Week 3 - Pre-production: a breakdown of workflow

Live Action v’s Animation? 

Animated film spends lots of time on pre-production & planning, and many of the processes because the production phase is expensive and time consuming!

Post- production  - Editing in comparison time is often minimal although special fx might be time consuming.

  

Documentary film spends lots of time on research, setting up the interviewees. The editing process is vital at the end (post-production) which is where the shape of the film will be molded.

Concept Art- shows the Director the look and feel.

Synopsis:

•      One paragraph which describes, succinctly and efficiently, your film idea.

•     The whole story - beginning, middle and end.

Task:

In my group we came up with and idea about a cup of tea. Which we then had to write a synopsis too.

Barry an English Chemistry teacher at Charlton Academy of science attempts to prepare the perfect English cuppa for Franny , the American headteacher of the school. In order for Barry to do this he must overcome his shyness. He needs to impress her by putting on his uniform and goggles. He then uses his science equipment to prepare her tea. At one point whist he is making the tea he becomes flustered from the pressure and his goggles steam up. As a result, Barry adds the wrong ingredient and when Franny takes a sip it explodes in her face. Barry is left horrified.

Initial Thumbnail sketches – keeping it small and sketchy stops you getting precious about the look before you have had time to explore – We looked at some of Joanna Quinn sketches from her film Britannia

Storyboarding

•      Work out your ideas about what needs to be shot – understanding what is needed and how it should be framed

•      This is a good time to cut out shots which you may love but you don’t need…

•      In animation this is a kind of ‘pre-editing’, a chance not to have to do loads of extra work that you won’t end up using

Storyboarding, there should be a natural flow from shot to shot.

Shot = a single frame

Scene = a series of shots that create a scene

Sequence =  A series of scenes that tell a chunk of the story.

Animation Storyboards are often key frames, it is important to figure everything out before the expensive and time consuming production phase.

                                                                                     

 TASK:

 In our groups we had to start drawing thumbnail sketches for our film idea. For homework we had to finis these.