Scene 2 Script

This is the script I have written up for scene 2 of our animation.

We have decided to put the actual rising itself into one scene now rather than two separate scenes. Therefore, we will now have three scenes in total.

Below is the script for scene 2.

The first shots of the Rising came from the Volunteers of Laois, who destroyed a section of railway track at a place called Colt Wood on the night of April 23rd – the day before the Rising began in Dublin. A monument to the event was erected which bears three plaques: a copy of the proclamation; a picture of a derailed train; and a dedication which names the Volunteers.

From 11:30 AM onwards on April 24th, the rebels began to occupy various buildings across Dublin such as the Four Courts, Stephens Green and the GPO.

           

The rebels were responsible for the world’s first radio broadcast. On Easter Monday, seven men were sent from the GPO across O’Connell Street to occupy the Dublin Wireless School of Telegraphy. By Tuesday morning, however, the rebels managed to get a damaged transmitter working, and they began to send out messages in morse code.

On the 25th of April at around 5:30 PM, the British began to fire at the rebels at St. Stephen’s Green forcing them to retreat to the College of Surgeons. However, an interesting point to note is that gunfire was paused for the ducks to be fed at St. Stephen’s Green.

From April 26th to the 27th: British reinforcements continue to attack rebels at various locations. James Connolly is wounded and treated in the GPO by a captured British doctor.

Burnt-out cars, trams, dead horses and human corpses little Dublin’s streets while constant artillery barrage continues on Sackville Street.

On April 30th Rebel headquarters sends out a white flag and Pádraig Pearse signs an unconditional surrender. Rebels are captured near the GPO and the Four Courts and are marched to Inchicore, jeered by Dubliners along the way.

By the end of the rising over 1,350 people lie dead or wounded whilst a total of 3,430 men and 79 women were arrested by the British.

From May the 3rd to the 12^th there were 16 executions as a result of the Easter Rising. They were mostly carried out under the orders of General Maxwell who had assumed his authority to do so under his own declaration of Martial Law. The executions were the main reason for the turn about in public opinion. Initially the majority of people felt that the Rebels had stabbed England in the back during her time of need but soon after the deaths of the 16, people changed their minds. The first 15 were shot but Roger Casement was not given a soldier’s death and was hanged instead.

Work to date on the animation

Progress on the animation:


Countdown Timer
This first link is a countdown timer, like the old fashion 5,4,3,2,1 that used to appear before films and shows. To create this I researched aftereffects tutorials that covered how to create this type of animation. In it I learned about :

• Tone effect, how you can create tones by editing the frequency settings and how to hear them of time. 
• Grain effect, how to use this to add a grainy effect over the composition.
• 4-colour gradient, this effect is something I have used in both this composition and the main timeline composition, I very useful effect to give different quadrant s of the composition different colors.
• The radial wipe effect. This was used to give the appearance of the colour wiping around the center point to give the main effect of the composition.

https://youtu.be/ynNyQtXuIls



Title Sequence
In the main file, the countdowns sequence is followed by a title sequence, I created this by using a text layer, with a mask around it, that reveals the hidden text over time, this same method was used for the revealing text on the markers for each of the composition frames attached to the timeline.

Link for the title sequence : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp4lORAr9Wg

To create the title sequence and the background the following effects and steps were used :

• A turbulent noise effect was used and modified to give us the cloudy/smoky feature, then I used a 4-colour gradient over this to given different regions different colour, over this then I added a vignette to further refine the background. 
• The turbulent noise effect was also given an evolution keyframe over the duration of the animation to give it the appearance of moving and evolving.
• I also added an adjustment layer to further tone done the background colour and give a bit more atmosphere to the piece.

Timeline
The next section is at this YouTube link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKNV2x-Svo4

I researched a few different tutorials to aid me in developing the timeline at the above link. Once I had made out the core body of it, I began exploring what we could do with it. The main effects and learning's here where :

• how to write expressions to multiply out the timeline marks.
• how to arrange my layers, compositions and supporting files in aftereffects so that they are organize and easy to use. 
• how to attach, position and orientate other assets in relation to the main timeline
• how to use a null object to control the camera, a very useful process which is used by many professionals.

As I started to learn and use the effects and steps written about above I implemented them to the main timeline. Also I took the images from Colm and fitted them to the frames in the timeline. I also added larger markers with  text that becomes revealed over time. I rewrote the points in scene 1 to give it a bit more context also.

YouTube links  :

• Timeline v2 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivy9aF7LrDw
•  Scene 1 v2 :

Scene 1 script

Below is the script/points I used for the markers and intro frame of the animation.

Intro Frame text - image to be sourced

• Irish Rebellions against English domination has had a long history prior to the rising in 1916. Since the Norman conquest of Ireland in 1169, and the subsequent 'Lordships' of the island, through to English domination under Elizabeth the first, the act of union in 1801, the imposition of penal laws, and the disastrous economic management of Ireland during ' The Great Famine'. Irish rebels regularly challenged the authority of the English Crown and the British Parliament. There were significant, but failed, uprisings in ; 1642-52 in the Irish Confederate Wars, 1689-91 the Williamite Wars, 1798 Irish rebellion, 1799-1803 Micheal Dwyers Guerrilla campaign, 1803 Irish rebellion of 1803, 1848 Young Irelandier rebellion, 1867 Fenian Rising, 1882-83 The invincible s assassinations. For this documentary we will focus on the Easter Rising of 1916.....

1st Frame - 1800

• In 1800, the Act of union bill was passed in the houses of Parliament in England. This Act, in effect removed the Irish Parliament. From this point on Ireland was united within Great Britain. During the course of the next 100 years, Irish nationals tried and failed on separate occasions to get a home rule passed. In 1914, the arguing parties finally had a agreement and a home rule was passed.

2nd Frame - 1913

• In order to concentrate on the war effort of WW1, the English government decided to postpone the Third home rule bill intil after the war, and this left the nationalists and unionists wondering what action would be best ont heir part. Both decided that if tthey fought alongside the british in the war, they would have a bargining tool for use after the war. 

3rd Frame - 1914

• In september 1914 the Supreme council of the IRB met. they decided to stage a rising before the war ended. Joesph plunkett travelled to GErmany to try and recruit an 'Irish Brigade' from among the Irish prisoners of war. James Connolly threatened to start a rebellion on his own if other parties failed to act. January 1916: Connolly is made the sixth member of the Military Committee. Thomas MacDonagh later becomes the seventh.

End Scene 1

Script: First Draft.

Here is the first draft of the script for our animation.

PART I

The Acts of Union in 1800 united Great Britain and Ireland. This removed the Irish Parliament.

The third home rule act was accepted, however it was postponed due to the outbreak of ww1

November 25 1913: The Irish Republican Brotherhood formed the Irish Volunteers, with Eoin MacNeill as leader.

5 September 1914: The Supreme Council of the IRB met. They decided to stage a rising before the war ended.

April 1915: Joseph Plunkett travelled to Germany to try and recruit an "Irish Brigade" from among Irish prisoners of war.

James Connolly threatened to start a rebellion on his own if other parties failed to act.

January 1916: Connolly is made Connolly the sixth member of the Military Committee. Thomas MacDonagh later becomes the seventh.

PART II

The first shot of the rebellion was actually fired in Laois during an act of sabotage.

24th April 11.30 - 12.30: Rebels occupy buildings around the city, including Jacob’s factory, the Four Courts, and the GPO. The Proclamation is read.

The rebels were responsible for the world’s first ever radio broadcast.

A Swede and a Finn fought with the Irish in the GPO. They were crewmen on a foreign ship and felt solidarity with the Irish.

25th April 05.30: British troops enter the Shelbourne Hotel and machine-gun nearby rebels at Stephen’s Green, who fall back to the Royal College of Surgeons.

20.00: A British gunboat sails into Grand Canal Dock and fires at Boland’s Mills and Bakery.

PART III

26th April 06.20: British reinforcements arrive at Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire)

A ceasefire was called between the two sides in St. Stephan’s Green in order to feed the ducks.

09.00: A British gunboat, the Helga, shells rebels at Liberty Hall. It is later captured by the British.

28th April 18.15: Part of the GPO roof collapses. Rebels later evacuate and set up headquarters on Moore Street.

29th April 12.00: Rebel HQ in Moore Street sends out a white flag to the British barricade.

14.30: Padraig Pearse signs unconditional surrender to British Brigadier General Lowe.

May 3rd-12th, 1916 

Fifteen of the Rising’s leaders are executed at Kilmainham Gaol. Public opinion begins to soften towards the rebels.

PART IV

21st January 1919

War of independence begins

Irish Volunteers ambush two RIC constables in Soloheadbeg, initiating the War of Independence.

9th July 1921

TRUCE CALLED BETWEEN IRA AND CROWN FORCES.

A Truce ends the conflict, after 2 long years of fighting. The casualties are great in number.

6th December 1921

ANGLO-IRISH TREATY SIGNED

After two months of negotiations, the Anglo-Irish treaty is signed, making Ireland a free state.

14th April 1922

THE FOUR COURTS SEIZED BY REPUBLICANS

200 anti-Treaty republicans take the Four Courts and a small number of other buildings. The occupation lasts two months.

28th June 1922

FREE STATE ARMY ATTACKS THE FOUR COURTS

The Free State Army bombards the Four Courts, marking the beginning of the Irish Civil War.

24th May 1923

REPUBLICAN MILITARY CAMPAIGN ENDS

Frank Aiken orders to cease-fire and dump-arms, ending the Civil War. An estimated 1,000-4,000 lives were lost in the conflict.

Production plan for our project

Below is the production plan that we are working inline with to ensure we finish our project to the deadline.

Treatment so far...

I have chosen the role of writing up the treatment for the project. This will most likely not be the final piece, as I have not done one before, so I'm not fully aware as to how it's to be laid out.

   Treatment Document

What you want to make:

During our second meeting after learning about the project, we came up with the idea to make a fact based animation about the 1916 rising. This animation would be a constantly moving timeline that brought up a significant fact whenever the cursor moved over the time at which the fact occurred. The documentary would also contain a voiceover, reading out the information for every informative point that came up.

How do you want to make it:

At first, we will draw up a storyboard and animatic, based on the information that we’ve researched of the 1916 rising. We will then create a plan for the coming weeks which includes who’s doing what within the group. We want to use as many programs that we have training in that would be appropriate for this project. We plan on making a 2.5D animation effect on the photos using After Effects which we will then bring the finished products together in Premier. Each of these animations will be used for each significant fact that we have on the rising. We will be hiring a voice actor to narrate the documentary alongside these animations. We will write a script that describes each fact in a suitable amount of detail, which will then be given to the narrator. The narration will be done in a quiet area using various sound equipment. Ambient sounds and music will either be sourced or created. Once we have everything recorded and finalised, One person will piece them together an sync up the audio.

Why:

We felt that because the 1916 rising is a significant happening in our history, we should make something that would appeal to people of all ages. The fact that there was no worthy film footage of the rising was a problem, as still images would tend to lose the interest of people, so we decided to work on 2.5D animation to bring the pictures to life. We decided on the ‘timeline with facts’ idea as rather than having just paragraphs of information, we would give the audience some unusual points about the rising that they most likely have never heard of before. We also wanted to use a narrator as it would take away the hassle of having to read while also trying to focus on the animations. The ambient sounds and music would be used to create an atmosphere that would keep the audiences interest throughout the documentary.

Team meeting minutes

During the course of the last week we have a couple of meetings. There we discussed how we are going to proceed for this week and up to the presentation. We also discussed and decided on the roles we are going to take as we move into production.


Tony is going to be the Sound Technician for the project. This involves sourcing all audio for the animation, initially this would comprise of :

• All ambient sounds
• Location sounds
• Voice over
• Effects
• Score

This list is not exhaustive, and there may be other sounds that may need to be added as the project progresses.Also for the presentation, Tony will also be doing the 'storyboard' for the presentation, using the images and points from the teams research so far. Tony will be using Reaper & Pro-Tools  for the project.


Evan is going to be the Master Editor for the Animation. He will be using Premier software."This will involve studying different video editing styles used in similar documentaries, deciding what video editing software to use and becoming familiar with the formalities of that software, and more."
Some of the key things Evan will be looking at are:

• Transistions
• Title
• Credits
• Effects 
• Master Editing
• Final Edit

Evan will also be handling the mood-board for the presentation. This will also take in the media artifacts for the animation. We will use these as a guide for the rest of the animation.


Colm is going to be one of the Animators and Art director for the animation. This involves using the gathered assets, creating assets and bringing them to life as an animation. The software he will use will be a combination of Photoshop & After effects. Items to be covered by Colm:

• Using collected assets to produce an animation
• Creating Assets
• Modifying assets
• Composing the Animation
• Art Direction

Colm will also be doing the treatment for the presentation. Both putting it together and presenting it.

Darren is going to be the other Animator and Art director for the animation. This role is basically putting the animation together and we decided it was at least a 2 person job.

This involves using the gathered assets, creating assets and bringing them to life as an animation. The software he will use will be a combination of Photoshop & After effects. Items to be covered by Darren:

• Using collected assets to produce an animation
• Creating Assets
• Modifying assets
• Composing the Animation
• Art Direction

Darren will also be doing the production plan for the presentation. Both producing and it and presenting it.

We will all collectively put the presentation together and present The team and Sales Pitch to Maria, before we each present our individual parts of the presentation.