Striped Dog

http://www.stripeddog.co.uk/
Striped Dog is a Graphic and Web Design Company based in the north west. They specialize in Print and web design. I was fascinated by there work and the professionalism they show in there online port folio. Even thought the two current briefs I have been working on revolve around motion graphics I decided to contact Striped Dog to see if they would be interested in taking a look at my work.
















I contacted them via email:

From:
philip o'connor (philoc7@hotmail.com)
Sent:
11 December 2008 20:30:29
To:
hello@stripeddog.co.uk
Hello Striped Dog,

I'm Philip O’Connor and I am currently studying a Multimedia Degree at Stockport College.

At the moment I am creating a self-directed moving image project and also producing a live competition brief for YCN. I was wondering if possible, if there is a chance to show you my work in progress to get gain some feedback. This would be a great help to improve my work and gain some advice.

I can see from your website that you specialize in Print and Web design. Most of my current work is moving image/motion graphics but I would still greatly appreciate any feed back.

Thank you for your time,

Phil O’Connor


I received an email from Ant of Striped Dog:

From:
hello@stripeddog.co.uk
Sent:
13 December 2008 18:34:40
To:
philip oconnor (philoc7@hotmail.com)
Hi Phil

Thanks for getting in touch with us. It would be great to have a look at your work, Always good to see new talent thats out there. And always happy to give feedback.

Look forward to seeing more.

Cheers

Ant


At the moment I am waiting for confirmation of a portfolio crit in the new year.

Rogue Robot

http://www.roguerobot.co.uk/index.html

Rogue Robot is a creative multimedia design company based in cheshire. There services cover Video production, motion graphics, graphic design and general multimedia services. After looking through there online portfolio I discovered they had done work for clients such as Fifa, EASports, Playstation, Harlem Globetrotters. Etc.
I really was fascinated by there range of work and really liked the individual style of each piece in there portfolio.

There short film entitled ‘Qualm’ really stood out from the rest of there work. The piece is a motion graphics piece and one of the main things I noticed about this piece was its use of composition, line and shape. The sound design within the piece is fantastic and really compliments the work. After discovering this company I contacted Rogue Robot via email. Here is the email I sent:

From: philoc7@hotmail.com
To: contact@roguerobot.co.uk
Subject:
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:53:43 +0000

Hello Rogue Robot,

I'm Philip O’Connor and I am currently studying a Multimedia Degree at Stockport College.

At the moment I am creating a self-directed moving image project and also producing a live competition brief for YCN. I was wondering if possible, if there is a chance to show you my work in progress to get gain some feedback. This would be a great help to improve my work and gain some advice.

Thank you for your time,

Phil O’Connor

I received a reply from Rogue Robot on the 11th of December. Here is the reply:

RE: ‏
From:
Rogue Robot (roguerobot@hotmail.com)
Sent:
11 December 2008 21:02:52
To:
philoc7@hotmail.com
Hello

It would be a pleasure.
Give me a call on 0161 428 6627 tomorrow afternoon.

Chris
ROGUE ROBOT
www.roguerobot.co.uk

After receiving this email I contacted Chris via phone. I discovered from the conversation that Chris is a Freelance designer who work under the name Rogue Robot.
Chris said he would happily take a look at my work and asked how I would go about showing him my work. I suggested us meeting in person so I could show him some work in progress. He agreed with the meet up but was busy before christmas but happy to meet after new year. He asked me to contact him again in the new year to arrange a portfolio crit.

Death to the Pixels

Death to the pixels is a company working within Moving image producing work for ad agencies, entertainment production companies and corporate clients.They specialize in a range of areas from commercials to music promos working with FX shots, 2D and 3D animation and more. Their clients include BBC, itv, Sky, Granada, Discovery, Five etc.

One piece from their portfolio I really enjoyed was a piece they created for ‘Bench/Revolution’ the piece consists of live action shots and visual effects and edits. The piece is short but effective. I felt that their work was in a similar field to what I would like to work in so I decided to contact them. (still waiting for reply)

Guillermo Del Toro "Hellboy II"

During my second year I completed a critical text essay, which reviewed a printed version of an interview with Guillermo Del Toro. As the critical studies brief asked me to critically analyze this text I read and re-read the interview which gave me an understanding and an in depth look into Del Toro as a person and as a film director and how the two sides meet. With this knowledge of Del Toro I went to see his latest film release “Hellboy II”. I Really enjoyed the film and watched in awe throughout as I new Del Toro’s history of developing physically real characters/sculptures which are used in his films.

After watching the film, i recently searched for and discovered a website that reveals Del Toro’s notebook which reveal sketches, development work and notes for characters and element that feature in the film:

http://www.hellboymovie.com/production/scrapbook/

The website (which is linked above) describes these sketches and notes, stating:

“As almost every fan knows, Guillermo Del Toro, the genius behind the Hellboy films, carries a little note book with him. Anyone that has gotten a chance to view his notebook knows that Guillermo is also a talented artist, and renders many initial characters himself. The beautiful little drawings are usually surrounded by copious notes; the combination of drawing and writing gives one a sense of precious ancient document. Guillermo has opened his scrapbook and allowed us to create an interactive look at the process of how he conceives the characters; Guillermo also did a video description to accompany each page giving an engaging look at the creative process.”























Like watching the film, I was again amazed by these detailed preliminary sketches and how these sketches have moved from an early drawing to the final sculptures without loosing any detail. (there is hardly any differences from Del Toro’s sketches to the final produced piece). An example of this can be seen when looking at the sketch of ‘Angel of death”.












As well as loving the working method of Del Toro. I was fascinated that the characters and background/sets in the film where actually created in a physical form as sculptures prosthetics, make up and props. I found this interesting because there are so many films in recent times that use CGI excessively and this idea made Hellboy II stand out and become unique because of its use of real materials and textures.