Ghostbuster Film Clip Storyboard

I sat down this afternoon and looked at the one minute clip I have chosen for my Film Clip story and then I drew this:

It took a lot longer then I thought it would but I really enjoyed do it. Its rather relaxing to sit and analyse a minute from a film that you enjoy.

Mega Super Resolved Story

Act 1:
A burglar sneaks through an overcrowded metropolis. The burglar is wearing a stereotypical striped outfit with a large 'Swag' Bag draped over his shoulder. The Police search around for the man in question. The Burglar is merely passing through the back alleys until he spies a low wall with no security. He throws his swag bag over the wall first to cushion his fall. He vaults over the wall and picks up his swag bad. He sees a door that is ajar. He slips through into the dark store.

Act 2:
The cash register sits in the distant with a stream of moonlight over it. A heavenly choir plays as Burglar gets a distinct feeling of money (Dollar Bill signs like a slot machine roll through his eyes). He creeps (exaggerate) across the shop floor until... his foot slowly deflates a rubber chicken which sets of a chain of events. The deflated chicken lets a piece of string go slack, allowing a fake bowling ball to fall against the wall, tugging on the security alarm. Distressed, Burglar turns to flee but a boxing glove on a spring fly's out of a wall hitting the burglar in the face. As he stumbles and tries to regain his footing, his hands land on some fly paper that is on display. With the fly paper stuck, he randomly flails his arms around to remove the paper but instead gets itching powder packets attached to his hands. He lifts his arms up unaware and sprinkles the powder over his back. Whilst trying to scratch his itch, he falls over and lands a centimeter away from some fake poo. Disgusted, Burglar leaps up but forgets about the fly paper which swings him into a stack of costumes. He emerges with a fake moustache and glasses combo attached to his face and is unaware of it. Burglar tries to force himself to the desk while stink bombs explode all around him being dropped from the ceiling.

Act 3:
Burglar continues to push forward as the obstacles all start to take its toll on him. He closes in on the cash register only to be greeted by a wall of fly paper strapped to toy crossbows. As he urges forward, the crossbows peel themselves back ready to fire. He reaches for the register and is an inch away.
Then the crossbows fire. The array of flypaper fill the screen.
Police pull up outside the shop and ready there weapons and aim then at the shop. The door then opens with Burglar, battered and bruised and mummified in fly paper.
The Police men yell "Get on the..." as Burglar topples over. "Um, yeah! You stay there!".
The camera zooms in on Burglar as he gives a sigh of defeat.

I took out the entire prison scene from the story and ended on when the police catch him.

P.S You can proberly see the change in the blog? The website that hosted my former template has died so it gave a black screen. So I changed it this and tried some others but they looked 'corporate'. So I settled on this.

Ghostbusters Storyboard and Essay quick research

(Above: A incredibly basic storyboard from a deleted scene)
A look into storyboards from Ghostbusters, the film I'll be doing for my film clip and essay.

Though the Slimer design and its essential actions were already locked in, these early sketches show Venkman and Stantz discovering the ghost together - a story point that was altered sometime between the August draft and the final shooting script. Also, since costume and hardware concepts were not fully realized yet, the storyboards reflect rather nondescript, generic attire. This shows how a storyboard has an effect on how the final film is put together.

A detailed Effect shot. This scene was deleted from the film.

A storyboard detailing a Mink Coat coming alive. This was also a deleted scene was was reused in Ghostbusters 2.

This storyboard is once again from a deleted scene. The main thing to notice in this storyboard in the lack of background. It is merely to set up the character and the action as opposed to the location.

A storyboard compiled from the Ghostbusters DVD and 'Making Ghostbusters' Book. Titled 'The Ghost Molester' if it mainly functions as an action storyboard as it highlights the actions happing in the scene and details them clearly and throughly. Did you know this was deleted too?

(All Storyboards can be found on the Ghostbusters 1 DVD)

Super Resolved Story

Act 1:
A burglar sneaks through an overcrowded metropolis. The burglar is wearing a stereotypical striped outfit with a large 'Swag' Bag draped over his shoulder. The Police search around for the man in question. The Burglar is merely passing through the back alleys until he spies a low wall with no security. He throws his swag bag over the wall first to cushion his fall. He vaults over the wall and picks up his swag bad. He sees a door that is ajar. He slips through into the dark store.

Act 2:
The cash register sits in the distant with a stream of moonlight over it. A heavenly choir plays as Burglar gets a distinct feeling of money (Dollar Bill signs like a slot machine roll through his eyes). He creeps (exaggerate) across the shop floor until... his foot slowly deflates a rubber chicken which sets of a chain of events. The deflated chicken lets a piece of string go slack, allowing a fake bowling ball to fall against the wall, tugging on the security alarm. Distressed, Burglar turns to flee but a boxing glove on a spring fly's out of a wall hitting the burglar in the face. As he stumbles and tries to regain his footing, his hands land on some fly paper that is on display. With the fly paper stuck, he randomly flails his arms around to remove the paper but instead gets itching powder packets attached to his hands. He lifts his arms up unaware and sprinkles the powder over his back. Whilst trying to scratch his itch, he falls over and lands a centimeter away from some fake poo. Disgusted, Burglar leaps up but forgets about the fly paper which swings him into a stack of costumes. He emerges with a fake moustache and glasses combo attached to his face and is unaware of it. Burglar tries to force himself to the desk while stink bombs explode all around him being dropped from the ceiling.

Act 3:
Burglar continues to push forward as the obstacles all start to take its toll on him. He closes in on the cash register only to be greeted by a wall of fly paper strapped to toy crossbows. As he urges forward, the crossbows peel themselves back ready to fire. He reaches for the register and is an inch away.
Then the crossbows fire. The array of flypaper fill the screen.
Police pull up outside the shop and ready there weapons and aim then at the shop. The door then opens with Burglar, battered and bruised and mummified in fly paper.
The Police men yell "Get on the..." as Burglar topples over. "Um, yeah! You stay there!".
We then switch to Burglar in a cell behind bars. A much larger prisoner walks up behind Burglar and taps him on the shoulder. He turns to see the Butch Prisoner is holding a piece of soap. Butch turns his hand over and drops the soap. He nods towards it. The camera looks at Burglar as gulps.

That's my resolved story that I have moved around from the interim crit. I have changed the end and simplified Act 1 to get straight to the action.

The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing

Those Crazy Russions Started Fucking Round With Images


A very interesting and revealing look into the lifes of editors and how they are part of the giant Movie machine. This documentry showed us that editors have only done there job right when you don't see what it is they have done.

One must become... INVISABLE!!!

Editors strive to create a seamless experience for the viewer. If the audience notices and acknoliges the cut as opposed to a seamless flow of the movie then they have, in some ways, failed.

But how do they achieve such success? Frames. It all comes down to single frames and how they affect the overall video. Removing or adding just a single frame can make a scene fail or not and whether the audience notices the editor.

One gripe I do have with the documentry is that it lost some steam around the middle part. The history of editors is interesting and all but I'm more interested in the process and techniques that we would have to emplore.

We also got to see how the directors work with there editors and can be bribed for $75. But these are just 'some' directors. We are talking about people like Spielberg and Scorsese. BIG players. When directors of this calaber can't stress enough how important editing is, you better listen. I'm willing to bet that a lot of up and coming directors don't quite understand the importance of editing yet. Show them this.

All in all, a very informative documentry that really encapsulated the life and role of the humble Editor.

Oh Tarantino... you make some great films, but you are one ugly mothertrucker.

Image references

Essay Topic

For my essay I'm going to base it on one of my favourite films, Ghostbusters.

I will critically analyse the film 'Ghostbusters' in terms of Relationships between story and structure, involving Camera movement and editing.

Resolved Story Idea

Act 1:
A burglar sneaks through an overcrowded metropolis. The burglar is wearing a stereotypical striped outfit with a large 'Swag' Bag draped over his shoulder. The Police search around for the man in question. The burglar is simply trying to get home until he spy's an low fence with an area of barbed wire missing. Surely one more job wouldn't be to much hassle. The police would never find him right under there nose.
He throws his swag bag over the wall first to cushion his fall but instead of a thud, he hears the distinct sound of a whoopee cushion. He vaults over the wall and picks up his swag bad from a dumpster which is filled with broken or deflated whoopee cushions. Burglar thinks that the incident is a strange one but pushes on regardless. He sees a door that is ajar. He slips through into the dark store.

Act 2:
The cash register sits in the distant with a stream of moonlight over it. A heavenly choir plays as Burglar gets a distinct feeling of money (Dollar Bill signs like a slot machine roll through his eyes). He creeps (exaggerate) across the shop floor until... his foot slowly deflates a rubber chicken which sets of a chain of events. The deflated chicken lets a piece of string go slack, allowing a fake bowling ball to fall against the wall, tugging on the security alarm. Distressed, Burglar turns to flee but a boxing glove on a spring fly's out of a wall hitting the burglar in the face. As he stumbles and tries to regain his footing, his hands land on some fly paper that is on display. With the fly paper stuck, he randomly flails his arms around to remove the paper but instead gets itching powder packets attached to his hands. He lifts his arms up unaware and sprinkles the powder over his back. Whilst trying to scratch his itch, he falls over and lands a centimeter away from some fake poo. Disgusted, Burglar leaps up but forgets about the fly paper which swings him into a stack of costumes. He emerges with a fake moustache and glasses combo attached to his face and is unaware of it. Burglar tries to force himself to the desk while stink bombs explode all around him being dropped from the ceiling.

Act 3:
Burglar continues to push forward as the obstacles all start to take its toll on him. He closes in on the cash register only to be greeted by a wall of fly paper strapped to toy crossbows. As he urges forward, the crossbows peel themselves back ready to fire. He reaches for the register and is an inch away.
Then the crossbows fire. The array of flypaper fill the screen.
Police pull up outside the shop and ready there weapons and aim then at the shop. The door then opens with Burglar, battered and bruised and mummified in fly paper.
The Police men yell "Get on the..." as Burglar topples over. "Um, yeah! You stay there!".
We then switch to Burglar in a cell behind bars. He notices a window open a little. The Camera pans round to Burglars face as a demonic grin etches across his face.

Story outline and research go too's...

So this isn't my resolved story but the change to the plans due to the story workshop.
My new plan is for my animation to be a slapstick comedy for most of the minute. In terms of scriptwriting and story-telling, it tests my ability to portray the actions of the character and how he/she reacts to the obstacles.
So the new plan is that an unassuming burglar breaks into normal looking shop. He heads for the cash register but springs a security alarm. Some HI-larious antics follow. As you can tell the is the outline (hence the title). I'm gonna resolve it by the weekend and have it all ready so I can move forward.

Some Things I am going to look into:
Old slapstick comedy, such as,
Tom and Jerry,
Charlie Chaplin,
Kung Fu Panda, training sequence (Thanks to Ruben for the recommendation)
Joke shop items that are iconic and that can be applied to a comedic edge.

Did you know Balls can bounce?

I had a basic lesson on bouncing balls a while ago. I can't find my original but this is the second one I made. The idea was give the ball some form of character. Whether I succeded is to be debated.


(This was made with 3Ds Max)

And here is the one that we produced using Alans Tutorial:

A correction

I would just like to take a moment to acknolwledge my mistake.
I haven't been treating this as a contained unit. I've been trying to think broader and trying to understand my technical skill in comparison to this unit and the story we are creating. I understood the brief but tried to take it further which I now understand I shouldn't.

So In regards to the brief, I do understand it and always have but I tried to make it into more. I know understand what I am being asked to do and now can start it proper. Especially after todays workshop which turned that light bulb on in the old noggin...

Story Idea #2

The same as #1 but with a cat... yep, a cat.
Technically that damn impossible at our stage. We are only learning fundamental animation rules at the moment, let alone create and animate a world of cats.

Story Idea #1

The setting is dark. A silhouetted figure stands atop a tower overlooking a city (based on New York). She holds in her hand a note, it reads:
...when I last had your Kids? If you don't get it then I would hate to repeat it. You wouldn't want that...
The rest is covered in shadow. Kat (the women) jumps off the building and runs along the rooftops (still covered in darkness). She reaches a point that overlooks a shop. Flashlights turn on revealing a joke shop and her in a cat costume.
She goes down a side alley to look for a point of entry. She spots a window that is open on the second floor... with no way up. Looking around frantically, Kat sees a bin with leftover joke shop supplies. She looks inside and ponders what to do. She touches some fly paper with a finger. It gets instantly stuck. She shakes her finger but it instead gets stuck to her entire hand. Hatching a plan, Kat attach's the fly paper to her hands, feet and tail (in a parody of 'suit up' scenes from films and TV).
She climbs the wall and slips in through the window (getting stuck in the window as she goes). She falls clumsily but lands on her feet at the last second (That's what cats do). She sneaks through the shop till she comes across a Guard staring at and playing with a whoopee cushion. She sneaks past the guard only to notice that he is actually guarding her goal. She sneaks up behind the man and applies a karate chop to the neck... only for the guard to turn around. Kat then does a 'tail punch' to the 'undercarriage' of the man. She picks up the guards keys and swaps the goal for the whoopee cushion (Parody of Indiana Jones). She levels and examines the letter she held at the beginning. It reads:
Hi,
Its me. You know you asked me to look after the kids? Would you be able to pick up something to entertain them?
Remember when I last had your Kids? If you don't get get it then I hate to have to repeat what I did last time. You wouldn't want that.
They wanted to play that damn game for days.
Just try your best.
Love ya,
Glen.

She jumps atop a building and runs into the distant in the dark style again.
The End

Plot Idea #1

A mother (Cat burglar) of two must break into a Joke Shop for her boyfriend who is going to babysit for her. To overcome the obstacles and security, the mother must use the objects available (Fly Paper).

La Jetee

Lets get the bad out of the way.

I did not like this film.

That's my honest opinion and that's what these reviews are right? But I'll look into the film unbiasedly and give a full-on review. Because that's what awesome people do.

La Jetee (Translated to The Jetty or The Pier) is a science fiction film that delves into time travel and a post-apocalyptic world. Two for the price of one in terms of sci-fi.

Story:

The Third world war has come and gone. Survivors of the war shelter underneath Paris. The survivors research time-travel for one reason, TO SAVE THE WORLD! By calling on the past and future, the french hope to save the present. Is that a Tardis I see? The issue with the whole time travel deal is that test subjects don't do that thing that is required, you know like survive. That is until one man succeeds. The male prisoner has an obsessive memory of a woman on a pier (can you see the name?).

With repeated success to the past, the jailers decide to send the man to the future upon which he meets a race of future people. The future guys give the Prisoner and a energy unit capable of restoring power in his time line. We mission accomplished every is happy.

The End...

OR IS IT?

No, it's not. The jailers have no more use for the prisoner so decides to do what all evil genius' do. Kill the subject. At his moment of need, The future guys give him a chance to escape with them, which he declines. He instead opts to go to the past, to the event he remembers so vaguely but accurately. Its here that he sees what his life has revolved around...his death, at the hands of one of the Jailers in front of the woman.

Review:
There is no possible way I can deny what this film has done for movies in general. Lets take a look:

Although the technical style of La Jetee provides a large fraction of its charm, the essential story is projected in surprising detail for such a short piece. In part this effect is achieved through the choice of superlative black & white photographs; these are grainy enough and shot in such a way that the immediate impression is of wartime photojournalism whilst the events captured suggest far more than they illustrate. By altering the time for which each shot is held (at times a quick succession of similar images approximates to film) a tight grasp of pace and a certain level of suspense is achieved. Interestingly, perhaps the most significant result of La Jetee is that the basic structures utilised in cinema are stripped bare and revealed unadorned.
Film.U-net.com

Marker uses monochrome images recognisably from the past, such as the ruins of Europe after WWII, and with a few small props and effects, subtly suggests a future environment. The soundtrack's texture is similarly sparse, and the fluid montage leads the viewer into the sensation of watching moving images. Until, that is, an extraordinary epiphany when an image genuinely does move: the man's sleeping lover opens her eyes.
Timeout.com

I find it tediously pretentious, but there are striking images in it, and it does get across a vague impression of Frankensteinian meddling with the brain.
New York Times

So I can't deny that but from my point of view, it was slow and well, boring. Please don't hate me. I thought the way that the film had nearly no noticeable backing music played against it. In the films with no audio, this isn't an issue but they were capable of audio.
For a 28 minute piece, I felt it lasted al lot longer and it had nothing to capture my attention. The plot sounds great and I am a fan of Sci-Fi but this didn't grip me. I find it hard to explain but this movie didn't 'click' for me. The reason? I can't put my finger on it and that annoys me...

Nice Glasses pal.

Word Research

What is a good place to start when looking into a story that revolves around three words?
Look into those words...

Cat Burglar:
Though the technical definition is more inclusive, a cat burglar generally refers to a thief who breaks into homes to steal personal property. Cats are stealthy and quiet, approaching prey without causing alarm, pouncing without warning. A cat burglar is a thief who slips in unnoticed, taking what he wants before the victim knows what’s happened. A cat burglar might also be associated with theft from outbuildings such as sheds, barns or garages, automobiles, boats, planes, trains, churches or schools.

As long as the theft is discovered after the event and not during, the intruder is a cat burglar. I guess if they break in with noise, its a dog burglar?

What I have noticed is Cat burglars are always portrayed as female. Proberly to go with along the whole Cat thing. They also seem to be sexy ladies in... skin-tight... leather... Sorry, lost my train of thought. Plus it gives me a reason to post a pic of Halle Berry.

Joke Shop:

Self explanatory right? Its a shop that sells objects for comidic value. The interiors are normally colourful to go along with the playfullness and it has various items.

Sometimes big, mostly small shops. This will most evidently be the setting of my epic story.

Fly Paper:

Flypaper is a fly-killing device made of paper coated with a sweetly fragrant, but extremely sticky or poisonous substance that traps flies and other flying insects when they land upon it.

Flypaper is as effective as many other methods involving insecticides or bug zappers. However, a twisted strip of flypaper hanging from the ceiling is considered by many to be aesthetically less acceptable than some other methods, and so flypaper is not as commonly used as it once was. Some formulas for flypaper also have a slight but potentially disagreeable odor. Handling and disposing of flypaper can be awkward because it is so sticky. However, an easy disposal method is to simply lower the flypaper strip into a paper bag, close the bag, and throw it in the trash.

You may have seen my previous blog about my anger at Apple? Just me venting anger. I planned to delete when I cooled down and I have now. Back to work...

The Best Videos of ALL TIME!!!!!

I will be blogging my work from this week and my findings over the weekend but for now here is the vids we made in our workshop classes.

Alan's camera test run.


First FCP test
(obviously not working by embedding or youtube. not sure now...)

Earls Awesome quotes V2:

Well here we have it:
A new quote for my blog. I found this while playing Mass Effect 2:

Tell your assassin to aim at her head, she doesn't have a heart.

It should sound chessy but I don't think it does.

This replaces:

Theres a time and place for realism. When your punching God into the Sun is not one of those times

Which replaced:

You'll get your chance. Important thing is, you've got to grab it with both hands

PS:
Really looking forward to working with
AJ
Ruben
Jolanta
and Elliot on this theory thing we have now.
All have some great skills and all are easy to get on with.