Category: writing

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Blue Zoo Animation Studio: How to pitch

The UK animation studio Blue Zoo made a series of online webinars during this September, to celebrate 20 years of animating.

In one of the events, they covered the pitching questions. From what pitching is and how to do it, what kind of materials should be prepared and what to expect on every step of the process. What kind of help you can find from the studio.

And also how to finance and fund your project.

I found this information very useful and decided to save it for the future. So, I screenshotted these panels.

© all images below are by Blue Zoo Animation Studio

©Blue Zoo Animation Studio

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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

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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 artists– STORY 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 time, every 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.

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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.