Deliverables....

I think I'm finally finished! I thought I should address the fact that all of my works cited are electronic. I am waiting for a few books to come in the mail, and I'm obviously planning on finding some more research. At this point, I've only been looking online. I do have quite a bit of info though. I think I've got everything included in my paper...we'll see!

Positive Feedback

While doing research and looking for black widow experts I came across The American Arachnid Society, and their head "expert", Jerome Rovner. I wrote him an email and explained what I was doing, and he gave me contact information for a man named Chuck Christiansen, founder of Spiderpharm.com. Jerome told me he knows more about black widows than anyone else in the world, and supplies their venom to pharmaceutical companies. I emailed Chuck, who got back to me almost immediately with a bunch of scientific articles that show molecular makeup of the venom and antibodies. So exciting! That's exactly what I needed so that I could model them close up. Things seem to be coming together...

Continued research....

I'm continuing to write my paper and figure out where to get some more research for my thesis topic. I visited Barnes and Noble, because I figure I should buy some books on the subject and not just borrow them, but they didn't have anything I needed. I'm going to try a few other book stores tomorrow. I'm waiting for some email replies and seeking out experts on the subject of spiders and poisonous venoms. I'll keep everyone posted on any new happenings....

Finally!

My storyboards are finally working! Take a look.

Storyboards again...

Storyboard troubles and Current Progress..

Sorry that my storyboards are so small! I'm working on a way to be able to click on them and make them bigger, if anyone has any suggestions let me know!
My current state is RESEARCH...there's a lot of specifics I don't know about, so I'm currently researching books I can buy and experts I can get in touch with....I'll post when I find something!

Widow's Peak Logo

I've made a logo for now, it shows where I am visually in my project. I don't want this to be my final logo, because I want the spider that is in the logo to be one that I modeled eventually. The text is visually in the shape of a mountain, which refers to the campsite. Any input and more ideas would be appreciated!

Storyboards and Visuals

I'm continuing to draw out new and more detailed storyboards. I'm also taking some photos that I can use to show my live video shots. I need to find a visual of a spider that will be used in my logo, which will eventually be the spider I model in Maya. The storyboards should all be posted later today.

Next step for "Widow's Peak"...

I feel like I've done quite a bit of research on my spider, so now I need to start with my camper. Most of the shots of the camper, except for the closeup of his arm and inside his body, will be live action. I therefore need to find my camper. I also need to find someone to help me with the live action shots. For now, I'm going to redo my storyboards, getting much more detailed on my "flash" shots, which show large amounts of time and action in short flash shot sequences. I also need to decide on my AfterEffects look, and study up on how to create it. In the meantime, I will take still images of my live action footage to get a better visual idea and time line of my story. I will post them when they're complete.

Visuals..

This is a Black Widow Spider, courtesy of http://www.archaeologyfieldwork.com/images/healthandsafety/blackwidow.jpg



Closeup of hourglass marking on Black Widow spider, courtesy of http://www.abdn.ac.uk/emunit/emunit/lm%20web/pages/black%20widow%20spider.htm



Closeup of spider eyes, since I will be modeling the spider in CG, I want to get very detailed and will need close up images like this as reference. This is courtesy of, http://www.abdn.ac.uk/emunit/emunit/lm%20web/pages/black%20widow%20spider%20eyes.htm



This is a CG spider I found at the microsoft gaming website. I would like my modeled spider to be much more detailed and "scary" looking than this one, but it's a good start. Courtesy, http://www.microsoft.com/games/impossiblecreatures/ss_black_widow_spider.asp



One example of a Black Widow spider bite, courtesy of http://www.brownreclusespider.org/black-widow-spider/black-widow-spider-bite.htm



Another spider bite example, this is what they call an "abnormal" black widow bite, courtesy of http://www.ecureme.com/atlas/data/Black_Widow_Spider_Bite550_ab.htm

Research

I have been doing a bunch of research on spiders, and the consensus seems to be that Black Widows are the most dangerous, yet common in the American South all the way up to Canada. This makes my story somewhat realistic. I've also been trying to figure out common symptoms of a spider bite. According to my research, here are a few:

-sometimes victim will experience pain at site of bit, but danger is that they may not
-abdominal pains
-sore muscles, especially feet
-dry mouth
-paralyzed diaphragm
-excessive sweating
-swollen eyelids
-difficulty breathing

According to this article, the victim is usually given anti-venom or calcium gluconate.
Source: www.badspiderbites.com/black-widow-spider.php

About Black Widow Spiders:

-most common poisonous spider bite in the United States
-spins irregular web in crevices/dark places
-long legs with dark black bodies, female has distinctive red hourglass-shape marking on abdomen
-female is poisonous, male is not
-local pain and swelling at sit of bite, pain maximizes after 1-3 hours
-bites can be fatal, but less than 1% result in death

Source: http://nd.essortment.com/poisonousspider_rlpt.htm

More specific symptoms of BW spider bite:

-four species of Black Widows, all have strong venom
-bite is not always felt, but when it is, feels like a pin prick
-initial pain dissapears rapidly leaving a local swelling and two tiny red spots that appear at site
-muscular cramps in shoulder, thigh and back usually begin within 15 minutes to three hours
-severe cases cause pain spreads to abdomen, blood pressure rises, there is nausea and exessive sweating, as well as difficulty breathing
-death may result depending on the victim's age, physical condition and location of the bite

Physical appearence of BW spider:

-Southern BW spider: shiny, jet black color w/ red hourglass marking on underside of abdomen and another resd spot at tip end of abdomen
-Northern BW spider: row of red spots located in the middle of the back and two reddish triangles located on underside of abdomen, resembling hourglass
-Southern BW is the most widespread widow spider in southern states and is found as far north as Massachusetts
-found outdoors in places such as stumps, wood piles, rodent burrows and storm sewers

Source: http://woodypest.ifas.ufl.edu/spider.htm

Title?

So I slept on it.....if the campers are camping on a mountain, and in the opening shot we pan past a sign showing the name of the mountain/campsite, which is "Widow's Peak", would that me a good title? Ya know, since I'm using a black widow spider?

Title...

I didn't think it would be so hard to come up with a title for this story...everything I think of sounds so corny! Like, "Spider Camp"?? Dumb. Anything to do with "nightmare" seems to sound like a stupid horror movie. I was also thinking of just calling is by the name of the spider, like "Black Widow". That doesn't sound too great to me either though. Does anyone have any ideas??? I'll keep thinking...

Story Beats

Here are what I believe my story beats to be so far:

1. Wide shot: fade in of campsite
2. Camper sleeping inside tent
3. Fade in to spider in background, moving towards camper
4. Spider crawls onto campers arm, quick zoom in to see spider bite camper
5. Zoom in to spider AfterEffects shot: spider rotates while it's name and attributes are typed out on the screen
6. Zoom back to spider, and quick shots of camper crying out in pain, ambulance, hospital lights
7. Cut to venom flowing into blood stream, to respiratory system; AFX shot of lung and list of symptoms camper is experiencing relative to breathing
8. Back to blood stream/venom, zoom to AFX shot of muscle and symptoms camper is experiencing relative to muscular system
9.Back to blood stream, quick cut to anti-venom being injected into camper, then show medicine flow through blood stream
10. Quick shots of camper lying in hospital bed and heart monitors, zoom in on camper's closed eye
11. Pull back on eye, eye opens, reveal camper back in his tent
12. Camper looks relieved, pull back to reveal shadow of a bear outside the tent.

The blog is up...

Welcome to my thesis blog! So far this is what I know....my thesis is about a spider bit and what it does to the victim. I am slowly coming up with a name and logo....I'll keep you posted!