From Script to Screen: Reflective Statement

As soon as I was given my three words at the beginning of this project, "Matchbox", "Hired Assassin", and "Waxworks", I had a firm idea in my mind of what I wanted my story to be. I'd say that I enjoyed all the parts of this project equally but, well, then I'd be lying. The coming up with the story, the details and re-writes and re-workings of the plot, was definitely the part I found most interesting and enjoyable. Not to say I didn't enjoy the other parts at all, like creating concept art for the characters and environments, or trying to pre-vis a certain aspect of the film, I did, just not as much as being able to sit down and write.

If I had to go back and change anything I did during this project? Probably designing characters and sets whilst writing the story, as opposed to doing things one step at a time. This would have helped with speeding up the progress of the project, and would have meant that I could have got into modelling sets and actually producing a fully fledged pre-vis sequence, instead of an Animatic, and a pre-vis of a key going into a lock as a transition. My Art Of was also, admittedly, pretty lackluster, so for the next project I shall create the document when I start the project, and use it as a compendium of my progress and the evolution of my work.

Let's hope my time management will be better on the next one!

The Matchbox Man: Crit Presentation

The Matchbox Man: Art Of by Joe Warrilow on Scribd

The Matchbox Man: Animatic from Joe Warrilow on Vimeo.

key from Joe Warrilow on Vimeo.

The Matchbox Man: Animatic

The Matchbox Man: Animatic from Joe Warrilow on Vimeo.

There is unfortunately no sound with my animatic, and there are some timings I would change when taking this into the pre-vis stage., but overall I am happy with the result.

@Phil: Updated Celebrity Concept Art

From Left to Right: Mr. Drumpf, The Boulder, Cooper Bradleyson

Some updated "Celebrity" designs, based them off of actual

 celebrities and not ones of my own creation.

@Phil: Updated Character Concepts

L to R: Celeb Var 1, Celeb Var 2, Celeb Var 3/Younger Man, Figure

I am unsure as to whether to make the character in the light blue top the "Younger Man" Character in my Script, or to make him one of the Celebrities. If I were to make him one of the celebrities, I could work around this by just having the "Younger Man" character  stay in shadow the entire time, so that he appears and leaves in the same shot, kept in darkness from the light coming into the room from the hallway.

I have created a quick re-do of the storyboard panel I am on about to illustrate my idea:

Storytelling & Commission: OGR #2

Here is my second O.G.R. The concept art is yet to be complete for the Melting Pot, Workbench, Matches and the actual Room/Hallway, those will be released in a later post.

Storytelling & Commission: O.G.R #2 by Joe Warrilow on Scribd

Storytelling & Commission: Hallway & Room Influence Map

Influence Map for the Hallway and "Recycling Room" in my animation

Storytelling & Commission: Script

Matchbox Man Script by Joe Warrilow on Scribd

Here is the script I wrote for our current project. I feel that it properly lays out the direction of each shot, and means that if different people were making storyboards for this, they would come out with very similar results. Any and all feedback is welcomed and appreciated!

Storytelling & Commission: Animated Like-for-Like Storyboard

I took the panels I made for my "Like for Like" Storyboard and put them into Premiere, syncing them up with the original audio 

Soundscapes: Space

Here is an exercise we did in class where we had to create a space themed soundscape, and sync it up to a piece of video.

Space Soundscape from Joe Warrilow on Vimeo.

Storytelling & Commission: Like-For-Like Storyboard

Here is my "Like for Like" Storyboard, depicting roughly 28 seconds of a scene from the movie "Watchmen".

Storytelling & Commission: Revised Logline

Here is my revised Logline, which is more fitting to my current story:

Famous figures keep disappearing right from the public eye. A dark, mysterious hired assassin is the one responsible, and he’s just taken another target. Will they find out who the man is? And will they ever be able to escape in time?

Storytelling & Commission: O.G.R Presentation

Storytelling & Commission O.G.R. 1 by Joe Warrilow on Scribd

Storytelling & Commission: Step Outline

This is the "Step Outline" for my story:

We see a celebrity standing in a room surrounded by people. They are taking photos of the celebrity. Suddenly, an arm appears around the celebrity and pulls them backwards – cut to black. Cut to another celebrity taking selfies with members of the public. Suddenly, the shelf of a sack barrel appears underneath their feet and they tilt backwards – cut to black. This happens to another celebrity, only this time we see the person doing it is shrouded in darkness, yet the light glints off a pair of glasses they are wearing – cut to black. Fade up on the last celebrity’s face, too terrified to move. They are attached to the sack barrel, with an I.D. Card hanging around their neck, and are being dragged down a corridor. The camera tilts up to see that the mysterious man is the one pulling him along. He stops, propping the celeb against a wall whilst fumbling with some keys. We can see one or two people walk past in the distance. The man opens a door and wheels the celebrity inside, closing the door behind him. 

The man props the celebrity in the sack barrow up against a wall at an angle. He fumbles about looking for something, whilst the celebrity is still too terrified to say or do anything. The man opens a draw and finds what he has been looking for – a box of matches. He takes one out of the box and lights it, sighing to himself as he does so. We finally see his face, middle aged yet wrinkled. He says “Nothing personal. I’m just doing my job” and lets out a small chuckle, before bringing the match closer. From behind him, a young man opens the door and enters the room, saying “Man, I really need to replace the lights in here. We’re all just going out for lunch, you coming?”. The older man replies “Sure thing”, blows the match out, and follows the younger man out. We are looking form the outside in, as the man closes the door, showing a sign placed on it – “Waxwork Model Melting Room”. The camera fades to black.

I feel that this is the best way I can have summed up the action in the scenes. I feel by having such few scenes in the plot, it allows the tension and suspense within the story to be more apparent.

Storytelling & Commission: Logline

Building upon feedback I received from Phil, here is the Logline for my story:

"A group of celebrities are trapped in a room. A dark, mysterious figure keeps visiting them and taking one of the celebrities with him, for them never to return. Will they find out who the man is? And will they ever be able to escape?"

I feel that this incorporates a sense of tension and mystery into the plot, without giving away the twist that'll happen in the final act.

Storytelling & Commission: Premise

This is the premise of my story for the "Storytelling & Commission" Project;

"One man's burning passion for his job is seen as insanity by few, and overlooked by many."

I am going to have the man be the "Hired Assassin" in my story, and the "few" be the wax characters. The man's job is to melt down the old wax figures when new ones need to be made, hence why to the waxwork figures, he's a "Hired Assassin".

I am thinking that I will stylise the short similar to the "Meet the Pyro" Animated Short from Valve, but instead of seeing things as overly cutesy and sweet, the man sees everything as the normal world, and the figures see the complete opposite.

This is a bit more over-the-top than how I would create my sequence, but I feel it is the best representative of it.

Storytelling & Commission: Adobe Story Transcript

For this lesson we were tasked with creating a transcript of a 30-60 clip from a Film or TV Show. I chose to transcribe a segment from Episode 1 of Cowboy Bebop.

Cowboy Bebop Transcription by Joe Warrilow on Scribd

Storytelling & Commission: Soundscape Images (+First Draft of Soundscape #1)

These are the 3 images I was presented with on Tuesday. At the bottom of the post I have also included a "first draft" of my soundscape for the first image.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

The original sounds were me clinking the badges on my lanyard, rubbing a canvas bag, scrunching some plastic packaging and cracking my knuckles. After adding different reverbs, pitch shifts, chorus effects, delays and volume variations, this was my result.

Image 1 Version 1 from Joe Warrilow on Vimeo.

Fictional Creature Roar

Fictional Creature Roar from Joe Warrilow on Vimeo.

This is a roar I created of a fictional creature in Adobe Audition. The creature I imagine would have this type of roar would be a bear with scales instead of fur.

Storytelling & Commission: My 3 Story Words

The 3 words/phrases I picked out of the Blue Box were:

Character: Hired Assassin

Place: Waxworks

Prop: Box of Matches

Aside from the obvious of the Assassin using the matches to melt the Waxwork's figures, there are already a couple of ideas I am toying with on how to incorporate the different objects into the scene, and what kind of demeanour and personality the "Assassin" would have. Looking forward to creating the animatics and pre-viz!