this week (offically week 16) ive been up to lots of different things, which is as it should be really.
First of all, getting my proposal sorted was key. it was frustrating, but it did help me define exactly what i want to make. its was hard, and its still not entirely finished, but its sort of there. the hard bit now is just remembering to hit the marks that ive said i am going to. getting some help off nicola from last year helped, to understand just how much detail is required.
One cool thing i did this week was email Ed Hooks my script.
Ed wrote this book:
Its a pretty damn fantastic book for understanding the motivations of your characters. he covers a lot of stuff in it. Hes worked with Pixar, Valve and Dreamworks and loads of other people. really great guy to talk stories through, because it all plays into the whole piece.
whats even better is hearing him talk, which i got to do at animex a few years back. i took a dozen pages of notes that day. addmittidly most of it is in the book, but hearing the guy himself really makes it sink in.
Well, i emailed him my script. and to my suprise, he got back to me within a day! so instead of transcribing it, ill show it.
Hey Andrew -
It is good to hear from you. You caught me in the middle of a Chicago snow storm.
I like your script, partly because I have been attracted to scare crows and robots ever since "The Wizard of Oz". You have sort of combined the two.
Couple of notes:
After the bird flips the bucket over on itself, the robot picks up his eye and heads back to his chain in the ground. You are describing -- with words -- a moment of abstract thought when you say that he sees the chain and realizes what is implied by being chained up. At which point he goes back and frees the bird. I think you should tell that moment with pictures. The robot sees the chain and stops in his tracks. He looks back at the chirping bucket. He looks back at the chain. He looks again at the bucket, the chirp getting dimmer, the bucket jumping less. He looks again at the chain. Close-up on robot's face at his moment of decision. Cut back to the bucket -- maybe a medium close shot -- the robot approaches and lifts the bucket, freeing the bird.
I think also the bird should not immediately know what is up. The bird and the robot need to exchange glances so that the robot's intention is clear. I mean, when the bucket is lifted off the bird, the bird might reasonably presum e he is about to be cooked over an open fire or something.
The ending works, but you need to have a bird or two get spooked off, so that you are ending with the same sort of scene you opened with. It might be overly clever, but you might consider affixing some kind of movable face on the bucket/face, maybe with a long string that can be controlled by the robot who is now sitting with the bird. Another bird lands near the bucket/spade, the robot pulls the string, causing the face on the bucket to say "Boo!" and the bird flies off. Maybe. I'm not positive about this. I'm simply remembering that, in the opening, the bird does not run away until the robot says "Boo!" Screenplay structure is strongest when the final scene is very much like the opening scene.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Thanks for sharing with me. Maybe I'll see you next month. I WILL be at Animex.
Pretty damn good really! some nice advice, which im gonna work into my storyboard.
talking of that, ive decided not to rewrite my script. any changes will be put into the storyboard instead. works for pixar, so it works for me. im trying to get to the pioint where i can storyboard, which is hopefully days away. tommorrow i hope.
Concepty stuff!
ive been doing character concept for a while now, and a few other things for this. i find drawing a hard thing to do. but ive been pushing through, getting it done. i want it to be great, which is hard. ive never enjoyed drawing.
but, i had an idea in my head. and its led to th is piece which i really like.
Colourwise at least it hits what i see in my head. which is great. i love seeing something that ive only seen in my head up until that point. it might look like that eventually, it might now, but it with this as a starting point, i know im going in the right direction.
Ive been working on the bird.... and it drove me nuts. it honestly feels like i dont wanna talk about it.
ever noticed how birds are never a big part of animation? theres only really Valiant, and that wasnt great.
anyway, ive eventually come up with this.
that took a lot of work to get that.... and its not finished. but its the direction i want to take, i like it. it works, he looks cheeky. ive been trying to decide how realistic the bird needs to be, and i think this is a good direction to go in.
im still workingo n the robot. its all over the place to be honest. ive been doing a lot of moodboards and research, to get this how i want. research is the key!so im thinking art deco. art deco is the key.
theres a few other bits ive been doing to keep moving forward with this. im happy with where i am, id just like to get storyboarding.
later! time for bed!
No comments:
Post a Comment