Nuclear Picnic Animatic

For my senior thesis project at Montclair State University I, alongside five of my peers, had to make a short film. After writing the script we moved onto storyboards which for the first pass was done by Bruno Dias. After that and some feedback, we ran a second pass with Bruno and I splitting the storyboards in half. Once we got feedback on that and go ahead from our teachers we split the work of the animatic four ways.

This version of the animatic is the second video in the gallery. 0:00 - 1:15 was Bruno Diaz

1:15 - 3:14 was Dameir Shivers

3:14 - 4:44 was Jacob Mackey

4:44 - 7:21 was Me. This is what you can watch in the first video.

The main issue with Animatic V.1 was that it was too long and kind of boring. We attribute this to the script initially being too long and trying to squeeze everything down. In my excitement I wrote a 16 pages script that we cut down to an 11 page script. What came out of it was a film that doesn't let the characters and world breathe enough but isn't snappy because we wanted to hit the emotional landing (ironic because the ending feels like a hard tone shift). Something that Bruno and Jacob noted was that the middle section felt lacking and that Isaac's character arc was lacking. Rather than a simple montage through the day we should have Isaac go from depressed to annoyed to happy, so that the ending feels deserved.

So we rewrote the script. Aaaaaaaaaaaand it was 11 pages again. It felt snappier and we moved through a lot of things like the intro and ending faster but, it was still 11 pages. We held out hope though. While the rest of the team worked on character turnarounds, backgrounds, etc. I hunkered down and drew the second version of the animatic. Which was inadvisable. I thought it'd take a week and a half at most and that thing took TWO. But I finished it! I liked getting my grubby mitts all over the story and putting new character expressions and making new pauses in dramatic scenes. (That's the third video by the way.) And if you want to flip through the storyboards here: https://joexfad.wixsite.com/portfolio/storyboards#nukepicsecondpass

Problem. IT WAS STILL SEVEN MINUTES! The story flowed better but it was still seven minutes and kind of boring. Which was a problem because we should be operating in the 3-5 minute range with this film. The project was a potential production nightmare and story, despite the middle being stronger and the ending still being our class/teachers' favorite part, didn't feel right. Mostly to me because I knew the original version I wanted in my head and felt this version of it wasn't what I dreamt it was.

So over the Thanksgiving break, my team was told to try reediting the film to get under the 6 minute mark. I have to specific my team because admittedly I was no longer capable of cutting the film down any shorter. I'd killed as many darlings as I could imagine and was too attached to do any further finetuning.

But I don't like doing nothing. So, over the break I looked at the work we'd done so far (we had character turnarounds, expression sheets, and a big desert crater modeled) and considered that two team members (Bruno and one Justin Antero) had a passion for making racing scenes. So, I quickly wrote up a shorter more comedic script and drew an animatic for it. I wanted to try salvaging the work we'd done so far while moving in a different more achievable direction. If I couldn't have the perfect version of my story then I'd settle for having something that feels like my favorite Youtube short films. I kept this as a back-up in case we couldn't get the film under five minutes or it looked unachievable production-wise. This is the fourth video by the way. If you want to flip through the storyboard: https://joexfad.wixsite.com/portfolio/storyboards#ntrracing

However, everyone else didn't rest on their laurels. Bruno, Dameir, and Jacob reedited the film and all got it around 6 minutes. However, the one the teachers liked the most was Bruno's cut. He thought it'd be best to take the strongest version of scenes from each animatic. Which he considered to be the intro and ending for Animatic V.1 and the middle section for Animatic V.2. He also removed a lot of dialogue and extra fluff in scenes to make things snappier. To be honest, I pushed back at first because well, I am a long-winded person who likes long conversations with weird character quirks. But it did make the film stronger production wise and story wise. It was snappier and required less work. Though, I do always wish I could get my 11-15minute short film... This is the fifth/last video by the way.

Our film isn't done at the time of writing but should be done Spring 2025. So, wish us luck and thanks for reading!