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Story - Boards and Animatics

Abigail Lamb
Dec 5, 2018
5 min read

Story was one of the aims here so I am taking the time to make it right.

Initially the story started out quite different. Initially I got the ball rolling by thinking through the moments that the painter had to have to make the film come together but it wasn't hanging together, after that I realised that I had to treat the stories as 2 separate narrative I began to work on each narrative individually. It was pretty complicated and it took me a while to figure out how to have both characters hit their story points without clashing with one another. So the story began to look like this:

As you can see originally the narrative was very confusing, it had a lot of points and it would have taken a long time to make.

I played around with this idea for a while, worked on a few opening sequences and end sequences, I had a few ideas for the middle sequences but hit a major bump when I couldnt make the passing of time work out in a way that matched the points in my manifesto.

Above are some attempts at the opening sequences. Originally the story began with a conversation between the two characters where they explained their dreams to one another and the motif of the moon was introduced. You can see me trying to play about with that scene in the above storyboard examples. Eventually I ended up scrapping this scene completely because it was difficult and needless. I only wanted to keep it in so badly because I'd had a really beautiful camera movement in my head for it. But alas you have to make sacrifices sometimes.

I did animatic this sequence however, as for a long time I thought it would be included.

For the middle, I originally thought there would be a lot of scenes in here and for a little while considered a montage.

Image 01 - Is an attempt at a sequence where the painter and the astronaut were to interact with one another, helping and supporting each others learning In the pursuit of their goals. This was from a version of the story where they were both working towards over coming gatekeeping men in their lives to achieve their goals and this was to be a moment of connection and bonding between the two.

Image 02 - Is along the same lines, this scene was a bonding moment but with a different tone. Instead of an exchange of ideas and learning together, it's more about the astronaut trying to convince the painter that her skills are valuable and it was intended as a moment where the astronaut coaxed the painter out of her shell a little more. A version of this scene stays in the film but this is an early pass at it's construction.

Image 03 - In early pre production I had a scene for this film I very much liked where the astronaut's career garners some attention and the local press come to investigate her lab. Whilest there one of them asks about the painting on the side of her test rocket, the astronaut replies and tells them her partner painted it and then gestures to her space in the hope that the painter will join them and she would get something out of the interaction. However, the painter still did not believe in her abilities turning down the opportunity and her partner in fear. This moment was to act as a blow after she made some progress and act as the moment that pushes her to decide what she really wants. It kinda hurt to let this scene go as I did like it a lot. But gotta make sacrifices...

Once I decided this version of the story had a messy ending - one that saw me struggling to bring the two characters back together in time for a compelling climax, a redesign commences again. This time with focus on how the two's path's diverge in the middle and the length of time the drifted apart for to allow for the astronaut to train to be an astronaut. For some god awful reason I thought that needed a montage. So I started working on some.

These are some of the tests for these scenes. Mostly variants of the same idea. Astronaut works hard, painter gives up. The last thing I wanted to do with these scenes was make them feel like crappy montage scenes. Such as the training montage from Hercules, and anything that resembled rocky was a no. So I took to the internet to teach myself about how to make time pass in movies.

I learned that I needed an anchor point or a fixed point which anchored the time passing to the physical world in order to maintain a sense of the time that had passed. Clocks are common, seasons passing too. I also learned that there are different approaches depending on what you'd like to do with your time. Repeating the same activities, shots, sounds and motions over and over, make it feel as though time flies as the viewer tends to recognise the similarities and omit the details. Where as variety in these elements makes time feel as though it's slower because it takes the viewer time to process all the new information it's learning. I decided I wanted the painter to do the same things, maybe stare at the canvas and make a cup of tea, over and over. Then I wanted the astronaut to do a variety of different activities to make it feel as though she was doing so much with her time.

Eventually though my desire to drop the montage got the better of me and forced me to rethink the way the time moved for the characters. I think this decision helped me come up with the best version of the story so far.

In the end the version of the narrative I have gone for goes like this:

This version of the story came about after I took a step back from previous iterations and thought about just scenes I liked the idea of to see if that pushed me in any directions. I thumbnailed out a short and scribbly version of a scene I later turned into an animatic and then that set the ball in motion for this version of the film.

In it's current form there are a few bits missing but I'll walk you through what I have so far.

The beginning is currently missing because it's been rewritten the most often. but you can see from above what it's supposed to be.

This section will fit in the middle. Upon a visit to the facility where the astronaut asks for a painting on her ship.

Then this section will fit in afterwards too.

Originally this was an ending sequence but like you can see from above I intend to change the ending to more of a gesture from the astronaut. I just haven't had a chance yet to work out what that'd be yet.

Overall I'm happy with this idea and this is the one I intend to take forward.

As part of this though I did create an opening sequence that was decided to be too complicated but I do like some of the elements so i'll put it up here too