Valentine's Day & Project Proposal

Hello all,

It's Valentine's Day and I've hit some snags. I keep pushing forth in my Concept Development class. However, after turning in the first draft of my script I noted that there are several errors and some scenes must be separated into multiple scenes while others must be compressed into one. We were aiming for 16 scenes with as many shots as needed, but hopefully the fewer the better. I ended up having about 21 scenes with not too many shots per scene. That being said, everyone had about that many shots, some people had upwards of 30. Our next assignment is an animatic which we are to edit in Toon Boom's, Storyboard Pro. It being Valentine's I'm in Florida instead of Georgia to visit my boyfriend who just had his tonsils out, I don't have access to the program. So, I went online to buy the programs and overnight them to the Florida address, a $30 fee, and it won't get here until I'm gone because my order took longer to process than it should have. Hopefully the $30 will be refunded. So just now I banged out some thumbnails for my rough, I will use my WACOM to draw these loosely in Photoshop, in layers, edit them in After Effects and Premier so that I have something to turn in and then import the Photoshop files into Storyboard Pro for a redo. It's the best I can do. But let me tell you, even though I won't be getting the programs when I need them, they are phenomenal. The stuff you can do is amazing. So I'm excited about that, though I would still love to get my hands on AVID because editing is really enjoyable for me, as well as play around with Final Cut (same reason) and Stop Mo Pro for my projects. Though Premier has a setting for stop motion. 

At any rate, things are going but they're stressful as I want to make a great film. I've always wanted an Oscar and though I doubt this will get me that, it will at least be a step towards it. Or towards an equally exciting honor. 

Ah, my film! I forgot to tell you all what it's about. Here's the proposal:

A girl sees the flashing of eyes in a forest. The eyes belong to a deer who represents the “creative spirit.” This girl becomes highly intrigued and follows the sound of the deer’s bounding hooves through the forest. She keeps getting close, even close enough to gently graze it’s fur but it keeps escaping. Soon the two hear other people running toward them. The deer bounds off again and the girl watches as hunters pass. Now both the deer and the girl fear for the deer’s life. She joins the chase, hoping to somehow protect it. When she arrives in a clearing it is too late, the deer has been eviscerated for the things which it holds inside; coins representing riches and a broken mirror in which a creative soul, such as this girl, can see itself. The girl kneels by the body and picks up a shard from the mirror, looks into it and is still able to see her reflection even through the blood. Not fully understanding the creative spirit’s resilience, she hangs her head to cry. She thinks she will not longer feel the power and joy from it’s guidance and presence; I.e. she thinks she will never create again. Suddenly there comes a light from before her, she looks up to see that the spirit has risen again like a phoenix from the ashes. Joy spreads across the girl’s face. The girl takes its hide and stretches it, we end watching her paint or draw a deer on vellum made from it’s skin. (Maybe begin story with close ups of her drawing but because she’s not close to finished and because the shots are so tight on the vellum we can’t tell what she is drawing. The end shot would thusly reveal the deer and the fact that the creative spirit is hard to kill off.)

Still Scheming

I'm still working out ideas for my senior film. I had many ideas I was tossing about in my head over the winter break. These ideas were to be divided between my Concept Development class and my Experimental Animation class. The funny thing is that the ideas I thought I would work through in Experimental Animation are starting to look better for Concept and vice versa. 

Another thing I did over the break was some research for one idea involving the "creative spirit", as portrayed by a buck. This idea would be an attempt to tackle some of the issues I have involving freedom of expression, fears involving the creative process, what some people use their creativity to do, etc. I want a very soft warm aesthetic for this film. Earth tones, fur textures and other textures from lush forests, etc. I was also looking at Native American (especially Inuit) art work. So who knows, maybe this will be the piece I go with. We shall see. 

Themes and ideas, themes and ideas. They continue to circle my brain and I'm not quite sure what would be the best idea to run with. This Sunday I am to turn in some ideas. One thing we're supposed to think about is technique. My professor knows that I like stop motion a lot but I like 2D as well. So we'll see. 

Concept Development

I began my Concept Development for Animation course a week ago today. We are to track our progress and have a place online available for the public to view our work, so here is mine. Welcome.

Today we received our second assignment which is to begin reverse engineering an idea/story for our senior film. We are to think about what technique of animation we wish to use, what kinds of characters, the aesthetic, etc. We are also to decide what it's "about." This doesn't mean to tell a story in the general sense, but to pick a topic and theme and then come up with story later. In other words we basically have to decide everything except the story, which is odd because sometimes my brain just spews out a story and then I feel compelled to animate it. However, this gives me an opportunity to think about what I want to see and what I want to say before nailing down how I want to say it. 

Tonight I will be reading the assigned chapters from Paul Wells' "Scriptwriting." A book that focuses on the particulars of producing an animated film. I will also think a bit about what I want to say. I would give you a taste now, but I want to have it be a bit of a surprise.