Supervisor Meeting - Tuesday 4th February 2014

Talked through the storyboards that each member of the team contributed to.

George drew panels: 1-7, 25-27, 37-38, 54-60
I drew panels: 8-24, 39, 53
Sheng drew panels: 28-36
Kirti drew panels: 40-52

Myself and George arranged the storyboards in a storyboarding program called 'Shotbox', I then added descriptions to all the panels:

I then put the panels together into a roughly timed animatic:

Some ideas that were discussed and generated from the meeting included:

• Do we need the INT. environment? The human could be outside in the garden as well, gardening, hanging out washing, raking leaves. First this would save us time having to model, texture and light another environment, and it might also make the scenes more funny, because the human is also in the garden but is completely oblivious to what is going on.
• During the 'tug-of-war' scene, the humorous situation of this could be heightened by having the small bird pulling the dog along the ground/through the air (Bird appears unusually strong - could show how much it wants the biscuit)
• Zooming out at the end to leave on a similar shot that the storyboard began with at the beginning could round off the film nicely.

I've also typed up the script (yes the girl's name is 'Lily', I did not initiate this decision! :p Decided to differentiate this character from myself by spelling it differently from my own to avoid confusion):

Tug of Biscuit

03/02/2014

Director and Script Writer: Lilly Durrant

EXT. House and Back-Garden – (DAYTIME – AUTUMN/WINTER)

A young dog, named PIP, plays in the Garden and runs towards the back door of the house.

INT. Kitchen – (DAYTIME)

A young woman, LILY, is doing chores in the kitchen. Pip comes in through the door; Lily greets Pip,

1.                                            LILY

“Biscuit?”

She then throws a BISCUIT out into the garden for Pip.

EXT. Back-Garden – (DAYTIME)

SFX sounds of kids playing in neighbour’s garden. Dog approaches biscuit, sniffs it and then opens mouth to eat it.

SFX loud kick sound! A BALL flies over the fence and past the dog, immediately grabbing Pip’s attention. Pip excitedly runs out of shot after the ball.

A BIRD swoops down, picks up the biscuit, and takes off with it.

Pip happily pads back into shot with the football in his mouth. He looks down at where the biscuit was and is shocked and confused to find it is gone! Pip looks around the ground and then looks up. Pip spots and focuses on something O/S and looks angry.

Camera zooms out to show the bird sitting on the fence with the biscuit. It then swallows the biscuit, which upsets the dog, and then flies away. The ball pops and deflates in the dog’s mouth.

INT. Kitchen – (DAYTIME)

Pip begs Lily for another biscuit; she throws one outside for him and gets back to work.

EXT. Back-Garden – (DAYTIME)

Dog runs up to biscuit and looks around suspiciously for the bird. Thinking maybe it’s best to save and hide the biscuit, Dog begins to dig a hole for it.

Meanwhile the Bird swoops down and creeps towards the biscuit.

Pip is alerted to a sound and turns around to see the Bird with his biscuit in its mouth. Bird then engulfs it whole and takes off, leaving a stunned Dog.

INT. Kitchen – (DAYTIME)

Pip begs Lily desperately for another biscuit.

2.                                            LILY

“Last one, ok?”

She throws a biscuit outside for him and gets back to washing dishes at the window, which has a view of the garden.

EXT. Back-Garden – (DAYTIME)

Dog runs towards biscuit and then stops. Camera pans up to reveal the bird standing opposite. The biscuit lies on the ground, at equal distance between the two. It’s a standoff.

C/U of the dog and bird, both look angry and determined; each glance between the other and the biscuit.

Both then suddenly race towards each other and the biscuit. Camera cuts just before they collide.

INT. Kitchen – (DAYTIME)

Lily is busy washing dishes. The view from the window shows Pip and Bird in a tug of war with the biscuit. Lily looks nonchalantly up, then back to the dishes, then double takes back to the chaos outside.

3.                                            LILY

Exclamation of Surprise!

Lily throws down what she was washing and runs O/S. Still looking through the window at the sink, Lily can be seen running towards Pip and the Bird, arms flailing and shooing.

4.                                            LILY

(Sound is muffled, as camera/audience still in Kitchen)

“Stoppp! Shoo! Shoo!”

EXT. Back-Garden – (DAYTIME)

As the Bird flies off past the camera, Lily picks Pip up along with the biscuit. She looks at the biscuit, and then O/S.

Bird is sitting on the fence looking very sad; its little stomach wobbles as it grumbles.

Lily looks back at dog and biscuit, an expression of realization crosses her face. She looks thoughtful and then has an idea.

SFX of DIY and building with a montage of C/U’s.

Pip watches with anticipation as Lily finishes constructing something. Camera dollies out to reveal a new BIRD HOUSE/FEEDER. Bird flies to it and looks joyous!

Bird happily munches on the bird feed as the Dog finally munches away on his biscuit.

THE END

The script is currently 2.5 pages long, meaning our film is roughly 2-3 minutes long, so a lot of editing is required. Ideally the animatic needs to be edited to under 2 minutes.

Lastly we went over some Moodboards, these are the ones I put together, wanted to find examples of simple 3D designs, followed by 2D and more illustrative designs:

I've started putting some reference boards together on Pinterest,

Cartoon Dogs: http://www.pinterest.com/2illybean/cartoon-dogs/

Garden Birds: http://www.pinterest.com/2illybean/garden-birds/

There are still designs, styles and colours to finalize. Originally we thought of having a 2D background with 3D characters, the more this project is developing the more inclined we have been to go for a 3D background instead. It will probably be a lot less trouble for us, not having to try and convincingly composite a 3D character into a 2D world.

We also discussed what everyone is working on at the moment and what we should be working on next. I will continue Directing and overseeing the whole project, including the designs, and I will be updating the storyboard and 2D animatic. Sourcing some free 3D rigs to use in the 3D animatic and creating the 3D animatic; this will aid background designs, give an idea of camera moves, and allow me to start animation tests.

For our next Supervisor Meeting in 3 weeks time:

• Have a new updated 2D animatic (fix storyboard)
• A 3D animatic (used with simple models and free rigs, having a 3D animatic will help with what backgrounds we need to help influence those designs)
• Background and character designs - start modelling a character

Team Meeting - Tuesday 14th Jan 2014

Here are the notes I wrote down during our team meeting:

Production roles

Lilly = Director, Storyboard, Animatic, Script Writer, Character Animation, (Rigging)

Kirti = Production Manager, (Directing 2^nd version of film – Animatic), 3D Generalist – Modelling, Rendering, Compositing, Editing (incl. Sound & Soundtrack)

Sheng = Character Design, 2D artist – Backgrounds, Texturing, Lighting

George = Character Rigging, 3D Generalist, Post Production

Currently working on: Sheng – Character Designs, Kirti – Kitchen 3D model (for 3D Animatic), Lilly – Storyboarding, George – Rigging, ALL – discussing story beats.

The film needs a title? Only name I was using before was ‘Tug of Biscuit’.

List of to-do’s

Script

Storyboards

Animatics

Characters (Bird, Dog, Human) – Designed, Modelled, Textured, Rigged, Animated.

Backgrounds (Kitchen, Garden – Autumn/Winter) – Drawn, Coloured, Camera moves?

Lighting

Dynamics (Leaves)

Sound (temp. for animatics, final for final)

Soundtrack

Post Production – Semester 3 (Rendering, Compositing, Editing, Credits/Title Sequence)

Production Schedule

Animatic for the film to be final by middle of Semester Two – 14^th February?

Animatic for 2^nd version of the film to be finished by the end of Semester Two.

Aim to have a finished still and a few seconds of movie by the end of semester 2, to be used as reference for the rest of the film. It also locks down final look and rendering and compositing pipeline.

Look of the film: Concept artwork needs to be created, reference and inspirational photos and footage gathered. Thinking of retro style designs for the characters?...

Story Discussion

Young/new dog whose objective is to put biscuit into his kennel outside/save biscuit for later/eat biscuit.

Bird’s objective is hungry, wants food, therefore wants the dog’s biscuit because it’s Autumn/Winter and there is lack of food for birds.

Why would the dog not eat the biscuit straight away? – Dog behaviour, saving it for later?

Owner could throw the biscuit out into the garden, but the bird gets to it before the dog.

Dog gets distracted by a ball being kicked over the fence by the neighbours, by the time dog gets back to the biscuit, the bird got it instead.

Dog is busy digging a hole for biscuit so the bird snatches up the biscuit.

Dog tries to run after bird and runs into pile of leaves that owner has swept up.

Each time dog’s biscuit is taken, goes back to owner to ask (dog beg) for another. Owner is busy doing chores in the kitchen so throws out another biscuit to keep dog occupied. (Happens all in one day)

Or does each scenario happen across different days?

Last scenario, bird and dog have a ‘ninja fight’ over the biscuit (scenes changes, more stylistic/imaginative) Cut back to reality and what’s actually happening, dog and bird in tug of war with biscuit. Owner spots this happening from kitchen window and goes racing outside to stop the fight.

Owner now realizes what’s been happening, bird looks sad and hungry.

Owner puts a new bird feeder in the garden, as dog happily munches on biscuit.

Lip sync? Maybe a couple of words here and there by the owner if the story needs it.

1 – 2 mins long – simple short film.

Story Rough Script

Owner gives dog a biscuit, dog takes it out into the garden and is just about to eat it when suddenly the neighbour’s kids kick a ball over the fence. Dog focuses on ball and runs after it. Dog goes back to where the biscuit was with the ball in its mouth, but the biscuit is gone! Looks around and spots a bird on the fence eating it.

Dog goes back to owner to ask for another biscuit. Busy with chores in the kitchen, owner gives dog another biscuit to take into the garden. Dog decides to keep this one safe and dig a hole for it. However whilst digging, bird swoops in and snatches up the biscuit. Dog notices, goes running and barking after the bird and runs straight into a pile of leaves.

Dog begs owner for another biscuit, annoying owner who is busy in kitchen, she throws another biscuit out into the garden. Dog and bird spot the biscuit at the same time and both go racing for it. Ninja fight!

Owner washing dishes at kitchen window looks up and spots dog and bird in tug of war with the biscuit! Owner runs outside towards them and scares off bird, breaking up the fight. Bird looks sad and stomach rumbles back on the fence. Owner realises what’s been happening. Owner puts a new bird feeder in the garden; bird happily nibbles away and dog finally eats his biscuit.

Animation Script Writing 2

Practiced some observational
drawing during the workshop.

Wednesday 30th October - Attended the second script writing workshop led by Mark Grindle.

Notes taken during the workshop:

Projects:
Just come up with a title! It is the audiences first clue about the film.
A 2 minute film is completely different from a 3-4minute film.

Character, storyteller and audience share the same logic - overlapping. Allows you to step into the character's shoes at will.

3 word to always come back to during script writing:

Power
- Protagonist can become the mirror of the antagonist
- Relationship between protagonist and the antagonist
- Relationship between story/character and audience, power over the audience, power of the storyteller
- See a film twice, 1st time just enjoy the film, 2nd time watch the audience and see their reactions to it, note down when and what reactions they had to the film, you can create a map of the film's story from this.

Desire
- What a character needs/wants/intent, their goal
- Define what position the character is in
- Let the audience decide what is right for the character
- Don't let the character know what they need, but let the audience know, dramatic irony. Let the audience know right from the beginning.

Destiny
- Messages in our heads to make us conform to something
- It's the ..."if you don't do that, ..."
- Always a sense at the end, the characters don't end there.

Who is the audience?
Characterize the experience of the viewer, how will an audience respond to your film? Attitudes and attributes boil down to what the ideal audience for your film would be.
Test story ideas with people. If it's a comedy, really test it with others.

Animation Script Writing 1

On Tuesday 1st October we had an all-day class with script writer Mark Grindle. Some of the talk was familiar as he visited our class when I was in Undergraduate Animation. Here are some of the notes I wrote down during the day:

storytelling - how we make sense of the environment/people around us.

things to think about when script writing -
story
active questions
tone
theme

Character - 
How to get the audience to understand what the character is thinking?
The character has to need/want something - even if he/she doesn't know.
1 story per character - whose story are you concentrating on, for example, in a film?
All character's stories link to a central theme.
Less is more.
What is the character's desire?

Tradegy - don't get what they want
Comedy - do get what they want

'Poetics' book by Aristotle recommended.

Themes (message/moral) - 
Here is a diagram explaining different themes:

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Task for next Script Writing workshop on 30th October:
Come back with something incorporating elements of today, a short story, told in 30 seconds or about 50 words long, to tell to the rest of the group. It should take around 30 seconds to tell and would make the audience/someone think/do/feel differently (justify with one or more of the elements above).