Helena DPM Creative Media
Understand narrative and apply theory
Story: A story is in chronological order
Plot: The way the director wants to lay out in any order.
Story:
Crime conceived
Crime planned
Crime committed
Crime discovered
Detective investigates
Detective reveals
Plot:
Crime discovered
Detective investigates
Crime conceived
Crime planned
Detective reveals
Crime committed
Movie: The Lord Of The Rings
Initial situation: Ring is found
Disruption: There are bad guys and wars on the way
Resolution: They destroy the ring
Movie: World War Z
Initial situation: Virus breaks out
Disruption: They have to hide and stay away from zombie
Resolution: They find the cure
Movie: Whiplash
Initial situation: He wants to get into the best jazz band
Disruption: The teacher is a bad and abusive person
Resolution: He gets out of the band
-All the species are peacefully on their own place
-Frodo finds the ring and everyone wants the ring
-Gandalf tells him he needs to destroy the ring
-They go to destroy the ring
-They destroy the ring
-Everyone is living their everyday life
-Zombie apocalypse happens
-They realize they need to get to safety
-They want to find a cure and go and find it
-They find the cure
-He is fine in his class
-He wants to join the better class and joins
-He realizes his teacher is a bad and abusive teacher
-Tries to be the best and keep him on his good side
-He leaves
It seems to go in chronological order with some flashbacks that doesn't break Todorov's rules. Each stage contributes to the film. The first one is needed to show how everything was before, the disruption is needed so there is a change to the plot, the recognition is so they know why they have to destroy it, which is because its evil. The attempt which is most of the plot, where they go out to find Mordor and the reinstatement is needed so we all know they destroyed it so everything can go back to normal or go back to a positive world.
This film also seems to go in a chronological order. Each stage is affective. The first is needed to show how it was before the apocalypse, the disruption is also needed so there's a change in the plot, the recognition is so that the characters survive, the attempt is finding a cure so that they can save humanity, and the reinstatement is them finding the cure.
The beginning is needed so we know how the characters and everything is like, then the disruption is so that the plot changes, then he finds out why and then he tries his best then he leaves.
Ideas:
-Little boy gets a dog, time goes by, dog dies
-Character finds a box that is actually a bomb and explodes, but doesn't die
-Hand comes out of the ground and people step on the hand, until one person doesn't
Synopsis: Small character is living everyday life when suddenly he discovers a box falling from the sky, the box falls down and explodes, the character still lives.
Sound effects: explosion, squish, rustling noise, scratching noise
Music: something upbeat and joyfull
Primary research:
I asked a handful of people to see which idea they would prefer, the results were useful.
Most of them chose my second idea which is a character finds a box that is actually a bomb and explode.
I asked 10 people, 5 being boys and 5 being girls.
They all like animation except 2, that doesn't affect my results as much as this didn't affect their choice. 7 out of 10 people chose my second idea which is the box idea, 2 chose my third idea which is the hand, and 1 person chose my first idea which is the dog idea. As I have gone with what my audience chose, I will be doing the box idea.
Because as people have stated its 'simpler', 'convenient' and 'sounds like its going to be funny'.
Secondary research:
After having a rough idea of what to do for my stop motion, I decided to do some secondary research and see if there is anything similar and analyse it.
Characters:
Bob: He is a characters inspired by a scribble, he has stick arms and legs but he is mostly made out of scribbles, he is very anxious and is constantly moving around, when his scribbles come off, it can make life such as another scribble, for instance the worm looking character.
Worm: Life created by Bob, soon to be another scribble, has no purpose in the story, it is simply there to add to the story as the box comes down.
Box: The box is a random mysterious box that falls from the sky, as soon as it hits the ground, it makes a hissing noise and explodes as it is a bomb.
Editing
I started with editing them on photoshop, photo by photo so that the background wouldn't look too grey, and would instead have a nicer background, also the character would stand out more and it would be easier to move each picture around so it would correspond to each other and would look smoother.
I also cleaned up the mess that was left so there wouldn't be random smudges around and it would all look smooth and so that I could move the character around to where I wanted.
The title was done on after effects, so I could add animation to it so it would look nice and so it would go with the story. I decided to name it 'Bob and the box' as it says what it is and so that it doesn't give anything away. After that I decided to make the 'Bob' bigger as its the main character and 'and the box' smaller as its a smaller title. The font was chosen so it looked like a bubbly character which is what Bob is.
The animation chosen was so that the letter each drops one by one so it looks nice and simple.
Editing: The editing took me a while to figure out, as I had trouble finding the right time for all of it to fit together, I found that 5 is a good number for this, so I set 5 for all of them, except the last 7 because they were more spaced apart and there wasn't enough so I prolonged them up to 22 so that the audience would have enough time to look at the pictures before the next one, this worked, after that I made sure most of the pictures looked good one after the other so it wasn't as it the box moved up instead of down or in case the character shifted too much to the side. After I finished that I added the title 'The end' as a finish but there was more.
Music and sound effects: The music wasn't hard to find, as I don't have garageband, I decided to get a song from youtube, and it turned out to be really fitting to the whole project, it was joyful and very cartoon-like.
As for the sound effects I found about 4 very useful ones. One of them was the scratching, when the character scratches themselves and creates another scribble, I added the scratching sound effect and it seemed to work out quite well, another one was the box falling, which was a nice addition to the final edit as it was as if Bob noticed the box because of the noise. Another side effect was the hissing of the TNT going off, which really worked on my favor as it sounds better than I expected, I also added it to the end as if the fumes are still going off, the final one was the explosion which is probably the most important sound effect as it ties the whole piece together, without it, the animation probably wouldn't make sense. After adding everything together I exported it and upload it to youtube.
Finished product: The finished product was as good as I expected, I like the character I've created and I think its a simple idea but also goes with the theme of narration. The only thing I probably would've done better is the fact that I started drawing 24 pictures per second and ended with 10 pictures per second, it would've been better to keep it consistent. Also the fact that most of them keep moving not where I want them to move, really bothers me and I wish I could've fixed it even more. Overall I'm quite pleased with my work.
I decided it needed improving so I made the character walk down and find the box instead of standing around and it made it look way more alive. I also added glow to the question mark, box and everything after it exploded, it made it look like it was TNT so it stands out and really adds to the whole piece.
After getting feedback, I decided to add a background. As this wasn't planned I tried only adding a background, after seeing and playing around with images I finally realized that since the background has water it would be best to use a boat and a tree stump so it would make sense, this adds a 3D aspect to this 2D animation, the fact that things are standing on objects makes it seem more realistic and more 3D.
Not only does it add to the atmosphere but it also helps improve the character and the story, it makes the audience understand more and by having a background it makes it so that there is a story instead of just a blank world.
Storyboard:
Finished product:
The finished product was not as I expected. The background was a nice addition as it made it more realistic instead of just bland and boring. The pngs really added depth to the animation so that it would look more like a story instead of just an empty world.
The character I created is interesting because the audience can just imagine what it is, it could be a cloud or a piece of dust or a monster, and the story would still make sense.
I thought the music fitted with the storyline and the sound effects of scratching, box falling, bomb exploding, really added to the animation.
I put a black screen when the bomb explodes because its an animation and I didn't find find a way to draw a bomb explodes. I think it adds a comedy element to it. Overall I tried to make it as stable and smooth as possible and the background was the last thing that was missing that really added to the final.
Everything is normal - Bob has a normal day
A box falls from the sky
It make a TNT noise
It explodes but he survives
I chose this video because its simple and hand drawn, like the one I am going to make. The drawings are far apart enough for the drawing to look animated but also not that its a lot of drawings in one piece. The animations are simple and quick which is what I am aiming for as I want to make a 20 second animation.