Views of Church

Sketch views of the North and East walls. Drawing to follow when building the the Church in Maya.

Storyboard 1 (cont from Scenes Idea Outline)

Script Draft 2

The Knights Templar was an order set up after the first crusade in 1099, men devoted their lives to protecting pilgrims travelling in the holy land of Jerusalem.

In 1168 the Temple Church in London was built as a British headquarters for the vastly growing order. It is located between Fleet Street and the river Thames. The land between the temple and the river served as a training ground for the knights. The Knights ran an early form of banking from the Temples across the holy land as protection for the pilgrims.

The round Naive of the church was designed and modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Knights buried in the round were the most powerful of their generation, a burial here was greatly desired as it was a representation of a burial in Holy lands of Jerusalem. Within the Naive there are nine life sized effigies made from marble, these effigies are of members of the Templar order.

Looking closely at the columns supporting the Naive, we can see that they lean outwards at marked angles. The Naive stands freely, with Gothic arches which rise to the drum. The Templar’s where the first to engineer such a design.

The rectangular chancel was added in 1240. The extension was built when the Templar’s expect King Henry III and his wife Eleanor or Provence to be buried at the Church. Henry III was instead buried at Westminster Abby, it was in fact his Son Henry that was buried at the Temple Church. Many Kings of England held a close relationship to the Templar order.

The Templar order became very wealthy; many believe it is this wealth that led to their eventual downfall. When accusations where raised about members of the Templar order, King Philip IV of France took upon the rumours for his own uses as a way out of his debt to the Templar order for their help in a war against England. King Edward II of England stood in good accord with the Templar order, giving them a role in public affairs, financials issues and diplomacy, before the accusations arose. Edward at first refused to believe the accusations made by the French King but later followed his lead after the intercession of Pope Clement V. In 1324 Edward reluctantly seized and handed over the assets of the Templar order, including the Temple Church, to the Knights Hospitaller, who rented the church to law students.

The Temple Church survived long after the fall of its creators. In 1666 London saw the worst disaster of the possible, the Great Fire which tore apart the city bring it to the ground. The Temple Church as one of few building to be spared the devastation, although no damage was done Christopher Wren carried out renovations to the interior of the Church which included the installation of its first organ. More renovations and restorations came after the Temple Church received heavy bomb damage in the Second World War, in which the spire was destroyed and columns damaged. The columns where replaced was exact replicas and the spire that once stood over the Naive, pointing towards God, was redesigned to house a drum.

(approx 3 - 3 1/2 mins for voice over)

Test Piece 1

A test model of the skeleton structure of pillars that holds the weight of the roof of the chancel. the vertical columns stand with 4 circular pillars encased with stones blocks top and bottom. out of the top of each stone block 8 more pillars make up the roof supports, these 8 pillars sprawl out in all directions.

To build an effective scale model of the Temple Church, these pillars must be set up as exact as possible to the Church, otherwise a huge array of problems and proportions could spring up.

Script Draft 1

The Knights Templar was an order set up after the first crusade in 1099, they devoted their lives to protecting pilgrims in the holy land of Jerusalem. It is argued that the Templar order was the first military order founded by the catholic church.

In 1168 the Temple Church in London was built as a headquarters in Britain for the vastly growing order. The temple church is located between Fleet Street and the river Thames. The land between the temple and the river served as a training ground for the knights. The Knights ran an early form of banking from the Temples across the holy land as protection for the pilgrims. Thieves are less likely to target someone that is not caring valuables.

The round Naive of the church was designed and modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, believed to be the most holy of Christian churches built upon the death and resurrection spot of Jesus Christ. Knights buried in the round were the most powerful of their generation, a burial here was greatly desired as it was a representation of a burial in Holy lands of Jerusalem.

Looking closely at the columns supporting the Naive, we can see that they lean outwards at marked angles. The Naive stands freely, with Gothic arches which rise to the drum. This was an architectural marvel at the time of creation. The Templar’s where the first to engineer such a design.

Within the Naive there are nine life sized effigies made from marble, these effigies are of members of the Templar order with the oldest being of Sir Rodger de Ros. The most famous of them lies Sir William Marshall who served as negotiator of meetings between King John and the Barons Sir William later became regent during the reign of King Henry III.

The rectangular chancel was added in 1240 by Norman King, Henry III. The extension was built when the Templar’s expect Henry III and his wife Eleanor or Provence to be buried at the Church. King Henry III was instead buried at Westminster Abby. It was in fact his Son Henry that was buried at the Temple Church. Many Kings of England held a close relationship to the Templar order, King Richard Believed himself to be a member of the Templar order, often disguising himself as one on journeys from England to the East.

The Templar order became very wealthy; many believe it is this wealth that led to their eventual downfall. King Philip IV of France take upon a chance to rid the world of the Templar order when accusations where raised about members of the Templar order, it was generally agreed that the charges were false yet King Philip took upon the rumours for his own uses as a way out of his debt to the Templar order for their help in a war against England. In 1324 King Edward II of England reluctantly seized and handed over the assets of the Templar order, including the Temple Church, to the Knights Hospitaller, who rented the church to law students. King Edward stood in good accord with the Templar order, giving them a role in public affairs, financials issues and diplomacy, before the accusations arose. Edward at first refused to believe the accusations made by the French King but later followed his lead after the intercession of Pope Clement V.

The Temple Church survived long after the fall of its creators. In 1666 London saw the worst disaster of the possible, the Great Fire which tore apart the city bring it to the ground. The Temple Church as one of few building to be spared the devastation, although no damage was done Christopher Wren carried out renovations to the interior of the Church which included the installation of its first organ. More renovations and restorations came after the Temple Church received heavy bomb damage in the Second World War, in which the spire was destroyed and columns damaged. The columns where replaced was exact replicas and the spire that once stood over the Naive, pointing towards God, was redesigned to house a drum.

(approx 4 1/2 - 5 mins for voice over)

Influences for Style and Content

After my second tutorial for this project, i have begun to look at this project a little differently to the others from first and second year. Third year is now my final attempt for gaining experience and getting things right for my project work. The design for this piece of work will be very television oriented unlike my filmic projects of the past.

There are many programmes that present history and architecture together, programmes such as Megarstructures, Cities of the Underworld, Grand Designs, just to name a few. They all have there own individual styles, some using CG more freely than others.


Megastructures - Natural Geographic Channel

Megastructures uses both live action shots and CG to the breakdown the creation process of the structure, using CG to show either simulations or areas within the structure that would be normally hidden from the public. Megastructures uses a voice over throughout the programme to tell the what is being seen in the scene, it also uses interviews with experts to explain some of the more complex information. there is ambient music which plays low in the background throughout the programme. the CG shots are generally a faster pace to that of live action shots which pan across the structures.


Cities of the Underworld - History Channel

Cities of the Underworld is another that uses both CG and live action, this programme uses CG more extensively, then in Megastructures, the show the audience what is no longer their the film or to show what is underground that can no longer be seen. Cities of the Underworld also uses a combination of voice overs and interviews, however this porgramme also uses a presenter which conducts the interviews. The CG work within this programme shows alot of information in a short amount of time, long shots of fast moving cameras which swoop from underground following paths to areal shots from building to the next. Building walls become transaprent to see information of the construction inside, specific areas which are being described are indicated with a yellow glow instead of lables and arrows. Cities of the Underworld also use manipulated movinig painting to represent the history.

Grand Designs - Channel 4

Grand Designs with presenter Kevin McCloud uses very little CG, but uses CG as a way to look forward through designs of new builds.

The style from Cities of the Underworld is an influence to my ideas and design for showing the history of the Temple Church building in London. To use long shots throughout to create a line for the narritive to flow giving information about the building itself and the history that surrounds it culture.

Scenes Idea Outline

1. Blue prints / ground plan of the Temple Church. the building should then grow out of the page to a top view of the temple church. all in grey scale.
voice over - who are the Knights Templar (brief history)

2. from a top view the camera will tilt track and rotate around to the south entrance of the building. as the camera move the colours of the build fade in with the surrounding location of London in which the church is situated
Voice over - the church - Who, Where, When and Why

3. from a shot of the south entrance the camera will rotate clockwise to the north Eastern corner of the chancel.
Voice over - the Chancle - Who, Where, When and Why

4. the outer walls closest to the camera will fade and become transparent to show the interior of the building
Voice Over - the Naive - Who, Where, When and Why

5. the camera will pan and rotate around to a side view and the Naive. as the camera moves the transparency will move down the wall also to give a complete view of the interior. the walls of where the camera moved from will become opaque once again.
Voice Over - the Naive - Who, Where, When and Why

6. camera tracks into the Naive, all walls become opaque agian, camera looks at details of columns in the naive.
Voice Over - the Naive - Who, Where, When and Why

7. a shot of the remodleing of the Temple Church. both interior by Christopher Wren in 1666 after the great fire of london and renivations made after the bombongs of World War Two
Voice over - discuss the changes made to the Temple

A documentry style voice over will accompany this piece of animation to explain the histroy and origins of the church and founders, The Knights Templar.

Storyboard to follow...