Dreamscape Project Evaluation
Research
Research was difficult for me as I was so well versed in the
genre and had explored it at great length before, writing about new things to research
was trickier than I had imagined. I tried to use examples to write about that
were well known, but I tried to push myself to find ones that are often
overlooked, or hold more significance from a technological stand point. I also
didn’t want to abandon my favourites either as they were easier for me to
critique, hence why they take the front seat in the historical and contemporary
examples. However, I'm glad I did so much research into the types of dreams them selves as it turned out they would play an incredibly large part in my final film.
After looking into the more text heavy areas of research; I watched films and took pictures to help expand my ideas further.
At this point I had some very basic plans and ideas, but nothing solid however after watching: Inception, Paprika, The Number 23, and even playingthe video game 'Assassins Creed' I got a much better idea of what I wanted to create. I wanted to take the scientific aspects of Paprika and 'Assassins Creed', and combine it with the real life consequences of 'The Number 23' but I didn want the bizare story of inception as I wanted an easy to follow world and storyline for the viewer to watch.
Visiting Hawes also helped me as we took night and day photos and it helped get a feel for locations and how there decorations tie into eachother to create a world as apposed to just a set.
My final research was into transitions, and as I had been well aquainted with these before, I created a transition test piece to refresh my memory and it was about the creation of a mecha godzilla. I muted the sounds of each video clip and found new audio to put in its place that used jump cuts, fades, and dissolves to complete it.
I wish I could have done more in depth research for this film but overall, I think I did suffient work to carry my film through to planning and production.
Script
After the research I made some basic ideas up of ideas I could go with for this project. But after wrestling with a couple others I was set on a drug that induced dreams instead.
This idea stayed pretty consistent throughtout and ony changed if I was getting too ambitious. After that I plotted out a very basic plot in my sketchbook as well as the opening scene and some preliminary characters; I then plotted out the plot in further detail on blogger and critiqued myself accordingly. With the final storyline plotted I began to turn it into a script.
Final Production
After looking into the more text heavy areas of research; I watched films and took pictures to help expand my ideas further.
At this point I had some very basic plans and ideas, but nothing solid however after watching: Inception, Paprika, The Number 23, and even playingthe video game 'Assassins Creed' I got a much better idea of what I wanted to create. I wanted to take the scientific aspects of Paprika and 'Assassins Creed', and combine it with the real life consequences of 'The Number 23' but I didn want the bizare story of inception as I wanted an easy to follow world and storyline for the viewer to watch.
Visiting Hawes also helped me as we took night and day photos and it helped get a feel for locations and how there decorations tie into eachother to create a world as apposed to just a set.
My final research was into transitions, and as I had been well aquainted with these before, I created a transition test piece to refresh my memory and it was about the creation of a mecha godzilla. I muted the sounds of each video clip and found new audio to put in its place that used jump cuts, fades, and dissolves to complete it.
I wish I could have done more in depth research for this film but overall, I think I did suffient work to carry my film through to planning and production.
Script
After the research I made some basic ideas up of ideas I could go with for this project. But after wrestling with a couple others I was set on a drug that induced dreams instead.
This idea stayed pretty consistent throughtout and ony changed if I was getting too ambitious. After that I plotted out a very basic plot in my sketchbook as well as the opening scene and some preliminary characters; I then plotted out the plot in further detail on blogger and critiqued myself accordingly. With the final storyline plotted I began to turn it into a script.
The full script for ‘Chimera’ was easily the most erratic one
I’ve ever worked on. The idea was firm in my head after watching related films, I
wanted to combine science and fantasy, which are two of my favourite genres
anyway, into an epic story of corruption and the pressure to do what’s right.
However after many obstacles it became a much internalised struggle which was
brought out through the trials and tribulations of my Main Character, Noelle
Sarr.
The opening scene was the first one I wrote when the idea
struck, as such it has been the least changed as well. I liked the idea of a
slow, relaxed, start to my film, where everything is set up gradually and it’s
an easy to follow introduction to the main character, her sidekick, and their
general personalities.
However from the first scene I toyed with there being a team
of heroes, the story following the villain instead, the story being full of
action, the story being romantic; but I’m happy with the mix I ended up
settling on.
After that, I struggled a lot with solidifying details of the plot. I
knew I wanted a drug ring, and some sort of showdown in the end with the main
character being forced to act alone to save the town; but the raised more
issues than it inspired so I ended up trying all kinds of plots, some of which
I tried visiting toward the end but failed spectacularly at.
This rushed plot wasn’t helped either by the time schedule.
As I kept going back and forth between plot, and swapping out scene after
scene, I ended up have a rough story to go along with when it came to designing
the world that would feature in the final film, hence why some documents will
feature incorrect names, plot elements that didn’t make the cut, and sometimes
lines that would be cut as well. It’s because of this that I also went through
several design changes of characters, but that will be explained in a separate
evaluation, as this didn’t impact my story as the personalities were very solid
throughout my planning.
Once I had a plot I was happy with, scenes 2-6 were fairly
easy to write, it was easy to string plot point to plot point, and the
characters solid personalities made interactions easier to write, however since
still hadn’t written a solid finale I kept having to plan it out in more and
more detail to get it to string together properly.
This again caused lots of issues as I toyed again with an
action filled finale, but realised this was out of character for Noelle. Then I
wanted a full only dream finale, but realised this would be stretching science
in ways that even fiction couldn’t explain. I even considered making Jay turn
into the protagonist and have him be the hero, but this felt like a cheat to
the viewer, especially after learning about Noelle for the whole film; they
simply wouldn’t end up relating to Jay at all and the final would be
useless. This eventually culminated in
me not wanting to the finish the script whatsoever.
I felt it lacked, motivation, character, and general
excitement’ and after having so many problems trying to figure it out, I hated
writing it, it felt like a chore and I didn’t want to continue with something I
didn’t feel in any way proud of. I had even cut the script in half and tried to
make a new script about the crazy day of the dream pill company and how
everything goes wrong, but it was also a train wreck. I was trying to cram too
much into too little time and I knew I had a script which made more sense and
was way more likely to be salvaged if I just sought after the right help.
But thankfully I had a saviour.
After a couple hours of on and off working on the script, I
got talking to a friend on skype and I asked her for help. We discussed plot
issues, and where I wanted the film to go; then I imported the script onto
google docs where we worked on it simultaneously.
We added a new scene after she told me that the junction
between scenes 9 and 10 felt a little rushed, like the pacing had mixed up and
it had jumped too suddenly; and so a cool down scene was added. Then we went through the final scene again,
adjusted dialogue and discussed the final scene at great length. We agreed we
wanted to incorporate her fears and have her emotional fears come to light, we
wanted her to use mind games on Axel, and have him flip the table and have him
use them on her tenfold which would push her over the edge and force her end
it.
We then went on to discuss the backstory of Noelle in detail
even including a separate twist of having her hiding memories of her abusive
mother as a child.
We even came up with a separate backstory for her mother
about how she fell madly in love with a young man, but when she became pregnant
he didn’t want a kid, he ended up abandoning them both. Then her mother was
left to fend for herself after her parents wouldn’t help their unwed pregnant
daughter, and eventually her mother would go on to hate her child and blame her
for the life she had; and Noelle, cursed with horrible nightmares of her
mother’s rage every night, would grow to aid dream research to cure patients
suffering depression, ptsd, and similar problems much quicker. This also would
lead into why she gets so distraught when her mutual dream pill is rejected.
This backstory however ended up getting scrapped, and although
we kept her mother single, we felt her death being more out of love was better
to make it a more emotional ending for Noelle.
It also gave us a
much better death for the character of Axel. Originally, I wanted Noelle to use
her knowledge on brains to have chemical warfare in the dream against Axel;
where she could restrict his oxygen supply, paralyze him, and eventually be
pushed to kill him when he plays the same tricks. However I didn’t like this as
it made the main character voluntarily kill someone, although this was in
self-defence, it felt out of character for her. But with the new revised
ending, making Axel’s death, accidental and more heat of the moment, it worked
much better for her. It showed her emotional vulnerability in much rawer form,
and helped establish her better as the good guy and main protagonist as well as
establish Axel as a definitive bad guy.
I’m also proud of the ending I wrote and how I transitioned
it back into the real world. We had written the transition and I decided to give
it a feeling of distance from reality, like walking but not really touching the
ground, but having her staring blankly with sirens quietly glaring in the
distance. I wanted her to get up, realise she killed Axel, lay back down and
shut her eyes. But I think the addition of making her sob quietly what
necessary to make the weight of everything settle properly, I think if she had
been dragged through and emotional hell and accidently killed someone in the
process, having her be emotionally dead was illogical. It just wouldn’t happen
to her, or really anyone like her. She was too emotionally raw of a person in
the first place to be stifled like that.
But I think I have written a good script for the time I was
allowed, even though I spent too long it when I look back. I know I definitely
wouldn’t have been able to finish it nearly as confidently without help and I’m
glad I sought it. I’m proud of the way I wrote the characters and I think I
distinguished them well as separate people and wrote their interactions
believably. I would have liked a longer script, and more time to sort out the
pacing and beginning as I feel they could have used a bit more padding to make
the make the action bits feel more justified, but I know there’s nothing I can
really change now.
In the future, I would like to continue with this script and
develop it further into the original 60/90 minute film I had envisioned, but I
am generally proud of what I have created for this brief.
Final Production
Designing the world
After the creation of the script, the second step was to
draw out the designs for each of the characters.
As I had already written the script, by the end of it I had
already had firm ideas for the designs of each character and even the locations
formed in my head.
I began by designing the main character first as I had the
best idea of how she should look, which included her: height, age, weight,
measurements, and personal style. However, after I drew her up digitally, I had
issues figuring out her colour scheme. I initially wanted her to be fair
skinned, with fiery red hair, and brown eyes; but this colour scheme didn’t
work with the sets I had envisioned, as her fair skin would easily blend in
with the white, sterile scientific location and make her more difficult to make
out in a scene. So to combat this I tried out 4 different colour schemes and
compared them to the character I had written to see if they both stood out
visually as well as match the characters personality. From this I decided upon
the final colour scheme and even changed her name to fit her look better; her
name is a combination of nationalities with her first name, Noelle, being
French and her last name, Sarr, being African .After sketching out her design in my sketchbook I animated a small scene of her as rough animation test to get a feel for colour schemes and the design of the world. Although this test features a photographed background, this idea changed at the end as I felt that it took the viewer out of film and immersed them less.
After designing Noelle, I went about designing her
assistant, Jay. As I had written him as an awkward, but very intelligent, young
student, I wanted to reflect this in his design. I made him fairly skinny, and
fairly slouched to disguise his height slightly. This is because, although
realistically he would be the same height or taller than Noelle (to show them
as equals), he would come off as smaller and more submissive compared to
Noelle. However I did want to show his potential to be confident, his want to
be confident, which I achieved through his hairstyle, with a more rebellious
shaved side, and designer glasses as well as his general fashion sense with
slogan shirts, skinny jeans, and sneakers.
With the main protagonists designed, I went straight to the
villain afterwards. With his backstory hinted at, I had a much more rounded
idea of what I wanted Axel to look like. I wanted him to be very delusional
about his own self-worth and confidence. He has a background of being bullied,
bullying others, doing drugs, then dealing, then supplying, dealing with lots
of assholes and double crossers on the way; that is until he gets really lucky
with the altered chimera and then he considers himself a mastermind of drugs
and crime, hence why I dressed him in a sharp suit. But I definitely didn’t
want to lose this rough background, so I gave him piercings, a neck tattoo, and
styled, but still messy hair. I also ended up giving him Noelles original
colour scheme to transfer the feeling of him blending him but have his
personality be rough and uncut to show his desperation to be recognised more.
After the villain, I did some preliminary sketches of other
characters such as baby Noelle, her mother, and the chief of police but these
were basic and were largely based on more stereotypical characters of time
eras; Such as baby Noelle as a typical 80’s kid, her mother as s more 1930’s
styled mother, and the chief of police as the typical 50’s uniform styling and
hierarchy.
When I finally had all the drawings figured out, I used the
website polyvore to create the outfits each of the main characters would wear
in each scene. This really helps with storyboards and animation as having a
reference speeds up the process of drawing, it also makes the world more
realistic as the clothing is based on real designs and pieces that people with
the same budget as the character would wear.
And with the outfits designed I even managed to find a website online that allowed users to plan out floor plans, which helped me make the locations for each scene and help each shot be more consitent and solidify the world as whole with the ability to include furniture as well to give each main location a feel and a pressence when drawn.
After the real world, I also wanted to plan out the dream world to some extent as well by experimentnig on photoshop with settings to make neon styled outlines and designing the clown masks that would end up chasing Noelle down the hallway. This really helped me expand on the general theme of the dream world an what sort of extent it could reach.
And with the outfits designed I even managed to find a website online that allowed users to plan out floor plans, which helped me make the locations for each scene and help each shot be more consitent and solidify the world as whole with the ability to include furniture as well to give each main location a feel and a pressence when drawn.
After the real world, I also wanted to plan out the dream world to some extent as well by experimentnig on photoshop with settings to make neon styled outlines and designing the clown masks that would end up chasing Noelle down the hallway. This really helped me expand on the general theme of the dream world an what sort of extent it could reach.
In conclusion, I’m pleased with the designs I created for
the characters and the locations. I think I represented their personalities well in their visual
designs and extended their personalities well in what they will end up wearing
in the final film. If I had more time I would have liked to spend more time
figuring out colour schemes as I feel like they don’t tie together well and
lack general theme to tie the film together. I would also have liked to spend a
bit more time expanding on Axel as a child as well as Noelle too because I also
didn’t have enough time to fully explore their backgrounds and their
characters. Locations wise, I would have liked to plan each location out extensively and make extensive top down scene plans for each, but I made enough to be content with and they were detailed enough to speed up the drawing process when making my final film.
Final Production
This is sadly where I started to lose control of my film. As I had spent longer than I would have wanted maknig the script, I was pressed for time to record teh dialogue and as such the original plans for recording are off and very inaccurate.
The recordings for Dan as the Chief of Police, and Carl as Jay, actually went incredibly smooth and I even though I suffered from loss of data on the dictaphone every so often, it was sorted out fairly quickly and I had their lines from very early one.
Getting the lines for Axel was alittle tricky as I had to wok mine ad lukes schedules around eachother so that he could be in my film, but these kinks were worked out soon enough and I ended up with all his lines also recorded and ready.
Recording Noelles however was a disaster. The original actress I had planned to use wasn't available for 2 weeks after I originally planned and then cancelled on me all together, so I took a couple preliminary takes of lines she gave me as an audition and compared them live to my back up actress. However she was also forced to quit after a week due to scheduling issues. In the end I recorded the lines myself as a back up so I wouold end up with something to edit with.#
Each recording was done in a make shift booth to attain minimal background noise, and a familiar environment for the actors. The recordings themselves were very successful and although some retakes were necassary, every line was achieved.
After getting the vocal I started drawing up the storyboards. To help me with this, on the script I printed I roughly timed how long weach page would last to get a feel for what the final time would be, then I planned out how many story boards I woulod need for the final film. This came out to 246 which took an incredibly long time to draw. As such my final edit suffered, I had no time to animate and had to make an animatic with the storyboards and lines I had. This however also took up a lot of time too so I made a half edit up to scene 7 instead. However I still think this shows the basic idea for my film too, especially to the lines. It helped me see beter what I was too create and also helped me figure out the timings more precisely.
I would import the storyboards from photoshop as a .png nito Sony Vegas 13, cut and trim each take seperately then use either the vocals or visual markers in program to mark out how long certain shots or movements would last. This was then rendered as a wmv and uploaded to youtube.
I am severely dissappointed that I didnt get to finalise my animatic to the end, or even get to animate any of it. I think in hindsight I was over ambitious but as previous attempts at shortening the script had failed, I worked with the idea I preffered and realised to the level I wanted it at. Im incredibly thankful that put as much planning as I did into it, and I'm thankfull forthe research as it gave me a well rounded story with bases in real scientific fact to help sell the realism of my film; it also reflected its inspirations well without directly taking from them or seeming too unoriginal. I also think I created well thought out characters both visually and in writing. With more time I think I could have made a serious short film that encapsulated what I think about dreamscapes.
Final Production
This is sadly where I started to lose control of my film. As I had spent longer than I would have wanted maknig the script, I was pressed for time to record teh dialogue and as such the original plans for recording are off and very inaccurate.
The recordings for Dan as the Chief of Police, and Carl as Jay, actually went incredibly smooth and I even though I suffered from loss of data on the dictaphone every so often, it was sorted out fairly quickly and I had their lines from very early one.
Getting the lines for Axel was alittle tricky as I had to wok mine ad lukes schedules around eachother so that he could be in my film, but these kinks were worked out soon enough and I ended up with all his lines also recorded and ready.
Recording Noelles however was a disaster. The original actress I had planned to use wasn't available for 2 weeks after I originally planned and then cancelled on me all together, so I took a couple preliminary takes of lines she gave me as an audition and compared them live to my back up actress. However she was also forced to quit after a week due to scheduling issues. In the end I recorded the lines myself as a back up so I wouold end up with something to edit with.#
Each recording was done in a make shift booth to attain minimal background noise, and a familiar environment for the actors. The recordings themselves were very successful and although some retakes were necassary, every line was achieved.
After getting the vocal I started drawing up the storyboards. To help me with this, on the script I printed I roughly timed how long weach page would last to get a feel for what the final time would be, then I planned out how many story boards I woulod need for the final film. This came out to 246 which took an incredibly long time to draw. As such my final edit suffered, I had no time to animate and had to make an animatic with the storyboards and lines I had. This however also took up a lot of time too so I made a half edit up to scene 7 instead. However I still think this shows the basic idea for my film too, especially to the lines. It helped me see beter what I was too create and also helped me figure out the timings more precisely.
I would import the storyboards from photoshop as a .png nito Sony Vegas 13, cut and trim each take seperately then use either the vocals or visual markers in program to mark out how long certain shots or movements would last. This was then rendered as a wmv and uploaded to youtube.
I am severely dissappointed that I didnt get to finalise my animatic to the end, or even get to animate any of it. I think in hindsight I was over ambitious but as previous attempts at shortening the script had failed, I worked with the idea I preffered and realised to the level I wanted it at. Im incredibly thankful that put as much planning as I did into it, and I'm thankfull forthe research as it gave me a well rounded story with bases in real scientific fact to help sell the realism of my film; it also reflected its inspirations well without directly taking from them or seeming too unoriginal. I also think I created well thought out characters both visually and in writing. With more time I think I could have made a serious short film that encapsulated what I think about dreamscapes.
