HOW TO BE A VILLAIN: STAGE SEVEN - ANIMATIC

                                          

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrO4dQH6O_0&hd=1

This is the Animatic presented during the Formative Assessment. It received some negative criticism for being a bit unclear in it's narrative. I felt most of that was due to the audience having to rely on the text in order to understand the plot, instead of relying on the visuals. Also, there were too many shots and scenes coming in and out at such a fast rate that it was just too hard to tell exactly what was going on without an explanation. All of these thoughts and ideas is what influenced my decision to get a Voice Actor on the project. I figured if the dialogue was both spoken and present in text form, that would eliminate the need for the audience to look at two places at once and thus, would make the film much more easier to absorb. I think my hypothesis ended up being right in the end.

This is a screenshot of me compiling the animatic in Sony Vegas. All the orange lines in the timeline are the markers I used to catch the beats within the song. I wanted to make sure that the video was paced with the music so I had scenes sharply cutting in and out, every 8 to 16 counts/beats. Some transitions were determined by what I felt looked right and suited the duration of a certain part of the song but most cuts were carefully placed.

It was a fairly simply process. Outside of using markers, the only other tools I used were some cross fades and the "pan/crop" tool. Here is a shot of me using this tool to zoom into the Villain in the scene just before he bursts out laughing.