The Game is On!
Episode 1 – The Adventure of the Girl with the Light Blue Hair
In a fictional land called London, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson meet a curious client: the toymaker Joseph who has just recently signed a deal with some Hollywoodland producers to make a movie featuring Joseph’s most famous toy. However, soon after the deal was announced, a graffiti artist – a mysterious girl with light blue hair – started painting violent and bloody images all over London, images that Joseph finds disturbing. What does the mysterious girl want? Why is she painting her graffiti? Sherlock is intrigued. The Game is On!
On 12th November 2015, The Adventure of the Girl with the Light Blue Hair won the AHRC Award for Innovation in Film.
Copying, Creativity and Copyright – a CREATe Working Paper by Ronan Deazley and Bartolomeo Meletti that offers insights into the creative process behind The Adventure of the Girl with the Light Blue Hair, and makes the case for understanding copying as a positive phenomenon in helping us learn and innovate, develop and engage with others.
Supplementary educational materials providing points of discussion about copyright for teachers and students.
The Adventure of the Girl with the Light Blue Hair starts with a red double-decker bus travelling across Westminster Bridge, with the Houses of Parliament in the background.
One of the graffiti that scare the toymaker Joseph portrays a monster eating his ‘beautiful, wonderful toy’. The image of the monster is inspired by two different artistic works
Sherlock Holmes and John Watson discuss Joseph’s case at 221B Baker Street. The above illustration is inspired by two sources…
Joseph, the toymaker, has asked the police to identify the culprit making ‘dreadful images’ of his toy, portraying it in violent situations.
This illustration from our video depicts a terrible shark-like creature about to eat Joseph’s toy. It was inspired by two different images…
The pipe has been associated with the image of Sherlock Holmes since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s (1859 – 1930) stories were first published in The Strand Magazine with illustrations by Sidney Paget (1860 – 1908).
In the background of Holmes and Watson’s apartment you can see wallpaper with ‘flowers scattered over it in a somewhat impressionistic style’.
The ‘dreadful images’ that scare Joseph, the toymaker, are graffiti drawn all over the ‘fictional land called London’. The illustration above, depicting Joseph’s toy hung from a tree, is based on an actual place in London.
In trying to persuade Holmes to take Joseph’s case, Watson asks: ‘What if it’s a threat? That’s what the graffiti might mean.’ These eleven words are based on dialogue from The Blind Banker…
Joseph, Sherlock Holmes and the Girl with the Light Blue Hair are all creators: Joseph draws and designs toys; Sherlock composes music; and the mysterious girl is an accomplished street artist.
In trying to persuade Holmes to take the case, Watson argues that: ‘If you were a professional musician, you wouldn’t want people copying or mutilating your work’.
Joseph explains to Holmes and Watson when and why the dreadful images of his beautiful, wonderful toy began to appear all over London. When ‘some guys’ from Hollywoodland approached him ‘to option a movie’…
Written, Produced and Directed by Ronan Deazley and Bartolomeo Meletti
Art Direction / Design / Animation: Marco Bagni
Illustrations: Davide Bonazzi
Music / SFX: Sarc:o
Voice-over Artists (londonvoiceover.co.uk): Joseph – Vincent Brimble; Sherlock Holmes – Cliff Chapman; John Watson – Anton Saunders
Authors: Hayleigh Bosher and Dinusha Mendis
Editor: Ronan Deazley
Design: Marco Bagni
Production: Bartolomeo Meletti
Principal Investigators, CopyrightUser.org: Kristofer Erickson (University of Glasgow) and Dinusha Mendis (Bournemouth University)
When Holmes and Watson receive a letter from Mary Westmacott, a new adventure at the border between illusion and reality is just about to start.
Parody refers to a new creative work which uses an existing work for humour or mockery. Some parodies take aim at well-known artists or their work in order to make a critique.
Copyright Bites is a series of short videos that makes copyright law and policy easier to understand, exploring the relationship between copyright and the public domain.