Animatic

Style frames. Subject to change, somewhat. Especially the latter of the two.

About the Project/ Journal #1

 About the project:

The essential message of the piece is "you get what you deserve", I suppose. 

Synopsis: An apathetic pet store clerk deals with a frustrating customer drawn to a certain dangerous pet on display.

Genesis of idea/medium:  The idea for this film evolved from an idea I had for an animation a couple years ago. It was basically the same concept but the ending was different. I don't know where the idea came from. I feel like ideas just happen. That's how ideas happen for me, at least. I will be using Flash for this film because I like Flash. It's relatively intuitive and a pretty neat software to boot. 

 Character histories:

Clerk: 28 year old Caucasian male. Apathetic and lazy. Hates people, but likes animals. Will probably work at this pet store forever. He's technically a manager, but he doesn't make more than the regular clerks, so it's really just a dumb title with more responsibilities attached without any reward.

Kid: 12 year old Caucasian male. Terminally annoying. Always nagging people and pushing buttons. Stands too close when he talks, asks obvious questions, chews loudly and with his mouth open, wears socks with sandals, wears ugly shirts for days on end. Presumptuous, mean spirited, and selfish. Basically your average American middle school aged kid.

Journal 1:

First and foremost, I hope to finish this piece on time for the end of the semester! Next, I hope to achieve a finished look that I can be pleased with and not wince at the sight of. I want the film to be funny. I want people to laugh. I am anxious about potential awkward silence, or worse, half-hearted pity laughs. OH lord. Now I'm just getting very nervous about the whole ordeal of making the film. Well, hopefully I can get it done and make it look at least fairly solid.

Tentative Production Calendar

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WEEK 3 [animation]

Opening, outside of building, title appears. [shot 1]

  melancholy snake [shot 4]
 jittery rabbit [shot 3]

hamsters [shot 5]

Lizard [shot 6]

Piranha [shot 7]

 WEEK 4 [animation]

Close up kids face. He gets stupid look. [shot 20]

Close up of same. Starts wiggling fingers. Points one finger. [shot 24]

Very close up of finger pointed and moving down towards bowl. [shot 25]

Kids face becoming stupider. [shot 26]

Hand with finger out. [shot 27]

Face becomes even stupider. [shot 28]

Finger moving, closer. [shot 29]

Face stupid, closer. [shot 30]

Finger right above bowl. [shot 31]

Eyes, hungry for ruckus. Terrible crunching noise. Eyes widen and look down. [shot 32]

WEEK 5 [animation]
Cleanup/Color on shot 3. 
Cleanup/color on shot 4. 

Kid teases snake [shot 12]

 Kid picks up hamster and starts pokin' at it. Sees something and tosses hamster. [shot 14]

go back to hamsters, terrified [one covering other hamster's eyes, one crying, etc] [shot 16]

Hamster lands in snake tank. Snake starts rapidly constricting hamster [shot 15]
 Kid approaches rabbit, teases. [shot 10]

 WEEK 6 [animation]
 Wide of store showing clerk and some animals [shot 2]

Clerk feeding parrot [shot 8]

Clerk looks like he's gonna say something and then stops [shot 11]

Clerk looks up at kid again, corner of mouth twitching. Collects self and sighs [shot 13]

 Clerk clears throat to signal kid to stop it. Looks annoyed. [shot 18]

 Clerk really miffed looking. Growling. [shot 22]

Clerk looking surprised. Smiles and gives piranha thumbs up. [shot 34]

WEEK 7 [animation]

front door. Kid walks in. looks around. Gleam in eye. Walks towards animal tanks.[shot 9]

piranha. Kid approaches it. Looks tantalized. Rubs hands. Glances over at clerk. Makes to touch piranha. [shot 17]

Kid standing at piranha, dejected. [shot 19]

 Kid with hand hovering over bowl. Face drops as he hears clerk growl. [shot 21]

 Kid humming. Suddenly stops and raises hands and gets stupid face. [shot 23]

 Kid being slapped by his own severed hand. Cries and runs away. [shot 33]

 Piranha returns thumbs up by gesturing with kid's severed hand. [shot 35]

 Credits. [shot 36]

WEEK 8

 Cleanup/color  [1-6]

WEEK 9 

 Cleanup/color [7-12]

WEEK 10

Cleanup/color [13-18]

WEEK 11

Cleanup/color [19-24]

WEEK 12

Cleanup/color [25-30]

WEEK 13

Cleanup/Color [31-36]

WEEK 14

Sound/Editing/Compositing

WEEK 15

Sound/Editing/Compositing

Influences

1. Adam Phillips. Especially his 30 Days 30 Shorts project.
http://bitey.com/2007/09/30-shorts/


2. Yotam Perel.
http://lazymuffin.newgrounds.com/movies/

3. Gary Larson's "The Far Side". Here's a link to an animated adaptation of his comics, called Tales From The Far Side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me12JC2LoYE