I D E A
D E V E L O P M E N T
WHAT AM I GOING TO MAKE?
Initially I really struggled with deciding what I was going to make this concept into. Was I going to attempt to make a whole short film? Was I going to make a trailer for said short film? Was I going to make it the beginning of something? Like a first episode that could be continued? Just a short snippet of something without context?
You can probably see that in my research I was struggling with deciding, however researching, in a way, helped me to come up with a final answer for myself and figure out what I definitely didn't want to do and what I did ultimately want for my final product.
Upon starting my research, experimentation and development, evaluating my feelings and more I quickly realised before it came to writing my proposal that I cannot possibly animate, draw and edit to create my idea as a whole film in just 10 weeks. I knew - especially after doing some research that this could not happen while simultaneously ending up with a good final result, this made me panic a bit as this had been my plan for a while however I ended up calming down and trying to think of some alternatives. After realising this, I wondered If I should maybe just create a trailer or some short snippets of my idea, this felt as if would be achievable however this idea was difficult for me to love as I wanted the viewers to have enough information and context to take a liking to my character(s) and such I also wanted more of a challenge than this.
I thought some more though, and finally, I ended up focussing on creating the beginning or I guess it could be perhaps referred to as the first part or episode to my story.
I really liked this idea as it felt both achievable and realistic however it also gave me a challenge to produce something that I want to produce. I ended up being really excited to start making my FMP.
MY MOOD BOARDS
To see my mood boards I created in order to develop my ideas, head to my Research page, there are mood boards in both the 'Secondary' section and 'Primary' section.
DEVELOPING A STORY
HOW DID OUR CHARACTER GET HERE?
As can probably be seen from the beginning of my pitch, our character - Jaxon - has passed away and become a zombie. I figured that, much like in any film, this would need some background and some context as any audience would be asking questions if the first thing they saw on screen was a zombie waking up in his coffin. Sometimes unanswered questions are good, however there would need to be some form of explanation or at least a hint of what happened either before he wakes up or after.
I considered showcasing Jaxon's death in many ways and eventually came down to two ideas:
I could either show his death after he wakes up in flashbacks or show how he died before he wakes up. In the form of a trailer, which must be relatively short compared to a full length film, I ended up thinking that the flashback idea may not work in the effective way I would want it to. This is because flashbacks tend to come when someone is reminded of something and then something in their brain is therefore triggered to remember. I feel like this would be really effective when I hopefully come to create the film as a whole one day. I could still show Jaxon's death at the start of the film, like it will possibly be in the trailer, yet also include the idea of flashbacks as Jaxon tries to remember what the audience already knows - A form of dramatic irony, giving my story depth.
Now I needed to move on to thinking about the HOW. How is my character going to meet death? I considered many ideas from many standpoints: a visual standpoint, an audience standpoint and a creative/writing standpoint.
Visually I can see myself being able to animate and draw a lot of things so I wasn't necessarily too restricted when it came to that, all I knew was that I really wanted this to be visually dramatic and effective, maybe almost beautiful from an art standpoint? Something I knew from the beginning was that I wanted this imaginary world to be set in a sort of small town surrounded by wooded areas. I find a lot of beauty in nature and very much appreciate drawings of it so considered the woods as a location for Jaxon's death.
From an audience standpoint, I know that I will probably end up putting the finished product on YouTube as I feel that this would be the best place for it. YouTube is accessible to anyone - legally - from the age of 13 and upwards and therefore this will be my target audience. This means that I don't want the reason or the scene of my character's death to be too dark, scary or gruesome as this would not be suitable for YouTube and my content could be age restricted or taken down . When looking at inspiration on Pinterest I found lots of way how people represented death through illustration and found that specifically drowning is something that people recreate a lot. I noticed that drowning in illustration can have very effective and dramatic visual impact while also having great symbolic impact: symbolising sadness, overwhelming feelings, helplessness and depression. I figured that this symbolism could maybe indirectly explain and symbolise the reason for Jaxon's death as I imagine Jaxon, especially when he was alive to experience many struggles with his mental health and to have very little regard for his life and his safety. I imagine him as just a kid struggling through the world of being a teenager like most of us. He is relatable to the target audience in that sense.
Finally from a creative and writing kind of concept, I feel that it could be good for Jaxon to drown yet the reason can be interpreted in different ways. I feel like this part could be left to the imagination especially because this is just a trailer and the whole point would be to give the audience just enough information to draw attention and create interest.
After finalising these ideas and coming up with a rough plan of where and how my character dies, and where he ends up afterwards I started digitally sketching out some possible environments, looking at my research and mood boards for inspiration. I looked at photographs and illustrations of trees, forests, lakes and rivers. I wanted this location to create a kind of irony, it is beautiful but if you look deeper and if you knew what it was capable of you would recognise its danger. I want the forest to become a whole new place to the audience once they see Jaxon under the water and struggling.
After doing the forest sketches, I wanted to create some environments based on where Jaxon ends up after the scene where he drowns. A church graveyard. I again went to my mood boards and my research and began creating some concepts.
Here are my sketches and concepts below, to see the art that inspired them and the research I did, head over to my Research page!
ENVIRONMENTS:
.png)
.png)
.png)
DEVELOPING A SUITABLE ART STYLE
Something that I often find is good to do when trying to develop new ideas is to use a sketchbook. This can be digital or traditional however I often sketch in my physical sketchbook because it is easier for me to look at all of the ideas in front of me and maybe take them out and pin them on my wall so I can look at them a lot and make a decision. I found this method very effective when it came to this project - this is what I did when trying to come up with a good art style for my character.
Something I gathered from my research was that small animators when working on any project, but especially a project with a deadline, often will choose a style that they are comfortable with and a style that is not too detailed, realistic or hard to animate. In addition to this, some advice I got from people was that I should probably stay relatively simple when it came to a design and focus more on how the movement will look in the final video.
To the left is my very first sketch of my character, Jaxon. I did the sketch in an art style I usually work in when making illustrations. However, something I quickly realised was that this was way too detailed for what I was going to make, and it didn't really fit the vibe of what I was doing at all or my characters personality. There were some elements which you can see in my final decision - to the right - that I decided to keep though, such as the scars and the curly hair.
As can be seen my new style is much more exaggerated which will help me to illustrate and express the characters emotions more - you can tell that my research has inspired me in many ways and I am really pleased that everything came out this way, I don't think there is anything I would change about my decision. Below are some other notes, sketches and early concepts I made to sort of lock this in as my final decision and develop my skill at drawing in this new style and to also build and develop ideas off.
There is also another relatively important character involved and he is known as Zombie 1 as of now - so here is some of my concept sketches of him too!
DEVELOPING A STORYBOARD & PLANNING
After establishing an art style and a rough idea of what I am going to create I thought that the most effective way to get it all down would be visually in the form of a rough storyboard, I also communicated in words what I was thinking about while creating the storyboard. As can be seen, there are rough drawings of the panels, explanations, and labels stating what sounds I imagine there to be playing over each of the groups of frames. This really helped me to get down my ideas quickly and efficiently in a way I could understand and refer back to later. There is also a little bit of information on codes and conventions on there as I thought that this would be extremely important to remember and note down - see more about what I researched in codes and conventions on my Research page!
FINAL STORYBOARD: BASED OFF SCRIPT
THE SCRIPT
Here is the final script that I created. I really liked how it came out and it got me really excited to start bringing everything together, I think scripting was a great way to get my ideas down as when it comes to creating my final product I will be able to refer back to it when it comes to drawing, adding sound effects, music or voice acting. I may not refer exactly to this script if I gain any more ideas along the way however it is for sure going to help me a great deal in the long run. I plan to get somebody I know to help me when it comes to voicing some characters therefore this will also help them to know what to say when the time comes.
FREYTAG'S PYRAMID
In the picture above you can see that I have created a Freytag's Pyramid for my story, I did this to check and make sure my story followed an appropriate structure, it really helped me to understand the different stages in my story and how my story grasps the viewer's attention and how it builds tension etc.