I. SYNOPSIS

An Information Professional man named Jerry works on a Data Ceter and studies Masteral at the same time. It appears that everyday seems to be light and easy. An untimely disaster struck the Data Center and his Disaster Recovery Plan did not work. He was fired and somehow got him to confusion. To clear up his mind, he went to Ilocos and had a vacation without knowing that his professor will be there to. He relaxed his mind and there he strategized on how to fish for new career. He made an interactive portfolio using graphics software, animation, content management system and social networking site. He got a new job and his continues to live his cheerful life.

II. SEQUENCE TREATMENT / SCRIPT

Scene 1

This starts with Jerry working on the Disaster Recovery Plan taking his job light and easy by showing that he enjoys drinking coffee waiting for 3:00 PM to log out of the Data Center and go to school. His professor named Sir JX gave him a project. After school, as usual he’ll go home and it’s another day.

Scene 2

Jerry taught that it’s another simple day in the Data Center. But then disaster struck the Data Center and how ironic his Disaster Recovery Plan did not work which resulted to his termination. He sank into confusion knowing the fact that he is unemployed.

Scene 3

He decided to go for a vacation in Ilocos and drink and do landscape photography as indicated with so much emphasis on photoshoot of places like Welcome to Vigan arch, Vigan Church and the Hotel.

Scene 4

This showed that at the same time he was having a vacation, his professor also went to the same place. Their crossroads meet every time Jerry will take a photo of a place – bad luck will happen to his professor such as the café signage that fell to the professor’s Chevrolet car and tsunami in the beach that brushed away the boat that Sir JX is riding.

Scene 5
Jerry went back to the hotel and drink. He taught of making an interactive portfolio to have a new job. He used Adobe Illustrator, Flash, Premiere, WordPress and Linkedin. He sent his email and was invited for an interview and was hired immediately.

Scene 6
Jerry started a new work and continues his study. It seems that his problem is solved but the he forgot to work on his project. This also showed Sir JX wearing bandages and looks like a mummified figure.

Scene 7 – Closing Remarks
This acknowledges the team who helped the director. At the end, Jerry was showed drinking and cheerful.

III. ORIGIN OF CONCEPT / STORY

• Between is one of the director’s favorite music. She paired it with her recent untimely end-of-contract from Safeway Philtech which put her into the crossroad between careers in Information Technology and Multimedia. Instead of spoiling this experience that keep her haunting from time-to-time since she got no fulltime work as of the time of this writing, she decided to make this as an inspiration to make her first animation.
•  This story is also a compilation of real-life experiences that recalls the unfortunate experiences of the director’s former IT mentors who are highly technical and skilled but their careers were ruined due to either failed deployment or corporate political issues. Their careers are like gleaming towers crumbling before the director’s eyes and were restored after sometime.
• This is much of recycling of a dark personal experience into a funny animated comic cartoon. It also aims to capture the 90s style of hand drawn flat cartoon style (like Beavis & Butthead) plus Edward Gorey or grunge texture.

IV. VISUAL DESIGN

By subscribing to Nelson’s Goodman medium theory of “When is Art?” the design adapts the “old school style” wherein the objects are represented as penned and scratchy instead of following with today’s trend of vectorized and iconographic style. Among the art influences for the illustration style are Albercth Durer, Goya, Otto Dix, Tales from the Crypt, Edward Gorey, Tim Burton, Beavis and Butthead, The Simpsons and Hey Arnold.

For the color scheme, this adapts the flat and poster-like Pop Art of Roy Lichenstein and Andy Warhol.

V. PREPRODUCTION

A. SONG SELECTION

“Between”
Jerry Cantrell, 1998

Goin’ to California, try and find my head
Gonna swim in the ocean until I’m dead
Let the infection spread

On my way to Texas, drive upon my ranch
Gonna take you fishin’ up Big Branch
Well, now you’re my catch

Somewhere in between the wrong and right
We fight
It’s fair to say that in your eyes I’m wrong,
And in my mind that’s alright

Somewhere in between the wrong and right
We fight
It’s fair to say that in your eyes I’m wrong,
And in my mind that’s alright

Off in New York City, good to see some friends
Scratched my nose upon a barette on her head
Laid up in a rental bed

Then back home to Seattle, fed the monkey man
I proceed to throw up all over my hand
Well, it ain’t so bad

Somewhere in between the wrong and right
We fight
It’s fair to say that in your eyes I’m wrong,
And in my mind…

Somewhere in between the wrong and right
We fight
It’s fair to say that in your eyes I’m wrong,
And in my mind that’s alright
That’s alright
That’s alright
That’s alright

B. STORYBOARD

Freehand drawing is used to create the storyboard. Drawing papers and pencil with softness of 3B, 4B, 5B and 6B were used. Each second was computed per stanza and an action was assigned for each second. The original length of the storyboard was shortened because much on the time was consumed by the number of frames that an object needs to move. For example, a pickup may take more or less 2.5 seconds instead of 1 second only.

C. COLOR SCRIPTS

The dominant color is based on the color scheme of Mapua which is red, gold and black while the accessories are poster colors resembling Pop Art.
Assigned Name Adobe Illustrator – Prints Adobe Flash – Video

Assigned Name	Adobe Illustrator – Prints	Adobe Flash – Video
Black	C = 0 M = 0 Y = 0 K = 100	R = 0 G = 0 B = 0
Red	C = 0 M = 100  Y = 100  K = 10	R = 215 G = 25 B = 32
Yellow Gold	C = 0 M = 35 Y = 87 K = 0	R = 251 G = 175 B = 63
Orange	C = 0 M = 100  Y = 100  K = 0	R = 240  G = 90 B = 40
Red Orange	C = 0 M = 90 Y = 85 K = 0	R = 239 G = 64 B = 54
Blue	C = 100 M = 59 Y = 0 K = 0	R = G = 103 B = 179
Dark Blue	C = 100 M = 86  Y = 34 K = 24	R = 26 G = 53 B = 98
Beige	C = 29 M = 46 Y = 20 K = 0	R = 207 G = 158 B = 118
Pink	C = 18 M = 51 Y = 39 K = 0	R = 205 G = 139 B = 136
White	C = 0 M = 0 Y = 0 K = 0	R = 255 G = 255 B = 255

D. CHARACTER DESIGN

A. Jerry
Jerry is the main character of the story. He works as an IT professional. The design is based on the producer’s imaginary character when she was a child. He possess the attributes of a typical guy from the 90s Grunge era. Tall, thin, long hair, goaty and wearing jeans and sneakers. He is named Jerry after Jerry Cantrell.

B. Sir JX
Sir JX is based on JX Chavez features – thin and wearing large eye glasses. He represents a stereotyped professor wearing a suspender, longleeves and pants. His attire change when he went to Ilocos unlike Jerry who retained a single attire all throughout the video.

E. SETS

• Data Center Site I
• Data Center Inside
• Data Center Site II Manila Cityhall
• Mapua University, Intramuros, Manila Classroom
• Condominium Vigan Arch
• Vigan Church Calle Crisologo
• Hotel Bar in the Hotel
• Beach

Ilocos specifically Vigan is the director’s favorite place for out-of-town. She loves to drink Bignay wine and eat Empanda and Bagnet and can be seen in the Bar scene.

F. SHOTS
Linear – all scenes except below are linear wherein the direction progresses to the right side.
One-way Perspective – the only scene that object moves towards the viewer by using one-way perspective and increasing the size of the object as it moves closer.

G. LIGHTING

• Blue is used as background color to indicate daylight.
• Yellow is used as background color to indicate hot afternoon.
• Red – is used as background color to indicate interiors of Data Center and Classroom.
• Dark Blue is used as background to indicate night sky and bar interior

H. ANIMATION

1. Each object was sketched in drawing paper.
2. Drawings of moving objects like human were dissected.
3. Tracing paper and Unipin were used to finalize the drawings.
4. Drawings were scanned and cleaned in Photoshop Magic Eraser.
5. Scanned drawings were vectorized using Adobe Illustrator Image Trace.
6. Grunge typographies were also self-made months ago using Adobe Illustrator.
7. Vector objects were imported to Adobe Flash as symbols.
8. Objects were animated using Motion Tween.
9. Raw file is saved as .MOV.

VI. POSTPRODUCTION / RENDERING

1. MOV files were compiled and rendered in Adobe Premiere.
2. Premiere project was saved as MP4.
3. Video was uploaded to Youtube.