AV script sheet for History of Gaming assignment

*This sheet will need to be embedded in your Weebly page for the Specialist Subject
Study assignment in order to pass*

Student Name ALFIE SAMPSON

Task 1 of 3:
Introduction: write the script that you will be recording for your introduction here. Introduce yourself
and say what the documentary will be about. Maybe make a statement that you are going to challenge or
ask a question that you’re going to try and answer through the course of the documentary and in the
conclusion.

Hello, I’m Alfie and I will be taking you through the history of one of the most popular skills in the animation
industry, Rotoscoping. A style of animation that is supposed to accurately mimic the real life motions of a
human or even an object such as a bouncing ball. But how is this skill so popular and why is it still relevant
to today’s industry? Let’s find out together, shall we?

Task 2 of 3:
Audio: Visual:
(script being narrated/additional sounds heard. (what will the audience be seeing?)
Write ROUGH timings in here where possible)
1. A picture of Christiaan Huygens alongside
1. Before we get into the world of the picture of the magic lantern. After that,
rotoscoping, we need to go back in time to a diagram showing how the magic lantern
understand how the world of animation has operates as an invention.
come to be. 2. All the pictures of the inventions listed in
2. The first ever form of animation was chronological order. A brief clip of “Pauve
believed to have been invented by a Dutch Pierrot” alongside a photo of Emile
scientist named Christiaan Huygens back in Reynaud. Diagrams of the Praxinoscope
the 1600’s. This invention uses a mirror in compared with the older Zoetrope.
the back of a light source that would direct
light through long slides of glass to project
the illustrations presented on the slides.
This invention provided an excellent form
of entertainment for children as they would
get to use their own imagination and create
their own images using special marking
pens.
3. Other inventions like the Thaumatrope,
Phenakistoscope, Zoetrope and the
Kineograph (wacky names, I know!) have all
paved the way for the creation of the first
ever animated form of media. “Pauve
Pierrot” is the first animated film ever
made by Emile Reynaud, who is also
responsible for the latest invention to
succeed the Zoetrope, The Praxinoscope.
Now, the Zoetrope’s build was a drum with
two halves, the bottom half being a set of
still images and the top half containing a
set of vertical slits that enable light to pass
 through and when you spin it, it gives the
illusion of bringing the images to life. I
mean what is this witchcraft!
4. With these crazy inventions came along the
birth of Multiplanar tracking technology in
the 1930’s. This meant that different
elements of a specific scene could be
separated with their own slides and when
you zoom into the scene, the movement is
more fluid and gives a more immersive
experience, still have no idea? Well I’ll let
Walt Disney explain! (video) The multiplane
camera used for Walt Disney Studios was
invented by William Garity and this
apparatus was later tested in the animated
short “The Old Mill”. This project has then
gone on to win an Academy Award the
following year for Best Animated Short. The
camera was then used to create Walt
Disney's first Feature Film "Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs".
5. There isn’t just animation in Film & TV,
there’s plenty of material being developed
in the music industry! Music videos have
been an important staple in the way we
consume art from our favourite artists. It
started with the iconic “Bohemian
Rhapsody’ to Bob Dylan’s “Homesick
Terranian Blues” and it ended up being way
more we than could have ever imagined!
6. A particular video that stuck out for me was
Paramore’s “Hard Times”. This is because
they use something interesting during the
process of making the video, a skill called
“rotoscoping”. As an audience member
watching this video, I was really fascinated
with how this simple skill of drawing over a
video seemed to have such a strong impact.
So, I feel like it’s finally time to ask this
question, how did rotoscoping start and
how has it become so popular?
7. It all started in 1900’s with an American
animator by the name of Max Fleischer.
During the time you would get to see
animated shorts being played in cinemas
you would often see that the movements of
the character would be clunky, stiff or even
robotic. There was no doubt these shorts
may have served well for entertainment at
the time, but the potential was certainly
high! Fleischer started working on a
method to trace movement within images
from a live-action film. He studied this for
two years before receiving a patent for his
work in 1917. Who knew what productions
we would get from this stage onwards? The
possibilities for realistic animation were
endless!
8. Max Fleischer recorded live footage of his
 brother Dave Fleischer who was dressed up
as a clown doing some dancing and all sorts
of silly nonsense. This was later used a
reference to create one of Max’s beloved
characters “Koko the Clown”. The brothers’
newest creation went on to feature in an
animated short series called “Out of the
Inkwell” and has become a stencil for
realistic animation for decades.
9. When Fleischer’s patent for the technique
expired in the 30’s, Walt Disney decided to
adopt the technique and use it to create
their early feature films. Remember when I
was talking about “Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs” being made after the
success of the multiplane camera? Well
they also used live-actors as references to
create most of the characters in that
feature!
10. Now let’s go forward in time to the digital
age when computers were present and
thriving on the scene. How does
rotoscoping work now? Well, there are
loads of software that you can find
including Adobe Animate, After Effects
Rotoshop, etc. It has become a lot easier to
draw over existing footage! You just need
the right file types ranging from mov’s to
mp4’s and you are good to go!
11. But what examples can we see in modern
day productions, well let’s go through them
shall we? Singer Paula Abdul’s music video
for “Opposites Attract” features animated
character who is called “MC Skat Kat” and
the idea behind the video was to have a
hip-hop dancer go through the movements
and that would later be used as the stencil
for “MC Skat Kat” to be mimicked to. The
film “Juno”, first released in 2007, uses
rotoscoping in it’s Title Sequence which
show sketches over the already existing
buildings and structures in which Elliot
Page’s character walks by. With all of these
cool examples out nowadays I feel like it’s
time to give the skill a try myself!
12. (DEMONSTRATION)
13. Now, I sat down with a man who knows a
thing or two about Rotoscoping himself,
here’s Animation tutor Trevor McCready on
the skill itself, enjoy!
14. (INTERVIEW)

Task 3 of 3:
Conclusion: write the script that you will be recording for your conclusion here. revisit your initial
question or statement from the introduction, recap some highlights of the things you’ve studied for your
question/statement and suggest whether the statement is supported or what the answer to the question
was.