HACKED Animatic

Animatic Research

What is an Animatic? An animatic is a series of picture taken from the storyboard which are then edited and put together in order, one after the other. It is the sequence that the film will be in and match up to, there will be rough dialogue/soundtrack with it as well to try and bring the animatic to life to see how the film would look if we did it as it was planned out on the story board to see whether the images and sound work together. 

How have animatics developed over time? 

The first animatics started in a not a high technical manner and were very basic, they were made by somebody filming and taping the storyboards and then an editor would edit the footage to an audio track to try and be able to bring it alive. By our standards today this would be very, very basic. We now have the technologies available to be able to create 2D and 3D animatics so this allows us to create animatics that almost look like its real. Although some companies do prefer to still use old fashioned techniques as they feel as that it looks better been drawn with the sound over the top, which is what we have done for our animatic.

What are the types of animatics?

There are lots of different types of animatics, some of them are listed below:
Some animatics are created in 2D or 3D using different software to be able to create it, we plan to be doing our animatic in 2D.
Some animatics can be created by somebody taking a lot of photographs and then editing them together which would get the right pictures of locations, actors etc. This sort of animatic is called a photomatic.
Another way to create an animatic could be by using a repurposed video (this is using video footage which is meant for a different purpose when it was took), this type of animatic is called a videomatic or a Rip-o-matic. 

This is somebody taking a photo for a  photomatic, they are taking a photo of the establishing shot for the start of the scene. They would then edit all the pictures that they took and put them together creating a series of photos one after the other. This method takes longer but if done properly looks very good and more detail as they are the actual locations they will be using.

Which elements of the final film should be included in the animatic? 

The elements that should be included should be: the type of camera shot, we will have to match up everything so if its a long shot in the animatic then it will have to be a long shot in the film.
Any camera movement that we plan to do so its almost exactly the same as what the final product will actually look like, we will be able to see on the animatic if the movement we plan to do looks good and fits in with the context of the film before we actually shoot it.
The sound that we include in the animatic should either be very similar or the exact same sound that we will use. 

What are the advantages of producing an animatic prior to shooting on location? 

The benefits of producing an animatic for the producer of a film would be that they could create a timetable to show what shots they should be doing in the day, where they should be shooting and how long the shot should go on for. It would help everybody as the animatic should help showing where everything should be, props, actors etc. It may also help lower the costs for the production of the film as if everybody knows what they should be doing and how to make the shot then they should be able to do the shot without a lot of outtakes which means they could do more scenes quicker meaning they may be able to actually produce the film quicker than that they would have been able to before they produced the animatic.

The director of the film could use animatics to their advantage because they could see before they shoot the scene if the shot would actually look good so when they get out on to the location they know that it will be good where as if they don't use the animatic to see beforehand they could waste a lot of time and money getting out onto location. It would be quite annoying if everybody who was in charge of making the film got out on to the location to just have to go back so we want to make an animatic to avoid this situation so we make the most out of the amount of the time that we have to shoot our film.

The film composer may find that by doing the animatic they could find that something that they have in mind may not actually work within the context of the film, something could not fit right within the film or their initial ideas might not work, they could try many different shot types to get the right shot that they wanted to so by testing it out on the animatic they can save a lot of time when actually making the film.

The sound effects designers could see straight away if the sound that they want to achieve would actually be possible as they can see back in the animatic the sounds that they are going to have to try to replicate so they could tell the producers if they think they might have trouble doing the foley sound for something so the producers can change their ideas to make it possible for the replicate sound to be produced.

The camera operators can use animatics to see beforehand the movement they may have to do for the shots they are going to have to do, once again this saves time as the directors don't have to fill them in when they get there, they already know the shot types, movement etc. By doing the animatic it saves a lot of time which is valuable. The lighting directors can also see before hand where they need to set up the lights to get the best shot so they can work with the camera operators to be able to get the best shot that they can.

The actors can see what the plan is for the scenes before and what they need to do during the shots, they could say any problems that arise before they go on the location also they could practise any tricky problems that they think could happen. It helps the costume designers because if they see where the scenes are going to be shot they need to think about the locations and what the actors are going to have to wear because of the environment surrounding them.

All of the people involved in the making of the film are greatly helped by the construction of a animatic which is why we want to create one so we get good ideas beforehand what we are going to do out on location which will save us a lot of time to be able to get the best shots that we can which will let us create the best film we can.



This is an example from The World End, as you can see the film exactly matches the animatic they made for the film. It matches what the actors are doing in the film, this is what an animatic should do so this is what we plan to do with our animatics. Every film made would have an animatic of some sort, this animatic is quite professionally done as it looks like an artist has done all the drawing, we don't have the luxury of this so we will be drawing out our pictures and then editing them together. The animatic for films would actually be somebody's job to do as its an important thing to create in the film.


This is the animatic for Iron Man 3, this one is quite different from the previous and will be very different from ours. The designers of this animatic have used very expensive software to be able to produce 3D images and put them all together and for it to create this, its made in cartoon form and it looks almost actually real. This would take a very long time to be able to make this and once again it would be somebody's job to be able to make it, ours won't be able to be like this at all. Its a major Hollywood film so you would expect an animatic such as this.

In conclusion our animatic is going to be very important to us whilst we make our film as it is going to save a lot of time when we go out to shoot and it gives us a good structure to make our film on. Without the animatic we may struggle to make our film in the time we have got so by making the animatic we feel that our film is going to be at a high standard. Overall the animatic is allowing us to make the film and seeing what it is going to look like without actually shooting the film so we can see any improvements that we might have to make.

Storyboard Research

What is a Storyboard?

A storyboard is a series of illustrations or images displayed in an ordered sequence for the purpose of showing early visuals of a film. It is essentially a comic strip used to visualise the scenes in the film.

What are the Standard Conventions?

The basic storyboard conventions in live action films for a storyboard is that it covers camera movements and which shots have been selected for the frame.

What are the benefits to producing a Storyboard prior to filming?

The benefits of producing a storyboard prior to filming is that it informs the production team of the vision of what the film is meant to look like. In addition it helps making filming on location easier since you can refer to the storyboard to check what shot you will be using and if you have filmed each shot correctly to the intended vision. It allows people working on the film project to work more efficiently since they have a guide to follow, ven if on location it deviates from the original plan it can keep a team organised and this vital to stay on track.

Storyboard example from a real media product

Below is a storyboard for the 'Tigris of Gaul' from the film Gladiator. Underneath the storyboard is the scene from the film which would have been produced from the story board. (Notice that in the storyboard the tiger comes into the arena via an entrance in the floor and in the film it replicates this with the tiger emerging from an hidden entrance in the floor.

 

Our Storyboard

This is the storyboard for our film Hacked. It contains 37 frames and a brief description of what shot is used and what will happen on screen in each frame. In some of the frames you will notice arrows indicating where an actor or object is moving in the shot.

Storyboard - Page 3

Storyboard - Page 1

Storyboard - Page 2

Storyboard - Page 6

Storyboard - Page 4

    Storyboard - Page 5



Costume consideration

The protagonist

The protagonist's clothes are going to be stereotypically "Chav" clothes, we want to trick the audience of falling into the stereotype that this is an average Chav, not smart, violent, lazy and underachieving as that is the medias representations of Chavs.  

Age: 17-19

As a matter of fact this is not an average chav, we challenge the chav conventions by making him extremely talented in the art of computer hacking, this is why are film is called "Hacked". Although the chav will still be saw as "bad" for hacking, he uses his gift to discover that there is a corrupt business stealing from the banks.

The costume of our character will be wearing 'trackie' bottoms, and trainers this will help with stereotyping him as a 'chav'. An example of what kind of trackies were looking for is shown above, we will be trying to stick as close as possible to what images will be shown.

The above image is what the protagonist shall wear on top. The connotations of a 'Hoodie' especially a branded one, is that only chavs wear them and usually have the hood up to insinuate ill harm will come to whoever 'messes' with them.

This is an example from a film, Adulthood as you can see from the pictures the main characters in the film are all dressed up in trackies which make the audience think straight away that they are chavs so we automatically assume what the characters are going to be like and how we expect them to act in the film. So we want to try and challenge the stereotype in our film and make our protagonist a clever character.

The antagonist 

The antagonist is going to be a man aged between 18-19, we plan on making him look quite smart so our idea is to have him dressed up in a suit, with a white shirt so with the scene focusing on the antagonist he can pull his sleeves down and adjust his tie making him look quite professional. 

We think this would give off the right impression that we want to as we want him to look smart and professional. We want him to look as if he is higher class to give of the impression of his job being important, the social groups that could relate to this character mainly would be business people as they would have to be dressed like this to go to work. I think the character would be probably a British white male playing the character, he would be straight as a character who played this part would more than likely heterosexual. We feel as a character would be well dressed and looked quite sharp then he would be quite wealthy.

This is an example from the mean in black film, as you can see the character looks pretty professional and we instantly think of him highly and quite an important character all because of how he is dressed. This is how we want to make the audience of our film feel when they are watching it; we want them to think why the man is dressed how he is and what he is up to.

Location research

In this post I will be justifying why the locations we as a production team have chosen are suitable and also why even though some locations might look ideal but practically they are not so good for filming.

The location of the Hacker's house is not in a 'rough' looking area as his character may portray at times but more your typical house in a typical area. Our film is about a Hacker and his family who have been hit badly by the economic crisis and this is portrayed in our location since although they have a house there are no cars on the drive indicating that perhaps the family had to sell them for money. 

 We chose to use the kitchen as the location for inside the house so that we could portray that this is a typical house with evidence that people are living in it. For example you can see a newspaper, bowls and glasses left on the side showing that they have been recently used. Our hacker sits in the kitchen on their laptop whilst drinking from a glass and so would make the authenticity of the house more realistic rather than a plain room which shows us that the house is used. Also the kitchen provides a back door for our hacker to flee from making it an ideal location to film from. 

The approach to the house enables us to build up tension by filming our antagonist walking down the road towards the house allowing us to also use a range of camera angles to portray this but most importantly it shows the audience exactly where our film is taking place which is a residential area. It also shows the audience that the hacker is still living with their parents since someone of the hackers age would not own a house of that size.

For the running scene we identified two sections of streets to be used to film our protagonist running and our antagonist walking. However the first location (below left)

 

















looks ideal however in terms of shooting the film here the ascending hill will make filming a steady dolly shot fairly tricky where as the second location (Right) provides more of a flat surface but also a transition of an environment showing the audience that our protagonist is leaving the residential area and coming to a different location showing the audience that they have travelled from one place to another.

For the confrontation between our protagonist and antagonist we chose a more darker, plainer scenery to raise the tension of the story. The location we decided for this was some garages and an a adjacent alley way for the confrontation setting a sinister mood that the audience will see that something bad is going to happen since the scenery has moved from the tidy built up housing area to some old ill maintained garages and a dark alley way. 

How these compare to real movie locations
In comparison to the house in our location research to the house out of the film Transformers which features a similar aged protagonist, the two houses are generally the same. Both are detached indicating to the audience that the protagonist is still living with their parents since they would not be able to afford a house of that size at their age, neither would they maintain the plants in the gardens showing to the audience that this is their parents house. 

The features of the alley way seen in our location research to the alley way seen in the film Quadrophenia both share similar characteristics. Such as the alley way in both pictures is narrow and confined and also leads to another location. Both alley ways are ideal confrontation locations since they leave the protagonist no where to run. Also they are both dark and untidy sticking to the hegemonic ideology that alley ways are dark, confined spaces which is exactly what these two alley ways are.

Prop Research

So what are Props

Props also known as property are objects used on stage or on screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms. A prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on stage or set, distinct from the actors, scenery, costumes and electrical equipment. Consumable food items appearing in the production are also considered. Props are also used to represent characters, so when you see characters with objects the audience begin to understand more about the stories and 
background behind these characters.

Our Opening of our Film

So in the opening of our film the props we will need and that are going to be seen in the opening of our film are a Laptop (fake one), (possibly a charger as well?), a phone, a laptop bag, some sort of device, and some paper work

These are some of the props that the hacker will have in our film who is the protagonist. The reason he has these props is because, when you see a person with a laptop, laptop bag, a phone, some sort of a device and some paperwork you get the impression that this may be a business man or someone that works for banks etc. The audience will then realize that he is a hacker when he is listening on a phone call on his mobile phone.

By having a phone, a laptop, a device, and some paperwork he is represented as a very clever and recent hacker especially when it comes to technology.

A mobile phone, laptop, and some sort of device all represent advanced technology, and represents that these are used only for people who are very clever and very scheming, as this high advanced technology helps them with all that.

Hackers do need high advanced technology when it comes to what they do. So because of this we will need to pay high attention to what props were going to use to represent this character, and so the audience can work out more about the character.

They don’t just have advanced technology based props, they also have some paperwork organised in order (with notes), some money, and a very expensive looking laptop bag, which looks very organised, so the audience will then think if he is this organised, then what he does must be very important and should be done very carefully.

                                                                                                                                           
So for the “man in the suit” character the props he will have are a mobile phone (which is very advanced, expensive, and business like), a brief case, a watch, some sort of device, keys (for his car, house etc.), money (also have expensive looking wallet to show that he’s rich in which business or bank people are), and paperwork (organised very well in folder). The props he has are quite similar to the hacker. This man in the suit is represented as a very clever and organised business man who knows his stuff and what exactly he is doing.

Prop	Scene	User	How’s it used
Laptop	Hacker’s House & Running away from antagonist.	Hacker	By typing on it, and by using it to help him with hacking.
Laptop bag	Hacker’s House & Running away from antagonist	Hacker	Using it to have his paperwork in and his laptop.
Mobile Phone	Hacker’s House & antagonist talking on the phone.	Hacker & Antagonist	To use to listen on in a phone call between two people.
A Memory Stick	Hacker’s House	Hacker	To use to plug into laptop and by updating data that he has saved and hacked.
Paperwork	Hacker’s House	Hacker	To look at and help with what he is doing. To also keep him organised and to make notes.
Money	Hacker’s House	Hacker & Man in Suit	To be able to use on deals etc.
Watch	Hacker’s House	Hacker & Man in Suit.	To keep track of time

These are some of the props that we want to use in our film, these will be used by the protagonist and antagonist, we want to use these to try and make our film look more realistic and look more professional.