Materials & Locations Research

Materials

I've been looking into what materials I should use to model the creature out of. After some research I've decided that Newplast plasticine would be the best for this project. Aardman use it for their stop motion, so can't be that bad.

On the downside, it is a bit on the pricey side. I've found a few places that sell it online. There are also a few art supply shops that have them, but none that I could find locally. I'm thinking I might go into Newcastle and have a look in the art shops there. 

For the armature, I'm going to use a 2mm aluminum wire. Thankfully that's a lot easier to find. I just need to figure out how much wire I will need and that depends on the size of the model I want to make.

Also, as the plasticine is heavy I'm thinking of first bulking up the armature with polystyrene. I have plenty of that lying around. This will also mean I can cut down on the cost of the plasticine.

Locations

I have also been looking into different locations for the set of the B movie. My original idea was to set it in Los Angeles, so I've looked at some photos of the city in the 1950's.

I've found some good photos for reference. Here are some of them-

However, as nice as the city is, I'm not sure how realistic it is for me to model something that's so busy in the time that I have. It also brings up another point - accents. It might create a problem trying to find voice actors that could do the accent.

I did originally want to set it in a small town in a southern US state, but again, the accents might be a problem.

Another possible location I came up with is Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. My family actually comes from there and I go over once a year to visit. It's a very beautiful city with a history. In the middle of the town centre is "Old Town", which was the original Tallinn, with walls to prevent from intruders etc.

Some photos of Old Tallinn-

If I did set the b movie in Tallinn, it would change my original idea. The film would now be set in Europe, which never happened in American B Movies. It might add a touch of humour, as I was thinking if I do go for Tallinn, the characters could have Estonian accents (think typical Northern European accent, in particular Finnish).

A well as looking at cities for purely aesthetic reasons, I've also looked into different towns in US that have had UFO "sightings" in 50's. Here's a list of the few that I'm looking at:

McMinniville, Oregon - where the famous "UFO" photos were taken in 1950;
Great Falls, Montana - Mariana UFO incident in 1950;
Lubbock, Texas - v-shaped formation of lights seen in 1951;
Bismarck, North Dakota - "UFO" witnessed by 45 people in 1953;
Levelland, Texas - multiple report of "UFO" in 1957.

There are, of course, a LOT more of these "cases", but these are the types of towns that would work for the b movie location (and time period) if I decide to go for a small town.