Animatic
3D layout
Above
is the latest my animatic and the latest stage of Suffragette Molly,
this time it’s the 3D layout. It graphically demonstrates the entire films layout,
look, timing and all of the camera angles of the finished film.
As
you can see, all my characters are quite blocky, representing the overall shape
and outline with its representatives height to the real characters. I have
chosen this simply so I could get a feel and understand of the overall look of
the film.
As
you can see, the final outcome is completely different to that of the animatic;
this is the result of many camera and timing tests with class discussions and
the teacher. My first version of the 3D layout was very close to the finished
2D animatic. When viewing this first version, the timing was completely wrong,
many camera angles felt uneasy with the overall look completely wrong. However, finding this out now was great, discovering
what works and what didn’t, and this first version a lot just didn’t work.
After
going back to the drawing board courtesy of receiving notes from Sean, I played
around with many camera angles, camera lenses and tracking styles. Many camera
angles needed to have a more realistic to create a threatening
atmosphere. This was achieved mostly through the timing, with quick cuts and
the use of close-ups for the confrontations.
At
first many of these confrontations had a combination of some mid shots and
close ups, but many of these shots were long and tiresome. For example, one
shot showed Molly talking three lines of dialogue. It felt slow, boring and
uninteresting, not allowing or portraying any excitement, with the pacing of
many camera shots very similar in terms of pacing.
Sean
and Wei suggested quickening up the pace by having quicker and faster camera
shots to create a more dramatic conflict. This decision to have multiple camera
angles (not crossing a particular line i.e left to right) cutting from one
camera to another after each line of dialogue was easy to decide, but its
success only occurred after a lot of testing and retesting. When reviewing
these cuts, it added an excitement and interest to the viewer that it
previously didn’t. I believe this not
only works and it can now be viewed more theatrically, it now doesn’t come off
boring and too long.
As
you can see I decided to use a lot of tracking and zoom pull shots. While this
can be observed in the animatic, it wasn’t until I worked on the 3D layout by
testing and playing around with the cameras that I discovered how many
different styles of tracking will be. At the start, most of the tracking was
very mechanical and linear, which I felt sort of worked, but Sean as always
brilliantly suggested I should have more of a naturally hand-held look to the
track. Upon trying a number of times in with the Maya cameras where I had too
many wobbles, but upon fixing this, having a more natural movement create a
wonderful, brilliant, strong and naturalistic atmosphere of the scene. It generates
an atmosphere as though you are there, on this journey, side by side with Molly
as she is about to confront Bradford and Doctor John.
With
the 2113 scenes, many of my camera angles were inspired by the ‘Wizard of Oz’ (1939) [with some slight
variations] where Dorothy arrives in Oz, where she opens up the door and you see
her first impressions. Originally I planned to have a long track where Molly
goes from Bradford’s room to the front door. This worked great in the animatic,
but within the 3D layout, it was way too lengthy, dull and tedious to the eyes.
We want to know where Molly is, so the pacing needs to be quick. After testing
the timing, I decided to place a cut close to the front door and this worked
overwhelmingly enhancing the entire pacing.
The
opening of the door changed, with my first version closely resembling this
famous Wizard of Oz scene, but a
suggestion linking the close-up of the doorbell in 1895 and door handle in 2113
was taken on board and now it feels this has improved the mystery of where she is.
The
exteriors of 2113 were also transformed; original with a single tracking shot
going from the house to the exterior revealing 2113 London straight away. At
first I loved this shot as it was close to or exactly like the Wizard of OZ<
I was hoping to match, but the teachers suggestion was far better. Both suggested
I shouldn’t reveal London too early. Get her reaction and surprise straight
away, and make the audience curious to why she is shocked and surprised. While
I had always planned to include this shot (after the reveal of London 2113),
but the editing and pacing of this shot located there worked abysmally.
The
reason why moving this shot to after she opens the door works, is the curiosity
to the audience. Why is her reaction like this, and then bang we cut to her
amazement (a la Oz). A zoom pull was always planned; it works wonders by helping
the audience to see all of her reactions.
As
suggested in class, I showed the film to mum, as her reactions were…………
In
terms of sound and speeches of the characters, they also changed. Many of the
voices were quite spaced out, with many of the camera angles placed on the
talking characters. At first I did enjoy this and felt it had worked, however,
with some slight movements of them on the timeline, such as closer together and
overlapping them with different camera angles, despite being only a matter of
half to a second, it quickened the pace significantly with the intensity of the
scenes, overwhelmingly improves the quality and enjoyment of the entire story.
Suffragette Molly 3D layout went through many
camera, and voice test, with so many changes from the original animatic, but
these changes are well worth it. It went from a slow, linear paced and
uninteresting story, to a fast paced, modern looking and far more interesting
storyline, all because of slight changes in camera and pacing with expertise help
by both production teachers. These changes allow the viewers to be intrigued by
its characters and where each character will go next. It has changed from a
slight enjoyment to one of sheer and utter delight.
Craig
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