Progress report - 14/02/2012

Great work from everybody today guys, thanks again for all your contributions - hope your brains aren't too fried! Thanks to Jazzy for posting up the script so far - it's here for your reference so try and look over it during the next few days and make notes of anything you'd like to add, change or mention. Remember that we're aiming to get the first draft completed by Friday, which means we need to get an idea for a solid ending!

I'll be posting the rough thumbnails we used to develop the script a little later so you can see them as reference. I'll also post up the videos we looked at earlier!

Just to recap our progress today and remind you all of our homework:

Progress report 14/02/2012

• Talked about blocking and camera scripts. Managed to complete 2/3rds of the rough draft of the script - all it needs is an ending, then we can look at refining it slightly and starting to break it down into shots, ready for storyboarding. Andy made a post on myUCA earlier today advising that we should aim to have the animatics ready by the end of next week (24th February.) This is something we'll need to discuss ASAP - it's certainly possible, but it will means that we'll probably need to make compromises and come up with something solid for the script a little earlier than we'd anticipated. It's worth remembering that the animatic can change if it's not working, so it's probably best not to be too precious over the scripts and storyboards at this point.
• Discussed character design and established direction for each character. Some great designs from everybody and lots of great ideas came from it. To recap:
  
  Keep the scarecrow's eyes visible. Think about using his hat in his facial expressions - the angle of the brim can be used like eyebrows!
  
  Experiment with the idea of expressing the history of his conflict with the crow - stray feathers or twigs or leaves stuck in his clothes/hair?
  
  Jack Skellington would be a great reference for the body structure, with a big round head and stick-thin body. What other characters are tall and skinny? How do they move? Experiment with the idea of his arms - what are they made of? How can we emphasize his clumsiness? Perhaps his arms are twigs - one is shorter than the other, or he has leaves sticking out of his elbows.
  
  
  
  
  
  The crow design came together really nicely today. Sam made lots of great notes to work from - try keeping the rosy cheeks and slightly rounded beak. Have a look at Jewel from Rio for some ideas. The two characters are very similar, but we can tell which one's a girl. How have the designers made her different from Rio? What makes her look like a girl?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Alex to work on the production schedule. Ideally, we need to see this by the end of next week. A rough version will be created in time for our meeting on Thursday where we can discuss it further.

I think that's everything from today. Our next meeting will be on Thursday in G01 after the lecture. Let's all ask Liz if we can be placed in the same seminar group - preferably the earlier one - so that we have more time/brain cells to discuss everything. On Thursday we'll be talking briefly about the script so far, the possibility of animatics, the production schedule and also production roles - as well as anything else you guys would like to mention.

Keep a beady eye on this blog as I'll endeavour to post up a rough version of the production schedule tomorrow evening for you all to look at before we meet on Thursday. This will give you time to look it over and make note of anything you want to mention.

In the meantime, keep cracking! I'd also like to remind you all of the importance of the blog in this unit - and in general! I'd like to see you all uploading stuff at least once or twice a week if you can - it's a really valuable part of evaluating your ideas as well as getting feedback from everybody else even when we're not in a meeting or in class. Sorry to sound like a tutor! :) Let's see you guys uploading your character designs and notes so far! Then we can assemble them onto a separate page for easy access.

See you all Thursday!

Alex