During the pre-production of Toy Story, there were a lot of ideas and concepts in regards to plot and especially character that didn't make the final cut, as you're about to see here. Below is a behind-the-scenes look at the design stage of the film, and a treat of a preview at 4 and a half minutes in of a discarded sequence showcasing Woody to be a nasty guy. Take a look!
Now, as a bit of a personal experiment, I'm going to showcase one of my own variants of a well known sequence. The Bucket O Soldier's reconnaissance mission. It's a bit of an iconic sequence, and something that, visually, we don't actually pay much attention to as it's so familiar to us.
This sequence illustrates many of the principles of animation, but more importantly it also pays homage to several film genres- with the nature of the characters and their behaviour mirroring the tone of war films for comical irony. This is also aided by many of the dynamic shots chosen, the stand-out one being the drop down angle following the paratrooper's descent from the banister, mirroring the atmosphere of a real military drop. Most obviously, Toy Story was one of the first animations to actually be presented like a cinematic film. The shots are mimicking the idiosyncrasies of more mature cinematography, and even the nature of the story had a cinematic flair to it that the crew at Pixar took very seriously. This also shows in the storyboarding where the framing and choice of angles were treated almost like a live action film, and even further where CGI could offer unrealistic but entertaining framing.
In order to fully appreciate why some shots were selected, I've decided to apply the pre-production process to a small segment of this video and to strip it down, working backwards and re-boarding the sequence again with room to select my own angles and to justify alterations or unaltered frames, in the hopes if understanding why some of these shot decisions were made.
After scrutinising the sequence I began to whittle it back to its essential 'beats' of the story. All boards start off with these, and the purpose of a beat is to capture key moments in the story that act as milestones for the storyboard to reference. In my sketches below, I had interpreted the beats into six moments, and ignored composition and framing with them as it wasn't relevant at this time.
After scrutinising the sequence I began to whittle it back to its essential 'beats' of the story. All boards start off with these, and the purpose of a beat is to capture key moments in the story that act as milestones for the storyboard to reference. In my sketches below, I had interpreted the beats into six moments, and ignored composition and framing with them as it wasn't relevant at this time.
Beat 1.
The Bucket O' Soldiers are issued a direct order. Beat 2.
They exit room and push onward with their means of communication; a toy 'walkie-talkie'.
Paratroopers issue the order to jump, and their soldiers are deployed via chutes.
Soldiers arrive in the main hall, more follow suit via rope as the team progress.
Soldier's presence are compromised and are forced to assume their 'Toy' stance to avoid blowing their cover.
The Mother appears from doorway, and accidently steps on the toys, and sweeps them aside in frustration.
Here I felt that a quick low angle shot could be edited in, revealing the impact her foot has on the toys from -their- perspective, though perhaps this would disrupt the flow of pace.
The last frame, with or without the edit, reveal the mum's dismissal of the toys to the side, arriving at our final beat in the story.
They exit room and push onward with their means of communication; a toy 'walkie-talkie'.Beat 3.
Paratroopers issue the order to jump, and their soldiers are deployed via chutes.
Soldiers arrive in the main hall, more follow suit via rope as the team progress.Beat 5.
Soldier's presence are compromised and are forced to assume their 'Toy' stance to avoid blowing their cover.Beat 6.
The Mother appears from doorway, and accidently steps on the toys, and sweeps them aside in frustration.
With these beats in mind it then became a matter of working out how the scene would unfold revolving around each of these 'moments', similar to an inbetweener animating in and around Key frames. These illustrations are crude sketches at best, but they do what they are supposed to; telling the story. I will admit that my ruler seemed to have gone missing with these!
Page 1.
One of my first changes is the framing of the soldiers being issued their order. The film uses a wide-shot, most likely to remind us of the fact these are only toys within a bucket in a bedroom environment, however I chose to push the 'drama' of this sequence a little further by framing this with a Low Angle shot, comprising of the soldiers all looking to the dominant distant commander as he gives out the order.
In the second frame, my alterations in comparison to the film were minimal. I had in mind a medium-close up of the commander, so we can register the intent and seriousness of his face (possibly to comical effect) and then the camera would pull back sharply, following the geography of his pointing arm.
The third frame is then a no-brainer. Geographically speaking, this sequence then demands, with the pointing of the commander, that the action pushes from right to left. A high angle shot of the soldiers exiting the bucket in that manner achieves this.
Continuing the geography of the scene, I cut to a wide angle high shot, illustrating the reality that these are tiny toys running across a landing- adding some humour in stark contrast to the previous scene's 'dramatic' framing- and also having them continue to push from right to left.
Frame two took a little more working out as it had to achieve several things. Firstly it needed to establish where the soldiers were going- and where they came from in the same frame. I attempted to achieve this by framing the bedroom doorway at the top left (the first thing your eye reads) whilst revealing via a visual cue that something is being moved out of it, yet to be revealed. The progression of the soldiers also reminds us that we are still following the same characters, just from a different angle. Lastly, the camera pans across from left to right, organically, revealing the nearest soldier who peeks around towards us- creating the sense of the action being driven forward.
The third frame cuts to what may have caught our eye in the previous frame. Using a low angle upward shot, we create a false sense of weight and size to an otherwise small object in the real world. This pulls us back into the 'drama' perspective of these toys. The film uses an almost identical frame, however theirs is reversed. My reason for switching it the other way is due to how the geography of my previous frame dictated how we should read the overall moment, without disrupting the pace.
Thumbnails.
Beneath are the original thumbnails planning how this sequence would unfold. I purposefully wanted to create am obscure Zig-Zag effect with the way our eye would read the action. Starting from Right-left (top frame) to Left-Right (bottom frame).
Page 3.
The top frame is merely a continuation of the previous, but this time using a top shot. The direction of the characters and object remains unchanged.
The second frame then places our perspective the other way around- we are no longer looking towards the bedroom watching this event unfold, now we are facing what they are aiming for. The paratroopers issue their order for a jump, and both men are framed on the extreme sides of the frame to create a looming 'gap' that entices us to almost jump forward ourselves.
In the film sequence, it does just that. The camera drops down and follows the paratrooper's progression, mimicking the sense of a true military drop. I don't see any flaw in this at all, however I wanted to see if I could add an alternative. I came up with something with a subtle difference. My framing is deliberately canted, skewing the perspective lines so as to create a false sense of vertigo. You almost create the illusion the camera isn't fixed and is free-falling too, barely able to frame what is happening.
Initially I had planned for the camera to drop down with them, with this canted framing-not dissimilar to the film's final version-, however I chose not to follow through as I would later apply the same technique and wished to avoid repetition.
Top frame continued from last, showing the chutes opening.
Second frame follows the language of film organically, cutting from canted top-shot, to low angle shot, showing the descent of the paratroopers. This also suggests they are nearing to the ground.
The top and middle frames are joined by a single camera action. As the soldier stands guard, allowing a moment's respite from the energetic sequence, the camera swings round to the left via an arc, creating space in the top left for the skipping rope to appear.
Because our eye is drawn to the top left of the frame, the cut to the next scene that naturally leads from top left to bottom right becomes much easier to read.
I am personally a huge fan of certain camera movements that can tell several things at once. Framing the nearest soldier to read his expression, showing the distant soldier reeling in his chute, and then swinging to reveal the next 'plot device'.
The top frame switches to a canted top shot again, to create vertigo. However to further push this where the film opted not to, I chose to illustrate the camera following the progress of the soldier as he slides on the rope, hurtling towards the ground.
Finally, a medium close up of all the gathered soldiers ends the current sequence flow, adding a fitting pause in the moment.
Here the soldiers progress on, the top frame shows them in their walking positions. Again, their direction from right-left means that your eye reads each soldier more clearly as they walk past your natural flow of reading.
A cut to a medium close up of the commander reacting to an off-screen sound, raising his hand. Again, his position faces right-left, continuing the sequence flow.
The third frame then arrives at another beat in the story, showing the soldiers assume their 'toy' stance.
Here the appearance of Andy's mum is played out in almost precisely the same fashion as the film sequence. I personally couldn't find a better way to visually show the change of perspective from the soldiers to the reality of the moment. I just love how this high angle shot illustrates perfectly the change in tone, revealing that after all- they are just toys, and they are in her way.
Here I felt that a quick low angle shot could be edited in, revealing the impact her foot has on the toys from -their- perspective, though perhaps this would disrupt the flow of pace.
The last frame, with or without the edit, reveal the mum's dismissal of the toys to the side, arriving at our final beat in the story.
When compared to the film's counterpart, many of my alternative suggestions enhance and enforce some aspects of sequencing, however this isn't to dilute or devalue the incredible job the original film does in telling the story. In some cases I was unable to come up with any alternatives, proving that Pixar's storytelling techniques are more often than not water tight.
This case study has offered an insight as to how their design process in storyboard art may have developed in thought process, and has forced me to ignore existing iconography and learn how to see something familiar in a different light.
