(I've been told to do a journal for Major Project and here I'm basically explaining all my story ideas which is why there is loooooooads of writing; because my story has changed so much! Hopefully in my next post there will be a lot less writing and a lot more pretty pictures to look at :) ... Anyway ... You've been warned!)
OK! ... I am well behind with this blogging business which is not good!
Pre Production (the reason for my blog being so out of date) is OVER!
I didn't realise how hard it is to prepare to make a film!
All my previous posts and talks about my Anti-Bullying Advert may as well be forgotten cos my story has COMPLETELY changed from it's original concept! (luckily for the good)
I had those rough animatics up on here so maybe I should show you what happened next with the story, then explain what did and didn't work to get a better understanding of how I ended up with my final story
....................
Sooooooooooooo ... Idea 01 (and a half)
This animatic is basically the same as my Rough Animatic ... just a bit less rough, with more detailed thumbs and TERRIBLE voice acting! Me and my housemate Tom = Worst ... Actors ... Ever! HaHa!
The story is the same as my Rough Animatic, but with extra shots to help explain what's going on, and this time I've added the dialogue and a shot which helps take the story into the dream sequence.
For the dream sequence I thought it would be cool to have an Extreme Close Up of the Boy's eyes, and as he blinks, the colour scheme of the shots change (much like the Crazy 88's scene from Kill Bill) to represent the change to the dream sequence. When the Boy blinks again and the colour scheme changes back to the "real world," this then represents the Boy coming out of the dream and back into reality. To help show that the Boy was actually dreaming, and that the Monster following him was just part of his imagination, the shot goes back to the previous shot of the Bully grabbing hold of the Boy and saying "There's no one here to help you!" ... which then follows with a beating from the 2 bullies! (Thanks Joe O'C for help on the dream sequence idea)
Here's the Crazy 88's scene from Kill Bill I was talking about:
Here's the Animatic for Idea 01 (and a half):
Things to change:
- Ending is too negative - end on more of a positive so it's as if the Boy has some hope of escaping a beating!
....................
Idea 02For my 2nd idea I added more to the story to try and make more sense of it all. I added extra imaginary friends so that the Monster didn't seem out of place in the world, and just to make it more obvious that the Monster is part of the Boy's imagination. There's also some music chucked on top that I found on Youtube to help portray the mood of the piece. It's not really anything I would want in the end, but I thought it might help :)
This Animatic begins with a scene of the Boy playing with his toys in his bedroom, and plastered all over the walls are drawings that the Boy has drawn of nasty and nice things. (I added this so that the drawings hint towards the Boy being bullied, and that he uses his drawings to express himself, and also to show that he has a big imagination to help tie in with the rest of the story)
The Boy stops playing, walks towards his bedroom door and smiles at the drawing on the door. He opens the door to show his drawing to the camera, which is of him and the Monster which later follows him around.
The Boy walks out of his house and the camera zooms in on the Boy's eyes to watch him blink into his imaginary world (like in Idea 01 and a half). The world is then instantly filled with imaginary characters from his drawings. The camera pans up the house at a couple of clouds on the roof, which then part to introduce the Monster character. The next part of the story is the same as before, but as the Boy walks down the street he sees all of his imaginary friends from his drawings come to life.
The Monster still follows him in the background. but ... and here's the confusing bit ... this time the Boy's imaginary friends try and attack the Monster to try and stop it from getting to the Boy. So as the Monster jumps off the roof, a table appears to temporarily stop the Monster on his mission, and again, behind the car, bees appear to try and get him away ... but fails.
The Boy walks down the alley, and as the 2 Bullies appear, the imaginary colour scheme fades into the real world colours and all his imaginary friends disappear in a puff of cloud! (this shows that the Boy has snapped back into reality)
The next scene is the same as before but this time there's no dialogue so that the advert could be shown in different countries without crappy dubs ... what's going on in the shots will tell the story in this idea, not the dialogue.
The Bullies catch the Boy and there's a close up again of his eyes. He blinks, and the world turns into his 'bad' imagination with all his nasty drawings flying around the scene. The Boy gets hit to the floor and the camera turns into his point of view. He looks up at the distorted Bullies as they point down and laugh at him on the floor. The Boy turns his head to see the Monster appear down the alley. The rest of the scene is the same as before until the Boy crawls away. At this point the Monster is seen as a bad guy, but as he walks into the spotlight, he reveals that he's a good guy, and all the Boy's nasty imagination is replaced with all the nice thoughts from before. This shot references back to the drawing on the Boy's bedroom door, which shows the Boy and the Monster happily together.
The Boy looks up, blinks, and is put back to the previous scene where the Bully is grabbing hold of him. The advert ends here and fades away for the advert's tagline.
Phew! ... Enough typing! ... Here's the Animatic:
Things to change:
- Waaaaaaaaaay too many things going on ... too confusing
- Monster is good guy, but Boy's imaginary friends attack him? Supposed to show that the Monster is a potential threat ... but the Boy knows he's a good guy so why would he make his imaginary friends attack him? Way too confusing!
Idea 03
After the previous 2 Animatics I came to realise that having the Monster being a good guy just doesn't work! So, for this idea I decided to make the Monster a bad guy to see if the story works a bit better
The concept for this idea is quite similar to my 2nd idea, just because the Boy conjures up some imaginary friends which later help him to fend off the Monster which is trying to get to him. Having his friends attack the Monster makes a lot more sense this time as the Monster is now a bad guy.
The beginning of this story starts off in the Boy's bedroom, exactly the same as before, but with a couple of slight changes. First there is a Close Up of a nice drawing the Boy has put on his wall. The camera then pans left to show a nasty drawing of him and the Monster. This is basically to show that his drawings play an important part to the story. The camera then shows the Boy playing with toys on his bed, he stops playing and walks out of the room and opens the door to the camera to show us his drawing. The drawing has now been replaced with a new drawing of the Boy smiling under a rainbow with 3 imaginary friends, while the Monster is looking sad above them.
The Boy walks out of his house, like before, the camera zooms into his face, the Boy blinks, and he's in his imaginary world. The camera pans up the house, and the clouds part to reveal the Monster.
As the Boy walks down the street some imaginary friends start to follow him. These are his imaginary friends from the drawing on his bedroom door. These 3 characters work as his "guardians" who follow and protect the Boy by fending off the Monster.
First a couple of Bees hover around him, then the Elephant follows, and then finally the Rocket. As his friends follow him, the Monster is seen in the background, also following the Boy from the rooftops.
As the Boy walks around the corner of a house, the Monster tries to jump down to get him, but the Rocket shoots up and hits him away ... but fails, because the Monster quickly continues to stalk the Boy. The Boy is totally oblivious to everything that's going on, and just carries on walking. This scene is similar to the one from Idea 02 when the table tried to stop the Monster ... but failed!
There's a Point of View shot of the Monster, whose behind a car, watching the Boy and the Elephant walking down the alley. This is then followed by a Medium shot of the Monster who is attacked by the Boy's Bee friends, who try and sting him away ... but fail!
The Boy and the Elephant is seen happily walking down the alley, but suddenly the Monster jumps out in front of them. The Boy is scared as the Monster roars, but the Elephant steps in to save the day by stampeding straight into the Monster, and successfully hitting him away from the Boy, who's now safe! ... for about 3 seconds, because 2 Bullies suddenly appear from around the corner!
The Boy is shocked to see them, but then looks all smug as he conjures up his imaginary friends again to help him get rid of the Bullies, like they did with the Monster. At this point I see him thinking "I can get rid of 1 Monster Bully with my friends, why not 2 more Bullies?"
Here's the Animatic for Idea 03:
Things to change:
- Add more to the beginning to make it obvious straight away that this is an Anti-Bullying Advert
- Change ending to show that the Monster is the Bully rather than a nasty character from his imagination
- Need better camera angles
Idea 04 (Final Idea)
After 3 story ideas I finally came to this idea which is a lot stronger I think ... so I guess all that effort was worth it in the end :)
The beginning has changed ... the middle is basically the same idea with just better camera angles and more shots ... and the ending has changed
At the beginning of this story the Boy is happily drawing in his bedroom. The camera zooms in on his drawing, and the scene changes into a dream sequence with the Boy and his 3 friends surrounded by Monsters. This has been added to kind of show at the beginning of this advert that it's about bullying, and to make more sense of the Monster which follows him later on.
The Monsters try to get to the Boy, but one by one his 3 friends attack the Monsters and they all disappear in a puff of cloud ... BUT! there's one Monster left! and he's getting closer and closer to the Boy! So the Boy squints really hard to try and escape from this bad dream and the scene goes into a kind of tunnel vision to intensify the scene. The Monster gets really close to the Boy but luckily he manages to wake up! He's a bit dazed when he realizes he's back in his bedroom, but then is happy to know he's safe!
The Boy leaves the room, walks down the stairs and walks out of the house. As he walks down his path he imagines his Bee friends to appear ... they fade in from the bushes, fly around him, the Boy walks down his path, and the camera pans up to show the Monster watching him from the roof. As the Boy happily walks down the street with his Bee friends, the Elephant drives into shot and gets a pat on the head from the Boy. The 3 of them walk down the street, and the Rocket shoots down from the sky to join the gang. The Monster is seen following them from the rooftops. He tries to ambush them as they walk around the corner but the Rocket shoots up and blasts him away. The Boy walks away unfazed, but the Monster falls back down and carries on with his hunt. The Monster watches the Boy walk down the alley from behind the cars, and suddenly he's attacked by the Boy's Bee friends. He manages to hit them away and so continues with his hunt.
For this ending the Monster jumps in front of the Boy and Elephant as they walk down the alley. They are both surprised to see him, but the Elephant steps in and charges straight into the Monster. On impact a big puff of cloud appears. The Boy is happy as he thinks his friend has destroyed the Monster. But! Suddenly, the clouds start to separate to reveal that the Monster is still there! The Boy is shocked and scared to see him! The Monster starts walking towards the Boy! He squints really hard, like he did in the dream, to try and think the Monster away again! But it's not working! The scene changes to a tunnel vision sequence again, and you see, as the Monster walks closer and closer towards the camera, he morphs into one big, strong bully! He looks down angrily at the camera and then the advert ends with the screen fading to black and the advert slogan appearing.
The slogan has changed slightly. It now says: "In the real world his imagination won't save him from the bullies" and then the name and logo of the anti-bullying charity appears. When the screen fades to black there will be noises of shuffling, grunts and groans from the Bully and Boy. I decided I didn't want to show the Bully bullying the Boy because I think having the sound effects are just as effective to tell the audience what's happening. Although this isn't in the animatic, it will be included in the final film.
I haven't decided what charity this advert will be for yet, but I have a few ideas.
Before showing the Animatic, I've just gotta explain that I used photographs for this one, then put them into Photoshop and placed all the characters and props on top. The bedroom scene is set in my own bedroom (luckily I'm quite childish myself so the Marvel bed sheets and poster fit well in the Boy's bedroom), and the street scenes were shot on the street I live on.
The actor in this animatic is my housemate Tom! The Boy actor will be in the final film! Fair play to Tom for helping me out with the animatic (thanks very much Tom) ... but he's not the best actor ... so apologies for his bad acting! :)
Here's the Animatic:
Working Animatic from Aled Matthews on Vimeo.
....................Things I was thinking of adding in the animatics:
- I was thinking of adding something to the story which kind of explains a bit about the Boy's character and the reason for why he leaves the house by himself in the night. I was thinking of the advert starting off with him playing with his toys in his bedroom, then he gets a txt from his mam, who is working late again, which says something like: "Sorry hun, gonna b l8 home again 2nite. No food in fridge - pick up summin from chippy x" This txt will tell the audience that the Boy is lonely, which is the reason why he draws a lot and plays with toys to keep him company. I didn't add this in the end because I thought it wasn't really vital to the story.
- To show straight away that the advert is an Anti-Bullying advert, GH mentioned using a slogan at the beginning which would say something like: "When you're being bullied, the bad thoughts never leave your mind" ... "can't leave the bad thoughts behind" ... or ... "... This would explain the Monster following the Boy around the streets. I tried fitting it into the beginning but I just didn't like it and didn't think it needed to be there, so I decided not to use it
