August /2017
Primary research aesthetic inspiration.
Decided to research the circus, with the idea that the masked man meets the girl there, to make it seem less seedy compared to the masked man meeting girl in a park while he’s killing people. This would make the masked man seem less of a threat to the girl compared to the first scenario.
Unfortunately, cameras were prohibited during the actual performance so these are notes of what I remembered during the performance, as well photos of the interior of the circus.
Very detailed ceilings.
Lots of red, fog and red lighting, made the place look like it was glowing.
1 hour before they started the performances, the circus was selling: snacks, light up merchandise, posters, information booklets, glow sticks, light up headbands, £2 face painting as a clown, green screen photos, toys such as diablos, balancing plates with a person demonstrating and showing people how to use them on where the stage is. At a separate food stall at the side, they sold popcorn, slush, other foods. When the acts were playing, the food stall was closed. During the interval, they sold stuff again for “20 min but that time they started to sell ice cream too.
Lighting and fog seem like key things in the place
In between acts, there were 2 comedians that distracted the audience from the acrobatics packing away the equipment, lighting focused on them. They did a chicken dance, they filled up time by reading out people’s birthdays, one comedian would repeat to borrow £5 from the other over and over till the equipment was packed away.
1st act was the one clown playing the sax while the other interrupting him. After this, 2 acrobats came in doing a thing over and over but changing positions so the whole crowd got to see it in different perspectives. One person was laying down while flipping the other person from groin to shoulder. They were wearing red and white stripes.
There was a pole, group of people 2 on each side dancing on the side poles. At some stage, they started swigging from the middle pole side to side.
Another act there was no safety net, he literally was just walking and doing flips on the ceiling.
This is the photo of the equipment that was used on the ceiling.
For one act, a group of dancers came out first then the lead act walking in the centre, the dancers left. The main act had a long Asian costume, stripped it off then started to balance on a piece of string, slowly just walking back and forth, an assistant came over and handed her a unicycle, she did a handstand with her hands on the peddles with her head on the seat. This built up to her balancing on the string with a ladder.
An act with a group of people in glow In the dark clothing doing flips ( they had a safety net)
The final act the red stage opened and was gone, water flowed in horse apparatus came in, it went around and round. In the centre was someone doing acrobatics with a fishing type net, at some stage the side acrobats were hanging from their hair
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Secondary research
Decided to search online to see if anyone snuck out some footage of any of the performances.
Found some promo clips from the circus itself of the same acts as described
This is a video someone secretly filmed in 2015, some acts were the same, some were not.
Going to think about what equipment or if the characters are going to do any acts at all, if the characters are doing any acts in the animation, to have clear boredom in their face that they keep doing the same acts over and over.
Someone recorded this in 2015, exact same act saw in their 2017 show.
In conclusion: for the final animation going to think about: lighting, characters use of distraction, possible food or gimmick sales, corny humour, clothing, if where to incorporates acts in the animation to have a group of characters enter dance around then leave when the main character enters the floor, narration since from research there was a narrator on the speakers, have the characters have a smile on their face but actually feel dead inside. From research might think about the characters having some sort of accident then the other characters doing a distraction for the audience.
References Facebook.com. (2017). The Blackpool Tower. [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/TheBlackpoolTower/videos/1545964602089936/ [Accessed 22 Sep. 2017]. Facebook.com. (2017). The Blackpool Tower. [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/TheBlackpoolTower/videos/1545962752090121/ [Accessed 23 Sep. 2017]. Facebook.com. (2017). The Blackpool Tower. [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/TheBlackpoolTower/videos/1545955615424168/ [Accessed 23 Sep. 2017]. Facebook.com. (2017). The Blackpool Tower. [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/TheBlackpoolTower/videos/1545953535424376/ [Accessed 23 Sep. 2017]. Facebook.com. (2017). The Blackpool Tower. [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/TheBlackpoolTower/videos/1545951985424531/ [Accessed 23 Sep. 2017]. Facebook.com. (2017). The Blackpool Tower. [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/TheBlackpoolTower/videos/1545966008756462/ [Accessed 23 Sep. 2017]. YouTube. (2015). Mooky Part 2. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woki06rSM_o [Accessed 23 Sep. 2017]. YouTube. (2015). The Blackpool Tower Circus Highlights. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pYsSMsQeYU [Accessed 23 Sep. 2017].
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