Research - Mary and Max by Adam Elliot

Mary and max is a brilliant film directed and written by Adam Elliot.
This film has had a lot of influence on me during this project in both the aesthetic style and subject matter. Although this film is made in 3d model stop motion and i have always wanted to make my film in 2d hand drawn, it has still influenced me aesthetically by its use of colour and character design. i loved its use of black and white to show New York and a large amount of brown shades to signify Australia, all contrasted by occasional uses of bright and vibrant colour, such as the bobble on Max's hat that Mary gives to him. i wanted to incorporate this use of colour into my film.
The character designs of Mary and Max also interested me, they have quite strange and dramatically structured faces, with strange head shapes, caved in eyes and deep wrinkles. however these are incorporated without making the characters seem inhuman. i wanted the character for the film to have aspects of this such as there depressed eyes and deep wrinkles.
Mary and Max also showed me that you can have very strong and seemingly depressing subjects in animation but still keep it funny and keep the tone of the film happy, without using loads of jokes and puns.

animatic timing and notes

these are the timings for the animatic


First Sequence = 40 seconds
in the first run all clock faces are 1 second

1. waking up= 2s
2. slippers = 2s
3. shower= 2s
4. toast= 2s
5. driving out= 3s
6. at work= 3s
7. toilet= 1s
8. leave work= 3s
9. driving in= 2s
10. microwave= 1s
11. watching TV= 2s
12. walking to bed= 2s
13. fall asleep= 2s

Second Sequence = 14 seconds
these timings have been worked out using ratios from the timings from the first sequence and the full times for the second third and fourth sequences in the draft animatic. This means all the scenes will be in ratio to the orginal sequence as they get faster

from now on all shots involve both the clock face and scene

1. waking up= 1.05s
2. slippers = 1.05s
3. shower= 1.05s
4. toast= 1.05s

5. driving out= 1.4s

6. at work= 1.4s

7. toilet= 0.7s

8. leave work= 1.4s

9. driving in= 1.05s

10. microwave= 0.7s
11. watching TV= 1.05s
12. walking to bed= 1.05s
13. fall asleep= 1.05s

Third Sequence= 8 seconds

1. waking up= 0.6
2. slippers = 0.6
3. shower= 0.6
4. toast= 0.6
5. driving out= 0.8
6. at work= 0.8
7. toilet= 0.4
8. leave work= 0.8
9. driving in= 0.6
10. microwave= 0.4
11. watching TV= 0.6
12. walking to bed= 0.6
13. fall asleep= 0.6

Fourth Sequence = 3 seconds 
 although these do seem very short they do add up to 3 seconds which is still the timing of the fourth sequence in the draft animatic

1. waking up= 0.225
2. slippers = 0.225
3. shower= 0225
4. toast= 0.225
5. driving out= 0.3
6. at work= 0.3
7. toilet= 0.15
8. leave work= 0.3
9. driving in= 0.225
10. microwave= 0.15
11. watching TV= 0.225
12. walking to bed= 0.225
13. fall asleep= 0.225

Ending = 25 seconds

1. analog clock face = 3s
2. mans face =1.5s
3. watch moved out of view (revealing railway) = 4s
4. man speaks- 'perfect timing' = 2s
5. man lays down = 5s
5. panning shot of train station (with woman speaking through tanoy) = 9s
6. cut to black (man sighs and ticking begins again) = 1.5s


Notes
in the draft animatic at the end of the fourth sequence for the last 3 shots before the analogue hand appears  it only shows the clocks, whereas it should be the scenes with the clocks in the background

in the draft animatic in the third shot of the ending sequence, it looks like 2 seperate shots but it is still the same shot, it is just the watch blocking the shot then moving away to reveal the railway