October 20, 2015  - This Week's Highlights 

LECTURE & WORKSHOP

This week at the Wednesday Lecture we have Maury Whyte on hand to give us an introduction to his Production Worksheet for Excel, which he has created to assist you in your own Production Planning. The Production Plan is part of a coming Milestone which requires an Asset Estimate, a Shot Breakdown and a Production Schedule, all of which Maury's software can help you with.

Also visiting will be Basil Joseph of Sheridan Health Services, giving us an overview of their offerings, as some of you have requested.

This is also the week for the Guest Leica Reel critique, which takes place in your Mentor meeting. Make sure to bring the latest and most presentable version of your reel.

Last but not least, the Wednesday workshop should appeal to those of you doing a 3D project. Our own Florian Jacot will give an introduction to the ZBrush Sculpting software in lab A151 at 2 pm.  

LEICA REEL SCREENING  

The class Leica Reel screening will take place on Wednesday November 4, in our usual place (J102) but beginning at 10 AM - note the early start time!

The hand in deadline for this screening is on Monday morning, November 2, at 8 am. Note that Mario will provide a SEPARATE SCREENING FOLDER for this purpose. Do not hand in your screening version to the Milestone 4 folder!

UPCOMING MILESTONE - ACTION ANALYSIS; DESIGN PACKAGE

Milestone Five will come due in Week 8, when we return from the reading week break. This Milestone is different for 2D projects than for 3D and Stop Motion projects. For the former, a pair of test animations is required - a Performance test and an Action Analysis. The password is "Sheridan"

ActionAnalysisExamples from Bruno Degazio on Vimeo.

For 3D and Stop Motion projects, Milestone 5 requires and Design Package (sometime called a "workbook" or "funpack".) Contents should include, but are not limited to: 


• color script


• location design sketches and color studies


• final character designs including costume & textures (3D)
 • lighting studies 


• prop designs

Consult your Mentor for more details on what to include in this Milestone. 

Guerrilla Design with Peter Bielicki; Leica Reels due this week; What do I do with my Scratch Track?

GUERRILLA DESIGN

This week we have two events to address the design phase of the animation pre-production process. Our guest is Peter Bielicki, whose credits include Pocahontas (1995) Mulan (1998), The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). Peter will speak at the 11 am Lecture on "Guerrilla Design  - Workbook Development for Short Animated Films." Peter currently operates Show Communications in Kingston, which specializes in multi-media exhibit design, art direction and direction for live action, and animated educational films.

Peter will also be on hand to review and discuss your design work at the 2 pm Workshop,  "Animation Design & Workbook Critique", taking place as usual in A151.

Leica Reels due this week

This is also a big week in your production timeline because your Leica Reels are due. Discuss with your mentor the exact due date and requirements.

Looking ahead - next week your Mentor will bring a guest to view the Leica-reels with you and offer constructive criticisms and story suggestions. It's an opportunity for a fresh point-of-view and maybe some new ideas to help solve problems in the story development and visual presentation.


Creative design of the scratch track

Your soundtrack is an extremely important part of your film. A good soundtrack will make your film better, and a bad one can break it completely. The Leica reel is the right time to begin the sound development process using the creative design of the scratch track as your focus.

By creative design I mean the choices you make regarding where and what style of music to use; which story points to highlight with sound effects; what the characters or narrator sound like, etc. You're the only person who can really make these decisions at this stage. While you can get some assistance with the more technical portions of the soundtrack production (like composing the music and mixing), the creative design should be entirely yours.

The creative design is why it's so important for you to have a scratch track ready even for  the earliest stages of the Leica reel. It becomes an essential tool to communicate the intention of the film both to your audience and (later in the production process) to your composer.

A quick reminder - your scratch track must include some representation for each of the following:

1. DIALOGUE
2. MUSIC
3. SOUND EFFECTS

I say representation because none of these has to be completely fleshed out at this early stage - that will happen later. But it does need to have the key voices, sound effects and music in place for this reel and for the upcoming presentation and screening.

Portfolio and Story Master Class with Dean Deblois

You are invited to a Master Class with animation writer and director (and Sheridan graduate) Dean Deblois (Lilo & Stitch, How To Train Your Dragon) on Tuesday October 13, at 12 noon. The class will take place in meeting room A360 -  seating is limited and is on a first-come first-served basis.

Since time with Dean is also limited, a small number of 4th Year students were selected by their Mentors based on work shown in the weekly meetings.  Students will show work from their Design & Animation portfolio, and can also show storyboards or Leica reel from their 4th Year Senior Project film.

In order to give some access to Dean for all interested 4th Year students,  the portfolio meetings with Dean will take place in a "Master Class" format where the audience can listen in to the discussion.

The students showing work are:

Alice Lemma
Justin Chan
Izabella Abreu
Dong Chang
Omar Elhindi
Nick Nason

The class will last one hour.  Attend only if you are sure you want to spend the full hour- please refrain from entering and leaving while the class is underway.

Scott Caple's Illustrations from last week's Storyboard Workshop

Some of of you requested these, so Scott Caple has kindly sent me his illustrations and diagrams from last week's story board workshop with permission top post them to this blog. Thanks Scott!

Professional Actress for Narration and Character Dialog

Here is an offer of help for your film's voice requirements from actress Julie Sheppard.  She's got a great range of character voices.  Listen to her narration and animation demo reels from the page link below and send her an email if you think her voice is right for your film.

You can reach her at: jshepgreen@hotmail.com

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...here is the link to my animation demo reel (where I’m the far-sighted old lady, the feisty pirate, the cheeky southern belle, the scared little girl, the bone-lovin’ doggy, the haughty sci-fi queen, and the helpful “office boy” robot):

http://juliesheppard.workbooklive.com/Wbl.mvc/Page/Media
 
...I hope to hear from you soon.

Best,

Julie C. Sheppard
ACTRA/CAEA
Agent: Colin McMurray & Assoc.
Office: 416-899-8898
http://www.colinmcmurrayinc.com/

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Milestone 3 Due this week - Finished Storyboards and Script

Milestone Due:
Milestone 3- Finished Boards and Script

Here are links to several excellent examples of finished storyboards and scripts appropriate for this week's Milestone,  courtesy of Mentor Nancy Beiman.  

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THE STORYBOARD 

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I'm sure that none of you need to be reminded of the importance of the storyboard in the creation of an animated film. But I do want to remind you that this Milestone is your only chance to create your FINAL storyboards. This fact implies two important features of your storyboard at this stage: 

1) The NARRATIVE is completely worked out - e.g. exposition, conflict, crisis and resolution are all presented visually.

2) The PANELS are highly readable. They will become the basis of the LEICA REEL.

Here is a storyboard page from Yacheng Guo's Kongo:

Note the following about this storyboard sample: 

a) The project is identified by student name and working title. 

b) The version is clearly identified as "FINAL" boards. Page numbers are provided. 

c) Panels are drawn using the provided template, in 16:9 aspect ratio. 

d) All drawings are highly readable and suitable for conversion to Leica reel.

e) Panels are identified with Scene and Panel numbers.  

f) There is a verbal description for every panel, even when there is no dialog.  Editing choices (e.g. cut or dissolve, camera moves) are also indicated when relevant.

g) Although not evident in a single page, these panels constitute a portion of a FULLY WORKED OUT NARRATIVE.

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THE SCRIPT 

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 The script is an important stage because it allows your narrative imagination to become concrete in a form that is very easy to edit and modify.  When done well, as in this example, it will become an important reference throughout your production. 

Here is a sample page from the script portion of the assignment. This example comes from Lisa Lanese's Get Hot:

Some points to note: 

a) The page uses standard script formatting, e.g. Scene Heading left justified in capitals,  dialog centred and preceded by character name in caps, etc.  

b) The script is dated. Working title and author are clearly stated.

c) Although dialog is a small component of this script, there is a full page of description of many other important cinematic details.

d) Scene Locations are succinctly but unambiguously described, e.g. EXT. OUTSIDE A VAUDEVILLE THEATRE, 1925, NIGHT

e) Many cinematic devices are noted appropriately, e.g.  "FADE IN, Truck toward theatre," ; "SLIGHT PAN to the right." 

f) Sound effects and music are noted when relevant to the cinematic presentation. 

g) Much of the character activity which  will eventually be animated is noted verbally, e.g. "Charlie enters from screen right nervously holding a martini glass."

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LINK TO MORE EXAMPLES 

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The complete scripts and storyboards for these projects and others are available for download at:  
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x7cpuuha01fqcbg/AABtFJMCLUD-BWxRRBL55fdda?dl=0