Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Mike:
I fi nd a good idea is one that I still like even after I've verbally pitched it to
someone. Many times I'll sit and think about an idea, and think I've got it worked out,
only to fi nd as I'm actually telling someone about it I'm discovering the weaknesses or
gaps in logic.
Q: What about the scope of the idea? Can you tell from knowing the
set-up and how it resolves if it is too big?
Chris:
Scale and scope have to do with how much money you have, how much time
you have, and all that kind of stuff. When coming up with the idea for our short—
obviously, I wanted Scrat to time travel—the question was, “How can we do it within
the confi nes of our resources?” To conserve resources, we had Scrat go through time,
running into humanity in various places but never actually showing humanity, to show
fl ags being waved and arrows being shot, but never seeing any actual animated char-
acters. That was the way that we could solve it within the confi nes of our production,
not just budget, but time and everything.
For example, we're in the Roman Colosseum, rose petals come down, Scrat takes a
bow, they're cheering him, and BOOM, he's hit by a chariot, and then the monster
comes out.
In the short, we wanted to establish where we were, what the joke would be and then
we're out.
Mike:
It's a good rule of thumb to assume that most stories will get complicated just
through the act of producing them, so it's better to start simple. I've also found that no
matter how well you storyboard something, a character's performance will grow during
the animation process, lengthening the fi lm by a good amount.
Q: How do you build the plot points in between your beginning and
your end?
Chris:
That was the thing we struggled with the most. To me, and I think, to Mike, it
has to do with pacing. Pacing is the language of fi lmmaking. And that doesn't mean
going fast. It just means how you carry the audience from scene to scene. The pacing,
at least in the case of a comedic short, must create an escalation. And for us, we just
kept cutting ideas until we were tired, but it ended up being a solution that worked for
us. The fi rst segment when he's with the sword in the stone is the longest, and the Roman
Colosseum was a little shorter, and the
Titanic
a little shorter, until they are very short
bits leading right up to the statue of David—which was our big laugh—that was literally
just a few frames.
