It
was at this point during the production that I finally followed my
friend's suggestion, and read some books on film production. He had
actually suggested to read "Masters of Light" so that I
could better understand the mind of the cinematographer, and I did
get this book, but I didn't read that one (and I still haven't).
Instead
I got the books that I've mentioned before: CinematicStorytelling, and the Master Shots
series. Those books were easy and quick to read, but
filled with tons of great ideas, especially for someone as
inexperienced as I. As always, I annotated the book while reading,
and even marked specific ideas that I would try to implement in "The
Music of Erich Zann."
It
was only after reading these books that I got a better idea about
what I never understood about screenplays. I decided to take a step
back from the animation and visual production of the work, and really
detail the screenplay that I would now utilize for the production.
Creating
a detailed screenplay was the absolute best decision that I made
during this production. While I had written notes during
preproduction, and on prior projects I even created a sparse
storyboard, I had never done so at this level of detail.
While
the first scene was already laid out, it was a long and arduous
process where I came up with ideas from the top of my head; some
worked, but others didn't, but the trial and error process probably
wasted a lot of time.
Utilizing
my new screenplay method, I was better able to pre-visualize, in my
head, what I wanted to see, and how I was going to accomplish these
ideas. Now, to be clear, I don't think that there is anyone who would
look at my screenplay and describe it as being in the proper
"screenplay format." (I know that there is such a format,
but I don't care to learn it at this stage.) Instead, I still insist
on calling my work a screenplay because reading it helps illustrate
what the play would be on the screen, thus a screenplay.
I
tried to incorporate several important elements in the screenplay.
The first is breaking each scene into the different shots that would
make up the scene. The second is the camera lens that I would
utilize. Of course, I would also include what the camera was looking
at, and how those things were framed in the image. The third element
is how the characters in the camera move. And the final element to
make sure each shot in the screenplay had was how the camera moved.
With these ideas in mind, I also broke down each scene into the
individual shots that would make the scene.
From
these details, I had more pre-visualization than I had ever created
for any of my previous animation projects. I didn't end up making a
storyboard since my screenplay was so detailed. I would thus go
directly from screenplay to animatic. After building the animatic, I
would then get a very accurate idea of how film would look with this
low-animation-quality animatic. After fleshing that out, I could see
what worked and what didn't and what needed to be changed.
By
the way, after creating the screenplay like this, I realized that it
probably couldn't have happened in any other order. That is, even
though it turns out that I did spend too much time and energy
creating items and props that were never seen, I don't think that I
could have created a screenplay without the visualization that
knowing the sets actually provides. That is, if I didn't know how the
world looked, how could I have thought of the specific camera shots,
and their framing? Perhaps there are people who have this sort of
vision, but I do not.
- FOYER
- Shot 6.1: short lens from Zann's door, as she is closing her own door, center frame, as though to leave. NO MUSIC. She turns her head down the hall, and towards stairs.
- Shot 6.1.0: [[[At same time, camera rotates to see Zann struggling up the stairs. (No. This isn't powerful enough entrance for him) he must have a turn in entrance, pg46.] She is framed so hard right, that she is partly out of frame (maybe even completely out of frame.) she then runs down the hall, towards Zann to help, from frame right, to frame left, while camera doesn't move at all. ]]]
- Shot 6.1.1: she stops at the top of the stairs, looking down, seeing Zann. (But camera doesn't move from looking at her at top of steps, over the rail.)
- Shot 6.2: camera over her shoulder, long lens, tilted down, looking at Zann's back as he looks out the window of the mezzanine. Either camera zooms in, or pushes in as Zann turns around, facing the camera, and approaches forward, up the steps. But then we see him struggle with the first steps.
- Shot 6.3: camera shorter lens, from behind him, as he ascends the stairs. Wall is frame left, she is center, descending, he is frame right. From top of stairs looking down, she rushes down to help him up the stairs.
- Shot 6.4: camera long lens close up framing both of their faces, as they walk up the stairs, while he's holding the rail, panting, looking down. She is a bit behind him, helping him up the stairs.
- Shot 6.5: short to medium lens camera panning with them as they walk corridor to his room, just past hers.
- Shot 6.6: long lens focus on the surprise/ startle of her face as She realizes he is the player of music.
- Shot 6.7: very short lens looks out from inside Zann's room as he just opened his door. A bit over his shoulder because he's looking at her. Her surprised look becomes more curious-happy, like a child about to discover something. He gestures to welcome her in. She nods and She follows him in as he turns and walks into the camera (which is effectively a fade to black)
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