Rough story board

Here is my sketch version of my storyboard:
What I'm trying to create is this series of rhythmic pans. It goes from slow, to fast until the next asset, then slow while you get a chance to see the poster, then fast, then slow on the next poster, then fast, etc.

I will get out a more finished storyboard once I've finished the title elements.

Minor characters, done

Here is the deposit slip with all of the minor characters on it. I still am undecided about what to do with the title... but I like the idea of putting it on a dollar or a bank note of some kind. I just need to search for more imagery.

Assets, changes, etc.

Here are 3 of my assets. Again, I don't know why 2 of them are showing up in blue... I guess blogspot likes Clint Eastwood better than the other 2... I'm probably going to change the wall that the Clint poster is on because I don't think it fits visually with the others.

As for the other actors and the title, I'm thinking that the branded leather idea is just not closely related enough to the story line to make sense. So I will either put the other actors on a wanted sign as well, or I will put their names on a bank note. I've been totally ignoring the fact that most of this movie is about robbing banks - duh! As for the title, I might shoot it into a piece of wood (like I was thinking before), or I'll somehow integrate it into a dollar bill...

Branding iron

I am leaning toward option 2 of my mixed concepts. I think it would make the most interesting composition that I've come up with so far.

Here is my attempt at making a branding iron and some "branded" leather. I think I would get a much better look if I had a customized branding iron and actually video taped someone branding a piece of leather, but custom irons are like over $100...

CLICK ME TO SEE!

However, I'm at a loss as to how to get my title spelled out in bullet holes... I may just have to do that myself and video tape it.

Mixing of Concepts

Ok, so I'm trying to create a really engaging composition so I've actually thought of mixing some of my concepts like so:

Option 1
- The "wanted signs" introduce the 3 main characters
- Then a branding iron comes out and burns the rest of the minor characters, the director, and the title

Option 2
- The "wanted signs" introduce the 3 main characters
- A branding iron comes out and burns the minor characters and then the director into a piece of leather
- The title is shot through a fence or a barn wall

Option 3
- Saloon signs introduce the characters (gun shots will act as the transitions) and the director
- Then one "wanted sign" will show the title

Title music!

Here is the music that I want to use. It's the original music from the movie, and I wanted to make sure to stay true to that aesthetic.

CLICK ME TO HEAR!

Screenshot of Elements

Here is a revised poster of screenshot of one of my elements:

(for some odd reason this has a blue tint... it's not supposed to be like that...)

But what I'd like to get people's opinion on is the "scratched film" texture. I really liked that aged look from the original movie, but I don't know if it's working here... I think I need to look at more options for creating this texture. Maybe more varying sizes of scratches and bubbles?

Wanted posters tweaked

I am leaning toward choosing the "Wanted posters" concept. So I thought I would do some more research and expand on that idea.

One of my biggest fears with this layout is that it would get too stale just looking at one shot with papers moving in and out. So I'm thinking I will do quick panning from one wall to another and each wall will house a different poster.

Here is the content that I want to include:

Clint Eastwood

Lee Van Cleef

Gian Maria Volonte

Luigi Pistilli
Klaus Kinski
Panos Papadopoulos
Benito Stefanelli
Aldo Sambrell
Luis Rodríguez
Lorenzo Robledo

Directed by
Sergio Leone

For a Few Dollars More

Concepts

My concepts for my movie are:

"Wanted poster"
With this one I was thinking that I would have a hand post up different posters of the actors, title, etc., and another hand will rip the pages down. I like this idea because the two main characters are bounty hunters, and I thought that this played off that idea well without revealing everything about the movie.

"Screen shots"
This concept I was thinking that I would show short clips of each character. So I was thinking that they would be short signature shots of each characters - kind of like short introductions. My worry with this is that it would show too much of the movie instead of just hinting at it (which is what I think we're supposed to do).

"Branded leather"
With this one I wanted to have a branding iron come out and brand each piece as they are set down on a table or something. But I don't think this is really related to the story...

"Saloon signs"
I haven't been able to find the imagery that I wanted, but my total concept was that I would have the text that I want show up on a saloon sign, and then the way that it will change that you'll hear a gun shot and then a bullet will hit the sign. The sign will swing up, and when it swings down there will be other text.

Creative Brief

Here is my creative brief:

CLICK ME TO SEE!

Fonts and Notes

Fonts

(These are links to samples, not the .ttf files)

Panhead - This font shows the kind of flourished more flowery, tooled look of some leather. It also has a great gritty, dirty, worn texture to it.Nashville - This also has a great texture to it, but shows more of a blocky letter form. When I saw this I thought of branded leather.
Western - I was drawn to this font because the movie that I watch was made in the 1960s and this kind of showed that "60s interpretation of an old western" that I think would be an interesting dynamic to keep in the title creditsPerdido - I like this one because it's a good mixture of the gritty, torn texture with the kind of saloon/sixties vibe from Western

Movie Notes

- gritty
- western
- scratched film - keep this! GREAT TEXTURE!
- in the title credits, gun shots move you from one group of information to the next
- currently has a handwritten typeface - looks kind of like a saloon sign
- gun-slinging
- men being killed in cold blood
- "WHERE LIFE HAD NO VALUE, DEATH, SOMETIMES HAD ITS PRICE.
THAT IS WHY THE BOUNTY KILLERS APPEARED."
- AWESOME whistling sound track - very characteristic, keep this!
- the sophisticated, calculate bounty killer (Lee Van Cleef) vs. the renegade, poncho-wearing bounty killer (Clint Eastwood)
- saloons, smoking, gambling, loose women
- they're after a crazy, ruthless killer
- dramatic music and quick cuts is what creates the tension
- BANK ROBBERY
- pocket watch with a picture of girl inside is significant for both the bad guy (El Indio) and Van Cleef

Imagery

Leather texture:
Tooled leather:
This is the BEST picture of what I want to convey. It's a worn, branded, scratched piece of leather that has character and history.

"Saul Bass on Titles"

Here is Saul Bass talking about how he started doing film titles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UU132IUU_o

it's really cool so you all should check it out!

Project 2 movie

The movie that I watched last night was another western by Sergio Leone who did "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" and the "Fist Full of Dollars" series. My movie was "For a Few More Dollars," and I really liked it! I thought that the plot would be pretty simple, but it ended up unfolding in a much more interesting way. I will post my notes on the movie later. For now, TO CRITIQUE!

Why do classes start at 9 AM??

So today we did a crit of about half the class's work. There were many videos that I saw that made me feel totally inferior! I was really excited to see everyone's animations and comment on them but the dark, quiet room and the fact that we started at 9 AM got to me after a while... I will try to make more in depth and helpful comments on Wednesday.

FINALLY

Here is the last of my animations:

Abstract - my limitation was to use one found object to base the visual off of (I chose to base it off of cracking ice)

CLICK ME TO SEE

Type-based DONE!

Oh sweet mother of pearl, I'm really running out of steam... but at least I've got two out of three done!

Here is my type-based animation. My limitation for this was to try to exhibit a type of climate. (I was going for a cold, wintery, windy climate. Let me know if I achieved my goal.)

CLICK ME TO SEE

Referential DONE!

Dear flash,

I have finally conquered you and all 370 frames of this animation BWAHAHAHAHA! Here's my referential/pong-like animation. I hope you all enjoy!

CLICK ME TO SEE

and NO this particular ball does NOT obey the laws of physics - IDOWHATIWANT!!

My limitation on this one was to use only two colors.

Frustrations!

I'm still working on finishing my referential/bouncing ball animation. However, I'm having huge problems with my typographic and abstract animations. So as far as my typographic/wave animation, I'm going to totally go off in a different direction. The sketches I've made aren't panning out in flash like I wanted them to. So I'm going to focus instead of just on the sound, more on the mood made by those sounds.

I'll focus on:
- grays
- subtle movement
- a rushing/wind like quality

As for my abstract, I still have yet to flesh that out. Maybe I'll try to keep close to an idea I had sometime last week, but we'll see.

Referential - draft 1

Here is my first draft of my referential animation:

CLICK ME TO SEE!

I didn't finish the animation so this is just a taste. As soon as I got to this point I had another idea that I branched off on. I was really frustrated about how to deal with the colored boxes. Because they were colored they seemed to really draw attention, but I wanted the viewer to be focused on the ball. Also, I didn't think that there was enough emphasis on the differences between the hollow and sharp tones. So I worked up another draft that I will post later.

Mind maps and story board-ish ideas

Here are my mind maps and ideas for my 3 sounds:

1. Frying pan - mind map, idea 1, idea 2

2. Waves - mind map, idea 1

3. Dripping water - mind map, ideas 1, 2, and 3

Blah on this wet fall season...

I will not be able to be in class today. It seems that I have caught some sort of a bug, and instead of risking passing it on to others in that tiny computer lab, I decided to stay home, work more on my sketches and mind maps, and watch more tutorials (which I argue would be so much more interesting if the narrator had an accent, but I digress...)

Final 3 sounds

Here are the 3 sounds that I've narrowed down to use in my project:

Animation 1 (Abstract): Meat in a frying pan

Animation 2 (Type-based): Ocean waves

Animation 3 (Referential): Water dripping into a pail

Some in depth mind mapping is sure to follow!

6 sound clips

Here are my 6 sound clips:


1. Defibrillator

2. Delicious meat sizzling in a frying pan

3. A dentist's drill

4. Water dripping into a pail

5. A running shower

6. Ocean waves