9/2/2014 Screenplaymation | Screenwriting 2.0 | Screenplay Analytics

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Screenwriting 2.0 | ScreenplayAnalytics

ScreenplaymationAU G U ST 3 1 , 2 0 1 4 / 0 CO MME NTS

Plotagon is a very interesting new application from Sweden that generates an

animated movie from a script. This post is a walk-through of the application and brief

analysis of its potential.

Plotagon uses a similar paradigm to screenwriting app Celtx, namely an online

repository for storing and sharing your work and a local app (for PC, Mac, iPad) to

work with to create your movie. I’m using the Mac version.

My testing use case is to produce a simple FAQ video for idaciti.com – a data

storytelling application. Obviously it’s easy to produce a FAQ page and stick it on

a website but I’m betting that even a basic movie will make the FAQs more interesting

and possibly even entertaining. FAQs are essentially a class of communication

(prompt-response) that is used in many other situations such as evangelical churches

and gospel/funk music for example. The prompt is the question and the response is the

answer.

When you are ready to create your movie, you fire up Plotagon, click Create and give

your movie a name.

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The Discover option encourages you to search and find movies by other Plotagon

users and I’ll come back to Store later – but this is a key part of the Plotagon

monetization business model that is based on in-app purchases.

When I first heard of Plotagon I thought - great I’ll import my script and create a move

– job done! Of course the reality is nothing like that. You have to write your script in

Plotagon for reasons that will become clear in a moment. You can’t just import a Final

Draft script (yet!).

Writing the Script

Plotagon uses a simple two panel UI – script editor on the left, movie player on the

right. As you would expect, you start by adding a scene to your script.

When you click Scene you are picking the setting or location for your scene. The ‘stock’

locations are a classroom or a school corridor but via in-app purchases you can

buy from a (currently) limited range of other locations that are available in the Store.

It just so happens that a classroom is ideal for my use case, so I pick that as my scene

location and an image of my classroom appears in the movie player as a frame. My

scene location is visualized!

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Next, Plotagon asks you to locate a couple of characters in the scene. Click Character

to pick from the stock characters (or do another in-app purchase from the store). Click

Somewhere to position that character in the scene location. I picked SCOTT and put

him behind the teacher’s desk and LIZZIE and put her at a student desk. My movie

frame is updated to include my characters. So far so good.

Notice the way Plotagon uses ‘triplets’ RDF style to drive the visualization – here we

have subject-verb-position. Currently the verb is limited to ‘is’, which is a basic

positioning instruction. But other verbs could be used in the future, for example to

describe a character e.g. Lizzie HAS a mohican hairstyle.

OK. Time to write a script.

Normally a scene would start with some action description but I’m going straight to

dialog so I click the Dialog icon to add a dialog snippet to the scene. I clicked

CHARACTER to specify that SCOTT speaks first. I did not pick from over a dozen

parenthesis options to modify his dialog, leaving it as ‘neutral’ and I added my opening

dialog, which is a FAQ:

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Notice how the point-of-view (POV) has changed in my movie still to an over-the

shoulder shot to reflect the fact that Scott is speaking to Lizzie. This the dialog frame.

At this point I would have liked to put in some action – for example for Lizzie to flick her

hair before she answers. But currently there are only a limited set of actions available

so I can’t do this. Notice the triplet used to define an action: subject-verb-object. And

that an action is essentially based on one character acting on another rather than

something happening that does not involve the principal characters e.g. the television

switches itself on. However, as you can see, you can add both sound and music snippets

as well as dialog and action.

As I don’t have access to the action I want, I’m just going to crank in some more dialog

to get the FAQ conversation going.

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It’s not rocket science but already we have a mini movie that starts to tell a story about

the FAQs of our data storytelling application, idaciti.

I can delete and add snippets and play my movie at any time by clicking the Play button

in the movie player. Odd words - like Schaffhausen – can cause Plotagon a problem but

basically it flows and my parenthesis choices are reflected less in how the characters

speak and more in the facial expressions of the speaking character.

I can expand the movie screen for a better viewing experience and I can also click the

[T] button to see a subtitle of the dialog superimposed on the movie. Again you can see

where this is going as a monetization opportunity - allowing custom subtitles for multi

lingual movies.

The Share button lets you share your movie with the Plotagon crowd so it can be

‘discovered’ and viewed and to tweet your movie and share it on YouTube (if enabled in

settings). It’s only when you opt to share your movie that it is rendered and uploaded

from the local app. Obviously this can take some time depending on the length of your

script and your Internet connection.

Once shared, your video has its own home page where it can be viewed, liked and

commented on.

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CONCLUSIONS

Generating a movie from a script is not new.

This is basically what previz software does and other apps like Amazon’s

Storyboarding tool. Of course anyone can create fun movies using the app and many

Plotagon users already are. But I really believe Plotagon has a bright future ahead of it

not just because it is cool and fun but also because the monetization opportunities for

it are extensive. Here are just three ‘business’ opportunities both for agencies and

individual creatives:

branding and marketing videos

corporate training videos

product placement videos (triplet is subject-verb-PRODUCT PLACEMENT e.g.

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AUTHOR

Stewart McKie (c) Tripos Ltd. 2014

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Bond checked his ROLEX)

And of course these depend on a range of ‘custom’ scene locations, characters,

gestures and props (e.g. ROLEX watch image) being available to construct the video

from. So there is both a ‘generic’ and a ‘custom’ movie making business up for grabs.

Voices are another area of monetization since the current robotic voices will not be to

everyone’s taste so some options here would also be useful.

Then there is the whole area of personal and celebrity avatars. I can be in my own

movie with a celebrity: Football with Beckham, a gunfight with John Wayne, sleuthing

with the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The possibilities are endless.

Of course Plotagon is currently a minimum viable product (MVP) with limited content

to choose from to create your movie but you don’t have to be Steven Spielberg to see

the potential. For example, it’s not hard to see how Plotagon could seriously disrupt

the corporate movie-making market.

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