Graduation Film idea

What if… there are two kiddos, a Sis and a lil’ Brother and a long rainy day in early spring.

characters

In one window looked two. One saw the rain and mud. Other – green foliage ligature, spring and sky is blue. In one window looked two.

Omar Khayyám

The story going to be based on this quote. 

Well, basically, I will show how two kids see the same surrounding- their backyard.

But, additionally, I want to show their relationship- what in the end, actually, a person who is right here beside you, can help you to overcome bad moods and get over this dull day.

I’m not sure is it going to be narrated or not, but definitely without dialogues—just sounds.

Firstly, I’m going to show that it is a rainy day: moody, low, grey sky, rain.

(probably) the quote will appear, then disappears. The camera moves down; we see the chimney, then the rooftop, tree of the left. Lower; windows, now a fence. And we got into the middle of someone’s backyard—that tree on the left, of the fence, just a dark silhouette. We see a handmade tyre swing. There is a football goal on the right and a ball. Maybe some toys here and there. Everything is wet in the centre of all this a large rain puddle. Rains constantly.

Next scene- we see the house (like you turn around). Not the whole house, a lower part- great window, the fence now on the right, hides around the right corner of the house. A silhouette in the window draws our attention. It’s not very clear, but we can say that it is a person, probably a kid, under a dark-coloured blanket that covers him from head to toes. And we see him in a bad mood- eyebrows to touch each other and are really close to the nose. His small mouth in the shape of an arc sits right under his nose. Beside him on the right a kite. Might be it is coloured but for now everything in that greyish mood, so we can say what colours are there.

Next scene- we are in the room, on a distance from the window. Now we see him from the back. It is a kids room. A camera lowered, so room and window look huge, there is no light inside, so the interior is dimmed.

A dark silhouette, half of the body(might be legs only) appears in front, a bit left, of us. The figure runs toward the window. Now in the light of the window, we see a girl. The camera is closer to them. We can see them clearly. She carried a sketchbook and a pack or just a couple of pencils(or crayons). She puts it on the windowsill and starts climbing on. She accidentally touches her brother with her leg. The boy turns to head her way, angry and pushes her with hand. Not like with real power, but sort of slightly, to show that he doesn’t want her here, but more like simply ’why you are here?’. Turns his head back immediately and pull his kite closer to himself.

By the way, now we can see the difference between siblings. While brother is in a sullen mood and covered in a greyish/dark blanket and has a narrowed eyes, sisters eyes are big and bright, as well her sweater and sock are very colourful.

Then the girl settled down, grabs pencil and paper and look at the boy smiling (shows that she don’t care about push, even don’t want to pay attention to it, or already forgot about it). Extreme close up to boys face, he sighs deeply and looks out of the window.

Now the camera shows what he sees- close up on raindrops patter over tyre swing, then it shows that puddle in the middle and mud around.

The camera still outside showing both a bit from a distance, but we pay more attention to a happy girls face. She’s now overlooking the backyard. I want to show the same points but with the difference! Sister sees the same tyre swing, but her attention is on the tiny green leaves on the tree’s branch. Then she sees a couple of crocuses on the edge of the puddle. And all the sudden through the small rain ray of light touches the flowers (spring and the sky is blue)

Camera switches back to our characters (from the outside). The girl immediately starts sketching/doodling something in her block with enthusiasm. She then happy touches her brother with hand, he turns to head a bit furious, but she shows him her drawing. And now we see his face changes to smile(slowly), and then swiftly up to his legs throwing down blanket, full big smile over his face. He began to gesticulating, showing something to Sis. She follows him with happiness, immediately draws something on paper. She shows him, he sits beside her on knees and nods quickly, and they start laughing (we don’t hear that laugh). 

Now we see changes in the boy. Not only a big smile, fully opened eyes but after he threw down his blanket, we see colourful sweatshirt and pants and socks.

Camera same position. It stops raining! Kids like freezes for a second, then shortly they off from the window, so we see only sketch block (some lines on the paper surface) and pencils (the boy took the kite). After a second, we hear laughing sounds and footsteps outside. We don’t see kids, just sounds. The camera slowly started going up, over the roof, the see clear blue sky. Sounds- laugh and bids are singing.

END

(if not at the beginning of the film show quote, so it will appears now)

Credits. 

mood board

Storyboarding workshop part 1

During summer holidays, I took several online courses, masterclasses and workshops to keep myself busy. One of them was a Storyboard one-day workshop from Aardman Studio

Because the whole unprecedented situation in the country Aardamn moved all their courses online with all kind of classes available form time to time, from stop-motion to model and puppet making.

Since over the pre-production stage on our team project for LIAF, I worked a lot with storyboards; therefore, I decided to take this additional class to get more about this discipline. I wanted to know more about how it works in the real studio and how different it is from my own experience so far and to learn something new about storyboarding.

The course was taught by Sam Horton. He is an artist who behind such projects as Morph from Aardman, Go Jetters Blue Zoo, Denis and Gnasher Unleashed Jellyfish Pictures, and many more.

In view of the course only one day long, the schedule was very intensive.

Over the first part of the day, Sam introduced himself, he gave us overall about his experience, about projects he worked. Then we got a chance to introduce ourselves- all participants were from different backgrounds, with various drawing skills and with little or no experience in storyboarding at all. After that was a bit thrilling moment- evaluation of pre-course homework 🙂 (I will get back to it later).

Shortly after that, Sam Horton gave us behind the scenes in storyboarding from script to pitch to finished work. He provided a lot of tip and tricks like acting and exaggeration are the best friend of the artist, and perspective lines help enormously for staging and camera placement. More than that, you should always ask for references. And one, that I found really important, test your board on your friends or co-workers. It will help you to make changes before actual viewing with directors and get a better critique of your work.

Right after lunch, we were divided into teams of four and worked on a given script to produce a storyboard. The script was for one of the Morph episodes, and each team had 30 minutes only for work. 

I would say it was challenging. Firstly, if you are not familiar with this cartoon, you might not know who are the characters and how they look like. For instance, we had Chas and The Very Small Creatures. So, we googled to find about them. Secondly, for no-English speakers, some specific names of objects were new. Like particular brands of cookies and specific kind of fireworks were mentioned in our script. 

When we got back into one zoom-room, each team presented their work and Sam gave some constructive critique and comments. That was the most comical part of the day because we used funny noises while pitching our storyboards. Also, we watched the original episodes for every script to see how close we were with our boards. That was great.

We finished the workshop with a Q&A session and contacts exchanging.

Well, in general, I would say that as a one-day class, it was great and we got a lot of comprehensive information about storyboarding as a profession, about necessary skills and how-does-it-work. I also realised how much I still need to learn and improve my skills enough to work as a storyboarder artist.

To be continued …

Notes about storyboarding: visual tools

I’ve recently worked on storyboards for our LIAF team project (since my story did not get through, I was assigned to another project). I watched and read a lot of materials about the topic, and I found that all articles are about camera views and movements, compositions, character posing and terminology. Although that all are important, however, there not that much information about visual ‘helpers’ to build storyboards. I’m talking about lines, shapes, colour and tone. By using these simple tools, we can convey the story more precisely.

Storyboards are quick drawings that represent a frame of the film, and by putting them together in sequences helps us to visualise the movie before actual work on animation. 

The right composition is one of the fundamental rules for storyboarding. It is the visually organised layout of elements in a scene. And the relationship between the linesshapesright tones and colour within frame should convey meaning and express emotions in the narrative. 

I think every storyboard frame begins with the line. The striking thing about this visual tool is that it can have many different properties. 

frame from SB for The X_files (1998)

First of all, we use it to show the direction of movement or direction of the camera to point. The line can really force viewers eyes in the right direction.

Additionally, we can change the weight of a line. If one character or object is drawn thick line, it is essential in the current scene.

The line also can be used to show speed and quick movements. You can vary the shape to show emotions- zig-zagged line looks dangerous and angry, the curve seems calm. Sketching sharp and expressive lines help build a world and bring life, and even portray the emotions. 

frame of SB for Superman Returns (2006)

It is interesting that line also helps to create a sense of space. We can imitate the 3D space by placing lines in perspective- parallel lines appear to get closer together as they move further away. 

Along with lines, the shape also helps us tell stories. For instance, the bigger something is in the frame, the more valuable it is. Or we can visualise the size of the character to the surrounding, like, a small person in an ample space also can illustrate how vulnerable it is, not only how big his world is.

Additionally, basic shapes can imply the characteristics of the characters. For example, triangles can show anger, speed, or tautness. Circles look very friendly, but squares seem strong and durable. 

Although, as we add more details, by stacking two-three shapes together, we can convey more information, expressing, or emotion. The use of shapes can apply to everything. 

Furthermore, if we place more massive shapes at the bottom of the frame and lighter shapes towards the top of the frame, it makes it look like they’re further away from each other. This simple trick mimics the illusion of depth—the position of elements and their size contrast within the frame, placing shapes higher or lower. 

Not only lines and shapes but also tone (shading), or how dark or light something is in a scene, can make it stand out from everything else. 

frame from SB for Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

By adjusting the light and dark values of all the elements in the frame, can lead your viewer’s eyes and even create a specific mood. Light value feels open, calm, while the dark value can add an ambience of mystery, sorrow, or danger. 

By playing with these settings, we can control which information will be revealed to the audience, since our eyes naturally go first to the point of highest contrast.

So, altogether, these tools are like building blocks of visual storytelling that help can create mood, lead the viewer’s eye, and control what information gets unveiled to the audience. 

LIAF Pitch

Recently everyone in our class got a chance to propose an idea for the short stings for this year LIAF (London International Film Festival). This is a part of the Unit 2 Team Project. That means after presentations the invited jury will select several works, and we will be divided into teams to make the film.

Stings are the short animated films which are screened several times before every competition programs of the festival and online in social media and LIAF webpage. They like short representations, intros, for the festival programs. They are approximately in 30-45 seconds length in a broad range of styles, animation techniques and genres.

Overall, there are 8 screening programs:

  • The Abstract Showcase
  • From Absurd to Zany
  • Playing with Emotion
  • Being Human
  • Into the Dark
  • Animated Documentaries
  • Looking for Answers
  • Long Shots

Also, it was essential to watch all presented works during the pitching, since we should select several projects which we would like to work on later.

So, I proceed with the idea for the Into The Dark. 

title screen

Synopsis

There are dark hours on Earth when different scenarios and stories happen, and various characters live their lives.

mood board

The narrative takes place during the late-night hour in a back alley of the city or town. It is a narrow part of the street that is hidden away from the prying eyes, with trash bags in the corners and dark green containers, a ‘missing’ poster on the side of the container, a labyrinth of tubes deck the walls of the buildings and only one blinking light ray in the middle of all it. The unrecognised sounds surround this place, scratchy noises, the electric flickering of the lamp.

style frame

There something that attracts a rat to this place. It smells it and trying to find the source. Finally, it sees the thing in the middle of the light spot. It is the murder of crows. There, inside that pale of bodies and feathers is something that rat smells. And it jumps, another jump, and run straight to the centre of the birds.

style frame

But these birds always aware always on the look-out. One of the birds rises above and make a deafening sound to warn everyone. And right before the rat reaches them, they disappeared.

style frame

The scene opens up with an upper view in the middle of the light we see the peace of a hand in the paddle of blood. This is a source that attracts all these night creatures to this tiny dark alley in the middle of the night. The rat grabs this hand and dragged it into the safety of shadows.

The end.

It supposed to be made by using TV Paint and/or After Effects. Since I thought that most of my classmates familiar with this two software perfectly. I simplified the style of animals and exterior, and made everything with sharp angles without curves to provide unpleasant feeling to scenes. Also, acoustic sounds and music should add the mood and scary atmosphere to the story.

characters exploration

Unfortunately, the story did not get through the draw. It seems to me that the narrative is too simple and basic without any strong points for the festival LIAF level. Additionally, I see that main style frame with the rat and the poster did not play because of the mistake in the composition and lighting of the scene.

Character for/in the story

Storytelling, especially in animation, always have at least one vital component- a character. So, how to approach to develop the characters for your story. Probably, the simplest way to start is playing. Playing with your characters. We can begin with ‘form’. Are they people, animals, robots, or just some objects alike. And we should discover something exciting and different about each character. Something might be even non-ideal, but that will be a key to why the viewers will follow it through the whole narrative and care about it.

The character design process means that you are creating a new life form from scratch, beginning with a simple concept to a complex, and finishing with fully developt creation.

We can build our characters by using two methods. The first one is about external features. Like clothes, body shapes, colours, size of the head, eyes, facial features, how it moves, etc. Basically, their overall look. However, the second approach is much more exciting- the internal characteristics. Are they vulnerable, are they brave, are they sceptical? 

© Robert Bradbrook (from the lecture Storytelling and Animation: Using Characters to shape stories)

Knowing a character, from both angles inside and out, will help to manage what are its true desires and what will drive it through the journey. The more we will know, the more realistic character that feels for the audience.

And this is interesting. What we need to do to make viewers feel for your character, to follow him throughout the storyline? I think the better way to get it is to create it based on people you know, who are around you, from real life. It might be a family member, like grandma or a friend, a neighbour, bus driver, someone who you see every day. Catching their authentic human emotions and experiences, that is what all these people give you.

An additional tool that helps to design a winning persona is a character arc


“A character arc is the transformation or inner journey[1] of a character over the course of a story. If a story has a character arc, the character begins as one sort of person and gradually transforms into a different sort of person in response to changing developments in the story. “

The one way to start character arc is to ask a question- what does your persona want? If we know that it will help us to take the character for a journey within our story, to find the right place for it. And additionally, it will help to shape the narrative line as well and to make the story to actually happen.

© Robert Bradbrook (from the lecture Storytelling and Animation: Using Characters to shape stories)

However, the things that character want could be different from his actual needs. The crucial difference between character wants, and needs are that needs are necessary, but the character does not like to admit it. It is like- I want to go for a walk, but there plenty of work to do. These necessities are the things it needs to learn and do in order to improve and accomplish at the end of the story. Additionally, if we will put wants and needs into the conflict that makes the character more solid and the story will have some exceptional trials in it.

Now, then we know motivations of the character, and it is already on his journey in the story, besides with conflict lets put some obstacles into the narrative. And obstacles can be anything. It can be a person (a villain), vast distances to wade through or even better- something subjective, like worries, fears. Whatever it is, obstacles are something that will be in the way of a character and blocks the road path from what he wants or needs. Thus, choices that character makes in response to obstacles lead to changes in his behaviour and thoughts and make basically a new person. It is like it in his primary form at the beginning of the story, but in the end, it transforms and reaches its higher, better version. 

Moreover, if the character itself might not change a lot, but it might make a significant impact in the world around it, in characters that surround it, that is also very impressive and even make narrative quite emotional.

Each decision our character makes has implied some risks and impacts associated with it. Therefore, the character arc outlines changes and transformations of the character from the beginning of his journey through the story to the end. 

The Children’s Society Project

Right before going for spring break, each of us got the brief and a sound record for our first project- a collaboration with Children Society UK.

Our guest Rachel Reay briefly spoke about society, it’s vision and works with kids and young people at the beginning of the presentation. And then we went moe throughout the technical assignment.

We got the information about how long should it be, that the mood, what is the audience of the film, that colours are prefered, the official typography.

colour palette

For instance, all audios provided are records of real young people who either working or found help from The CS. So, it is crucial that any editings to the soundtracks must be discussed with the client first. Even though some of the tracks are susceptible and personal shares, we should stay on, or at least finish the film on the positive, optimistic note and should keep a balance between negative experience and positive tones. And we cannot share our tracks at any points.

So, this project is, in fact, an animated documentary. We will use animation techniques to make a film that will help young people and children to represent their experiences through a sense of the safe distance of reality.

When I heard my audio for the first time, it hits me in a good way, because it was precisely my experience. So I knew what this person is talking about, I went through it. And remarkably, images and associations started to pop up in my head, and I draw the first storyboard, quick thumbnails, to snatch up this idea.

rough storyboard

And this is exactly that I wrote before in the post about storytelling: ‘The first method is to write a story you already know. Because you feel it in a particular way. … it is always good if the story will be initially from personal experiences.’ Even though it is not my narrative, however, I had the same encounter, that why it was easy to approach to developing a story.

Story Structure

As I mentioned in the post about storytelling- the story is a crucial part of filmmaking production. Moreover, each story that is told has a foundation – a structure

The structure of the narrative is the way how we organise and how we tell our stories. One of the most typical and basic structures has an opening, then it begins, then something happens somewhere in the middle of narration, and it ends. However, the story’s formation can be even more complex.

The prime purpose of structuring the story- is to organising in order all what you want viewers to know about what is going to happen and when it will happen. And it makes the story interesting and helps to make an emotional impact on your audience and how it will respond to the story. Therefore, if the order gets wrong, it could be problematically for the audience to follow the story, and the emotional reaction also will be lost.

Hence, the structure is basically a series of events- the hit points. You just need to find the most essential moments of the narrative to start building your structure.

Additionally, I want to mention a tool that was developed by improvisational theatre instructor Kenn Adams, and which is used a lot by Pixar Studio story artistsSTORY SPINE. (pic)

Basically, Story Spine is a practical system that gives a structured approach to get a rough outline of your story. It works as a bare-boned spine where everything already placed in the right spot, and you just need to fill down gaps:

  • Once upon a time…
  • Every day…

This is the beginning.

  • But, one day…

This is an event, something happens.

  • Because of that… (could be used several times)

This is the middle of the story.

  • Until finally…

This is the climax.

  • And, ever since then…

The end.

While working on a story, it crucial to think about what will be the connection between all these individual events. What will be a central theme and moral

The theme helps all part of the story work together. If there no central idea in the story, it will be unmemorable, that means it will be hard to recite it later. The main idea supports all dramatic events in your story and makes it more persuasive and inspiring. 

Indeed, it is good to know the theme before you start, however, it can come across while you write and your narrative progress.

As soon as the theme and rough outline of the narrative are ready, we can start to break it into the acts- larger sections of the story structure. At this stage, the best tool to use is a narrative arc.

The most common is the three-act structure. 

The first act is a beginning that includes the first three steps of the story spine, once upon a timeevery day and but, one day. This is where we find about our protagonist, about the time settings and the world where everything takes place and how it will work. Additionally, the first act tells viewers what type of story it will be either it is a science fiction, a drama, a romantic comedy, or something else. 

This act also introduces the audience someone, or something called the antagonist, sometimes it calls the villain. However, it can be anything and takes any form.

Along with, this part also introduces the incident, it is the Until One Day part of the spine. Generally, this is an event that establishes the rest of the story.

Overall, the first act is the essential setup of the story. It is all about everything the audience needs to know to gets interested in the journey which will follow.

As we organised all the information that the audience needs to know, now we can move on to act two. In the story spine it is the middle part- Because Of It

The second act is all about obstacles, complications, and challenging decisions for the main character. The hard choices and actions it takes to overcome these escalating barriers. And in this part also happen massive transformations with the character.

This part is about conflict because the narrative with no conflict has no shape, no impulse. Basically, the story needs a series of trials for the character on the journey path, and where it must make a tough decision from which there’s no return. 

Along with the conflict, act two must also contain a low point when it seems that everything is hopeless and is lost for your main characters. When the character feels like he completely failed and frustrated, but at the same time, there must be something or someone that will continue to push it forward.

So, at the end of act two, something horrible is expected to happen to the character to force it to face the things that it didn’t wanna challenge at the end of the previous act one.

The third part of the story structure is a final instalment, it is all about an ultimate crisis, the climax and resolution. This part should be the most intense moment of the narrative for the character, who should be in risk of losing everything it valued most, and now it faces a final trial. 

In act three, the story should be resolved, and the character and the world return to a calmer place.

The third act is where everything is pulled together, where the theme and the moral are clearly expressed. The character has overcome all obstacles and errors on its way. And he changed and has learned what is most important in its life. This revelation reveals what manifests the theme and the moral of the story. And it should feel like that there was fixed the big problem or resolved character’s personal dilemma with himself, and finally, everything feels in the world is right.

Storytelling

What we can find behind every animation, live-action film, or documentary? It is a story.

People tell stories all the time, with historical pieces of evidence from the very beginning. Especially now with all that technical progress, internet and devices, we are telling stories all the time. Some express themselves by writing poems, novels, some, just simple short stories. A lot of people share their stories through sequences of drawings, for instance, in the form of comics. People take photos every day and share them with some descriptions, it is also a way of telling a story. And of course, there are movies and cartoons.

All these ways of storytelling have something in common- they connect people via their emotions. As such, it is interesting how to write a story in a way everybody will be into it?

The first method is to write a story that you already know. Because you feel about it in a particular way, so you can get your audience to have that same feeling as you have. You can retell that tale in a way it will sparkle the viewers.

To get the reaction out of people, it is always good if the story will be initially from personal experiences. It will be like a touchstone of the story. This is very important to the storyteller since it makes the story honest.

Although it is a good idea to share your feelings, or at the same time, you can tell us some of your new experiences in life. Either if you have learned something that you think is really fun to share, because it is your personal experience and only can come from you. Since there are no two people who have lived life the same way, hence, they don’t have the same insights as you.

There are many ways to tell a story. It could be a simple sequence of events or a narrative which will unfold through the time. And they can have unique quality in them. For instance, the description can grab your viewer or listener emotionally. Or it could take them somewhere else, to the different, even fictional places.

The narrative always begins with some world and characters. It could be either real, present time, or futuristic, or even figurative. We can think about what kind of universe is around, what kind of environment, what time is it. All these questions invite our imagination into the story we are about to explore.

So, questions really help us to build the story. The more ‘what if?’ and ‘who is?’ questions, we will ask the more ideas we will construct for the story.

Interestingly, sometimes the character comes first, and then a world builds around him. Even two characters might have different stories, but the surrounding, all objects and settings could be the same. However, if we have the world first, we are going to work on characters in a different way- what kind of characters can live there, or who are they, what they are going to be? In the end, either way, the world and characters always meet at one point.

Moreover, one of the essential parts of story-making is research. In the beginning, you just identify what the main stage and character, and what draws you to it. And then you got more solid idea you can start to delve deeper, investigate more on a subject, and explore the story’s universe and inhabitants.

Additionally, it is necessary to mention that you is you, and the things that may affect you not necessarily will speak to somebody else. So, you will need to find out the way to express your thoughts and concept to touch their emotions and minds, so they will be interested in what happens in your story and will follow your characters.