Progress Blog
SDGM560: Drawn Apart and Writer's Block
____________________
This blog will record the progress I make throughout the duration of the SDGM560 class in SCAD Winter Quarter 2018. The class will focus on the pre-production aspects of two films: Drawn Apart and Writer's Block.
The first day of class, the visual effects department and writing department met with us, the animation department, to discuss the first three drafts of Drawn Apart and Writer's Block. We did a read through of each of the six scripts and gave notes and bounced ideas off one another to improve the scripts.
​
For Drawn Apart , one of the main concerns was character motivation and how we were going to interpret the paper, featureless character of the story. We thought about possibly going with 2D animation, but there were concerns with it being not dimensional enough silhouette-wise. We also considered making the character more 3D with it's design by manipulating the paper as if certain torn pieces were its limbs and legs. As far as character motivation, we didn't feel we had really solidified that aspect of the story. In one script, the figure is led by its curiosity. The other two focused more on the idea of the figure chasing down its creator in order to find its own image.
​
For Writer's Block, the scripts were more developed but questions still needed to be addressed. We discussed the degree of involvement the wife has on the author and the effect that has on the worlds the characters live in. We agreed that having the author's relationship with his wife control what he was writing about would be a great idea for visually representing the author's mind. There was also a great deal of debate over specifics and techniques for the film. Dissolves, limitations, and locations were all thrown around the room.
​
Overall, I think it was an awesome experience to hear the thoughts and views of individuals with a variance of technical and artistic backgrounds. It occurred to me that a single idea could greatly effect every department of the film. For instance, an awesome story addition could help flesh out the plot of the film, but could also be extremely difficult for visual effects to produce in the limited time frame we have to work with. It's going to be a challenging project, but I am very excited to start working.
____________________
Day One
Day Two
This class, we added the additional company of the film department and sound department to join the visual effects, writing, and animation department in one room.
​
We ran through the edited script for Drawn Apart and were able to better nail down a final plot-line for the story. The writer had taken our notes from last class and pieced together what we all thought were the best sections of the three drafts and placed them into one. We changed the placement of the climactic emotional-beat to the end, but everything else discussed were minor changes.
​
We were also able to hear the film departments opinion on Writer's Block this class and it was very illuminating and intriguing to hear how another department I seldom interact with interpreted what we had been discussing the last class. Through this conversation, we were able to better understand the limitations we needed to place on the story. For example, we agreed that all live action characters in the film would remain live action. Visual effects would be more concerned with environments for the most part. Everything character-wise was to be done practically.
​
We also designated roles for each other in the class which helped organize the assembly line of things to do and help us start. I am currently a part of the beat board production crew and responsible for providing scratch dialogue for the character "Anne" in the script.
____________________
Over the weekend, the class met and discussed concept ideas for Writer's Block. I decided to focus on the space portion of the story and made some rough concept work of the interior of the ship and the character costumes.
____________________
Day Three
We met with visual effects and the other departments to review the early concept work we had created over the weekend. After some discussion, visual effects emphasized the space environment. I was personally visioning the interior of the space ship to be worn and textural. However, it was later explained that visual effects were looking at the film Minority Report for inspiration for of the interior-look. In other words, something clean, smooth, spotless, with lots of floating screens and sources of lights.
​
During class, we also assigned sequences to storyboard. I took on a sequence in Henry's office. It was a fairly simple shot with two characters: Anne and Henry. The mood is somewhat tense between the two characters. Henry is focused on writing and has become frustrated with his failure to get anything down on the page. Anne interrupts to try and talk to him, but he does not take her offer. Instead, he coolly brushes her off as he struggles to write anything worthwhile. Anne is offended by the rude interaction and her exit from the scene heightens Henry's tension.
​
I attempted to use lighting and staging to help visualize Henry's state of distress and frustration. I tucked him away in the corner of the office. It's daytime, but light barely filters through the curtains, casting the struggling writer in shadow. Anne remains close to the light, symbolizing her optimism and strong connection with Henry's success and happiness.
Day Four
____________________
At the beginning of class, we presented our boards to all the departments and got some good feedback. We were told to think about the timing of the boards and consistency in presenting them so that the other departments could gain a better understanding of what the story was.
​
Boarders were then assigned the task of creating an animatic for their own individual sequences for next class. That way we were able to convey the timing we wanted and add sound effects that would enhance the storytelling.
​
The film department expressed interest in two specific locations for the London sequence: River Street and Columbia Square. Everyone loved the aged look of River Street--especially the uneven pavement and cobblestones. However, they wanted to use a crane to capture the establishing shot of Victorian London and it was impossible to bring the crane down to River Street.
The other option was Columbia Square. This location had nice buildings that fit the era we were aiming for. The sidewalk also consisted of uneven stones, but there was a lot for visual effects to paint out. A street ran between two buildings they wanted in the shot and needed to be replaced with cobblestones digitally.
​
It was also brought to our attention that the Speakeasy scene was being replaced with a different scene. The basic overview of the new scene was that it would begin in the desert and then transition to snowy mountains and finally a volcano erupting. Visual effects felt it would give them more opportunity to showcase their talents and abilities than the speakeasy would.
​
We received a new Drawn Apart script that morning and we reviewed it briefly. We discussed small concept ideas we had for the film and were told to think bigger. We had previously been trying to confine the space into a smaller area with fewer characters, but we were asked to put those limitations to the side for the time being and think of big, lush, full environments and concepts.
​
It made sense--why limit yourself at the stage when you are developing? It doesn't take much to draw a big concept. Figuring out how to make it is a problem we'll get to later. For right now, we wanted to think of something big and exciting.
​
____________________
Day Five
This class we reviewed our animatics. It was much easier to visualize the story with the sequences all timed out and played back to back. However, one note the boarders got was the tone of the overall story was too dark for what they had been originally aiming for. We had given Henry some attributes and behaviors such as smoking under duress, etc, which didn't fall in line with what we had intended to show. Overall, the story needed to be lighter in drama and more comical.
​
We talked about the new visual effects scene mentioned the class before. We used Lawrence of Arabia as inspiration for the opening scene in the desert. We loved the idea of making the characters appear like ants on the screen in a huge expanse of sand. We wanted the sequence to be visually dynamic and to push the possibilities for the effects team. However, there were some limitations we needed to keep in mind. The effects team expressed great concern for the actors' feet contact with the sand as they were planning to use a green screen to implement the environment. The boarders were asked to think of dynamic shots that also hid the actors' feet for the most part. It was an interesting challenge to think about but I'm excited to see what I can come up with!
​
As my last sequence had not changed much since last class, I took on part of the environment scene titled "Sand Zombies." It's a fun sequence full of potential, so I'm itching to get working on it.
​
For Drawn Apart , we took a look at some of the concept development drawings Disney had done for Frozen, Tangled, and Moana.
​
Day Six
____________________
Today, instead of going to class like normal, Jiazhen and I were tasked with going to a potential shooting location for the London scene of Writer's Block. There, at Columbia Square, we met with a part of the film production crew and two people from the visual effects department.
​
We were told the scene was taking place at night and then then we began talking about how the visual effects team was going to use the green screen to create the wharf in the background and ultimately sell the illusion of being in Victorian London.
​
Film took us through their plans for the shoot. We began at the Davenport House, using its facade for the main background of the scene. They wanted to employ the use of a crane to make a jib shot from Henry's office window down the streets of London where our two characters would enter the scene, walking under the camera and out front.
Film also wanted to have a horse and carriage in the scene, but after discussing with visual effects, we discovered that it might be too difficult to add the horse and carriage over cobblestones they wanted to digitally place on the background since the main road through is paved. After some deliberation, we reached a happy medium; we'd have the carriage, but we wouldn't see the horses feet or the carriage wheels. Now it was up to us to figure out how to work it in to the scene with storyboards.
Ryan, the director, asked if we could possibly board the London scene for him over the weekend. It would help him visualize the scene as well as give us a chance to explore different camera angles. Below are some of those boards as well as some of the reference photos I took from our day out scouting.
​
When we returned to class, we were categorized into the following groups: Digiscout, Environment, and Characters. I decided to join the character side of the team because I felt it would be most beneficial to my major as a character animator. That way, I could help develop the characters I would eventually want to animate. We agreed that for Monday we would have some designs for the background characters completed to begin to hone in on the style of the film.
____________________
Day Seven
This class, we reviewed what we had done over the weekend. We went over the concept work for the environments first. It was really great to see the overhead concept of the village which made it easier to visualize the progression of the film. The overall concept the environment team ran with was pretty solid. There were a few notes about specifics, like the purpose of the tower at the top of the hill. We felt it would be a nice addition to make the tower some kind of bell tower, either a church or just a town clock. That way it can help drive the artist's motivation to make her journey towards the piazza in central downtown.
​
Next, we went over Digiscouts camera experimentation. We loved the idea of a big reveal shot that would showcase the entirety of the environment in a scenic pan up. They also tried out different tracking camera for the artist and the paper, seeing how the camera would function within the tight corners we wanted to include for one section of the artist's path.
​
After that was character. We briefly looked over the work we had done and agreed that we could start fleshing out some of the designs we had made. My focus for the assignment was to create exaggerated characters off of basic shapes (circles, triangles, hearts, diamonds, etc.) My personal goal was to make fifty and I ended up making around sixty so "yay" for accomplishing that goal!
​
Next, we went over the schedule for the next few weeks and the deadlines we needed to make next. Essentially for my team, character concepts, we needed to lock down the background character designs. For next class on Wednesday, we want to have twenty-four brand new characters from each of us to look at. They will be based off the silhouettes we had worked on previously and then pushed to even more stylized degrees.
​
Another important thing we discussed this class was Drawn Apart 's script. We had made some big changes that the writer hadn't been informed of, so we did our best to catch her up to speed. We went through all the story beats and combed through any problems we had with the script and made changes accordingly. By the end of the discussion, I feel we have a solid base for the story we wanted to tell.
Day Eight
____________________
Day Eight
In today's class, we were told to prioritize the boards visual effects directed us to work on for Writer's Block. Such boards included any transitions that visual effects had in mind and especially the London and Sahara to Himalayas sequence. Space was also included in the priority list, but visual effects seemed to already have something in mind for that.
​
We talked briefly about the London sequence. The visual effects department reiterated some of their concerns for the London sequence and the animatics. We were told that they could only paint out certain parts and the rest would just have to be hidden from view, so some camera fixes needed to be demonstrated in the next round of storyboards.
​
We also thought about the transition from Henry's office to the Sahara desert. We thought about an hourglass and even putting sand on the desk. Ultimately, we went with the idea of having a mini plane model on Henry's desk that gets knocked off when he slides the carriage return of the typewriter. Henry will then look over his desk at where the plane fell and from there, a real composited plane will be seen in the distance with smoke rising from it. Then a dissolve will spread out from the plane, transforming the ground into sand and finally the audience will arrive in the Sahara desert.
​
As for Drawn Apart , we needed background characters to be locked down for Monday. We discussed more style options for the characters and tried to come up with a synonymous feel for them all in relation to the environment as well as the hero character, the artist.
​
We also thought about the overall art direction of the film. As the film takes place in an Italian village, we thought it would be interesting to make the whole film have a fresco-feel to it. This meant applying painterly textures to the the buildings and environment and the characters, too.
​
 |  |
|---|
____________________
Day Nine
The London sequence was officially approved for the most part. All that was needed was to replace the drawings with drawings of the actors once we got a hold of their headshots.
​
For Drawn Apart , we thought about the classroom. We agreed we wanted kid-sized furniture and a non-traditional feel to it. In other words, we wanted it to feel like a classroom in Europe and not one in America.
​
We also made some changes to the script. We removed the bullying aspect to it in the rewrite and condensed it down to a more solid story. We felt it derailed the attention away from the main focus of the story which was the artist's problem with her own self-image. We didn't want to make the story too dark or focus on bullying as the main issue. Personally, I feel like the story is entirely an internal struggle for the artist and adding too many external conflicts just took it over.
​
We also talked about background characters briefly again. We were assigned to do some outfits for them on one sheet so, for modelling purposes, it was just more convenient to see them all lined up. I chose to do some designs for the locals of Bougainville--the new name we had designated the village. Based off the flower Bougainvillea which translates into the fitting name "paper flower."
​
We were also visited by Tyler Kupferer from Disney. He gave us a lot of great advice and insight about the industry.
​
Day Ten
____________________
In this class, we learned that a location for Henry's office had been found. We also agreed that boards would need to be completed and final at least three days before the shoot. This was going to be a little tight for this first shoot because the location had not yet been locked down, but I'm hoping this will be resolved before Wednesday so we can meet the deadline.
​
As for background characters, we finally locked them down! I think we have a great variety of characters that all match eachother and fit into the world the environment team was making. The design for the artist needed to be finalized by Monday, however. We had previously talked about hero proportions after class on Monday, so we had a good idea of what we wanted her to look like.
​
____________________
Day Eleven
I was asked to do some police outfit designs for the festival part in Drawn Apart . So I researched some Italian police uniforms. It was really interesting to see all the different types. A lot of the time, the uniform depended on the location of that officer. For instance, police officers in Rome had different uniforms than those that were outside of the Rome area. There were also different degrees of police. It's a broad umbrella term to include military police to metropolitan.
​
We were also assigned as the character team to explore the artist's features. I did a few designs, mainly tampering with the eye style and glasses shape. By the end of the class, we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted her to look like. I'm very excited to finally see our character taking shape and I can't wait to start seeing her in the environments and interacting with the story!
​
There was still no word on the office location for Writer's Block, so we couldn't really work on the boards. I'm hoping the location will be locked by Tuesday so I can reboard my sequence if I must.
Day Twelve
____________________
In today's class, we prepared for shooting scenes of Writer's Block in Henry's office. Location scouts had just found a possible place to use as Henry's office, but nothing had been decided. The plan was to storyboard everything at least three days before the shoot, but it wasn't possible this time. We deliberated over the layout of the room instead as something to contribute to film in their decision.
​
As for Drawn Apart , things were beginning to pull together. The main things have been explored, but now it's time to explore the finer details. We, at last, named our main character! Meet Phoebe, the quirky artist of Bougainville!
​
We discussed what exactly we wanted to research in more depth and developed a lengthy list of things that needed to be thought about: cat designs, seagull designs, guitars, alleyway, guitarist, boats, murals, the pier, etc. The list continues, but I was assigned to research things about the festival and flag designs that we might want to use.
 |  |
|---|
Day Thirteen
____________________
Today, we talked about some character traits Phoebe could have, like nudging her glasses or blowing hair out of her face. We would use these traits to help the paper identify her after her transformation.
​
We were also told to explore some animations for the hero character. I imagine Phoebe having a very distinct walk cycle. Energetic, yet reserved in a way. I've been having trouble finding good reference for it, so I'll make my own soon. I really want to start doing some dancing animations as well. I looked up traditional Italian dances and have found some pretty interesting references.
____________________
Day Fourteen
This class, I was asked to go visit the visual effects department downstairs to discuss boards for the green screen sequences. I had previously boarded the "Sand Zombies" sequence for Writer's Block and was requested to talk about some changes with the effects artists before making a final rendition of the sequence.
​
It was a very educational experience! There were a lot of things that needed to be kept in mind for the sake of the visual effects artists. For instance, we couldn't show the feet of the actors close up or at all. Because of the green screening, it would be a lot of work to make the actor's feet look grounded in the sand. They did request I board one shot close up of the actor's feet, but that was it.
​
I was given very specific directions as far as the focal lengths and camera use of the sequence would pan out, but they also wanted to see my interpretation of the scene as well. We talked about a lot, including having the plane in the background for more than one shot and the placement of everything in the scene.
​
I was asked to re-board the sequence with the updated information I was given, as well as provide an overhead view of the Sahara scene with all the aspects that appear in the scene at any time placed in relation to the actors.
____________________
Day Fifteen
This class, we talked more about the specific details of the film Drawn Apart . It's getting to the point where production needs to happen to advance the film forward which is really exciting! But some things still have yet to be determined. For instance, today in class we discussed the top of the hill in the opening scene. We decided the tourists would be drawing a figure at the fountain in order to drive home the idea that she is self-conscious about her own look. Previously, we had thought about the artist drawing landscape and still life, but it didn't relate to the topic.
​
I volunteered to work on two sequences for the 3D Animatic: Sequence 200 and 700. 200 is fairly simple and showcases the appearance of the town cat we have named "Garbage Boy." 700 is a little more pivotal. It's the dress shop scene. This particular sequence shows a lot about Phoebe and her insecurities, so getting nice camera angles and moves will really help sell the emotion.
Day Sixteen
____________________
I got my first round of feedback for the two sequences I translated into 3D.
​
For sequence 200, we all felt that the paper could use less time in the air after it tries and fails to move around in its unfamiliar vessel. We also felt Phoebe's position in space wasn't matching with the previous sequence before. So, I'm going to move her a little farther away to coincide with the passing of time and the distance she would have covered in that pocket. We also like the idea of changing the arrival of the title screen to when the paper and the artist are both already introduced and we can show them both in process of their shared journey.
​
For sequence 700, one of the camera moves that was boarded didn't look very good in 3D space, so an alternative pan was suggested instead. There was a crossing of the 180 line that I will need to fix as well, but that was basically it.
​
At this point, I also volunteered to do sequence 1000, the classroom sequence.
____________________
Day Seventeen
For this class, I got a lot of helpful feedback for my animatic sequences I had blocked out. For 200, I needed to start in the paper's point of view and change some angles and for sequence 700, I needed to have a bit of a breather somewhere in there for emotional effect between the paper and the artist. For 1000, we felt it was a little too close up and cramped, so I needed to work out some of the focal lengths and camera set up for that as well.
​
The majority of the blocking had been finalized, however. I am very close to finishing sequence 200. We decided that the big reveal shot for the title sequence would be better at the end of 200, so I have to put that in as well.
____________________
Day Eighteen
Now that we are nearing the end of the class for pre-production, the whole class needed to get everything they had ever worked on for the films together in order to drop all the files on a single external drive. I hadn't really realized how much work I had accumulated over the short span of 10 weeks.
​
The big thing that happened this class was the fact we had to cut down the length of the film. This had been a long time coming since the goal had always been to have a 3 or 4 minute film. Over the course of the class, the story had become unified, but had morphed into a 12 minute behemoth, so we were all pretty anxious to see what would become of it.
​
We had decided to cut out the pier, alleyway, and classroom sequences. We felt the pier and alleyway were very extraneous, and the classroom seemed too odd to fit into the plot. That meant we cut the guitarist, the cat and the seagull. Though they will be missed, I'm a lot more excited about the plot of the film now.
​
By now, the goal to reach by the end of the quarter was to have a finished 3D animatic to hand off to animation and the other department.
Day Nineteen
____________________
Over the weekend, we had met up and redesigned "Paperson" with a more locked down model. We made her a bit more curvy and her hair design had changed to a more solid shape with a little expressive strand at the front.
​
We also ironed out any details with the plot change. Instead of a dress shop, Phoebe would be looking into a gallery as it more related to her own self-consciousness as an artist. It would still have the emotional impact we were looking for and just fit better with the story.
​
In today's class, we were told we wanted a proof of concept by week two of the next quarter. So a rendered shot of the character in a scene just to make sure we had something that could work. I'm really excited to see how it turns out!
​
There were some more changes with sequence 100 and 200, mostly pertaining to the location of the trashcan. I also offered to help block sequence 900 which had been the last one finished for the film. Gabi Leonhard worked hard on all the boards, and it looks like a really fun one to try out! I split it in half with another animator in the class, Austin Sherman.
​
We actually had a little time to talk things through in class. Normally dailies took up all the time, but we broke out of the norm! One more class to go but a lot still left to do!
 |  |
|---|
