May 21, 2018: Research and Development 3

 As we come closer to the end of the quarter, it has been announced that my film has been greenlit as one of the 2018-2019 senior films! Now, for our concept development class, we have been developing animatics for our concepts. At this stage, the work is very rough and is meant to illustrate timing in our story. As a result, my main focus on the characters and because the drawings were made at different times, there are some frames with tone, while others only have line art. While there is still plenty of material I can improve upon, such as during the climax, I feel this is an improvement over the animatic from last week. In the past, I was relying on my beatboards and filling in the blanks. However, this time, I redrew a number of frames to better tell the story. In turn, I incorporated a number of additional features listed in the storyboarding chapter of Ideas for the Animated Short. For instance, I wanted to include more elements like extended frames, which I use for my opening shot. Another thing I needed to work on was my continuity. For instance, there were parts where Duncan's hands were holding the wrong leg. I really wanted to include in this next animatic is the exposition at the beginning, which I felt was too rushed in the original. It would also give me the opportunity to establish Zack's character, which was not as visible in the first animatic. Another weak point in my original animatic was my pacing. As the book says, you must anticipate the pacing of your film to get the correct timing, and I finally have been able to time out the panels closer to how I wanted to. For example, the timing in the beginning is far slower, but as the sequence intensifies, the timing accelerates, with increasingly faster cuts. This goes hand in hand with the linear motif, which I made sure to emphasize. As the scene picks up in intensity, I drew more frames with linear motif in mind and included more diagonal lines with more contrast.

At this point, the animatic is still in very rough shape. I want to rerecord the dialogue and continue working on the timing. However, for the time being, I feel it has successfully built off of the last one and tells the story better. Ultimately, it will serve as the springboard for my work over the summer, where I will continue to refine and develop the story and its presentation.

May 14, 2018: Research and Development 2

As part of our research and development, we were assigned to create a rough animatic for our story to understand the timing. The animatic did not require fully timed storyboards, so I ended up doing some extra boards in between the major beats I had previously drawn, with a very rough dialogue track I recorded. Meanwhile, in the background, I included some music I recorded for my solo musical project, Lost Cosmonauts. In some cases, I felt I only needed one beat to show certain points, which explains the long pauses at certain points. I felt that it would take that long for the actual beat to happen.

This was the first time I had to really focus on the dialogue in the script itself. In the past, I have written dialogue the projects were longer. As a result, I wanted to really condense what they were talking about. In Ideas for the Short Story, the authors explain dialogue is used for a number of reasons, such as setting the mood, revealing character and driving the plot forward as well as the resolution, among other things. Personally, I feel I used dialogue to specifically reveal character and drive the plot. For instance, we immediately see the conflict between our protagonists with the first line Ryan utters. We immediately see he is fed up and wants to leave. Meanwhile, we hear Mr. Winters' insane ramblings and he is not someone taken seriously. The way the dialogue drives the plot comes ironically when Duncan ignores his friends and responds with silence. Later on, Zack's panicked blabbering prevents him from effectively warning his friends of the incoming invaders, making them vulnerable. During the climax, the tempo of the speaking picks up as we hear Duncan's ramblings, signifying the increasing tension in the scene.

Aside from dialogue, the other main audio I included for this animatic is music I recorded. I actually spliced together two different songs that happened to be in similar keys and are meant to represent the rising tension in the scene as well as illustrate the mood of their world. In other scenes, the lack of music is meant to represent the boredom of living in Mercury Bay for our protagonists or the numbness Duncan feels after losing his friends.

As of now, this is a very rough animatic. To me, the characters personalities and their dialogue were the most important features and I wanted to time that out first. As I continue working on it for Research and Development 3, I will add more sounds such as ambient background noises and sounds for the UFO and the slapstick jokes. I also want to probably rework some of the dialogue. Ideas for the Short Story warns how dialogue can interrupt the story rather than support it. It can also serve as narration that overtakes the story rather than let the visuals tell it. I feel this is the case with some of the dialogue at the beginning, which might be too much exposition. As I work on it in the future, I try to flesh it out as a legitimate storyboard, I might try to show more visuals to tell what the characters are thinking.

One last change I made to this was the ending to the story. I was not really happy with the whole idea of a party on the UFO, and I was still trying find ways to include and focus on Mr. Winters. As a result, I changed it to a religious joke where it is revealed he is apparently a religious figure to the aliens and is almost like a pope to them.

As this post is being written, we are only a few days away from finding out who gets green-lit. However, in the event my film does not, I am happy to be doing this so I could possibly go and produce this independently.

May 7, 2018: Research and Development

The past two weeks have been incredibly busy for me and my fellow Concept Development students as we were preparing our pitches to the professors to be green-lit. After countless late nights and long hours, we finally pitched them on Friday, May 4. Prior to this, we presented our pitches to the class for feedback. After such a long time away from the blog, I wanted to share what I have created and accumulated over the past week.

One new addition I made to the pitch was the title: Welcome to Mercury Bay. I renamed the town to Mercury Bay as a play on words. Project Mercury was the first American spaceflight program in the early 1960s, and was a major source of pride and optimism for the country during the Cold War. However, the element, Mercury, is toxic to humans and the idea of a poisonous bay represents the promising town's eventual derailment and decline.

The logo I designed for the film is based on signs featuring the Googie design, like the iconic sign for Las Vegas. This logo would also be featured in the film to present the title, and with additional rust, it is meant to give the audience an immediate introduction to the world they are in.

I even included this on the cover page of my page, which was influenced by some of the graphic design from the time.

Another addition I did was I created several beat boards for my story, in an effort to better represent my vision and the story.

1. Duncan, Ryan and Zack have set up a little camp to investigate UFO sightings, based out of an old gas station on the outskirts of town. Duncan is the only one interested. Ryan and Zack are both exhausted and want to leave.

2. Duncan says he heard about the UFOs from Mr. Winters. Ryan looks at Mr. Winters in the distance and is not convinced.

3. Ryan and Zack give up and walk back into town. Ryan wants to have a cigarette first.

4. Zack notices a beam of light in the distance, leading up to a dark mass in the sky. The mass is slowly approaching.

5. People begin getting pulled up into the sky, including Mr. Winters, who does not even acknowledge what is going on around him. He is simply rambling to himself.

6. Zack runs back to warn his friends but neither listen to him. Ryan is simply trying to get his lighter to work and Duncan is too focused, looking through his telescope that is pointed in the wrong direction.

7. A beam shines down on Zack and he slowly starts levitating. He yells "HELP!" to Ryan, who finally notices and tries to help.

8. Ryan begins to get pulled up as well. He must get Duncan's attention as well, but Duncan is too preoccupied. Ryan figures the only way to get his attention is to throw a rock at him.

 

9. Duncan comes to see what's going on and while he tries to help, he also tries to get a picture of the UFO in the sky. Ryan does not appreciate this.

10. Ryan tries kicking the phone out of his hand and accidentally kicks Duncan in the head instead.

11. Duncan's grip loosens and he realizes he must actually help his friends. However, his hands slip and his friends get pulled up into the darkness in the sky.

12. Duncan is left alone, stunned and numbed by what he saw. He is crushed by his loss of his friends. He stays there for several hours until sunrise. 

13. Out of nowhere, he friends are dropped out of the sky.

14. Ryan and Zack are exhausted but not traumatized like Duncan expected, but they reveal it was a party onboard the UFO. They rub it in and brag to him about the experience.

15. Duncan still boasts that he got his photos, but when he looks at them, they are all useless.

16. The characters all head back into town. Mr. Winters is dropped off at his trailer, still babbling to himself and not acknowledging what has happened to him.

After my presentation to the class, I got some bits of feedback. One recommendation was to emphasize the gags in my beat boards. The idea was that my story was a comedy and the gags themselves would help sell the pitch, and my original beat boards lacked As a result, I went back and added a number of beat boards, specifically 2, 5, 8, 10, 15, and 16. For instance, I added the boards such as the close up of Duncan's phone as well as the gags with slapstick, such as Duncan getting kicked or hit with a rock. Without some of these, the pitch loses a lot of the humor, and makes it much more bland.

Another bit of feedback I received was to include references to Mr. Winters. In the book, Ideas for the Animated Short, the authors discuss the "Bus Stop Structure," where a secondary character comes into the story and drives it and helps solve the problem. This does NOT follow the bus stop structure, however, when discussing the structure, the authors advise readers that the character must be essential. Otherwise, it is a waste of time to model, texture and rig a 3D character. While Mr. Winters is not one of the core main characters, he provides multiple gags as well as some flavor for the world and story. This advice is in line with the feedback from the pitch, which was basically if he does not contribute, I should not include him in the character section. He helps provide some motivation for Duncan by telling him about the UFO activity, and also shows what kind of strange individuals may populate the area.

Another piece I worked on was character, with more solid, clean designs with color, including Mr. Winters.

After reading the "Building Story" chapter from Ideas for the Animated Short, I see my story is a mix of "Linear Narrative" and "Circular Structure". For instance, we see Duncan realize the importance of his friends once he sees they are in jeopardy and evolve. However as we get to the resolution, the characters return to home, back where they belong, ready to have more adventures together in the future. Only this time, they are more appreciative of each other.

Another topic the chapter deals with is rising intensity of conflict. Looking at the events leading up to the climax, I see elements of mental jeopardy when Zack is trying to warn his friends, physical jeopardy when he and Ryan are both being pulled into the sky. Throughout the sequence, there is an increase activity as each character becomes involved when the UFO arrives. Lastly the expenditure of energy is crucial to the climax, because it represents Duncan deciding to put all his effort into helping his friends.

Another thing I have worked on is my world. When I worked on my "World" assignment, I tended to focus more on the all-encompassing world of Mercury Bay. However, I went and found more examples of the type of gas station I want the main characters to build their makeshift camp.

Another thing I began looking for was some of the equipment the characters begin using. For this, I want the characters to use somewhat dated technology, as though they went scavenging through the abandoned buildings and scrounged this equipment and made a makeshift system to track UFOs.

Overall, now that the pitches are over, I want to dive into the deeper, more intricate details of the characters, their world and everything in between. Since the presentation in class, I have placed more emphasis on the humor and gags in the story. Looking at what I have now, I am much happier with the humor and direction this concept is moving in.

New Character Designs

After presenting my characters and receiving feedback, I went back and began tweaking their designs, placing more emphasis on shapes. For instance, Duncan's design is based more on a square/rectangle, Ryan's design is based on a triangle, and Zack's design is built around circles and round shapes.

April 23, 2018: World

With the characters established, we now move into developing the world they inhabit. Here we must decide how it characters interact with it and how it shapes them and their experience in the story.

The overall setting for my short film is a fictional small town in the California desert called Haven Falls. The town takes inspiration from several real-life towns based around the Salton Sea in California, such as Salton City and Bombay Beach. Like these towns, Haven Falls was once a thriving vacation spot in the 1950s and early 1960s due to its beaches on the local bay. At its peak,  various unexplained phenomena began occurring in Haven Falls, including reported abductions and large, dark masses spotted in the sky projecting beams down onto the Earth. City officials tried to play up the notion of aliens and make it a tourist attraction like Roswell, New Mexico. However, it was revealed the water in the bay was becoming increasingly contaminated, with some believing there was a connection between this and the strange events. As a result, most people fled the area, leaving only a few hundred residents.

Today, the town is largely abandoned, littered with rusted, crumbling remains of cars, buildings, and boats from the time. Throughout the town, many either live in small houses, trailers, and occasionally RVs while the buildings such as gas stations, motels and restaurants retain the Googie architecture that was popular when the town was at its peak. Meanwhile, because of the rapid decline of the town, many houses under construction were left unfinished. The overall population is generally lower middle class, and there are only a few businesses still running in the area. Children in the area went to schools in neighboring towns and there is only a small community college in the county. Meanwhile, the only sort of tourism that comes in are paranormal enthusiasts who want to investigate the rumors of aliens in the area.

Once a promising hotspot for beachgoers, it is now largely a ghost town riddled with relics from its peak. This is where our protagonists have been born and raised. As there is so little to do, the three and others had to find their own entertainment, which is what led Duncan to become so interested in doing experiments. However, the three perceive the area in different ways. For Ryan and Zack, this is their world. They have grown up here with no chance of getting out and have accepted this, and have tried to simply find their place in this small community. However, Haven Falls is a prison to Duncan, who wants to go onto bigger and better things. By feeling trapped in this dead end town, Duncan is driven to find a way out and he feels actually finding evidence of the reported UFOs in the area. Ultimately, this small community is partially responsible for the unity between the protagonists. Because the population is so small and secluded, they only have each other to rely on. If they don't have each other, they don't have anybody.

In the short itself, we find the main characters searching for UFOs, they are on the outskirts of town, based out of an old abandoned gas station, again in the Googie style. At this station, all that remains are a couple of old gas pumps and a rusted car out front. A welcome sign with a design from the 1950s is nearby, but is rusting and the paint is faded and chipping. In the distance, we see some of the actual town itself. There are a few old buildings such as a restaurant and a fire station, but mostly we see residential buildings. The nearest building is Mr. Winters' particularly dilapidated trailer, with his lawn chair where he usually sits out front.

In Ideas for Animated Short, the authors explain how elements like texture and color can help inform the mood and atmosphere of the scene. In the case of Haven Falls, the overall color scheme is comprised of warm colors like oranges, yellows and browns combined with the blue of the sky during the day and the purple at night. Meanwhile, the texture of the overall area's texture is a mix of graininess and corrosion. I want to present a world that comes across as hostile to outsiders but is more welcome to the protagonists and is home to them. A number of buildings and signs feature styles popular in the 1950s when the town was at its peak, representing optimism and potential. Meanwhile, it is juxtaposed with the decay and the inhospitable environment that surrounds the town. This juxtaposition is symbolic of the relationship between the three, with the relics from Haven Falls' peak representing Duncan and his ambition and optimism and the abundance or rust and corrosion represents Ryan and Zack, who are more cynical than their friend. Together, the elements fit together to create the community of Haven Falls today, which still survives in its own unique way.

April 16, 2018: Character

Now that the story has been established, we must explore the characters in this story. While the story post gave a brief preview of the characters and their personalities, we have now look at each character in depth and what goes on in their head.

In my short, I have three core characters: Duncan, Ryan and Zack. These three are longtime friends that have known each other since childhood, forming a dysfunctional, but close knit group. While they frequently spend their time bickering or fighting with one another, they will stand by each other in times of crisis.

In order to better understand the character, the book Ideas for the Animated Short, points out three elements to a scene in acting: objective/goal, intentions, and tactics. Each character has these and I need to break these down to understand what they are doing in the scene.

Duncan

Duncan is the intellectual of the three and is the de facto leader of the group. Typically he devises ideas in pursuit of his interests and is able to goad his friends into accompanying him. While intelligent, Duncan has a habit of letting his interests turn into obsessions and frequently, these obsessions are related to scientific and paranormal phenomena. However, his longest running pursuit is finding the existence for extraterrestrial. Overall, Duncan can be awkward but is generally friendly. However, when he gets locked on one of his obsessions, he becomes much more distant and unsociable. While he cares about his friends, he sometimes has an issue of prioritizing his obsessions over them, which frequently causes friction between the three. This is the main conflict between the main characters in the short film and he must decide what is more important to him.

Duncan and his younger brother were raised by his parents in their small hometown of Haven Falls. His father works at a nearby power plant and his mother works as a receptionist at a local motel. Scientifically inclined, Duncan hopes to someday leave home and pursue higher level education, with the goal of becoming an aeronautical engineer. Another goal he has is to be a published science fiction author. Deep down, Duncan views himself as a big fish in a small pond in his hometown and fears he is wasting his potential if he is not studying or reading. While it is still home to him, he wants to move past Haven Falls and his biggest fear is failing to live up to his potential and being stuck in Haven Falls for the rest of his life. As a result, he also pursues his obsessions as a way to keep himself occupied in his small town. Duncan is twenty one years old and met his friends early on in elementary school. While he excelled in high school, most colleges were too expensive and he spent two years in community college. After graduating with his associate's degree, got a job at a local repair shop. There, he frequently works on cars and other equipment people will bring in, giving him experience with various technologies. When not at work or with his friends, Duncan tends to stow himself away in his room, reading or studying conspiracy theories. Overall, when Duncan finds something he is interested in, it develops into an obsession and it consumes him. In turn, he frequently drags his friends along in his schemes.

Duncan's objective in the beginning is to find proof that extraterrestrials exist. His intention is to seek out an area/region that is notorious for suspected UFO sightings. When he notices Zack and Ryan getting pulled up by the dark mass in the sky, his tactic is to take a picture of the shape. However, he now also has objective of saving his friends, by pulling them back down, and he must choose which goal he wants to accomplish.

Ryan

Independent, snarky and sarcastic, Ryan is Duncan and Zack's best friend and reluctant participant in their activities. Typically serving as a foil to Duncan, Ryan is also very intelligent, but lacks his friend's optimism or ambitions. As a result, he tends to oppose whatever idea Duncan has cooked up, viewing them as pointless. As time has gone on, Duncan's various obsessions have gotten on Ryan's nerves, and he has become much more impatient with him. Meanwhile, he tends to boss Zack around, but gets easily frustrated with him and his more childlike demeanor. In terms of personality, Ryan comes across as serious and occasionally grouchy, with a hair trigger temper. He tends to be the most cynical of the three and will not hesitate to protest something he disagrees with. He also does not like things that disrupt the status quo, and views Duncan's activities as threats to that stability. As a result, he often has to serve as a reluctant voice of reason for his friends and causes arguments between them. This tension leads to him finally becoming fed up with Duncan. However, despite frequently butting heads with his friends, Ryan deeply cares about his friends and wants to keep them safe.

Ryan is twenty-one and met his friends in elementary school. Growing up in a small trailer with his father, Ryan was a delinquent who frequently got into trouble in his teens. Since then, he has matured and moved out of his rebellious phase, but still maintains an aggressive, independent demeanor. Since graduating, he took a job at a local grocery store, but deep down, music is his passion and he dreams to be a musician. However, unlike Duncan, he has accepted his life in this small town and has no real ambitions to leave, simply finding enjoyment through practicing or playing to small crowds in town. In his spare time, he usually practices guitar, performs, goes to a local, dingy bar for drinks or spends time with his friends in the desert. As music is one of only a handful of things Ryan loves, one of his biggest fears is losing the ability to play it, whether it is from breaking his hand to losing his equipment. Another fear is possibly going deaf. Ultimately, Ryan is a grumpy, independent jerk with a heart of gold and is concerned about his friends' well-being, even if he does not say it.

In the short, Ryan's main objective is to get his friends to quit searching for UFOs for the night and go back into town. To do so, his intention is to talk to Duncan, who is spearheading this operation, and convince him. However, when Duncan brushes him aside, Ryan's new tactic is to simply get Zack and convince him to leave with him. When the abductions begin, his new objective is to save Zack. This results in his intention of pulling Zack back down to the ground. When this fails, his new tactic is to get Duncan to help.

Zack

Zack is the most passive member of the trio and typically has to serve as the middleman between the two. Compared to his friends, Zack is not as bright, tends to be quieter and sometimes has trouble articulating what he has to say. He is also not as stubborn as Ryan or Duncan and is easily impressed. As a result, both have easy sway over him and his opinions. Duncan can easily convince him to join him in his experiments while Ryan can easily lead him and boss him around. However, he is not oblivious to his friends' influence. For instance, if he feels Duncan's experiments are too much or he is sick of Ryan's attitude, he will get angry, which is what happens in the short film. Many of his favorite activities involve staying home and playing video games or watching television, and he rarely goes out to do things if his friends are not there to accompany him. However, after graduating high school, Zack began working as a cook in the local diner his parents run. There, he discovered a passion for cooking and he now dreams of taking over the diner someday or starting his own. Family is also very important to him and hopes his own children will follow in his footsteps the way he is following in his parents'.

Zack is generally shy around people, but has a strong devotion to those he cares about. Because his friends and family are so important to him, his biggest fear is being forgotten by those he cares about and being abandoned. This fear gives him a neurotic drive to go out of his way to make sure everyone is happy. At the same time, he gets very upset when there is conflict. As he is the most amiable of the three, he usually serves as a messenger between his two thickheaded friends when they get into arguments. He lacks Duncan's ambitions of leaving home and Ryan's cynicism and is simply content living in the world he occupies. He does not really think of what goes on around him. Instead, he just goes wherever life takes him.

While Zack shares the same initial objectives, intentions and tactics as Ryan, he has a new objective when he sees abductions occurring in the distance: get away from the abductions in the distance. His intention is to talk to his friends and his tactics involve approaching each character when the other won't listen and trying to explain what is in the distance. However, each character is too wrapped in their own objectives to listen.

Mr. Winters

Mr. Winters is a local who has lived in Haven Falls since its heyday in the 1950s. However, he refused to leave as the local lake became polluted and when most other people left. As time went on, his consumption of toxic lake water and exposure to the elements and other substances has left him a rambling mess, constantly screaming about aliens he has supposedly seen or government conspiracies. While most residents ignore him, Duncan looks to him as a source of information to feed his fascination with the paranormal. Generally, he spends his day by himself, sitting in a lawn chair in front of his trailer. Otherwise he occasionally goes to the local bar and pesters the customers there. When he is able to be deciphered, his dream is to expose vast government conspirators who he feels destroyed the local lake on purpose to spite him. Meanwhile, his greatest fear is the notion that aliens and the government are linked and are plotting against him. Overall, Mr. Winters is seen as unpredictable, but will gladly speak to anyone who wants to know what he thinks about his conspiracy theories.

Together, the trio make up a continually dysfunctional group with two leaders with distinctly different personalities and pursuits vying for control with one follower in the middle who simply wants to make everyone happy. Nevertheless, despite their conflicts, the three are lifelong companions who have an unbreakable bond shaped by their experiences and upbringing.

The book, Ideas for the Animated Short explains that animators, like actors, must understand their character inside and out. They must understand what they are feeling in order to correctly articulate and depict their characters without making them look cliche or empty. Even if they may not experience what occurs in the story, the animator or actor can still break down what the character is going through and can relate it to similar feelings. For example, suppose I were to animate Ryan, bored, tired and frustrated with Duncan constantly working away. In order to get an accurate depiction of his emotions, I can look back to a time in my childhood where I felt the same way. When I was hanging out with a friend, he was playing a single player game by himself and would not stop. I was annoyed and I got sick of waiting for him to stop playing. I can take the emotions I felt in that scenario and apply it to how Ryan acts.