To exercise in plotting an animation, we tackled storyboarding with 'The Sock' being our given title. Children's stories and mundane situations are not my area of expertise so I had to try and adapt to the context the best I could. So I though up a sock sneaking out of my room when I am not looking and making it through the house until trouble comes in the form of our English setter Dottie. The dog is shown menacingly towering over the errant sock that freezes in fear.
Being a storyboard, there are other options this story could be cut. More frames have been experimented with, including the sock making its journey out of the bedroom door, past a flight of stairs across the landing. There is a close up of the dog's face with the sock in the very foreground and of the dog's front as she bears down on this very frightened sock. Of course the dog munching on the sock could give the storyboard some closure.
Colour
For animation, colour can be a handy element in storytelling. For a good example of a film that uses colour for visual communication, I selected the 2000 animated film Batman Beyond - Return of the Joker. Years down the line, movies and television shows based on DC Comics have been produced by Warner Brothers Animation studios and artists, animators and producers Bruce Timm, Glen Murakami and Alan Burnett. So I shall be exploring how Warner Bros animation uses colour to enhance the story.
Batman and the Joker are opposite sides of the darkness representing Gotham City. Batman uses the dark to combat crime out of the shadows and intimidate those who would endanger the lives of citizens, so he blends into the night with his all-black suit. The Joker is madness given form, so his clownish form is brought out by his chalk white skin, green hair, red lips and eyes and purple for his choice of costume. His hair and costume are mainly dark-coloured because in this setting, the Joker has adapted to the cyberpunk background and gone for a minimal design. The green and purple retain his classic palette, and therein, his character traits.
Batman Beyond takes us many decades into the future, so Gotham City is updated with some youthful elements like discos, nightclubs and heavy metal music. As such, characters dancing at the nightclub are highlighted all over against the blackness with flashing bright, contrasting colours.
Clearly Batman Beyond uses complimentary colours in its palette. The Joker’s white skin contrasts with his black outfit, Batman’s facial features are visible against his black suit and disco lights flash blinding colours to give the youthful feel of millennial culture.
Misc-en-Scene
Misc-en-Scene is the French for 'Put on Stage' which applies to the direction of every physical thing used to set the stage of a film. A documentary uses real locations and placements whereas fiction uses its reality selectively or altered. Those responsible for misc-en-scene, the physical world of the film include the production designer, set dresser, property master and the costume designer, who all pertain to the theatre.
This drawing was a possible design idea for a film titled 'The Accountant'. For inspiration, I looked at an article on a future business park planned for London and thought of my idea of a high-tech, architecturally advance setting for someone involved in ultra-modern business.
The framing of my set design is a dramatic view of huge buildings that hold significant importance, so I have included up to three of these places in the foreground. The water in the middle ground adds to the tranquility of the business park. The view of the cityscape establishes the urban setting.
Semiotics
Frames
Language of Editing
Action Edit
The Mask of Zorro, directed by Martin Campbell
Information – The long shot shows us a ferocious duel between Zorro and the evil US Army officer Captain Harrison Love. We can see the opponents battling one-on-one in a mine that has been set alight, adding to the danger and destruction their duel has caused in the process. Below is a sheer drop and Zorro and Captain Love are fighting up against a cliff face.
Motivation – In the long shot, Zorro has the high ground on an elevated section of the walkway with Captain Love literally fighting uphill. As they clash in the long shot, Zorro will leap over his enemy to perform his next action in the second shot. Jumping over and landing behind Captain Love in the long shot is the ‘motivation’ for Zorro’s move in the closer shot, which is to catch the evil captain’s sword arm and slash a mark across his face.
Composition – The long shot shows us the duel, the location it is taking place and the environment they are in. Zorro and Captain Love have been positioned in the foreground as we follow their battle to the finish. The middle ground is the walkways and the rather threatening-looking fire that is about to consume the mine in a blaze. The background consists of the desert environment where the mine has been dug. The close up framing shows us Zorro blocking Captain Love’s attack with his free hand while his other arm brings his sword to his enemy’s face and slashes.
Camera angle – In the long shot, the camera is filming from a diagonal upwards angle to show us what is happening, who we bring our focus to and where this is happening. The view over the rocky outcrops adds a certain element of suspense to the already violent battle. In the close-up, the camera focuses on Zorro, making sure we see the action being performed and where he is positioning his sword. Captain Love is being seen from the side at the edge of the shot to show Zorro wounding him across the face.
Continuity – The edit starts with Zorro on the high ground, giving him an advantage over Captain Love, leaping into the air and landing behind his enemy before slashing a mark onto his face. The transition from the wide shot to the close-up retains the continuity of the fight. Zorro starts off standing on the high section of the plankwork to the right side of the shot with Captain Love standing below to the left, trying to force Zorro back. When leaping, Zorro has managed to get behind Captain Love. The opponents’ sides of the shot have been switched, this time with Zorro on the left and Captain Love the right. The close-up retains Zorro’s position on the left, simply zooming in on the action he performs. Additionally, the view of the mine stays on the right of both shots. Were the camera to shoot from the opposite angle, we would be seeing the cliff face completely take up the space around the fight scene.
Sound – The duel is a brutal fight to the bitter end, so sword movements are emphasised by sharp swoops and metallic clanks. Zorro and Captain Love are bent on one killing the other so they grunt from the effort in trying to gain an advantage in the struggle. The crackling of flames behind the fight furthers the intensity. To retain continuity, the sword clashes form a sort of rhythm that flows in time with the duellists’ movements. James Horner conducts a menacing 3-note strand made on a low trumpet that ramps up the bloodlust these two rivals feel for each other.
The duel is the action edit’s continuous movement, allowing the editor to match the action from another shot of coverage. As the edit switches from wide to close-up, information, motivation, composition, camera angles, continuity and sound all come together into a smooth transition between actions being performed onscreen.
Screen Position Edit
The camera starts this edit by focusing on Zorro and his sword being held in front of Captain Love. With the focus on his masked face, we get a good look at the anger he expresses at his opponent, highlighted by his posture and the arc of his sword blade. After slashing the mark on Captain Love’s face, Zorro growls ‘M for Murrieta.’ When the camera switches to Captain Love’s scarred face, we notice the slash is indeed an ‘M.’ As Captain Love replies, ‘Two men,” then screams “ONE DEAD!’, the frame focuses on the bloodlust on his face while leaving enough room to show his sword arm being raised, resuming the swordfight. When switching between opponents, the screen position keeps the perspective we last saw them in the action edit. Zorro started the action edit on the right and Captain Love had been on the left. When Zorro leapt behind Captain Love, they had switched positions, so the screen position edit keeps that perspective when focusing on the lines they say to one another.
Form edit
In ‘The Mummy Returns,’ two married adventurers journey through Egypt to prevent the resurrected mummy Imhotep from seizing control of an undead army and to rescue their son who has been taken hostage. At every key point in Egypt Imhotep and his band of cultists set up camp, the boy secretly moulds sand into the following locations;
The Temple Island of Philae
The Great Temple of Abu Simbel
The monuments start off as sandcastles the camera zooms in on, bringing out their meticulous detailing. The surrounding background like the sand, the empty bucket, the stone pillar in the first screenshot fade out. The sandcastles transform into the actual locations with the stone detailing brought out and the explorers’ blimp appearing into the edit. This way, the form edit transports us from location to location via the sandcastles representing the famous monuments.
Concept Edit
In Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jurassic Park,’ lumps of fossilised amber are being dug out of a mine in the Dominican Republic. Attention is brought to an amber stone in the lead archaeologist’s hand. The diggers all crouch around the amber and the archaeologist grins in wonder. Anyone who understands Spanish will know the archaeologist is saying, “You are so pretty. You will make a lot of people happy.” The camera zeroes in on the mosquito preserved inside the crystallised amber. As our attention is drawn to this ‘pretty’ mosquito fossilised in this jewel-like stone, we wonder what secret lies in this archaeological find.
The concept edit then cuts to a brush sweeping away grit and sand. Underneath is the claw of a dinosaur. We have been transported from the Caribbean mines to a palaeontologists’ dig in Montana, United States.
As the concept edit switches from the mosquito in the amber to the claw being unearthed from the sand, John Williams conducts a chilling track with suspenseful strings and wondrous choral chants.
For the trained mind, the concept edit is a message of the connection between the fossilised mosquito and the dinosaur. This can be emphasised by the Spanish archaeologist’s line, “You will make a lot of people happy.” Some of us might be wondering if there is some purpose behind specifically digging up amber containing mosquitos, and for that matter, how dinosaurs, animals extinct for 65 million years, relate to unearthing preserved insects.
Everything this small concept edit hints at comes into full circle when we experience the tour of Jurassic Park. It turns out that the genetics company InGen extracted dinosaur blood from the mosquitos entombed in amber. With dinosaur DNA, we get the Brachiosaurus, the Triceratops, the Tyrannosaurus, the Dilophosaurus and the Velociraptors. In this tiny concept edit, we are at the edge of our seats with the riddle it brings, and the wait is worth it when we witness dinosaurs walking the earth once more.
Combined Edit
‘Finding Neverland,’ starring Johnny Depp as playwright J. M. Barrie, envisions the creation of Peter Pan and the magical world of pirates, mermaids and never growing up. When J. M. Barrie befriends a widow and her sons, they all act out a Wild West battle and a pirate ship scene.
At first the background is an actual western desert and the scene takes place amongst actual loghouses. J. M. Barrie wears a feather in his hair and the boys wear Stetsons, bandoliers, moustaches and waistcoats. However, the guns are just sticks, J. M. Barrie has no Indian makeup and he carries a painting of an Indian chief. He also holds a branch of leaves and the boy with the red neckerchief has a flowery pattern on his waistcoat. These suggest the ‘playtime’ vibe behind this exciting, action-packed cowboys and Indians game.
One shot in the combined edit makes a drastic switch from fantasy to reality by bringing us into the common English garden. The boy is not dressed like a cowboy and his hat is simply a sunhat. But as with the fantastical world, the gun is also a stick.
That one shot in the real world then switches back to Barrie’s imaginary western. The boy in this shot wears a Stetson and proper cowboy clothes while he and Barrie crouch behind an actual wagon.
The edit returns us to the garden and shows us one boy taking cover near a bench and the boy next to Barrie actually wearing a black gentleman’s trilby acting as a Stetson.
Further shots in the edit take place in the garden with faint sound effects letting us imagine the how the story would unfold through playtime.
When Barrie is ‘shot,’ a gunshot is heard, accompanied by the rustle of birds flying. This is while they are still in the garden of the mother’s house.
The camera is shooting from behind one of the boys playing the cowboys while Barrie speaks to the one he has ‘kidnapped.’ Earlier in this scene, edits had revolved around this make-believe Wild West, before edits of Barrie and the children in the garden sort of burst this bubble. The edit then alternates between fantasy and reality so that we follow Barrie’s imagination taking place in everyday British life.
Barrie’s next story shows him sneaking through woodland outside a country house wearing an overcoat, a colourful handkerchief wrapped around his and an eye patch while holding up a wooden sword. When he ‘captures’ one of the boys, a digital sea made to look like cardboard cutouts like in a children’s picture book across which a pirate ship sails. In this scene, the edit uses the real world and Barrie’s fantasy slightly differently to his Wild West scene.
“Who amongst you is ready to tie your hopes and dreams to the sea?”
“I am!”
“Not finished yet.”
"To enter upon the most dangerous chapter of your young and soon-to-be wasted lives?”
“What did you say? What’re you doing, son? Are you giggling? On my ship? Giggling?! WHAT DID YOU SAY?!”
“I said I’m ready, captain!”
“What’s your name, boy?”
“I’m Curly, the oldest and wisest of the crew.”
“Welcome aboard, Curly! Your job will be to mop the deck!”
“And who be you, young squire?”
“My name be Nibs the cutthroat, feared by man and greatly desired by the ladies."
"Jack!"
“Welcome aboard, Nibs! You shall polish all wood surfaces!”
“And you, lad?”
“I’m Peter.”
“That’s not a pirate name! What about Dastardly Jim, eh?”
“No. Just Peter. I like my name.”
Animation Beatboard
“Very well! In punishment for lack of an interesting pirate name, Peter shall walk the plank!”
The fiction and reality are edited together to keep us following the characters’ perspectives, while the timing of the editing adds some humour to the playtime scene, particularly when Jack quotes himself to be “feared by man and greatly desired by the ladies” and Kate Winslet exclaims “Jack!” In a way, we are looking at J M Barrie’s story through the eyes of him and the children who join in his fun and games. But Peter doesn’t get involved in the fun, taking us out of Neverland, only for Barrie to pull us and Peter back into his vision.
First storyboard
Ghost story animatic
Second Beatboard
Second storyboard
Spiritual Contemplation
Toon Boom experiment
Animating frames to move across the background was tricky, so when I was able to follow the process, there were mixed results. Although I brought this girl to life by moving her across the screen, Omid noticed the speed at which the animation moved did not match the pace she was walking and she just slipped along the background. Had I lengthened the pathway, I would have given her a more realistic walk.
One of my earliest experiments with Maya in 'Crafting the Moving Image' after 'Human Locomotion.' Understanding how Maya and its technology worked was slow and hard, particularly when we had to use charts to coordinate the direction and distance it bounced.
I regret to say that although Charlie Harrison, Isaac Gordon Bruno and myself tested the lighting in the stop-motion animated studio and green screen, circumstances beyond our control lost us the necessary data. You can find my work with green screen in the ghost pixilation I just did and lighting in the 'Change of Heart' storyboards I did in Semester 2.