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Semester 2

Storyboarding

Treatment of Porco Rosso

The aim of this essay is to compare a Hayamo Miyazaki’s film Porco Rosso to another film. Viktoria’s choice is an animated film, Frozen 2, that was released in 2019, whilst Porco Rosso was made in 1992. Cinematography has come a long way since 1992, so both of these films are very different, but surprisingly similar in comparison to each other, too.

Porco Rosso stands out among the Japanese animator’s films. Normally his settings remain somewhat placed in time, however, in this case the story takes place in a definite period of history, adhering to the rules of those surroundings completely. On the other side, Frozen 2, is strongly tied with the present. There are two examples where it is recognisable that the director included these present elements. The first is implementing a game of charades in one of the scenes where characters try to guess what the person is trying to explain without saying anything. The second is the use of 2007 music that is used in the scene where Kristoff, sings about his feelings towards Anna, Elsa’s sister.

It is important for us to know, that Porco Rosso is 2D animation and Frozen 2 is 3D. While 2D feels like looking at beautiful paintings with simple colours, 3D, on the other hand, is much closer to the real world, the world of shades, dull colours and highlights.

Lighting in Porco Rosso is mostly based around soft vibrant colours that might be simple, but yet are combined well, highlighting the details of the airplanes, characters and surroundings. This film is innocent, bright, and most importantly romantic in the most expansive capacity of the word.

Scenes usually take place in the air or in the water (Adriatic Sea), so the blue colour and its shades and highlights are the major colours of the movie itself. The only main contrast is a red plane designed by a 17 years old girl, Fio Piccolo, who is Miyazaki’s strong-headed tomboy who surprises everyone with her skills in aircraft engineering.

Frozen 2 takes place in autumn, so the colours are also very vibrant. They are enhanced by the lighting techniques that make objects and some characters look shiny. The plot mostly revolves around Elsa, the main character, and her, discovering her true self. She goes from a bright comfort of her home to a dark enchanted forest of the spirits that are angry with her ancestors who did not have good intentions in the past. Therefore, the lighting keeps changing from happy bright to spooky dark a lot throughout the whole film. However, the most dominant colour of this film remains the colour blue, as well as in Porco Rosso. Those are the colours that define Elsa, because she has magic powers and can control ice. They can be mostly seen only when something is happening or connected to Elsa. To give an example, a fire spirit is blue which is very contrasting, because I would expect it to be orange or red. But it is connected to Elsa, because she is the main nature element that appears to be a human.

As already given a clue before, Porco Rosso is a celebration of aviation and aircraft. The main character usually flies high up in the sky, so there are many establishing shots and extreme long shots. However, the film also offers incredible bird’s eye view, making its audience feel as if they are flying. Medium shots can be also found here; for example in one scene, it can be seen that the subject is not in the centre, so it is encouraging to look around Porco, and to explore what is pictured in the images that are hanging on the wall behind him. In one particular close up shot, a director of the film, Miyazaki, gives his audience a little sneak peak of the Pig in his human form. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of information about why Marco (Marco was his original name, but it was changed to Porco because of his appearance after the curse) turned into this anthropomorphic Pig, so the movie keeps its audience guessing and trying to figure it out. I particularly like the scene, where the engine that is placed in Porco’s new plane is being shown to him. A high angle shot reveals the name of the studio on the engine. A truly brilliant idea!

Moving on to Frozen 2, which also offers a big variety of beautiful shots, especially close ups that reveal emotions of the characters. It seems like their true potential is to make its audience feel the same feelings that the main characters go through. Although, Elsa might seem to be the main character, there are actually many storylines happening at once. Every character has its role and that is why, the ‘Rule of thirds’ also applies here. The scenes happen in many places as the movie seems to focus greatly on the surroundings, too and since there are so many of them, they can be explored in extreme wide shots while the focus is taken off the characters.

The film begins with the bright scene of colourful Arendelle that is covered in autumn leaves. Then it travels through mountains and enters into the magic forest that is covered in a white mysterious mist, which protects it from the outside world. After Elsa successfully manages to tame the God, Nokk, of the Dark Sea… the scene again changes as she discovers the power of a sacred place that is covered in ice and finally finds her true self.

On the other hand, Porco Rosso, begins with an urgent call from the ship that was robbed by pirates who kidnapped little girls. He then accepts the bounty and chases down the plane, saving the children. However pirates decide to put a bounty on Porco and his plane is destroyed. The scenery changes as he comes to Italy to visit his old friend mechanic who introduces his granddaughter Fio to him. Since that moment, most of the scenes happen to be in interior whilst Frozen 2 takes place mostly only in exterior.

Characters in Porco Rosso have a very soft and clean cartoonish look. There are obvious differences between the male and the female characters. All men appear to look middle aged, and since this animation was made to entertain middle aged audience, it all makes sense. Females are made to look very soft; their noses are just tiny lines in comparison to big noses of men. Although it is a 2D animation, it actually brings its audience closer to the reality by the behaviour and attitude of the characters. To give an example, when the pirates see a beautiful young girl Fio Picollo, who is not only a very talented designer, but she is also very smart and courageous, they obviously begin to like her and they want to do what she requests. There is also a very clever idea of involving a lie in one of the scenes where Porco has to run away from Italy on his new made airplane. However, there is security all around, so Fio decides to go with him as his hostage to make security think that her family was forced into helping Porco. Although the film appears to be innocent, it actually is not. Another amazing idea that is implemented here, is the actual Porco’s anthropomorphic appearance. He, himself, states multiple times that all men when they turn middle age, they become pigs. Therefore, it seems like he might have cursed himself. To explain better what anthropomorphism is; it is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities.

Frozen’s 3D characters have a very realistic look. However, to make the most out of their personalities their reactions and emotions are highlighted by exaggerating their face expressions. The same exaggeration can be seen in Porco Rosso, too. Behaviours of the characters are very similar, but every one of them has developed some unique personality traits. As already mentioned before, there are more than one storyline in this film and each one of them is meant to bring the film closer to the audience. To give an example, Elsa looks for the truth about herself, while Anna is overprotective about Elsa and does not pay much attention to her boyfriend Kristoff who is madly in love with her. Kristoff has issues with expressing his love and often fails to propose to Anna. Then there is this little snowman Olaf, brought to life by Elsa, who goes through puberty. It is like the characters are on their way to true adulthood through the battles they have to overcome. The movie is therefore, very close to reality in terms of character’s thinking.

In conclusion, both films are masterpieces in their own ways. Porco Rosso remains Miyazaki’s most undervalued work. The film is often considered peculiar for the bizarre mixture of setting and pig-centric concept. Even Miyazaki admitted, “Why kids love it is a mystery to me.” Despite that, its presentation remains purely enjoyable. Providing comedy, political view and feminism, this joyous film never ceases to entertain, not only children, but adult audience, too. As well as Porco Rosso, Frozen two is destined to be the film, little chidren will want to watch dozens of times and adult people will relate to, in terms of chaos, change and inner battles.

Short Animatics of scene from Hansel and Gretel

A short animatics of s cene from the story of Hansel and Gretel

Soulmates

Script

Written by Lena Pick, edited by May To

Scene 1

FADE IN ’ BEDROOM – MORNING

Lucas wakes up on the morning of his 10th birthday. Presents are placed at the end of his bed. He immediately looks for a number on his wrist. Over 7 million.

YOUNG

POV - Eyes opening and closing - screen slowly cuts into black and views the presents at the foot of his bed.

LUCAS: That’s far...

Side view - Lucas rushes to find a number on his wrist

POV - Wrist with 7,264,382

Scene 2

INT. SCHOOL CLASSROOM–MORNING

A view of where Lucas would run to his friends (frame - waist height)

Lucas rushes into the class to see his friends.

Wide shot of him running towards his friends (back of his class near the door)

YOUNG LUCAS: Guys! I got my soulmate number! (Eger/over hyped)

Close shot of lucas in the middle and 1 friend on each side

FRIEND 1: Oh really? What does it say? (hyped then curious)

A view of just friend 1 (surprised and excited expression)

YOUNG LUCAS: 7 million. (confident)

Close up view of Young Lucas (happy)

FRIEND 2: Seriously? Are you sure? How many digits does it have? (judgey)

YOUNG LUCAS: It has 7, why? Is that bad? (confused/confident then slowly more confused)

Lucas’ friends look at one another before turning back to him.

FRIEND 1: You’re weird. (judgey/mean)

They start walking away, leaving Lucas to question what happened.

(Waist shot) as Lucas friends leave

Lucas stands still baffled (close up shot)

Scene 3

MONTAGE OF GROWING UP

WOULDN’T IT BE NICE (BEACH BOYS)

Lucas (12) walks along the street,taking in the surroundings of soulmates pairing off.

Lucas walks along the streets (wide framing)

He looks down at his wrist, sad by his number still being so high.

(Close up shot from Lucas POV)

Lucas (14) being introduced to a friend’s soulmate before they walk off hand-in-hand, smiling at each other happily.

Lucas bumps into his friend then gets introduced to his friends soulmate

A range of photos showing Lucas from ages 14-16 with his friends. Slowly, the amount of people in each photo increases, with each of his friends pairing off.

Once each of them (except Lucas) has been paired off, they slowly fade away, leaving Lucas alone in the photo.

Polaroid photos (fade in) (close up)

END OF MONTAGE

Scene 4

INT. LUCAS’ BEDROOM - DAY

LUCAS (17) sits at his computer desk absent mindedly.

Side view of Lucas at his computer then transition to back view (over the shoulder)

A group argument is happening on a Discord server that he messages once in a while.

View of Lucas (Medium shot) as messages appear on the frame of the arguments

A notification pops up on the screen.

Lucas (slightly surprised) (Close up shot)

CHRISTIE (18) has messaged Lucas for the first time.

CHRISTIE(MESSAGE): Am I the only one that feels awkward with this argument?

Lucas on right side of screen as messages appear on the left (messages slide in frame - messages are transparent)

LUCAS (MESSAGE): Nope, I feel the same. I want to say something, but I don’t want to choose sides.

Christie sends a Back to the Future gif of George screaming, with the caption:

CHRISTIE (MESSAGE): Me when everyone fights.

Lucas smiles at the BTTF reference.

(Close up shot)

It finally feels like he’s found a new person to talk and relate to.

SWIPE TO MONTAGE

Scene 5

SWIPE TO MONTAGE

MONTAGE OF DEVELOPING FRIENDSHIP

Lucas messaging Christie and smiling at the conversation.

wide shot > zoom shot > medium shot

First call together, awkward at first but Lucas laughs at something Christie says and smiles before responding.

Lucas roaming in his room (extra wide shot)

First video call, Christie is shy and takes some encouragement to show her face.

Close up shot of screen

Another video call where Lucas is building Lego and Christie is doing a puzzle. Lucas looks up at her concentrating and smiles to himself.

View of Christie doing a puzzle other part of screen of lucas building lego (panning shot)

END OF MONTAGE

Scene 6

INT. CHRISTIE’S ROOM – EVENING

Extra wide shot

Taken from the perspective of Christie.

Lucas and Christie are having a general conversation while watching a video together.

Visuals show Christie's screen (close up shot)

CHRISTIE: They’re gonna get caught.

LUCAS: Not if they keep running.

CHRISTIE: You think they can run for that long?

LUCAS: (laughing)You’re right... probably not

Close up on computers screen both showing a similar layout ( video and video chat)

The conversation is cut short when Christie notices Lucas making a face before turning off his camera.

Christie does the same while making a similar, annoyed expression. She takes this time to look around her room. Several plushies placed at the head of the bed, cosmetics scattered on the dresser, books stacked on shelves, only partly read.

Through Lucas’ mic, Christie overhears his conversation with his mother.

Close-up on Christie screen then her reaction then long shot of Christie admiring her room.

LUCAS’ MOTHER: You really don’t need to worry about finding your soulmate. Not everyone does, I almost didn’t until your father came along...

LUCAS: I know...

LUCAS’ MOTHER: I just want to make sure you’re doing ok, you don’t mention your friends that much anymore.

LUCAS: (annoyed) I’m fine.

LUCAS’ MOTHER: Ok... Well, if you ever need to talk, I’m here.

LUCAS: I know.

Long shot of christie turns around looking at the screen then close up of her reaction of Lucas conversation.

The conversation appears to have ended. Christie can hear Lucas putting his headphones back on. She taps her fingers on the desk, sighing. Lucas ’ camera is switched back on with him making the same face he made previously and angrily sighing. Christie mimics the face, looking slightly more annoyed.

Close up of Christies actions (tapping fingers and signing)

Close up of Lucas on Christie screen making an annoyed face

Medium shot of Christie making a face

LUCAS: Well that was annoying. I hate it when that happens...

CHRISTIE: It’s fine...

There’s a bit of an awkward silence.

Medium shots

CHRISTIE (CON’D): When do I get to meet her?

LUCAS: Uhh... well, not right now...

CHRISTIE: Why though? We’ve been calling for months; she’s going to catch on.

LUCAS: I’m not ready to. She already thinks I’m dating you.

Christie: laughs and looks away from the camera.

POV shot of Christie > Medium shot of Lucas being annoyed > Close up of Christie's reaction

Lucas hesitates and leans back in his chair before composing himself.

Medium shot of Lucas's face > Long shot of Lucas leaning back from his left side

LUCAS (CON’D): Anyways shall we continue the video?

He presses play and they both watch on.

Over The Shoulder Shot (Lucas)

-FADE OUT

Scene 7

INT. LUCAS’ BEDROOM – LATE EVENING

Extra Long Shot of Lucas Bedroom

Lucas and Christie are on a video call. Lucas knows that Christie will be leaving soon to sleep. The evening has been filled with conversation and has moved on to more intense topics.

Both on Computers (wide shot)

CHRISTIE (Staring intently at the screen): Do you ever think you’ll find your soulmate?

LUCAS: I hope so. It’s not as easy as movies make it out to be. What if they turn out nothing like I imagined?7

CHRISTIE: Soulmates have and always will be someone suited for you

LUCAS: What if they don’t love me?

Close up shot

Silence fills the air for a few moments.

Medium shot > Close up shot

Eventually, Christie breaks the silence.

Medium shot

CHRISTIE: Not all soulmates are romantic. They can be platonic, but I think your soulmate would be the romantic type...

Christie expects a response from Lucas but is only given silence.

Close up shot Lucas

CHRISTIE (CON’D): I feel like it’ll be hard to find my soulmate...

LUCAS: Why?

Medium shot

She doesn’t answer.

Christie looks down (Close up shot)

LUCAS (CON’D): How many steps do you have?

Medium shot

Christie looks away from the screen. She hesitates, apprehensive to reveal the number.

Christie looks to one side then down (Medium shot)

CHRISTIE: Tell me yours.

LUCAS: Huh?

CHRISTIE: I said, tell me yours. Then I might tell you mine...

Medium shot

Lucas can feel his hands sweating. He had always been judged for his number. Christie would laugh at him. She wouldn’t want to continue hanging out with someone so pathetic. He looks down at his wrist.

(Extras close up on sweaty hands fidgeting) Medium shot of Lucas face

LUCAS: My - My number... is uh...249,250... At least that’s what it is right now.

Close up shot

Christie’s eyes drop to the floor.

Medium shot

CHRISTIE: I see...

Christie looks down - sad (medium shot)

She doesn’t seem to continue.

LUCAS: So are you going to tell me yours? You... don’t have to, unless you want to.

CHRISTIE (Sighing): 7,242,035... at this moment in time anyway... Pretty big right?

Medium shot of Christie then extras close up on her signing > Lucas close up shot of his reaction

Lucas stares at the screen. 7 million was such a huge number of steps. His dumbfounded expression is shown as Christie resumes.

Extra close up shot of Lucas stunned eyes

CHRISTIE (CON’D): I think I’m gonna head to bed.

Medium shot of Christie on Lucas on his Computer

LUCAS: Oh, ok. Goodnight Christie!

CHRISTIE: Yeah, goodnight...

The call ends immediately after.

Christie ends call (Long shot)

Lucas glances down at his wrist, before double checking his number. He thinks back to what Christie had said.

Medium shot > Close up shot of his wrist

CHRISTIE: (Faintly) 7,242,035 ... Pretty big right?

Words echo while showing Lucas on his desk (Medium shot)

The numbers match. Lucas can’t believe what has happened. He and Christie were soulmates? It had to be some kind of joke. But what if it wasn’t?

Lucas spends the rest of his night dreaming about a life with Christie.

Close up shot of Lucas face

FADE TO BLACK

Scene 8

INT. LUCAS BEDROOM – AFTERNOON

Dolly shot/Long shot

Many weeks later. The topic of soulmates hasn’t been brought up further. Lucas and Christie have continued to do calls together, acting like nothing happened. Lucas is sat at his desk, finishing schoolwork. A message pops up on the screen.

Visuals of Calendar of days being crossed out (close up shot)

CHRISTIE (MESSAGE): I need to talk to you... Can we call?

Close up of phone

He hovers over the phone symbol, preparing himself for what Christie wants to discuss, and clicks. Christie answers but stays silent.

Extra close up of his thumb

LUCAS: Hi, what did you want to talk about?

CHRISTIE: I... I’m not really sure how to tell you this...

Medium shot

Lucas stares at the screen, not sure whether to edge her into telling him or to just listen.

CHRISTIE (CON’D): I’m moving away... Next term, to Florida.

LUCAS(Too enthusiastic): Really? That means we’ll be so much closer to each other! Our steps will be...

Medium shot > Close up of Lucas eyes

He covers his mouth, aware he revealed too much. Christie notices the slip up.

Close up shot of Lucas face

CHRISTIE: Our steps?

Lucas leans back in his chair, attempting to compose himself. The truth was out. There’s no turning back.

LUCAS(Defeated): Our steps are the same... I lied to you. I thought you would judge me like all the others. You’re not like that, I’m sorry.

Medium shot

Christie is silent for a moment, processing Lucas’ words. She looks angry from being lied to.

CHRISTIE: We’re soulmates...?

Lucas nods apprehensively. Christie smiles slightly in response.

CHRISTIE CON’D)(Whispering): We’re soulmates... I knew it...

FADE OUT

Scene 9

INT. PLANE – DAY

Wide of aeroplane

Christie takes her seat on the plane, preparing to fly to Georgia before attending college in Florida. She glances down at her wrist, ready to watch the number fall. A map appears, showing the plane travelling from Heathrow to Atlanta. A counter of 7 million begins decreasing to 2,000.

Long shot of Christie

FADE INTO

Scene 10

INT. AIRPORT – DAY

Christie picks up her suitcases and checks her wrist again; 250 steps. She begins walking towards the exit, looking around for Lucas any chance she gets. A hand taps her on the shoulder, causing her to spin round. Lucas stands there with his arms open wide, smiling.

Long shot of Christie getting her suitcase to Close up shot of wrist. Long shot of Christie walking towards the exit. Medium shot of Christie looking for Lucas. Extra close up shot hand on Christe shoulder. Medium shoot of christie spinning. Stund expression of Christie face (close up). Medium shot of Lucas with arms out and smiling.

LUCAS: Hey Christie.

CHRISTIE: Hi Lucas.

POV shot from both characters

Christie wraps herself around him for a hug. Her wrist is shown to reveal her steps, 0. The pairstand enclosed together in the middle of the airport as others pass by.

Close up shot of wrists then Long shot of Christie going to hug Lucas

FADE TO BLACK

AS CREDITS ROLL

END

Animatics

Character design

These were my first ideas for Lucas, I visited several sites to get the idea of how I want Lucas to look like, I imagined him as a tall skinny shy boy. With fringe that goes in front of his eye or eyes. He is albino so has white hair and very light skin.

I and May have decided to work together at this point and started developing other ideas for Lucas. We went with these style.

Here are other body types for other characters.

This shows my study of facial expressions that were later used for the characters in our animatics.

Here are the results I have learned from what I observed, I applied everything onto every character included in the animatics, although some were not used at all. But I am quite sure it will help me in the future.

Here are some looks of Lucas, his clothes and different hair colour.

I designed Pinocchio, because Lucas was lying in one of the scenes, so we wanted to make a reference by adding him with the shirt and Pinocchio in it, but we did not use it after all.

Here are some clothes designs for Christie.

Lucas in the middle and 2 of his friends he talks to in his class.

We named green one strawberry and the one in orange shirt Pear. They were inspired by their head shapes.

Backgrounds

Room of Lucas

Class

Airport

Room of Christie

Other designs

I also designed a Porco Rosso piggybank, just for fun and a reference because we watched it.

These ones are unused.

Early stage of the Thumbnails

Lucas wakes up on the morning of his 10th birthday.

Presents are placed at the end of his bed.

He immediatelly looks for a number on his wrist.

Over 7 million. Lucas had only learnt about millions recently.

That's far...

Cut to school

Lucas rushes into the class to see his friends.

The work shown above is all mine

May To worked on this with me, she was in charge of storyboarding and animatic whilst I was the one who put everything together in the video

This is her work

Sketch

The sketches below display a wide range of faces in various characteristics. The contrasting styles allows the artist to have a visual idea of how the characters could be portrayed.

Male Character - Lucas

For Lucas, I did front and side view as an example of what Lucas could look like.

For this section, I included colours as a in order of skin, hair and clothes.

Female Characters - Christie

Drawn by May

Creating a wide range of body shapes and face shapes to visualise the outcome of each character. Using mainly circular face shape as its known to give off a kind and soft appearance as I portray Christie as a shy and introvert individual.

Concept art - Environments

Lucas Bedroom

The rough sketches shown are different views of Lucas room as a large majority of the time is spent in Lucas's room.

Development 1 - May

Potential Colour Palette 1 - Lucas Bedroom

Potential Colour Palette 2 - Lucas Bedroom

Christie Bedroom

View of Christie's room - May

Potential colour palette - Christie Bedroom (1)

Potential colour palette - Christie Bedroom (2)

Cinematography - Storyboards

Storyboard and Beats designed by May

Scene 1

The gif of the first scene expresses the storyline of the script for the animatics. Having Lucas waking up from his perspective creates a slow transition into the story as well as giving the audience the idea of whose life they're seeing.

Scene 2

By incorporate the idea of others not being able to see the steps by changing the POV's to other characters in a subtle way. By having the friends POV including their steps it puts the vision of the worlds system.

Scene 3 (Attempt 1)

Scene 3 (Attempt 2)

In this montage, my idea was to have Lucas walking around (possible in the street) being surrounded by love and people finding their soulmate. In order to do that I plan to have Lucas walking by while background characters fade in and out as Lucas gets older. This allows the character to show the emotional impacts as he lives his life and the disconnection he has in his world.

The polaroid photos will either slowly gain people matching with Lucas's friends soulmates or having a friends face fading away as an indication of his friends found their soulmate or having his friends soulmate in all photos showing their face until the end where his friends faces blur/fade away to enhance his disconnection from his friends and society.

Scene 4

Scene 5

In this scene, my decision on viewing the text on display during the argument to show the emotional effect for Lucas during the discussion by blowing up in his face which allows the audience also have a clear vision of the impact it has for Lucas.

The vision of the montage scene would include no sound except for the instrumental music that would play in the background. As well as visually incorporating the time lapse for a more vividly by adding a calendar with days slowly moving by or just erasing the calendar idea as it could make the montage look less smooth.

Scene 6

Scene 7

Scene 8

Scene 9

Scene 10

Beats

Further ideas

Visuals

When the framing is in Lucas POV the colours could slowly become dull and muted as he gets older as a representation of his lost hope. (ethier characters or the whole frame)
When Lucas forms a stronger bond with Christie the visuals slowly become more colourful in Lucas POV until he realises that Christie is his soulmate then colours visually begin to become more clearly colourful.

Title Development

By implanting the red string within the animatics as it's associated with love and destiny, as the story revolves around finding your significant other the red string will become noticeable at the end to imply that they're meant to be. This idea came across from the usage of red string in love/destiny related Japanese anime.

The titles below are the development phase of the display of the title.

May

By having the red string travelling through the title as a representation of Lucas journey of finding his soulmate. The initial plan for this version of the title, if it was being produced, the red string would have been animated to travel through the letters. As both beginning and end letters being with 'S', Viktoria developed this idea of having the S's glow red when the red string made contact with the last letter.

The designed was slightly changed into a ribbon instead of a string which we decided it doesn't fit the theme of the story as well as the red string. The lack of meaning behind the ribbon lead us to move away from that idea. Adding the glowing effect for the text, gives a more light hearted feel which connects with the overall story.

Animated by Viktoria

Animatics

A sketch of the whole pitch, focusing on framing. The animatics is a rough practice of the how i want the animatics to go.

Practice

Frames/animatics - May

background/Video editing - Viktoria

Concept Art

Semester 1

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