Elevator Muzak..

I'm going to take a moment now to talk about music and sound. I have a friend who has said he's possibly interested in scoring it, but this is one area I genuinely would like as much feedback and suggestions as possible as despite being mildly proficient on the guitar (I could probably do session work for say, Status Quo) I'm usless at all other instruments.

Additionally I have no ability to read music and I doubt I could have much of a stab at composition, so I'm throwing it open to people. I know I have a lot of musical friends so if you want to send any suggestions, please e-mail the.cautionary.tales.of@gmail.com or e-mail here to request the first script and I'll send it to you. Over the course of this post I'll attempt to steer you in the direction I'm thinking and you can see if you agree or disagree.

My first thought was of course, Ennio Morricone's seminal scores to Sergio Leone's Westerns, 'the man with no name' trilogy and, as mentioned previously, "Once Upon A Time in the West". It was with some glee I stumbled upon this genius cover of it, by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. As several people I know can attest to, I've raved about them.



The two main things I love about this performance for the animation are the smallness of sound that the ukes create, yet when played in numbers they are beautifully full sounding. I feel this creates a great sound for the animation as it conveys the simplicity it has, but with the thickness of the sound of so many it also conveys the depth of story.

My second favourite idea in it is the bit 3:47 in where the backing vocals are a kind of "AAAAIIIIEEEE!!" noise. I think this and possibly the whistling would work well.

My next thought was that some sort of trumpet could be used to give an authentic Mexican sound. This clip should show what I mean with the "Mexican Hat Dance", and I think Rafael Mendez' accent is awesome...




Lastly, a bit of Rodrigo Y Gabriella, and I just love the rhythm to their playing.





That's about it for now, like I say, feedback would be appreciated.

Meet The Mexican...

Back again folks, not too hungover thankfully after going to a brilliant wedding reception last night for a couple of mates.

I thought today I'd show some influences on the main character, Esteban (the animation is named around him after all..) and then show our first attempts at sketching him.

Whenever I've described Esteban to anyone (check his description two posts ago if you've forgotten) they always ask me the same question: "Who's he based on?" My reply is very simple; he's an amalgamation of all the cunts I've ever met in my life, he's not based on one specific individual. He has the trait that a lot of people I've met have in common: namely that whilst he's self-obsessed and an idiot, he always ends up on top somehow.

A primary influence for him, (albeit a far cleverer, far more abstract series) was a programme called "Nathan Barley", previously shown on Channel 4 in 2005. It was a fusion of two of my favourite writers/comedians, Chris Morris (behind Brasseye, The Day Today, etc) and Charlie Brooker who was behind the superb cult website, TVGoHome. The series expanded on one of Brooker's previous characters who was in the delightfully-titled series, "Cunt", a programme found in the site's fictitous TV listings.

If you're the reading kind I'd recommend going here:

http://www.tvgohome.com/


If you're more visual, click below for a taste of Barley via Youtube.






Sadly, despite being superb, the programme received little public success and was not granted any further series. It would appear that the whole series (6 episodes) can be found on youtube, but I'd recommend buying it for the book you get with the DVD, which again, is hilarious. You might even say it's "well Jackson".

A second influence was a piece of music which triggered images in my mind, even though it's not Mexican, I still felt it gave the right feel for the animation. Here it is, again via youtube; Ennio Morricone's "Man with harmonica" music from Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West".





Anyway, from this I started to think of the "man with no name trilogy" and I think this made me think of Clint Eastwood's attire in the film. I wanted his style, but more modern and definitely with a lot more colour. After I sketched an idea for each of the main characters, my friend Dan transferred them to computer via his drawing-tablet-thing and coloured them in. So here he is, a very rough sketch and a first idea for our main man, Senor Esteban Sanchez.















Anyway, I'll be back soon with our next character, Esteban's cat, Miguel. Just don't call him that to his face...