Magic in the gallery

Written, animated and directed by Ella White

Log line

After someone breaks the rules and escapes, the young witch, Thea, must find them before magic is discovered at the V&A museum.

Synopsis

Thea is a witch who loves art. Her favourite gallery is the V&A museum in London; its where most of her friends are. Her friends reside in the paintings in which Thea brings to life. Through her magic, Thea is able to enter any frame she chooses, into another time, another world. However, she has one rule; no one is allowed to leave their frame. When one of her friends, the countess, escapes Thea must find her quickly so that the secret of magic can remain undiscovered. After searching for a while and with the reluctant help of another friend, Miss Woffington, Thea finds the countess and returns her to her frame with the promise of more visits. Thea goes on through the museum with hopes of watching the sunset in her favourite painting, Sunset on a bay by Georg Emil Libert. She gets thrown off course again when she finds another one of her friends, Alice, is still upset over her failed engagement. Thea warily enters Alice’s frame, though she can do little to help; after all, her painting is called The disappointed lover. Failing to cheer Alice up, Thea is on her way again, this time making it to The sunset on bay where she dips her toes in the sea and takes in the beautiful landscape.

My final film at uni: Text

An idea explored...

My final film at uni: Text

A lot of mind maps were created during this project! They each helped me to generate ideas and compile research accordingly.

Scheduling and planning

So many schedules were created during this project. As I was on my own, I thought it important to keep organised and on track with everything so that nothing got left till the end.

Peer and teacher feedback was given at every interim presentation. Hearing said feedback meant that my story changed multiple times throughout the production. Changes that were made gave the film that little bit extra.

To create the countess' dance, I videoed myself dancing around my garden after researching 17th-century dance. I then rotoscoped over my movements so that it made animating a lot easier.

My final film at uni: Pro Gallery

Character design

My final film at uni: Text

All of my characters were based on real people so I didn't have to be too imaginative when it came to their looks. I also tried to stick to the same colour palette so that they were easily identifiable.

I had to re-draw all of the featured paintings in my animated style for when they were brought to life by Thea.