Thumbnails V2

Got some great feedback from the class again (seriously, you're all amazing human beings) and I've taken another crack at this thumbnailing thing. This version ended up having way more character interaction than the first one and I think it's much stronger as a result. The previous version, looking back, really lacked in the relationship building aspect and was more about hitting story points than developing a dynamic between the characters. Can't wait to have this story all straightened out so I can go to sleep at night...

Thumbnails

Took a little longer than intended but here are the thumbnails. Really looking forward to seeing how people react to these! Click on them to embiggen.

In  these boards I have the screw in the machine sequence unbroken. I want to talk to people about this before making any changes but in an animatic the screw sequence would probably be inter-cut with the going back to the room sequence.

The explosion sequence will probably also be inter-cut, making it more dramatic. The way it is currently presented is also confusing, since it would be logical to assume that the worker blown away by the explosion is the bully robot seeing as how I've cut from the bully going out the door to a hallway. This bit needs work.

Also not happy about the peering out the door action being used three times. Twice is okay, but I need a different action for the old robot to perform, or to change the gag.

Beat Boards

Alright, here is the first batch of beat boards!

Beat one: Introducing the protagonist and antagonist, along with demonstrating their jobs and the old robots troubles with it.

Beat two:  Well, this can't be good.

Beat three: Bully character mocking imitates the Old Robot crushing the parts to the other workers

Beat Four: I'm continuing to change the disaster trigger, currently sitting on the idea of a character who moves boxes around with a trolley. He carelessly flings his trolley into the storage room which will probably knock something over or cause a chain reaction of some sort.

 Beat five: continuation of above scene, but I need to do more thinking/research before settling on the specific trigger.

Beat six: Escape! Old robot lifts the doors and moves debris to help the others escape.

Beat seven: Rescuing the bully character.

Beat eight: The noble sacrifice, tossing the bully forward to save him.

This is a first pass so I'm looking forward to the feedback from the class to help me make something great!

Character Inspiration

We're doing storyboarding first but I'm just going to start dumping images here that might help me develop my main character designs later.

New Robot Reference

P-Body and Atlas (Portal 2)

That one Bjork video, you know the one.

Cylons (Battlestar Galactica 2004)

Tachikomas (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex)

Old Robot Reference

Rattletrap, the Clockwerk (Dota 2)

The Iron Giant

Mech Suit (Reset)

SPACE HULK (Warhammer 40,000)

Bullet Points

Just writing down some potential modifications in this post as an archive (since I'm so forgetful)

- Change factory floor to classroom sized setting to save on rendering/animation.

- Develop bully character who stands out from the other small robots and perpetrates most of the ill will towards the older robot. Have this bully character be the one rescued in the last act to strengthen impact of old robot's sacrifice. Hopefully this isn't too cliche.

- Reworking the mechanic by which the disaster occurs. The way it occurs now seems overlong and too complicated and maybe just a little unconvincing. In the end the way the disaster occurs isn't necessarily important (I think?) and shouldn't take more screen time than necessary.

- Is demonstrating the factory's history or indeed giving it history at all necessary? Are the visual cues that distinguish the old robot from his co-workers and his environment enough for the sake of a short film that a 'why' doesn't need to be explained, or does the message become muddled and confusing (and not as strong) without knowing the history?

Spitting Story Ideas

I got a lot of great feedback from people in class during our latest pitch session, and I've incorporated that feedback along with my ideas to create a rough narrative outline of my prospective grad film. It should be noted that this most likely isn't how events will be depicted in the film but is more of a general outline of the major ideas which will be present in the film's narrative.

First, an outline of the narratives background;

Unit 57 (his name for the sake of writing this, I don't plan on having expressed character names in the film) is clumsy, brutish and slow compared to his current co-workers, but it wasn't always that way. 57 is the last of his kind employed at the local manufacturing plant, a factory that produces cube components. Initially the factory produced large scale components and thus hired robot workers with the attributes to assemble these large, heavy pieces. As technology advanced, however, the cubes became smaller and more delicate, requiring a gentle precision that most of the workers simply did not possess. As the months progressed more workers were fired for their inability to meet the quota and more of a new kind of robot were brought on to replace them. These new robots, with their smaller hands and lighter limbs, could manufacture cubes at a much greater rate and without accidentally destroying components in their haste.

This next part is more just spitting out the general events which will lead to the climax and end of the film. Prior to this scene I plan to have more of a focus on Unit 57 and his interactions, or lack thereof, with his co-workers and his struggles with his work.

Unit 57 enters the blindingly white factory floor, angling his body in an awkward manner in order to get his broad frame through the small door. He trudges over to his position on the line, taking care to avoid the other workers, who come up barely past his knee, as they rush by him and to their own stations. 57 knows, that like every day at the factory, he will be staying well past the time that his co-workers leave, working into the night in order to complete his designated quota.

After several hours 57 has finally completed his first shipment's worth of cubes. As 57 closes the first cardboard box stacked with cubes he looks to his right to see his co-worker has six similar boxes prepared and is already working away diligently on his seventh. Standing from his station to retrieve another cardboard box, 57 turns and immediately crashes into a trolley carrying completed shipments, sending the boxes and their precious innards spraying across the factory floor. The small robot working beside 57 is snapped out of his concentration by the disturbance, frightened so badly by the cacophony of noise that he has unwittingly leaked oil onto the pristine factory floor. Embarrassed and flustered, the small robot quickly wipes up the spillage with a rag and, not wanting the others to know about his accident, pries up a floor panel beside him and tosses the rag into the depths. Glancing over, the small robot sees that the entire factory floor is staring at 57 as he feebly attempts to pick up the fallen pieces while being loudly berated by the worker whose trolley he knocked over. The small robot returns to his work, ignoring the events surrounding him and concentrating on going home.

The oiled rag previously tossed beneath the factory floor lands atop a bundle of exposed wires, quickly igniting into a small fire. Fed by the plastic encasing the wires, the fire travels beneath the floor, silently wandering the length and breadth of the entire factory. Eventually the fire reaches the chemical disposal room, where it comes in contact with an explosive material. The result is a massive explosion that levels the surrounding rooms and weakens the structure of the building.

From the factory floor a great boom is heard in the distance but there is no obvious threat. Curious, workers look up from their tasks and exchange glances. Suddenly the normal glaring lights of the factory floor are extinguished and replaced with a red light and blaring sirens. Workers get up from their stations and begin gathering, attempting to puzzle out their current situation. All at once, chaos breaks loose as gouts of flame erupt from the floor. The workers panic and rush for the door only to find it sealed shut by emergency protocol. Watching as the small robots bang their hands uselessly on the metal door, 57 steps forward and pries the doors apart with great effort.

Now spilling out of the door and rushing towards the exit, 57 is distracted by a cry he hears coming down a hall. He runs down the hall searching for the sound and comes upon a small robot partially buried in rubble and unable to get up. Digging out the robot and carrying him in one giant hand, 57 runs back towards the exit as the building is collapsing around him. Realizing that his heavy, slow legs cannot outpace the rapidly deteriorating structure, 57 uses all of his might to slide the robot in his hand down the hallway floor and out of the exit. Now outside with the others, the small robot skids to a stop as the exit behind him collapses. The workers now see that a majority of the factory has been destroyed, and that all of the floor employees reached safety, save for one.

... Boy, did this just get a lot more expensive to produce.

Considering the Aesthetic

 I feel that there are two possible aesthetics for my film. There's the ultra-clean, antiseptic look with smooth, shiny surfaces and one dimensional colour palette as exemplified by the image above. The other option I am considering is a more natural color scheme, creating the factory building out of earth tones and then off-setting that with more colorful machines and colorful robot workers. It would be lit with natural light from the outside or warmer indoor lights as opposed to the stark, bright white lights of the McLaren factory seen above. The image below comes close to what I imagine, though the factory in the film will not be abandoned.

Whichever environment I choose, its main purpose will be to reinforce the narrative's ideas of contrast. In this I believe I have two main options. Option one is to demonstrate in the film the transition of the factory from its original, more colorful and natural state to its aseptic state. In this version it is the old robot that is the visible outsider, as his design and aesthetic will match the original factory's visuals more than the modern factory. The downsides to this option are that it will take time and narrative exposition in order to communicate the idea of the transition from old to high-tech. The other, larger issue is that it necessitates the creation of two or more sets, with additional props on top of that probably needed to fully realize the idea visually.

The comparatively more simple idea would be to keep the lower-tech looking factory and instead insert the modern robot workers into that set, making them the visual outsiders. I feel like this is the stronger option, as it gets the same idea across in the narrative in a method that is far less costly to produce. It also reinforces the idea that the new workers are the intruders into the old robot's space, and that the original workers, perhaps unjustly, were driven away from their jobs in the name of efficiency. If nothing else I feel that the modern, white and shiny factory has been done to death in science-fiction media and is overall aesthetically boring.