Post 2-Visual Development
Visual Development process
Narrative development for the nightmare before Christmas
Tim Burton's the nightmare before christmas originally came from a poem that Burton had wrote when he was working as an animator for Disney. He then discovered that he could not draw the cheery animals that Disney are associated with so he quit. However he decided to keep in contact with another struggling animator 'Henry Selick' with whom he shared his poem. Selick took an immediate interest and asked weather it wanted to be turned into a feature length film. Production then started in 1991, with it being directed by Selick and produced/ co written by Burton. However, it came with a few issues. One being that Selick didnt have a full script only Burton's approval. Disney then got scared and considered turning it into a short film or a tv special. With evidence from Beetlejuice, and Edward scissorhands, Burton had convinced Disney to go ahead with filming. Filming then took over 3 years , and characters had to be re positioned over 24 times per each second of film which meant it took 1 week to create 1 minute of footage. ( Looper, 2016 [online]).
Storyboards for the nightmare before christmas
This is a storyboard taken from The nightmare before Christmas, and as you can see it is quite detailed, which shows us that this was one of the final designs before filming. Storyboards are essential in stop motion animation films because there are so many people working on set to create the characters, and they all need to know whats happening in what scene. For example, what shot is being used, facial expression, so therefore storyboards help this process become a lot easier. There are several people all working on each part of the process, to allow for things to be done properly, and quickly. For example, in 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' storyboards, they had around 5 workers designing and drawing the storyboards, as well as hiring Joe Ranft just to supervise the designers.
Treatments and Pitches
Tim Burton said that the original poem was inspired after seeing a Halloween merch display in a store being taken down and replaced by a christmas display. This juxtaposition of ghouls and goblins with santa and his reindeer sparked his imagination.
So when Burton was working at Disney, he thought about what the reverse of the Grinch would look like thus why he he created Jack Skellington and his love for christmas.
Selick said that Tim developed much of the story by himself e.g the characters, drawings, tone and concept.He made sure that the only colours used for Halloween town were black, white and orange. There were 13 assembled animators, and over 100 camera operators, puppet makers, set builders and prop makers, along with 19 sound stages, 230 sets and hundreds of puppets. (The making of - the nightmare before christmas VOB, 2012)
Coraline
Coraline was based off of the dark fantasy children's book by Neil Gaiman. No one in Hollywood wanted to make it. Some were scared off by the stop motion animation, others thought boys wouldn't see it due to it having a female lead character, and another thought was that girls wouldn't want to see it because it was scary. Producer Bill Mechanic initially assumed that Coraline would be made into a live action film, only for Henry Selick to jump in and express that he wanted to do stop motion animation instead. Selick added the character 'Wybie' to give Coraline someone her age to talk too, instead of talking to herself, which shows that Selick was trying to make it more child friendly. Most of the original soundtrack was scrapped because the producers felt that the band's tunes weren't creepy enough. It also took a week to make just 1 minute and 30 seconds of footage.It was the longest stop motion for 7 years, and was also the first stop motion to be shot entirely in 3d. ( Mike Mcgranaghan 2018 )
storyboards
This is a storyboard taken from Coraline, again which is in quite a bit of detail, therefore showing us that it was one of the final designs. Storyboards are essential in stop motion animation films because there are so many people working on set to create the characters, and they all need to know whats happening in what scene. For example, what shot is being used, facial expression, so therefore storyboards help this process become a lot easier.
Pitch
Coraline was originally a book written by Neil Gaiman, which was inspired by his daughter 'Holly'. He said that when she was 4 she used to come home from school and tell him stories in which Neil would write for her. Most of these stories had the same sort of storyline, but they were about little girls who had witches for mothers who would lock them up in towers and the girls would have to escape. Neil then went out in search of a horror story book for Holly and discovered there was none for her age group. This is when the idea sparked to Neil that he should write one for her. Once finished, he sent it to his publisher with strict instructions that only Tim Burton and Henry Selick should touch this book, so a copy was sent off to each of them, and a week later Selick replied saying he wanted to turn it into a film, thus where the stop motion animation came from. (Neil Gaiman on the origins of Coraline, 2011)
Narrative development for the nightmare before Christmas
Tim Burton's the nightmare before christmas originally came from a poem that Burton had wrote when he was working as an animator for Disney. He then discovered that he could not draw the cheery animals that Disney are associated with so he quit. However he decided to keep in contact with another struggling animator 'Henry Selick' with whom he shared his poem. Selick took an immediate interest and asked weather it wanted to be turned into a feature length film. Production then started in 1991, with it being directed by Selick and produced/ co written by Burton. However, it came with a few issues. One being that Selick didnt have a full script only Burton's approval. Disney then got scared and considered turning it into a short film or a tv special. With evidence from Beetlejuice, and Edward scissorhands, Burton had convinced Disney to go ahead with filming. Filming then took over 3 years , and characters had to be re positioned over 24 times per each second of film which meant it took 1 week to create 1 minute of footage. ( Looper, 2016 [online]).
Storyboards for the nightmare before christmas
This is a storyboard taken from The nightmare before Christmas, and as you can see it is quite detailed, which shows us that this was one of the final designs before filming. Storyboards are essential in stop motion animation films because there are so many people working on set to create the characters, and they all need to know whats happening in what scene. For example, what shot is being used, facial expression, so therefore storyboards help this process become a lot easier. There are several people all working on each part of the process, to allow for things to be done properly, and quickly. For example, in 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' storyboards, they had around 5 workers designing and drawing the storyboards, as well as hiring Joe Ranft just to supervise the designers.
Treatments and Pitches
Tim Burton said that the original poem was inspired after seeing a Halloween merch display in a store being taken down and replaced by a christmas display. This juxtaposition of ghouls and goblins with santa and his reindeer sparked his imagination.
So when Burton was working at Disney, he thought about what the reverse of the Grinch would look like thus why he he created Jack Skellington and his love for christmas.
Selick said that Tim developed much of the story by himself e.g the characters, drawings, tone and concept.He made sure that the only colours used for Halloween town were black, white and orange. There were 13 assembled animators, and over 100 camera operators, puppet makers, set builders and prop makers, along with 19 sound stages, 230 sets and hundreds of puppets. (The making of - the nightmare before christmas VOB, 2012)
Coraline
Coraline was based off of the dark fantasy children's book by Neil Gaiman. No one in Hollywood wanted to make it. Some were scared off by the stop motion animation, others thought boys wouldn't see it due to it having a female lead character, and another thought was that girls wouldn't want to see it because it was scary. Producer Bill Mechanic initially assumed that Coraline would be made into a live action film, only for Henry Selick to jump in and express that he wanted to do stop motion animation instead. Selick added the character 'Wybie' to give Coraline someone her age to talk too, instead of talking to herself, which shows that Selick was trying to make it more child friendly. Most of the original soundtrack was scrapped because the producers felt that the band's tunes weren't creepy enough. It also took a week to make just 1 minute and 30 seconds of footage.It was the longest stop motion for 7 years, and was also the first stop motion to be shot entirely in 3d. ( Mike Mcgranaghan 2018 )
storyboards
This is a storyboard taken from Coraline, again which is in quite a bit of detail, therefore showing us that it was one of the final designs. Storyboards are essential in stop motion animation films because there are so many people working on set to create the characters, and they all need to know whats happening in what scene. For example, what shot is being used, facial expression, so therefore storyboards help this process become a lot easier.
Pitch
Coraline was originally a book written by Neil Gaiman, which was inspired by his daughter 'Holly'. He said that when she was 4 she used to come home from school and tell him stories in which Neil would write for her. Most of these stories had the same sort of storyline, but they were about little girls who had witches for mothers who would lock them up in towers and the girls would have to escape. Neil then went out in search of a horror story book for Holly and discovered there was none for her age group. This is when the idea sparked to Neil that he should write one for her. Once finished, he sent it to his publisher with strict instructions that only Tim Burton and Henry Selick should touch this book, so a copy was sent off to each of them, and a week later Selick replied saying he wanted to turn it into a film, thus where the stop motion animation came from. (Neil Gaiman on the origins of Coraline, 2011)
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