Animatic Evaluation

A Critical analysis of the Animatic Process

A movie animatic is the process of creating a preliminary version of still photos which are representative of the necessary moving images for the actual film. In this case, we have created an animatic for our film trailers to mimic this process. Its function is to allow the filmmaker to plan how each shot will be angled and positioned, and how long they will last for.   The filmmaker can then see whether their ideas are realistic to shoot, and see visually if it appears in the way that they want to. The sounds, music, and inter titles necessary are also added in the same positions as they would be in the real trailer.

After creating our original storyboard, we re-drafted certain shots as a result of discussing them in more realistic manner and concluding that they were unnecessary. We realised that some of the “montage” shots were not entirely relevant to the main plot and so we decided to take them out of the storyboard. We drew up a few replacement shots which were more relevant and realistic to shoot. We then also decided to leave a few and decide on multiple extra shots after visiting our location for a longer period of time, and deciding which rooms would best represent the settings in our trailer. We also needed to plan whether we would be able to get hold of any props from our storyboarded images. Though we realised that we did not need to use all of the props and costume just for the animatic, we thought that certain ones might enhance it, and give us a better idea of whether certain shots would work or not.
We took our storyboards to our filming location so that were able to use it for reference when taking our photos. We began trying to take photographs in the same order as seen on our storyboards, which worked effectively when taking the photographs of the “psychiatrist” and the “patient.” However it was soon obvious that we would need to set apart the flashback scenes, and the scenes of “present day.” We did still continue to make reference to the story board however, ensuring that we followed the sequence of events. Using it enabled us to identify that one session would need to be done at the train station, but the rest could be done at the actual main location. Sometime would need to be taken to photograph the exterior of the building, but nearly all shots could be achieved inside.

We had approximately five shoots to complete the animatic. The initial was purely to choose the best rooms to represent each setting, and to take more shots of the location for the animatic rather than any action. Another was used to photograph the train station scenes, and the remaining shoots were used to photograph the interior of the building with our actors. Our animatic only used two locations as our trailer is focused on the “asylum” and the only alternate setting is the train station, used for the flashback. Though the building we use for the “asylum” is only a singular location, it is an extremely large building in which there are many rooms we were able to use to represent different settings, for example, a conference room and a chapel.  We did not use all of our costumes, but for the “Psychiatrist” we used smart clothes to make him appear professional, and we also used a nun costume for the mother to symbolise the religious aspect as she gave away her child. For props, we used a saw, and a mask to represent the obvious violent themes. We also used a religious necklace, similar to rosary beads , a nurses tray, jug of water and packet of tablets to administer to the patient. We also positioned furniture in the rooms of the building so that they reflected our desired settings, for example we arranged the photograph of the psychiatrist confronting the head of the asylum, so that the desk made him look powerful beneath the stained glass windows.

Choosing our actors was initially difficult as the characters in our trailer are fairly complex individuals. We used Harri as the “psychiatrist” as he understood exactly how the character would behave, and would be frequently available for filming. We asked students in the sixth form whether they would be willing to act in our trailer and had interest from many of them. However, we had to take into account whether certain people would be mature enough to take the filming process seriously, and who would be available at the times we were in order to shoot. We knew a fellow student (Sean) who was a young male and willing to play the part of the “patient.” As he is a confident person, we felt that he would work well as that character. We knew that casting the part of the mother would be difficult as the actor would have to portray serious themes and issues, but Emily understood what she would have to act and was happy to take part. She was also happy to give up her time in order to be photographed. We also used Lwci and photographed her as an extra patient to portray the horrible things which happen at the asylum. The “Head of The Asylum” had to be an older, visibly adult male. We deliberated over using a student but concluded that it wouldn’t be realistic, so Harri’s father offered to act that part, making it more believable. Meg was also used an extra for one of our montage shots, depicting horrible happenings at the asylum.

The one shot we were unable to take was a shot of numerous patients in the asylum. When storyboarding, we ideally wanted a shot of a large number of “patients” sat in the canteen to clearly establish that it was home to many mentally ill people. This was difficult to organise purely for the animatic however, when it comes to actually filming the trailer we plan to organise people weeks in advance to walk down to our location during free periods.

The masked shots and the shots with the saw were improvised according to the props we could make available to us. We decided that they would obviously represent a horror theme well, and that there needed to be shots of the patient being violent toward other patients/ the psychiatrist. We also added some shots of the patient posing in different ways, in different rooms, which at the time we had not thought of when drawing the storyboard.

We used the editing suite to bring together all of our photographs and construct our trailer in animatic format. To do this, we first looked through all of the photographs and chose only the clearest, best positioned pictures. We then put them in order on the editing programme, and added some inter-titles. Lastly we cut each shot to its desired length and added music soundtracks to accompany them.
We had pre-organised the timing of each shot after creating our storyboard. We got to work shortly after producing it, deciding collectively on how long each shot should take. This meant that when it came to editing our photographs we instantly knew how long each would take. We took into account what was happening in each shot, and any significant objects/actions which the camera should linger on.
We used simple titles for our animatic which may later be changed or substituted. They do however, convey the messages we hope to reveal to our audience, and we felt that they did reveal too much of the plot, but reinforced the code of enigma.

I personally felt that the music used in our animatic was really effective. As a group we spent about an hour searching for non-copyrighted music online which would suit the theme of our trailer, and emphasise the horror genre. From our research, it was clear that the music in horror trailers play a large part in creating tension, fear, and building up the “shock value.” Our animatic uses three different soundtracks and hopefully accompany the shots they play under in an effective way.  For example we have also cut the lengths of the soundtracks and made sure that precise images match precise sounds, at the end, the sound of a loud bang matches the shot of the closed door of the asylum, to reflect it being slammed shut.

Our completed animatic features many images representative of the horror genre, which should attract our target audience. The unusual setting, combined with unsettling/disturbing scenes and eerie music is typical of a horror trailer.  We have also used characters which are designed to be young adults, and older adults rather than “teens”, which should attract a more mature audience. The adult themes are portrayed in a serious way, and there is no gore or borderline humorous violence which will hopefully deter the younger teen viewer,  and show that the film is a psychological thriller not a popular “slasher movie.”
In order to improve for the actual trailer, there are a few things our group intends to do to enhance the completed production. We are happy with the order of our shots, but hope to add more (the scene with multiple extras in the canteen) for dramatic effect. We will also make more use of costume, and use props such as real medical equipment and fake blood to add realism. There will also be more dialogue in the final trailer, which we hope to achieve by creating voice recordings, and adding them in as voiceovers.
I feel that my role in the animatic was primarily to organise shoots/ direct different shots. Though overall, each member of our group definitely played equal parts in terms of the contributions we made. Each of us stood in as extras to take photographs when other actors weren’t available, and each of suggested improvements/ positions for shots. I also took quite a few of the photographs on the shoots, and hope to take part in a lot of the filming when it comes to the production of the real trailer. The only thing I hope to contribute to more in the production of the moving image trailer is editing using the computer software.