Repeat (v3): Now with SOUND Sound sound

I imagine this film to be a low-budget short, or at least one that could possibly be low-budget, since most props and scenes can be re-used. While I have yet to nail down the "talky bits," I think the essence of the film can be understood in this animatic.

What's most important to me is the literal presence of repetition in each shot, since repetition is the motif. It may not be apparent in the animatic, so I'd like to emphasize that detail.

Here's a link to the Flash file in GoogleDocs if you want to see it all big-like.

Continued Animatic for Repeat (v2)

This version now includes the scene where Cody (main character) finds his copy.

Preliminary Animatic for Repeat

This is the beginning of Act 1, where the routine is set up.

Review: This Film Is Not Yet Rated

Have you ever wondered why films get rated?  Is it for the parents?  The movie studios?

Try control.

This film delves into the mysterious inner-workings of the MPAA, and the alleged motivations behind its purpose in the nation (and the world).  The rating process is heavily guarded in secrecy, where a film's fate is decided by a handful of people, perhaps even a single person.  The difference between an R rating an NC-17 is much more than a guide for parents; it is the death knell of a film, its director, and the entire production staff.  Yes, a film can die after it's been made.

Summary of "Repeat"

Cody works at a copy center in a non-descript big city.  He lives alone in a cramp, studio apartment with a view of another apartment building.  Every day, he carries out a typical working-man’s routine – wake up, go to work, go to sleep.  Every day, he passes by the same people, whom are also carrying out their routines.  The world seems to be in complete order.

His social life is completely at work – friends, romantic interest, etc.  Everyone that surrounds him are static, cliché’ characters – chauvinist buddy, clock-watching boss, out-of-place hot girl, impatient patrons, etc.  He works quietly until it’s time to go home.  Every night, his friend takes him out to a bar.

One night, his friend asks him if something’s wrong.  Cody goes into a tirade about uniformity, and control, and how no one is really living anymore.  His friend calms him down and tells him to drink up.

Staggering out of the bar, Cody decides to take a detour and heads to the park.  He walks along the tree-lined path, passing by identical birds, joggers, and homeless people.  Disgruntled and drunk, he naps on a bench.  When he wakes up, he realizes that he has 45 minutes to get to work.  He rushes back home.

When he walks into the bedroom, he sees a man sleeping in his bed!  He walks up quietly and discovers the man is himself.  The clock alarm rings, and the man wakes up.  Cody hides.
Cody watches as the copy carries out his daily routine.  From a distance, he watches him get dressed, go to work, go out with his friend, and go to sleep.  He watches this occur for several days.
Fed up with his copy’s routine, he decides to take action.  He confronts his copy when he gets home.  After the initial shock of discovering himself, the Cody and the copy discuss a plan to change.  The discussion takes all night.

The next day, Cody (or the copy) changes the routine.  He starts by taking a different path to work.  He notices the differences – different lines of buildings, different lines of cars, etc. – and enjoys the change of venue.  He then arrives late to work for the first time and gets chewed out by the boss; It’s relieving.  He then musters the nerve to ask out the hot co-worker on a date, which she accepts!  Things are changing!

On the way home, Cody (or the copy) congratulates the other for liberating himself.  Once they get home, the joy turns to confusion, as they find another copy sleeping in bed.  They both hide as the third copy wakes up and go to work.

The third copy carries out Cody’s original routine.  Cody and the copy, growing confused and frustrated, gang-up on the third copy and interrogate him.  The third copy doesn’t know anything or understand what’s happening.  He says he’s just living his life.

The trio have a discussion about routines and the consequences of changing routines, and come to the conclusion that changing routines only result in new routines.  When they come to that realization, they find another copy sleeping in their bed.  This time, they assault him.

This goes on for a while, until the apartment is full of copies.  With the lack of space, and the mounting frustration, the Cody’s riot against the world.

The (original) Cody watches this all unfold, and decides to leave the city.  The buildings melt away into rolling hillsides and rows of crops and livestock.  He finds a small town – that’s repetitious in its own way – finds work as a dishwasher, and a place to stay.  No one in the town seems to be aware of the riots that Cody’s copies started.

The next morning, he wakes up and goes to work.

Set/Character Images For "Repeat"

Cody's apartment is cramped.  Unlike the photo, Cody is organized, with rows of items (books, DVDs,etc).

Repetition is enforced in every aspect of Cody's life.

Interior to exterior shows uniformity and repetition.

Repetition to the horizon.

All-American.

Everyone wears a uniform at Cody's workplace, a copy center.

A copy center...

I was thinking about an absurd uniform for the copy center employees.  At first, I thought UPS' brown shorts, then I thought "boy scout."

The bar set.  More repetition.

Cody stumbles into the night, and wanders around drunk in a park.  More repetition.

Cody finds a new life...

...at a diner...

...washing dishes.

Perspective Exercise: The House

Chapter 6: Composition

Chapter 6 covered the basics of framing a shot, otherwise known as composition.  A camera can only film a section of a given set, so many considerations must be taken in order to establish the message a scene is supposed to convey.  In many -- if not all -- ways, composition is identical with artistic traditions of contrast and balance.

Notes:
2 ways to view a film; passive and active
- passive - just watches
- active - analyzes it

The Frame
- a cropping device used to break up a scene into digestible pieces

Considerations for "the frame"
positive/negative space
- equally important

depth
- overlap - foreground/background give depth
- focus - depth of focus helps in emphasis
- scale - forced perspective increase scale

symmetry
- angle of reflection - around an axis
- radial symmetry - around a point
- asymmetry - no symmetry (duh)

balance
- the "weight" of objects in the frame
- play with size, scale, value, and color

series
- repetition of an object
- the viewer looks for the oddball

randomness
- most difficult to look natural
- skillful blocking is the key

lines, shapes
- lines give direction
- shapes form interest within the frame

texture
- makes scenes more realistic and interesting

contrast
- dark=far; light=near

Cinema verite'
- handheld shots
- framing is not as important

Script to Scene Comparison: The Men Who Stare At Goats

"I See A Tin Cup" scene from The Men Who Stare At Goats:

82 INT. PSI EXPERIMENT ROOM - DAY - THE PAST 82
Scotty, Larry and Lyn sit focusing on a wall of SMALL
WOODEN CUPBOARDS. Each cupboard has a letter and number
printed on its door.

BILL DJANGO
A-9.

The three men focus on the cupboard in question.

SCOTTY
It’s...it’s something cylindrical?
I think it’s a pencil?

BILL DJANGO
Okay. Larry?

Larry rolls his eyes up in his head, speaks in a high
wavering voice with a bad cockney accent.

LARRY HOOPER
This is Larry’s Spirit Guide,
Maud. I’m looking into
the cupboard now and I’m
seeing...I’m seeing...a tin mug?

BILL DJANGO
Lyn?

Lyn stares at his hands, focused. He looks up suddenly,
puzzled.

LYN CASSADY
It’s a man on a chair.

Bill unlocks the little cupboard and takes a photograph
of the Lincoln Memorial. There are murmurs of admiration
from the watching Jedis.

LARRY HOOPER
(blustering)
Oh, no, wait. See, I thought you
 said K, not A!

Bill ignores him, smiles at Lyn.

BILL DJANGO
Bravo Zulu, Lyn. Outstanding.

Larry looks daggers at Lyn.

Prediction:

Result:

The results are very similar.  The cupboard is approximately the size I imagined, and Bill was pacing in the background as well.  He even passes Lynn in the end of the scene.

As for differences, there were considerably more 3-shots of the soldiers than I expected.  Since the soldiers had all different responses, I figured the scene would include close-ups of each performance.

Script Vs. Film: 12 Monkeys

INT.  HOSPITAL/DAYROOM - HALF AN HOUR LATER (DAY)

    COLE stands in the doorway, stunned by his first sight of the
    large room.  His eyes go to the heavily-grilled windows where
    light pours in from outside.  Then, to the TV, where a CARTOON
    COMMERCIAL makes raucous noises.

    PATIENTS, in K-Mart street clothes or ratty robes, stare gloomily
    at the TV, or play cards, pace, or just stare blankly.

    BILLINGS is at COLE'S side, beckoning to a patient, JEFFREY MASON,
    a twenty year old white youth dressed in khakis and a plaid shirt.

                         BILLINGS
             Jeffrey.  Yo!  Jeffrey.  This here is James.
             Whyncha show James around?  Tell him the TV
             rules, show him the games an' stuff, okay?

                         JEFFREY
                 (with a sly look)
             How much you gonna pay me?  Huh?  I'd
             be doing your job.

                         BILLINGS
             Five thousand dollars, my man.  That
             enough?  I'll wire it to your account
             as usual, okay?

                         JEFFREY
             Okay, Billings.  Five thousand.  That's
             enough.  Five thousand dollars.  I'll
             give him the Deluxe Mental Hospital Tour.

    As BILLINGS walks away chuckling, JEFFREY turns to COLE.

                         JEFFREY
             Kid around, kid around.  It makes them feel
             good, we're all pals.  We're prisoners, they're
             the guards, but it's all in good fun, you see?

    COLE nods and JEFFREY indicates card tables where PATIENTS are
    playing cards, checkers, chess, or working on jig saw puzzles.

                         JEFFREY
             Here's the games.  Games vegitize you.
             If you play the games, you're
             voluntarily taking a tranquilizer.

    COLE sees a partially completed puzzle of the well-known painting,
    THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM, depicting a serene world of animals in harmony.

                         JEFFREY
             What'd they give you?  Thorazine?  How
             much?  Learn your drugs -- know your doses.

                         COLE
             I need to make a telephone call.

                         JEFFREY
             A telephone call?  That's communication
             with the outside world!  Doctor's
             discretion.  Hey, if alla these nuts
             could just make phone calls, it could
             spread.  Insanity oozing through telephone
             cables, oozing into the ears of all those
             poor sane people, infecting them!  Whackos
             everywhere!  A plague of madness.
                 (suddenly sly and confidential)
             In fact, very few of us here are actually
             mentally ill.  I'm not saying you're
             not mentally ill, for all I know you're
             crazy as a loon.  But that's not why
             you're here.  Why you're here is because
             of the system, because of the economy.
                 (indicating the TV)
             There's the TV.  It's all right there.
             Commercials.  We are not productive
             anymore, they don't need us to make
             things anymore, it's all automated.  What
             are we for then?  We're consumers.  Okay,
             buy a lot of stuff, you're a good citizen.
             But if you don't buy a lot of stuff, you
             know what?  You're mentally ill! That's
             a fact!  If you don't buy things...toilet
             paper, new cars, computerized blenders,
             electrically operated sexual devices...
                 (getting hysterical)
             SCREWDRIVERS WITH MINIATURE BUILT-IN
             RADAR DEVICES, STEREO SYSTEMS WITH
             BRAIN IMPLANTED HEADPHONES, VOICE-
             ACTIVATED COMPUTERS, AND...

    A woman orderly, TERRY, turns from the feeble PATIENT she's helping.

                         TERRY
             Take it easy, Jeffrey.  Be calm.

    Abruptly, JEFFREY stifles his hysteria, takes a deep breath and
    continues, completely calm now.  But COLE isn't listening.  He's
    mesmerized by the TV.

                         JEFFREY
             So if you want to watch a particular
             program, say "All My Children" or
             something, you go to the Charge Nurse
             and tell her what day and time the show
             you want to see is on.  But you have to
             tell her before the show is scheduled
             to be on.  There was this one guy who
             was always requesting shows that had already
             played.  He couldn't quite grasp the
             idea that the Charge Nurse couldn't
             just make it be yesterday for him, turn
             back time ha ha.  What a fruitcake!!

    This last thought actually penetrates COLE'S focus on the TV and
    he turns to JEFFREY who's picking up speed again.

                         JEFFREY
             Seriously, more and more people are
             being defined now as mentally ill.  Why?
             Because they're not consuming on their
             own.  But as patients, they becone
             consumers of mental health care.  And
             this gives the so-called sane people work!
                 (hysteria again)
             WHOOO!  SHOCK THERAPY!  GROUP THERAPY!
             HALLUCINATIONS!  THERAPEUTIC DRUGS!
             IGGIDY DIGGIDY DIG!  PERFECT!  THE
             SYSTEM IN HARMONY LIKE A BIG MACHINE...

                         TERRY
             Okay, that's it, Jeffrey, you're gonna
             get a shot.  I warned you...

                         JEFFREY
                 (calming himself, smiling)
             Right!  Right!  Carried away, heh heh.
             I got "carried away".  Explaining the
             workings of...the institution.

    Just then, TJ WASHINGTON, a somber-looking African American in a
    bathrobe, taps COLE on the shoulder.

                         TJ WASHINGTON
             I don't really come from outer space.

                         JEFFREY
             This is TJ Washington, Jim -- he
             doesn't really come from outer space.

                         TJ WASHINGTON
             Don't mock me, my friend.
                 (to Cole)
             It's a condition of "mental divergence".
             I find myself on another planet, Ogo,
             part of an intellectual elite, preparing
             to subjugate barbarian hordes on Pluto.
             But even though it's a totally convincing
             reality in every way...I can feel, breathe,
             hear...nevertheless, Ogo is actually a
             construct of my psyche.  I am mentally
             divergent in that I am escaping certain
             unnamed realities that plague my life
             here.  When I stop going there, I will
             be well.  Are you also divergent, friend?

    The P.A. SYSTEM interrupts, startling COLE.

                         P.A. SYSTEM (v.o.)
             James Cole.  Report to Staff.  James Cole!

                         JEFFREY
             Staff!  Whoo!  Time for Staff.  Now the
             geniuses cure you.  Hallelujah!

Composition Studies Exercise

Storyboarding for Games

Paul Culp wrote up a blog piece about the importance of storyboarding in game development.  At first, I thought this kind of approach would only work in cutscenes or scripted events, but I soon realized that storyboarding would work for the most mundane animations, like performing a kick, or walking, since the storyboards will go to the programmers, who may have no idea what a double-jump is, let alone does.

Extended Frame/Storytelling Exercise: Eboy's Tokyo

The master image is "Tokyo" by the design group Eboy.  Here's the original image.  The intent is to start with typical life, descend into madness, then return to "normalcy."

Summary of Chapter 5: The Extended Frame

Sometimes a storyboard panel is not enough to convey a scene, especially one that takes place over time, or include special camera movement.  This is where the extended frame comes in.  An extended frame is an extension of the rectangular storyboard frame that contains camera information, such as zooms, dolly, pans, etc.

Although a regular storyboard would suffice, extended frames in a storyboard help in expediting the storyboard process by combining two or more frames into one.

Following the explanation of extended frames, an interview with VP of Platinum Studios explains the process of planning out a project, and how storyboard style can often have direct influence over a film production, as was the case with Men In Black.

The chapter ends with an anecdote of a request by an TV producer for a quick-and-dirty storyboard sequence.  TV productions rarely use storyboards, due to time constraints.  However, this particular sequence had an extremely tight schedule, and the set designers required a shot setup so they wouldn't waste time on building props that wouldn't appear in the final shots.

Summary of Chapter 4: The Aspect Ratio

While the 4:3 ratio was widely accepted for filmmaking, it was not the standard.  Many differing technologies and aspect ratios were used, depending on the filmmaker's desires.  New technologies, such as adding sound, took precious real estate from the viewing screen.  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in an effort to standardize the film industry, created the "Academy Standard" of 1.33 or 4:3.

Still, new technologies and new dramatic effects pushed the aspect ratio beyond the 4:3 aspect ratio.  Several "standard" aspect ratios emerged as a result:

1.33:1 - TV or computer screen
on paper, 3"x4"

1.66:1 - 16mm film (European Projection)
on paper, 3"x5"

1.85:1 - American Projection
on paper, 3"x5.5"

2.35:1 - Widescreen Super 35
on paper, 3"x7"

1.78:1 - High Definition (16:9)

1.43:1 - IMAX

Camera Setup: Big Trouble In Little China: Meeting Lo Pan

This is the camera setup from the scene where Jack and Wang meet Lo Pan "in the flesh."  The scene begins when Jack and Wang are led into the "Buddha Room," and ends when Rain exits.

Storyboard: Repeat

 

A man repeats a typical home-work-home routine. One day, he finds a copy of himself, who repeats his routine.  He takes action to change his routine on his copy self, but, on the next day, he finds another copy of himself.  Out of frustration, everyone wreaks havok on the world.

Mind Maps

I'm Here. Now What?

Hello, fellow mmsp145 bloggers!

I have yet to register, so this may be my first and last blog entry...

Update: I'm in!