Saturday 25 April 2009

The Name Game

I've been thinking of some more potential names for the show. I was reading something about an Inuit language having 100 different words for snow and ice and I wondered if there were many for 'house' as well. There is Igloo, which means snow house, but there are more too, each coming from a slightly different language and area. Here are some of them:

Ungluq
Nanglu
(translates: Sod house - The prairie lacked standard building materials such as wood or stone; however, sod from thickly-rooted prairie grass was abundant)
Iglu
Iglupiaq
Illu
Illuk
Illuvigak
Ittiq
Illuigak
(translates: Snow house, hunting hut, beaver’s den)
Ula

Of these I quite like Ula (although too similar to U.A.L maybe?), I also like Beaver's Den. Or Ungluqs and Iglus - but any combination of these words could maybe be a bit too weird.

Anyway, I tried to think of more combinations with words associated with what we're doing and remembered the term Safe as Houses - which could be a good name. Safe as Sticks also sounds nice. Or add any appropriate word after 'Safe as...' and it could make a good name. This led me onto the old nursery rhyme Three Little Pigs. It's loaded with brilliant imagery and words.

Here is Disney's fantastic 'Silly Symphonies' version of the tale:



We may end up making 3 different structures instead of 4 or more, so it may be nice to reference this tale in that way (even if we make more than 3 it could still be interesting). Potential names from the tale:

Three Little Pigs

Three Little Piggies

Who's Afraid of The Big Bad Wolf?

The Big Bad Wolf

Not by the Hair on My Chinny Chin Chin

I'll Huff and I'll Puff

I'll Huff and I'll Puff and I'll Blow Your House Down

Open The Door and Let Me In

Blow Your House Down


I have a feeling some of you will probably hate this idea, but I quite like it.
The Big Bad Wolf, Three Little Pigs and I'll Huff and I'll Puff all work for me.

There's also a lot of brilliant material that we could draw into the flyers/posters/identity of the show if we so wished. And I don't mean as directly as drawing pigs and wolves everywhere, but look at the style of the following illustrations; heavy outlines, faded pastel colours and even the typography all create quite a distinctive language that would be nice to borrow/bring our own elements into.






It would also bring a playful element to the show, which to me has been lacking slightly from this project - unlike the work we've previously done together.

Also, here's a clip of Christopher Walken reading The Three Little Pigs on the Jonathan Ross Show. It's slightly annoying with the audience laughing every 5 seconds but he does a good job, I suppose with a voice like that it would be hard not to.



I'm aware we probably don't want to make too much of a connection with this tale but I think it could be interesting. Anyway just some ideas.

"I built my house with stones,
I built my house with bricks,
I have no chance to sing and dance
Cos work and play don't mix."


Remember that kids.

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