Tech Project Plan (Design Cycle)
By: Chelsea, Naam, Charlotte
May 20th, 2013
I.
Scene Overview
1. Scene 1: Announcer speaking about the ‘Freshman Fifteen’, weight gain
during college, and introducing the character. The background here is the
photo of the front of the University of Texas and the ground is the green
construction paper to represent grass. This scene uses only four different
shots:
 announcer close up with an open mouth
 announcer close up with a closed mouth
 announcer far away with an open mouth
 announcer far away with a closed mouth
The editor will then piece together the photos and alternate them so it gives the effect
that the announcer is speaking, while occasionally zooming in and panning out to
give different perspective. Pat A voices this scene (there will be subtitles), with the
following script.
Announcer: Coming to college is a big change for young adults. They are confronted with food any
hour of the day and there is no one telling them what or when to eat. They have to learn to choose
both what and when to eat for themselves and they are also going to a schedule where no one tells
them what to do, so they may forget to exercise. College is about the time where young people switch to
an adults’ metabolism, so they may not be able to eat as much as they used to and still keep their
weight stable. Eating snacks or mini-meals after every three or four hours can help avoid bingeing.
The challenge is really learning how to incorporate healthy eating and exercise into a schedule that is
very demanding. I remind students that this is not too different from the life they will graduate into,
so they should learn now how to make it a part of what they do now! Meet Mark, known as Mak
in his homeland of Thailand. He’s about to encounter the freshmen fifteen when he moves to Texas
to attend the University of Texas.
2. Scene 2: A chubby Mark wakes up, stretches, and walks to the table full of
Mcdonald’s and pushes it out of the frame. There is no dialogue in this scene.
The background is the photo of the dorm room we have printed and the tanbrown construction paper as the flooring.
3. Scene 3: A moderately fatter Mark pushes a table with Mcdonald’s from one
side of his classroom to the other. We will film this scene twice, each in front
of different backdrops. One of the backdrops is a photo of a teacher in front
of a whiteboard, and the other is a class full of university students. In the
scene, Mark will push the table through the classroom in front of the teacher
(using the teacher backdrop) and then it will cut halfway to the backdrop of
the university students. This gives more perspective and shows the full
classroom: both the students and the teacher in front. The flooring will stay
the same, however: the tan-brown construction paper.
4. Scene 4: A quite fat Mark pushes a table with Mcdonald’s from one side of the
cafeteria to the other. This scene will use the backdrop of the cafeteria photo
and the tan-brown construction paper as flooring.
5. Scene 5: A now obese Mark is back in the dorm room, where he will again
push a table full of junk food across the room. After this, he will stretch and
return to bed. This scene will use the dorm room backdrop and the tan-brown
construction paper as floor.
6. Scene 6: This scene shows a TV Public Service Announcement talking about
the perils of gaining weight and being unhealthy during college, which many
students suffer through. This scene will show the camera zooming into a TV
and the PSA will then begin. A Concordian student will be the host of this
show, which should be around 45 seconds long.
7. Scene 7: An obese Mark wakes up, and after the PSA, has a change of heart
about his lifestyle. Instead of eating junk food every hour of the day, he has a
breakfast of fruits and veggies and other healthy snacks. Similar to the first
few scenes, he wakes up, stretches, and pushes the table out of the shot. This
shot uses the dorm room background and the tan-brown flooring.
8. Scene 8: A quite fat Mark goes to class and pushes a table of fruit and
vegetables across the classroom. In accordance with scene 3, this scene will
cut halfway through, changing backdrops. The first backdrop will be of the
professor, and the second of a student lecture. The floor will be the same:
tan-brown construction paper.
9. Scene 9: A chubby Mark pushes a table of healthy food across the university
cafeteria. This scene will use the backdrop of the cafeteria and the tan-brown
flooring.
10. Scene 10: The final scene: Mark has a healthy dinner before going to bed. He
is now slimmer and healthier and pushes the table across the room before
retiring. This scene uses the dorm room backdrop and the tan-brown
construction paper flooring.
11. Scene 11: ‘The End’ and credit roll.
II.
About the Order of the Scenes
In order to save time for this project, we will film the scenes in a different order as
shown above. The above list is organized by appearance in film. However, we will
change the order when filming to save time as we only have a few weeks to film and
finish. Therefore, we’ll switch around the scenes so that we don’t have to change
Mark’s weight too many times, as maneuvering the clay pieces is one of the most
difficult parts of this process. Because Mark gets gradually fatter then thinner
throughout the video, it’ll be most efficient for us if we start by filming the scenes
where Mark is thin, then as we add more clay to his body to make him fatter, we will
film the scenes in that order. For each body weight that Mark is, two scenes will be
filmed, first the scene with the junk food, and then the scene with the healthy food.
III.
Scenes in Order of Filming
1. Scene 1
2. Scene 2
3. Scene 10
4. Scene 3
5. Scene 9
6. Scene 4
7. Scene 8
8. Scene 5
9. Scene 7
10. Scene 6 (PSA scene)
11. Scene 11 (credits, does not require filming)
IV.
Action Sequence Sheet
Scene #
Location
Action summary
Talent
Props
1
University of Texas
Announcer speaks about Pat A.
Announcer,
entrance
eating unhealthily in
University of
college and the
Texas
‘Freshman Fifteen’
backdrop,
green
construction
paper
2
Dorm room
Mark wakes up and
-
Dorm room
pushes table with junk
backdrop,
food across room
tan-brown
construction
paper, bed,
table, junk
food
3
Classroom
Mark pushes table of
-
Professor
junk food across
backdrop,
university lecture hall
classroom
backdrop,
tan-brown
construction
paper, table,
junk food
4
Cafeteria
Mark pushes table of
-
Cafeteria
junk food across
backdrop,
university cafeteria
tan-brown
construction
paper, table,
junk food
5
Dorm room
Mark pushes junk food
-
Dorm room
across room and then
backdrop,
goes to bed
tan-brown
construction
paper, bed,
table, junk
food
6
Television
A Concordian students
Charlotte
Microphone
-
Dorm room
explains about the
importance of healthy
eating, especially at
university
7
Dorm room
Mark wakes up and
pushes a table of healthy
backdrop,
food across the room
tan-brown
construction
paper, table,
healthy food,
bed
8
Classroom
Mark pushes table of
-
Professor
healthy food across
backdrop,
university lecture hall
classroom
backdrop,
tan-brown
construction
paper, table,
healthy food
9
Cafeteria
Mark pushes table of
-
Cafeteria
healthy food across
backdrop,
university cafeteria
tan-brown
construction
paper, table,
healthy food
10
Dorm room
Mark pushes healthy
food across room and
-
Dorm room
backdrop,
then goes to bed
tan-brown
construction
paper, table,
healthy food,
bed
11
Credits (edited)
Credits
-
Editing
software
V.
Complete List of Materials/Resources
1. SAM Stop-motion Animation Software
2. Laptop webcam
3. Three packets of oil-based clay (all colors)
a. Announcer man character
b. Mark character
c. Mcdonald’s soda
d. Mcdonald’s burger
e. Mcdonald’s fries
4. Containers for clay storage
5. Erasers shaped like fruit
6. Green sheet of construction
7. Tan-brown sheet of construction paper
8. Table (lid of spray paint bottle)
9. Lamp for lighting
10. Backdrops
a. University of Texas photo
b. Dorm room photo
c. Cafeteria photo
d. Class room photo
e. University professor and whiteboard photo
11. Final Cut Pro
12. People needed/jobs
a. Naam: artist, writer, and animator
b. Charlotte: artist, actor, writer, and animator
c. Chelsea: director, writer, and editor
d. Pat A: voice actor
VI.
Edits in the Original Plan
When were first brainstorming for this video, we came with a different idea for the
plot.
The original plan was much longer, and it included Mark having a girlfriend who
would break up with him because of his obesity and attending parties at his
university. This plot also would have included Mark being a university mascot at a
basketball game and while still being fit in the beginning, able to jump far and slamdunk the ball. However, later after gaining weight, he would have failed and fallen on
his face. This, along with his girlfriend breaking up with him, would have motivated
him to lose weight and return to a healthy status.
After deciding that this would take too long, we decided to cut it down some more.
Here, we had two options:
1. Cut out the scene with Mark’s girlfriend/other scenes that would have been
determined if we had continued with this plan.
2. Rewrite the plot to what it is now: showing the daily routine of Mark and
watching him get fatter, then being motivated by a PSA and seeing him
become thinner in a revised daily routine.
After we chose this second option, we played around with the clay and decided that
since it was so soft and difficult to manipulate, it would be much easier if that instead
of actually showing Mark eating healthy/junk food, we should have him push tables
of food across the sets to represent him eating. This way, the clay characters would
also have the support of the table to lean on as they moved and walked.
VII.
Why will this plan work?
This plan will work because we have set it up to minimize the amount of time we
spend on this project, as well only have several weeks to finish it, while still making a
quality video. We have planned the scenes to film in an order that makes the most
sense and will be the most efficient. We’ve also gotten quality materials to try to
ensure there will be very few problems during production time. If any problems do
occur, however, we can quickly compromise by using other materials from the art
room.
VIII.
Problems
1. One of the problems we faced was maneuvering the clay pieces and making
them. It was harder than expected because they clay we bought was quite soft
so it was hard to make the characters stand. To solve this, we tried putting
wires in the bodies to support the models, but this just ripped them apart
further. Because of this, we had to remake the Mark model several times until
we decided to make his form quite basic so that he was easy to fix. However,
the characters still fell apart often while filming, so it took longer than
expected as we kept having to piece them back together and use the onion
skins on the laptop to put it back precisely where it was before it fell.
2. Another problem was making Mark fatter. Again, because the clay was quite
soft, it was difficult to add clay onto him without it being lumpy. It took a lot
of work to make the fat evenly distribute on his body.
3. The third problem with that because we were using an art room that belonged
to the school which many people used, at one point we found that someone
had been playing with the clay and had taken apart the characters. The Mark
character was missing all of his joints as well as his eyeball, which was
frustrating. Nevertheless, it only took us a few minutes to piece him back
together. To prevent this from happening again, we taped a sign to the wall
saying, “Please do not touch”.
IX.
Timeline
Steps in Project
Estimated amount of time
Brainstorming ideas/plot
30 minutes
Scene overview
20 minutes
Scene order plan
10 minutes
Prop list
15 minutes
Prop collecting and building
90 minutes
characters
Set-up scene
20 minutes
Filming
180 minutes
Editing
150 minutes
Design Cycle: Plan
90 minutes
Design Cycle: Create
90 minutes
Design Cycle: Design
90 minutes
Total time
785 minutes