How would it all play out?

Inspired By Great Big Story

Louise's Note:

When it came to how the narrative would play out, I wanted to do a sort of documentary-style animated short. The story would depend on the narration rather than the visuals.

As the train conductor would talk, the animation would be random moments of his day that would support his narration rather than have a linear point A to point B type of story. The biggest inspiration for this decision is the Great Big Story channel on Youtube as I enjoy hearing about the lives of different people around the world.

Planning Out the Story

Believe it or not, we started planning out this story by writing our shots instead of drawing them out. We call it a "Shot List."

Within a document, there would be a list of descriptions that would describe what would happen in every shot. The directors and producer would then discuss and edit to make the story flow better.

After the shot list was finalized, Louise would then interpret these writings in a rough storyboard.

We felt that approaching the planning this way would break down the whole story planning and storyboarding into simple steps. Through making a Shot List, it is easier to see the flow of the story and keep count of how many shots would be in the film.

After the rough draft was finished, the Rough Storyboard and Shot List were presented to the team.

Shot List by Louise Wong, Ian Kelley, and Amber Dee

First rough boards by Louise Wong

Storyboard Meeting Recording

After presenting the rough boards to all members, each was assigned a part to make an animatic of. All members were given free rein to change camera angles, perspectives, and even the pacing.

The only thing they must keep is the overall mood or message they had to convey within their scenes. Another thing that we had to keep in mind while boarding is to consider how we will animate them. We only had 9 weeks. If we went overboard and ambitious with shots it would take forever to animate. As much as possible we aimed for limited animation.

Final Animatic

Ian's Note:

Because I didn't do so great with the props assignment and needed a boost to my grade I decided to take charge of the animatic as editing was one of my many redeeming qualities.

Because I couldn't make the corrections to my storyboards while I was editing, I had the help of the "Maya Master" himself Jacob Keating to temporarily correct my storyboards.

On the topic of storyboards, there were a couple of boards that actually ended up on the cutting room floor, not because of their quality, but because it wouldn't flow well with the film, and it saved the team on making another layout which is no small feat.

But if I had to be honest I did admittedly feel a little bit guilty when I cut some of the boards out of the film, but the team was understandable about that and no fights ensued so I guess it ended pretty well.

Anyway, back to the animatic. Before I started the editing process, I had to have the latest musical composition as the timing was heavily inspired by the beat of the music.

After the first few versions, Louise wanted a more upbeat tempo to go in the middle of the film after the fight to fit the humorous tone we were going for. If you want to know more please visit the Music page.

Now on the editing side of things, I have to admit that it was the easiest assignment for me to get right, as not only did I have to make very minor edits on the final version, such as adding in a pan in the beginning and cutting out one of the boards that broke the 180 rule, but most importantly I actually had time for a movie night.

Imagine that, getting all of your stuff done and having time for a movie, absolutely unheard of.