Finding Home Process Book

Transcript

1. Process Book by Bailee Lee
3. Thank you for reading, and thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this project! (And thank you Abby, for everything!)
4. by Bailee Lee Cornish College of the Arts BFA Capstone Project 2022 Process Book
5. Finding Home Process Book Story & Illustrations by Bailee Lee Book Design by Bailee Lee Text is set in Montserrat, including Montserrat Regular, Bold, and Extra Bold. This typeface is licensed under the Open Font License. Copyright 2022
6. Introduction Beginning Research Story Development Characters & Setting Storyboards The Final 34 Conclusion 39 Works Cited 40 Contents 05 10 12 20 28
8. What makes a place feel like home? Is “home” a feeling, or is it something more tangible? Introduction Finding Home is an animatic that explores themes such as identity, belonging, and finding a place that feels like “home” outside of where you live. By portraying the juxtaposed relationship between an alien who wants to go home and a human who wants to leave, this story encourages people to think about these complex feelings through storytelling, character development, and animation.
9. This story was inspired by my own relationship with the concept of “home” and a scenic road trip through the desert along the Extraterrestrial Highway. In 2019, I drove from Seattle to Las Vegas with one of my best friends, who was moving from our home state. This trip ended up being very important and inspirational for me for a few notable reasons: 1.) It represented an important milestone of growing into adulthood, learning to stay in contact with close friends who move far away, 2.) It was one of the first big trips I ever went on (and ended up being the first time I flew on a plane!), and 3.) We crossed off one of my longtime bucket-list items: Driving through the Extraterrestrial Highway to visit Rachel, Nevada (The UFO Capital!). Why? 06
11. Throughout my childhood I struggled with a sense of belonging, not feeling comfortable where I grew up, which manifested itself into an obsession with aliens and UFOs. I’ve always been fascinated with the thought of the unknown and found an odd comfort in the immeasurable greatness of space, especially during times where I’ve felt alone . I decided I want to explore these parallels in my life with this project and create a story for teenagers and young adults who 08
12. A sketch of the Nevada desert compared to a photo I took, 2019
13. Research During my early research, I started looking at different books and articles about effective storytelling to learn more about story structure, character development, and visual storytelling for a short animation. I wasn’t sure where to start so I was interested in looking at other people’s experiences tackling a short animation. I realized that given my short timeframe to complete this project, a storyboard and animatic would be the best route to go to present a full story. 10
14. For primary research, I created a survey about storytelling to learn more about what people value and look for in a story, as well as how they engage with stories in general. Some interesting points I took away from the results were that most people want complex characters, interesting relationships between characters, and an interesting plot when finding a compelling story. In a protagonist, most people look for someone who is funny, relatable, and flawed.
15. Story Development 12
16. From my research, I started to develop the characters, plot, and setting. I knew I wanted to have only two characters with minimal dialogue, so I spent a lot of time developing their character traits, motivations, and flaws. A good way to introduce conflict into a story is to throw a character into a situation that they’re uncomfortable in. Give them the opposite of what they want most in the world, and the uniqueness of the character comes from how they react. I reflected on some of my own childhood struggles and experiences in life to create a believable main character. For this story, I wanted the main char-
17. thoughtful person, who has always felt outcasted by her family and peers. In life, she has always felt like she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wrong home, wrong parents, wrong town, wrong planet. 14
18. She’s always had this dream of meeting a friendly alien who would take her somewhere better. She would walk around outside at night as a kid, eyes glued to the sky, waiting for something, anything, to happen. Maybe something out there would take pity on her and take her away.
19. When the main character, named Mars, finally meets the alien she’s been looking for, however, things don’t go exactly as planned. She thought that any alien visiting Earth would want to meet a human. Why would they come at all if that wasn’t the case? With the alien she ends up meeting, that ends up not being the case. This alien crash-landed on Earth while cruising around space with his family. He is desperate to get back to them and away from the weird planet he ended up on. 16
20. At first, he is scared of Mars and doesn’t want to take any help, but eventually realizes that she is his only chance of getting back home. Little does he know, Mars, along with genuinely wanting to interact with an alien, has an ulterior motive to join him and his family in space. Throughout the story, she is also dodging a phone call from her mother, who she does not have a healthy relationship with and isn’t interested in talking to. The two form a weird sort of friendship as the alien learns more about humans (and their weird alien obsession?) and, specifically, the human who is oddly enthusiastic about helping him. They are complete opposites in nearly every way, but they somehow work well together.
21. In the end, their unbelievable scheme to contact the alien’s family works, and they are once again reunited. The spaceship lands and the alien happily runs towards it. Mars has an important decision to make as her phone rings once again. She thinks over her childhood, her feelings of loneliness, and her lifelong dreams of meeting an alien. She hangs up and makes her decision, without realizing that it has been made for her. The alien recognizes her internal struggle, even if he doesn’t fully understand it, but knows that she couldn’t possibly come with him. She needs to stay. 18
22. In a bittersweet moment, Mars accepts her fate and decides to take a step back, to let the alien go home where he belongs. He’s gone in an instant and she is left with her thoughts. She realizes that Earth is her home and she is exactly where she’s supposed to be at that moment. She decides to call her mom back, attempting to mend a relationship she had previously thrown away.
23. The Characters 20
27. Mars will always be special for me as the first Black woman lead I get to portray in an animated project. Her story isn’t centered on her racial or gender identity, but on her sense of worldly (and extraterrestrial) belonging and capacity for growth via reconciliation with family. Finding Home evokes a universal truth - we’re all looking for ourselves outside of ourselves. Sometimes belonging is closer than we think. - Joy Ofodu The Voice of Mars! @joyofodu Color theory was an important part of designing the characters and the setting. Even though I knew the end product would be mostly black and white, fleshing some of the illustrations out in color was helpful in determining the mood I wanted to get across. I wanted a mysterious, otherwordly feeling that pays homage to the vibrancy of the desert at night. I decided to use mostly green, purple, and orange for the setting. For Mars, I chose the main colors as light green, red, and light blue. I wanted this palette to be similar enough to the setting so that she doesn’t stick out, but different enough so that she doesn’t blend in. For the alien, I chose a turquoise and light blue to feel uneathly and contrast Mars. 24
28. Mouth Chart Turnaround
29. 16 Setting Exploration 26
31. Storyboard Thumbnails 28
36. An earlier version of the opening scene The first version of the storyboard was done while I was writing the script and sketching out the characters. The rough storyboard served as a way for me to get some of my initial ideas down so that I could continuously develop the story. I used these sketchy frames to In this version, I had planned on having more dialogue. After throwing together a rough animatic using these frames, I cut back most of the dialogue and let the scenes speak for themselves. I decided to focus primarily on facial expressions and body language.
37. The Final The final project takes the form of an animatic and four illustrations. Below are some keyframes from the final storyboard. I chose four frames from the storyboard to fully render, to show what the story would look like if it was in full color. The final animatic was posted to Youtube and Vimeo. 34 Placeholder Watch it here!
42. Conclusion Finding Home is a project that encapsulates my reflections on past experiences with home and belonging, as well as my personal interest in both aliens and visual storytelling. The aliens in the story support these themes as a metaphor for feeling out of place. My intention was to point out that these uncomfortable feelings are surmountable, even if they feel world-ending, and that you are exactly where you’re supposed to be right in this moment. With this story, I wanted to reach those who have struggled with similar feelings of loneliness where they grew up or uneasiness in their physical home, and push them to reflect further on those feelings. It’s important for people who grew up in a turbulent home, especially those who are still negatively affected by it long after moving away, to remember that despite how others have made you feel, you are your own person and you are in control of your own destiny. You don’t need to figure out everything all at once and, above everything, it will all be okay! Life has a way of working itself out.
43. Works Cited: Andrew Buchanan – Facial Expressions for Empathic Communication of Emotion in Animated Characters – Animation Studies. (n.d.). https://journal.animationstudies.org/andrew-buchanan-fa cial-expressions-for-empathic-communication-of-emotion-in-animated-characters/ Animation grows up: How to convey adult emotions. (2017, February 22). Pebble Studios. https://www.peb blestudios.co.uk/2017/02/22/animation-grows-up-how-to-convey-adult-emotions/ Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529. https://doi. org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497 Glebas, F. (2008). Directing the Story: Professional Storytelling and Storyboarding Technique. Movshovitz, D. (2015). Pixar Storytelling. Van Sijll, J. (2005). Cinematic storytelling. Michael Wiese Productions. Oneacre, D. (2019, July 8). Surviving Your Animation Thesis: A Post-Mortem of My Own Short Film. Medium. https://medium.com/@davidoneacre/surviving-your-animation-thesis-a-post-mortem-of-my- own-short-film-b827f2cf1f15 The Beauty and Ease of Accepting Things as They Are. (2014, August 4). Dr. Gail Brenner. https://gailbrenner.com/2014/08/the-beauty-and-ease-of-accepting-things-as-they-are/ Tips For Short Animated Films & Senior Thesis | Anilyzer. (n.d.). https://anilyzer.com/?p=63276 40