Storyboard Template

Name: Breanna Azevedo Title of Piece: Title Sequence for ‘Baby Driver’ The film, ‘Baby Driver’, directed by Edgar Wright, follows a young getaway driver named Baby who desperately seeks to escape a life of crime he has accidentally fallen into. As a young child, he was involved in a car crash which killed both his parents, and leaving him with tinnitus. To drown out the constant irritable noise in his years, Baby consistently listens to music that directly correlates with his every movement and action driving the entire progression of the story. ‘Baby Driver’ is an exciting, pulse pounding and action packed film, driven by music. We never stop tapping our feet, as Edgar Wright perfectly incorporates different genres of music using a variety of tempos and rhythm that sync with the film, leaving the audience feeling compelled and satisfied. I want my title sequence to encompass what Edgar Wright perfectly manages to create with his choice of music. It will focus on two major components—the car and a musical instrument (guitar). My goal is to give the audience a taste of what they should expect in this film, leaving them excited and curious to see the movie. I want to portray the themes of the power of music and the need for an escape, and I wish to familiarize the audience with Baby’s character allowing them to view the world through the beat of the music, just like Baby does. Finally, I want my motion graphic to be energetic, vibrant and exciting—moods depicted throughout the film. As for the choice of audio, I would like to incorporate such sound effects as a car skidding, the humming of a car as it travels rapidly down the road, and the clashing of an electric guitar. I would also like the music to have a powerful impact by including copyright free songs that are action driven and catchy, summarizing the atmosphere of the film. When it comes to typography, the font should be bold, and easy to read. It should mirror the movie’s uniqueness and style;; as a result, I’ve chosen to use the ‘Neue Helvetica 93 Black Extended’ font, designed by Max Miedinger. Along with this, there will be some negative and extreme leading with the lines, and small spaces between the letters (kerning), to create both a sense of pressure and urgency, while still capturing a sense of freeness. In order for my storyboard to capture the above elements, I looked towards two specific artists, Olivier Kuntzel, Florence Deygas, and a specific art movement prominent in the 50’s and 60’s, known as ‘The Pop Art Movement’ for inspiration. I was inspired by Kuntzel and Deygas’ unique visions of storytelling, and the imaginary worlds created in their short title

sequences. They accomplished this by using vibrant and contrasting colours, and their quick use of horizontal and vertical transformations to move the story along, aspects which greatly stood out for me. This can easily be seen in three of their title sequence works, namely ‘Catch Me if You Can’, ‘Le Petit Nicolas’, and ‘The Pink Panther’ alternate title sequence (2003). Many of the details in these title sequences, from the top view chase scene in ‘Catch Me if You Can’, to the use of bold colours and animated style in ‘Let Petit Nicolas’ and ‘The Pink Panther’, reveal a story that is captivating, unified, cohesive, contrasting, and flowing in a natural manner that is visually satisfying to the viewer’s eye. I also looked at ‘The Pop Art Movement’, especially the works of Roy Lichtenstein. This movement was compromised of positive, bold and joyful art, and it was meant to provide hope after WW2. His work spoke to the vision I had in mind. He was well known for taking images of mass culture, specifically comics. Lichtenstein commonly used comic strips in his art pieces, emphasising bright colours, benday dots (printing process), and bold black drawings and frames. His work created a surprising tone to it, incorporating fine art with comic strips. Roy later changed his focus to other art styles, such as surrealism, but it was his comic strip art work that influenced the way I designed my title sequence. These artists mainly used primary colours, and their works were bold, vibrant, full of impact, and had a “modern hip feel to it”. They looked for inspiration in society, using everyday items to create art work. All three of these artists, from different time periods, equally inspired my final storyboard, and how I planned to bring it to life. As for my aesthetic approach, I’ve always challenged myself to use different colours to evoke emotions and experiences. For instance, when I created my poster cover, I used colours, shapes, and everything available to me through the Adobe Photoshop program, to create an art piece that would express the emotion of fear and terror. My art work is also created around various themes, messages, and ideas that I try to bring to life through colours, patterns, and contrasts, hoping that all these will compliment each other in the final product. I see each piece of art work I create as a learning and growing tool. This outlook fits perfectly in my title sequence for ‘Baby Driver’, as I experiment with more colours, and shapes, to express emotions and bring the story to life. This is important as ‘Baby Driver’ relies heavily on visual style, especially through the rhythm of the music. As a result, I have the opportunity to challenge myself even further in my art work, hopefully creating an energetic mood, making the audience feel inspired to watch the film. This will be yet another growing experience, where I get to learn more about what I am capable of creating.

Inspirational Works of Roy Lichtenstein (from Pop Art movement):

“Drowning Girl” by Roy Lichtenstein (1963) “Whaam!” by Lichtenstein (1963)

“Brushstrokes” by Lichtenstein (1965)

Inspirational Works of Olivier Kuntzel and Florence Deygas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-­WM2euWp3w -­ ‘Le Petit Nicolas’ title sequence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nv2S_S9MlU -­ ‘Catch Me If You Can’ title sequence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfrNuSTmS6Y -­ ‘The Pink Panther’ alternate title sequence (2003)

The Beginning: Storyboard 1

The start of my title sequence begins with a close up still image of the car’s tire, and the sound of the car’s engine revving up in the background. It originally arrives on the screen from the left side, by a stop motion sequence of photos, as if the car has just driven up onto the screen. As we hear the engine revving up, we see the car tire turning rapidly, creating smoke. As the car takes off, disappearing off the right side of the screen, the smoke fills up the screen. This will also be created using stop motion, from various images taken, and then joined together. The car will then come speeding out of the smoke, almost as if towards the screen. At that very moment, there will be some form of action packed, catchy music playing in the background, making it seem as if it’s being blasted from the car radio. This again will be done through stop motion animation. At that same time, we will also hear the sound of the car engine roaring. I will produce the look of the car, and the different characteristics of the scenes through Adobe Illustrator, and possibly some Photoshop. After joining everything together in after effects, I will use ‘transform’, and drag the blue playhead to specific marks where I want the

animation to start, and press the stopwatch icon to place the transformations and effects in action. This will be done for each image incorporated into after effects, to create the flow of my title sequence. The Middle: Storyboard 2

From the last scene involving the car speeding towards the screen, there will be a change in perspective for the audience. They will now be looking at the top view of the car, directly from above. This scene will arrive on the screen through a

form of rotation, in which the audience then follows the car as it speeds vertically on a colourful road. At this point, it is difficult to distinguish the road. The same music blasting from the car radio will continue to play throughout this scene. All this will be done using stop motion animation, where we bring all the photos together on after effects. The End: Storyboard 3

From the last scene, the vertical view we were watching of the car on the colourful road, then zooms out and rotates to a horizontal view, revealing a satisfying ending that compliments what the film is about. To end the title sequence, we see

that the colourful road is the fretboard and neck of an electric guitar, with a vibrant red tone on it. I selected these colours specifically as they tend to pop off the screen, almost looking electrifying. We then watch as the car continues to drive up the guitar’s fretboard and neck, with the main title of the film, ‘Baby Driver’ appearing as the car continues to drive. The main title will be created in the ‘Neue Helvetica 93 Black Extended Font’, and will appear in bright contrasting yellow lettering. The action packed, catchy music will continue to play until the car drives out of site, with the sound of the engine heard once more at the end. Overall, I want the whole title sequence up until the end, to have an electrifying, colourful setting, and the action packed, catchy music to feed off each other. I also want the ending to be loud, and captivating, so that the title sequence ends with a bang, leaving the audience wanting more. The concluding scene, and everything in it (colour, audio, typography, etc.) will hopefully leave the audience feeling excited, and prepared for what is to come in the film. This again, will all be created through the process of stop motion animation, as everything is joined together to create realistic movement through after effects.

References Lino type. 2013. Web. 4 Nov. 2017.

<https://www.linotype.com/6982/oscar-awarded-movie-fonts-2013.html> Bishop, Bryan. “Baby Drive is the ultimate expression of Edgar Wright’s madcap creative genius.” The Verge 1. (2017): Web

<https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/13/14905498/baby-driver-review-edgar-wright-sxsw-2017> “Olivier Kuntzel.” Art of the Title. Web

<http://www.artofthetitle.com/designer/olivier-kuntzel/> Kuntzel, Olivier, and Florence Deygas. Le Petit Nicolas. 2009. Web. 4 Nov. 2017.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-WM2euWp3w> Kuntzel, Olivier, and Florence Deygas. Catch Me If You Can. 2002. Web. 4 Nov. 2017.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nv2S_S9MlU> Kuntzel, Olivier, and Florence Deygas. The Pink Panther. 2003. Web. 4 Nov. 2017.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfrNuSTmS6Y> “Florence Deygas.” Art of the Title. Web

<http://www.artofthetitle.com/designer/florence-deygas/> Pop Art. Artyfactory, Web. 4 Nov. 2017.

<https://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/pop_art.htm> “Pop Art.” MoMA Learning. Moma. Web. 4 Nov 2017.

<https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/pop-art>

Pop-­‐‑Art Movement. A-­‐‑Z of Art Movements. Web. 4 Nov. 2017. <http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/pop-art.htm#definition>