MD6001 Week 1 - Kiss of Death Animatics, Pre-Visualisation and Storyboards plus reading notes on fil
Animatics, pre-visualisation and storyboarding are all part of the pre-production process in film and animation. A storyboard is a series of sketches of how the producers want the animation to look and an animatic is when the producer combines the sketches with sound. An example of pre-visulisation in terms of film production is when producers make a computer animated sequence of how they want a certain piece of live-action footage to look.
For this module I am required to produce a storyboard based on the 1947 film noir Kiss of Death. Prior to producing the storyboard I watched a three and a half minute clip of the film and made observations of what to look for in a film noir such as the black and white cinematography, the use of lighting (such as the light illuminating Nettie's hair like a halo), how the characters are dressed and mentions of crime prevention elements such as the police and going to prison. I then researched four different storyboards for their styles and decided on which styles I would combine for my own storyboard (see separate posts).
I have read some pages on film noir in Film Genre Reader II (Grant, B.K. 1997. Austin: University of Texas Press) and found the following points the most useful. I have also backed some of them up with findings from Kiss of Death.
Paul Schrader predominantly discusses film noir “from a stylistic perspective.” Although he initially asserts that film noir is not strictly a genre, he finally demonstrated that it could “be considered as one” based on his analysis and “the work of later critics.” (ix)
Buscombe (19 - 20) questions if the “blend of cynicism and honesty, weariness and generosity” in Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942) is “genuinely part of a tradition of the American film noir.” In Kiss of Death (Hathaway, 1947), the only element from the blend in Casablanca that is present is honesty, particularly when Nick tells Nettie to start packing to take their children away.
Altman (36) Claims the only major film genre in the Hitchcock era that has failed to attract critics was film noir. This explains why Kiss of Death was not initially a success.
Wood (62) states that film noir can be combined with other film genres such as small town or city comedy. Kiss of Death looks more like a combination of drama and film noir due to the dramatic nature of the dialogue in the clip.
Film noir is one of the genres that has been of interest to “ideological criticism" (75).
The “circuitous* jungle of cause and effect” as a narrative component in film noir is often maximised or exaggerated just like other narrative principles (82). For example in the Kiss of Death clip, the cause of Nick being a criminal leads to the effect of him sending Nettie and their children away.
*having a circular or winding course.
The use of camera angles in film noir gives films of this genre a “bargain basement” or B-movie look. (83). In the Kiss of Death clip I based my pre-vis on, several camera angles are mid shots of Nick and Nettie talking.
Klinger claims film noir “is recognisably different from other films” because it “stands out as a phase in the development of the gangster/thriller" (genre) due to “certain highly foregrounded inflections of plot, character and visual style which dominated at the expense of narrative coherence and the comprehensible solution of the crime, the usual goal of the thriller.” (85)
“Economic and psychic pre-occupation of post-war” America are “crystallised in and “disturbed by the mis-en-scene of film noir.” (Klinger: 86). Kiss of Death is an example of a film noir that was released after World War II.
Chiaroscuro lighting, which is the way that light and dark create a pattern, in film noir is “critically observed as cuing the disequilibrium and subversive disturbances to the norm.” (Klinger, 86). For example in Kiss of Death the patch of white light above Nettie’s head gives the illusion of a halo.
Film noir in the 1940s “expressed first the social and sexual dislocations brought about by World War II and then the disillusionment when it ended (Grant, 116).
The use of voiceovers in film noir play “a crucial role in structuring performance. (De Cordova, 133).” In Kiss of Death, Nettie’s narration at the beginning sets up the plot throughout the film, which explains why Nick became a criminal (he robbed a jewellery shop on Christmas Eve). Voiceover in film noir also introduces “a variety of disjunctions between the body and the voice (134).”
The genre of film noir gives writers more knowledge of lesser-known films, for example Kiss of Death (Schrader, 213). Even though Kiss of Death was not initially a commercial success, films of its kind are “equally interesting to critics."
As per the introduction, Durgnat argues film noir is not a genre but instead a period of American films (Schrader, 213).
Although crime features strongly in Kiss of Death, Schrader claims film noir “need not necessarily concern crime and corruption (214),”
In the opening credits of Kiss of Death, there is a caption saying the film was shot in New York in its entirety, hence its proud proclamation of “Every scene was filmed on the actual location depicted (Schrader, 216).” Kiss of Death has a sense of Post-War realism by somehow depicting “a more honest and harsh America” for example showing scenes of Nick stealing from the jeweller’s and getting arrested. Films of its genre also showed scenes set on “streets with everyday people,” such as that of Nick’s daughters roller-skating and asking him to play with them when he returns home in Kiss of Death. This takes place shortly before the clip I based my 3D pre-visualisation on.
Below is my storyboard based on the film. I used yellow colouring pencil and charcoal pencils in various degrees of darkness. Although I initially had difficulty with colouring the charcoal over the coloured pencil, particularly the darkest shade, I thought of not colouring the darkest areas with yellow pencil, which led to a more satisfying result.
Here is my animatic based on the film:
I made it by scanning in the storyboard panels and importing them into Adobe Premiere with the sound clip Ben Melville (my Thursday morning tutor) provided. I also uploaded it onto YouTube so I could succesfully embed it into this post. I am pleased with the final outcome of the storyboard, especially if I've added some extra panels.
For the second workshop with Ben, I was asked to re-design the storyboard and reinterpret the story. I reinterpreted it as follows:
Nick has been a victim of crime and he is nervous when he reads a newspaper article about a gangster attacking him. He is reluctant to have the police help him and he decides to go downstairs to the kitchen. Nettie follows and tells him the criminal will not come to their house tonight but Nick is not convinced. Nettie advises him to go away in order to escape from the criminal. Nick instead suggests Nettie and their children escape in case the criminal will attack them as well since the same criminal (Tommy Udo) attacked Rizzo’s mother. Nick is concerned that too many criminals know him and they could be anywhere outside their home They could all tell Udo Nick is around so he can attack him. Nettie again suggests Nick call the police since they’d be happy to help and Nick finally agrees but asks what would happen to Nettie and the children when he’s at work. He is concerned that they cannot help them in his absence and tells her marrying him was tough. Nettie starts to cry because she does not want the children to go away in case they are attacked. Nick tells her she’ll wake them up (they are currently sleeping) and Nettie says the children will not go away. Nick assures it won’t happen if Nettie helps him out by packing to go away herself. They hear a car pulling up outside and Nick is worried it is Tommy Udo but it is actually their neighbour Bill Johnson. Nick tells Nettie to proceed with the packing, she leaves and Nick takes another look at the newspaper.
Although a fair amount of my interpretation is similar to what happens in the original film clip, the part about Nick being a victim of crime rather than a former criminal is a unique twist to my interpretation and rather than have the children go away with Nettie, I had her packing to go away alone.
Prior to colouring the storyboard, I made a swatch test to see if the charcoal pencils would work on watercolour pencil. The light and medium degrees of charcoal did not show up on the watercolour pencil swatches as much as I expected but the dark degree showed up better even though it was difficult to mark it onto its corresponding watercolour pencil swatch. Like my original storyboard, I left the areas I intended to colour with the charcoal pencils blank and coloured the rest with the watercolour pencil.
For the storyboard I used a similar style to my original storyboard but changed the character designs and the backgrounds. I also used watercolour pencil for the golden yellow background instead of colouring pencil because it brought out more vibrancy but I still used charcoal pencils in various shade sfor tonal elements. Although the storyboard lacks light and shade compared to the original, it still has an effective use of colour and tone.
Below is the final result. It is more detailed in lighting and shading as opposed to the animatic although the characters are more basic since I used the Blik rig for Nettie and the Blo rig for Nick. Even though 3D animation in Maya is not my strongest point of the course because the animation is jarring at times and one shot appears pixilated without meknowing why, I still felt I did a decent job with using various camera angles and intercutting the dialogue with shots of a car driving down the street and eventually parking. There are also some slight differences between the animatic and the 3D pre-visualisation, particularly the intercut car shots and the angle of the background when the car parks down Nick and Nettie's street.
