Lilly Durrant - Art and Animation Blog: February 2012

On Monday 13th the Level 3 Animators hosted a bake sale, to raise money to replace library books that were stolen from the studio and to put money towards a printer for the studio. It was a hugely successful day, managing to raise over £215! We have many talented bakers among us!

All set up and ready to go!

My baking contribution :)

Dramatic lighting included!

More baking goodies! :D

Sarah Rettie's "Hunky Men" biscuits

Yesturday the Krokodi team was swimming in post-it notes as we tried to sort out the storyboard all day. I think we made good progress, there will probably some changes made to camera angles etc over time but i think it's a good start. Next stage is to get some final storyboards done and an animatic started. And start beginning to do concept artwork and character designs!

Thank goodness we have a big wall behind us!

The post-it notes took over my laptop too!

A rough layout of the swamp made from post-its.

An update on the new project I'm working on, 'Krokodi' - a short animation. The team is made up of Laura McNaughton (Director and Idea Originator), Mike Webster, and myself (Production Manager). Here is the link to the group’s blog:

http://krokodi.blogspot.com/

We have gone few a few drafts of the script but here is the most up-to-date one :

Krokodi

30/01/2012

Director: Laura McNaughton

Script Writer: Lilly Durrant

EXT. Louisiana Swamp land – (EVENING)
Opening shot of a track in swamp land. Everything appears calm. Title ‘KROKODI’ appears. There is a distant sound of car engine which gradually becomes louder. Suddenly a BURGER VAN speeds into shot, driving over a fallen tree sending the van flying out of shot.

1. CROCODILE HUNTER (Audience cannot see who is screaming)

“W-ahhhhhhhhhhhh!”

INT. Louisiana town, Burger van – (EARLY EVENING)

Cut to a happy crocodile clock ticking, with subtitles “45 minutes earlier”. Zoom out to see a bored and unhappy woman, called ‘DEE’, working in a crocodile-themed burger van. She looks up and out of van, face becomes angry and disgusted.

2. DEE

“Ugh.”

Dee’s P.O.V of a CROCODILIAN HUNTER. Reverse angle shot of crocodile boots with burger van in distance. Crocodile Hunter approaches the van. The man seems very arrogant, as he taps a burger on the menu. Dee reluctantly starts to make him a BURGER. He points at one of the happy-looking crocodile logos on the van and laughs at it mockingly.

3. CROCODILIAN HUNTER

“Pah-ha-ha-haaa!”

He then produces his WALLET from which a long photo album drops out showing pictures of him and the crocodiles and alligators he has hunted and killed over the years. He points to different ones, acting out how he killed them,

4. CROCODILIAN HUNTER

Yelping, choking and gasping! (Imitating the crocodiles he hunted)

As he is boasting and showing off, he sneakily glances up and to see Dee’s furious face. Her immense anger causes her eyes to flash into a crocodile’s eyes and some scales appear for a second. He returns his eyes to the photos in his wallet – satisfied that he’s seen the evidence, that she is in fact the crocodilian creature he’s been after. She looks at him, shoves the burger into his mouth and slams shut the van window shutter in his face. He munches and crunches eagerly as off-screen engine starts up and gears grind.

5. CROCODILIAN HUNTER

Munching and crunching.

C/U Wheels spin throws up dust. Back wide the van shoots out of shot, but the Croc Hunter is nowhere to be seen.

EXT. Louisiana town – (DUSK)

Wide on burger van as it drives off out of town towards denser swampland.

EXT. Louisiana Swamp land – (EVENING)

Reprise shot 1 - Van drives over a fallen tree sending the van flying through the air for a second. Low camera shot reveals Croc hunter clinging on for dear life under the van!

6. CROCODILIAN HUNTER

“W-ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"

C/U Front bumper and wheel, as van comes to a screeching stop at swamp. The sound of a door slamming and the van shaking indicates Dee getting out of van.

Camera pan down to see under van, Hunter in F/G and feet beyond him as they pass by. Dee’s feet now morph into crocodile feet and a crocodile tail thuds onto the ground. Hunter looks gleeful.

7. CROCODILIAN HUNTER

“Mwah-ha-ha.”

Wide - The Krokodi creature jumps into the swamp causing a huge splash.

Continuous - The hunter confidently commando crawls out from under the van, camera pans along with action as he forward rolls to edge of jetty in a showing-off fashion as he gets his HARPOON ready to hunt. Screwing up his eyes, he peers into the water. He sneers and aims harpoon into the water, however the harpoon has lost its’ arrow as he dropped it while forward rolling! He reaches back quickly to grab it. There’s a sound off screen. He freezes in mid pose - A rumble builds, camera shakes, Hunter almost afraid to turn, but he spins around – H/U turns to wide on Krokodi creature as it suddenly leaps out of water,

8. Krokodi

“Rooooaaaaarrr!”

Krokodi slams heavily on the jetty end, the planks ripple along, C/U Hunter gasps in horror.

9. CROCODILIAN HUNTER

High-pitched gasp!

The planks ripple up to Hunter, flipping him into the air, the croc opens jaws wide and he plummets in, jaws snap closed.

Credits roll. The sounds of crunching and munching can be heard from Krokodi creature, the crocodilian creature, eating the hunter.

10. Krokodi

Munching and crunching.

End.

And here is the production schedule I have created for this semester. The brief is to create a production bible by the end of the semester.

We are currently working on storyboards, to begin I've done some very rough storyboard thumbnails, (you may need to right click on them and open them in a new tab to view more clearly):