Little Loud

script feedback
kathy
derek
perry

pheobie artwork

megan artwork

Little Loud: Script, Thumbnails & Pitching

I spent most of this weekend script writing, working on the pitch documents. On Friday I spoke to Sasha about being the Art Director for the project working closely with Phoebe as well as Perry Hall about bing my script writer/ editor both of whom have confirmed.
This is my core team as it currently stands:

Script Writer/ Script Editor: Omari/ Perry Hall

Director/ Producer: Omari
Editor: Amber Hyde

Sterographer:  

Sound FX: Jamie Romp

Composer: Ryan Jones

Production Designer: Phoebe Herring

Art Director: Sasha Lawrence

Visual Development Artists: Heidi Orford, Annabelle Gillot?

Graphic Designer: Tom Hughes

Storyboard/ Layout Artists: 

Lead Animators: Hedi Orford, Stu Whitten

Technical Directors: Teddy Whitehead, Josh Bainbridge, Connor

Nuke Compositors: Sebastian Braende, Amber Hyde, Teddy Whitehead

Marketing/ Advertising: Harriet McAhon

Pitch Documents:
I spend most of this weekend working on the pitch document just trying to work out what need to be in it, how to sell with with the way I write it as well as design and layout. I was going to post some images of it so far but its not even that ready yet. I also found some very interesting links on pitching and pitch bibles that were useful and insightful:
Creating Animated TV Shows For Disney & Cartoon Network
http://lineboil.com/2009/03/how-to-pitch-an-animated-tv-series/
http://chrisoatley.com/animation-pitch-bible/
http://www.animationmagazine.net/features/from-pitch-to-production/
http://www.animationmagazine.net/people/20-tips-on-how-to-pitch-your-toon-to-network-execs/

Aims for this week:
Little Loud Pitch Document
Find Character Designer, Layout/ Storyboard artists, Prop designer


Mocap tests (Lauren's Project)

Little Loud Script Version 4:

Thumbnails and color code on script. I will scan them in tomorrow so you can see what going through my head.

Little Loud:

The Animated Series

Scripts Version 4 (Fri 27^th Oct 2012)

Screenplay by:

Omari McCarthy

EXT. LITTLE'S HOUSE - NIGHT.

FADE IN FROM TITLE SEQUENCE

Grey skies over Little's and neighbouring houses falling off into distance. A thunderstorm can be heard far off with. Large front and back garden with driveway occupied by one car. Single vehicle car drives past illuminating surrounding for moment before driving past. Light can be seen from the attic bedroom at the top window of the house.

LITTLE (OS):

"One... two... three...

SFX: Thunder, lightning, car engine, rain drops.

CUT TO:

INT. LITTLE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT.

Little standing with back to wall, facing camera, covering eyes as she counts. Her shadow cast tall again the wall behind her.

LITTLE:

"...four... five... six..."

Loud, her shadow, seems to come alive on the wall behing her parting from Little. He slowly grows larger, stretching, free from his confines.

Loud looks at little to ensure she is not peeking before running off screen.

He leaves bedroom taking one last look over his shoulder.

Little peeping through her fingers, then covering her face again smiling as she sees Loud leave room. She has a smirk on her face.

LITTLE:

"...seven... eight... nine..."

CUT TO:

INT. PARENTS BEDROOM/ HALLWAY. -NIGHT.

Parents empty bedroom. We see Loud run past cast on wall. Family picture frames on wall.

CUT TO:

INT. LIVING ROOM/ STAIRS. - NIGHT.

Large living room. Muffled sound of Little counting from another upstairs.

Loud sneaks into view, a silhouette again the wall, looking around for a hiding place in living room.

Loud continues to sneak past kitchen. come back peeping into the kitchen. Close on Loud in awe.

On table piled high with party snacks and decorations, at its centre a triple layered cake. Above is a "Happy Birthday Dad" banner and several balloons.

Tight on triple decker cake, cherry on top glistening in light.

Back to Loud, wide eyed, almost lifted off ground by the delicious smell.

CUT TO:

INT. BACK TO LITTLE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT.

Close on Little with hands over eyes counting rapidly jumbling her words in anticipation before running off screen.

LITTLE:

"Fifty-eight... fifty-nine... sixty! Ready or not here I come..!"

CUT TO:

INT. BACK TO LIVING ROOM/ STAIRS - NIGHT.

On Loud, at bottom of stairs startled by Little's shouting. He wants food but knows it has to hide from Little. It does not know what to do with itself, visibly indecisive. Loud runs off just as Little enters.

(SFX: footsteps running downstairs.)

Little running down stairs looking around for Loud. She sees see note on wall next to her. 

Close up of note: 

"Gone out for more ballons, back in 10 mins. Don't touch the cake - Love Mum." 

On Little creeping around house looking for Loud as she walks past a clock, we see time is 7:50pm. 

Little looks in several places each time expecting to find Loud to no avail and is disappointed.

Unknown to Little, Loud is directly behind her as her shadow on wall revealed only during thunder/ lighting. When she turns suddenly he is gone.

(SFX: thunder.)

CUT TO:

INT. KITCHEN/ DINING ROOM. - NIGHT

Little jumps around corner into kitchen gleefully.

LITTLE:

"aha!"

Litte looking off screen toward loud. Her face drops suddenly.

Loud shoving food from tabel into mouth. Loud is a out to eat cake before looking up at Little. He has been caught red handed. Loud smiles revealing his sharp teeth and big mouth full of food.

Little with mouth open in shock. Suddenly she is hit with a apple pie to the face that slides off slowly.

On Loud cast against wall laughing (we do not see Loud pick up apple pie). Before running off quickly.

Little chases Loud around dining table full of food knocking things over and back into main part of kitchen.

Little and Loud scramble around kitchen dragging and tripping each other both knocking things over hell bent on getting their first.

Little holds onto Loud's leg and is dragged around the kitchen over the counter hitting head of pots and pans.

Cake is thrown into air and layers come apart. Slow motion, layers coming apart in air. Little and Loud looking up in anticipation. 

Little dives off counter and manages to catch the separate cake layers and even the cherry. 

She puts it back on the table in a sigh of relief but when she looks Loud has disappeared.

INT. BACK TO LIVING ROOM. - NIGHT

Their battle moves to the living room where 

Loud eventually breaks free of Little and 

She sees a trail of destruction/ cookie crumbs and follows them through house.

On Kitchen with various parts of destroyed as Little walks past. A plate smashes and a cabinet door falls off.

Loud throwing cakes at Little that stick to walls as they miss her while she runs.

Little finds torch and waits for Loud to come after her.

Loud sees Little and races towards her. Little tries to get torch on and its does not work.

When he is about to pounce on her she shines torch

CUT TO WHITE:

CUT TO:

INT. KITCHEN/ LIVING ROOM. - NIGHT

On destroyed kitchen. Intercut shots of; broken plates, glasses, food hanging out of open fridge, pots and pans on floor, flour, water everywhere, bins overturned, sink flooded, cabinet doors hanging off, microwave door smashed off, wonky celling fan turning slowly. Light from; window, open fridge, oven extractor fan, spotlights flickering.

(SFX: Subtle hum of oven extractor fan and fridge. Thunder.)

On destroyed living room. Intercut shots of; sofas overturned, broken TV and sparking, lamps smashed, shelves fallen, books on floor, coffee table broken, curtains torn, family photos on floor. Light from; window, lamps on floor, sparks.

(SFX: sparks, light flicker, thunder.)

On dad's birthday food. Table on floor with messy pile of food. "Happy Birthday Dad" banner half hanging on food stained wall.

(SFX: thunder)

On Little. Her clothes are torn, hair is messy and she is overwhelmed by the situation. Things can't get any worse.

Little looking down at smashed picture frame on floor. We see her reflection. She is distracted.

Little looks up at Loud cast on wall towering over her.

INT. BACK TO LIVING ROOM. - NIGHT

On Little. A light cast over her from outside the house she looks towards it as we hear the sound of an engine.

Both Little and Loud freeze in their tracks at the sound of the engine. 

Little runs around, Loud sizes down and becomes Little's shadow again. Little look off screen as Loud peeps out from behind her.

Little pointing and gesturing at parts of room before they run off in different directions.

Little and Loud sweeping, putting back furniture, throwing  books back onto shelf’s, adjusting picture frames.

INTER-CUT WITH:

EXT. DRIVEWAY. - NIGHT.

Car pulls up in driveway moving right towards camera. Head light glaring like eyes.

SFX: Revving of car engine. Wheels over driveway. Car engine turning off.

Low angle on car door opening. Mum's leg steps out wearing heels.

SFX: Car door opening. Heel stepping on driveway.

Slow motion. Yale keys being put into door lock. 

SFX: Jangling of keys. Yale key inserting into lock.

Slow motion. Door handle turning.

SFX: Door handle turning.

CUT TO:

INT. FRONT DOOR/ FOYER. - NIGHT

Little wiping dirt of her face and pulling of yellow rubber gloves.

Front door opens.

On Little looking up at mother with a big smile, sweet and innocent with the "HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD" banner above her. Loud, quickly her becoming her shadow once again, quickly hiding behind her.

Mother ruffles Little's hair as she walks past. Little with back against the wall slides down the floor in a sigh of relief. Loud follows suit. They pulled it off.

Intercut shots of clean kitchen and living room gleaming in the light.

Suddenly all of the junk they tidied up falls out from cupboard into a massive pile.

Close on Little is distraught. Loud cast on wall behind her slapping his palm to its forehead.

TITLE.

CREDITS START.

INT. BACK TO LITTLE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT.

FADE IN FROM BLACK:

LOUD:

"...one... two... three..."

On Little, back to camera, facing wall. Loud on wall with hands over eyes counting in grunts and groans.

LOUD:

"...Four... five... six..."

Little looks at Loud to ensure she is not peeking before running off screen.

Slow truck in on Loud as he peeps through his fingers. Continued truck in until screen is black.

CREDITS END.

Characters: Little & Loud (The Shadow)

'Little' character sketches. How does the hair affect the shadows silhouette?

More 'Little' character sketches. How does the hair affect the shadows silhouette?

Mvne more 'Little' character sketches. How does the hair affect the shadows silhouette?

Shadow Mood Board 1

Shadow Mood Board 2

Little Loud: Pre-Production, Character & Scriptwriting

Helen feedback:

2 min pitch was a little longer than I thought it was. I dont think I would even need much more time to pitch. The 5 minutes pitch we do in two weeks will feel very long but once you factor in presentation slides and images it should work out. Helen wanted us to answer 5 questions. Below is how I should have answer then in hindsight.

5 questions:

What is it about?
My piece is called Little Loud for which the tagline is "Good Girl. Bad Shadow." It is about an average 8 year old girl who has a secret... Her shadow is a living, breathing monster.

What happens?
Our story begin in her house during a thunderstorm on her fathers birthday. Little is playing a
game of hide and seek with her shadow. But the game ges out of hand when Loud discovers her fathers birthday cake. Little must tame her shadow, save her dad birthday and all before her mother come home.

where does it happen?
who's in it?
what will the audience take away from it?
where did the idea come from?

Helen told me to consider the main character as a boy and questioned weather I would be able to write a female lead. I tried to reassure her I would be able to. Lana then mentioned I had a twin sister and could use that for the influence of the shadow. I feel as thought I hit the key points I felt were important but it needs to be tightened when moving between the different aspects of the pice and smooth the transitions.

I was also advised to consider male character which i really don't want to do. A female lead is just so much more interesting to me. They also mentioned the gender of the shadow being male and suggested I keep it gender neutral which I think is a good idea. My only issue is that if a character is based on a monster would it not have masculine characteristics by default? No. Apparently.

Sash mentioned tying the idea of the shadow with sibling rivalry and the idea of one child always being the jealous "shadow" of the other. Helen is encouraging me to use the idea of twins/ sibling rivalry

Marc Cullen did give me some good advice; if you show the shadow as "naughty and nice" in the art you will be able to sell the gender neutrality of the character and do not use the word "he" to to use "it" instead. Make more tomboy-esque sounds like a good idea but I till want to fight for female character if that means getting help from some of the girls on my course then so be it.

Phoebe's Concept Art:
DISCLAIMER: I DID NOT DO THE BELOW ARTWORK.

Kitchen Concept. Copyright Phoebe Herring 2012 

Living room concept. Copyright Phoebe Herring 2012

Further Recruitment:
Art director: Sasha
Character design: Megan Smith
Graphic Design: Tom Hughes

Little Loud, Recruitment & Co Productions

I currently have several people working on different things at the same time...
Pitch/ Pitch Documents: Omari
Script: Perry
Environments:  Phoebe working on environment/ WOW image,
Character: Kylie
Logo/ Identity Tom
Amber has said she want to edit for me and help with compositing. The catch is she as signed up to several projects

I had a good chat with Lauren Jansons over the weekend and offered to produce for project. The reason I want to work with her is because I want to leave university having a better understanding of motion capture, the workflow and the

There are some potential bottle necks I have already anticipated:
1) Lack of understanding of different disciplines; we have student across a wide range of courses including Music Composing, Animation, Contemporary Dance and Film. But we do not have enough of an understanding of what each course actually does so building relationships and creating the right environment for us collaborate will be key.

2) Time tables & Communication; crossing courses and departments is tricky and means we will have different time tables and will not cross paths as often as student do in the animation studio. We need regular meetings once per week to keep people on track and keep them motivated. We need to be aware of each other schedule to ensure that we work to suit each other. I have a feeling early meeting will be tricky as performance student start at 8 while animators tend to crawl out of the bed at lunchtime.

3) Recruitment/ Core team; one of the first things I did was arrange a meeting as soon as I got involved
credit to Lauren but she should have done this a while back as I started recuirting in the middle of the summer. I got the core togetehr and we went ot the Performance Centre to see the motion capture studio, which the Performance students are not even aware exists, I introduced them to a nice guy called Jens Meinser (the mocap guy). It also seems that as soon as I got involved the project has picked up pace.

4) Music composing; the biggest bottle neck for the start of this project is already the music. I am writing this just after meeting with the composer Nikki. Its a good thing we arranged the meeting as once we can get the ball rolling on that the dancers will be able to work their piece to suit as thus far they have been dancing without music.

5) Production Process; we are mixing 2D with 3D while using motion capture performed to music. I understand the 3D animation process but for this we are going to have define it  and make sure everyone gets what needs to be done.

To Do:
Shoot a rough edit of the dancers to double as animatic
rehearsals and shooting footage from various angles
animation test
core team
george feedback

Questions:
choreography have limited space should we measure the set and recreate in performance studio?
how long will music composing take?
how long will mocap process take?
maya render test of visual style? How are we going achieve a charcoal/ ink look out of the render

Mark asked me to co-produce his project "Weegie". I think after hearing I was working with Lauren he decided to pull me in. The only reason I did not produce Marc is because I already have my piece being entirely 3D and Laurens seemed like a interested )but very risky) mix.
To Do:
test; water / charcoal look in Maya/ Nuke, rain in maya, wet floor/ shader: http://blog.daum.net/mayalist/8072370
Find storyboard artists to devlop Mark's thumbnails.

Little Loud: Script Feedback & Core Team Meeting

Pitching Do's & Don'ts with Helen Brunsdon:
This morning we had a lecture with Helen Brunsdon on Pitching. I don't think a lot of the student in third year know how lucky we are to have her and some don't even know her name. They will soon. She is a very sought after producer and a brilliant contact to have in the animation industry so I just hope I can impress her enough to work with her in the future. Today she gave us an overview of Do's and Dont's when pitching. She did sort of bring up some of the stuff I heard at the Producing Animation Course but it was a dumbed down version because students don't need to hear about pitching to investors and co-production partners. For me it was sort of revision but I still needed to hear it and to practice. Below is a snippet of some of what she said:

Do:

• keep it short and sweet
• learn about breathing exercises 
• dress smart. wear a suit
• use cue cards to ensure you those key points. highlight key words
• practice pacing and timing
• identify tough questions. Answer visually not verbally. (see "Questions To Answer" below)
• Elements; intro, title/ fomat, characters, world, story, visual style, outro. All in 5 minutes. Easy.

Don't:

• don't put test on the screen. if you must use as little as possible. keep it visual.
• don't bling with science: avoid talking about the science/ tech behind the work.
• dont' argue question the judging panne. Accept what they say and move on.
• don't change the speech at the last minute

Pitching Overviews:

• tell them what series is about but don't tell them what happens
• know the timing of your pitch in the short tie you have, plan the timing of the slide change
• Premise: one to two sentences
• Characters: main, supporting, villains
• Locations/ Sets: establish world, whats in it and the rules
• only show artwork that reflects visual style
• pick iconic words to describe personality. Do not describe what we see.

I want to get something nice printed to show hand it for the pitch document deadline. I know I can use my design skills to have something that looks professional but I will need a lot of illustration work to go in it, preferably CGI 3D renders, but I know I will not have those in time.

Questions to answer:
Why will this series be popular? (viz style, music, culturally relevant)
What is the USP?
what is the overarching emotional journey of the character? what do they learn?


Story/ Script Feedback Sessions:
I sent out my script the the lecturers and this is what they had to say, these not direct quotes but what i was able to pull from their feedback. You will get the idea of what they were trying to say. If you have not read the script you can see it here. It is very interesting to see how their opinions of story differ, it is basically left you to you as to which direction you go.

Kathy:

• script was well written and felt very cinematic but needs work...
• Up the ante. Whats is at steak is not enough for us to care so needs to be pushed. A cookie will not cut it how about its her dad's birthday part and there is a table full of cake, jelly and treats that she cannot touch. They could hide behind the cake that is the same shape as her head.
• Establish the cleanliness of the house so when we see it messy it means more.
• A parent would never leave their child at home at that young age. Why would we believe they would. Give them a reason to leave the house for just long enough and have them leave a note.
• keep the game of hide and seek as this helps to build/ establish her relationship with the shadow.
• keep the thunderstorm but use it creatively  cinematically lighting, interesting shadows, heightens threat and is nice contrast to birthday.
• ending left satisfying but 

Derek:

• resolve unfinished set pieces; hide and seek, cookies, ect.
• use a formula. Every episodes ends with her in troubles.
• find and trace the original influence of shadow idea. Work from that.
• look into stories from my childhood. How would little Omari handle that situation?
• what aspect of the girl does the shadow represent?
• Parents would never leave kid at home maybe they are upstairs sleeping.
• Watch: Tom & Jerry; look at the antics, slap-sttic and physical comedy.

Andy:

• script felt to america. the use of cookies and other such things. I will attempt to make some of the little things a bit more british and thus relatable at festivals, screening and such. 
• establish and keep figure of authority such as the mother. Children are sue to figures of authority that they aspire to escape. Thats will make it relatable.
• Push shadows antics into the outrageous  Why can't he just pick up the safa and the television and start juggling while she tries to stop him. Don't limit yourself and the world of what shadow could do.
• Use physical comedy; kids like it when characters get platted or trips, slips and bumps.
• Shadow should not be aware of rules, boundaries and barriers of the world like the girl is.
• Watch: Aladin; The Genie of the Lamp breaks the rules of physics constantly for comical appeal. 
• Watch: ET The Extraterrestrial; 
• Watch: Charlie & Lola; 
• the end of the story had no real consequence. how would parents react?
• at the end the shadow must realise that what he has done is bad
• they could try to clean up and fix all the bad things before parents see
• write a beat sheet on post it notes outlining the story
• consider adopting formula; has control >> looses control >> gai control again. Each story should have a morale that she tries to teach ehr shadow but shadow never learns because it is in his nature.
• Pitch it as a short film. Mention series potential in pitch documents; other episodes, characters.
• Episode Ideas: Grandma comes round. Trip to the supermarket. 

What Have We Learnt & What I Take Away:
Formulaic is your friend; Every episode starts with something she is not supposed. Climaxed with that very same thing actually happening. Resulting in her being smart enough to solve fix everything and keep shadow a secret at the same time. Im feeling good about this project. I think i will have  solid scrips before the end of next week with only tiny changes. I also want to establish rules of the world and the shadows like in Gremlins when


Little Loud Production Meeting:
I arranged a production meeting for the Little Loud core team today. In the meting only Phoebe  Kylie, Jamie and Ryan tuned up. I introduced them to each other and was able to delegate a few talks and I them an idea of what I wanted. Unfortunately I left my notes at home and was unable to recollect everything I was supposed to bring up. I started by introducing the team, defining the role, understanding what they wanted from the project as an individual. I am going to get them all a script by late tonight or early tomorrow for them to start building a sound library from and thinking about instruments  Below will give you an idea of where we go from here. We are going to keep this core production team meeting to once a week. I also need to arrange the next meeting date during future meetings

Plan Of Action:

All:
Watch: Day & Night (music, 2D animation style)
Watch: UPA Gerald McBoing Boing (music & animation style)
Watch: Coraline (music)

Ryan Jones (Music Composer) & Jamie Romp (Sound FX Designer):
Please think about the sound of shadows transitions, instruments.

Kylie Burrell & Phoebe Herring:
send mood board, character profile sheets as PDF


Luke Ridgeway was nice enough to send me a link to Tim Noble & Sue Webster's Shadow Sculptures. After scouring various creative blogs I was able to find other gems such as Alex Benij's website and Shadow photography here, , Kumi Yamashita's Shadow Portraits and Predatory Bird's Vimeo video Shadows to Life. Brillint creative work with shadows.

To Do Tonight:
re write script
beat sheet
character mood board
(upload al of the above to dropbox)
toles for team:
phebes to work up kitchen environment

Amber Hyde also offered her services. I have asked her to practice the following; multipass compositing in NukeX, look at creative title sequence involving shadows and kids TV, edit for our animatic/ previz dailies.

Little Loud: Testing & Script Development

I have been looking at the background work of 101 Dalmatians today both in terms of color, texture and line quality.

Had the chance to catch up with Gerog today who suggest that the working on the model and rigg side by side is the most efficient way to work if you plan it properly. He made it clear I was not going to get the look aout of the render but told me to look at Softimage compositing effects and nuke compositing.

dave was nice enough to make a CGI model of Jon Klassen's artwork of Coraline's bedroom  Its looks nice but I need to avoid the CGI look as much as possible. He has used paint effects rendered in Maya software to try to get close to the look but had troubles rendering it out.

Experimenting with Painterly Effects in Sofimage/ XSI node based compositor

I received an e-mail from Fraser McLean today and he is interested in seeing my storyboards so he can consult us on them. I said I would try get some to him by Monday so we can have a Skype chat to get some feedback. For now he is taking a look at the script. The Little Loud script v3 has been shared with team. Unfortunately I have not received any feedback from the lecturers yet

Little Loud: Communication & Script Development

This morning Lauren Jansons sent me a link to a short animation called Pincel De Zorro on Vimeo. I really like the look of it and have shared it with the team. I think it could be a good idea for the title sequence which is something I need to think about.

I mentioned in a previous post about Rosa who emailed us about YNC the studio,  educator and talent agency have several live briefs on their site and D&AD open briefs I think I will consider entering them as some work on the side.

Phoebe was in the studio today and we now have the ball rolling on pre-production again with a defined style to work to. She will have some work to run by me on Thursday in time for the pitch presentation focussing on characters before we move onto environments. I have been taking the time to ask people what they want out of my project to avoid long term mutiny when it comes to making showreels. While Phoebe works on that I plan to have someone else develop

I had a talk with Josh Bainbridge today we decided that as soon as I can get him some artwork to start building the set with the sooner he can test the visuals.  He told me about his work using various scripting languages such as C++ among others. I think I will consider learning it. He told me about the following sites:
http://processing.org/
http://www.fundza.com/
http://www.openframeworks.cc/
http://cplusplus.com/
http://www.cprogramming.com/


I just saw this on the Raindace fim festival website offering tips for silent film makers. Quite interesting.
In my previous post I mentioned a channel 4 documentary about

Film of The Day:
Sunrise A Song Of Two Humans (1927). Dir, F.W. Marnau



Below is the script I have been working up since the weekend. Once I get some feedback I will write a beat sheet, outlining all the key storytelling moments and emotion before moving onto some loose/ rough thumb nails to tell the story visually. I already have some ideas for several shots.



Little Loud Script Version 3:

Title: Little Loud (for now)

Tagline 1: "Good girl. Bad shadow."

Tagline 2: "Its all fun and games until your shadow gets a life of its own..."

Series Overview: "The series revolves around 'Little', an average, obedient, 7 years old girl with a BIG secret... her shadow is a living, breathing, uncontrollable monster! 
'Little' just wants her normal life back but when increasingly supernatural events begin to occur in her small town she realises things will never be the same again.
With her new found friends Melody, the brains, and Troy, the braun,  armed with only their wits and imagination the unlikely trio of outcasts delve into misadventures fighting and solving supernatural mysteries in their small town often with 'Little's shadow aiding or hindering their missions."

Episode Synopsis: "During a thunderstorm Little and Loud play a game of hide and seek at home. But things quickly spiral out of control when Loud spots their favorite food, "double chocolate chip cookies". Can Little resist her favorite food, tame her shadow and ____ ____, and all before her parents come back from the supermarket?"

EXT. LITTLE'S HOUSE - NIGHT.

FADE IN FROM TITLE SEQUENCE

Grey skies over Little's and neighbouring houses falling off into distance. A thunderstorm can be heard far off with. Large front and back garden with driveway occupied by one car. Single vehicle car drives past illuminating surrounding for moment before driving past. Light can be seen from the attic bedroom at the top window of the house.

LITTLE (OS):

"One... two... three...

SFX: Thunder, lightning, car engine, rain drops.

CUT TO:

INT. LITTLE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT.

Little, with back to camera, covering eyes as she counts. her shadow cast again the wall behind her.

LITTLE:

"...four... five... six..."

Loud, her shadow, seems to come alive parting from behind Little. He slowly grows larger, stretching, free from his confines.

Loud looks at little to ensure she is not peeking before running off screen. 

He leave bedroom taking one last look over his shoulder.

Little peeping through her fingers, then covering her face again smiling as she sees Loud leave room.

LITTLE:

"...seven... eight... nine..."

INT. LIVING ROOM/ KITCHEN ENTRANCE. - NIGHT

On open plan living room. Muffled sound of Little counting from upstairs.

Loud sneaks into view, a silhouette again the wall,  looking around for a hiding place in living room. He continues to sneak past kitchen.

A smell from the kitchen lingers in the air moving towards Loud.

On Loud as he smells something delicious and looks off screen in search of it.

Tight on freshly baked cookies on the window cill in the kitchen with the window slightly ajar.

Back to Loud, wide eyed,  almost lifted off ground by the delicious smell.

CUT TO:

INT. BACK TO LITTLE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT.

Close on Little with hands over eyes counting rapidly jumbling her words in anticipation before running off screen.

LITTLE:

"Fifty-eight... fifty-nine... sixty! Ready or not here I come..!"

CUT TO:

INT. LIVING ROOM/ KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT.

 On Loud, startled by Little's shouting. He wants cookies but knows he has to hide from Little. he does not know what to do with himself, visibly indecisive. Hide or take the cookies?

SFX: (footsteps coming down stairs)

Loud manages to fight urges leaving cookies for the moment hiding in the shadows behind him. 

On Little creeping around house looking for Loud. She looks in several places each time expecting to find Loud to no avail and is disappointed. Unknown to Little, Loud is directly behind her as her shadow on wall. When she turns suddenly he is gone.

Little walks past kitchen as the smell cookies hangs in the air drawing her back.

We see freshly baked cookies on the window cill in the kitchen with the window slightly ajar.

She looks around for Loud for a moment to see if she is being watched but manages to resist.

INT. BACK TO KITCHEN. - NIGHT

(Close up of note on fridge: "We've gone out for dinner, we'll be home by 8pm. Love Mum & Dad." Truck to of note to reveal...)

Little tries to hold back Loud as he stretches across kitchen trying to reach cookies.

Cut between increasingly close shots of Loud's face and Cookies.

Little and Loud scramble around kitchen for the cookies. Dragging and tripping each other both knocking things over hell bent on getting their first.

Plate of cookies is thrown into air. Slow motion, close on cookies in air. Little and Loud looking up in anticipation.

Their battle moves to the living room where 

Loud eventually breaks free of Little and 

She sees a trail of destruction/ cookie crumbs and follows them through house.

On Kitchen with various parts of destroyed as Little walks past. A plate smashes and a cabinet door falls off.

CUT TO:

INT. BACK TO LIVING ROOM. - NIGHT

On destroyed living room; sofas overturned, broken TV, lamps smashed on floor. Little walks past careful not to step on anything.

Little sees trail of crumbs on floor following them to front door/ foyer. Finding Loud on the floor with a big belly breathing heavily with an empty plate of cookies.

Little looking at Loud stood directly in front of door. Her clothes are torn, hair is messy and she is overwhelmed by the situation.

INT. FRONT DOOR/ FOYER. - NIGHT

On loud we hear keys in the door and it opens in front of her.

Loud, quickly her becoming her shadow once again, quickly hiding behind her. Loud pops out to shove cookie in Little's mouth before becoming her shadow again.

Door open as the shadow of her parents cast over her from the moonlight.

On Little looking up at parents in doorway caught red handed with a cookie in her mouth. She looks up attempting to smile surrounded by destruction of her home.

TITLES.

CREDITS.

I think the script is good but I have already spotted a few things I will change tomorrow:

• cut the establishing shot of the house and get start in bedroom...
• or / and cut the opening bedroom scene of her counting and have it set in living room and kitchen.
• use elliptical storytelling; start in a similar way we end gives a sense of closure, mimicking the narrative style of most animates shows at the same time.
• establish how clean, neat and orderly the house (and by extend our main protagonist) it to beging with so seeing the house messy is clearly distressing for her.
• Pathetic Fallacy: we mention the weather at the start but need to use it dramatically throughout the story. Lightning could be used to cast some interesting shadows around the house and thunder at key moments of conflict.
• heighten conflict over cookies gradually throughout kitchen scene.

Little Loud: Sound Design & Render Test

I have been trying to get in touch with Jamie Romp, my Sound FX Designer for about two weeks now. He gave me a phone call today when I was in the studio. He told me several other animation students had asked him to do the sound design for them too but he has committed to mine then we had a good chat about the direction we want to take the project. Jamie has his own projects to take care of too and wants to get bulk of work done before Christmas and I don't blame him. We both agreed we would have the aniamatic and scratch track by mid- late November for him to polish come January.

I also found it difficult to contact Ryan Jones, my Composer for about two weeks too. I have been chasing him up on Facebook and he called me today also. He has also been busy on several other projects and is committed. I feel like the sound team is solid and I have no doubt that they will do great work.

Send Jamie Romp (SFX) & Ryan Jones (Composer):

• Visual style & concept art
• Examples of music/ SFX we like/ don't like
• Script (by Wednesday 17th October)
• Storyboards/ Animatic
• 
  

I asked both Dave McDonald and Josh Bainbridge look at the work of John Klassen and come up with ways of recreating it in CGI. I want to be able to present some test renders for thursday as weel as next week to prove to Rosa, Kathy (and myself) that we can achieve something close to that style in CGI.

Today I also had a go at lighting a car in maya. I think I did a pretty good job. below is a render of the work so dar. Luckily Luke Jefferson, a recent graduate of your course, was passing by and gave me some tips on lighting workflow using mental ray's IPR to speed things up. My aim is to put it into a compositing reel. Below is a render of what I have so far I will finish it tomorrow.

Note: I only did the lighting (and tweaked the textures)

One of the things that frustrates me is that we have not been told what they want to see in the pitch documents. I feel this should have been laid out the start of the year with the over deadlines for the projects as no one seems to be sure.  I have a schedule that I will put up as soon as the storyboards are done. Here is my rough plan as it stands. please bear in mind today marks the strt of week 3 of 32...

Production Time: 32 Weeks/ 8 Months (22 Weeks without Christmas and Easter Holidays)
Pre- Production: 8 Weeks (to start character models on 2nd week in November)
Production: 16 Weeks (to start Animation 2nd week of January)
Post- Production: 6 Weeks

Little Loud: Visual Development

Freddy Pooley was nice enough to post a link to an illustrator called Rohan Daniel Eason.

It also reminds me of Pokemon in the style of Tim Burton I found on Adbuzeedo.com created by Vaughn Pinpin (also knows as) Hat Boy. I am going to run these by the pre-production team to see what they think. Finally I can't remember who posted this on Facebook, I think it was Keri Michelle Holt, but its called 'How Much Does A Shadow Weigh' and its brilliant.

Spoke top Seb about the team effort required this year to complete these projects. He made it clear that we were going to have really help each other out to get through this.

My aims for this week:
Tomorrow is the start of week 3 of 32. These are the things I need to get done to feel like we are moving forward.

1) Meet up with Jamie Romp & Ryan Jones.
I have also been chasing up Jamie Romp, my sound designer, and Ryan Jones, my composer about the sound of the world required for Little Loud. I sent them both a link to Little Kaiju Directed Jonathan & Josh Baker and the sound track by Papi Kiki  I saw on Vimeo a few weeks ago. I feel like a xylophone is a step in the right direction. This is where I am hoping they will impress my as music is definitely not my thing. Thats why I brought them in so early.

2) Get test shots for style from David McDonald, Josh Bainbridge, Ted Whitehead and Connor McKee.
I want to ask David McDonald, Josh Bainbridge, Ted Whitehead and Connor McKee to start doing some tests shots for the project to gauge weather Jon Klassen's style is feasible in 3D. If I can justify it then I can keep it as a 2D looking project giving me the most flexibility.

3) Pre-production team to copy art of Jon Klassen, Shane Pringmore and Tony Maerrithew.
Now that we have the style pinned down we need to work it into something we can call our own and gradually develop a style guide and model sheets.

4) Rough storyboard and layout.
Yeah... as soon as I finish this script.

5) Practice Pitching
From the Producing Course I did over the summer and feedback from Helen Brunsdon I am in good stead. I have to pitch with something a lot more solid and with more confidence.

Film Of The Week:
(I could make this a regular thing) is I Was Born But... (Japan, 1932) Written & Directed by Yasujuro Ozo during the silent era. Last year there was a brilliant Channel 4 Documentary called 'The Story Of Film: An Odyssey' in which they explore the history of film until now. In the second episode there was a 10/15minute segment dedicated to Yasujiro Ozu you can see an 11 minute clip here. Something to note is his use of the 'Tatami Shot' in which the camera is place at a low height. This is supposed to be the height of someone kneeling on a Tatami Matt but often his camera was even lower. In the film this puts the audience of the children's line of sight for the majority of the film. I think it would be interesting to explore this in Little Loud given her age/ height combination but I also need to keep in mind I want this to look and feel like an animated series. I think? Hmmm.

Links:
Animation Meat
Tips On Becoming An Animation Producer

Little Loud: Pitch Presentation Rehearsal

Today we pitched out ideas to Helen Brunsdon, Rosa and Derek. Below are screenshots of my power point with some annotations as to what I said and the reaction I got from the them.

When I mentioned this Helen she asked me why I has written it as 22mins. I tried to justify the amount of content I have for the show and being able to fit it into a 22min gap. After the session I realised she was talking around the subject. Why would you have a 22min episode for a channel that does not have commercial breaks? CBBC are more likely to show 29mins or two 14min episodes back to back to ill the half hour gap.

I then move on to episode ideas showing the above outlines to give them a better idea of the show. They made it pretty clear to me that I could focus on the piece as a short but I don't agree. I need experience pithing animated TV series and there is no better practice than by doing it.

I have decided to settle on the visual style of Jon Klassen (see above) as I think it suits the Little Loud world very weel. From now on I will have the production design team conform to his style. Rosa wants me to begin testing the visual style in 3D using maya toon shaders. I don't think it will be too hard but I plan to assign that work to someone else so I can focus on story over the weekend.

In am also having my pre-production team looking at the Shane Pringmore, Visual Development artists for Coraline, and Tony Merrithew, a character design for Coraline who worked in sculpture first.

When I brought up the potential for Multiplatform and Transmedia potential they did not seem to care. This may be because my story was not in place but I have a feeling that even when it is they do not want to hear this from a student. I may consider leaving this out for the final pitch depending on who we are pitching too.

These UPS points are fine for now but they need to be more about character and story. I also need to memorise these things and now say them. 

Kylie approached me about the storyboard position but I have Annabelle in 2nd year taking it at the moment. I may take on Kylie because she is more proactive than Annabelle who does not even seem to turn up to the studio most days so it is difficult to know where she stands.

There were several other presentations I has my eye on. The "Tidal Grip" product of Lauren Prior Smith & Sophie Graham's creation seemed interesting. They are making four different 30 second spots that promote the major selling points of the project which I want to work on as they may be combining live action with CGI.

Only myself, Lydia and Lauren turned up to Rosa's feedback sessions today. I expressed some of my concerns with the project and Lydia brought up hers about employment on leaving university. Rosa told us how she got started and gave us bits of advice which i am very grateful for. The key think i take from thought is: "win an award." I would love to and I think my piece has potential to

I have only had a few chats with Rosa but I really like her. I am slightly disappointed she will not be here for the rest of the year but I wish her all the best.