Deotto Alessandra – ADVFX 2024-2027

Characteristics I am aiming for: fluid shapes contrasting the rigid shapes of the castle. No symmetry, an intimate sense of space and the presence of familiar everyday objects to reinforce the human scale of the environment.

I thought of Castle Frankenstein as an imposition over the natural rocky landscape. With the hermit’s hut, I want to flip the narrative and instead create a space that exists and can coexist intimately with the environment it is encased in.

For this purpose I started gathering references that can visually oppose the grandiosity and the rigid shapes of the previous environment.

During my research, some environments/spaces that struck a chord with me are the man-made caves in Cappadocia in Turkey. They were cut from rocky formations and included places to live, worship and take shelter in a sometimes hostile environment. I think it aligns very well as a source with what I am trying to convey. The space in which the Monster takes refuge and where he learns how to become almost human. The intimate spaces and the culturally rich elements are in stark contrast with the cold and broad spaces of the castle.

I also kept available some refrences i used on the Bride: as both the bride and this environment are connected to a form of “otherness” I wanted to try and recreate some subtle connections to set them apart from the rigid and structured coldness of the rest of the elements in the projects.

In order to structure the environment a bit clearly I started by trying to create a functional map of the environment. I tried to understand how, in a place so tiny and intimate, there could be a division between a living space and a place to rest. In the movie, the hut is almost cozy, and I wanted to try to convey this feeling. Creating a map also will help me to move the camera for the final piece once the elements are in the correct spot.

Getting inspiration from my references I wanted to recreate a space where verticality is not very useful and everything is done at floor level. I wanted to create a space that extended horizontally with rugs, cushions, familiar items. The space is going to be divided by function but it would be impossible to build walls in such structures therefore I thought of dividing the space using drapes like in tents used in north Africa. Also the space is not going to have a lot of natural light and lamps and fire are going to be my main source of lighting and I am going to plan accordingly.

MAPS :

Of the three options I choose the last one for both entrance and position of the cookng space .

Thanks to this, I now had a general idea of how to distribute the spaces and the elements, but before developing some thumbnails I decided to study the shapes of the caves a bit and get familiar with the shapes:

Thumbnails :

After careful consideration, I chose the second one for the camera angle and the shapes of the cave.

Final sketch :

Before the lineart i wanted to include some lighting device therefore i started developing the prop from some moroccan light references. I had to keep in mind the landscape of the cave in which is impossible to have electric current. also being the new setting futuristic i thought abput some floating lights that could self sustain.

Final Lineart

Lighting and values:

The lighting has to be very soft since there aren’t much sources and there are no windows.

For the colour palette i tried to maintain warm colours to keep with the warmth and sense of security and the drapes are the same colour of some of the bride’s palettes to keep them close in their sense of ” otherness” .