COLLABORATION

Projects I collaborated on during the FMP Unit.

For my first collaboration, I worked with Victoria Tang, a storyboard and Previs artist, on their Final Major Project "Forget Me Not". The story was of a mechanical doll in a post-apocalyptic world searching for the flowers of its creators.

Establishing Victoria's Vision

Victoria developed storyboards of their project and presented a narrative unfolding. They had the main action of Act 2 and the resolution of Act 3 completed and wanted to collaborate on Act 1 and the prologue of the story, since they recognised the exposition of their story was not as effective. Below are the boards we discussed on their story unfolding.

In my research of scriptwriting, I encountered a podcast about the differences between board-driven and script-driven storytelling. While I focus more on scripted narrative, Victoria focused on board-driven workflow so I would need to reflect my writing to fit their ideas. I encountered posts on Tumblr from Owen Dennis (Regular Show, Infinity Train) and Ben Levin (Craig of the Creek, Steven Universe) on Outline Writing for board-driven workflows, where writers focus on the general story whereas board artists handling detailing and dialogue. An outline provides the story and a clearer vision, but the outline's details are more of a suggestion rather than a rigid one-to-one script to screen creation.

This is how many Cartoon Network shows are written: through outlines and boards rather than your typical script-board pipeline. (Both linked examples are added here as immediate visual examples: first is Owen Dennis's discussion on how to approach outline writing, then Ben Levin's example of a board driven outline from Steven Universe.)

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Victoria provided me with the original concept of the project the narrative was based on (the document below). Further down, I broke down aspects of the story that were important: the Exposition, the story elements which were important but not explicit in the narrative; and the Narrative, which is the actual story the audience would be experincing.

Unfortunately, I could not meet the target since I fell ill that week. So I instead communicated the issue and would revert back when I was better. When I contacted them again (13/2) we re-evaluated the aspects of interest and if there were any changes made. There were none, so I began developing the outline.

Below is the first draft of the script. The language I used is open ended and direct, which is left for Victoria's interpretation. Outline writing focuses more on providing character motivation and the big aspects of the narrative. The detailing and visuals are for Victoria to interpret. I very specifically had to avoid sentences that were too vague but gave a clear image.

Victoria read the draft and had a note about the language used for "disappeared in a flash" compared to their vision. I corrected this later to "fading with the sunlight", since using the same language as Victoria will make the visual more clear to them.

After I finished my collaboration with Victoria, I spoke to Jenisha Mohanlal, another animation student whose roles are focused on modelling and texturing in 3D. She was starting to struggle with her story so I offered we collaborate on the story so she has a clear vision on how to bring her idea to life.

Establishing Jenisha's Vision

I started off with Jenisha by establishing a few things about their FMP: non-negotiables, elements they want to explore, tone/genre, and any images in their mind for the project. These three things would give me a good understanding of what Jenisha's aims are and how I can translate their vision into words for the screen. Below is the document I noted details on, outlining these things and streamlining certain ideas and experimentations.

For our next steps, I organised with Jenisha on the next steps we need for her project:

Greenlight from our tutors on the ideas discussed,
A character that fits this world she's modelled and created; and
A pedestrian path (an overview of her characters movement through the space) of how her character interacts with the environment.

Meanwhile, I would create a draft of her story outline based on her projection for the layout pass we discussed for the project, and based on tutor discussion, we would be more flexible with the story if necessary.

Since we were presenting our work done for projects on the following Tuesday, we organised to meet up again on Monday (18th March) then rescheduled to Friday (22nd March) to communicate new developments or ideas as a general catch up for our collaboration, as well as outlining any elements that are working or any corrections to the story outline she would like improved on.

However, on Tuesday (19th March) we had presentations and our tutors reviewed Jenisha's work to help with ideas to communicate what could be a way to move forward with her story and her environment. Our tutors said the environment feels too clean, and adding additional details to make the environment feel more alive like dirty dishes in the sink or a cigarette tray with smoke coming out of it. When speaking about the animation, they reminded her that the camera counts as animation, so she could explore the environments with a camera to convince the audience that the character was just here a few moments ago. Jenisha and I confirmed we would meet on Friday to discuss her narrative and her ideas after the presentation review.

Revising Jenisha's Vision

Jenisha and I met for our second meeting and we spoke about new ideas she had after he presentation and how we can show that. Since she will now have no characters in her FMP, the outline I will write will focus more on descriptive changes in the environment, which will be a fun challenge for me considering I focus on character arcs and storytelling through living characters and dialogue.

Jenisha spoke about how she did the Pedestrian Path and rearranged her environment to fit how her "character" would move about the space. She also said the shared document we had where I noted all her ideas were really helpful and really helped her focus her thoughts and reassess priorities when deciding to model a new object for her environment.

For the story itself, she really liked our tutors suggestion of using cameras and a three-act structure, so we brainstormed how we could implement that. A three-act structure focuses on exposition, rising tension to a climax, then falling action. One of our ideas we discussed was showing how the character feels and how the environment changes the reflecting emotions. e.g. Act 1 shows a half-eaten plate, then Act 2 shows a sink filled with dirty dishes.

Based on that idea, I asked her to share a list of assets she has done and which assets she is yet to do. I asked her which assets she wants to show off, since the camera will emphasise this. She listed the TV, Gramophone, Workstation, and Telephone; which I will make sure to outline as priority objects. Below is the pdf of our discussion and exploration.

Outline Draft

Before our next meeting, I completed the first draft of the outline based on our discussions. Since Jenisha emphasised her interest in the three-act structure, I divided the outline accordingly similar to Victoria's. By distinguishing them by black screens and audios, it can efficiently communicate to the audience of three separate points in time. Since the environment is very stylised, by having the ending focus on the blue sky of the outer world, the intention is for the sense of hope and new beginnings.

Third Meeting

Jenisha and I initially planned to discuss on Friday 29th March, but due to miscommunication on both our ends, we missed the allotted time and rescheduled to Tuesday 2nd April. I asked her to look over the outline draft before our Tuesday meeting to address any concerns or issues to be resolved. On 1st April, the day before our meeting, Jenisha messaged me certain notes she had about the First Draft. Her main concern was with the hatch, based on concerns of time constraints, which we would discuss further during our third meeting. I quickly explained my rationale for the emphasis on it, and agreed to have the new draft done in time for the meeting the following day to reflect her vision. For our meeting, Jenisha and I has a quick wrap up and fixed corrections for the final draft.

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Final Outline

Here is the final Outline I made and sent to Jenisha to conclude our collaboration on her project during our third meeting.

SIDigital Animation

COLLABORATION