chapter 4

keep it simple - developing your story

chapter summary
		idea – script – treatment
		planning your shots – basic film grammar/composition of shots
		the storyboard
		editing – animatics and story reels

It's normal for people to want to make something elaborate. I'd say – keep it really simple. Work within the resources you have and keep things as simple and intimate as possible – concentrate on giving a performance. Begin by giving an inanimate object some character. Even if it's only a 10 second piece that expresses a simple idea it's going to mean so much more than if you say: ‘I've got this amazing storyboard’ or ‘I started making this model but…’ – where's the film?

Jeff Newitt

idea – script – treatment

It's very easy to keep it simple when you have a really good idea. Sometimes the idea is great, but you can't think of the best way of expressing it. There are many different planning stages you can go through to give an idea a really good working over – then you will know after a while whether it's the business. If you are trying to sell your idea, you will need to go through quite a few drafts before presenting it to a commissioning editor. Always try to go with your instincts.

The first stage in developing your idea is to write a script and from then work out a treatment, where you need to start planning the look of the film, the design of the characters and just as importantly, the sound for your film. Animation is a very different process from live film-making, the main differences being that the sound is recorded first and that most of the editing is done in the planning stages. Each stage you go through helps you to visualize more precisely how it is going to work. I recommend that you do go through each of these planning stages with your idea. It can seem painfully slow – but it is always worth it.

Figure 4.1 Trainspotter directed by Jeff Newitt and Neville Astley. Courtesy Hellzapoppin’ Pictures Ltd

No amount of set dressing and character design will make up for a weak plot. Unless you are very happy with your script, it's not worth going to the trouble of building elaborate sets or the expense of model making. But if you have an idea really worth developing, then you need to plan properly.

the script

This is a cue for another book – scriptwriting is a craft in its own right. The main thing to remember is that you must entertain. And that doesn't mean you have to be funny. Entertaining people is making sure that they have really engaged with your idea – and they get some emotion from it. If your ideas are too obscure you will diminish your audience. This is not to say that you should create a film purely to please people, but if your idea has clarity and focus, it can be weird, but still entertaining. One of the clues that you're on to a good thing, apart from the obvious laughter or tears, is when people feel the hairs go up on the back of their necks. Then you know you've got them. However, you need to sustain that interest from beginning to end of your production, and that is where an experienced editor can help you.

There are many film styles your idea may fit into, or you may be creating something different. Film styles have always developed and changed and some of the early techniques for narrative film have been challenged by film-makers such as Buñuel, Hitchcock and Tarantino. Narrative film-making has also been influenced by documentaries and commercials and probably most dramatically recently, by the music video – which veers away from narrative style to a more sensory style.

find a good editor

Running your ideas past an editor at the planning stage (someone with experience of editing dramas and documentaries) will help you. Editors are skilled in knowing what works and what doesn't, filmically. You probably know something of this yourself if you go and see a lot of movies (as you should do if you are planning to make one). When you come out of the cinema, ask yourself if you liked the film: if you did, why did you like it? What made it good – what made it bad? Were you gripped from the first scene? Did your attention wander? It may have been a great idea but somehow the tension got lost and you started to think about work or food or sex… Editing can make or break a film. The editor is usually someone other than the director. If the director is editing their own film, it's easy for them to get carried away by their own ideas, and not always be aware of the impact they will have on an audience. So show your script to an editor, and then later, when you have a storyboard, have that properly edited too. They tend to specialize in different types of work: documentary, feature, commercial, so someone with experience of cutting short films would be the best bet.

Give your characters a history. This will help your animation later, and help them develop as real characters for your audience. Giving them a history also helps in the writing. Nick Park commented on writing Wallace and Gromit scripts:

Now that they exist, it's much easier to write them, not just for me but because we feel like we all know them, so we know what they would do and wouldn't do. If you put them into any situation, they sort of start to write their own story, because of how they would react to that situation. It takes a little finding out. But that's what I find is a good way to write the story, to ask ‘What do the characters want?’ at any part in the story. Once you know what they want, you know what they will do. Otherwise you have them doing things that are just off the wall, not really motivated.

It takes a little working out – you've got to have a good idea to start with. Just recently, I've been trying to think up new ideas for future Wallace and Gromit films – you can think of new characters that might come in, but these are more superficial, less important elements. What works is to think on the level of ‘What's their dilemma? What's their problem?’ rather than think what new character you could bring in. There's nothing worse than thinking ‘Oh – you could have an anteater in the next one. Hmm what story could an anteater get up to?’ That's difficult because that's starting with a blank piece of paper. It's better to think, ‘What problem do they have where an anteater could intervene? Or mess things up! What's their issue? How does the anteater make it more complex? How does an anteater invade that situation?’

Figure 4.2 Nick Park. © Aardman/W&G Ltd 1993

treatment

The treatment puts your script into a visual format, so that you are describing what is happening as each scene unfolds: ‘Fade up on a dingy rooftop, view of distant cityscape, grey, overcast sky and the sound of distant traffic. Three pigeons peck about and preen on the roof ledge. Sound of old voice croaking a song off camera. Old lady enters camera right, shuffling along, carrying washing basket…’ This is real mental exercise and helps to order your thoughts.

planning your shots – basic film grammar/composition of shots

visualize

When you have a script you need to really start putting your characters in context. In order to storyboard your film – you have to first make some visualizations: drawings of what the scenes will look like; the world your characters inhabit. Not only do you need to make your characters believable to an audience, you need to make their world credible. This is not as difficult as it sounds, it is simply a matter of planning each stage and thinking it through – always with your audience in mind.

plan

A bit more detailed – a plan drawing (as seen from above): where are they, where are they moving to? Plot out all the character moves on a plan. Then you can start marking camera angles. Imagine yourself as the camera. What are you seeing? What do you want to see/need to see? This can develop into a 3D cardboard mock-up, which will develop later into your set. The more you can work through in the planning stage, the better your story will become. You will sift out unnecessary information, and keep the ideas that make the story flow.

In order for your story to work, you need a sense of how your images will relate to each other to tell the story, and how the audience will see them on screen. This is called ‘film grammar’. When first starting out with a script it's easy to get absorbed in detail and not look at the bigger picture. Watching other films will start to give you a feel for film grammar. The action should flow from one shot to the next, if the action suddenly changes direction, without any visual clues, the audience can be momentarily disoriented, long enough to break their concentration.

Watching other people's work has inspired me along the way. Bob Godfrey's Roobarb and Custard was a big influence on me. That disregard for technical slickness. It's all about execution of ideas and humour and freshness and making that whole approach attractive in itself – the wobbly lines – and in fact he even used his own voice – a very handmade approach, getting close to the medium.

Nick Park

how to angle your shots and give them continuity

First of all it is important to establish what is going on for the viewer. The establishing shot is generally a wide shot giving a geographical location, such as a wide shot of a room or a landscape. The viewer then can be taken in to the action. Without the establishing shot, the viewer doesn't know where they are. The director knows, because it's in their head all the time. That is what you, as director, need to remember at all times: how is the audience seeing it?

A shot is made up of several elements. One of these is composition: this has developed into a convention through fine art, photography and film. The more you've been exposed to, the more you will recognize what makes ‘good’ composition. Essentially composing your frame is you showing the audience what you want to show them. If the location is a bedroom, it's up to you what part of that room we see – whether we look in from the hallway, giving a sense of depth, or secrecy (Figure 4.3a), or whether we are right there, in the room with the action (Figure 4.3b).

camera angle

It is conventional to change the camera angle when you change a shot, if you don't change the angle sufficiently it can look like a ‘jump’ cut.

A jump cut describes a cut that can confuse or surprise the viewer: it may not be enough of a difference from the previous shot, and therefore look like a bit of the film has dropped out. Typical camera practice states that you shouldn't have less than 30° between two consecutive shots of the same action. However, there are always exceptions to the rule. A situation might arise when you need to shock the viewer – as in a series of quick shots getting closer to the subject. An extreme camera angle means something more dramatic to the audience. A low angle makes the character seem bigger, possibly more threatening, whereas looking down on a character makes them seem smaller and less significant. So camera angles bring a lot to the story.

Figure 4.3 (a) Bedroom from hallway. (b) Bedroom interior. Illustration by Tony Guy

motivation

What is the motivation to cut to another angle, or to cut to another shot? A movement is a motivation to change, it doesn't need to be a large movement, but the viewer is drawn to the movement. If it is the character's eyes looking to the left, we want to see what they are looking at. So the next shot would logically be what they are looking at (see Figure 4.4).

Figure 4.4 (a) M/S Character looking forward. (b) M/S Character looks to left. (c) W/A shot; new character enters from left. Illustration by Tony Guy

continuity

It is important that one shot flows into the next without jumping, and this is helped by the action continuing in the same direction. For instance, if the characters are seen leaving left of stage in one shot and entering the next shot, it is important that they are walking in the same direction for continuity, so they would enter to the right of the stage.

You want to make sure the audience know, even if it is off screen, where the door is, or where the other people are in relationship to the character that's in shot.

crossing the line

This is one of the basic rules that even professionals get wrong, regularly. It is about knowing how characters relate to each other and how the viewer sees them, and the confusion of putting a 3D world onto a 2D screen. If you imagine a conventional set with two characters conversing, the line of the action goes through them, so that if you shoot one character from position 1 and the next from position 2, the other side of the line, the result will be confusing. However, if the camera were to move, or track round from position 1 to position 2 while filming, the viewer would understand the geography of the situation (see Figure 4.5).

reverse angle shots

When you need to see a shot from the reverse angle, e.g. a character is conversing with another, if you angle the shot over character A's shoulder, looking at character B, the reverse angle shot would be looking at character A talking from over character B's shoulder. This kind of shot has an impact on the set – and can mean you may want to make removable walls.

camera move in a shot: (zoom, pan, tilt, track)

This is something I want to bring in at this stage – one needs to think carefully about camera moves. Unless you have a large budget and can afford the equipment necessary for smooth movement, camera moves can be tricky to manage. At least get the camera onto some wheels (e.g. a roller skate with some form of track to keep the camera at the same distance from the subject). Most stories are better told when the camera is unobtrusive. There would need to be motivation for a camera move.

sound

One of the most important elements of a shot is the sound, whether it's actual dialogue or music or sound effects. The sound tells the story as much as the picture, and if something on the screen is creating a sound, then the audience should be able to hear it. You can hear things without seeing them, but you can't see a noise happening without hearing it. So if your character is pouring a cup of tea, we need to hear that tea being poured. Or if the character hears the phone ringing in another room, we do too, and if the next shot is a cut to the other room with the phone in, the phone will be louder in that shot.

Armed with this very basic knowledge, and your own experience as a filmgoer, you can make up a storyboard from your script.

Figure 4.5 (A) Plan of two people talking with camera positions 1 and 2 the same side of the line: (B) shot of character 1, (C) shot of character 2. (D) Plan of two people talking with camera positions 1 and 2 different sides of the line: (E) shot of character 1, (F) shot of character 2 (both looking the same way)

the storyboard

The storyboard is a series of static images, a visual interpretation of your script. Your choice of which images tell the story is the indication of the style of your film. Many beginners I've known are reluctant to plan shots first – they want to get on with animating. But this inevitably lengthens the whole process, which is long and slow enough. If you are storyboarding for yourself, it just needs to be a code you can understand. But generally more people get involved on a production, and you need to be able to explain what is happening. Storyboarding is the most important planning stage of film-making, and the need to communicate your ideas to anyone else involved in the process is paramount. As you realize each image, you need to be thinking about the composition of each shot, the camera angles, and the progression of one shot to the next.

Everyone involved in your film can get information from your storyboard. The set designer can see scale and size of the set, the cameraperson will begin to resource their kit (lenses, tracks, camera height) from the information on your storyboard. Obviously all the details will be discussed as well, but the storyboard is the focus for all these decisions.

Figure 4.6 Storyboard examples: children's series Bob the Builder. Courtesy HOT Animation. © 2003 HIT Entertainment PLC & Keith Chapman

If you are making a storyboard for a whole team of animators, every move, every reaction and every change of attitude should be storyboarded. Proper (not necessarily professional) storyboarding requires knowledge of camera moves and lenses, it requires an understanding of the budgetary limitations of the film and it requires an understanding of film grammar. The professional storyboard artist needs to pick up the nuance of each character. Unless you are doing professional boards, you don't need great drawing skills, although it helps if you have some idea of perspective. The most important thing is to get across the story.

Figure 4.7 Storyboard examples: Brisk Tea commercial Rocky. Courtesy Loose Moose Productions. © Brisk Tea/JWT

Storyboards and their accuracy become absolutely vital when work is going to different studios to be completed. The storyboards guarantee uniformity when animation is carried out by several studios, as sometimes happens on a big production, and especially with 2D animation.

visualization

If you are getting development funding, the funding organization will want an idea of the look of the film. Making visuals (a painting or drawing of a whole scene) to go with your script and character designs is important at this stage. Prepare a picture of each scene to convey the look of your film. The style of your characters and the style of your sets should be coherent.

editing – animatics and story reels

Once you have the whole storyboard done you can edit the storyboard itself, moving pictures around, adding or taking away scenes.

To work out your initial timings it helps to film your storyboard by scanning it into your computer, alternatively use a 2D line tester (this is a video camera on a rostrum, with a feed into your computer). Rough filming like this is called an animatic. This helps you to work out your film before you start spending money on sets, voice-overs and model making. In the animation application, hold the image for the timing you've calculated so far. Once you have the storyboard on screen, you can do your first real edit. With animation, unlike live film, the film is planned down to the smallest detail before you start a shot. An experienced editor brings a fresh eye to your production and can see what works and what doesn't. They will implement the principles we have discussed above, edit and make more detailed decisions about the film. This can save you a lot of time and money. It may be that some scenes are actually superfluous in the telling of the story – or maybe you've missed a vital shot that could explain the gag. This is what an editor looks for. An editor can help keep pace in your film, keep tension and rhythm. Be prepared for a lot of cutting and pasting.

If you are going to be using dialogue, this is the time to record a ‘scratch’ dialogue track. Rather than going to the expense of a professional voice-over and recording at this stage, record yourself or your friends. Depending on your computer, you can record sound directly into it, or if not, record onto a CD. Edit the images to your dialogue track, and if you can, bring in an editor again at this stage to help with the story. Now you are ready to start working out your timings and putting them onto a dope sheet.

If you are working for a client, an animatic becomes an even more important part of pretesting the animation, as for the first time they begin to see their idea as a moving image. You could use cut-outs for your figures and move them across a background.

From your storyboard and designs you have the basic idea of your set. Before building the set it's a good idea to make sure you know where all the action is going to take place and how it's going to work. The set designers/builders usually make a mock-up of the set in card just for this purpose – then the director and the cinematographer can work out the action, the shots and angles. The rough cut-out figures can be moved around this set until you are sure you have a working plan.

Nowadays directors are beginning to use CAD (computer-aided design) for pre-visualization, so that you can see the how the action is going to work in 3D.

Once you are happy with the script and treatment, and the storyboard just needs tweaking, your characters can be made from model sheets, which we will discuss in chapter 5, and a set can be built (see chapter 7).