C Block by Vladimir Kooperman
*sweet film found by JHD
Friday, October 30, 2009
Marc Craste - Jo Jo in the Stars
Marc Craste does an interesting interview:
When you have characters with masks on, that can do very little (facially) other then be threatening. And then you have the heroes who can't do very much more, and yet they can cover a range of emotions simply because they can move their eyes. It's all in the eyes.
Not only are the are a lot of good economic reasons for simplyfing design choices. I think very often animation works when it is simpler, the more complex it gets, the more your asking the audience to believe, the more difficult it is to convey a deep emotion. Whereas when they're little cypher's like this, it's amazing the amount of people who shed a tear over this. These are little characters who can't do much other then look bewildered, in love, or bewildered. So it was a break from any desire to go into any complex design, and try and keep things simple. The most important thing is to have some kind of endearing quality to the characters, so you do actually care regardless of whether its talking or whatever it's doing, a lot of that has to do with the worlds I build around my characters, they all tend to be little and lost in a great big threatening world.
*interview found by Lango
When you have characters with masks on, that can do very little (facially) other then be threatening. And then you have the heroes who can't do very much more, and yet they can cover a range of emotions simply because they can move their eyes. It's all in the eyes.
Not only are the are a lot of good economic reasons for simplyfing design choices. I think very often animation works when it is simpler, the more complex it gets, the more your asking the audience to believe, the more difficult it is to convey a deep emotion. Whereas when they're little cypher's like this, it's amazing the amount of people who shed a tear over this. These are little characters who can't do much other then look bewildered, in love, or bewildered. So it was a break from any desire to go into any complex design, and try and keep things simple. The most important thing is to have some kind of endearing quality to the characters, so you do actually care regardless of whether its talking or whatever it's doing, a lot of that has to do with the worlds I build around my characters, they all tend to be little and lost in a great big threatening world.
Pictoplasma Talks - Marc Craste, Studio aka from Pictoplasma on Vimeo.
*interview found by Lango
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Tyger
Saw it a long time ago, lost it, found it again.
Tyger by Guilherme Marcondes
Bunraku is a Japanese style of puppetry, although Guilherme is from Brazil
Tyger by Guilherme Marcondes
Bunraku is a Japanese style of puppetry, although Guilherme is from Brazil
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Logline Generator
Ha, ran across this little program that auto generates log lines. Might be a fun creative writing starter.
http://www.lifeformz.com/cgi-bin/idea/idea.fcgi
Sophisticated noodlemakers try to one up each other.
Eight skinny CIA agents give insights about dating. (can't you see Tarantino doing this one?)
A dishonest baby-sitter and an outgoing gas station attendant give conflicting reports to the police.
A philanthropic jingle writer, a psychic-powered butler, and a socialite practice an act for a talent show on an alien planet.
A restaurant owner and a couple of allergic gamblers plot to kill an international spy.
A blundering mafia kingpin, a nerdy male stripper, and an ambidextrous criminal stop a burglary.
A zombie folk singer, an African criminal investigator, and a love-sick tax collector meet and become friends
http://www.lifeformz.com/cgi-bin/idea/idea.fcgi
Sophisticated noodlemakers try to one up each other.
Eight skinny CIA agents give insights about dating. (can't you see Tarantino doing this one?)
A dishonest baby-sitter and an outgoing gas station attendant give conflicting reports to the police.
A philanthropic jingle writer, a psychic-powered butler, and a socialite practice an act for a talent show on an alien planet.
A restaurant owner and a couple of allergic gamblers plot to kill an international spy.
A blundering mafia kingpin, a nerdy male stripper, and an ambidextrous criminal stop a burglary.
A zombie folk singer, an African criminal investigator, and a love-sick tax collector meet and become friends
Czech Stopmotion
Mike Brent of Darkmatters has collected the czech Filmfarum puppet stopmotion into a playlist on youtube with English subs. Super cool. This animation may be a little rough, but it's got a juice you don't always see. Love the devil. Also a ton of other great stuff on his youtube channel!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Alexandra Solokoff - Writing
So ran across this brilliant blog by Alexandra Sokoloff about writing (screenplay and novel) Lots and lots of good stuff. Definitely worth a lot of return trips, it's like one of those screenwriting books, in blog form. Anyway, here's copy pastes of parst of some of her posts, worth reading the whole thing of each (I just wanted to consolidate summaries for myself)
Logline/Elevator Pitch That sentence really should give you a sense of the entire story: the character of the protagonist, the character of the antagonist, the conflict, the setting, the tone, the genre. And – it should make whoever hears it want to read the book.
If you can tell your story in one line and everyone who hears it can see exactly what the movie or book is - AND a majority of people who hear it will want to see it or read it - that’s high concept.
the premise is the map of your book when you’re writing it.
- A treasure-hunting archaeologist races over the globe to find the legendary Lost Ark of the Covenant before Hitler’s minions can acquire and use it to supernaturally power the Nazi army.
this premise contain a defined protagonist, a powerful antagonist, a sense of the setting, conflict and stakes, and a sense of how the action will play out... the protagonists are up against forces that seem much bigger than the protagonist.
Visual Storytelling 1 and 2
Humans are visual so tell them what they would see. "Every time I start a chapter or a scene, I think first about the establishing shot and the master shot.
And when I do give the visual, I think about what it says thematically and emotionally about the scene. Is it a confined space because my heroine feels trapped? Then I make sure to convey that claustrophobic sense. Is every tree on the street bursting with bloom and fragrance because my lovers have finally reunited? (Yeah, I’m being on the nose, but my feeling is – be over the top at first to make sure the emotion is there… you can always tone it down later.)
What I do when I start a project, along with outlining, is to keep a list of thematic words and images that convey what my story is about, to me.
Index Card
most movies are a Three Act, eight-sequence structure. Yes, most movies can be broken up into 8 discrete 15-minute sequences, each of which has a beginning, middle and end.
Often a sequence takes place in 1 location with the protagonist following 1 line of action, the climax is getting or losing that piece they're after, then they move onto a new pursuit in a new place. Post about climaxes here
Make 8 columns of Index Cards 5-8 tall. 1st card of 1st column write Act 1 start, last card of 2nd column Act 1 climax, etc. (Act 2 has two parts, both need climaxes.) Okay, go. Brainstorm scenes, all you can think of, write each scene down on a card. Mix and match them up to get a good progression. A movie has about 40 to 60 scenes (a drama more like 40, an action movie more like 60)
Now obviously, if you’re structuring a novel this way, you may be approximately tripling the scene count, but I think that in most cases you’ll find that the number of sequences is not out of proportion to this formula. I write novels of about 40 - 50 chapters each - an exact correlation to the number of scenes I would write in a movie, and I find my books break down into sequences of about 50 pages each: Act One is about 100 pages, Act Two is about 200 pages, and Act Three is a little less than 100 pages. I might have three sequences in Act One rather than two, but the proportions are still almost exactly the same.
Now just write it. 1st draft she thinks of like theater, blocking it out to see the shape of the story. Easier to rewrite then to start with a blank page. Then she goes through in passes adding sensory information, pass for dialogue, pass for suspense, pass for plants and payoffs, etc.
Act One
index cards you'll need:
- Opening image
- Meet the hero or heroine
- Hero/ine’s inner and outer need
- Hero/ine’s arc
- Inciting Incident/ Call to Adventure
- Meet the antagonist (and/or introduce a mystery, which is what you do when you’re going to keep your antagonist hidden to reveal at the end)
- State the theme/what’s the story about?
- Allies
- Mentor
- A mirror character (sometimes)
- Love interest
- Plant/Reveal (or: Set ups and Payoffs)
- Hope/Fear (and Stakes)
- Time Clock (possibly. May not have one and may be revealed later in the story)
- Central Question
- Sequence One climax
- Act One climax (or curtain, or culmination)
Yeah, it’s a lot! That’s why first acts are often the most revised and rewritten sections of the story. It’s also why it’s often the section most in need of cutting and condensing. The answer is usually combining scenes. All these things have to be done, but they all have to be done within such a limited time frame (and page frame) that you simply HAVE to make each scene work on multiple levels.
specific breakdowns of all the pieces are in her post.
It’s useful to think of the story as posing a central question: Will Clarice get Lecter to give her the information she need to catch Buffalo Bill before he kills again? Audience needs to know this question by the end of act 1.
Act 2
Beginning of the 2nd act is usually entry into the "other world". There's often a guardian to give the hero trouble/warning at the entrance, helps raise suspense.
The continual opposition of the protagonist’s and antagonist’s plans is the main underlying structure of the second act.
Another important storytelling and suspense technique is keeping the hero/ine and antagonist in close proximity. Closer they are the higher the suspense.
2nd act often has an assembling the team sequence. One of the delights of a sequence like this is that you see a bunch of highly skilled pros in top form – or alternately, a bunch of unlikely losers that you root for because they’re so perfectly pathetic. The inevitable clash of personalities, the constant divaness and one-upmanship, and the reluctant bonding make for some great scenes – it’s a lively and compelling storytelling technique.
Also often a Training Sequencee, and a Series of Tests. Training sequence often reveals a weakness (plant) that will have to be tested in the hero (payoff when overcome), (Luke not having faith in the force)
Act 2 part 2Climax of the first part of Act 2 is the Midpoint. A major shift in the dynamics of the story. Now it's personal, door of no return, small actions haven't worked so have to commit, sex at 60 (60 pages) changes all relationships. The Midpoint will often be one of the most memorable visual SETPIECES of the story, just to further drive its importance home. It’s a game-changer, and it locks the hero/ine even more inevitably into the story. The Midpoint is not necessarily just one scene – it can be a progression of scenes and revelations that include a climactic scene, a complete change of location, a major revelation, a major reversal – all or any combination of the above. I would also point out that the midpoint is often some kind of mirror image of the final climax (spiritual midpoint of Raiders of the Lost Arc Indy as moses with light and robes finding the right place to dig.)
The Midpoint launches ESCALATING ACTION/OBSESSIVE DRIVE
In the second half of the second act the actions your hero/ine takes toward his or her goal will become larger and increasingly obsessive. Small actions have not cut it, so it’s time for desperate measures.
These escalating actions will often lead to HARD CHOICES and CROSSING THE LINE: the hero/ine very often starts doing things that are against character, self-destructive or downright immoral. Often the hero/ine will lose support from key allies when s/he begins to cross the line.
In standard film structure, the second half of Act Two is two sequences long - two fifteen minute sequences, each with a beginning, middle and climax. A book will perhaps have three or four or five sequences in this 100 page section. But if you concentrate on escalating obsessive actions by the hero/ine and antagonist, and then an abject failure (question of the film answered with no), out of which a new revelation and plan occurs, you pretty much have the whole section mapped out to the ACT TWO CLIMAX
Climax of Act 2 is often answering the question of the film, with a no? Will Hanibal help Clarice catch Buffalo Bill before he kills again? No, Catherine will die.
Act 3
And the third act is basically the FINAL BATTLE and RESOLUTION. It can often be one continuous sequence – the chase and confrontation. There may be a final preparation for battle (1/2 of act 3 can be getting to the battle site), or it might be done on the fly.
above all, in an ending, the reader/audience has to CARE. A good ending has an emotional payoff, and it has to be proportionate to what the character AND the reader/audience has experienced.
Logline/Elevator Pitch That sentence really should give you a sense of the entire story: the character of the protagonist, the character of the antagonist, the conflict, the setting, the tone, the genre. And – it should make whoever hears it want to read the book.
If you can tell your story in one line and everyone who hears it can see exactly what the movie or book is - AND a majority of people who hear it will want to see it or read it - that’s high concept.
the premise is the map of your book when you’re writing it.
- A treasure-hunting archaeologist races over the globe to find the legendary Lost Ark of the Covenant before Hitler’s minions can acquire and use it to supernaturally power the Nazi army.
this premise contain a defined protagonist, a powerful antagonist, a sense of the setting, conflict and stakes, and a sense of how the action will play out... the protagonists are up against forces that seem much bigger than the protagonist.
Visual Storytelling 1 and 2
Humans are visual so tell them what they would see. "Every time I start a chapter or a scene, I think first about the establishing shot and the master shot.
And when I do give the visual, I think about what it says thematically and emotionally about the scene. Is it a confined space because my heroine feels trapped? Then I make sure to convey that claustrophobic sense. Is every tree on the street bursting with bloom and fragrance because my lovers have finally reunited? (Yeah, I’m being on the nose, but my feeling is – be over the top at first to make sure the emotion is there… you can always tone it down later.)
What I do when I start a project, along with outlining, is to keep a list of thematic words and images that convey what my story is about, to me.
Index Card
most movies are a Three Act, eight-sequence structure. Yes, most movies can be broken up into 8 discrete 15-minute sequences, each of which has a beginning, middle and end.
Often a sequence takes place in 1 location with the protagonist following 1 line of action, the climax is getting or losing that piece they're after, then they move onto a new pursuit in a new place. Post about climaxes here
Make 8 columns of Index Cards 5-8 tall. 1st card of 1st column write Act 1 start, last card of 2nd column Act 1 climax, etc. (Act 2 has two parts, both need climaxes.) Okay, go. Brainstorm scenes, all you can think of, write each scene down on a card. Mix and match them up to get a good progression. A movie has about 40 to 60 scenes (a drama more like 40, an action movie more like 60)
Now obviously, if you’re structuring a novel this way, you may be approximately tripling the scene count, but I think that in most cases you’ll find that the number of sequences is not out of proportion to this formula. I write novels of about 40 - 50 chapters each - an exact correlation to the number of scenes I would write in a movie, and I find my books break down into sequences of about 50 pages each: Act One is about 100 pages, Act Two is about 200 pages, and Act Three is a little less than 100 pages. I might have three sequences in Act One rather than two, but the proportions are still almost exactly the same.
Now just write it. 1st draft she thinks of like theater, blocking it out to see the shape of the story. Easier to rewrite then to start with a blank page. Then she goes through in passes adding sensory information, pass for dialogue, pass for suspense, pass for plants and payoffs, etc.
Act One
index cards you'll need:
- Opening image
- Meet the hero or heroine
- Hero/ine’s inner and outer need
- Hero/ine’s arc
- Inciting Incident/ Call to Adventure
- Meet the antagonist (and/or introduce a mystery, which is what you do when you’re going to keep your antagonist hidden to reveal at the end)
- State the theme/what’s the story about?
- Allies
- Mentor
- A mirror character (sometimes)
- Love interest
- Plant/Reveal (or: Set ups and Payoffs)
- Hope/Fear (and Stakes)
- Time Clock (possibly. May not have one and may be revealed later in the story)
- Central Question
- Sequence One climax
- Act One climax (or curtain, or culmination)
Yeah, it’s a lot! That’s why first acts are often the most revised and rewritten sections of the story. It’s also why it’s often the section most in need of cutting and condensing. The answer is usually combining scenes. All these things have to be done, but they all have to be done within such a limited time frame (and page frame) that you simply HAVE to make each scene work on multiple levels.
specific breakdowns of all the pieces are in her post.
It’s useful to think of the story as posing a central question: Will Clarice get Lecter to give her the information she need to catch Buffalo Bill before he kills again? Audience needs to know this question by the end of act 1.
Act 2
Beginning of the 2nd act is usually entry into the "other world". There's often a guardian to give the hero trouble/warning at the entrance, helps raise suspense.
The continual opposition of the protagonist’s and antagonist’s plans is the main underlying structure of the second act.
Another important storytelling and suspense technique is keeping the hero/ine and antagonist in close proximity. Closer they are the higher the suspense.
2nd act often has an assembling the team sequence. One of the delights of a sequence like this is that you see a bunch of highly skilled pros in top form – or alternately, a bunch of unlikely losers that you root for because they’re so perfectly pathetic. The inevitable clash of personalities, the constant divaness and one-upmanship, and the reluctant bonding make for some great scenes – it’s a lively and compelling storytelling technique.
Also often a Training Sequencee, and a Series of Tests. Training sequence often reveals a weakness (plant) that will have to be tested in the hero (payoff when overcome), (Luke not having faith in the force)
Act 2 part 2Climax of the first part of Act 2 is the Midpoint. A major shift in the dynamics of the story. Now it's personal, door of no return, small actions haven't worked so have to commit, sex at 60 (60 pages) changes all relationships. The Midpoint will often be one of the most memorable visual SETPIECES of the story, just to further drive its importance home. It’s a game-changer, and it locks the hero/ine even more inevitably into the story. The Midpoint is not necessarily just one scene – it can be a progression of scenes and revelations that include a climactic scene, a complete change of location, a major revelation, a major reversal – all or any combination of the above. I would also point out that the midpoint is often some kind of mirror image of the final climax (spiritual midpoint of Raiders of the Lost Arc Indy as moses with light and robes finding the right place to dig.)
The Midpoint launches ESCALATING ACTION/OBSESSIVE DRIVE
In the second half of the second act the actions your hero/ine takes toward his or her goal will become larger and increasingly obsessive. Small actions have not cut it, so it’s time for desperate measures.
These escalating actions will often lead to HARD CHOICES and CROSSING THE LINE: the hero/ine very often starts doing things that are against character, self-destructive or downright immoral. Often the hero/ine will lose support from key allies when s/he begins to cross the line.
In standard film structure, the second half of Act Two is two sequences long - two fifteen minute sequences, each with a beginning, middle and climax. A book will perhaps have three or four or five sequences in this 100 page section. But if you concentrate on escalating obsessive actions by the hero/ine and antagonist, and then an abject failure (question of the film answered with no), out of which a new revelation and plan occurs, you pretty much have the whole section mapped out to the ACT TWO CLIMAX
Climax of Act 2 is often answering the question of the film, with a no? Will Hanibal help Clarice catch Buffalo Bill before he kills again? No, Catherine will die.
Act 3
And the third act is basically the FINAL BATTLE and RESOLUTION. It can often be one continuous sequence – the chase and confrontation. There may be a final preparation for battle (1/2 of act 3 can be getting to the battle site), or it might be done on the fly.
above all, in an ending, the reader/audience has to CARE. A good ending has an emotional payoff, and it has to be proportionate to what the character AND the reader/audience has experienced.
Monday, October 26, 2009
John K. Outlining/Storyboarding
this is all straight pasted from John K's blog, go read the original for more thorough description with illustrations.
Here's the outline of Stimpy's invention
Stimpy's Invention Boards over at Asifa
The way the outline is formatted is designed to help you easily follow the story and the main events in the structure. Having headings for everything is really handy. It lets you see at a glance where every main point in your story is headed and how it fits into the larger picture.
A script doesn't do that. You can't see the structure of a script at a glance (if it even has one!) It is unwieldy and hard to follow and can easily meander off course by getting lost in random details.
Scripts are a chore to read and really hard to work from.
Some of the sequence headings in an outline have more than one scene each helping define and adding details to the sequence. Each scene has its own heading.
Seq. 6. REN DOES NICE THINGS
1) Irons BVDs
2) Cleans Litterbox
3) Cleans Stimpy
All 3 of those scenes help describe the idea of Ren doing nice things.
Note that every story detail and gag of the cartoon isn't in the outline. That's left to the director and the storyboard artist.
------------------
John K. on Tex Avery:
n almost every cartoon, he spends the first 2 minutes blatantly setting the audience up for what the cartoon is about.
In Deputy Droopy for example, the first couple of minutes is almost pure exposition with the sheriff explaining to Droopy to guard the jailhouse and if any trouble happens, just "make a sound, any sound, and I'll come a runnin'!"
And then the rest of the cartoon is just about 2 outlaws causing trouble and Droopy making louder and louder noises to wake the sheriff.
Tex uses this same structure for almost every one of his cartoons.
His main objective once he's sure the audience knows what the cartoon is about, is to build the gags and make them bigger and crazier and faster.
Uncontrolled random craziness wouldn't be as funny if he wasn't so careful in setting up his premise in the first place.
This is also a formula well executed by Monty Python-think of the "I'd like to register a complaint." bit.
The other important point in story structure is to have the purpose build as the story develops.
(can't find stimpy's invention, here's deputy droopy)
Here's the outline of Stimpy's invention
Stimpy's Invention Boards over at Asifa
The way the outline is formatted is designed to help you easily follow the story and the main events in the structure. Having headings for everything is really handy. It lets you see at a glance where every main point in your story is headed and how it fits into the larger picture.
A script doesn't do that. You can't see the structure of a script at a glance (if it even has one!) It is unwieldy and hard to follow and can easily meander off course by getting lost in random details.
Scripts are a chore to read and really hard to work from.
Some of the sequence headings in an outline have more than one scene each helping define and adding details to the sequence. Each scene has its own heading.
Seq. 6. REN DOES NICE THINGS
1) Irons BVDs
2) Cleans Litterbox
3) Cleans Stimpy
All 3 of those scenes help describe the idea of Ren doing nice things.
Note that every story detail and gag of the cartoon isn't in the outline. That's left to the director and the storyboard artist.
------------------
John K. on Tex Avery:
n almost every cartoon, he spends the first 2 minutes blatantly setting the audience up for what the cartoon is about.
In Deputy Droopy for example, the first couple of minutes is almost pure exposition with the sheriff explaining to Droopy to guard the jailhouse and if any trouble happens, just "make a sound, any sound, and I'll come a runnin'!"
And then the rest of the cartoon is just about 2 outlaws causing trouble and Droopy making louder and louder noises to wake the sheriff.
Tex uses this same structure for almost every one of his cartoons.
His main objective once he's sure the audience knows what the cartoon is about, is to build the gags and make them bigger and crazier and faster.
Uncontrolled random craziness wouldn't be as funny if he wasn't so careful in setting up his premise in the first place.
This is also a formula well executed by Monty Python-think of the "I'd like to register a complaint." bit.
The other important point in story structure is to have the purpose build as the story develops.
(can't find stimpy's invention, here's deputy droopy)
Friday, October 16, 2009
Destination - Uta Hagen
That Spline Dr.s post linked over to Uta Hagen also. I hadn't heard of her, but I need to head to the library to check her out. And maybe spin through some more of those youtube clips.
Anyway, Direction. She was critiquing a student who had stood a lot during her piece. Hagen says that you are always going somewhere. You won't stand if you can sit. Her example was that she was heading to bed but she stopped to confront the husband, and she could be confronting him for 10 minutes standing there, but because she was heading to bed her body is relaxed, because she knows she is going to continue to bed once she's said her piece (or go sit down if the situation changes) but the point is she has a destination. We're always inbetween going from one place to another. So the student felt akward because she didn't have a destination, she was standing just to stand, and her body was trying to find a way to rest so she felt akward and looked it.
Anyway, Direction. She was critiquing a student who had stood a lot during her piece. Hagen says that you are always going somewhere. You won't stand if you can sit. Her example was that she was heading to bed but she stopped to confront the husband, and she could be confronting him for 10 minutes standing there, but because she was heading to bed her body is relaxed, because she knows she is going to continue to bed once she's said her piece (or go sit down if the situation changes) but the point is she has a destination. We're always inbetween going from one place to another. So the student felt akward because she didn't have a destination, she was standing just to stand, and her body was trying to find a way to rest so she felt akward and looked it.
Human Animal - Desmond Morris - Gestures
The Pixar guys are all about Desmond Morris (every animator online recommends his books) Anyway, Spline Doctors just threw up a link to one of the documentaries about hand gestures. Interesting how he breaks it down (though I don't think I buy into some of the reasoning "beating you over the head with his symbolic tiny club"?) The fifth of this show talks about facial expressions. (Tracing the roots from chimps. Starting to lean towards Paul Ekman and his 7 universal facial expressions (you know, what that silly show Lie to Me is exaggerating))
Anyway, worth a watch, might check out the other episodes available on youtube.
Anyway, worth a watch, might check out the other episodes available on youtube.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Disney animated storyboards
Ran across this Tarzan storyboard/ finished youtube clip over at Malcon Pierce's blog. Following the trail I come back to Cooked Arts youtube channel, brilliant haul of great 2D stuff!!
Carlos Baena on Multiple Ideas in a Shot
Carlos Baena has a great post about multiple ideas in a shot. Looking at how Hitchcock uses the camera so masterfully for exposition.
* What's the point of the shot
* How can you say it in an interesting way
* How can you add suspense and drama out of the characters
* What's the point of the shot
* How can you say it in an interesting way
* How can you add suspense and drama out of the characters
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The Human Factor by Roland Zag
Ran across a blog by Oswald Iten one post he was reviewing this german book called The Audience Contract by Roland Zag
Iten sums up the book as trying to pin down what "heart" in a story actually is. Zag apparently looked at a ton of films, box office smashes and others, beyond their opening weekend (the thought being opening weekend success is based off of advertising, but continued success is based off of word of mouth.)
It's interesting to me because it's looking at story telling from a social psychology interpersonal frame of view. What it boils down to is that audiences get emotionally involved in a story when the character's social circles get out of whack, they want to see the characters stay true to themselves and find balance again in their social circles (family, romantic relationships, work, citizen, etc.)
The books blog has an English summary. (which is where these notes are copy pasted from)
The human factor approach suggests that stories are fundamentally about belonging.
Empathy & Desire
Dynamics between people - individuals or groups - can be broken down to acts and principles of give and take. The viewers watch and measure who is giving a lot and who is taking a lot, they root for the givers and boo for the takers, and hope that everyone gets what they deserve in the end.
A well-constructed story starts off by conveying some strong social inequity, and after developing the plot it creates a desire for equity. The farther the characters or events deviate from the inner yardstick as defined by the spectator, the stronger the desire of the spectator for the story line to return to a "happy medium", an equilibrium, a homeostasis. It will be up to the author to decide how far this desire will be fulfilled or denied.
Emotional Trigger Mechanism
to connect with the viewers' emotions:
The core of a story is always a high level of social inequity. Accordingly, it focuses mostly on reaching social equity. The protagonists' goals must be related to the central social inequity.
Characters who are descriminated against by the group get sympathy, characters who take to much get disliked
The more characters give the more they're liked. Giving could be signs of affection, solidarity, assistance, etc.
Bad guys are worse and good guys are better if they have a posse backing them
The audience will care more proportianolly the harder it is for a character to:
a) join a group (how much does the character have to give)
b) leave a group (how much do they have to give up)
c) endure a group
d) endure outside the group if they want to be in it
Strata of ethics
9 different areas of life the audience will want to see give and take brought into balance, here's where the balance should be:
individual: being true to self and self determined will, act to entitled you'll lose sympathy,
family: support and respect each other
friends: friendship and loyalty, betrayal is the worst vice
group: peer pressure man, audience likes the characters who stay true to themselves
couples: mutual contributions
gender, generation, ethnic group: stay true to your people
state/law: depends how close characters sense of justice matches state means go with or against the MAN
ideals: stay true to your ideals
humanity: be a good person (don't kick puppies, help the elderly etc.)
Identity and Fulfilment of Demands
A strong script has as many unbalanced areas of life as possible to get the audience really worked up. Suck them in so they feel overwhelmed then give them an acceptable solution to put all the troubles to rest. The overarching problem is always between an individual and the demands of all the areas of life they are part of.
Iten sums up the book as trying to pin down what "heart" in a story actually is. Zag apparently looked at a ton of films, box office smashes and others, beyond their opening weekend (the thought being opening weekend success is based off of advertising, but continued success is based off of word of mouth.)
It's interesting to me because it's looking at story telling from a social psychology interpersonal frame of view. What it boils down to is that audiences get emotionally involved in a story when the character's social circles get out of whack, they want to see the characters stay true to themselves and find balance again in their social circles (family, romantic relationships, work, citizen, etc.)
The books blog has an English summary. (which is where these notes are copy pasted from)
The human factor approach suggests that stories are fundamentally about belonging.
Empathy & Desire
Dynamics between people - individuals or groups - can be broken down to acts and principles of give and take. The viewers watch and measure who is giving a lot and who is taking a lot, they root for the givers and boo for the takers, and hope that everyone gets what they deserve in the end.
A well-constructed story starts off by conveying some strong social inequity, and after developing the plot it creates a desire for equity. The farther the characters or events deviate from the inner yardstick as defined by the spectator, the stronger the desire of the spectator for the story line to return to a "happy medium", an equilibrium, a homeostasis. It will be up to the author to decide how far this desire will be fulfilled or denied.
Emotional Trigger Mechanism
to connect with the viewers' emotions:
The core of a story is always a high level of social inequity. Accordingly, it focuses mostly on reaching social equity. The protagonists' goals must be related to the central social inequity.
Characters who are descriminated against by the group get sympathy, characters who take to much get disliked
The more characters give the more they're liked. Giving could be signs of affection, solidarity, assistance, etc.
Bad guys are worse and good guys are better if they have a posse backing them
The audience will care more proportianolly the harder it is for a character to:
a) join a group (how much does the character have to give)
b) leave a group (how much do they have to give up)
c) endure a group
d) endure outside the group if they want to be in it
Strata of ethics
9 different areas of life the audience will want to see give and take brought into balance, here's where the balance should be:
individual: being true to self and self determined will, act to entitled you'll lose sympathy,
family: support and respect each other
friends: friendship and loyalty, betrayal is the worst vice
group: peer pressure man, audience likes the characters who stay true to themselves
couples: mutual contributions
gender, generation, ethnic group: stay true to your people
state/law: depends how close characters sense of justice matches state means go with or against the MAN
ideals: stay true to your ideals
humanity: be a good person (don't kick puppies, help the elderly etc.)
Identity and Fulfilment of Demands
A strong script has as many unbalanced areas of life as possible to get the audience really worked up. Suck them in so they feel overwhelmed then give them an acceptable solution to put all the troubles to rest. The overarching problem is always between an individual and the demands of all the areas of life they are part of.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Henry Selick talk
The Mill Valley Film Festival brought Henry Selick to do a talk on Coraline. He was part of that legendary crew from CalArts that included Brad Bird, John Lasseter, Ron & John, Tim Burton etc. He worked 2D in the fox and the hound with them. Directed Nightmare Before Christmas for Tim Burton. Directed the liveaction stopmotion hybrid MonkeyBone. Did a CG short for Laika (Moongirl). And most recently did Coraline.
[*As always, assume these are paraphrases not direct quotes, because I just don't jot down notes fast enough to be accurate]
If you set the bar very high and your staff believes in it, they'll achieve it.
In animation you can't just decide what you're going to do and work away for 3 weeks mechanically and be done. You have to constantly be breathing life into it, improving it and improvising.
What's your thoughts on Coraline being scary?
He talked about how when you're a kid sometimes the scariest stuff is what you love the most. How we all love getting scared sometimes. And how when we were living in tribes the person who could scare the kids the best to stay away from the cave so they don't get eaten by a bear became the tribes storyteller. And basically he summed it up with a quote "Life's no fun without a good scare"
The performing mice scene and the acrobatic theater scene in Coraline, he was told he would have to do them in CG. But he put up a big fight. He said that it would be very difficult in stop motion but if they didn't then the whole movie would go flat, they had to maintain their integrity, it had to be all real world objects.
The theater scene (especially the birth of Venus) was all meant as an homage to Terry Gilliam, and you can't do an homage to Gilliam half assed.
The garden scene is a good example of achieving what's difficult in stop motion: Bringing an entire world to life and not just a moving character in front of a static environment.
We designed the flowers around the materials that we found that could change shape on a frame by frame basis. An approach he recommends to all stop motionists.
What makes a good animator?
An animator is at heart trying to engage an audience and draw them in. Number one is "What is the character thinking?" It's greater then posing, and timing, and clarity, and all the principles. If you know what they're thinking and can make it visible you'll draw in the audience. The cruder one person shorts that are out there in the world can be really amazing if they have this quality.
He pulled up Anthony Scott (animation supervisor) to answer the question.
Some of the most challenging shots are closeups with subtle expression changes. That's where you especially have to get the thoughts to come through. Also Each of the characters have to move in their own way. A cat moves so differently then a dog does.
What draws you to a script?
A touch of humor, a touch of the macabre. A story that can be appealing to kids. "Classic fairy tales in a modern setting."
What would Coraline have been like liveaction?
Animation brings a fairytale element to a story. Stop motion is ageless, it feels like it comes from an earlier time. It will always be there, there's always going to be some guy off somewhere making GIJoes or Barbie or tinfoil or clay move. So in live action Coraline would have been colder, and the scary scenes would have been scarier.
I had a great experience in Oregon but I know I'll come back to the bay area. Maybe get a warehouse somewhere.
Coraline was set in America because I was more comfortable with the dialect. And set in Portland because I wanted to keep the Spink and Forcible British and the Ashland Shakespeare festival was the best excuse I could for what they would be doing in the states. It was coincidental I wound up there also thanks to Laika.
What were the challenges involved in shooting in 3D?
3D is nice in that it captures the strength of stop motion. Stop Motion can't do some of the stuff that CG or 2D does, but 3D can really make use of the fact that stop motion is actual real stuff in the real world. The hardest thing with 3D was not overdoing it. If everything is always loud or always saturated color then it just overwhelms and stops meaning anything.
Advice you would give yourself as a student?
Be Bold! School is your shot to be yourself. It's fine if you want to study under someone's style with the thought of getting a job afterwards. But your student film will be the easiest time in your life to make the film you want to make. What do you have to say? Don't worry about the technical side, it's got to be about story and character. Be bold, it's your chance to make your mark.
What do you think of the animation world right now?
There's always talk of a golden age or something. The golden age is really right now, because it's the age we're in. It's too bad that we're stuck with the idea of a feature film that has to be 70-100 minutes. I'm still looking for how people can make a living doing short stuff. We need to train the audience that you can't just see everything for free, you have to pay a quarter or something. Steve Jobs is selling Itunes .99 for a short film and people are okay with it, so it's starting. Someone's gotta find a way to make shorts sustainable for people to make. Like the Tesla, someone made the electric car sexy.
(I asked)What have you learned as a director between your experience from NBC to Coraline?
I learned how to be a better storyteller. I've always been a tough ass director. I push really hard and ask a lot and almost every time the animator's deliver it. And the animator's who are brilliant I stay out of their way. By Coraline I had learned more what I liked. I wanted it all hand made. "Let's go back to what felt best."
[*As always, assume these are paraphrases not direct quotes, because I just don't jot down notes fast enough to be accurate]
If you set the bar very high and your staff believes in it, they'll achieve it.
In animation you can't just decide what you're going to do and work away for 3 weeks mechanically and be done. You have to constantly be breathing life into it, improving it and improvising.
What's your thoughts on Coraline being scary?
He talked about how when you're a kid sometimes the scariest stuff is what you love the most. How we all love getting scared sometimes. And how when we were living in tribes the person who could scare the kids the best to stay away from the cave so they don't get eaten by a bear became the tribes storyteller. And basically he summed it up with a quote "Life's no fun without a good scare"
The performing mice scene and the acrobatic theater scene in Coraline, he was told he would have to do them in CG. But he put up a big fight. He said that it would be very difficult in stop motion but if they didn't then the whole movie would go flat, they had to maintain their integrity, it had to be all real world objects.
The theater scene (especially the birth of Venus) was all meant as an homage to Terry Gilliam, and you can't do an homage to Gilliam half assed.
The garden scene is a good example of achieving what's difficult in stop motion: Bringing an entire world to life and not just a moving character in front of a static environment.
We designed the flowers around the materials that we found that could change shape on a frame by frame basis. An approach he recommends to all stop motionists.
What makes a good animator?
An animator is at heart trying to engage an audience and draw them in. Number one is "What is the character thinking?" It's greater then posing, and timing, and clarity, and all the principles. If you know what they're thinking and can make it visible you'll draw in the audience. The cruder one person shorts that are out there in the world can be really amazing if they have this quality.
He pulled up Anthony Scott (animation supervisor) to answer the question.
Some of the most challenging shots are closeups with subtle expression changes. That's where you especially have to get the thoughts to come through. Also Each of the characters have to move in their own way. A cat moves so differently then a dog does.
What draws you to a script?
A touch of humor, a touch of the macabre. A story that can be appealing to kids. "Classic fairy tales in a modern setting."
What would Coraline have been like liveaction?
Animation brings a fairytale element to a story. Stop motion is ageless, it feels like it comes from an earlier time. It will always be there, there's always going to be some guy off somewhere making GIJoes or Barbie or tinfoil or clay move. So in live action Coraline would have been colder, and the scary scenes would have been scarier.
I had a great experience in Oregon but I know I'll come back to the bay area. Maybe get a warehouse somewhere.
Coraline was set in America because I was more comfortable with the dialect. And set in Portland because I wanted to keep the Spink and Forcible British and the Ashland Shakespeare festival was the best excuse I could for what they would be doing in the states. It was coincidental I wound up there also thanks to Laika.
What were the challenges involved in shooting in 3D?
3D is nice in that it captures the strength of stop motion. Stop Motion can't do some of the stuff that CG or 2D does, but 3D can really make use of the fact that stop motion is actual real stuff in the real world. The hardest thing with 3D was not overdoing it. If everything is always loud or always saturated color then it just overwhelms and stops meaning anything.
Advice you would give yourself as a student?
Be Bold! School is your shot to be yourself. It's fine if you want to study under someone's style with the thought of getting a job afterwards. But your student film will be the easiest time in your life to make the film you want to make. What do you have to say? Don't worry about the technical side, it's got to be about story and character. Be bold, it's your chance to make your mark.
What do you think of the animation world right now?
There's always talk of a golden age or something. The golden age is really right now, because it's the age we're in. It's too bad that we're stuck with the idea of a feature film that has to be 70-100 minutes. I'm still looking for how people can make a living doing short stuff. We need to train the audience that you can't just see everything for free, you have to pay a quarter or something. Steve Jobs is selling Itunes .99 for a short film and people are okay with it, so it's starting. Someone's gotta find a way to make shorts sustainable for people to make. Like the Tesla, someone made the electric car sexy.
(I asked)What have you learned as a director between your experience from NBC to Coraline?
I learned how to be a better storyteller. I've always been a tough ass director. I push really hard and ask a lot and almost every time the animator's deliver it. And the animator's who are brilliant I stay out of their way. By Coraline I had learned more what I liked. I wanted it all hand made. "Let's go back to what felt best."
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
David Anthony Gibson - Meatballs
Not that it's news, but I keep thinking about this post by David Anthony Gibson talking about the shots he animated for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. And that's the rule, if I go looking for it more then once or keep thinking about it, slap it up on my blog so I can track it down at some later date, if I need to.
"we always tried to have quick transitions that had really long settles. One way I remember our animation director always saying it was: do your move and get 97% of the way to your final pose and then feather out that last 3% of the move over 10-15 frames."
*makes me think of that SplineDr.'s post about people needing to know more then just animating
Oh, he has a new post
"we always tried to have quick transitions that had really long settles. One way I remember our animation director always saying it was: do your move and get 97% of the way to your final pose and then feather out that last 3% of the move over 10-15 frames."
*makes me think of that SplineDr.'s post about people needing to know more then just animating
Oh, he has a new post
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Lost creative screenwriting panel
So I've never actually seen Lost (no TV, no time), but I know it's a big phenomenon out there. Ran across these notes by artistChris Oatley he took at a Lost panel at the creative screenwriting expo. Cherry picked ideas from his notes (definitely go read his notes for more thorough explanation and context) notes 1 2 3 4 5:
make the exposition as emotional as possible. Lost has become such a huge hit because it's very character driven. So when they need to explain some sci fi thing, they embed it within some issue that is very emotionally strong to a character. Like explaining how someone has to swim through an underwater station and flip a switch was tedious until they made it about Charlie being terrified of swimming and drowning.
The writers write the character's as surrogates of the audience. Sawyer is always ‘in on the joke’ with the audience. He knows when weird stuff is happening on the island and he points it out. He says what the audience is thinking and they can relate to him for that reason. Hurley asks the questions that the audience is asking.
They talked about nonlinear story telling inherently having stronger questions as to what's going on in the audiences minds, which compels them to keep watching. Mentioned the scene at the end of Pulp Fiction where Vincent walks into an apartment complex, and that it had resonance because the audience had already seen Vincent get bloodily shot to death there out of order earlier in the film. So the Lost writers with their flashbacks are always thinking of what is the mystery of this episode, and when is the time to reveal the answer. The revelation time is when it will have the greatest emotional impact.
Damon and Carlton have a self-imposed rule for writing the show where they never introduce an element of the story’s mythology without having worked out where it came from and where it is going within the story.
At the end of each season, the LOST writing staff has an intensive, three-week ritual called ‘Mini-Camp.’ They begin by deciding what that will take place in the next season finale. The finale then becomes the goal that they work toward in the planning of each episode within the season.
1st question of minicamp: what do we owe the audience, what are they expecting for the upcoming season.
5 days to break a story. 1st day all brainstorming. 2nd day deciding specific scenes to see. 3rd breaking story outlines on whiteboard. An episode is 5 acts and a teaser. Teaser is opening hook before Logo. 3 or 4 scenes per act. Write entire episode as 1 line per scene. Figure out what the act-out for each act is (mini cliffhanger to get hold interest through a commercial break.)
“To write a great love story, you have to give your characters a great obstacle to overcome...” show WHY they are in love.
make the exposition as emotional as possible. Lost has become such a huge hit because it's very character driven. So when they need to explain some sci fi thing, they embed it within some issue that is very emotionally strong to a character. Like explaining how someone has to swim through an underwater station and flip a switch was tedious until they made it about Charlie being terrified of swimming and drowning.
The writers write the character's as surrogates of the audience. Sawyer is always ‘in on the joke’ with the audience. He knows when weird stuff is happening on the island and he points it out. He says what the audience is thinking and they can relate to him for that reason. Hurley asks the questions that the audience is asking.
They talked about nonlinear story telling inherently having stronger questions as to what's going on in the audiences minds, which compels them to keep watching. Mentioned the scene at the end of Pulp Fiction where Vincent walks into an apartment complex, and that it had resonance because the audience had already seen Vincent get bloodily shot to death there out of order earlier in the film. So the Lost writers with their flashbacks are always thinking of what is the mystery of this episode, and when is the time to reveal the answer. The revelation time is when it will have the greatest emotional impact.
Damon and Carlton have a self-imposed rule for writing the show where they never introduce an element of the story’s mythology without having worked out where it came from and where it is going within the story.
At the end of each season, the LOST writing staff has an intensive, three-week ritual called ‘Mini-Camp.’ They begin by deciding what that will take place in the next season finale. The finale then becomes the goal that they work toward in the planning of each episode within the season.
1st question of minicamp: what do we owe the audience, what are they expecting for the upcoming season.
5 days to break a story. 1st day all brainstorming. 2nd day deciding specific scenes to see. 3rd breaking story outlines on whiteboard. An episode is 5 acts and a teaser. Teaser is opening hook before Logo. 3 or 4 scenes per act. Write entire episode as 1 line per scene. Figure out what the act-out for each act is (mini cliffhanger to get hold interest through a commercial break.)
“To write a great love story, you have to give your characters a great obstacle to overcome...” show WHY they are in love.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Illustration Resources
In the spirit of never actually improving my own skills when I could instead search for the "perfect" tutorial or technique, ran across this amazing site with a billion links for illustration and comic artists Escape from Illustration Island created by Thomas James
one of the links was to Xia Taptara a concept artist for games, he has many many videos of pieces in process.
one of the links was to Xia Taptara a concept artist for games, he has many many videos of pieces in process.
Old School Indiana Jones
Don't remember where I found this. It's a mash up of old Hollywood era films, the kind that George and Steve grew up on, mashed together to make a trailer for Indiana Jones. In that transcript of George and Steve and Lawrence Kasden talking over what they want the Indiana movie to be they reference all these old movies and scenes, I think this Youtube artist took those specific scenes and remade the movie.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Miyazaki with 3D BG
Just got Starting Point 1979-1996 by Hayao Miyazaki which is basically just a collection of his thoughts and essays from that time period. Excited to read it and get into his head. A quick flip through looks like he unsurprisingly talks about his early work, like his stuff for Toei, so thought I'd finally get around to watching Future Boy Conan (I think the title has put me off this long.)
So I head over to the Ghibli Blog which I think is one of the best Ghibli blogs I've come across, because they have links to torrents of fun subs for stuff not released here in the states.
Ran across this cool post byDaniel Thomas MacInnes (it's his site): "Here is a collection of several television ads for House Foods. If my understanding of kanji holds, I believe Yoshiyuki Momose directed these, with Hayao Miyazaki as his direct supervisor. Which would probably mean he was hanging over Momose's shoulder the entire time, struggling to resist the urge to barge in and take over everything."
MacInnes says it's all CG BG with handdrawn characters. As Lango has spoken of multiple times, the CG stuff feels CG, just because of how it moves, doesn't quite gel with the 2D. But man it's beautiful.
So I head over to the Ghibli Blog which I think is one of the best Ghibli blogs I've come across, because they have links to torrents of fun subs for stuff not released here in the states.
Ran across this cool post byDaniel Thomas MacInnes (it's his site): "Here is a collection of several television ads for House Foods. If my understanding of kanji holds, I believe Yoshiyuki Momose directed these, with Hayao Miyazaki as his direct supervisor. Which would probably mean he was hanging over Momose's shoulder the entire time, struggling to resist the urge to barge in and take over everything."
MacInnes says it's all CG BG with handdrawn characters. As Lango has spoken of multiple times, the CG stuff feels CG, just because of how it moves, doesn't quite gel with the 2D. But man it's beautiful.
Post Medium Publishing
Keith Lango found this great article about the dying of current media distribution systems:
In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren't really selling it either. If the content was what they were selling, why has the price of books or music or movies always depended mostly on the format? Why didn't better content cost more?
Almost every form of publishing has been organized as if the medium was what they were selling, and the content was irrelevant. Book publishers, for example, set prices based on the cost of producing and distributing books. They treat the words printed in the book the same way a textile manufacturer treats the patterns printed on its fabrics.
If audiences were willing to pay more for better content, why wasn't anyone already selling it to them? There was no reason you couldn't have done that in the era of physical media.
Keith then points to this article here which summarizes to:
1. Redefine the market based on the benefits
2. Break the benefits down into scarce and infinite components.
3. Set the infinite components free, syndicate them, make them easy to get -- all to increase the value of the scarce components
4. Charge for the scarce components that are tied to infinite components
and his example is a music band, give their music away, to build their popularity, so they can charge more for concert tickets and commissioned songs because they are so popular.
All interesting ideas and possibilities. Whether their framework (schema) is true remains to be seen, but one thing is sure, holding onto the old ways isn't gonna work forever. The obvious question to me is how do you create your scarcity product that is actually strong enough. In other words what if you are only a mediocre rock band, you have a medium amount of fans, but you're not big enough to ever sell expensive tickets, because you not big enough to have enough fans in one area of the planet. It's such a long way to get to the point where you find out if you will or will not get paid.
Definitely some things worth thinking about.
In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren't really selling it either. If the content was what they were selling, why has the price of books or music or movies always depended mostly on the format? Why didn't better content cost more?
Almost every form of publishing has been organized as if the medium was what they were selling, and the content was irrelevant. Book publishers, for example, set prices based on the cost of producing and distributing books. They treat the words printed in the book the same way a textile manufacturer treats the patterns printed on its fabrics.
If audiences were willing to pay more for better content, why wasn't anyone already selling it to them? There was no reason you couldn't have done that in the era of physical media.
Keith then points to this article here which summarizes to:
1. Redefine the market based on the benefits
2. Break the benefits down into scarce and infinite components.
3. Set the infinite components free, syndicate them, make them easy to get -- all to increase the value of the scarce components
4. Charge for the scarce components that are tied to infinite components
and his example is a music band, give their music away, to build their popularity, so they can charge more for concert tickets and commissioned songs because they are so popular.
All interesting ideas and possibilities. Whether their framework (schema) is true remains to be seen, but one thing is sure, holding onto the old ways isn't gonna work forever. The obvious question to me is how do you create your scarcity product that is actually strong enough. In other words what if you are only a mediocre rock band, you have a medium amount of fans, but you're not big enough to ever sell expensive tickets, because you not big enough to have enough fans in one area of the planet. It's such a long way to get to the point where you find out if you will or will not get paid.
Definitely some things worth thinking about.
Texture & Rhythm
Victor Navone made some great posts about texture and rhythm recently. Thought I would collect them here so I don't have to dig around later. Texture and Rhythm and 3 Speeds
John K. has spoken often about learning to animate the old school way, based upon the musical beats, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
and an example of it in action:
John K. has spoken often about learning to animate the old school way, based upon the musical beats, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
and an example of it in action:
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