3D pacing animatic

Before i adjust the edit to fit the 3 minutes, i will block out the story in 3D Studio max using basic shapes.Although these shots will be longer than the finished edit, it will help me decide where i should shorten different areas. I will also now be able to see the kitchen in a much more difined layout.
I have created a basic hudsons for the cef and the chickens.

Here is the blocked out animatic. There are a few problems with some of the camera moves and angles which i will need to address.I will need to correct some of the camera moves that are slowing down when they shouldnt be.

Animatic

Here i have made a re edit of the animatic but this time editing it to a more comfortable length even though it is longer than required at the moment. Doing this will make it much easier to edit it down  and stil attain the suspense that i am after.

Rough animatic

Here is the first rough animatic. The films length is 3 minutes as required but overal it feels much too rushed. Much more work needs to be done to the edit and i think i will re-edit the film in a way that feels a more comfortable length and then trim it down as required to fit to the three minutes. In this edit the beginning and end feel much too rushed in particular and dont carry the suspense i want.

Storyboarding

I have begun to story board out my film based on my treatment as posted earlier. Ive drawn on ispiration from the film Jurrassic Park for some of the shots. Especialy the ones where wth chickens are hiding from the chef in amongst the pots of chilli sauce, i found much of the material useful from the Kitchen scene from the movie.

Character design:the chef

The chef is based on the skeletal features as i said but will still retain human form in some areas. The eyes will become very important because of the shot of the chicken stabbing the chilli into them.
I really like the idea of portraying the chef as a kind of zombie esc figure ad making him feel unhuman. I also think he should feel very grotesque aswell with gunge and ooze around his eyes. I think it would be similar to that of a very bad eye infection aswel as takinginfluence from a horror film zombie.

As i said in a previous post, the chefs design will be based on the illustrations of David Lozeau. I really like the menacing feeling that these his characters portray. Also, this slimmer type of character is much more suitable for woring in the CG enviromeant.

Below are some sketches based on this illustration for the character of the chef.

With these sketches i was also trying to define what the character would be in a silouette as this is how he will mostly appear in the film.

Location design

Here ive sketched up the kitchen with the spit roast being in the middle of the room instead of an oven.

Location design

Ive re  thought the layout of the kitchen and it may be more gru-some to have a spit roast instead of an oven that would lie in the centre of the room and be burning throughout. Also, i think this would be much more terrifying to the chickens if they could physicaly see what happens to them.

Location design

I want the chicken pen to feel very threatening and enclosed. I like the idea of it being made out of knives and wrapped together with wire.

Location design

Ive started to think about what the kitchen will look like. I want it to feel very dirty and unlike what a chefs kitchen should typicaly look like. I also like the idea of making it feel very intimidating and enclosed with only 1 or 2 light sources.  Ive gathered some iagery together for inspiration.

Because of the very dark nature of the film, i want it to feel somewhat like a nazi concentration camp. Im realy interested in using elements from asimilar enviroment to tie into the kitchen, most notably the oven that could resemble a furness.

Below, ive roughly drawn out what the kitchen will look like. I feel as though it could stil be much more enclosed though.

Beat boards

Ive finished doing the beat/mood boards for the film with the updated escape. Ive very roughly sketched these and suggested some of the colour that i will use. Ive tried to make the first part feel quite cold as the chickens are facing certain death and then more heated colours as the chickens escape and the final scene with the chefs death. Once character design and i have made floor plans for the enviroment i will look much more closely into the colours that will be used for each scene as these are quite vage at the moment.

Aesthetic ideas

As the film will have a very mexican feel to it, inspiration will be drawn from mexican folk art and crafts, especialy with the interior of the decoration of the kitcen and the style of the caracter design.

The design of the chickens will have a feel to that of traditional mexican wood carvings of animals. The design will use some of the bright colours similar to the images below, in contrast to the darknessof the chef and the chefs kitchen.

The design of the cheff will also draw on an inspiration from mexican folk art. My initial thoughts on the look of the chef made me think of an over weight and very large character that would be contrasting to the small chickens. The chef would obviously be mexican in appearence with tanned skin, black hair and a moustach. Below are some of y initial sketchs based on this look.

However, i decided to rethink this look for the chef due to a number of reasons. First of all, this film will be a cgi film and using a big, bulky character will draw problems, also i think this look is a bit too cartoony and doesnt match the darkness of the piece. And, i also think this look would be too obvious for a mexican chef. It feels a bit stereotypical.

Therefore, ive decided to look at illustrators that use a mexican folk art style in there work and have found David Lozeau's work vert intriging. The images below feel much closer to the darker side of the film and designs like this would be much eaiser to handle in a cg enviroment.

story updates

Had a few thoughts about the escape from the cage. It felt as though the chickens escaping from the cage could be much more interesting than just having them cling onto another chicken that is being taken and then drop to the floor. Playing the what if game... the chicken that is second inline could push his leg inbetween the door and the cage just before the chef shuts it, making it openable to them fr there escape. The chicken could even break his leg at this point making the end scene with the chef much more interesting with the fact that he is carrying an injury. This will also prove a very big animation challenge.

Here are some rough mood boards for each scene. These are the first three, the next three will follow.

Story development

This is the current state of the story. im preety happy with the structure but may still make a few tweeks depending on how it feels on storyboard.

Three chickens are nervously waiting in line in their pen to be taken by the violent chef to be beheaded and served as fajitos in an old mexican restraunt.
  The second chicken in line is frantically looking around to try and find some kind of escape route, unlike the other two that are preparing themselves for death. The chef returns to the pen to get the next chicken and the second inline takes a deep breath, ready to escape.
                                              
As the chef grabs the next chicken from the pen, the second in line leaps onto his legs as he is carried out, shielded from the chefs view. The third chicken is a crying mess at the back of the pen that thinks he has no hope of escape but at the last second he clings onto the other in his own desperate attempt to be free, not to the amusement of the second inline that thinks he may foil his plans.

Both chickens manage to get out of the pen without the chef noticing and drop to the floor just outside whilst the one that was first inline is beheaded by the chef.

    The two chickens head in amongst several stacks of hot sauce whilst the chef finishes off the other and returns to get the next but discovers that they are not there.
    The chef scans the room for a sign of the chickens and suspicously walks over to the stacks of hot sauce to see if they are there. He moves several pots of sauce around
    to try and catch them out, with the chickens moving wth them trying not to be seen. The chef then crouches down and shines a light in amongst a gap in the higher stacks of sauce to see if they are there. He squeezes his hand into the gap with the two chickens pressed up against the wall of sauces, narrowingly not been touched.   

    The chef removes his hand and moves away from the stack and the chickens take a sigh of relief, thinking that they are safe for the time being. Suddenly, the chicken that was last in line is grabbed from the other side of the stacks by the chef. He is taken by the scruff of the neck and led away to the chopping board. The other chicken watches in horror as he is brutily beheaded by the chef’s axe on the other side of the room.

    The surviving chicken runs to the door to try and get out the building but the chef spots him just as he is finishing off the other chicken. Just as the survivor is about
    to get to the door, the chef grabs him by the legs and pulls him back. In a violent struggle, the chef slashes around with his axe as the chicken puts up a fight to get
    away. The chefs grip gradualy loosens and the chicken is flung into a pile of chillis on the floor. The chef draws back his axe and just as he is about to swing, the chicken stabs him in the eye with a chilli.
     
Partly blinded, the chef, ragingly slashes around with his axe, with the chicken darting around the kitchen. The chicken then finds himself backed into a corner by the chef and just as the cheftakes one last swing to behead the chicken, he knocks his axe into the large rack of knives that are hanging from the ceiling.
A giant knife is released from the rack and cuts into the chefs neck, beheading him.The exausted chickens sighs in relief as he has survived the hands of the violent chef. The end.

Welcome

Welcome to my production diary for my new short film 'Muerto o Vivo' (dead or alive).

Let pre production begin....