Gopher Golf: Final Animatic

Here is the final animatic for my film "Gopher Golf".

Link:  https://vimeo.com/114233419

The password to view the video is: uclan01.

Gopher Golf: Building the Golfer Puppet - Part #1

The Golfer is the main character in my film "Gopher Golf" and the main puppet I am currently building for the film. I was aware from the beginning of the film's production I would be limited for time on pre-production, so I decided I would have an advantage only building one main character for the film. I would be able to spend more time focusing on the one character's performance - how he moves, his reactions to certain events and emotions, etc.

 

The character is currently being built using a Ray Harryhausen Armacreature Kit - a multi-purpose make of armature. His face, hands and shoes will use both plasticine and silicone rubber, whilst his clothes will be hand-knitted.

 

          
 


Some early animation tests were done earlier in the year, mainly to visualise how movements such as a golf swing would look on screen.

       


Some changes were made from the Golfer's original design to make the model's construction easier. The Golfer's shorts will be changed to trousers, since either can be worn in the golfing world. It will mean that I won't need to separately construct the Golfer's legs using plasticine or silicone rubber; the trousers, made with fabric, can cover the legs entirely and the two different materials (fabric and plasticine/silicone rubber) will not need to interact.

The other important change in the Golfer's final design is the hands. It was decided that the Golfer's hands should be larger and more exaggerated, since he will be handling some large and heavy props on set (i.e. golfing clubs, golf ball, newspaper, etc). This is a technique often used in children's animation such as Postman Pat and Bob the Builder - in both of these shows, a character's hand will also have four digits instead of five. Again, this is to make handling of props much easier for the stop-motion puppets. This technique is also used in the 2D animated The Simpsons for all characters besides God, although this is more due to Matt Groening's unique art style.

Gopher Golf: Third and Final Draft of Script

This is the final draft of the "Gopher Golf" screenplay before production is due to start in the New Year.
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Sound of doorbell. Title card against a blue sky. A newspaper flies through the air and straight through the Golfer’s letterbox.

INT. HALLWAY - DAY

A newspaper falls through the letterbox on a front door. A man walks over and picks it up. This man is the GOLFER, a tall man wearing a green golf shirt, hat, shoes and trousers. The man sees a large headline on the newspaper and gasps - it reads "$10,000,000 prize offered at Golfing Championship". The Golfer clearly becomes excited and nods decisively.

EXT. GARDEN – DAY

The Golfer carefully places the golf ball on a tee in his back garden. The garden is very large with flat, green, freshly-cut grass, a pond and a single tree at the end and fencing all around the garden obscuring the view outside. At the end of his garden, the Golfer has very badly dug a hole for the golf ball to land into which is clearly too large.

We see shots of these in the order as they are described above. Shot of the Golfer looking at where the golf-hole is.

The Golfer swings carefully then hits the golf ball. The ball misses the hole and lands near the tree.

The Golfer GROANS LOUDLY.

Match-on-action shots of each of these.

We cut to the Golfer trying again. This time he hits the golf ball into the pond.

The Golfer then hits the ball again. It's clear in his aim that he is frustrated and not putting much effort into it. The ball lands in the tree. The Golfer gives a fed-up look and SIGHS LOUDLY.

Quickly-cut montage of all of the Golfer’s attempts to hit the ball successfully.

Next the Golfer hits the ball over the fence and we hear the ball hitting an old lady, who falls over with her bags of groceries.

Only hear the sound effects; possibly hear a car alarm.

The golfer growls angrily. The Golfer then calms down and looks at the golf hole again. He sighs then proceeds to try one more time. This time he aims much more carefully with greater precision. He hits the ball and it finally goes into the golf hole. The Golfer cheers and shouts excitedly, then looks at his newspaper again feeling much happier. 

EXT. PLAYING FIELD - DAY

The big day has arrived. Another GOLFER has just taken a shot but the ball lands too far from the hole. The other golfer cries loudly in anger and hurries off. Our Golfer simply laughs as he starts taking his place in preparation for his perfect shot. A large crowd is seen behind him sitting in stadium seating. 

The other golfer has different clothing to our golfer. We see the other golfer hitting the ball from a far distance from where our golfer is.

The whole time the Commentator is heard talking, the Golfer is looking very nervous as he prepares his perfect shot. He keeps moving hesitantly as if he is unsure at what moment to hit the ball.

A series of close-up and extreme close-up shots follow of the Golfer, the golf ball, the golf club and the target.

The Golfer finally hits the ball. There is complete silence.

The ball hits the ground after a prolonged silence. It moves its way around the golf hole. Everyone is watching. Finally the golf ball lands in the hole. The crowd cheers and the Golfer cheers loudest of all.

Suddenly, the sounds of cheering start to fade. Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss plays.

Sound effects go quiet; the music is the only thing we hear now. The lighting also darkens.

The Golfer looks in disbelief as the golf ball emerges out of the golf hole again, moving very, very slowly. The Golfer gasps in horror as he sees the golf ball is riding on a GOPHER.

The Gopher brings the ball back up to the surface again in a shot referencing the opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The Gopher’s face is first revealed on the first “dun-dun’ cue. Shorten the 2001 music for the film’s shorter running time.

The Golfer slams his golf club to the ground in a similar way to how the apes in 2001: A Space Odyssey slam bones to the ground. He is clearly angry and frustrated. It is very clear now that the Golfer has lost the tournament.

Clouds appear behind the Golfer; before he lost the game the sky was pure blue.

The Gopher throws the golf ball off his head, which hits and smashes the camera.

Gopher Golf: First drafts of the Animatic

In the last few weeks, I have created two drafts of my animatic based on the final draft of my script.

The first draft of my animatic, as seen below, is purely based on the original script with no changes from the most recent draft of the script.





However, after feedback from tutors and the target audience, it was felt that the conflict needed to be stronger between the gopher and the golfer. This could be improved by having the gopher appear earlier in the film and the golfer would do something to provoke him, causing the gopher to retaliate at the end.

I was against the idea since it destroys the purpose of the film - the focus is meant to be on the golfer's character. The golfer is extremely vain and the story is about his comeuppance - the gopher is a device rather than a central character. It also creates a serious plot hole - why the gopher is in the golfer's garden one moment, and the next moment he's on the golf course. On the other hand, it was felt that the gopher's appearance at the end was almost too random - there was no lead-up to it.

However, I still created another draft of the animatic which includes the gopher appearing earlier on in the film. Below is the second draft of the animatic.




It was difficult to decide how to include the gopher early on in the film - I had a number of options, but I still didn't want the gopher to be a main character. This would make the ending of the film far too predictable and boring rather than surprising.

To avoid this problem, I thought about films I like where there are big reveals or there is a mystery to be solved. Films and books often include small, subtle clues scattered across the story which lead up to a "big reveal".

This is a film I saw at the 21st Bradford Animation Festival. This is an example of a film with a clever punch-line and the clues to it are done very subtly and very well.


Interview from The Animation Workshop on Vimeo.


Thinking back to this, I then remembered the montage where the golfer keeps failing to get a perfect shot: the ball lands in a pond, hits a garden knome, bashes a car and so on. In the final version of my animatic, I will try including the gopher during this montage. This would ensure that the gopher is acknowledged during the first half of the film, without making him the film's main character.

Other improvements I will make to the animatic include improvements to the film's timing - I feel there is a lot of "padding-out" which can be lost. I initially extended the length of some shots to allow dialogue to be included in the film, however, after seeing how the animatic turned out, the target audience and I all agreed the film would flow much better without dialogue. The character's performance and actions are enough to tell the story.

Spyder: Final Series Bible

I've recently completed my final Series Bible for my TV series.

Link to PDF file:
http://www.blurb.com/pdf_book/631085/download?expires=1417266909&signature=dfebec890aebdd1ee7a38894fa4632f0cdcd76c3

PDF file:

Original Word document containing research: