Week 1 – Project Design and Research

Environment Design Plan

Map Plan View

On the left is the placement plan, on the right is the character animation placement plan. The camera maintains the 180 degree rule.

3D Mock-up Environment

In the image above, I made a quick 3D mock-up environment to judge the scale and placement of the scenery.

Storyboard

Initial Storyboard

Logline: “A scared dog runs away from a loud noise”.

This is the initial storyboard I created. The story consists of:

• A dog that is apprehensive about the outside world.
• He looks left and right through the dog house doorway.
• He slowly creeps/ walks out.
• As he does so, he hears a noise, which makes him freeze.
• He looks towards the front gate of the garden.
• Scared, he then dashes to the main house from door.
• and enters the house through the cat flap/ dog door.

More Developed Storyboard

I am not very confident to portray my narrative design through drawing, even through storyboards are not meant to be detailed. I felt more comfortable translating my ideas through the 3D mock-up environment I made to plan each shot with more visual clarity.

In this storyboard, I developed the story further, and with more depth. The dog is now a puppy, afraid of new things. He has a loud noise phobia. The puppy looks at an empty food bowl that is next to the dog house. Once noticing it is empty he whimpers and looks at the main house door. This provides the character with an intention and goal. The puppy, intends to eat, this has already become instinct to him. However, since the food bowl is empty, this indicates that he may have stayed in his ‘comfort zone’, the dog house, for so long that the owner has not given him more food. And he must enter the house if he wants food and water again. The fact that he shows apprehensive actions throughout this whole process shows this personality, his hesitation to do anything, even the trivialities which all seem new to him. For example, as children, any one of us may have been afraid of the going downstairs at a new establishment, with new people that is unfamiliar to you. Or more commonly, afraid of the dark (afraid of the unknown/ unfamiliar).

The character’s hesitation, as well as the ‘looking out of the dog house’ action, draws attention to the main house front door. This displays the location of the dog door on the main house front door twice even before the puppy has run to it after being scared.

When you are apprehensive, in terms of behavioural characteristics, a person may check things multiple times. This anthropomorphism of the character would emphasise the feeling and purpose behind his actions towards the meaning that I wish for the audience to understand. I intend the puppy to look multiple times at the front door to show the audience the puppy’s known ‘safe zone’, which he is checking on or referring back to. Overall, the audience does not need any more staging exposition to understand that the main house front door is a location/ direction that the puppy will run to when he does.

The Source of the Fear

The ‘what’ that he is afraid of is left ambiguous intentionally. I have intentionally designed source of the fear to be simple and not visually present. Not only does this leave room for imagination of the audience, but consequentially, I only have to focus on the design of camera work, character acting and sound effects to give the impression that there is something to be feared. With this, I will be able to practice my skill in designing an impression that there is something not visually present to be feared with the use of cinematic techniques. For example, how horror films give the audience the feeling/ mood of suspense without anything popping out at them yet.

Considering this, I could have wildlife noises and a music composition play throughout the beginning of the animation sequence. Up until the animation nears the loud noise. Preceding the loud noise, the music and wildlife noises could go silent/ quiet to build suspense. Then the wildlife noises could commence once he enters the main house dog door.

Storyboard Shot Design

I believe that this storyboard can still be further developed. The plan for the camera shots should be further edited as it seems wasteful. Currently, the storyboard above comprises of shot to shot frames, however this is almost the same as pose-to-pose. To explain, I believe that I would need to reuse shots where possible. not only will this save me time and energy as I will have to move the camera around less, it will provide more continuity for the audience. Making it easier to understand and follow.

In the storyboard above, I have implemented my learnings about film language in order to translate certain messages. For example, around the time that the loud noises starts, and every shot after, is from a high angle. this indicates the character’s vulnerability, and a sense of suspense and entrapment.

In comparison to this, the shot of the gate is from a low angle, creating the impression that the gate/ something in that direction is mighty/ powerful/ intimidating or to be feared. I also added low shots to when the dog is stepping out of the dog house, as though he has gained enough confidence to leave house. He is, at least, momentarily empowered.

Audio

The establishing shot at the beginning shows the whole scene, for exposition. I have the intention of having diegetic wildlife/ nature noises be heard before the first shot, perhaps the puppy’s breathing too (L or J cut here) .(I will have to research the design of driving purposeful audio for film further. The video below is my first reference for my work. I will spend more time on it later in my project development.

Video Editing: What Are J-Cuts and L-Cuts? (premiumbeat.com)

Within this video, the narrator explains how the audio is a strong element that drives the audiences attention to visual aspects in a shot. For example, if you were to change the SFX from something falling to a car driving past, this would shift the audiences perspective in the shot.

Currently, my sound design intention consists of a silent film (no dialogue only diegetic ambient sounds) with only sound effects, and perhaps an element of ‘music’. As the video above described, I can provide the audience with an unbeknownst impression of music through, for example, a few drum beats. Although, this is not music, it is non-diegetic sound that inputs to the mood of the scene.

From the video above:

“You see with your ears, it is fine if film gets the credit because a key to the power of sound design is its invisibility”.

“If dialogue sounds close, then you are close to the person who is speaking it”.

This quote from the video above is a great instructional reference for me in my audio design development. I will keep this in mind for later.

Narrative Reference

The 1919 film ‘A Day’s Pleasure‘, by Charles Chaplin is a great example of the concept I wish to portray: “making a story out of seemingly almost nothing”. To explain what I mean, the narrative in this film is comprised of the actor, Chaplin, being stuck in tar. Seemingly, a simple concept and yet he has turned that simple action into a 45 second story.

He has produced a whole narrative out of elaborating smaller actions into one event. All the while providing the audience with the intended source of entertainment and humour.

To compare this to my narrative, which is “a scared dog running away from a loud noise”, I intend to create more meaning to smaller actions to elaborate on the initial story. While I am unsure of what I want my audience to receive from my film and story, I already know of certain elements which will help enhance my current intentions. By this I mean smaller elements of the narrative that I have added such as:

• Looking outside both directions before exiting the dog house.
• Looking at the food bowl and the previously mentioned meaning behind it.
• Perhaps when he is initially looking in both directions, he could pause more at the gate, as though it is a previous source of concern.
• Behavioural characteristics e.g. I may add more smaller movements e.g. ears pointed when scared, tail between legs, wide eyed facial expressions or scratching at his body.
• Also, I wish to add more expositional mise-en-scene. Such as scenery objects that help to describe the character’s behavioural characteristics. E.g. ‘Do not disturb’ sign, blankets (shows he stays in the dog house a lot), a gnawed at bone toy etc. And perhaps more visual information about the owner with garden objects too (e.g. laundry or window objects).

Nevertheless, I can foresee that even with all of these elements, the narrative may be lacking. I am currently lacking an ‘overall message’ that the audience receives. The animation may not necessarily need one, it can simply be a ‘slice of life’ animation with not real story, only an action – reaction narrative. However, I would like to give the narrative more purpose by changing it only slightly, if possible.

Thoughts about mise-en-scene.

I believe that I will need to design the mise-en-scene more thoroughly, in order to portray visual meaning through smaller narrative elements in single frames .

Thoughts so far:

Depending on if the animation need more time and exposition, I am debating whether or not to add a montage of a few shots of ‘noisy’ parts of the garden. For example, the washing line, grass, windows banging or the dog door swinging shut. These will be placed after the establishing shots or after the dog enters the dog door.

Research

Typical Fears that Dogs have (Bender, 2021):

• Fear of Thunder.
• Fear of Fireworks.
• Fear of Being Left Alone (Separation Anxiety).
• Fear of the Veterinarian.
• Fear of Riding in the Car (lack of exposure early on).
• Fear of Going Up and Down Stairs.
• Fear of men (abuse history).
• Fear of strangers (unfamiliar).
• Fear of children (lack of exposure to them).
• Fear of specific objects.

Visual Fear characteristics in dogs: tremble, flattened ears, wide eyes, tucked tail.

Actions while fearful: hiding, become destructive or loose control of their bowels or bladder.

Research from the Journal of Veterinary Behaviour (Tiira, Sulkama and Lohi, 2016):

• Noise phobia.
• Separation Anxiety.
• Aggression against strangers.
• Aggression against unfamiliar dogs

The research study results showed that the dogs at a later age displayed less characteristics of fearfulness. Out of those who were noise sensitive, they tended to be dogs with more fearful tendencies, with a higher noise sensitivity. Fearful dogs with noise sensitivity tend to be more aggressive in general, especially to others (other dogs and unknown people. Aggressive behaviour was expressed through barking, growling, biting or snapping at others.

Review of Research in Relation to my Project

I have a rough idea of how I wish the animation to be like, as previously mentioned, there are certain behavioural characteristics that can be taken from the research and inputed into my animation concept. I believe that a young 2 year old male puppy with noise sensitivity/ noise phobia may be most suitable. The reason for this is since I wished to, firstly, show a dog with a reason to be afraid and hesitate leave the their dog house, and cross the yard to go inside the house. And secondly, have a noise which is an instrument of the narrative, to draw the attention of the dog before they leave the dog house. `a loud noise is not necessary, it can be something else (which I am still considering). However, a loud noise is the simplest to depict in the animation, all I need is the reaction of the character and a sound effect. The noise’s source does not even have to be seen, for example, a lawn mower or a chainsaw (gardening tools). Furthermore, not relying on the visual and physical presence of the noises source will push me to use the mine-en-scene and camera work to tell the story more. Also the reactions of the character.

Element of the research I can use include the behavioural characteristics when they are scared, for example hiding, trembling, flattened ears, wide eyes, and tucked tail. Considering I am thinking of using noise phobia, I will need to have the a contrast of before and after the dod hears the loud noise. So the dog is not scared as soon as the audience sees him, as though he is scared of going outside. I can still have the food bowl shots when we first see the dog in his house, him looking for food. Since, this gives more character to him, a directive to return into the house instead of cower inside his dog house.

Animation Inspirations

1. The Present | A Short Film by Jacob Frey 2017

Silent films that show much narrative through action rather than dialogue (The Present, 2017). I like how it leaves you in suspense until the end of the film to find out what the message was. I believe that this is a brilliant animation reference, in terms of animal animation and narrative purpose. In comparison, my narrative design does not seem to have a purpose so far.

2. Bolt | By Walt Disney Pictures 2008

This Disney animated film (Bolt, 2008) is a great reference for how puppy dog has been animated. The character’s personality within the animation consists of great acting depths through the character’s movements and poses.

Each still frame includes personality through strong poses. If each still was made into a silhouette, they would all be very strong and easily interpreted. This is something I would like to replicate if possible. However, it is also an area where I know I will struggle. If I could achieve an affect like this at all, I believe that my narrative translation through the character’s staging would benefit tremendously.

References

Bender, A., 2021. Ten Common Dog Fears and Phobias. the Spruce Pets, [online] Available at: <https://www.thesprucepets.com/common-dog-fears-and-phobias-1117897> [Accessed 13 January 2022].

Bolt. 2008. [DVD] Directed by C. Williams and B. Howard. United States: Walt Disney Animation Studios.

The Present. 2017. [film] Directed by J. Frey. Germany: Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Tiira, K., Sulkama, S. and Lohi, H., 2016. Prevalence, comorbidity, and behavioral variation in canine anxiety. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, [online] 16, pp.36-44. Available at: <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1558787816300569> [Accessed 14 January 2022].