日の出 | Hinode (sunrise)
3-5 Min | Short Film
A treatment by Steven Phillips
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Contents
Introduction
The Idea
Our Approach
The Characters
Casting & Styling
Visuals
The Product
Cinematography
Art department
Audio
The Story
Storyboards
Post Production
Introduction
Hi there, I’m Steven. After a 20+ year career ascending from a 3D generalist to Creative Director where I oversaw in-house creative and animation teams I have decided to reframe my creative persona in 2024 as a stand-alone Digital Artist.
The first step of my journey has been documenting a backlog of project ideas and film treatments that I hope to create in the coming months and years. It’s quite a new feeling sharing my own ideas with the world that haven’t started from a client-supplied brief.
This treatment is for Hinode - a short film that sits somewhere between a fashion film, a music video and showcase for a fine furniture brand.
The film will be beautiful first and foremost, bringing together my love for fashion and my technical experience. Part of me also hopes it will inspire premium brands to encourage their marketing teams to explore more unconventional creative directions in the future.
This document steps out the key creative concepts which will be used to plan the project milestones and frame conversations with my collaborators along the way.
The Idea
In this film we follow two fashionable women who seem to exist in a place outside of normal space and time. They laze, dance and slink through a stylish home from the dark night until sunrise. Their clothing is flowing, luxurious and ornate, their surroundings are refined.
One character is reclusive and shy, she prefers the shadows, the other is more playful, fun and lively. Our shy character is eventually lured from the shadows and her presence at sunrise brings a golden light into their home.
The soundtrack develops over time, an evolving mix of classical music and ambient sounds that result in a final cohesive melody.
The initial creative spark for this film was the story of two characters from Japanese mythology, Uzume and Amaterasu. The fun-loving Uzume lures the more moody sun goddess Amaterasu from a cave with joyful dancing and jewel of polished jade, thereby returning sunlight to the world.
The Mood
Our Approach
This film will be animated in 3D software to allow me to explore new technical approaches and refine my creative voice. The primary tools I use are Blender and DaVinci Resolve, but I will also collaborate with other creatives where needed which will require efficient file sharing and creative conversations.
Being an all-animated film, the biggest challenge is to create the virtual high fashion garment and luxury spaces needed to deliver on my high expectations for the look and feel of this piece. My personal background in creating award winning architectural animation and 3D fashion content will be pivotal here, and I hope to work with some very talented artists that I have met throughout my career.
A thorough set of references will inform an initial 3D look development period using placeholder content. From there I will storyboard the high level narrative, and lock in the audio approach. I find this process works best as it provides a framework for the edit and moves us quickly into an animatic to check pacing.
With an edit locked, the final assets are then created to avoid any time wasted on unseen content. Final frames are rendered, scenes are assembled and colour graded iteratively as we refine the final edit.
The Characters
Our characters are not literal expressions of the mythical story, but they will take their cues from this information.
Amaterasu is the Japanese Shinto goddess of the sun, often depicted as the source of light and warmth in the world. Amaterasu is considered the ancestor of the Imperial family of Japan, she associated with peace, order, and harmony, embodying the ideal of a just ruler. In some myths, Amaterasu is depicted as a weaver, symbolizing her role in creating the fabric of the universe and maintaining cosmic order.
Ame-no-Uzume is a Shinto goddess known for her joyful and lively nature. She is depicted as clever and resourceful, as seen in her role in coaxing Amaterasu out of the cave with her dance and antics. Ame-no-Uzume is often depicted as a dancer, with the ability to bring joy and light-heartedness. In other interpretations, she is seen as a trickster figure, using her wits and humor to achieve her goals and outsmart others.
Casting & Styling
Amaterasu
Sun Goddess: Comfortable with metallic details, particularly gold. She wears more regal outfits, but when hidden in the shadows we mostly catch metallic details reflecting light
Imperial Ancestor: More sophisticated and upper class, she wears heels, belts and great jewellery with her hair in a neat top knot.
Peaceful and Orderly: Her clothing is minimal and sophisticated. Structured and masculine.
Heavenly Weaver: The reference to weaving in her description could lead us to include some more organic and embroidered details.
Ame-no-Uzume:
Goddess of Mirth: She is fun, she is energetic. We see her in more eccentric pieces, flounces, organza, florals. Happy to take the spotlight she wears bright colours.
Clever and Resourceful: She happily wears glasses, her accessories are more crafty, her hair is a cool pixie cut or short bob.
Dancer: As a dancer we a much more likely to see her barefoot or in sneakers than heels.
Trickster Figure: She has a wicked smile, she throws things at the camera, she poses on precarious edges and on tabletops.
Visuals
This film takes place mostly overnight.
The two girls are seen throughout the house, in mostly warm artificial lamp and candle light in darkened rooms.
We’ll use a strong regal palette, burgundy, royal blue, dark green and dark timbers. The pale skin and metallic details of the girls’ outfits will create sharp moments of contrast.
A blood red theme runs through the film’s scenery, mixed with slashes of steel blue as we see the sunrise approaching outside.
Shot in widescreen this film will be very visually moody. Film grain as a final touch.
The Product
The high end furniture pieces will be purchased online as 3D objects to ensure consistency with their actual product detailing.
Despite being a film about our characters and their experiences, it is framed and lit to make the most of the spaces they’re in - using an interesting piece of furniture and bold finishes in as many scenes as possible.
The Product is no one thing in this film, it is a harmonious blend of sophisticated elements that set an overall tone.
Cinematography
This film would be shot very cinematically. Slow moving cameras, dolly shots and focus pulls. Nothing fast, erratic or dynamic. The camera is methodical and precise.
Shot super wide in 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 we get very hollywood looking frames.
Combined with the set dressing and overall lighting theme these shots should look warm and anamorphic, soft edges and interesting bokeh.
Art Department
Seeing as this one is all 3D and animated, the art department becomes the 3D asset team. We will explore this as the project develops, as the Art Director I will lead the process here and explore some ways to get maximum impact for minimal effort.
The house will need to be researched. It could be an existing asset of a piece of famous architecture, or something from a library of high quality assets.
The interior spaces will need 3D furniture acquired, by working with artist from the arch viz industry it might be possible to use meshes they have created for previous projects.
The girls’ clothing will be created in Marvellous Designer and animated. I already have a reasonable library of starting points which just need to be tailored and detailed. Shoes would also need to be made in 3D.
The 3D girls themselves will be developed from my existing 3D female models.
Audio
The soundtrack starts out sparse and brooding, but not spooky. It’s night time and we can hear rain outside. Dissonant drones build some mood in the style of Jonathan Beppler.
As the two characters begin to interact with their surroundings they bring audio elements to life. A vinyl record crackles to life, a clock begins to tick like a metronome, a tv is switched on inadvertently by sitting on a remote control and the tune on the screen aligns perfectly with the existing melody to provide a musical counterpoint.
When our shy character finally leaves her reclusive space and comes into the open the soundtrack stops abruptly. Her footsteps patter lightly across the floor as she slips on her jade shoes.
Then, as the sun breaks through we get a satisfying but subtle crescendo and a final atmospheric brand moment before the titles roll.
The Story
This will evolve over time, with nuances being added as the characters and their personalities take shape. Based on the myth and its theme of a reclusive character returning to view, it may make sense to touch on a more modern theme like mental health or social anxiety, but only if it fits the world we build. This isn’t a public service announcement, it’s a fashion film.
It’s night, and it’s raining.
The two girls are inside and it’s primarily dark / low key.
One character is sprightly, she does the more iconic and energetic poses.
The other is reluctant, reserved, she stays in the shadows.
The move through stylish rooms, tapping, touching and sliding objects around.
The fun character places a pair of green jade shoes near a bronze mirror, which is about as literal as our references get to the mythical story.
The shy character sees her reflection in the mirror, admiring the jade shoes.
She is finally lured of the shadows and puts on the green shoes.
The sun rises and the rain stops as she brings the light back to our film.
A credits sequence shows them exiting the house, moving out to a sunlit, rain dampened garden.
Storyboards
Post Production
Color grading will be the biggest factor in achieving the look I want for this film.
Alex Roman’s film The Third and The Seventh will be the benchmark for the tones and contrast that I want to achieve.
His scenes are available online to investigate, so the challenge will be to apply his ideas to a pipeline rendered from quite different software.