Get In The Water
Get In The Water is an animatic I created to the song Get In The Water from EPIC: The Musical by Jorge Rivera-Herrans. It features characters and a story from a personal project I am working on titled The Hall of Heroes.
Get In The Water captures the climax of the first half of the story, where tension between the brothers, Caxton and Tenebris, finally comes to a head. Outside Tenebris’s castle in the Shattered Plains, they face off as Caxton refuses to let go of who his brother used to be, before the corruption and dark magic. But Tenebris is slipping further away, becoming harder and harder to reach.
Boards
For this animatic, I stepped away from using color to separate the characters and focused more on shot choice. I used framing and composition to carry the storytelling alongside the dialogue, placing the characters in ways that show their dynamic and emotional complexity even in a single still frame.
Shot 12
Shot 16
Take shots ten and sixteen, for example. Tenebris takes up most of the frame, leaving only a small space for Caxton. It creates a suffocating feeling, like Caxton is drowning in his attempt to reach him. At the same time, it reflects Tenebris’s growing resentment, closing in around Caxton and trapping him in it.
Shot 15
Shot 19
I also used Dutch angles to reflect Tenebris’s emotional instability, letting the camera feel as unsteady as he is. The tilted framing creates a sense of discomfort and tension. I reserved this effect for Tenebris’s shots, while keeping Caxton’s framing more stable to show that he is the one attempting to hold his ground.