In Shadow

Ryan Woodward Animating from the Heart

 This is an old talk Ryan did about his short film. I was thinking about how if you resist your inspirations everything will just feel frustrating and ash like.

Animating from the Heart – Logic vs Inspiration Animator and Filmmaker Ryan Woodward from Creative Talent Network on Vimeo.


notes:
after I finish drawing the boards, I go into aftereffects, add some sound fx, some flare, some fake animation, you can have a lot of fun with it, you really feel like a film maker

The first instance when I clued in that I wanted to do stuff on the side

When I worked on Osmosis Jones I remember doing this scene that I was really excited and passionate about, it was perfect just the way I wanted and I passed it on, and when I saw it in dailies (after all the other departments had added their stuff) it had totally changed. When I saw it I was so upset and angry inside that they had touched my child and manipulated it into something I couldn't identify with anymore, it hurt. And my office partner said "you've got to chill out, you've got to go do something on the side, your own little project that you do on your own and invest all your passion into that so that when you're working on your day job you're not so emotionally invested in your drawings"

So if you have something on the side (even if it's small) it satisfies that creative monster inside you. Sometimes on a job you  don't feel like a creator you feel like a production guy. When you've been there long enough you start to forget what it's like to be a creator on your own, it just becomes a job. I noticed that my own personal aesthetic about what I think is cool in art all reflected on the movies I had worked on. I felt a bit like a slave that the studio is dictating what I like and not like. So I had to reassess what I actually like.

I loved modern dance, and figure drawing, but the idea of doing a film that way sounds like torture. Then the idea hit me, and the idea trumps all obstacles. When the idea hits you you think "either I do this, or I die inside"

Why are you making it?
I'm making it because I have to. I have to feel like I'm creating something


The one thing I really learned, I don't force inspiritation, I just try to prepare myself with a level of sensitivity that when inspiration does come it floors me like a train.

I just wait for those moments, where the heavens part and "aha". They don't happen very often, but when they happen, do something, otherwise youll be frustrated inside and you won't know why and everything will be grrrrr, and you won't know why. But if you really think about it you know what you want to do, you know inspiration hit you and you chose not to do it, that creates misery. But if you do it, even if you fail at it, that fact that you're doing it makes you feel alive and living some kind of purpose, you feel like you're being someone you were born to be, if it doesn't make a dime who gives a crap You did it. Just the fact that you did it you can lay back and breathe a sigh and you feel human.

the film: 
Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Movie making Wiki

a whole wiki about how to make a movie from start to finish

Film Riot

Saw this on the plane going to my Mom's for Thanksgiving. Ryan Connolly learned film craft at Full Sail (which my co-worker who's also an alumni speaks very poorly of) and has been making these "how to do movie tricks" videos ever since (I think that's the summary.) Anyway there's a ton of them and I'm sure lots of good tricks to pick up. Here's the youtube channel.

Standard Action

So if you have a high tolerance for geekness, there's this pretty cool web series being done by some Canadians. Standard Action I think it's the woman with the fur vest's project (Joanna Gaskell), and funded by her. Pretty decent, I mean you won't mistake it for a big budget HBO series or anythinhg, but is good enough that you can buy into it if you let yourself. This is exactly the kind of thing I had expected to flood the interwebs once the bandwidth issue was solved, but instead of we have people pasting Evanescence over anime movies, human creativity disapoint.



panel with the creators
There were a lot of people we wanted to get involved with our project so we thought lets just do it, make it, get it out there, let's just do it as fast as possible, we didn't want it to get lost in post production because the editing process just mires you down because it's so difficult. Instead of getting really parylized with having to make it perfect, we decided to just make it. We filmed 10-12 pages in a day. If the director gives the actor freedom to run with their ideas it always turns out better. We shoot on the weekends, every other weekend we do post production, a lot of hours, so basically the hours of another day job. Tried to do block shooting (all the shots in a scene from multiple episodes at the same time). An intense schedule for 7-8 months.

using
Cannon DSLR T2i (think you can get better camera's now for same price)
Zoom H4N (and just got a rode)
Adobe Premiere Pro for editing
Adobe AfterEffects for fx
Audacity for sound editing (reaper was recommended by an audience member)

Public Domain music

Public Domain music resource. Haven't checked it out thoroughly, seems like a good start but do your research (don't wanna get hit like Nina Paley where the songs are copywrite free but someone still holds the rights)

Don't forget the sound fx to go with it

Assassin's Creed Retro

Assassin's Creed Retro from Mitch Pecqueur on Vimeo.

by Mitch Pecqueur, Arnaud Baudry and Julien Baret


it's fine, but the interesting part to me is the proof of concept of how much you can discard when you go a little stylized and cel shaded, like BG, and can go in and out of speed lines effortlessly.




*my coworker sent it to me from Kotaku

Tips for Indie Directors

bunch of quick articles for improving your game if you want to make your own flick.

Less Talk more Rock

Bianca linked to this article about game design but applies to a lot of visual stuff.

Point 1.
1. Idea
2. Talk it out, look at it from every angle
3. Do it

but a whole lot of stuff dies at 2.
It's easy to pick things apart, harder to make art, just make it even if it's not perfect better to make then to just sit there tearing other stuff down. Find a way around 2 if you have to.

so...
1. Idea
2. DO IT
3. then talk about how to do it better next time.

Point 2.
Words are great, but they're coming into your brain through the narrow bandwidth of the intellect
Picture sound combo's flow into your whole brain easier and at a more base level.

Kevin Dart & Joel Trussell

I saw Kevin Dart's stuff forever ago on the Drawingboard forums (which may be dead by hackers) had a cool retro look, then he did a little movie trailer in the style, and now has done an upgraded version.

A Kiss From Tokyo - HD from Yuki 7 on Vimeo.

Looks That Kill - HD from Yuki 7 on Vimeo.

Here's a promo by the Yuki 7's codirector Stephane Coedel

BBC OLYMPICS ©2008 Passion Pictures from Stephane coedel on Vimeo.

the stylized after effects look makes me think of Joel Trussell's (blog)stuff:

Morcheeba - Enjoy The Ride from Titus Curare on Vimeo.

all this stuff makes me think of how well you can tell a story even without fancy full animation. Like Grickle & Lou Romano & Will Finn, so make sure you know what you're goal is before you start, if it's just to tell a story consider what you can leave out and still get the idea across.

Posting your film online

Interesting short blog post about these film makers who posted their work online.

interesting to me was that it led to unexpected opportunities because of the wide exposure

and that they got a lot more interaction and feedback from their audience, and that's why we do this right, to communicate and share with an audience.

and it hasn't completely undermined selling distribution of the short

but they did get disqualified from some festivals and awards because of it

Opening Night

Nathan Flynn & Joshua Flynn are working on a stopmotion film for their 3rd year at University of Glamorgan in Cardiff and it is lookin sweetly professional! Definitely worth wandering through their production blogs to see how they are doing it, things like replacement faces, armature making, mold making, it's a virtual walk through of how to do it yourself! Or check their joint site Sculpt Double.

this is the duo behind Stumped, so looks to be a good short (hope it has more of a resolution to the story though)

STUMPED by Nathan & Joshua Flynn from Joshua Flynn on Vimeo.

and I am beautiful

I AM BEAUTIFUL by Joshua & Nathan flynn (version 2) from Joshua Flynn on Vimeo.

* found @ animateclay

Pascal Blanche Dune Opening

Ran across this little tribute vid by Pascal Blanche (who turns out to be art director at Ubisoft montreal). It only has a moving mouth, so not actually animated, but it occurs to me how effective this could be if your trying to make a sci fi short and get the most bang for your buck (though I would find something else to move instead of the mouth). You could easily do it with a few 2D images as well.



earlier post on Lou Romano & Will Finn's similar stuff

hands of the master did it a lot by having extensive matt paintings saving time on modeling tech out (the chair for example)

Sound Collections

Thinking of making a short? You're gonna need sound, for all the stepping and interaction with the environment, and songs so the audience knows when to be sad ;)

ran across these two sites, probably more out there, but they're creative commons.

freesound.org

ccMixter

and you can buy sounds from here

sounddogs

Backwater Gospel - Making Of

So, when the Animation Workshop showed up on the scene last month this was the other notible short. Dark atmosphere.

The Backwater Gospel from The Animation Workshop on Vimeo.

By: Bo Mathorne, Tue T. Sørensen, Arthur Gil Larsen, Rie C. Nymand, Mads Simonsen, Thomas H. Grønlund, Esben Jacob Sloth, Martin Holm-Grevy


ran across this making of it later. What's interesting to me is the way Bo Mathorne builds the characters (jump in to 1 min in) Flat projections bent into shape, and the mouth is just cut outs.

Bo Mathorne, Making of The Backwater Gospel from Bo Mathorne on Vimeo.

interesting to me because the new paradigm means letting go of trying to do the Pixar, Dreamworks, Bluesky render every grass look. Keith called it, the more you can simplify the less the eye worries about it, add a little noise and you can get by with so little.

3rd Letter

Pretty cool 12 min distopian future live action short (not happy ;)

The 3rd Letter from grzegorz jonkajtys on Vimeo.

*found on Maciej Kuciara's site, he's an awesome artist

Who said artists have to make money

Reading a talk by Francis Ford Coppola, he had this hilariously true thought.

How does an aspiring artist bridge the gap between distribution and commerce?
We have to be very clever about those things. You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script.

This idea of Metallica or some rock n’ roll singer being rich, that’s not necessarily going to happen anymore. Because, as we enter into a new age, maybe art will be free. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I’m going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money?

In the old days, 200 years ago, if you were a composer, the only way you could make money was to travel with the orchestra and be the conductor, because then you’d be paid as a musician. There was no recording. There were no record royalties. So I would say, “Try to disconnect the idea of cinema with the idea of making a living and money.” Because there are ways around it.

(emphasis added)

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cuts to the heart of the matter. We don't do this because we want to be rich and famous, we do it becauseit's in us and it has to come out. We're making art because we want to communicate, to communicate you need someone to hear you, why not get rid of everything in the way between you two?

It's nice to make a living doing something you like, but Coppola's has a good point that if someone else is fronting the cash, they can have a lot of influence. I'm not saying don't collaborate, I'm just saying work for the art not for the money.

other interesting thoughts he had:

The cinema language happened by experimentation – by people not knowing what to do. But unfortunately, after 15-20 years, it became a commercial industry. People made money in the cinema, and then they began to say to the pioneers, “Don’t experiment. We want to make money. We don’t want to take chances.”

An essential element of any art is risk. If you don’t take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn’t been seen before? I always like to say that cinema without risk is like having no sex and expecting to have a baby. You have to take a risk.


I was never afraid of risks. I always had a good philosophy about risks. The only risk is to waste your life, so that when you die, you say, “Oh, I wish I had done this.”

You now have all the resources to do your own production, writing, directing. What’s the biggest barrier to being an artist?
Self-confidence always. The artist always battles his own/her own feeling of inadequacy.

*found by Muddy Colors

Social Media future distribution

* apologies if this isn't clear and succint kinda more raw ideas then thesis essay

Read this. That sent me to here and this on Kevin Smith, who is skipping the whole regular distribution for his new movie, is instead wandering around to different towns with it and selling tickets for $70, because he has such a humongous following through social media when he rolls into he just throws out a tweet and he has enough fans out there that he can fill a theater.

"Smith's argument was that this old model of marketing movies, where you spend four times the budget of your film on advertising, forcing you to make five times what your film cost just to break even, was ridiculous, and he wanted to try something new. "

"It could give birth to an entirely new generation of writer-directors, guys like Gareth Edwards and Neil Bloomkamp, who have a unique voice and realize that with emerging technology, they can make their movies on the cheap and distribute them outside the studio system, building followers on social media outlets through teaser scenes, short films, and word of mouth, then use those outlets to directly advertise screenings, whether they be in real theaters or online. "

The other article talks about kids these days consume their music on youtube, they don't buy it, they want the whole music video combo. And about how some artists are interacting with their fans, creating jointly. Diana Gabaldon did this with one of her novels.

Looks like it's starting to happen maybe, people are starting to figure out how to work in the new media world, which is of course not going to be the same as things worked in the old media. This article talks about authors who are making a living at it, who haven't yet printed dead tree books, all digital, and despite regular publishers turning them down, they are putting their stuff out through amazon and making a living.

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To make a living you only need a couple thousand people all willing to kick a few coins into the tip jar. If you think of things that way, that you only have to find people who are on your wavelength, then it free's you to work on something that is completely uniquely personal to you. It doesn't free you from having to have good craft. But it does free you from having to second guess common/lowest denominator. Because you just need to find the people that your voice really resonates with.

The internet has made the world so tiny, people from across the globe read this little nothing blog. The internet allows us to connect and collaborate with our fellow man without ever meeting them in the flesh. And that seems to be one of the keys, people want to be part of it, when you read/watch a story it becomes part of you, the characters become your friends, how much better to be able to be part of it, not just a mute passive voyeur in the story but part of the creative foundation it springs from.

Obviously you aren't going to get a following like Kevin Smith. But if you have little tasters to get some interest (like honkbarn), and invite collaboration to get invested fans that promote you and just for the joy of working with a team. Talking money, there's the Homestar plan with the pushing the IP with hoodies and stuff, and the minushi approach where you give them enough that they need to buy it to finish it, and the youtube approach where you try and drive views and sell ads. Minushi had a smart approach by breaking it up into episodes, reminds me of old fashioned radio shows, but Dr. Horrible & the Guild show that you don't even have to do that, new media means you can be in new format lengths that fit what you want.

the gatekeepers have fallen, the tool barrier has fallen, the barrier now is drowning in noise and the solution to that is speaking with your heart

hone your craft, find your voice, find your people, make it happen.

Ilusionario

Recently saw one of the latest CG flicks (nothing to do with the flick above;), and while the story was well put together the visuals just bored me. What's the point of making a really blue sky with really green grass? (Lango was talking about this a while back.)

So it had me thinking, "well, what would be better?" So I went wandering through my inspiration folder of images I've pulled off the net. I was digging one of the artists from the Illusionario team so once I tracked their cghub page down I found their blog and lol they're all ready making their own short films with their ideas.

here's the images that pulled me in, I was digging the way the non important environment elements unify into large monochrome shape blocks, there's extra texture in them if you are interested but the overall expression is made instantly.


and then I just love how fresh and bendy this character is (sorry if it's NSFW)


so I'll be doing some more digging on that site, but I'm running home now, so now I can find it later. Here's their youtube page

Greenscreen

amazing how much you can do with so little (and skill)



Crazy Horse Entertainment