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The Three Tomes
20 min / Action-Comedy / Animatic Pilot
Role: Co-Executive Producer / Storyboard Director
Watch “The Three Tomes Trailer” below then read further for my directing process.
The Three Tomes Animatic Pilot, Created by Breana Navickas
Plot: While making a short horror film over the summer, best friends Tammy and Sia , get more than they bargained for when witches, a magic book, vampires and romance come into play.
Challenges:
As an independent project completed outside of the typical animation studio setting, various challenges arose for the team to overcome.
- Building a team of artists and supporting and garnering team morale
- Collaborating with show creator to find visual style and storytelling structure.
- Keeping the final output cohesive by guiding artists and reviewing material.
- Utilizing knowledge of current storyboarding tools and programs to bridge access and allow for smoother workflow between stages of the production pipeline.
- Directing voice actors while being a liaison between the creative vision and vocal performance
Reviewing and breaking down the script.
Breaking down the script into manageable sections, assessing intensity level of action sequences and character performance so sections are assigned with the story artist best storytelling skillsets in consideration.
Click image to view
Example of Thumbnails given to Storyboard Artist to help visualize the script
Storyboard Direction
Example of Storyboard Handout Notes provided during Act 1 Sequence Launch
Providing notes and references to the Storyboard Artist, as well as troubleshoot through potential changes.
In this sequence I took notice of a section of the script that required drawing and designing a large crowd of people and city streets that impeded the flow of storytelling, and created a solution that improved the sequence and reduced workload.
Revisions
Revision process included providing notes on performance, composition, and storytelling, as well as enhancing storyboards for more cinematic aesthetic.
See below for an example of the storyboard artist’s rough pass, and my clean pass with notes applied.
Editorial
The final output of this project planned to be an animatic, so additional care was put into editing, and compositing together the final reel. This allowed for:
Approachability for audiences unaccustomed to seeing an animatic as a final result
Proof of Concept for further development of series.
Creating a broadcast length project, within the production budget.
In addition to virtually meeting with the editing team, Syncsketch was utilized to provide the Editor with notes on SFX, Timing, and placement of score.
The Three Tomes Animatic Pilot | Editor: Mann Lightfoot
Leadership & Growth
Being a creative lead on an independent project allowed for developing creative solutions to problems that arose.
Issues that surprised us, such as file corruption, and data loss, were solved collaboratively with the team. Directing on this project meant trusting in the problem solving aptitude and creativity of our artists, and allowing their skills to shine through.