Animatic update

Here's the first version of the full animatic with the original ending.
There are a few things we spoke about trying which are different to this to see which way works best for the film so I'm going to do that next.
Also we spoke about possibly taking out the whole scene in the house. I am going to do that next also to see how that works with a new scene instead.

Animatic Ver. 3

My own edit of the animatic done this morning. Revised the first two scenes mainly, tightening shots and shortening actions etc. I also extended the middle scene to wring a little more out of the acting and cuts there. Total time 53 seconds.

Dragon Concept

Firstly, a display of Knightmouses awesomeness:


And now, an update of where we stand. As of week 4, first storyboard complete, first animatic complete with a few scenes already edited and tightened, schedule and budget done, character concepts for knightmouse, the dragon, and ratcatchers complete, environment concepts for the buildings, and general time wasting complete. A successful month.
-LJ

Rough Animatic edit

I edited some parts of the rough unfinished animatic this morning.
Makes it a bit quicker and gets rid of what could be confusing and unneeded shots.

Rough Animatic so far

Ok. So here's a rough version of the animatic so far.
It is missing the final scene.
There are some things which I did that we discussed we may change but I thought I'd try this version first and then try alternate versions of certain scenes later so we can see which way plays best and doesn't slow down the pace too much.
eg. - for the castle entrance scene we talked about doing it several different ways.

The exported video from Flash has some curve handles showing for some stupid reason. Ignore that.

I'm hoping to have the whole animatic done by Friday night so we can review and discuss changes.

Concepts

Timeline

Here is a rough timeline I made, yay!
The bar on the left is the first one I made, but I realised that finished way early, so I added the bars (slightly lighter) as like a back-up thing if we didn't leave enough time for it.

Script Edit Meeting 2

1: (Title Sequence) Black screen.
Image of mouse slides onto screen left, followed by the word “MOUSE” screen right. Pause. Pieces of armour come flying onto the screen, and attach themselves to the mouse, forming a complete suit. The word “KNIGHT” drops into screen, between the armoured mouse and the word “MOUSE”. (heavy power chord on electric guitar)
The armoured mouse leans over and swings his sword in a giant arc, cutting the screen in half.


2:EXT. MONTAGE
Cut to a fast paced montage of KNIGHTMOUSE being heroic. Leaping chasm, pulling sword out of stone/sand, swinging his sword, smashing a mouse trap to save a girl mouse, swinging on a rope off a ship onto dock, close up of him doing a complicated sword spin, pull back as he releases the sword, pan across as it arcs across the sun and embeds itself into a massive dragon.


3: INT. DAY, 1300’s Prussia, MOUSE’S PLACE.
Dissolve from silhouette shot of dragon to same image of dragon as a jigsaw puzzle. KnightMouse has just finished last piece of puzzle. He sits back and sighs. He gets bored and now needs something to do.


4: EXT. DAY, STREET.
Knightmouse is strolling down the cobbled street. The shadow of a large figure overhead flashes over him. He stops and looks up, startled, but doesn’t see what it was. He continues walking and suddenly a yellowed, curling poster falls on him. He reacts and pokes his sword through it and freaks out in a short and violent outburst. The pieces of paper then fall to ground and he reads the one that falls near him. Its emblazoned with the headline “KING WANTS RATS! YOUR HELP NEEDED.” That’s all Knightmouse needs to see. He grasps his sword and runs down the street. The King’s castle is seen in the background as he runs away.


5: EXT. DAY, outside the kings castle.
Knightmouse crosses through the gate.



6: INT. The kings court.
Knightmouse aims straight for the kings throne. There are many people milling around. Before he reaches the halfway mark, the king spots him and shouts out in german.

KING
Es gibt einen!
(Subtitles: There’s one!)

Knightmouse stops short, and looks around him. Every man in the room is wearing some form of rat-catching attire, with traps and bait slung over their shoulders or tied to their belts, and all are looking straight back at him. All the men are serious except for 2 men who are playing “Mouse Trap” board game. Knightmouse pauses.
The men stand around not knowing what to do.
The man closest to Knightmouse raises his foot, and stomps down.

Cut to credits.

Meeting 1) Brainstorming

KNIGHTMOUSE

Brainstorm session ideas:
- Mouse has brought plague with him.
- He’s oblivious to the fact that this has happened.
- Give audience clues that it’s the plague but don’t let them know straight away. Eg, flags at half mast, he coughs a bit, arrives on ship, etc.
- Visuals get darker and grittier as story progresses. Colour palette changes from slightly happier colours in intro to darker, more brooding colours at end.
- Intro is bright, fast moving.
- Middle is more subdued colours.
- Ending is dark, overwhelming.
- If we have time throw in some sly references to other students’ flims.

INTRO MONTAGE:
- Reveals who he is. Brave hero mouse.
- Quick shots of him generally being heroic and brave.
- Helping old lady. (don’t know how to visualise this shot)
- Gets off a ship at dock by climbing along ropes holding ship to dock. Make it a brave tightrope walk. Plague clue???
- Smashing mouse trap to save girl mouse and gets kiss as reward. This can also be another clue that town is trying to kill rodents to stop plague. ???
- Quick shot of him sick/coughing. Plague clue???
- Shot of him slaying a dragon with his sword as per original script.
- Maybe some other shots of his heroic deeds.?????
- Sword out of stone
- Fighting puppets on a stage
-
MIDDLE SEQUENCE:
- Transition from image of dragon with sword in its belly, to jigsaw puzzle of same image and Knight Mouse just finishing with last piece of puzzle.
- Knight mouse at home, now bored after finishing puzzle.
- Goes for walk down street because he doesn’t want to waste time doing nothing and staying still.
- Paper sign floats overhead, shadow falls on him. Paper eventually lands on him. He crawls out from under paper.
- He reads sign but misinterprets it as a call to arms.
- He runs off towards castle and we see what the sign reads: “King Wants Rats! Help Needed”.


END SEQUENCE
- Mouse runs thru shut castle gate.
- Cut to him running towards throne in king’s throne room.
- King points him out as per script.
- Pan across all king’s helpers/rat catchers as they gather around. All serious except 2 guys who are playing “Mouse Trap” board game. ??????
- One guy quickly steps on mouse and squishes him.