Hello again. This week’s project was a bit more my speed. All we had to do was find free footage, and write a storyboard for a short film that would use said footage. Now, I am not bragging or anything, but I do have the advantage of having experience in this area. Back in the day (and by that I mean “two years ago”), my friend Chris and I decided it would be a good idea to write a summary of what the (sadly) now-defunct Halo movie should be like. Three months later, we had a 60-page screenplay on our hands. Our project (again, sadly) went bust last year when we found that nobody wanted our screenplay, but when Project 3 came up for CAT-111, I tried to channel some of those skills I learned, and I kind of like how it turned out.
An explanation is in order now. The inspiration for this storyboard came from two places: Some from the movie Red Dawn, but most of my ideas originated from the Fallout video games. For those that have never played them, the Fallout series takes a dark, yet humorous look at the “atomic age” of the 1950’s, creating a world that is accurate to what we thought the future would look like back then. I tried to capture as much of that in this project as I could (just read the voiceover at the end about how you are encouraged to use nuclear weapons on our own soil). The main character is you, presumably a new recruit in the US Army, and follows ‘you’ as you overcome various combat scenarios. The whole thing is completely satirical, mostly consisting of dark humor. I want to make it clear that I have nothing against the US Military. I respect them more than you could possibly imagine. This is just a parody of the 1950’s era “red scare”. Most of the final editing will be worked out in Adobe Premiere, though I did include a rough idea of what techniques to use and when. Most editing will consist of wipe-cuts (accurate to the period), alongside basic jump-cuts, to speed up the rhythm. Moreover, I am considering many scenes to be montages, using matches on action to connect actions from clip-to-clip (in other words, trying to match stock footage from one source with footage from another in such a way that the viewer might think they are from the same scene). Much of the footage is stock, or taken from real (free) Department of Defense videos, such as USAF Tactical Firepower, and the pentagon series The Big Picture. The voiceover, mentioned in the storyboard, will be recorded by me, along with any sound effects I am not able to get from the footage. Timing of the clips will be dictated by the length of the voiceover, which will obviously have to match-up with the actions in the clips (the times listed on the storyboard are not finalized). Music will be taken from The Big Picture as well as USAF Tactical Firepower. I am considering other music for use during the scenes, but I am not sure if that would drown out any of the sound effects or the voiceover, so I will experiment to see what sounds best. Lastly, this storyboard is just a rough draft, the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. The next step is putting my ideas to work in Adobe Premiere.
Note: The only images shown are from those from Project 3, Part A for CAT-111. The Halo screenplay is not related to school at all, so it was not posted. I just wanted to clear up any confusion. Also, if you are having trouble reading the storyboard, just click on the images, you should be able to zoom in.
Let me know what you think. Constructive criticism is welcome.
Per audacia ad astra.
Zach H. 