An animatic is a sequence of still photos representing the shots for our trailer accompanied by diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Its function is to give an idea of how the trailer will look and what we need to change to improve anything for the real trailer.
The process of the animatic is where we produce a storyboard for it then take a photo for each shot, record the sound then edit it all together to male a still picture like trailer.
At the beginning of the year, individually we came up with our own plot synopsis's that we thought of ourselves. After then being put into our coursework groups, we then worked together to see which storyline was best to work with and the most realistic to create. My synopsis was the one that our group decided to do, as we thought would be the most realistic to create and be easy to make with little budget. Although we did change a few things in the synopsis which the other members of the group contributed too. After our final plot synopsis was set, we then began to think of shots which would work best in the trailer and begin to put these to make a storyline onto a storyboard. We put all of our images on the storyboard with next to it in written detail of sound, mise en scene etc. After we had done this we could cut them up and rearrange them into an order in which would work best for our animatic.
Here is some of the shots we used on the storyboard
We used the storyboard to organise our schedule by looking at what shots to take in different locations. We noticed as a group that the locations of shots were mixed up throughout our animatic therefore we had to pick certain days for the shots in the same location. This made the experience of making the animatic a lot easier as we would have to go back to the location to take more photo's which would be very difficult with a time limit, our organisation skills as a group were good here.
Altogether our animatic contained 64 shots, however our storyboard contained 53. This is because in our animatic we added a number of titles and when we went out taking the shots we took more shots in different ways which we though would work, which we also added in the animatic.
For the animatic the main location where the majority of the shots were taken was the woods. This location was easy to access as it was behind Kelly's house which she was familiar too, as a group we were amazed at this location as it fitted our mise en scene of the trailer perfectly. Although we has to be organised with time and get there early to arrange shots as it got dark early, which we did very well.
The other locations for our animatic was in school where the friends are together in their everyday location. This location was also easy to access as we used our own canteen in school for the diary shot, and the stairs for the group shot together. We also decided to use the Mary flashback shot our school as well as it was easy to access and the shot with the mise en scene of the wall made it seem it was not the same location. The one other location used was at my house where I had to take pictures of my Nan to use as Mrs Kynch. For these shots it was easy to access at my house, and I took the shots myself to take into the group next day as they did not all need to be there.
For our actors in our trailer/animatic we decided to use our on members of the group. This was Jordan, Kelly, Dafydd, Emma, My Nan and myself. These played the characters of Connor, Sophie, Tom, Hollie, Mrs Kynch and Mary.
Me (Katie) plays Mary & Jordan plays Connor - Both Group Members
(Left) Kelly plays Sophie & Emma plays Hollie (Kelly only group member)
Jordan & Dafydd plays Tom
With using our group members and one close friend we found that we would put a lot of effort in being all of our same work also we would be able to rely on them with it also being easier for doing work and taking shots etc. Although the one day of the shooting Jordan (Connor) could not make the day we set so a substitute Connor was used 'Jack' who filled in for him in the animatic.
When taking some of our shots in the woods we realised that they could work in many other different angles, therefore we took a several potential shots which we then changed slightly in the animatic. We also changed many of the wording's in the film title's which we thought may have worked better in the animatic. An example of this is the title that we originally had of 'They should have listened'. After watching and evaluating many other horror trailers, we noticed that the majority of them addressed the audience personally to make a creepier effect. As of this we changed the title to 'You should have listened' getting the audience involved with the events happening in our storyline.
Out of all of our shots planned on the story board there was two in particular shot which we found a challenge, which was a birdseye view shot of both Sophie and Tom and then Tom on his own. We found this extremely difficult to take from a high up shot, so by Kelly going on Jack shoulder's and leaning against the tree we managed to take them. Although we will consider this shot when filming the animatic.
As a whole on the storyboarding and taking the shots, I think our team work and creativity could not have been improved as we used a great variety of shots and techniques which will show the success in the final trailer.
During the editing process we inserted the photo's to what we needed, whilst still following thw storyboard to what order we planned to do. We then shortened and lengthened the shots to what we thought would be best for the trailer.
The length on the shot depended on how we wanted the audience to react, depending on trying to explain something, make them scared or as simple as being the right length to go along with the dialogue or sound. For example the long shots we had at the beginning with the friends we wanted to be long. We did this to establish the four friends clearly at the beginning of the trailer to the audience to become familiar with them, and also to be the right length with the dialogue, we also took into account that when filming the trailer the shot will have movement, whcih was a slight disadvantage with a still shot. Some short shot's we decided on were nearly all of the ones of Mary, which were also seen for less than a second and in a long or close up shot. We did this because we felt like the audience should not need to know Mary as well as any other of the characters as they need to watch the film to find out more about her, and is she the one that is killing the friends, being one of our code of egnima's. We also wanted short snappy close up shots at the end because we wanted to scare the audience just as the trailer ended to keep them with something to remember in fright. We did this also because we found it alot common in other horror trailers that we had analysed and evaluated such as the 'The Descent'. It made us all jump out at the end which is the effect we will try and copy into our own trailer.
We started with short titles to help the audience get familiar with the story line and characters such as 'Four Friends' and 'Discover Mary'. By giving the audience little detail it let's them imagine for themselves about the story of Mary. We also did all title's using monosyllables to make it sound chanting like and scary such as 'Now she want's to play'. We also decided on using a title to suggest danger and death of 'They should have listened'. However after analysing trailer's closely we discovered as a group that many trailer's commonly use the pronoun of 'You' in the trailer, which we decided to then change in ours. Therefore 'You should have listened' attracts the audience directly getting them involved with the story making it creepy. We also decided to use a small spaced out font with an effect of each letter appearing at a time, we thought this was effective as it related to the diary like writing in Mary's diary.
For our animatic we did not use any background sound track music. Instead we made all of the sounds in the trailer ourselves, which we plan to do in our trailer but also with some non-diegetic background music. Most of the sound's were diegetic dialogue of all the characters starting with alot of questioning such as 'Do you know Mary', as the mise en scene changed to the forest we then changed the diegetic sounds to mostly loud shouting, screaming and heavy breathing to emphasise the panic and danger. We also made our own sound track using chimes, we did this as the panic and face pace of the shots contrasted with the soft chimes in the background whilst the singing of nursery rhymes makes a creepy feel. At the end of the trailer we also left the audience with the creepy singing and repetition of 'Mary.... Mary' leaving the audience scared and familiar what is the danger.
I think the animatic appeals to the target audience as they can relate to the main character's in the film, such as a group of teenage thing doing everyday activities that go out of hand. The fact that they all attend school and discover things makes the audience reflect themselves in their position. The close friendship of the friends of different genders and the boyfriend/girlfriend relationship will also invite groups of friends and couples. The realistic life makes it attracted to mostly anyone too. Although after asking many family members and close friends on their reaction, nearly all of them we're freaked out by the animatic and thought it was brilliant which is positive news for how our trailer will be.
What to improve?
I think to improve to the real trailer we need to be more precise on props etc. For example Mary's look and costume will be more scary by using make up and contact lenses, also the costumes in the flashback will more identifiable of the 1920's. Also we would need to be more clear on important props such as the noose being a brown traditional one and the dairy will be worn and written in to make it look old.
For shots I think we used a good variety that established things perfectly, however we wanted to use as many as 15 fast shots in the fast paces part of the trailer, which we plan to improve on and get a variety of important shots to do this.
We also need to make the mise en scene more clear and precise such as the home of Mrs Kynch needs to look like the old stereotypical old lady's home, and an old playground where it can be visible to be a school in the flashback.
We also need to make the dialogue clear and may go over again what to say in them, we will try not to overlap the sounds and make them sound clear with the background music.
One of the main things however we want to improve on is the seeing of Mrs Kynch, after presenting our animatic to the class we got this perception from many people. We think it would be better to make her appear at the end of the trailer in the woods, to make another 'Red Herring' and suggest another connection with Mary and the killings.
These are our 5 key iconic images we chose as a group
This close up image of the hand appears quickly on the screen with the diegetic dialogue 'I still do'. This immediately shows the reader that this hand belongs to the Mrs Kynch of who appeared in the flashback watching Mary getting bullied, this is identifiable through the ring she wears and the ageing of the hands to show how old she now is. The Diary underneath and the fact that she still knows will scare the reader as they will want to know how if she is still dead and how they have a connection together.
This Long shot of the figure of Mary running through the forest gives the first sign to the audience that there is a presence in the forest that is not safe, questioning what or who is that runs through the trees. It also plays with the audiences eyes and mind to make them look harder to what they are looking at, it also reinforces the genre of horror as this first suggests it to the audience. The diegetic laughter in the background also gives a disturbing atmosphere to the audience making them feel on edge, we copied the laughter technique from the ghost of a little boy in 'Insidious' .
This long shot of feet hanging outside the tent comes from the point of view from one of the friends staying inside the tent. This also puts the audience on unease as they are forced to think about the storyline, this is because it is not evident who has died and if they had been killed by someone/something or done it them self which was one of the codes of enigma in our trailer. It also indicates the danger that anyone is in once outside of the tent in the woods, tent showing protection.
The close up of Tom (Dafydd) struggling whilst being hung also leaves answering questions to the audience, such as has he done this himself? The close up emphasises his pain and struggle more to the reader being face to face to the consequences that they face which was in the previous title 'You should have listened'. Another main question it asks is does he and the others survive? Welcoming the target audience to watch the film.
This close up image is the last image used at the end off the trailer before the billing card. We wanted to do this as it leaves the audience scared at the end and go away with this significant image of Mary ( Me,Katie) in their heads. A question asked at this image at the end of the trailer is, is she the villain hanging the victims? or is she forcing them in some way? The pale skin and wide eyes give a disturbing feel towards the audience, however this will be more scary on the real thing!
I think my role through this process was making my opinions happen in the trailer and transferring my ideas into the succession of our animatic.Kelly had the role practically in the editing however I think with my help and perceptions she took them and presented them extremely well in the animatic with her computer skills. I also think I play the role of Mary good for our animatic as I seem to make the right face expressions, singing and voiceover to match the character. I think the variety of shots in the settings was also due to my well though opinions. However, as a group we work well together and the positive outcomes of our animatic shows the future outcomes of how successful our trailer can be.
