BG # 25

25th July 2012

When Francis gets dropped by the bus, he notices mucky shoe prints leading to his mailbox. Here's a quick bg done of a tight shot. The space in the middle is for Francis. I made two versions which will flip when there's lightning.

BG #19

26th July 2012

Finished another bg last night. This one was exceptionally hard, because I've never painted something where there is hardly any light. This is the interior of the bedroom and I was trying to paint it in a way that it looks like a late evening shot.

I'm still not fully happy with it, but here goes.

s4_6 - Francis reaches home

Francis reaches home from the Library to find that someone's visited his home.

Sc 4_2 - Postman sneaks in

First colored test shot from the mailbox

BG #16

23rd July 2012


The postman rides out of the city to try and find out more about Francis.

BG #12

19th July 2012

When Francis opens his mailbox he sees that it is now the home of algae and a spider. Disappointed, he turns to the other mailboxes in the neighbourhood.

BG #02

18th July 2012

Painted the first bg of the film. I was getting extremely apathetic at the time and I promised lux I'd finish two. I managed only one, but it turned out pretty okay. :) I hope they make the film look good.

 

Secondary Characters

Mrs. Geeta and Mr. Mascarenhas the neighbours!

Color Script Explorations

The first few color scripts I tried - in order of the scenes. Learnt a lot about overthinking! Well as students we always want to make our first short film very fancy, with a really unique style. Now all this is great when 1) You're NOT a one woman job, 2) You're on a tight deadline and 3) You're not getting paid.

Leaving all of that aside, I took a lot of help from artists I admire who really know how to use color. Pascal Campion, Hans Bacher, Abhishek Singh's advice, and Ram, my friend who will be a graduate today! :) Also great films like Triplets of Belleville have had a huge influence on me, and I want someone that kind of look for my film. There are tons more who I have studied from over the years, but one thing' for sure, you really can't learn color unless you observe and imitate. After all that's said and done it comes down to the practice of color. It was really frustrating in the beginning. I wanted to concentrate on light, tones, mood, but we should always remember that we are trying to communicate something.

Finally!! Some animation!

26th April 2012

It's interesting how a simple change in the color of the layout in TV can change your attitude towards animation. It started making my frames look better! Here is the old one VS the changed one.

I know, right? Anyway, the animation's finally kicked off! Atleast I've done something I'm proud of today.
We went together to speak to Shyamu (our HOD) about getting our deadlines extended. Somehow came to settlement to finish atleast one shot complete with the inking, color, bg and sound. Phew. Will also get a briefing on our colloquium paper on Monday. That's kinda a thesis paper.

Besides that on the Animation side, we're all going for 'The Avengers' tomorrow! Can't wait. We were so eager we pre-booked the tickets online and got top row seats! It better be good. The last one I saw was Thor, and I was horribly dissappointed with that.

That's all for tonight.

Francis Character Design

13th April 2012

Here's the character development and design of my lead character - Francis Dias - a lost lonely introverted man with queer obsessions. I haven't spent as much time on any character as I've spent on him. This was the first turn around, again - with the dot eyes that I used in the storyboards. The reason I used these is because the tone of the film was not supposed to be funny, and big eyes tend to make us laugh. Now here's a trade-off - dot eyes that are very difficult to animate, and show emotions, or round eyes that help express better, but change the tone of the film. I decided wonderful animators like the Raunch Brothers who animate for Storycorps manage to make people cry with their wonderful round eyed characters, so why can't I? (Do check out all the wonderful films storycorps have animated till now. So simple, but so emotionally satisfying.) Anyway, here goes Francis.

Postman character design

13th April 2012

I'm finally satisfied with all the exploration and brain storming on this guy - and I LOVE how he turned out. I have only one concern now - whether he'll look as good in my animation - which is probably my weakest subject. Enjoy the sketches!


The postman first turn around. I was all in for the dot eyes - I even used them for my boards for both the characters, but realized the film was very expressive and there was little I could play with with the dot eyes. So I changed that.


I started changing the form, exploring with a-symmetry to create interest and balance it out.

The final cleaned up turn around of the postman.

A basic color palette used for the postman. It may change here and there when it reaches ink and paint. This is the first thing I had in mind when I first thought of the story.


The postman in action! ;) I really like how he turned out. Hope I can make him look the same throughout the film. That's all for now! Tata!

Animatics

Animatic - First pass

 
Animatic 1 from Nikhita Prabhudesai on Vimeo.

Animatic - Final pass (with bgs)
The Mailbox - Final Animatic from Nikhita Prabhudesai on Vimeo.

Storyboard - pass 1

27th Feb 2012

The first storyboard. I have no idea how well it communicates. In the animatic the dialogue is missing so its harder to follow, but here I've added the important stuff. This was more difficult than a thought. I thought I could finish it in 2 days but I took 6, and figured out so many things on the way - especially creating the world of the film - where he lives, the rooms, the continuity, etc.
The hardest part was inventing a neighbourhood that did not exist! And since I'm SO SO bad with spaces I cheated. I cheated A LOT. Anyway, when I look back at this there are tonnes of things I would like to change, but I learnt a lot, and had a lot of fun doing this! :)

Point outline

Scene 1: The problem

·         A postman rides down a neighbourhood with a bunch of letters on the back of his bicycle.

·         He drops a letter in every house but one. He looks at the house, and then the mailbox with Francis Pinto engraved on it.

·         He rides to the next house, ringing his bell.

·         An angry Mr. Mascarenhas steps out, snatching the letter from his hand. He observes it.

·         He starts yelling at the postman.

·         Mrs. Geeta also joins the argument. 2 more neighbours join and there is pandemonium.

·          The postman denies tampering with their mail, but promises to get to the bottom of it and rides off.

·         He sees Francis peeping through a curtain and gets suspicious.

Scene 2: The thief

·         The next day while delivering mail, the postman sees Francis sneaking into Mr. Mascarenhas’ lawn.

·         He quickly parks his bicycle and hides behind a bush.

·         Francis steals the seal, and hears a bush shuffling. He runs to the bush and a cat runs out.

·         He goes home and shuts the door. The postman is relieved.

Scene 3: Catching theif red handed

·         Francis comes out to his porch and waters his plant. A fisherwoman passes by.

·         He finds his mailbox empty.

·         He steals Mrs. Geeta’s mail.

·         Postman observes and clicks a photo of him.

·         He steals some more and then goes home.

Scene 4: Breaking and entering

·         The postman comes out of a photo lab. He sees Francis walking into central library.

·         He takes the chance and posts the photo in his mailbox.

·         He sneaks into his house to investigate.

·         He observes queer things inside, and then spots the book of seals on the mantelpiece. He opens it and flips all the pages.

·         Meanwhile Francis arrives and checks his mail, finding a photo of him stealing a seal.

·         He looks around, terrified.

·         He runs to his porch and removes the keys out of his pocket.

·         The postman hears the door open, and escapes just in time.

·         Francis sees the book open, panics and keeps it inside well locked.

·         He hyperventilates, sweats, pops in a few pills and goes to sleep. 

Scene 5: Second threat

·         He is terrified to step out.

·         Waters his plant and opens his mailbox.

·         He is terrified when he sees a photo of the book of seals!

·         A few neighbours make passing comments.

·         He runs back to his house and pants heavily as he shuts the door behind him.

·         He sweats and takes his pills.

Scene 6: Self-control

·         The next day he waters his plant again, checks his mailbox and finds it empty.

·         He looks at the other mailboxes, but doesn’t go for it.

·         The postman constantly observes him while he delivers the letters.

·         The next few days, he nervously waters his plant… his hands itch to open Mr. Mascarenhas’ mail, but he holds himself back. 

Scene 7: Back to the start

·         One evening, he peeps through his curtain at his mailbox.

·         In Mr. Mascarenhas’ house, the postman and he are in conversation. He offers him a drink.

·         While in conversation, the postman notices Francis outside, stealing a seal.

·         He shakes his head, sighs, and runs his hands through his hair. He understands him. [Fade out]

Scene 8: Finding a friend

·         While having breakfast, Francis reads the paper’s headlines - “Mail tampering stopped”.

·         A postman approaches him - “Your mail, sir.”

·         Francis gets puzzled as he has never received mail.

·         The postman waves off and leaves.

·         The envelope is sealed with big beautiful seal of a ship.

·         He is overjoyed and carefully cuts the seal out.

·         He opens it to find a note, saying, “Hope you like the seal. I will be sending you more – you’re friend.”

·         His eyes start watering. He looks up, and smiles.

 

Script 1

Introduce Francis

Pan down a goan neighbourhood.. We see Francis looking out of his window. Cut to the inside of the house – he is looking out from his window at his mailbox. He walks out the main door, reaches his mailbox. Opens it. Shot from inside the mailbox. He opens it. 

A postman rides down a neighbourhood with a bunch of letters on the back of his bicycle. He drops a letter in every house. He stops at one house and looks at it. It’s clearly a queer house. He moves on to the next one. An angry Mr. Mascarenhas steps out, snatching the letter as he tries to put it in the box. He observes it thoroughly. He yells at the postman, accusing him of tampering with his mail. Another Mrs. Geeta gets out and joins the argument. 2 more people join, and there is pandemonium.

The postman denies tampering with their mail, but promises to get to the bottom of it and rides off. He sees Francis peeping at them through a curtain and gets suspicious. He sees francis sneaking to the neighbour’s lawn. He quickly parks his bicycle and hides behind a bush. Francis neatly cuts out the seal. A bush shuffles. He jumps up and runs to see behind it. A cat runs out. The postman takes a heavy sigh. He goes back to his home, takes one last look and shuts the door behind him. The postman is not sure of what he saw.

The next day Francis comes out to his porch and waters his plant. He observes the neighbourhood. A fisherwoman passes by. He checks his mailbox to find it empty; takes a peak at Mrs. Geeta’s lawn yard and slyly opens her mailbox and cuts out the seal. The postman keeps his camera ready. Francis steals seals from a few other houses. The postman clicks a few shots.

[can cut to] photos in the mailbox are being picked up by francis?

The postman goes to develop the photos. When he comes out the photolab, he sees Francis walking into Central Library. He takes the chance and posts the photo in his mailbox. He takes a peek inside his house. He enters through the back window, observes the queer things inside, and sees the book of seals on the mantelpiece. He opens it flips all the pages.

Meanwhile Francis returns only to find his mailbox full – he opens it and finds a photo of himself opening Mrs. Geeta’s mail. He gets terrified and looks around in panic. He runs to his porch and removes the keys out of his pocket. The postman hears the door open, and escapes just in time. Francis panics and keeps the book inside well locked. He hyperventilates, sweats, pops in a few pills and goes to sleep.  

The next day Francis is scared to even step out. He waters his plant and with trembling hands, opens his mailbox. He is terrified when he sees a photo of the book of seals! He runs back to his house and pants heavily as he shuts the door behind him. He sweats and takes his pills.

The next day he waters his plant again, checks his mailbox and finds it empty. He takes a heavy sigh and eats stones from his plant’s vase. The postman constantly observes him while he delivers the letters. The next few days, he nervously eats the rocks.. his hands itch to open Mr. Mascarenhas’ mail, but he holds himself back. 

One evening, he peeps through his curtain at his mailbox. In Mr. Mascarenhas’ house, the postman and he are in conversation. He offers him a drink, and goes inside to fetch it, when the postman notices Francis outside, stealing a seal. He runs his hands through his hair. Fade out.

The next day Francis finds mail; a letter with a beautiful seal of a ship on it. He is overexcited at this sight, and opens it carefully. Inside he finds a note saying – “I hope you like the seal Francis. I will be sending you more. -Your friend.” Francis eyes start water, as he holds the letter to his chest.