Pre-Production

With a logline in place, I had to actually go ahead and write a screenplay for my VFX skit. In order to better generate ideas and structure, I first started by detailing some of the facts about the characters and the scenario, as well as certain shots I wanted to get in my short.

Specific shots I thought I might want to cover is, a teleportation shot from some kind of portal. Wall destruction, a robot losing an arm and oil spilling out in the form of a fluid sim. A day for night shot and a human body burst shot. I did however come up with these ideas knowing some would likely need to go.

For the robots I came up with an initial estimate of 100cm for the small robot and 185cm for the larger robot. This is so I could keep things consistent. However, I eventually settled with 195cm for the large robot (matching my height for better reference) and 135cm for the smaller robot, this put the two at a height comparison that I liked.

I also made sure to detail that the small robot as more expressive and human, with the larger robot having a more monotone almost text to speech style voice, and more traditionally robotic movement. Rigid and purposeful rather than expressive.

My initial story beat breakdown was also as follows.

1. Teleportation.

2. Sitting on a wall.

3. The basketball court at night.

4. Waking up in the morning.

5. Back to the original location and end.

Through this I decided the narrative would follow two robots coming back in time, in a way that would visually reference terminator and lead an audience to expect a certain type of tone from the short. However, when it turns out the person they are there to kill isn’t around, they would amuse themselves with cuts to the two robots sitting on a wall, the larger robot repeatedly and perfectly hitting a paddle bat with the smaller one bored. This would then lead the smaller robot to amuse itself via target practice, which would then go wrong and result in a missing limb when the larger robot gets involved. Hard cutting to night time, the day for night shot, with the two robots not getting along and trying not to talk about the incident. I then wanted to match cut and have the two robots rush back to the original scene, now in time for the kill where it would be fulfilled and the two robots would be overly proud of themselves.

With those ideas in mind I then wrote the first draft of the script, then the second, then the third. Each iteration I would try to make the dialogue seem more natural between the robots, as well as establish what their dynamic even is, with the robbers from Home Alone as a large inspiration. I also shortened the script, having everything end on the moment the smaller robot loses its arm, and changed a few details such as the tennis ball padel bat.

Whilst this meant the narrative to the story would be somewhat unsatisfying, I had to opt for this in order to make sure the VFX shots would actually be of good quality overall. I also find the subversion of the narrative to be inherently humorous, especially if I am able to make the beginning appear to be a lot more serious than the rest of the short ends up being. Additionally, using similar effects that one would expect in more serious spectacle gives some level of absurdity to the entire thing. I’m going to most likely do a better job of the task if I enjoy the idea of what I am making, and well executed nonsense feels like it could be of relief to anyone viewing many dissertation projects back to back, it can be silly and still be a cool project and that’s what I feel most inspired to make.

travisparkes_fmp_script_draft3_pdfDownload

By this point I had chosen the week I would need to film, the final week of lessons in December, week commencing December 12th. I would need two days, one for tests and the other for the actual shoot. As well as a backup day in case of weather issues. This meant I had to have everything planned and organised for a relatively early point.

To assist in the planning I created storyboards, some of the boards I took pictures of the location, because as long as it was clear what I was trying to achieve, it didn’t really matter if it was hand drawn, especially as it does a better job of conveying my ideas than anything I could draw.

In addition to this I took the same storyboarded images and put them together in a timeline to make sure timings were correct and things were playing how I expected them to. To a degree any specific pieces of dialogue do have some leeway as there is no lip sync, and physical movements can apply to a number of different variations of a line. So I wasn’t too worried about that, I just wanted to make sure the basics were being conveyed, and giving myself ideas for how long I should hold on particular shots, especially because there is nothing to react to due to the robots being CG.

After talking further with the two students who would be using the camera for my project, I secured a date of the 10th of December for test shots and the 12th of December for filming the full project. Enough of a gap to analyse any issues that may come up during testing, and know for sure which lenses to use for which shots. I also planned to make sure I got the lens grids filmed on this date as well, as the same prime lenses are being used, they are going to be the same on the test day and filming day, so might as well be more efficient with timing.

The final thing I had to do before shooting was ensure I had specific permissions from estates, this was in the form of a risk assessment detailing any risks and contingencies, as well as a rough estimate on when specific locations would be used and by how many people. This had to include risks such as fire, despite the incredibly low risk due to being outside and in temperatures of 0 degrees. But after a couple iterations of the risk assessment, it was approved and I was given permission to film as planned.

During all of this I came up with a rough checklist as I had several tasks to complete in quick succession of each other. I also needed some kind of predicted dates for everything in order to best figure out what I should be prioritising.

It’s a fairly simple checklist full of estimations. But it’s something to work off of for now as I do have a time limit on this. If I don’t get the project filmed in December, I will have to do a large amount of rethinking because I won’t really be able to finish my project off due to the Christmas holidays. I can do all the the look development I want, but without final scans, my project is going to have to be on hold, it is important I hit these deadlines.