Animation Motion Design: Treatment file

Treatment File.

Concept.
The film we chose was Pulp Fiction, because we all enjoyed watching it. Pulp fiction is a hard-hitting, gritty, gory yet comic movie by Quentin Tarantino. Our idea is based around drawn animation. The mood of our animation is comic, not serious or heavy it is a classic cartoon drawing style. We are looking at a very 70’s funk / disco theme running throughout. We plan to have our drawings of the characters move and exaggerate their features and personalities. It is going to be a somewhat fast paced animation with fast transitions and text.
Technique and approach.
We plan to draw the characters in a similar way as to how cartoon characters were drawn in older cartoons, such as “ The Funky Phantom “ and “Help! It’s the hair bear bunch!” We also plan to draw the backgrounds of our animation, as 2D backgrounds, similar to the way backgrounds were drawn in older cartoons. For elements of the background we are planning to experiment with bright colours and drawing the background scenes, like buildings etc. For transitions we have experimented with ink washes that look like blood.

Audio.
For the audio we were thinking 70’s funk music such as ‘Kool and the gang’, and depending on how our animation develops, we will add different sound effects to suit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xJWQPdG7jE.

This is ‘get down on it’ by ‘Kool and the Gang’. We chose this, or something similar to this because it suits the Gangster style and attitudes portrayed in the film. It also suits the protagonists (Vince and Jules) personalities. While
researching this type of funk music I came across a soundtrack to an old T.V show called “Chicks to Chicks”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs3zzwtR01I&feature=player_embedded#!

We also think this is a very fitting soundtrack, with sound effects added when needed.

Shot list/ Sequence Of Events.
Our animation beings with a black screen that fades in “A Miramax production”, then we set the scene with a comic introduction to the location.
“Somewhere, sometime in Los Angeles, there live two of the baddest badass gangsters that ever was. ” (for example)
Following this introduction to the location, the two main characters (Vincent and Jules) are walking down a hand drawn, very flat 2D street scene. We plan to bring the music in at this point, so they are walking to 70s funk music.
Suddenly they are badly startled and one of them shoots his gun, there is a loud bang, and rather than see a bullet , we see the character credits shoot out. There will be, 70’s exaggerated fonts used for the main characters credits.
They continue walking after the credits have been shot out and come across the 50’s retro restaurant. Then we cut to Vincent and Mia (Uma Thurman) dancing. Then we cut to Mia in the bathroom snorting cocaine, she feints and the screen fades to black gradually, in a feinting effect.
Then we fade back in to Butch (Bruce Willis) and Marsellus Wallace( Ving Rhames )tied up and gagged in a basement. We will pan the camera across to the gimp character and see his masked face. Next we pan the camera back to Bruce Willis holding a Japanese sword. Marsellus comes out from behind him and shoots a rifle at the camera, which will then turn red gradually, to look like blood running down the screens surface.
We then come back to Vincent and Jules, who are entering the diner shown at the beginning of the film. In here they walk past the couple (also shown at the
beginning of the film) who are plotting together, they also walk past Butch and his French girlfriend, enthusiastically eating blueberry pancakes and other minor characters.
Vincent and Jules sit down and Jules pulls out his ‘Bad MotherF**ker’ wallet. He takes out a five dollar note and instead of Abraham Lincoln there is Quentin Tarantino’s head in the centre of the note, with his name.
Then we once again will fade to black and then Pulp Fiction will appear on screen. Typed in a 70s funky, groovy font, in a mustard colour, which was very popular in the 70’s and so very authentic.

Moodboard.

We chose this image of a car because we like the style and the colour palette

We chose this image because it has a psychedelic vibe, made obvious by the over the top and vibrant colour scheme, which we will incorporate into our animation.

We chose this image because it has a strong visual impact and is engaging to the viewers because of the shading and colouring technique used

This is a reference image to a 70s cartoon. We like the use of the strong orange colour and the drawing style, which we will use in our animation.

This is reference image from ‘Goodfellas’ that we’re using as another example of a diner scene. We want to incorporate the actor’s expressive qualities in our characters.

We chose this image because it has the authentic 70s orange colour palette referenced in the movie and has exaggerated the actors facial expressions in a cartoony fashion.

This is just a reference image of a 70s style kitchen incorporating the palette of the apartment in one of the opening shots of the film.

These are shots from the film which demonstrate the different examples of lighting associated with Bruce Willis’ character. The brightness of the shot seems to correspond with the emotions of his character at the time.

These show the typefaces we are going to experiment with:

This is a reference for the style of advertisement in the 70s. We will incorporate elements of the style of the typeface in our animation.

This is an actual ‘pulp fiction’ novel (printed on cheap recycled paper) it also has the typical warm colour palette of the 70s which we are hoping to achieve

This is a poster for the film which incorporates the same style we are trying to achieve.

This is a starting point of the 70s era style of font we are going to experiment with.

Below are examples of Magazines from the 70’s and the font and colours they used. We are looking at the font and colours they used at the time, to aid us in developing our font and making the characters of our animation look authentic.