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Alfred Hitchcock Quote

“If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on”

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Proposal Research

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Competition/Festival Entry Research

https://filmfreeway.com/ComedyCrowdTV2020Showcase

Comedy Crowd TV Showcase is a film festival that has been running for 2 years.  It is screening at the BFI Southbank, London.  They are showing short independent comedy films and it’s free of charge to enter.  The overall winner wins £250.

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Competition/Festival Entry Research

https://www.norwichfilmfestival.co.uk/

The Norwich Film Festival takes place every November and has done so since 2009.  It is an international film festival which looks to celebrate and support the creation of independent film making.  They accept submissions of short films and animations as well as student films.  The organisation encourages the public to create and produce films of all budgets.  All British films that are screened are eligible for BAFTAs and all short films that are screened can be submitted to BIFA.  Students can enter for £15 (earlybird) or £25 (regular & late).

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Group Project Research/Inspiration

This video has that Creature Comforts type humour of one or two people being recorded just having a chat and that’s what I would like our animation to hopefully be like.

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Group Project Developed Rough Animatic

This is a more developed version of my previous animatic with  less clips as I have narrowed down the ones I think will work best for the animation.  I have added more frames to each clip to make them more animated and bring them to life a bit more while also testing out a bit of colour for some of the clips.  I’m starting to realise how most of them will work in the final piece and which ones are good to use to show off different animation skills.

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Group Project Rough Animatic Draft

This is my first draft of an animatic where I chose my favourite quotes from all the recordings that we got.  I developed my ideas from my storyboards and brainstorms and created short animatics to test the timing.

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Group Project Brainstorms, storyboards, ideas

“What do I feel when I’m creating art?  Some days I’m in the box, and other days, I’m out of the box”

This response that we got from one of our interviews really stuck with us and we thought it was a good visual that we could include in our animation.  When we were thinking about including a motif that will be present throughout the whole animation, we thought the box would be a great way to represent the people we interviewed without them being characterized so we decided to use the box as a running theme for our animation.

“I like feeling like you’re in a different world when you’re making art, like you feel like you’re not on the planet…like you’re in space”

I think the inspiration for this idea came from Creature Comforts.  The box is in the middle of the frame talking towards the camera as it gets teleported to the moon with the Earth in the background.  Like creature comforts, I wanted something in the background to catch the eye of the audience and give them something else to look at, so I thought of having another box floating past in the distance.

“What do you feel when you’re creating art?” “Angry, angry…ANGRY”

A few of the interviews we recorded had quite a few humorous responses and we liked the idea of including some funny quotes in the animation to reflect how we feel about art as students.  This is one of the ideas which I thought would work really well and would be good for comedic timing.  As the person says “angry” louder and louder, the camera zooms in and the box progressively gets redder and more crumpled and steam comes out of the sides like when old cartoon characters had steam from their ears when they were angry.

“Every time I want to use the lasso tool, I want to do a little ‘Yeehaw’”

Here’s another funny quote that came from our interviews about the lasso tool found on lots of software's.  This idea immediately came to me when I heard this quote, the box enters the frame on a horse with a cowboy hat and uses a lasso to swipe to the next part of the animation.  I thought it worked well visually and would adds some more light-hearted humour to the animation.

“It’s the moment I have ultimate freedom”

When I thought about this quote, the first thing that came to mind was being restricted and locked.  This is what lead me to this idea of having chains wrap around the box with a padlock and squeezing the box until it explodes out of the chains at the point when the person says “ultimate freedom” to symbolize the freedom they feel when creating art.

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Group Project Research/Inspiration

I like the bright, vibrant colours in this animation and the quick cuts of different objects in the center of the frame.  There’s also a clear stylistic approach to the animation which is unique to the artist that continues throughout.

I like how the editing of the animation is well timed with the music which makes the animation feel very fluid and smooth.  It’s also very well composited with everything either central and symmetrical or on the rule of thirds.

In this animation, the creator has decided to use a motif that runs through the whole thing which I really like as it makes the piece feel connected and not just random moments.

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Competition/Festival Entry Research

https://www.suffolkshorts.co.uk/ 

Suffolk shorts film festival is a new festival taking place in my hometown, Ipswich in October 2020.  They are partnered with BFI, The national lottery, University of Suffolk and many more.  They really believe in the art of short films and are looking for films that tell unique stories and are experimental.  They also don’t have to be high-budget productions, they are just looking for great short films no matter the resources you have.  The entry fee for students is only £5 and the winning prize is £500.

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YouTube Videos on Pixar, Storytelling

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Pages from Creativity Inc. and To Infinity and Beyond!

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Research Question Ideas

What is Pixar’s recipe for making compelling stories?

- Pixar’s background

- Pixar’s storytelling recipe

How does Pixar use visual language to tell appealing stories?

- Pixar’s background

- Visual language

- Pixar’s visual language in stories

How do Disney and Pixar contrast in their storytelling?

- Pixar

- Disney

- Compare storytelling

Do you need a villain in a film to make a good story?

- Story theory

- Pixar films

Who are the real villains in the Pixar Films?

- Pixar background

- Specific films

- protagonists are actually antagonists

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Online research sources

https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/pixar/storytelling 

- A free online course about Pixar and the art of storytelling

- A collaboration between Khan Academy and Pixar

- Details how Pixar create compelling stories

http://www.pixartouchbook.com/blog/2011/5/15/pixar-story-rules-one-version.html 

- A list of 22 rules originally tweeted by former Pixar story artist Emma Coats

- The Pixar Touch blog

- Guidelines she learned from senior colleagues on how to create appealing stories

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52675998e4b07faca3f636a5/t/527f0a75e4b012bf9e7361c5/1384057461885/Pixar22RulesAnalyzed_Bugaj.pdf

- An e-book which looks into more detail and analyzes each of the 22 rules

- Stephan Vladimir Bugaj

https://nofilmschool.com/pixar-recipe-good-storytelling 

- A blog about 5 of the most important rules from Pixar about storytelling

- No Film School, V Renee

- Explains some of the rules further

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-problem-with-processed-storytelling

- An article about the problem with processed storytelling

- The New Yorker, Richard Brody

- Against Pixar storytelling

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/the-pixar-storytelling-formula-an-inside-look/

- A blog which looks at the formula for Pixar’s storytelling

- Studio Binder, Mary Risk

- 5 key features of Pixar storytelling

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Research Report Ideas

- Extended essay on Pixar and finding the recipe for a great story.

- Industry Report on Blue Zoo and looking at the CG animation role and the pipe line.

- Extended essay on the Sonic redesign controversy and how social media and devoted fans can take away freedom of creativity.