Storyboarding

Over the course of the past week, i've started the beginning of my storyboard process. I'll be honest here: I find storyboarding quiet tedious (you're seeing about 250 drawings there...) but it is completely necessary for an animated film. And actually quite rewarding.

For months i've had these ideas for shots and framing in my head, only visualised through the text on my script and my awkward verbal descriptions in development meetings. Finally seeing the options ahead of me, what works and what doesn't, in the forms of these little drawings is exciting, especially when placed together in an animatic. It is one stop closer to the whole thing being actualised.

Of course, like the script, the storyboard is an ever evolving process, with frames taken out, moved around and ummed and ahhed over. So, i'm sure i'll be adding to these pages over the next few weeks.

Red or Dead: Creative Choices in Film making

(Cross-posted from Central Station)

So, after a weekend in Edinburgh (fitting in time to celebrate the lovely Miss Thacker's birthday!), i'm home back in Glasgow with some new found knowledge.

Today I attended Red or Dead? A day of discussion about the questions which every film-maker should ask themselves. The talks covered things like story developing, editing, cinematography, animation, sound design and composing and saw people from the film industry talking about how.

I particularly enjoyed the animation talk (of course!), chaired by the wonderfully lively producer, Melanie Coombes (producer of the stop-frame feature, Mary and Max). The discussions on how even though animation is such a visual medium, it still comes down to story in the end, were brilliant. It's so easy, as an animator to get caught up in your style, because the nature of creating animation is so heavy on being meticulous in your medium.

I also enjoyed the sound design and composing talks. When I think of an idea, it's pretty much linked to a certain sound or style of music instantly (and is sometimes the inspiration for the idea to begin with). So to hear the composers/sound designers on the panels, talking about their way of working was something I found fascinating. Especially the discussion on learning how to communicate with a director who might not necessarily speak 'music' language and vice versa. I'm currently going through this with my composer and I'm finding it interesting how we discuss the details of a score through emotion and colour, not technical jargon.

Anyway, I definitely benefited from the panel talks today and it just adds to the whole learning process i'm still undertaking as a first time director. Too bad I couldn't stay for the Censta's Sound:Image:Art event. Animation calls!

Thumbnails and set ideas

Thumbnails and set ideas
Originally uploaded by Jessiola

Playing with the idea of using cardboard and paper cutouts in my set design.

Thumbnailin'

Thumbnailin'
Originally uploaded by Jessiola

I'm currently in the process of drawing rough thumbnail drawings of my script, in preparation for storyboard. It's really exciting to finally get the shots which have been floating around in my head for months down on to paper.

Work In Progress

I'm cleaning up my hellish desktop, in preparation for the barrage of stray jpeg, mov and pdf files which will replace it. As I was strategically arranging things into folders, upon folders, I found a few photos I took throughout the development process of my short. Thought i'd share!

Story developing, draft #103024038503.




Travelling to London for a story developing workshop at The Script Factory.



Concept/character art and my old, messy workspace (a cramped desk in my bedroom).



Beautiful view at the artists retreat, where I took part in The Story Room: a story developing workshop ran by Paul Welsh at Digicult.


The plan o' action concerning visual moodboards for submission.



Tea and a late night writing.

Blood Tea and Red String

I should clearly be in bed right now, but i'm up watching clips of my favourite animated shorts for a little bit o' late night research. In doing so, I came across a stop-motion feature I hadn't heard of called Blood Tea and Red String.



It's Wikipedia entry states that:

It was released on February 2, 2006 after a production time of 13 years, having been filmed in various places in the West Coast and in two studios.

13 years?! I am in awe of Christiane Cegavske dedication to her animated craft. I'm very interested in seeing this. Pretty intrigued by the Švankmajer vibe i'm getting from the trailer. :)

Good News

It's been quiet on this here blog, so sorry about that. But there is a reason! All is explained below. The image to the left is a screengrab of Ragdoll Girl, from one of the pages of my treatment submission.

Cross-posted from Central Station

After 4 months of story developing, workshops and script-writing, I finally submitted the final treatment and script of my Scottish Digital Shorts 2010 to Digicult. And the good news? I WAS SELECTED FOR COMMISSION! If my life was a film, this is the song I'd have heard in my celebration montage, upon hearing the news. Yes, the extended version!

I am beyond excited about the next few months as I embark on making my first (professional) short animated film. There's still more development on the story and visual style to be done, which i'm attempting to throw myself into.

The film itself is called 'Fall Into Position'. That's a working title, mind. And it's synopsis?

In a ramshackle cottage, in the midst of a wild, magical forest live two toy siblings, Ragdoll Girl and Clockwork Boy. Every day, Clockwork Boy completes a set of obsessive, nonsensical routines, to Ragdoll Girl’s resentment. Clockwork Boy is content. Ragdoll Girl thinks he is broken. But when she’s faced with the chance to fix him forever, does she take it? Based on my experiences of growing up with an autistic brother, Fall Into Position is a tale of hope, love, determination and acceptance.

I'm intending on blogging my experiences here on Censta and my own personal blog. I've also made a group in which the crew will hopefully write about their experiences. Watch this space!