music". When I was a kid I LOVED these animated segments! Parts of the Winnie the Pooh movie can be a little... slow. So getting to the Heffalumps part was definitely the highlight for me. Dumbo and Bambi were my favorite childhood films and I love them both still. I do not get why little kids are so easily frightened. I'd understand if a kid was scared at the boys turning into donkeys in Pinnochio, but other than that, nothing in an old animated Disney film ever felt scary to me. I remember having to leave the room while prisoners were getting their hands chopped off in the 1991 Robin Hood: Prince of Theives... that was too much for me at about 9 years old. And I had nightmares about Trolls for awhile after watching Ernest Scared Stupid... I guess I would have been 9 or 10 when I saw that monstrosity. Rant over.
Working away on some storyboards... This is from my new office in Sydney, Australia. I arrived here November 24. Since then I've settled into my new home and done some good wandering. As for my film, I've been drawing, boarding, putting together concept work, creating a colour script. Often when I have pages of work and reference material, I like to see everything relevant to what I'm currently working on at once. That leads me to tearing pages out of my sketchbook so I can see all the previous pages and not have to continuously flip pages.
Posted
AuthorAndrea K Haid
Categories"storyboards"