Can you guess what I’ve been doing for the past few weeks?
It’s unbelievable how much writing and re-writing you have to do to get your story just right!
All in all I have now written 10 synopsises! 6 different and 5 re-writes of the ‘Disgruntled Bogart’ which is my chosen story (written by yours truly) for my graduation animation.
But I must admit that I really don’t mind. In-fact this is part of the pre-production that I really enjoy. It’s the creative bit where you can let your fantasy run wild! And the fun thing about writing stories now as an animator, is that the story and all the characters will soon come to life!
But the importance of a good story is the fact that it is the foundations of the animation; One I will be working on for the next 4 months. So to avoid any problems down the line and to avoid boredom, I had to give it my best. So I’m hoping that this synopsis is it and the storyboards I make here after will go according to plan.
Below is a small snippet of what I have been working on:
Synopsis: The Disgruntled Bogart
Samantha Williams 10 march 2014
Synopsis for a narrated animated short. Simply animated in mixed media. Characters animated in Toon Boom or Anime pro, edit in after effects.
Audience: Children 8-12 and the child within.
Richard our protagonist is a Bogart; and he is a little less than happy. He is in-fact rather angry, disheartened and disgruntled.
Sitting in a waiting room at the job centre for Fairy Tales, he thinks back over the previous night.
While attending the award ceremony at the Fairy Tale popularity contest, Richard found out that he is not quite as popular as he had thought he was. In comparison to all the other Fairy Tale creatures attending, it turned out that he was the least popular of them all.
On a scale of one to ten, Richard was now on the same scale as pond scum.
Reminiscing over his work as a Bogart, Richard thinks about how good he was at scaring children and the terror in their eyes when he visited. On a scale of one to ten he was one of the scariest fairy tales that you could encounter. So he couldn’t understand why he’d been rated so lowly in popularity.
But at the ceremony he soon found out through a rather cute creature that ‘nice is in and bad is out’. ‘We are now expected to give only joy and gifts not horror and terror’. (For example: Santa Clause gives many gifts and provides a joyous feast). Richard flicks her in the eye and exits the ceremony.
This news gave cause to Richard wanting the success and glory he felt that he deserved and in turn a new vocation; so took himself to the job centre where he is now, to find a new vocation. A new vocation, which will bring him the popularity, he so desires: Any of which will be better than his current position.
Thats enough, or I’ll give it all a way 😉
But me being me, I made it a little more complicated for my self by wanting the animation to be narrated. The narration also had to be a rhyming couplet! ‘Why oh why’? I hear you ask. Well simply because I like them.
I grew up with being read to at bed time, and Roald Dahl who wrote them also, is my hero. Plus it also has a link to my research on Explanimations, many of which are narrated.
Writing a narration though gave a few complications to storyboarding. This is because if just one word in the couplet changes then so does the visual in the story. But it did give way to some fun twists and turns and also gave some inspiration to shots of what could happen even if not mentioned in the text, enabling me to write the couplet around what I also wanted to see in the eventual animation. So re-writing was actually a helping hand.
I wrote my couplet 3 times… one in 1st person and two in 3rd person. I found that when writing in 3rd person you could leave a lot to the imagination, in this case the animation, to visualise what was happening in the scene.
Below is a little snippet of my couplet:
‘The Disgruntled Bogart’:
17-3-2014
In a waiting room of a job centre
Richard reasons why he’s here
Once thought to be a skilled bogart
Now realised that scaring was a dieing art.
For last night at the polls
Praise was given to those with, nicer rolls.
His skills in scaring weren’t even rated
Which meant his career is surely fated.
He took a moment to reminisce
About his professions scary Bliss.
Something must surely, be amiss?
For he was the best at his game
Terror was what gave him his fame.
But someone was quite happy to flout
That ‘nice is in and bad is out’.
Hence the reason that he’s now here
And looking for a more appreciated career.
Richard wants to win back the fame
And if it meant loosing his scary name
He was prepared to play a nicer game.
The job advisor presented options
All of which stimulated nicer reactions
Reactions he’d never created
In the job he’d just vacated.
From now on out his scariness ends
And he opts for more appealing trends
curiosity, magic, gifts and wonder,
mesmerising, magical splendour
The jobs came with there pros and con
Which Richard soon found out when he tried them on.
Naturally many remained unsold
For reasons such as being far too cold (Yeti)
Some offered fun and a little sun
But was reminded he’d never swum (Mermaid)
His experience was a promising factor
But for some he Lacked a particular stature (giant)
Many offered lots of thrills
But then he lacked particular skills (witch / wizard)
The options were making him feel giddy
And he found them all a little shitty!
So what now?
Well now I have to break the text down in to shots and scenes and start making the story board….
