In the tale of the Pied Piper, we have a village overrun with rats. A man arrives dressed in clothes of pied (a patchwork of colors) and offers to rid the town of the vermin. The villagers agree to pay a vast sum of money if the piper can do it – and he does. He plays music on his pipe which draws all the rats out of the town. When he returns for payment – the villagers won’t cough up so the Pied Piper decides to rid the town of children too! In most modern variants, the piper draws the children to a cave out of the town and when the townsfolk finally agree to pay up, he sends them back. In the darker original, the piper leads the children to a river where they all drown (except a lame boy who couldn’t keep up). Some modern scholars say that there are connotations of pedophilia in this fairy tale.
I'm interested in the characters in this story, particularly the Pied Piper and the rats, as i feel they would work well being turned into puppet-like characters. The story as a whole would work nicely theatrically, and could be quite dark and sinister if i was to go with the dark version of the story. I'd love to use some quite textured patterns for the Pied Piper's clothing, possibly using some Brother's Quay characters as an influence for the design. Some rag-like patterns could be used to create the rats, making them look quite hand-made and organic. The environment would be set-based, similar to a theatrical set, using surreal and bold shapes.
Here's a quick concept i put together to give an idea of how textures could be used to create both the Pied Piper and the rats in this animation. I imagined the rats to be made of cloth, rags, and material-based textures.
Hey Ethan,
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of The Pied Piper very much. I think I showed you Jiri Barta's version when you first years? If not, check it out - it is wonderfully - and very darkly stylised; which might present an issue, as you'd have to move into an aesthetic territory which was far removed from that. In terms of identifying an innovative aesthetic, I suggest you get stuck into some dates/art styles research (i.e. what was happening visually at the time of the story's original popularity). I also suggest you look at costume design and set design for theatre (as distinct to cinema) for some visual cues.