My biggest problem right now is that I haven’t taken the joke far enough. Jon’s advice is to balls to the wall mad with this, get the beavers riding falling trees rather than running away from them, set the world alight to have a deeper contrast between the beaver fever dream and beaver reality.
This is what I’ll work at in my next iteration.
Here’s an animatic I threw together yesterday. It very crudely gets across the idea of the film. We start with a bleak landscape, the wind blows and no creatures are visible. But then: Beavers. The balls-to-the-wall, punky guitar kicks in and the beavers get to work. Beaver devastation. Then we have a sudden cut to the beaver reaction shot. What are we to be left with? We hold in suspense for a moment before a dragonfly leads us into beaver paradise. Birds call, water trickles and all sorts of creatures gather around the new beaver pond. The outro get’s the big bold message across and ties up the end of the film with a return of the heavy guitars.
What’s wrong and what’s missing?
The first shot will need some heavy water sounds to imply the stream is running fast (Beavers dam fast flowing water). We’ll need some movement sounds for the beavers too. I’d like the trees to be waving in the wind here. Tumbleweed, but not that cliche.
The devastation sequence could do with some extra sounds, perhaps some chainsaw, straining and splitting wood. Would beaver screams be a step too far? Obviously, it wont be this music, I doubt my letters will ever reach lovely Courtney. I’ll get my friend Jakey Ribbo to trash something together for me. The last shot of the devastation sequence either needs to have far more devastation going on or not be that shot. Maybe a beaver with fire in his eyes should be slotted in there somehow?
Then the end shot will need some more specific animal sounds, for one nibbling from the beaver that is nibbling. Maybe some squeaking. But we’ll need the Hare rustling in the grass, the bee buzzing between the wild flowers the osprey calling as it slaps a fish out of the water to bring it all home as a stark contrast from the start of the film. The outro works as is imo.
Beautifully simple concept.
This is insane! And it’s got Beavers! C’or blimey. Love the Kind coming down the hill in the wind at the beginning.
Having a chat with Lynsey today, we rejigged the title of my first chapter. Putting it like that makes it sound like we didn’t achieve much but I assure you it helped.
The first chapter in my plan was ‘The Visitor’ and I wanted to explore the significance of presence in storytelling. Lynsey recommended changing this to ‘Perspective’. What this enables me to do is explore the different kinds of perspective that VR offers between static and mobile, passive and interactive. This is something I hadn’t figured out how to include.
Lynsey encourages me to get a move on and put my thoughts on paper.
Peter has said if I can make a nice motion graphic sting for the Access VFX talk, Saint from VFX will let me come see the VR talk. Decent.
Here’s a couple of bits I’ve picked up drawing beavers the last couple of weeks.
Millie’s session taught me a crucial lesson about the fact I know virtually nothing about Illustrator. It’s a miracle I exported this moth. Seriously, the software is so far withdrawn from any other Adobe product that I had no idea how to produce this PNG.
Here’s the Spanish Simpsons dealing with Beaver progress. You’re welcome.
As part of my research into VR storytelling, I’m going to get some first hand feedback on a selection of VR products to identify and analyse techniques used in VR products to propel story. Here are a few I’ve read about or have been recommended to try.
Henry
Dear Angelica
Invasion
Dunkirk
The Invisible Man
Is VR destined to become a sideshow in airport lounges?
