Hey and here is scene 4 in wondrous watercolour.

More to follow....

Last week we confirmed a new member of the Rock Opera team - Ulli Keil who will be working as head animator. Welcome Ulli! Here is a snippet of her work.

Showreel 2010 from Ulrike Keil on Vimeo.

storyboards and sounds

..and here's a draft storyboard of King Neptune with his daughter frolicking amongst the waves.....
but whats that reddish cloud on the horizon?

Now we all know that you can't have an Opera without some singers....so we found these guys buried in the brickwork...and although they are a bit stony faced and hard to find, apparently they really can sing...just with a bit of a gravelly throat.

...And here's how it all began...apparently. After the Great Deluge, the Flood, The Universal Ocean washed up everything in its wake.

and the whole tide of evolution has been riding on the crest of that rolling wave ever since.

...but for how long?

Was it really just 6,000 years ...we know someone had other ideas

...or Abe Werner, the Goliath-like hulk of intellect, with brains and brawn to match, there's really no contest in this showdown.

Can the high heid yin of the Neptunians be beaten?

Apparently the monkeys know the answer.

Square Go

Well, if it came down to it,
who would you back in a fist fight?

Wee Jimmy Hutton, the wanton welter weight wi'oot a lot o' meat aboot him...

Huttons hiding place

Here's a clue to where you might find James Hutton currently hiding out on Arthurs Seat... they even named this quarry after him. If you need any more info there's an interpretative plaque kindly placed by those helpful folks in Historic Scotland.

Script is developing....

After some more productive meetings with Rachael, our script seems to be really taking shape. We have added in a boxing match scene between the Plutonians and Neptunians, who fight out their theories and a full on rapping, beatboxing, doo-wopping rock chorus to swing the narrative along and helpfully explain some of the more technical points of Huttonian/evolutionary theory in layman's terms.

Here are some more character sketches for the characters of James Hutton, John Playfair and the evil quarrymen who seek to quarry off Salisbury Crags.

Funding!

This project was kick started by the kindness of Malcolm Rider, of Rider-French Ltd who pledged us money towards the initial costs of making the film.

We also received the great news this week that this funding has been matched by the wonderful Arts and Business Scotland. This means that, along with our in-kind funding from Historic Scotland and Drake Music we now have £20000 of our budget for the project. We still need to raise another £15000 of cash which we're currently looking for through various UK trusts and foundations.

Eva

P.S. Check out Conrad's sketch for Abraham Gottlob Werner, head of the Neptunians and James Hutton's arch nemesis.

welcome rosie

The Hoda creative team have been flexing their filming muscles this week, working on a short two minute film about cycling in Edinburgh for the National Cycle Network film competition. Here is a snippet for an idea of the film. Also joining us on the team is animator and artist Rosie Walters.

We are all loving The Illusionist, which is currently playing throughout the UK. As well as including a cracking story, great animation and music the film shows some great animated views of Salisbury Crags, which are perfect references for Rock Opera. Long live Sylvain Chomet!

new characters, script developing

To update everyone on some other work being made by members of our team, here is a short film by Emma (Johnny Cash impersonation provided by Conrad) of her installation. Great stuff.



This week at Rock Opera head office we have been mainly talking about: singing rocks, male voice choirs and a little girl called Sarah who will be the main character of our film. Little ol' Sarah goes on a day out with her Dad, who is boring her to tears with stories about the history of Salisbury Crags while she'd much rather listen to her ipod and play her Nintendo DS. (sketches below are of the characters of Sarah, her dog and her Dad).When she goes walkabout on the crags, she steps on a time machine which transports her to the time of the Scottish Enlightenment where she meets James Hutton, John Playfair and Robert Burns. Will Sarah ever make it home? Will she realise that there is more to rocks than meets the eye? Find out soon....

welcome to the rock opera blog!

Welcome to the official Rock Opera page!

Rock Opera is a 10 minute children's animated film that will be made in 2011 by Hoda Productions.

The idea was conceived by Conrad Molleson, whose passion for all things rock like spurred him to tell the story of Scottish geologist James Hutton's groundbreaking discoveries through animation, making the origins of geoscience accesible and fun for schoolchildren.

This original concept has been developed alongside Emma Herman-Smith (artistic director) and Eva Riley (producer). This blog will keep people updated on the progress of the film. At the moment we are developing our script with our screenwriter Rachael Macintyre, and looking for more funding.

The picture above is a page of Conrad's ideas for a potential courtroom scene in the film.... watch this space for more to come!