Xiaoyang Wang (1622030) Rationale

IntroductionThis module is to develop a three-minute story, learn how to create a script based on the story and visualise the script as an animation. In this rationale, I will review my progress throughout the module; evaluate the script regarding the creative matrix and animation matrix; and discuss the impact of story inspiration, characters and culture on the animation.

Contextualising the StoryCreative MatrixAccording to Parker (2006), the creative matrix concludes the six elements that affect the success of a screenwork, which are the story, genre, style, form, plot, theme. They help the screenwriters understand the narrative as well as provide “...a constructive means of analysing a screenplay and its development.” (Parker, 2006, p.12) Story DevelopmentMy story was adapted from a folktale - ‘The Empty Pot’. (MacDonald, 1990) The story is that an emperor has no children, who wants to select a young man to be the next emperor through a competition. The competition is that every young man receives a seed from the palace, who could show the best result within six months would win the competition. In fact, the seed cannot bloom, because which have been cooked before being distributed. The emperor's intention is to test the honesty. In the end, all the young people bring the beautiful flowers to the palace, except for one person with an empty flower pot. However, he becomes the next emperor because of his honesty. ThemeThis story brought me a lot of inspiration, while I wanted to expand the story that the theme of the story is not just about honesty, but also loyalty, good and evil and family. Further, I added a few new characters that the daughter of the emperor, the emperor wants to find a husband for his princess. The dishonest man - Lucas cheats on the competition, but who still becomes the winner because he gains the princess's love that the emperor has to make concessions, who even poisons the emperor in order to be the king. The honest young man - Amish, stops Lucas and finally inherits the throne.FormForm, as mentioned is one of the essential factor in the creative matrix, which includes the “...length, structure and time of the narrative”. (Parker, 2006, p.21) According to Parker (2006, p.24) “If not enough real time is seen to have elapsed between one narrative event and another, then the credibility of the action evaporates.” So, I lengthened the time of the whole story to establish the credibility that the princess discovers various problems, and the evil side of his husband (Lucas) is revealed in ten years after their marriage. Regarding

Xiaoyang Wang (1622030) Rationale

the structure, the narrative is still demonstrated in the simple linear structure. The length of this narrative is designed approximately 5 minutes, where the number of plots and the depth of the story are considered.

Xiaoyang Wang (1622030) Rationale

PlotIt is considered that the narrative should be demonstrated through three acts, that the ‘Establish’, ‘Develop’ and ‘Conclude’. (Parker, 2006) In the first part - ‘Establish’, the narrative briefly describes the background that the purpose of the competition, the central questions - who will be the husband of the princess and the characters. 10 years later, the story goes to the second part - ‘Develop’, the princess and Lucas have problems with their marriage. Lucas's greedy is no longer satisfied, meanwhile, the emperor has recognised the threats and found Amish. When Lucas tries to kill the emperor, the story reaches its climax. In the third part - ‘Conclude’, the story comes to its conclusion, where the closure is described that Lucas’s plan is stopped by Amish, and Amish becomes the emperor as well as the husband of the princess.StyleStyle is considered to affect the “characterisation, visuals, actions, dialogue, pacing and dramatic structure,” (Parker, 2006, p.35) but which can also be determined by the genre. Based on the story, I chose to present my narrative through the storybook, which is influenced by the movie - ‘Shrek’. At the beginning of this movie, a storybook is projected on the table. When the book is opened, the parents start telling children the story. While unlike the rich colour of the storybook in this movie, the book in my animation is designed to be yellowed because the context is based on the ancient Greek culture. It is influenced by the illustrations in the earliest version of the book - ‘Andersen's Fairy Tales’. (Figure 1) Further, the storybook in the narrative is designed to be demonstrated through the hand drawn animation, which is very suitable for the storybook as well as the fork lore.

Figure 1 An Illustration in ‘Andersen's Fairy Tales’ (Katrina Haney, 2015)

Xiaoyang Wang (1622030) Rationale

Approach to StoryCharactersThe genre of the narrative was fork lore, and the themes of the story were honesty, loyalty, good and evil and family, but in the process of creating characters, I thought that I lacked a clear understanding of the characters that the story was one-sided, leading to that many details could not withstand scrutiny. Lucas’s background was not complete that his motivation was not clearly revealed. However, Amish's kindness and loyalty were so clear that the end of the story did not give unexpected results.Animation MatrixWells (2007) expands the creative matrix for the animation development that core element of an animation should be the visualisation, which expresses the “thought, feeling and emotion.” (Wells, 2007, p.62) Moreover, when creating the visualisation of an animation, the appropriate selection of techniques and technologies for themes, the ideas, the development process must be determined. (Figure 2)

Figure 2 Animation Matrix (Wells, 2007, p.62)

The original story was set in ancient China, but in China, there was no tradition that the daughter's husband inherited the throne. So, the background of the story was set to be the ancient Greek, and which was based on the ancient Greek culture, (Figure 3) Ancient Greek exceled at portraying culture on vases, the characters in the vase were all in 2D style (Figure 4), so I adapted this technique for my narrative. The technological requirements would be the TvPaint Animation and Photoshop.

Xiaoyang Wang (1622030) Rationale

Figure 3 Greek Figures with Dogs and Wearing Cloaks (Bridgeman Education, no date b)

Figure 4 Greek Black-Figure Amphora (Bridgeman Education, no date a)

I arranged my animation in a storybook. In the animation, the storybook is flipped, and narrator tells the reader what the next page is about. Each page has a fragment animation. I added some patterns in the header and footer of the book. These patterns came from ancient Greece, which reflect the cultural background of the narrative. () My illustration references were from Tove Jansson - the illustrator of Moomins (Figure 6). In my concept arts, I liked that the black and white illustration with an old, yellowed storybook and the story being animated in the middle of the book.

Xiaoyang Wang (1622030) Rationale

Figure 5 Greek Illustration for A Handbook of Coloured Ornament in The Historic Styles (Batsford, C 1880). (Bridgeman Education, no date c)

Figure 6 An illustration of ‘Comet in Moominland’ (Moomin, 2016)

Xiaoyang Wang (1622030) Rationale

ConclusionOverall, it was a valuable opportunity for me to complete a series of script work. I enjoyed creating characters, understanding the emotional connection between each character and the actual needs. The contradictions in this narrative provided me a deeper understanding of the struggles that the author will experience before each narrative is created and helped me develop a story based on the personality of the characters. If I can rewrite the narrative, I will be focusing on the interaction between characters, the motivation of protagonists and antagonists, and making the unexpected and attractive answers of the active questions.

Word Count: 1270

Xiaoyang Wang (1622030) Rationale

References: MacDonald, E. (1990) The Empty Pot. School Library Journal. 36(7),

pp.58. Parker, P. (2006) The Art and Science of Screenwriting, 2nd ed, Bristol:

Intellect Books. Wells P. (2007) Basics Animation 01: Scriptwriting. 1st ed. Continuum. Katrina Haney (2015) “Illustrations by Vilhelm Pedersen – Page 3”

[Online] [Accessed 28 April 2018] Available at: <www.katrinahaney.com/wp/?p=1402>.

Bridgeman Education (no date a) “Greek Black-Figure Amphora Depicting Demeter, Persephone and Apollo” [Online] [Accessed 28 April 2018] Available at:< http://www.bridgemaneducation.com.ezproxy.wlv.ac.uk/en/asset/54054/summary?context=%7B%22route%22%3A%22assets_search%22%2C%22routeParameters%22%3A%7B%22_format%22%3A%22html%22%2C%22_locale%22%3A%22en%22%2C%22filter_text%22%3A%22greek+vase%22%2C%22page%22%3A%224%22%7D%7D>

Bridgeman Education (no date b) “Greek Figures with Dogs and Wearing Cloaks (Colour Litho)” [Online] [Accessed 28 April 2018] Available at:<http://www.bridgemaneducation.com.ezproxy.wlv.ac.uk/en/asset/957866/summary?context=%7B%22route%22%3A%22assets_search%22%2C%22routeParameters%22%3A%7B%22_format%22%3A%22html%22%2C%22_locale%22%3A%22en%22%2C%22filter_text%22%3A%22greek+vase%22%7D%7D>

Bridgeman Education (no date c) “Greek. Illustration for a Handbook of Coloured Ornament in the Historic Styles (Batsford, c 1880).” [Online] [Accessed 28 April 2018] Available at:<http://www.bridgemaneducation.com.ezproxy.wlv.ac.uk/en/asset/668082/summary?context=%7B%22route%22%3A%22assets_search%22%2C%22routeParameters%22%3A%7B%22_format%22%3A%22html%22%2C%22_locale%22%3A%22en%22%2C%22filter_text%22%3A%22greek+patterns%22%7D%7D>

Moomin (2016) “Dancing Moominvalley” [Online] [Accessed 29 April 2018] Available at:<https://www.moomin.com/en/blog/dancing-moominvalley/>