Animatic - How It Saved Me (again)

Short Introduction

Animatics are a great tool for filmmakers to use to ensure that their film will make sense and not bore the audience. They can be used to plan shots, test ideas, and debug problems. Animatics also save time and money on set and help filmmakers create a pace and rhythm that will be understandable to the viewer. This blog, from director Lubos Vacke, shows the importance of a creating a great animatic.

‍

‍

Introduction:

Will it work, what if we don't get this shot, will my film make sense and not bore the audience?

These are just a few questions I ask myself before every shoot. I think we're all familiar with the situation where you're sitting in the editing room staring at a scene that doesn't really work. "It's so obvious!!" All the details that hadn't occurred to us before start to dawn on us.

“Every time I'm not sure about something, I make a rough animatic that tells me what to look out for, where the weak spots are in my film and where there's room for improvement.”

Expect the best, prepare for the worst.

I'll admit that every shoot is a bit of a challenge and I'm always struggling with something. Whether it's time, budget, or story arc. When we were making the George film, there were a few things that came up.

The light change outside the fifth floor window, the downtown location where extensive renovations begin on the day of the shoot, and last but not least, the weather. The city district was kind enough to postpone the reconstruction by one day so we could shoot there. Great! But that was the only day it was supposed to rain. The night before the shoot, it still wasn't clear if and how long the sun will shine. The whole food truck scene was filmed during the rain.

With the DoP Radim Strelka, we knew very well that we wouldn't have time to think about anything on set. So we created an animatic for the whole film. Apart from the shot lengths and camera angles, we knew exactly what we wanted and needed for each location. And those few sunny moments could be squeezed out to the last ray.

Head - paper – set.

The gloomy feeling of anxiety melts away, and one brightens up. IDEA - I love it! A few lines and a simple sketch. That's got to work, hasn't it?

When we tackled the biker transformation, we went through a number of costumes and vehicles before we settled on them. My favourite was a Mariachi riding a donkey, unfortunately he didn't survive. When we finally had all the vehicles the day before the shoot, it was clear we had to try them out. I had this gnawing feeling. For the trick to work, the hero had to have his head at the same height every time. Unfortunately, one of the vehicles didn't work and had to be redesigned. Architect Vojtěch Kalecký and his team came up with a design overnight. It's one of those moments when 10 cm can really mess things up.

We tested the scene with the flying clothes several times to make sure that the wire system wouldn't get stuck. It worked, but the wardrobe door got stuck, which shook slightly, and it didn't look good on camera at all. The ingenious mechanism was replaced by a guy lying on the floor, animating it by hand. No one had anticipated a problem with the closet.

You never debug everything, but the moment you do something for the first time you simply don't know a lot of things.

‍

It saves time and money.

When it' s shooting, sometimes there's not as much time to try and find things. There are a lot of people behind you waiting for your instructions, a nervous producer walking around, relentlessly counting every second.

Grip, AD, actors, post-production, ... Entire crew has countless questions. Gesticulating with your hands and trying to describe something is fine, but showing a reference is faster. I just have to have my cell phone with me, play a sequence from the animatic before the shot. In an instant, everyone knows exactly how the result should work.

Most of the time no one in the production wants to spend extra time preparing, but it's good to stand your ground and know what you need to get the result right. In the end, everyone is happy when the shoot ends on time.

Pace and rhythm.

Personally, I think proper storytelling should be like breathing. It's always good to take a breath before the action and after an intense experience, to have a moment to catch your breath before diving into the next adventure. It's the animatic that allows me to think ahead about a dramaturgy that will be understandable to the viewer and won't bore them.

What's worth fighting for.

When I first got the script for the George - Easy film, the longest version was supposed to be '40. But it was written for '60, and the story could have been played for another '15.

Agency: "We'll throw this out, we don't need the door opening, the bike ride is also unnecessary and there needs to be a logo at the beginning.”

Probably the longest discussion we had with the agency was about which scenes we could afford in terms of time and which we would have to sacrifice. Exposure of the story was very important, so that the viewer, even in shorter formats, would realize what was going on.

Shuffling through storyboard windows is fine, but some things need to be seen in motion. Even during the first day of shooting, it was decided that some shots would not be shot.

Although the agency and I didn't agree on everything, I knew in advance what was worth fighting for and what could be sacrificed.

Sound of the future.

"Music is definitely important to us and the client will want to hear something in the treatment."

I don't know about you, but for me, that's how most first calls with an agency end. Hours in the editing room, sleepless nights, endless playlists and trying to discover the undiscovered. I love playing with music, but sometimes it's hell to find the right one. Especially until you see the film together. I rarely ever have the final track in my hand ahead of time. One of the few projects where it worked was the George film.

While writing the treatment, I found Bagsy's track Bounce in my playlist and everyone fell in love with it. It's going to be great to play the first version of the edit and find out that the track doesn't work at all like it normally does. The first relief came from the animatic. We knew before the shoot that the track would work the way we wanted it to.

Conclusion - It is not meant to kill randomness, just to limit unpleasant surprises

There are probably scenes in every movie that weren't in the script, that became a coincidence or improvisation. Doing a thorough preparation doesn't mean killing all these magical moments, but avoiding unpleasant surprises so that even in a busy shooting schedule we have time to play.