FILM STUDIES & CINEMATOGRAPHY | PROJECT 1
Film Studies and Cinematography: Project 1
Loh Kai Xuan (0365780)
TABLE OF CONTENTS [Click to jump to chapter]
WEEK 1
Briefing:
Mr. Kannan briefed us on project 1, we are to write and animate a
2-minute short film. He also explained about the art of
storytelling.
Project 1 Brief:
Fig. 1.1. Project 1 Brief
Week 1 Slide
Fig. 1.2. Week 1 Slides
Activity 1:
Watch Pixar SparkShorts “Purl”
Fig. 1.3. Pixar Sparkshots "Purl" Clip
1) Describe your EMOTIONAL journey when watching the short?
I felt awkward in the beginning, embarrassment, then
satisfaction in the end.
2) How can you RELATE with your own personal experiences? Do
you have similar experiences?
I was a talkative child in primary school but was often not
invited to birthday parties or outings with other
classmates. It made me feel like I was the odd one
out.
3) Is the story INTERESTING? (What make the story
interesting)
Yes, I love the way they represented the characters. It
was a good contrast between lookalike business men and
colourful yarn. The transition at the end was wholesome.
4) Discuss the Character, Setting, Obstacles and Theme.
The characters I assume are men=business men, yarn=woman.
The setting is a dull office and the obstacle was getting
the men to acccept her as herself. The theme was accepting
differences.
Activity 2:
Fig. 1.4. Kitbull - Animation short film (2019) -
Pixar
1) Everyone like story differently for some specific
reasons. Which part in the story that give you the
most relatability in term of:
a)Personal Experience
b)Emotional Connection
and explain why?
I have never experienced abuse before but I've had a
total of 4 cats over a decade and 2 of them
survived stray life before. I had a cat who ran away
from home and only to return limping and bleeding, it
hurt me so bad inside watching the short reminded me
of that time.
Overall the show actually showed the little actions,
instincts and reactions of the cat and dog. It made me
giggle when they did the little kicks and habits my
pets would do as well. I have a black cat too so
watching kit made me cry. I definitely do connect with
the cat more.
Activity 3:
Part A:
Return to the 2 pixar SparkShorts and try
reframing each of them in terms of a "what if"
statement. Share these with the class.
What if a woman who feels left out is a ball of
yarn, crocheting themselves into a different
person?
What if a stray cat meet an abused dog and they
became friends?
Part B:
Now it's your turn. Come up with 3-5 of your own
“what if” ideas.
What if I can fly?
What if a genie said they can fix my eyesight?
What if the reality I live in was just a dream?
Activity 4:
Part A: Return to Pixar SparkShorts.
Identify the worlds and characters in each. Write
these down.
Who are the main characters?
Purl: Purl
Kitbull: Kit and Bull (Cat and Dog)
Is there a character you identify with most?
Emotional wise, it is the cat but I relate to Purl
more.
Where does the movie take place? Is it one world
or multiple worlds?
In purl its the office, in Kitbull i was the
backyard.
Part B: Try mixing a character and world
from different shorts. Try this and see what
happens.
What if Purl was in Kitbull. Purl is the cat,
she'll be alot more proactive due to her
personality and even approach the dog more. Maybe
they will help to dog fight back instead of run
away.
Project 1: Progression 1
Story Ideas:
Choose any Pixar short for inspiration.
Analyse how this story become a great
story from emotional connection and
personal experiences.
INTERESTING, EMOTIONALLY CONNECTED, UNIQUE
PERSPECTIVE
LIST OF PIXAR SHORTS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pixar_shorts
Chosen short: "Burrow" Pixar
Sparkshorts
Fig. 1.5. Pixar Sparkshots "Burrow"
This story talks about a rabbit wanting to make their
own home but gets interrupted by 2 friendly neighbors.
After seeing the wonderful homes the others had, they
got really nervous about sharing their own. They ended
up running away deeper into the ground, avoiding all
their other neighbors. When they finally found a quiet
and empty area, they hit a water pressure that was about
to destroy the whole neighborhood. In the end, they
finally asked for help. Everyone works together to solve
the emergency. The rabbit realizes, although still shy,
showed their blueprint of their home. Everyone was eager
to help and eventually they all worked together with the
rabbit to build their new home.
Emotionally, I relate to Rabbit a lot. About creating a
work you're very proud of, but starts hiding when I saw
how accomplished others is. Just like rabbit, I hid away
and just did my own thing, afraid ask for opinions or
show off my works.
I like how they showed this through the rabbit. The
rabbit was alone with only a self drawn home plan while
others had a beautiful home and huge families. It made
the rabbit feel small. The way they overcome it was
through and emergency that made the rabbit had no other
choice but to ask for help, from the "scary" character
they knew about. It was only after asking for help once,
it got easier, and realize it wasn't as scary as they
thought about sharing a "lackluster" work or getting
opinions from others. With many minds working together,
it created an even amazing work. You never know, there
might be a "mouse" in your life too. Who was excited and
eager to help you brainstorm.
WEEK 2
Activity 1:
- Watch pixar short “BAO” directed by Domee Shi
- Identify characters in the story and their roles in the story. Son (Bao), Mom (mc), Dad (Supporter), Friends (Support), Fiance (Support).
- Describe the personality of each characters in the story, knowing how he/she reacted in difficult situations.
- Son - Stubborn, Strong, Playful, Loving, walks away or avoidance when in difficult situation.
-
- Mom - Protective, Loving, Quick Tempered, Speaks out when in difficult situation. Bottles up anger till explodes.
-
- Dad - Stoic, Loving, Supportive, Quiet, Calm, tries to resolve the difficult situation quietly.
-
- Fiance - Positive, Supportive, friendly, would be with someone in a difficult situation or stay positive.
-
- Friends - Friendly, supportive, playful
Activity 2:
- Return to the Pixar short ‘BAO’.
- Describe the external features of the protagonists
- Mom - Pear Shaped face, droopy eyes, protective mother, lonely
- Son - Chubby, Bao shaped head, playful, stubborn
- Describe the internal features of the protagonists
- Mom - Afraid of his son leaving home, wants to be with him
- Son - Wants freedom, likes to explore the world out of home
Activity 3:
- Return to the Pixar short ‘BAO’.
- Identify a want and a need for each character by making a statement based on this example: In Monsters Inc. Sulley wants to be the best scarer but he needs to be a father figure.
- Mom wants his son to stay at home but needs to let him go
- Bao wants to leave home but needs to reconcile with his mom first
- For each character, you should be able to answer these questions:
- What do they want most?
- Who do they want to become?
- What might they need in order to succeed?
Activity 4:
- Return to the Pixar short ‘BAO’.
- Identify External and Internal obstacles of the characters.
Mom external - Son leaving, internal - letting go
Son external - mom protective, internal - reconciling with mom
Activity 5:
- Identify the arc of the main character in the the short ‘BAO’. What do they want at the beginning? What did they realize they need by the end?
- Mom wants to be with son forever, protecting him but by the end she realized she has to let him explore on his own
- Son wants to have his own freedom and even avoiding his mom but by the end he realized he needs to reconcile with his mom and speak his mind to her.
- How have you changed as a result of overcoming an obstacle?
- Mom and son reconnects and they learn to communicate with each other. Mom learns to let go, son learns to reconnect with his mom while still getting the freedom he wants.
Activity 6:
- Return to the main characters from your the short story ‘BAO’.
- What was one important choice they had to make where the stakes were high?
- mom "ate" bao when they were on the verge of breaking their relationship.
- What were the stakes?
- Son leaving with fiance
- Can you identify them as internal, external or philosophical?
- Internal - breaking relationship, external - son leaving home
To Do:
Develop character from the story ideas that you have
generated from previous progression (Story Ideas) to
character description statement.
- Give character a name
- Develop his/her personality traits, use ‘elevator test’ as a scenario.
- Develop his/her internal and external features.
- Develop his/her internal and external obstacles.
- Develop character’s wants and needs.
- Develop character’s change as a result from overcoming obstacles
Deliverables:
1. Character description that include all the information
above.
Deadline:
- Week 4 (to propose and discuss with lecturer)
Character development:
Name: Sullivan Keen/ Sully (maid) & Coworkers (Bellboy &
Butler)
general storyline: Overworked maid just wants to eat her
strawberry cake but she gets overwhelmed by work and too
stubborn to speak up. Tries doing all the work herself through
spite until all the bottled up anger explodes on her
coworkers/boss.
Responsible, Stubborn, Independent, Spiteful, Considerate,
Sharp, Quiet. Workaholic, Sweet Tooth? If she were in the
elevator problem, they would be in silence for 5 minutes to see
if it fixes itself. Then she would start cursing about who
didn't do proper maintenance. She would try fixing it herself
for more than an hour. If it doesn't work she'll get frustrated
and click the helpline button as a last resort since there's no
choice anymore. When helps arrive, she might just have a poker
face and leave silently, but very angry and cursing in her
mind.
What if a maid in a fantasy world? A goat person since goats are
very stubborn and smart. She dresses neat, surprisingly girly
but doesn't overdo it as they value professionalism. Wears twin
ponytails that curl into circles, has pink wavy hair and trimmed
straight bangs. Has a drowsy disinterested look.
Internal Obstacles: Very spiteful but stubborn to ask for help,
but can't leave the work unfinished before enjoying herself.
External Obstacles: Irresponsible and forgetful coworkers.
Someone eating her cake. Oblivious boss that didn't know she was
overworking.
She wants to enjoy her strawberry cake freely without having any
work in the way. She needs to finish all the work because it's
her job.
Learns to ask for help in the end or speak up about her
coworkers being irresponsible. It turns out they just weren't
aware that they were inconveniencing her job and that.
Ending: Coworkers and boss helps to reduce workload and she gets
to finally enjoy her cake. But her cake was half eaten by
someone. She's FUMINGGGG
Alternate ending: Coworkers felt bad and it ends at them all
together at a bakery/cafe.
Feedback:
Too complicated and doesn't really show the character
development throughout the story. Can make the cake the focus
and add more maids to be the one being main character's
obstacles.
Project 1: Progression 2
Revised Story:
Title (Placeholder): Strawberry Cake.
Main Character: Sullivan Keen
Main Personality Trait: Introverted, Perfectionist
Main Antagonist: Unnamed Maid
Other Characters: The master (owner of the place), Unnamed
Maid's friends.
Synopsis: Sully (Sullivan Keen) a reserved and hardworking maid,
just wants to eat her strawberry cake. However, someone keeps
eating it before she can. She tried putting a note and even
hiding it in the corner of the fridge, but it didn't work.
Deprived of her cake, the quiet Sully exploded at her careless
coworker that was caught eating the strawberry cake in
question.
WEEK 3
Story Spine:
Apply Story Spine in your story based on the structure.
Act 1:
- Once Upon a time...A quiet maid named Sully wants to eat her strawberry cake after work.
- Every day...She didn't get to eat the cake because it always goes missing by the end of the day but she was afraid to ask where it was.
- Until one day...She found out someone has been eating the cake.
Act 2:
- Because of that...She tried putting a note with her name on the cake
- Because of that...She puts the cake in a sewing tin to disguise it
- Because of that...She wraps the cake that she received as a gift in a cloth and hides it in the corner of the fridge.
Act 3:
- Until finally...she caught the fellow maid that was eating her cake. She exploded at the cake thief.
- And ever since then...She spoke up more during work and even became friends with the cake thief.
- The moral of the story is...Sully learned to speak up more and becomes more confident in communicating with the other maids.
WEEK 4
Slides:
Fig. 1.7. W4 Slides
Notes:
Patent your script:
- Mail/Post to yourself
- Meet Commissioner of Oath
PROGRESSION 4
Story Beat Sheet:
Beat Sheet
Title: The Missing Cake
Beginning:
Sullivan, a maid, found out the cake she bought was stolen. And saw Reese, another maid eating her cake.
Middle:
She was afraid to confront Reese so she tried many ways to hide it but it was still gone by the end of the day.
Twist:
Finally, her bottled up emotions exploded at Reese and punched her in the face.
End:
Reese buys her another cake the next day and apologizes.
WEEK 5
Slides:
Fig. 1.8. W5 Slides
Notes:
Patent your script:
- Mail/Post to yourself
- Meet Commissioner of Oath
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