Like all of Aardman's work, the TV series "Shaun the Sheep" is super charming and a delight to watch. So when a chance to work on the show presented itself, I naturally jumped at it!
Bitzer, the sheepdog, is relaxing with the paper and a cup of tea in "Bitzer's Basic Training," season 2, episode 24 (2009).
Back in the spring of 2009, it came to my attention that some of my friends in the Israeli animation business were working on the storyboards for the second season of the beloved British claymation series. I realized that this was a unique opportunity and decided to try to get a piece of the action. I contacted the local storyboard director to offer my services, but when I couldn't really get a clear answer from him, I made the bold decision to jump on the first plane from Copenhagen and simply show up at the studio in Tel Aviv, ready for work. Thankfully, my chutzpa paid off.
I was given an episode called "Bitzer's Basic Training," in which Bitzer, the sheepdog, fears that the Farmer is planning to replace him with a more efficient and obedient dog. So Shaun, the unofficial leader of the sheep flock, offers to help whipping Bitzer into shape in order to save his job. The mission succeeds beyond expectation, of course, when Bitzer ends up taking his new role a bit too seriously, requiring Shaun to step in and solve the problem.
The script was changed several times during the storyboard phase requiring me to redo a number of sections again and again, with the outtakes amounting to almost as many storyboard panels as those that made up the final animatic. In the end, some of the shots that were previously cut out eventually found their way back into the movie. The whole process took about two months, far more than justified by the modest remuneration offered. But that didn't matter. Half of my pay went to travel expenses anyway. The main objective was to be part of the Shaun the Sheep story. And so it was, and for that I am grateful.
The episode "Bitzer's Basic Training" originally aired on 20th May 2010.
Here's a video of the final animatic, synced up to the sound from the actual color movie.
And here is a "dual video" of part of the animatic (the "training sequence") juxtaposed with the final movie for easy comparison.
A "dual video" of the entire episode can be seen on YouTube here (only available outside Europe).
You can see some storyboard snippets from other Shaun the Sheep episodes made by my good friend and long time colleague Doron Meir here at the Living Lines Library.
Outtakes...
As mentioned, the story went through a number of revisions during storyboarding, causing several sections to be repeatedly axed or reworked. Below are some storyboard snippets with various ideas that didn't make it to the screen.
The first correction I was asked to do was that the Farmer wasn't allowed to see the sheep playing ball. Apparently that's the "golden rule" of the show's universe - that the Farmer never sees the farm animals engaging in "human" activities. It was changed to sheep just standing in the way of the lorry. Here's the original version.
Also, in the original script, Bitzer would join the football game and inadvertently shoot the ball towards the Farmers' window, drawing his ire.
Then, the Farmer gets so angry with Bitzer that he destroys the deck chair. That turned out to be too violent. Also, the gag with Bitzer interpreting the "heel" command to mean he was being asked to bite his master's leg ended up too weird. I kinda agree with that.
Then there was a idea that maybe it should be Shaun, and not Bitzer, who shot the football at the Farmer's window. And then Bitzer would catch the ball as it bounced off the window. That way, Bitzer would get the blame. Okay, that's funnier. The new version was eventually also cut as well, but here it is.
Before retrieving the book about how to train a dog, the Farmer accidentally comes across one about lightly dressed women with large firearms. Maybe not ideal for a family movie. But then again, it being a British production, and not an American one, it was worth a shot. Didn't make it, though.
From the original script:
Later. The Farmer is in the farmhouse, sitting in an armchair reading a catalogue with a picture of a fantastic sleek handsome dog on the front.
Bitzer watches the farmer through the window.
The Farmer puts the catalogue down and leaves. Bitzer sneaks in and picks up the catalogue. As he flicks through he looks more and more worried (but we don’t see what’s in the catalogue yet.) Bitzer GULPS.
Bitzer comes up to Shaun in the field and shows him the catalogue. Shaun flicks through.
INSERT: The advertising supplement is a kind of Dogs R Us catalogue: page after page of fantastic looking dogs.
Shaun looks back to Bitzer who is biting his nails.
Bitzer looks over to the farmhouse and sees the Farmer reading the Manual.
Bitzer turns worriedly to Shaun. Shaun tosses the catalogue aside and rests a reassuring hoof on Bitzer’s shoulder.
This sequence was quite amusing. In the end, however, it was deemed too complicated having two books in play, that is, one training manual and one fancy dog catalogue. That was probably the right call. The catalogue still survived the final cut, but only in a few shots, as the Farmer is talking on the phone inside his farmhouse, thus limiting the potential for confusion.
Here's the entire deleted dog catalogue sequence:
You may have noticed that I put in a couple of dogs from other animated movies I worked on. Just love drawing dogs. Couldn't help it.
Bitzer's training begins. As part of the program, Shaun feeds him raw eggs, taken directly from the chicken coop. Bitzer drinks the eggs and grimaces.
At the end of the training montage, just before the final high-five, Shaun gives Bitzer various dog commands. In the original script it was suggested that Bitzer do a couple of silly things like juggling and riding a unicycle. Those two ideas were eventually cut, though the rest of the shot remained.
After the training, Bitzer shows off his newly acquired shepherding skills to the Farmer, using the flock to create complex geometric formations (seen from above) in a classical Hollywood musical style, and finally ending up in a sheep pyramid. Of this sequence only the pyramid remains.
The Farmer, happy with his clever sheepdog's performance, pats Bitzer on the head and walks off. But Bitzer decides to take his success even further. As part of the new doctrine, the farm animals must now do their own morning exercise. Bitzer himself gets up early enough to wake up the farm's sleepy rooster.
Bitzer performs a military style inspection of the "troops."
In the original script, Bitzer could smell some dirty pigs that needed washing, and then the same for the sheep. The pigs were cut before I even finished drawing them. But here are the sheep being forced to jump into the sheep dip (a pool for cleaning sheep, apparently ;)
As you can see, Shaun is skeptical.
More military style inspection before the press-ups:
The logic of the story climax has been re-worked in the final version of the movie. The bathtub scene originally followed the breakfast shot in the kitchen. In an attempt to rescue his master from drowning in the tub, Bitzer puts inflatable wings on the Farmer's arms and a rubber ring around his waist.
Annoyed with his over-zealous servant, the Farmer walks off, leaving a trail of wet footprints behind him for Bitzer to mop up with his broom.
In the original version of the story, the climax occurs when the Farmer trips over Bitzer's broom and falls into the sheep dip. As Bitzer prepares to dive in for the rescue, the Farmer spits water in Bitzer's face, jumps out of the pool, rips the dog training manual in two and drags Bitzer to the Land Rover, driving off with the desperate dog.
In a later version, the inflatable wings were replaced with a swimming cap:
Eventually, the swimming cap was dropped too. Instead some scenes were switched around, turning the bathtub scene into the story's climax, with the Farmer ripping up the dog training manual here in the bathroom, and then cutting directly to Bitzer being dragged off to the Land Rover and driven away.
This still left some some small logical gaps in the story - like why does Shaun nudge Bitzer to start sweeping up after the Farmer at the end of the breakfast scene? But all in all, it was a better - and simpler - solution to a story that from its inception had a tendency to become a bit too complex.
These outtakes are only a fraction of the around 300 storyboard panels that were discarded while boarding the six minute-long movie, thus reaffirming the old proverb that I learned as a young animator, working with some of the great Disney masters:
Never hesitate to throw out even your best drawing if it doesn't fit the action!
No comments:
Post a Comment