Script Reference

Using the reference images above, I have created my own script for my story.

Script

Fade in:

EXT. Boy’s House – Day

Amongst the luscious countryside landscape stands a house where a young boy is currently arranging scrolls that are awaiting to be sent.

INT. Inside the House – Day

The camera pans from the outside of the house in through the window.

Here, we then see they boy currently rolling up another scroll ready to be delivered. The camera zooms in from a full shot to a medium shot of him at the desk.

The camera cuts to a close up of a poster situated above the desk. On the poster displays a colourful bird holding a scroll and the words “Delivery Service” are printed on it. The bird is a crimson red with white on his belly and wearing a pastel blue hat and bright green satchel.

Hearing a sudden noise from outside, the boy sharply turns and we see a close up of his face.

A medium shot of a bird, identical to the poster, is seen flying through the clear blue sky and dives gracefully through the window of the house onto the desk.

The boy grasps the scroll attached to the bird and reads the note in haste. Cutting from a full shot to a close up, the tension is built as the boy slams the scroll on the desk in panic and rapidly runs out the room. Startled, the bird flaps its wings as the boy grabs his bag and leaves the house. The camera trucks out as the boy sprints down the path into the distance. The scene ends with the isolated scroll on the desk that displays a message.

EXT. Castle – Day transition to night

As the boy travels across the plains, the sky drifts from day to night to portray the amount of time that has passed. Coming to a halt, we see an establishing shot of a mysterious castle. The camera pans upwards to highlight its gloomy aura.

A towering door is approached by the boy and a close up of his expression depicts the fright that he displays.

With courage, the boy opens the door and continues inside. What he finds is an elaborately decorated room, displaying a finely patterned floor and weathered stone walls leading to the large room beyond. The boy ventures on following the path laid out before him.

An establishing shot then conveys how large the next room is in comparison to the boy. The boy feels intimidated yet intrigued to discover the mysteries of the castle, despite his Father’s warning.

Walking up to a towering wall on the opposite side of the room, the boy looks up at its stone panels and hesitantly presses one. A close up of the panel that he pressed then shows an arrow begin to shoot out and the boy dodges out the way in reflex.

Out of breathe, the boy leans against the wall yet his hand catches a hidden switch. A close up of the switch is seen being activated. Alerted, the boy turns his attention to the middle of the room where he witnesses a podium begin to rise from the ground.

A low angled shot pans upwards to reveal a sapphire blue mask glittering against the light.

Excitedly, the boy picks up the mask, analysis’s its features and places it onto his face. Realising the mask displays the correct panel to press, the boy touches it and the wall begins to rise. The boy looks on in wonderment at the shadows that lie beyond.

EXT. Father in the room – Night

A low angled shot begins the scene as the boy enters the room and notices a shadowy figure sitting on the steps in the distance.

The camera pans in on the unknown person’s face and immediately notice the same intricately detailed patterns on their mask. In contrast to the boys mask, their mask is a vibrant blood red, with luminous orange flames that glow in the shadows. The figure then begins to stand and positions themselves into a fighting stance.

Cutting back to the boy, he panics and hastily takes off his mask in hope that they will back down. A medium shot then shows the figure begin to regain their natural stance as it seems something has dawned on them, and the boy looks on apprehensively. The boy then gasps in shock as he discovers the true identity of the person behind the mask.

THE END

Narrative Structure

Typical narrative structure is often broken down in this way:

1. Opening: establishes setting and introduces character2. Build up: Relationships established. Development of characters and their world3. Problem: a dilemma or series of complications.  Characters are faced with an obstacle to overcome a

mystery to solve, or often more than one4. Events: a series of events/action as characters try to overcome obstacle, solve problem, discover

truth and so on.  Further complications may arise in the process5. Resolution: the protagonists are victorious, problems are solved, truth revealed6. Ending: characters reflect on events, reinstate relationships and look forward.

The narrative structure of a film trailer could be simply shortened to this:

Opening Build Up Problem Events

Rule of Thirds

The Rule of Thirds has been used in compositional art since the Renaissance. Painters realised that the human eye doesn’t rest at the center of a photograph or shot onscreen but instead scans the edges. The Rule of Thirds for film aims to put the subject of the image off center to create a sense of balance and draw the viewer’s eye.

The basic idea is to break down the frame/image into vertical and horizontal thirds. Simularly to the Renaissance painters, studies have found that the human eye naturally sees one of the four intersecting points first before anything else. Naturally it makes sense to put the object at one of the four points.

Colour Wheel

The above images are colour schemes that are based off my character designs. I picked the main colours and then saw how this would correspond with the different colour rules. I found this particularly helpful as I could relate this back to the colours I was using for my locations and other designs.

Storyboard and Animatic Reference

When creating my storyboards, the first thing I did was research different types of storyboards that had been produced for films. I found different types of ones, ones that contained more detail than others, and then ones that contained information about shots numbers, camera movements etc… As well as doing this, I also found that using the storyboard cheat sheet (above) was really helpful when coming up with angles for each shot in my story. If a particular shot wasn’t working I would refer back to this to improve it. Also, this template was useful for getting the correct aspect ratio for each shot. Overall, I have create a rough and final storyboard.

The following images are references that I used when looking up animatics. Moving on from the storyboards, I needed to know what movement needed to be included in the animatic so I looked at other peoples work. With reference to the images above, each shot depicts what is happening next in more detail compared to the storyboard and contains some of the inbetween movement. In my animatic and final animatic, I looked at these examples in order to get the timing right and to see how the movement is shown. Also, I included music in my animatic in order to convey the mood/tone of the story.

Examples of Animatics I looked at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1uRncKY8DU The Gorillas music animatic for Dirty Harry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiZRuOxiCGw Iron Man 3 animatic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHrguUH1qz4 Despicable Me 2 animatic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X56n9WjSV2I Avatar animatic

Other Research

Storyboards that look at the camera movement and positioning of objects in shots. This particular example was from the last scene of The Lord Of The Rings.