Design For Media
Spring 2011
Zach Morris

Summary

I hope to accomplish a finished animatic for a short film. The animatic will be the starting point for production of a finished short film, tenatively entitled “The Cricket Of The Opera”.

Product

The main product to be completed here is a short animated film animatic (animated storyboard). Tho rather rough in appearance, this is an important first step in the production of a film project. Essentially, it is an adaptation of the method of using storyboards- rough, quick drawings which portray the story, much like a comic strip or book- and animating it on a screen, as opposed to a stationary board.

The main technologies used here will be Adobe Flash for the main animating, as well as Storyboard Pro, Photoshop for manipulation of the scanned sketches where needed, and a Wacom tablet for digital sketches where needed.

Market Analysis

I plan to market the animatic as a sales pitch for a finished short student film. It could be screened for my professors and peers for review, then taken to studios to pitch a finalized film.

The main story is essentially an adaptation of the story of the Phantom of the Opera, involving a vengeful cricket living underneath an opera house and sabotaging it’s productions. The film itself is rather influenced after the experimental short films of Chuck Jones, such as “One Froggy Evening” and “The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics”, as well as the book “The Cricket In Times Square” by George Selden. It is also modeled after animated short films shown on Newgrounds.com.

Strategy and Implementation

- Breakdown:

Week 3-Script

Week 4-Revised Script

Week 5-Thumbnails for Board

Week 6-Character / Background Designs

Week 7-Revised Thumbnails

Weeks 8-14-Begin main work on Board

-Record Voices/Assemble SFX

Week 15-Panels/Actions done – Begin assembling Animatic

Week 16-Finished Animatic

Week 17-Revised Animatic/Final

The main product’s intended niche is the community of short film enthusiasts and animation students., though I believe there is also appeal for animation students and the general artistic community.
Deliverables

A DVD of the film will be produced, and mailed to the intended recipients. A digital ZIP file will also be produced, available at a website, whose location will be printed on the DVD case, as well as advertised on the DVD itself. Copies of the original sketches and drawings could be mailed to the recipient, if requested. When completed, the animatic will be hosted on the blog, as well as published to YouTube.com.

Conclusion

I hope to learn more about the process of professional storyboarding and animatic techniques, as well as advanced storytelling abilities.
I plan to use the finished animatic as a base for a finished animated film. This animatic will cover a small part of a larger story, which will most likely be expanded upon in the final film. The film may be used as a senior thesis.