Storyboard 3

At this weeks seminar I showed my new storyboard even though it wasn't completely the way I wanted it and it was still sort of a frankenstein storyboard with some frames from the old storyboard so the layout is all wrong in some parts but it was just to present the basic story.








Feedback
James and some students looked at my storyboard, I knew there still wasn't something quite right about my story, it didn't have that spark that I was expecting, and it just seemed a bit predictable with the structure.

• James suggested that I have the storm of my story at the beginning, and asked why shouldn't it be? The problem I had with the storm at the beginning was that I felt that the audience wouldn't understand the creature's life before the storm.  But James insisted that with the right character performance that audience would know exactly that the character is reacting to a change in her environment.  I just have to have a large amount of faith in my acting as well the my faith in the audience.
• James also suggested that the open tree canopy appear after the storm and only after it will the creature have an open view of the outside world, this would also make more sense how the dragonfly got into her pond.
• With the storm at the beginning, the audience will be just chucked straight into the story and I do feel that the being is less.... boring now.  If there's anything I don't want to make it's a boring film.  Worst nightmare.
• A talk with some students and again I need to work on my layout and angling.  I thought I would be good at this but it is much harder than expected, though I am determined to make the most of my layout and play with the space to create the best atmosphere for the scenes. 
• Osamah suggested that my film is more of a feeling film that a completely story driven film with lots of 'things' happening, which I suppose now thinking about it and since all the 'things' have been taken out of my film it is defiantly more of a feeling film. Which means it is essential that I get the mood and colour right, along with brilliant character performance. 
• Jess also suggested a cute little way to introduce the dragonfly which I will apply to my new storyboard that I will be working on this week. 

Upon how to improve my story James suggested that I take a look at a 1973 animated short narrated by Orson Welles, Plato's Cave.  The Greek myth of four slaves chained up facing a wall in a dark cave, behind then is a flame and objects are placed in front of the flame to cast shadows of the objects and it is those shadows that the prisoners believe is real, not knowing any better.  Then one prisoner is freed and shown that what he thought was real was simply an illusion and is shown the outside world for the first time.  At first he is startled by the light and it takes some time before his eyes can see the full objects that are real that cast the shadows in the first place.  He then learns of the world and tells his fellow prisoners about the outside world, but they laugh at him and say he's crazy, as of course they know no better.  So the freed prisoner returns to the outside world as why would he return to the cave now that he has a new perspective on life.




I had never heard of this myth before, but I can see how it can help me with my film and some people may associate my film with this story so it is good to be aware of it.  I like how the prisoner reacts to the sun for the first time, so I may try to adapt a similar reaction in my film.  It all depends on how big the canopy is, where it's a small gap or a massive whole in the trees.

Continuing Animation Test

As well as sorting out my storyboard I did some more designs for my character, though this was before my pecha kucha presentation and learnt that I do need to re-design my character slightly.

I did some head-shots of the character, looking at different angles and different expressions of her face. I also looked at her inner skeleton structure just to help to the animating process and where exactly the joints move.  For reference to this I took some pictures from the London National History Museum and there was a skeleton of a frog.

these skeletons were very helpful for the anatomical structure of my creature (at the Nation History Museum)

   
 As well as that I looked at the key expressions that my creature will express in the film, though since changing my storyboard the emotion of joy and nurturing are being removed, therefore just leaving alerted, shock, scared and curiosity.





I also did another animation test, this time underwater.  I thought it would make sense if I did a test of something she's actually be doing in the film, so in my storyboard the first thing she does is wake up and do a big yawn.  I think I got the acting quite well, but I think I will defiantly need to add some bubbles to complete the underwater effect.  I also like the hair flow and the applying the Mucha style I think it works well underwater, and I do want her to be much more elegant underwater compared to her on land.

Storyboard... down to the core

Later on this week I met up with Leonie as she did seem to give me the most feedback at my pecha kucha presentation and so I wanted to ask more about re-designing my character as I didn't know where I needed to start with that.  However the meeting didn't even really touch on the design of the character but rather my storyboard.  Leonie said she liked the message of my film but that it would be more powerful when she ... slightly re-arranged my storyboard.





My storyboard was now only 2 pages and 46 sticky notes.  Basically ripping my story to it's core and taking out all the 'stuff' the creature does in her day, the pond now seems a lot less friendly and less happy to live, as before I was slightly worried that it was maybe a little too nice to live and that I hadn't created a good enough reason for her to leave.  The inhabitance of pond have now also gone, so my creature is a lot more lonely but does not know any better and is also a lot more terrified of the outside world, therefore her leaving is much more of a triumph.

According to this storyboard the synopsis goes like this:

A solitary pond creature lives her life in her still lonely pond, isolated from the outside world she remains in her pond too scared of the unknown outside world to leave, her only view to the outside is the top of the tree canopy.


Every day is a struggle as the slightest noise startles her.  Her only real comfort is her small lilly pad garden that is also her food source, she gently picks a flower and timidly nibbles each petal.  


She wonders to the edge of the pond and doodles some abstract shapes in the mud but then suddenly hears an unknown noise from beyond the trees.  Then suddenly it starts to rain and the pond comes to life with rain drops hitting the surface.  Suddenly an almighty thunder storm appears and the creature frightened out of her wits seeks safety in her lilly garden (her only company after all).  Thunder flashes and the rain heavily beats on her pond.  


Morning arrives and the creature shakily emerges to see what has become of her pond.  From the heavy rainfall her pond is slightly overflowing and a small stream of water is leading off into the unknown forest.  Panicing  the creature doesn't know what to do?  She goes to the edge of her pond when suddenly some glistening in the distance.  


A beautiful dragonfly resting on a leaf catches the creatures eye.  She is stunned by it's beauty and slowly approaches it.  The dragonfly then whizzes off to the canopy and heads through the forest.  The creature without thinking flows it, racing through the trees until she comes to the edge of the trees where two giant trees have been uprooted from the storm and for the first time she sees the bright sun, the dragonfly flies around her freely and the creature at first is scared to go any further but then sees how the dragonfly just lives it life and is much more happy in the few seconds of seeing it that all her days of being in her pond.  She sees the little stream of her pond flow down the hill and she looks up and takes her first step into the unknown.  But her ankle is tied up on a lilly pad vein, she looks back at her pond for the last time then holds herself up confidently and walks out into the big wide open world.


I am slightly concerned that maybe the beginning could be quite boring if I don't lay it out right and that the audience wouldn't instantly be captured into the character and world I have created as this version is a lot more depressing in the beginning.  I am also a bit concerned that the since the drawing on rocks part has been removed that the character will seem a lot less interesting, as except for being scared and eating she doesn't do much.  The rock drawing according to Leonnie had represented cultural issues?  I'm not hundred percent what it means but I was informed that I would be shooting myself in the foot if my creature was decorating her pond with stone drawings.  I did really like that touch of the film though, so I am still not 100% if I will cut it out, that is however why I added her doodling in mud, just so she was doing something, and also to show her creative side, and that she doesn't just have the complete intelligence of an average animal. 

Pecha Kucha Presentation & First Storyboard

I was a week late with my pecha kucka presentation as I was ill the week before, so unfortunately had later feedback from the majority of the class, none the less I had my presentation the following week.  My feedback from my presentation was al right, I didn't have the storyboard on my presentation as I felt that would have taken up the entire presentation and I felt it was better to use the presentation to show all my research and process of the character and design as well as the overall message I want to convey.  I also wanted to show my storyboard on a separate tutorial.  My feedback was mainly from Leonie that my creature's design needed work and that it didn't go with the feel of the film I was describing.  


First Sticky-Note Storyboard




That week I was ill I had drawn up my first sticky note storyboard, which is most helpful for people interacting with the layout of the story and easy to fix is some scenes need to be added or removed.  I filled up 3 large pages with 99 sticky notes, it looked a little long and I didn't really have a clue how long it would be until I turned it into an animatic.  I took my storyboards with me on Monday to show my seminar class and James.  Unfortunately James did not have time to see me that day but I did get some helpful feedback from some students.

Feedback:

• Need to make it a bit more clear that the creature wants to leave the pond.
• More establishing shots, I don't actually have any establishing shots at all and less reaction shots, some long slow shots can be much more effective.
• Use different angles, mix it up a bit and play with the mood of the shot more.
• The low angle of the creature looking up and the dragonfly flying out to the open of the tree canapé needs some work, making the creature smaller and putting her in the corner of the shot will make her seem less powerful in the shot and put more focus on the dragonfly.
• At the end the butterfly should lead the path to the creature's freedom.
• My story ends quite quick so there could be a couple of ways I could lead up to it by adding more slow, quiet shots to show my character's decision.
• A shot of the creature looking back one last time at her pond before she leaves is needed just to have a sort of a goodbye between her and the pond.

I then met up with Matthew Gravelle said I had a good structure to my storyboard and that it was very clear to read and that an audience would not be confused reading the story visually but that I needed to show the character's desire to leave the pond more with a shot of her face looking sad or some sort of reaction shot.  He also noted that my film did feel a bit more like a trailer for a bigger film and that it just kind of ends suddenly and leaves the audience wanting more, which I always thought was a good thing but maybe not in this context.

So overall so far I needed to work on my scene layout and somehow work on making the ending seem less sudden but not add more time to the film.... mmm

Case Study of Father and Daughter.

With a lecture with Caroline we looked at the visual construction of Father and Daughter and how Michael Dudok de Wit uses such limited detail yet it is clear to the audience what is being shown and to it's best effect. 

Now I am trying to achieve some of the points that Dudok de Wit has achieved but he doesn't use any face animation or close ups, that is one thing I really do want in my film, but I did certainly look at the other factors I could apply to my film.

• The variety of layouts, he uses a mass amount of different angles even though most of the film is of the same location, he also uses different times of day and weather to make it more interesting.  
• Dynamic framing, some could call this film very flat, which at some times it is, but some shots are quite dynamic with clever use of angles without the characters looking flat.
• A good use of contrast in the film makes it visually interesting and exciting for the audience and for the progress of the story, from flat to depth, calm to danger, large to small etc.
• It's use of tonal range gives the film a nice variety in it's same setting and the use from high to low contrast 
• It's simplistic backgrounds most interest me, as I am having trouble deciding on how the environment is going to look like, I love the simplistic look of the trees and use of washed colours and grainy textures.
• The use of shadows is very present in this film, it highly defines the character's silhouettes and also makes them stand out from some of the backgrounds even though the whole shot is all very similar tonal colours. 
• Mirroring the characters in some puddle reflections is a good way add some dynamics to the shot. 
• And finally the use of space, the film always seems to be like it's set in a big open space even though there is not much on the screen.  The use of layout and where to put the floor lines is cleverly placed.  I think I will have to have a closer look at this technique when I'm on the final shot of my film as I will not be showing the big open space but I want the audience to feel like there is one.

Animation Tests

It was advised that I get straight onto some animation tests as for my character's situation I could literally create her walking cycle and the way she moves in general from scratch.  As she is nor 100% human or animal I can really mix it up and see what can be brought out of her character.  One thing I know for sure was that she only walks on four legs, or atleast with the aid of her hands, she never walks up straight.  With this I drew some thumbnails.




When I was happy with the thumbnails I went to animate straight away, I didn't really have any live reference so I was mainly using my imagination and relying on the thumbnails. This was the final outcome:



I am happy that the animation wasn't limping but I'm not sure if this is quite how my character is going to move about? I am positive that she will only be walking on four legs (or hand and feet) but I might look at some other animals for inspirations. I did two other thumbnails, one is her a lot closer to the ground and a bit more sneaky looking, the other is more of how an ape walks with her back up a little more straight and does more of a gallop.


I then did another none walk cycle test.  Just with her reacting to hearing an unknown sound from the forest and her getting up and listening out to the strange sound.  I'm quite happy with this test, she looks quite startled and delicate but also quite aware of her surroundings which of course she would be as she knows no place else. 

Photographic Research

I did take these pictures all the way back in the summer but only now have been able to get hold of them.  For research and influence I toke some pictures of a little forest outside my house, it is pretty much untouched by man, there are not path ways or anything just pure forest, so it was pretty perfect for my film.  There are so many different coloured greens and I love the way the sun shines through some of the trees. I tried to capture as many plants and angle as I could before I lost the light.