From Script to Screen Animatic (No Sound)

This is the early version of my animatic with no sound added yet.

From Script to Screen Storyboard

From Script to Screen: OGR 2 (First Draft)

Jingle Blues From Script to Screen OGR 2 First Draft (new) by Zoe Thornton on Scribd

This is my first iteration of this OGR. I'll be posting a more complete version including character designs for my second character, prop designs and influence map and my completed storyboard, as soon as possible.

Storytelling & Commission: Script Version 2

Jingle Blues V2 by Zoe Thornton on Scribd

This slightly revised version of my script aims to fine tune and sharpen the pace and wit I want to convey in the final piece. I decided to give the character of Santa a slightly more foreboding presence, to bring about tension if the Elf doesn't get the doors open and the whole facility working in time.

Storytelling & Commission: Script Draft

Jingle Blues First Draft by Zoe Thornton on Scribd

Influence maps: Environment and Character

@Phil: Further ideas for plot

Looking through your feedback for my story and how it could go, I've had sort of branching ideas. The main point of what I wanted for the story is not to paint any character as antagonistic and for the audience to pick up on sympathies for the main character, being the Elf, stuck in job he dislikes and nobody really listening to him. However, I do also see great opportunities a character vs. character set-up, since the main theme of this story could be called frustration. I think I get a clear picture in my head of Santa arriving and the Elf wants to follow procedure to let him in with his key card, but Santa just goes about ignoring the order of how things are done, and though Santa is his boss, it gets under the Elf's skin, and he has to follow around Santa fixing all the mess he makes. Your suggestion of the Pixar short 'Presto' can clearly influence this sort of battle of wills type story outline. It's slightly more chaotic and based on slapstick then my original idea.

In keeping with my original story idea, which is based around the frustration of tedious sort of actions, I think I could simplify it, and base story gags around expressions. I wanted it to be a commentary on never being able to get anything fixed for you in an office, so it could be the Elf trying to get the doors to the Space Station to open before Santa arrives but he key card has been disabled. It can be set up simply so he's talking on the station tannoy to get it fixed but he's being directed back and forth to different departments and has to rush to fill out order forms to get his password for the system changed and get a new key card. I think a gag I could set up instead is that they keep playing 'Jingle Bells' as the hold music and the Elf then figures out instead of waiting the be granted access, he can just hold up the speaker and the doors open as Santa walks in, efficiently doing his business, allowing it to end on a happy note.

In terms of set up, it reminds me of this scene from Zootropolis and speaks to me in it's accurate depiction of desperation to get things done on time and waiting for people to do their job.



Let me know what you think of both of these ideas. I'm getting good ideas for storyboarding set-ups for both of them and would like to see what you think.

Storyboarding Exercise: From script to storyboard (The Hogfather, 2005)

As a follow up to our work adapting a film to script, this is now taking the script and turning it back into a storyboard.

Storytelling and Commission OGR presentation

Story Telling & Commission OGR by Zoe Thornton on Scribd

Script writing exercise

The Hogfather Script by Zoe Thornton on Scribd

This short exercise is just to take a scene from a film and break it down back into a script. I chose this scene from Hogfather as it comprised of some back and forth dialogue from two different locations, that converge and then continues with the scene.

@Phil: Initial story idea

•  A key can really be anything, as long as it unlocks something, and given context for where the key is and the theme of the story. So in design it could have sci-fi elements, or a Christmas theme element to it. 
• I thought of Christmas toys that have mechanisms to them, and settled on a snow globe, so maybe one with a special feature.
•  I turned it around, so now the Snow globe is the thing being unlocked, because it is a room in the Space Station. The station could be a present outpost and lookout for Santa while he's on delivery, if he forgets to pack certain presents or if he forgets to visit a country. 
• The plot could be centered around an Elf who is in charge of the remote station in space. He could be unpopular with the other Elves because he's more of a career Elf and more focused on efficiency then embracing the Christmas cheer. 
• So the story idea is Santa coming to visit the Space Station while on his rounds and gets stuck in the visiting drop-off area themed around a snow globe. The main conflict of the story could be around the Elf trying to unlock the door to the snow globe, which I see is designed deliberately and annoyingly to unlock to someone in the Christmas spirit. I sort of see him having access to a key card or something that would normally unlock the door, but it's been deliberately disabled by someone who is trying to force him to be cheerful, as there is another way to open the door, by singing 'Jingle Bells' or another irritatingly cheerful song, which would be the true 'Key'. I see the resolution of the story being the Elf having to swallow his pride to save Santa, and in doing so is rewarded by being taken seriously in his objections to everything designed by Elves to have a Christmas theme because it can cause bizarre safety risks.    

Soundscape Briefing and Mindmapping

These are the images I have to find a way to express in sound. To me, they all have a distinct element in common that I also have observed in nature, the most notable to me being microorganisms and cells. 

I tried to quickly come up with word associations to what I could see in each picture. Unlike last year, which seemed to have a water/electrical theme you may typically find indoors, this time I associated things that I would have to go searching for outdoors. It seems a good start and an idea of where to start looking for sounds to collect. 

From Script to Screen: Storytelling and Commission Project Ideas

For the project brief, I must create a story and all pre-production based around these three words I pulled out of a different bag at random.

Santa's little helper is my character, though I'm not limited in creating just one character for the story, but this is the one I have to base the plot of the story on. Because of it's many connotations, Santa's little helper could be of any design, though the most prevalent creature connected to the term is the Christmas Elf, which helps make Santa toys for Christmas. There could be many helpers of any description helping Santa, but what shapes a character is their environment.

A Space Station is my environment, which opens up new possibilities for characters and design. Perhaps the station is in command of Santa, to monitor Earth and it's population and to ship out presents more efficiently. It could be that Santa needs to deliver presents to the Space Station. Would the stationed be Christmas themed. Or are elves actually aliens?

And finally the prop, being a key. Because now I have my two other crucial parts to the story, a theme presents itself to me. A key can be anything that unlocks something, and what's more, it could be sci-fi/ Christmas themed.

Now I have my three elements, and I've got loads of possibilities and ideas to start planning plot elements on. My first step should be to come up with a list of everything that comes to me in terms of what the character, environment and prop could be like and how they relate to become story ideas.  

Danger: Possess with Caution - Incomplete Animatic

This is still something I am working on

Art Of: Danger - Possess with Caution

From Script Art Of

From Script to Screen: Work on the Animatic

Working on my Animatic, this is shot is what I've been working on so far. It is shot 7 in my storyboard sequence, and though I haven't finished the rest of it yet, I wanted feedback for this shot as it was one Simon and I talked about, using transitions to convey movement in the scene.

From Script to Screen: Concept Art Interior + Environment

Haunted House exterior environment

The house was influenced and comprised of different elements of the Amityville Horror house and the main houses from 'Psycho' and 'Fight Club', because of their connection to Gothic design, though I didn't want it to be too over the top. I was struggling with making it look abandoned, as I felt that it wouldn't make sense in the narrative if a Burglar broke into obviously broken and abandoned house, so I tried to go for the look of a house abandoned and forgotten on the edge of suburbia for around 6 months. The grass has over-grown a little and creeping vines have started to grow. 

House interior hallway (colour pass)

House interior hallway

This concept is taken from shot 7 of my storyboard for a full look at the hallway. I used references to 'The Shining' and 'Psycho' to add the tone of it being a recognisable to the audience that this is a horror house. The colour of red and blue was what I picked up on in 'Black Narcissus', being a psychedelic clash. What I thought of as two opposing forces meet in the house, as the cold burglar representing blue and the temperamental ghost who I saw in design as almost like a frozen sparkler being the red opposition.

From Script to Screen Online Green Light Review II

From Script to Screen OGR

From Script to Screen: Online Greenlight Review

Story Telling & Commission Ogr