Proposal Form

Negotiated Study in Animation	Module Title:	45 Credit Negotiated	Module Code:	ANIM3000
	Student Name:	Louise Baylie
	Area of Study	Stop Motion

Title of Project:	Here Be Monsters
Synopsis:	A short trailer for the popular children's book "Here Be Monsters" made in stop motion.

Treatment:

I aim to make a 2-minute trailer for the film adaption of the popular children’s book “Here Be Monsters”. This book is a light-hearted story about a greedy Captain and his crew going on a journey through the perilous mist to reach treasure. The Captain ultimately learns the hard way that selfishness and greed will leave him alone and empty handed. As this is a trailer, only the main parts of the story are shown, leaving the audience questioning what was really hiding within the mist, and what happened to Captain Cut-Throat and his crew. The film will be made in stop motion because it will bring the illustrations to live with still keeping the look of the characters that the readers of the book will recognize. The atmosphere will be dark and gloomy during the majority of the film; this is to show how the characters are feeling while surrounded in mist and alone in the dark sea. The surroundings will begin to lighten when the Captain starts to see the outline of the island. When he reaches the shore it is completely clear of mist and the lighting can be bright. This will uplift the audience along with the mood of the Captain, as he believes he has found his fortune. This will be achieved by using the software Dragonframe that is linked to the lighting in the stop motion room. The lighting can be programed to change throughout the timing of the animation. As I will only be animating the key parts of the story I haven't created a soundtrack for the trailer as this will only feature in the main film. The text from the book will be narrated to tell the story. Rather than casting different actors for each character's voice, this will all be part of the narration. The sound effects will be subtle, sea and water effects so that it doesn't distract from the narration. The camera will be mounted onto a moving tripod rig that I can control through Dragonframe. I am using this rig so that I can animate the camera to sway like it would on a ship at sea. Also this can be used to follow the character as he skips along the sand on the island. This technique will be helpful for when I need to mask out the character rig as I can run the camera movement along the scene without the character in it so erase the rig but will be able to still see the background behind.

Aims

To create up to two minutes of film that can be continued after University.

To develop my stop motion character animation skills.

To put across the story effectively.

Week	Date	Activity plan	Tutorials	Tutorials
1	1st February	Write proposal form/Finishing sets
2	8th February	Presentations/Finishing models and sets
3	15th February	Submit Proposal form/Finishing models and sets
4	22nd February	Blocking character movements/Test animations/Character movement
5	29th February	Filming
6	7th March	Filming
7	14th March	Filming
	Easter	Sound editing/Filming
	Easter	Sound editing/Filming
8	4th April	Filming/Editing
9	11th April	Filming/Editing
10	18th April	Screening
11	25th April	Screening
12	2nd May	Editing
13	9th May	Editing

Student signature		Date
Tutor signature		Date

Negotiate assessment criteria with tutor

	Generating and selecting ideas	Subject-specific knowledge: understanding, attributes, skills
x	Investigation, enquiry & visualization
x	Process &/or concept development
x	Research & analysis of information, contextualisation & critical thinking	Generic knowledge and understanding, attributes and skills
	Collaborative & process management
	Communication