Last week we found out whose projects went through after our pitches. This was decided by an industry panel and our lecturers. 17 projects were pitched and 6 were to be green lighted. My project got green lighted...celebrations all round. Most of the work shown in my pitch are just the posts below this one.
Anyway, first comes first gather a team. James Rowden had already wanted to be part of my project so he was in and Elliot Forrest also wanted in. Two people who are extremely talented and have high level of expertise in their chosen fields, so I am very very happy about this team. I decided that I was probably going to need some organisation help to be able to concentrate on what I want to achieve and learn this year so I asked Laura Andrews to produce and thankfully she agreed, even though shes producing another film and who knows maybe she will produce 6 by the end of this year. I like this core group and I think I will keep it around this size for now as I want it to be a collaborative environment where everyone has an equal say in the final outcome. Even though it is my idea I am happy to take on board what everyone thinks, 5 brains are better than 1. So I have a Director (me, though it feels weird to be called that) a Producer and two technical directors.
Into the first week of pre-production I go. So this week was all about sorting out many many excel spreadsheets.. very daunting but Laura seemed to enjoy it. I sent Elliot and James off away with some R&D work in after effects and maya to create a way of doing certain scenes. And I knuckled down with a biology book too take on board what my feedback from my lecturers was:
The illusion of chaos
Panel:
+Strong and focussed idea for abstract animation. - must ensure appropriate soundtrack
Georg:
Needs to have a point or underlying theme rather than just pretty images. Spoke about essentially Entropy. Could be a nice VG piece but needs to be planned out to prevent it just becoming a screensaver.
Matt:
Illusion Of Chaos
Great topical biomimetic hook
Needs to grasp the concept of entropy
Strong piece in context for exhibit in a science setting for example the ESI
More research needed into conveying visual biology
Perhaps extrapolate with some cellular reproduction and more visual themes of chaos and
Order
I took Matt's advice and looked at the different biology topics he mentioned. I particularly liked cell reproduction. I wrote a 'script like' structure to my animation so I have a reason for the changes in state. Each change in state represent a change in the cells life; growing, mitosis, dying etc. This made my animation have much more of a backbone to it. I sat down with Matt after writing it to make sure I had grasped his ideas correctly and he seemed to like them. Though I left with a lot more things to look at and ideas. That man is extremely useful.
Onto thumbnailing. As I had already made concept pieces for each major change in my animation this was quite quick to do. Though I found that my scribbles didn't make much sense too Elliot and James so this week i've started re-drawing them on photoshop nicely so that Elliot and James have a base to work off. So far I have about half of it done.
Next week I want to do some live action tests filming water icing over and ink in water with a macro lens so hopefully this storyboard will be done by the end of this week. I also want to do an animatic to show how I want the movement to work.
This project is already pushing me out of my comfort zone (which i'm happy about) as I have James and Elliot asking me questions that I have to be able to answer and I am not the most technical person so I try my best to explain what I want to happen. Then I remind myself that I am there for the ideas and art direction and they are there to create this and be technical. Plus I haven't ever been 'in charge' of a project either so it's something to get used to. So far I'm enjoying it and I think we are working at a good pace but I think I will still push myself to go faster.
Till next week.
good night
