Man Vs Machine - Story Workshop Aftermath & Research

Man Vs Machine

"His Knees Steadied, His Heart Beat Fiercely And He Began To Run Again"

My group Stride Animation has constructed a story from the aftermath of the workshop. The experience was enlightening and shed some light on elements we can use for a proposal for animation. The ending sentence is sourced from Blair Witch Project and that film is littered with abstract shots, close ups and values highly sound design to increase tension. So the first step to strengthening our story is looking at what makes a high speed chase so intense and the shots we can create to illustrate that. Below is the summary of the story - The overall jist

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- We hear smashing glass and hot-wiring as a man breaks into a car. He seems quite pleased with himself speeding down the street and enjoying himself. It soon comes apparent to the audience he is a criminal on the run from the law, he notices a warrant for his arrest and paranoia sets in. Street lights turn into flashing blue lights and the sounds around him are amplified, he thinks someone is shooting at the car when in fact its a car backfiring. The criminal speeds up even faster, tension builds as he thinks the threat of apprehension gets closer. He goes through a tunnel where he focuses and calms down, realises he's being paranoid. As he leaves the tunnel speeding still he is seen speeding by a real police car and a crash happens fades to black.

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Bullit (1969)

1968 Ford Mustang 390 GT 2+2 Fastback.

Quantum Of Solace (2008)

Aston Martin DBS V12

Gone In 60 Seconds (2000)

Ford GT500 Shelby Cobra

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Reviewing some iconic car chases there are actual set camera placements that compliment different actions for the driver. Placing the camera about the car could give us a sense of what kind of shots we can aim to produce. But before that we need to choose a Time and Place for this animation to take place. Somewhere that compliments whats going on in the 90 seconds and doesn't add any un-needed designs to our animation.

We ultimately aim for the point of the animation to be clear to the audience so perhaps simplistic and stylised is really the way to go.

The Journey

Character: Ideas from Justin's Tutorial

Yesterday I had my tutorial with Justin in regards to what my three given cards could formulate in terms of environment, characters and mechanisms to work the game. I have decided to create the game as a side scrolling action-adventure plat-former. This can be handheld or even taken to console. Played online.

Fabric

We discussed that the fabric could be the character of the game, the fabric could help represent the different factions that will be pitted against each other. Perhaps there can be alternate clothing for different races that almost define the characters. I need to make it obvious that the three cards I've been given have been chosen for the three areas, they need to speak aloud to themselves.

Result: The fabric will represent the characters that will be included in the game, the attires can indicate the level of player that is playing the game. A silent progression system so it could be;

Green - Yellow - Orange - Red - Purple - Blue

As the colours slide from left to right so could the level of detail into the characters fabrics. Green being ragged and falling apart and Blue being the most desired and aesthetically pleasing. This in turn would help entice players to level up from the clothing and onto higher levels. Perhaps the fabric are pickups for completing tasks? 

 

Vehicles

 

 

The vehicles could be the mechanism that drives the game, gets the characters from A-B. Perhaps a variety if possible and this could also compliment the environment if synced correctly. What if the vehicles were dependent on certain terrains? This would open up multiple levels that could be accessed by the player; Sea, Land, Sky, Space, Underwater? It could be a progressive feature also because if we were to look at Sonic the Hedgehog or Super Mario, they usually start in a green colourful world and the evil is represented in much darker colours and found to be darker toward the end levels. Perhaps Space could be that darkness to conquer in the final battle.


Result: The vehicles will be the mechanism that will pit the player against the environment. The vehicles will reflect the terrain perfectly, with power-ups being accessed by a leveling tree to upgrade your vehicles. You can customize the look of the vehicle, adding extra weaponry or outfitting it with armor that would be gained from completing tasks. 


Mystery

Mystery could formulate the environment. When you are playing a faced paced arcade plat-former you can never know what is coming next, so perhaps the game design should be a side scrolling plat-former. Also creating a surrealism in these levels could emphasis the fact this game looks to push the expectations of players aside. Perhaps an indicator in the environment to show that a new enemy is nearby? Or maybe no indication what the player must do, this would lead to the player solving the puzzle to 'Open the door with the golden key'.

Result: The mystery will make the game a sides scrolling action adventure game, you wont know what is ahead of you until you move to that position and reveal the camera there. This would help unveil enemies that would upset the character in there quest and perhaps detain them. The mystery could highly influence the story also, perhaps something is amiss in this world and coins must be obtained to power something to defend an area from attack?

Next is to reflect from these thoughts, tweak them and of course receive feedback before producing a story that will drive all these aspects together.

Fantastic Voyage - Original Storyboard

I have constructed a thought through storyboard that looks to explore this 'Free' space in a conceptual way. The cameras that will be used will be quite dynamic and of course there maybe in-betweens here and there to strengthen it. The scanner has fed off some of the boldness of my lines in this work but have no fear my next one shall be more realized and most probably produced in photoshop :)

Fantastic Voyage - Chosen Bio-scientific Scenario

Fantastic Voyage - Chosen Scenario

From Script to Screen - Clown Costume Variations

Some of the variations i covered for my clowns attire for my script to screen project. The slouching position is how I want him to appear, also looking through his eyebrows up with an evil smile could be interesting.

From Script to Screen - Caroline Costume Concepts

Not entirely sure which design to give Caroline the main character of my story. She is an insurance claims adjuster in her mid thirties and I cannot choose. Please advise if you can :)

From Script to Screen - Script idea (untitled)

From Script to Screen- 1st Draft Script

From Script to Screen : Forming a story (PostOGR)

After the feedback I received from my OGR I have taken into consideration my tutor's advice and I believe that my environment has indeed fallen away from the 'Joke shop' theme. The scare at the end I think will help round off the experience but I think this jokeshop should have once resided in a space, that is now occupied by living space or storage of some kind.

My tutor advised to introduce a character into a property situated in a terrace of houses and from their drop in strange happenings like novelty items appearing or laughter in the dead of night. Then reveal through the use of a old cine-cinema 8mm camera the truth of the matter. I wish to incorporate these ideas and my own to establish a new story.

So I brainstormed a few ideas of my own and they are as follows..

1. A theater owner opens a new highly anticipated film that is based on a mad clown that is supposedly possessed by a demon. He puts it to play and sits in the auditorium. We are put into one of the scenes of the film where we see the clown scare a woman to death in a joke shop enclosed nightmare and we cut back to the theater with the clown seated behind the owner.
2. An estate agent is tasked with shifting an old derelict property and she takes photos of the exterior and notices a figure in the downstairs window of one of the photos taken. She enters the property and examines the room for the intruder and she is welcomed by the burned out joke shop ruin and she hears laughter from upstairs. She goes up the stairs and the figure follows her silently up the stairs, tele-porting around the property and she is trapped by the reflection of her seeing the ghost in a mirror knowing her haunter is right behind her.
3. A father and wife are on a sofa mourning the loss of their child and they view old pictures through a camera output to TV and they cry over the joy of seeing their child once more. His 5th birthday party at a joke emporium was the last birthday he would have. Slowly a figure appears in an image and seems to be stalking their child, almost ghost like until finally the figure is right behind the child. The parents look at each other in shock and we the audience see the ghosts of the Clown and son standing behind the sofa.

These kind of ideas are the general direction I want to take my idea. 

Feedback welcome! What do you prefer? What should be added or taken away :)

Soundscape : Original Fx

Soundscape Storyboard

Soundscape 'Circus' idea notes

Fergie and I produced some notes for my own consideration for planning ahead for my soundscape project, he helped me understand some of the key components needed to produce successful sound design;

• Timbre- the character or the quality of a musical sound or voice as distinct from its pitch and intensity.
• Volume- the amount of space that a object occupies or that is enclosed within a container. 
• Foley-sound effects after shooting a scene, i.e. the raw character sounds

Like for like Storyboard : Man Of Steel

From Script to Screen OGR

From Script to Screen OGR

From Script to Screen : *New Story

Polaroid camera flashes as another victim meets their demise in a string of related murders all involving entertainers. A circus clown battered to death with his skull caved in and it would be unrecognizable it wasn't for his height. The detective pins it to the wall and marks off an X on his profile list, the only lead he has is a picture taken of all the victims at the fairground. Someone is killing them off but who? The belongings were taken from the evidence locker and littered the crime lab. Comical items, gag toys it's literally a joke. Cold leads and the tension has grown high in the department but then it hits. The murder weapon. Where is it? The detective looks at the board and focuses on the one thing he hadn't accounted for. The mallet held relaxed above a characters shoulders. Rushes out of the scene grabbing his keys.

Door hinges go flying as the detective and his police detail crash through the door to reveal the culprit passed out from alcohol with the bloody mallet placed at his feet leaning against his chair. Hand cuffs come from the detectives pocket.

Detective returns to the crime lab and begins taking down the images and pauses on the unfolded image.. His face fills with terror as he notices he overlooked one thing, the smallest clown looking up menacingly at the mallet. The light flickers as the clown appears behind him and a cut to complete black.   

From Script to Screen : Forming a story - Refinement

An aspiring photographer is working silently in her basement that has been converted into a darkroom. Her mother calls and reveals that she has won an invitation to the Pranksters mansion to attend his evening event held in the south garden. Checking the time and noticing she maybe late, she very briefly prepares herself and takes her old antique camera and races out the door and into the night. Walking up the path the light grows more intense over the hill until finally a full view of the mansion is visible and clasping her invite in one hand and camera in the other, skips toward the exterior gate. She shows the bouncers her invitation but she is denied entrance because she isn't wearing a mask. Feeling sorry the bouncer gives the girl his mask and permits her to enter the mansion grounds. 

Here is a world of amusement and bewilderment, massive clown faces, balloons, surreal structures and shapes all looking to distort the minds of those who visit. Utilizing the garden maze, the shots veer left and right highlighting the designs of the amusements and massive gags. abstracts of the designs collaging the scene and creating chaos. The girl taking snaps, documenting the event for her blog, Close up shots of the guests he has invited, all wearing masks and clown-like attired suits. The pace quickens between all of these components before presenting us with the Prankster and his two female harlequins unveiling themselves on the upper balcony to the paparazzi with a zoom pan highlighting the Prankster's importance and profile with the camera flashes going crazy. The girl has fought to the front of the crowd and takes a final shot and as the flash goes off our story comes to an end cutting to black.  

From Script to Screen - Forming a story #1

Incorporating my three words; Clown, Joke-Shop and Camera I came up with the idea that the audience could be welcomed to the world of the "Prankster's Funhouse".

Here is a world of amusement and bewilderment, massive clown faces, ballons, surreal structures and shapes all looking to distort the minds of those who visit. It Could be a straight path leading upto a gigantic mansion where the Prankster is throwing a night-time Garden party. The shots veer left and right highlighting the designs of the amusements and massive gags. The camera could be constantly moving forward panning but with abstracts of the designs collaging the scene and creating chaos. Close ups of the guests he has invited, all wearing masks and clown-like attired suits.. Like a Masquerade party. then the pace could quicken between all of these components before presenting us with the Prankster and his two female harlequins unvieling themselves to the papparazi with a zoom pan highlighting the Prankster's importance and profile with the camera flashes going crazy.

I like the idea and I want to reform it with some helpful guidance from some feedback so any is welcome :p What works and what doesnt?



Above are some images that may help you understand the general feel for this idea :)