Week Two Time Table.

Right so I have decided to do small time table for each week to keep focused and give a check list to stick to.

Tuesday:

1. Film Birds by Hitchcock. Done
2. Finish the review for Psycho. Done
3. Continue research on La Jetée. Done
4. Review story board based on received comments.
5. Maya.


Wednesday:

1. Start drawing character sheets for André and Maurice.
2. Write film review for Birds.
3. Start clear influence maps on the setting.
4. Start drawing basic aerial plans for each shot.
5. Maya.


Thursday:

1. Start some research for theory presentation
2. Write stories for the rest of the characters.
3. Start there drawn character sheets.
4. Start fleshing out the architecture of the set.
5. Maya.


Friday:

1. Maya and Premier Pro Tutorials.

Sribd Screenplay

I did this quit quickly, Ill spend more time on the layout when the story will be at a higher level of completion.

Unwilling Artists

The Characters

        The main actors, as aforementioned, will number five. The children still need some fleshing out to do, but they will come later. Here is a picture that represents my view of the children stroming out of school. 

Children running on the Champ de Mars, Robert Doisneau

          I will start work on the painters first. One of them will be based on Bourvil, a genial actor who played from the 40’s to the 70’s in a comedy cinema. His acting is most of the time represented by a somewhat naïve and nice character. I want to use him as I want my story to be similar to the film he played in, funny and genuine gags. He actually plays a wall painter in La Grande Vadrouille, which makes him perfect for my role. His face is characteristic of someone who can do a lot of face contortions. My goal though is not to copy the character of Bourvil, but to create my own. So while there are physical similarities, their characters will be different.  The second, and I am not a 100% sure of the influence, will be inspired by Coluche, probably the greates french humorist. His slightly chubby look fits my vision for the second painter. As well as looking slighlty older, his face is also fit to a large amount of poses. Again I would like to precise that my drawings will not be exact copies, as I am not even sure if my skills are good enough to represent the emotions I am imagining. This is a great occasion to practice character design, something I do not do often. I might change the influences later on, but for now this will suffice. The next step with these will be the design of their worker character.

Character Sheet - I

-         André Dupont

-         Age: 29

-         Height: 1m72

-         Weight: 70 Kilos

-         Hair Colour: Light Brown

André Dupont was born on the 7^th of May 1919, to Jean Dupont and Julie Magret in Aquitaine. Jean Dupont took part in WWI, where he lost an eye. This sent to a field hospital where he met Julie Magret, then a nurse. They married right at the end of the war, the smoke not even cleared from the battlefields. André was soon born after, and was surely conceived during the poor man’s recovery. They all moved to Paris when he was 10, coming to live next to Bastille, in the 11^th Arrondissement. In his youth he enjoyed painting, covering the walls of his room in what would become a vocation. Painting walls when from random childish designs to efficient coverings of paint. He left school at 16, becoming an aide to Mathieu Delembert, who owned a small wall painting company called Peinture Bastille. In this first test of life, André would follow his boss, repainting walls and cleaning up old buildings. He worked with Mathieu for 10 years, rising through the ranks. After WWII, where he avoided conscription, he left the enterprise intent on starting his own. He met Maurice Pichot, another employee would had been in the company for a year, and convinced him to associate.

Character Sheet - II

-         Maurice Pichot

-         Age: 38

-         Height: 1m64

-         Weight: 76 Kilos

-         Hair Colour: Dark Brown

Maurice Pichot was born on the 12^th of December 1908, to Pierre Pichot and Emilie von Steinbeck in Auvergne. His mom was originally from Germany, and stayed in Paris after she had followed her then husband, Albrecht von Steinbeck, into France in the 1870 war between Prussia and France. Pierre Pichot was a simple farmer who add been conscripted into the French army and sent to Paris. There he escaped and fled to Strasbourg, where Emilie was staying. They met and ran off together, coming back to Paris, where there first son, Jules, was born. Maurice soon followed. Maurice was young when he left school, heading to work back in Auvergne on his father’s farm now held by his brother-in-law, George. There, Maurice helped fix the farm repainting the whole complex on his own, which consisted of two large barns and multiple small ones, plus the main Master house. After a few years working around the village painting and repairing old houses, he moved back to Paris in 1944, after the liberation of Paris, joining a small wall painting company called Peinture Bastille, owned and directed by Mathieu Delembert. He stayed there only one year, and after meeting a young co-worker called Andrée Dupont, decided to associate with young man in creating there own company.

 In Beetween Story

             This is where the story of our two partners starts. Their first meeting was pleasant, as both had fathers in the military and therefore had topics on which to discuss. The meeting took place at a bistrot called Chez Gaston, a place famous for its copious salads. Soon enough the pleasant nature of both men facilitated their association. Their company which they named Dupont-Pichot Peinture found it easy to find clients, the devastated country in severe need of repairs. For the next years, they where highly busy working for all types of clients in Paris and sometimes in the province.

            We are today in 1953, and Dupont-Pichot Peinture have just received a commission to repair and repaint the façade of joke shop, located at the Rue des Ecoles, in the 5^th arrondissement, a normal job, similar to so many before. The day is the 15^th of June 1953. It is the last day of school for the children of the public primary school located in front of the shop. They headed there in the morning, around 9 o’clock, starting from the bottom up. By lunch the bottom floor was done, and they had raised their platform to the second level, which they finished by 2:30, pausing for a break. They raised the platform at 2:53 and had their break with a man who lived on the third floor. They shared some wine, and Maurice would have his usual cigarette.

           The animation starts here, with the bell ring of the school across the road, which spells the start of 2 month of vacation for the young children studying there.

The Setting

The Setting.

      I want my scene to be set in a 1950’s to 60’s Paris, with a retro look to the whole thing. It is summer so that I am able to add warm colours, and justify a strong light. While not going into a complete cliché of French life, I still really enjoy the looks, as found in films from those periods, such as Passe-Muraille and La Grande Vadrouille with Bourvil, or some of the Films made by Louis de Funes, like Le Petit Baigneur. I will look into these films for inspiration in their style, as some do not represent the era they where filmed in. The setting could be defined by pictures by photographers like Henri Cartier Bresson and Jacques-Henri Lartigue. Their pictures from the 50’s and 60’s define a style I am looking for. Bresson for the scenes, Lartigue for the movement. Robert Doisneau has also produced some highly interesting pictures of children which I will use as reference.

His pictures of children represent EXACTLY what I my two kids are like. I am not going to show all the pictures I am using, as I will do an influence map for that later, yet I will show the few of resume my idea the best.



Doisneau



Doisneau



Bresson





Bresson



Bresson



Doisneau



I want the design of all the buildings to be similar to this, with the design of the joke shop similar to that of the Shakespeare library which I showed on my first influence map. I like the almost barren, stony look of these pictures, with the people really giving life to the whole.

First Story Construction.

            My story as reached another level of completion in my head, so I will expose here the main and still rough structure of the story.

            The Rough Story.

- The main cast will consist of five different characters, organized in two groups of two and a single other. The first group to be seen is made up of two children just coming out of school. The time is around 3 o’clock, on the 15^th of June 1953. This will represented by a nice and still strong light, as this takes place at the end of the school year, therefore close to summer. The children are all running out of the school yet these two are faster as they have a plan to fulfil. The design for the two kids will be researched soon, as I am now working on the other set of characters, the 2:1. The next two consist of a pair of wall painters, seated on a suspended platform. This platform is very important to the story, and I will expand on it later on. The last character is the joke shop owner.

The sequence will start out with a map view of Paris. The camera will zoom in until it reaches the front of the school. As its zooms in, it shows the street that separates the school from the shop. We see a van coming in. As we reach the main gate we see children running around, with two at the forefront, our two protagonists. We pan outwards as we follow their run with an arc from the camera. During that time a police man is blowing his whistle towards them as the truck seen earlier brakes suddenly. We see the word mail on the side. We see the back of the children as the joke shop appears into view. It is a typical Parisian shop, and we see for the first time in a setting shot, the two painters in the back ground. The kids run past it towards the end of the street, when one of them catches the collar of the other, stopping him and bringing him close to whisper in his ear while pointing at the two painters. We see the two kids running into the joke shop as the camera rises to look give a close up of the faces of the two painters. A secondary character is present at a window and is talking with them. One wall paper pulls out a cigarette. We go back to the shop, where the two kids are at the counter, pointing at a pile of bags, pointing and raising the other hand showing the number two with their fingers. We then look at the shop keeper who reaches to give it to them. We quickly zoom back to the kids on of them tapping the shoulder of the other and pointing at a slightly open door at the back that says, “No entry – Staff Only”. We zoom back to the shop keeper who looks suspiciously as he gives them the bags. Suddenly, as they grab the bags, whose content stays unknown, sprint towards the door.

This sequence is essential to the story. It is a quick change of shots between the two groups. We see the kids running up stairs with intense and swift music, and then we go back to the two painters and their windowed friend, as the music suddenly changes to a slower tune, and one of them starts lighting his cigarette. We alternate quickly between the two, implying a parallel time frame. They run up and the guy is about to light his match. They reach the top and slam through the door, which bursts open. They run towards the edge and we get a first look at the weird structure that holds the painters. They reach the edge as the match cracks a match. They through their bags and we follow their trajectory as they smash onto the platform. We suddenly see the two painters scratching themselves as the match falls on his cloth setting him on fire. In the movement the platform cracks and both men grab the bars holding the platform.  The man on the window in all the confusion gets a fire extinguisher. He sprays the man on fire which results him being pushed back dramatically backwards, in the manner of a trapeze artist. We follow him as the platform shifts its position, the momentum throwing the other on into a spin. This goes on for a few seconds when both let go and fall on the shade cover of the shop, which sends them hurtling through the air. We give a last shot to the two kids who have a great smile on their face.

The two painters are hurled through the air. We go the other side of the street back to the school, where we see the back of the truck pulling away, a pile of bags pilled up on the side of the street. We get a last look at the face of the two flying painters who are now holding each other. They are in complete shock. The last shot takes a look at the bags, where itching powder is written all over the bags. –

            The ending sequence still needs some polishing. I am not completely satisfied with the last view of the kids. Yet I want them to be seen, so that the viewer can understand this is meant.

My main scene will be the trapeze scene, with the two unwilling artists propelled through the air as they reluctantly are forced through complex figures. This is going to be a challenge to draw, but I am looking forward to doing it. The platform design is essential here, as it will need to pivot at some point to explain the different spins the painters are going to take. I will to a complete design of it later today or tonight.

Jono just gave me and interesting input, in that the kids should first have a look at the two painters before going into the shop. So I think that instead of making them run towards the shop, they’ll run towards the shop and then turn to go down the street when one pulls the other and points to the two painters, whispering into his ear. Then they run into the shop and we rise to see the two painters. Will add that into the story.