Animatic

The first animatic for our "Invasion from the centre of the earth"

Improvements to Storyboard

After taking note from Alan's feedback we wanted to fix the storyboard as fast as possible, so this is my attempt at two of the problems raised.

First of the problem of shot 17 and 18 being the same thing had to fixed and combined. So I moved the shot out on the street with the centipede moving forward and smashing cars, playing via a back projection. The foreground has cars and will have a fleshed out street that looks as real as possible.



Second problem was the science and human reaction part of the trailer. What I wanted to do is put as much explanation in as we possibly could because I think the audience will need it. The scene takes place in a science lab with the scientist trying to explain what is going on as the main actor and actress listen to him. I have come up with a draft dialogue for the actors involved.

Scientist - "This is a fascinating creature, originally this specie will only grow to 20cm but this beast has grown to 100 feet long! The head is 10 feet alone.

Main Actor - "Sir, how did this creature grow so large?"

Scientist - "The only explanation is this creature has come into contact with nuclear waste and it's DNA changed in such a way that it was able to grow to such a terrifying size.

Main Actor - "How do we destroy it?"

Scientist - "Well that's the thing, the weakness of the normal centipede is heat and drought..."

Main Actor - "So all we have to do is burn it!"

Scientist - "Unfortunately no. You see I have analysed the Data and the creatures DNA has been altered so much that it doesn't have any more weaknesses. No weapon that the human race possesses will destroy this Centipede"

I already find this improvement of the scene to be much more interesting and something to pay attention to in trailer. It also opens up a lot of challenges for us in production when it comes to the lip syncing and animating the characters.

A Talk With Alan

Yesterday the group had a much needed talk with Alan about our storyboard and the direction the project is heading. The outcome was he thought the storyboard was 60% finished and the other 40% needed more or less or rearranging.

One of the problems was the storyboard wasn't as clear as it could be; which lead to the group having to explain what was happening in each shot. Now this isn't a massive problem because it was just a draft just to see what our story looked visually. For the Pitch next week I will be refining the drawings and hope the animatic will help tell our story clearer.

The intro got an approval and everything was fine up until shot 12;

Shot 12

 He mentioned that the view was too far away at this point and shows the same thing as shot 13 but just at a distance.

Shot 13

Our initial ideas for these shots were to imitate the trailer for "The Blob", the shots for the trailer went far shot, crowd shot and then model shot of the blob and thats we all liked that collection of shots. However it was mentioned that the far shot wasn't really needed because the crowd shot is powerful enough.

Shot 17 and 18 was next on the talking list;

Shot 17

Shot 18

It was pointed out that these two shots looked like they were showing the exact same thing but from a different angle. An idea was suggested that the two become merged because we all like the idea of the centipede in back projection and we like the centipede destorying the cars. So now a new view of this could be the centipede coming at the camera but on a back projection destorying cars with a real foreground of cars awaiting destruction.

Shot 19

This shot wasn't showing the impact it needed for the trailer. It is ment to express the possible reason or cure for the beast so there is a lot more that can be added. It was suggested that there be close up shots of reactions and the scientist standing in front a blackboard instead of centipede cages.

Shot 26

As we got further through the storyboard up to the entrance of the main actors, there was a wonder of why they were point in so far down the trailer. So I raised my idea from before of having the main actors in the science lab when this explanation is being held. Maybe the main actress is an assistance or Secretary of the scientist and the main actor is brave scientist that is looking to get samples and answers from the beast. So this part of the story needs a lot of work and either narration or acting to make sure it all flows correctly.


Shot 20 and 21 appeared to be in the wrong order. To an outside opinion the reaction shot looked odd when it came before the back projected firing shot.

Shot 20

Shot 21

These two scenes for me are very powerful for the trailer and I want to get these as right as we possibly can.


We started to run out of time for this meeting so before rapping it up Alan took a quick glance at the final pages and noticed that there may be too much action and that we need to go back to more human interaction similar to the science lab scene. We mentioned that there was an idea of the scientist telling the general that no man made weapons will work against this creature and something new must be invented. Alan had idea of the General slamming his fist and telling the Scientists that this animal will be taken out by the American army at all costs. This would then be followed by a couple more action shots of the General's army trying to take this beast down.

Just before the end we were told to concentrate on the ending money shot because so far we don't have it. Something that will make the trailer stick in the minds of the audience. A couple of ideas that were raised became strikingly similar; something along the lines of the centipede spiralling up the Empire State Building or the Brooklyn Bridge

Overall we were very grateful for this meeting because it gave us a lot to think about and is pushing us in the right dirrection.

Toned Storyboard

Draft Storyboard

This is the storyboard so far from what we have discussed, there is plenty of room for improvements, development and refining.