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Research and Production Diary
Week 1:
At the start of the unit, I was given my MacGuffin - Puzzle Box. I was confused, because I expected anything, but not this.However, I began to work on the concept of the story, its logline and plot.But first I had to choose which direction to go.I saw "The Indiana Jones" clips in class and they were pretty inspiring. What could be more interesting than a historically linked story concept? People love myths and stories about ancient civilizations. Everyone has their favourite era. So, following such a simple path, I chose the story about ancient Egypt as a concept.
Story 1: The Egyptian Prince
Logline: The young prince of Egypt, in an attempt to save the life of his father, goes to the ancient pyramid. However, after receiving the scroll, he angered the Gods with his act and received punishment for stealing the artefact from the Gods.
"A story about a young prince of ancient Egypt whose father is dying. As a result, the boy himself finds an ancient scroll, which says that to cure his father, he must find a magic box hidden in his grandfather's tomb. The boy decides to get there and get this artefact. (So the pyramid itself becomes the puzzle box and is also the physical object, hidden in the pyramid) Making his way through the pyramid, he finds the box he needs, but the gods are angry with him for defiling the pyramid. However, he manages to escape. But, after leaving the pyramid, he discovers that hundreds of years have already passed. The gods sent him into the future as punishment, depriving him of everything he ever had. And the young prince is forced to wander the desert as an outcast."
And as you can see, this story was too big and filled with small details. And I would not have been able to fit all of this into 30-40 seconds of animation.
I tried to simplify it, but it still had a lot of elements, that were too difficult to remove from the plot. So I put it aside for a while and gave myself a little more time to think about the concept of the puzzle box.
Week 2:
After thinking a little more and driving around my city, I noticed the old museum in which I once went on an excursion.
And I came up with the idea of a new story for the MacGuffin "puzzle box".
Story 2: Excursion
MacGuffin: a puzzle box!
Genre: comedy-adventure
Logline: Once in the museum excursion, the boy got bored, trying to entertain himself with an ancient puzzle box and find a much bigger puzzle that he must solve.
“The boy on the tour got so bored that he noticed an interesting box on the monument and decides to move away from the group to get it and play with it.
Having managed to get to the puzzle box, and taking it in hand, the box breaks due to old age. The boy, realizing the trouble, immediately began to fix everything together. Thus solving the puzzle.
However, as soon as he finishes with this puzzle, he realizes that the teacher is standing behind him and watching.
And now he has an even more difficult puzzle ahead to solve. Much more difficult than just a box.“
The Script:
Start:
Zooming in to the museum building
Boy:
The boy falls behind the group and pays attention to the puzzle box at the top of the monument
Middle:
Boy:
Looks around, to make sure, that he’s alone
Tries to find the way to get this box
Build a tower from stuff around him in the room
Get the box from the monument
Puzzle Box:
Due to fragility from age, it simply fell apart in the hands of a boy
Boy:
The boy realized what had happened
However, he sits down on the floor and starts to fix the broken
End:
Boy:
As soon as he's finished, he hears someone coughing.
Teacher:
Stands behind the boy and hints to him that he has big problems now
Class:
Laughs at how the boy, out of boredom, dragged himself into big problems
That already sounded like a better idea!
I will be able to collect suitable references around the city, as well as visit the museum and try to repeat its architecture and interior. The story was partly inspired by the movie "Home Alone".
The story about a rather quick-witted boy who always finds adventures and puzzles seemed to be very suitable.
So some ideas will overlap with the film, but only partially.
I worked out the script and went to collect suitable references.
Week 3:
I have collected photos and references from Google maps and did take some photos myself. I was also able to get inside.
Unfortunately, photography was not allowed there. So I had to take photos from the Internet and create a map based on them.
The photographs are old and did not correspond to the present appearance of the exhibits. But alas, I had to limit myself to what I had.
After collecting some references, I started to develop a storyboard.
Week 4:
I did some recordings, so I could manage time more carefully. And ofcores made animation more realistic.
Week 5-6:
Weeks 5-6 I was developing a map for animation. It was quite detailed, I had to choose the right dimensions and choose where I should simplify the details so i woun't spend too much time designing the animation environment.
Week 7-8:
When I first started with animation, I began with simple frames, where the camera sets the dynamics, not the movement of the character.
A simple zoom on a character or location designation. It is also used to convey the tension of the moment.
The following animation fragments show how the camera follows the character's gaze. This makes it easier to understand what he is paying attention to. It also shows the direction of the view.
I usually try to use a tilted shot more often for the same intensity or danger of a situation. Unfortunately, here I used this technique less often. Which I consider as my mistake since the setting of the frame must be diversified. In particular, another mistake was in only did zoom in, although in some situations it would be possible to do zoom out. And zoom out would work even better. For example, at the last shot.
In the rest of the shots, the camera is pretty static. However, there is a lot of character action, which I hoped would make up for the lack of camera movement.
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