Scripting and Story Development

Over the space of this term I have been through some really difficult situations which led me to question my own identity. 

This made me really want to incorporate this in to our animation and led we to do a complete character rewrite for the Two faced clown puppet.

Before he was going to have a mask on both sides of his head which would act as his identity and would only show two basic emotions of 'happy' and 'sad'. I decided that in order to give the character more depth, I would give the character no face at all. He would have more masks which he would carry around in a briefcase but he was more reliant on them for his identity. 

I also decided to add to the character by making other characters take his masks away from him and showing the clown scramble to try and get them back and have to keep putting on new masks to cover up his faceless head. I wanted to show the fear and vulnerability in having no identity.  

This has made this animation a lot more personal for me and I have been able to connect with this character a lot more.

Relevance of Scripting for Animators 

To be able to work as a character designer, storyboard artist or in any creative part of this industry you have to be able to be able to closely follow a script.
A lot of the job roles I researched talked about applicants needing to be able to follow a brief and a script to get a feel for the piece they are creating.

This lead me to consider how I could show this element of my work process through my animation.
I decided the best way to do this is to look into scripting of other animated films.

I didn't want to have any vocal parts in my piece and wanted to concentrate on both music and lighting to create the mood of the piece.

I looked at how this has been done in other films such as UP.

For this project I decided to focus on what my characters performance would be in the Circus of horrors. I had made a whole back story for him and hadn't even considered what his role would actually be in the circus...

So I thought it through for a while and I decided to look at the idea of him miming. 
Heres the basic script for my 30 second animation:

Many Faced Clown – Script

FADE IN:

LONG SHOT

INT. DARK STAGE.

CLAUDE, creepy clown, says nothing, expresses self through motion.

Lights are dimmed. The stage is set. CLAUDE is in centre stage, facing the back.

He spins around in swift motion and addresses the audience. He is wearing a mask with a happy expression. The audience cheer. He’s happy to be there. He leans forward, raising his index finger to calm the audience to a silence. He spins around again.

MIDSHOT

He spins around again, this time wearing a different mask, it’s a feminine looking mask with overly accentuated features. His posture changes, sticking out his hips and chest, playing a new character. She is girly and silly; she puts her hands up to her chin to frame her face. She thinks she’s a catch.

She notices something out of shot.

FEMALE CLOWN:

[GIGGLES]

AUDIENCE:

[LAUGHS]

CONT. MIDSHOT

The audience see who she’s noticed, it’s Claude again, this time with a different, more masculine mask on. His posture is different this time again. He is manly, flexing his muscles to show the audience how strong he is. He reacts to what has just touched him. He is not happy with what he sees and is taken aback by the ‘girl’.

AUDIENCE:

[LAUGHS AT HIM]

CONT.

FEMALE CLOWN. His reaction hasn’t stopped her, she goes in for a big smooch, using her whole body.

CONT.

AUDIENCE:

[SHOCK]

MALE CLOWN. He tries to push her away and avoid her advances, moving his face away.  He looks at the audience, looking for help, shaking his head.

AUDIENCE:

[LAUGHS]

MALE CLOWN has an idea, he bends out of shot and returns wearing an oversized ugly mask. The AUDIENCE are in on the joke.

CONT.

FEMALE CLOWN sees this mask and faints from the shock.

MALE CLOWN:

[EVIL LAUGH]

MALE CLOWN turns around a final time in a swift motion and turns back around with an evil, happy mask on.

AUDIENCE:

[CLAPS]

END SCENE.