Stars, where are they now?: AESTHETIC INFLUENCES - MONKEY DUST (and a few others)

Initial design of the dark dingy strip club 'Climax', that lures in the Vicar
(Influenced by Monkey Dust)

BBC's Monkey Dust is the main influence for my chosen aesthetic. It is a British 2d animated series which focuses on the dark side of Britain. I studied the series for my dissertation and really liked the style and drawing technique, as well as the way it set the mood with its use of purples and blues in the city scapes, and the way it represented dark surburbia, which I could use in my peice, inparticularly the part where a vicar takes his collar off and strolls into a strip bar - a joke heavily influenced by the series. (see above image). Unlike The Simpsons and Family Guy, which have had an influence on areas of the aesthetic, Monkey Dusts backgrounds are not bright colours, but are lifelike, straightforward representations of surburbia; Ocassionaly it is as if the images have been loosely traced from photographs. The backgrounds are coloured with detail, and not just coloured with 2 tones which makes sure the images dont appear flat and boring, but gives it texture, therefore resulting in a much richer aesthetic, making it pleasing on the eye, I aim to achieve this. The creator of Monkey Dust states that he wanted the series to be dark and morose, but for the city scapes to be beautiful at the same time. The reason Monkey Dust made sure there backgrounds were so detailed was so they could convey an emotion about the setting to the audience, I wanted my backgrounds to have depth and texture like those in Monkey Dust, as I want them to be interesting, believable as well as be pleasing on the eye.

I hope to add some more screen shots to display how Monkey Dust has influenced my film, but my housemate has the series locked away in his room at the moment- DOH!