Final Post before final deadline...

The last few days have been spent compositing my film together using After Effects and Premiere Pro.

Although some elements of my film are unfinished, all of the main character animation is complete and at least 80% of the film has coloured frames too. I worked the shots to the timing of the score, though I may work further with my composer, as I felt some shots could be extended musically to enhance the action in the scene.

From seeing everything composited together, I felt much better about the film in general too. After only visualising the shots in my head, it was really great to see them all up next to one another, making the film a whole. I definitely feel proud of it.

After the deadline, I plan to tweak a lot of areas, cleaning everything up and making things neat and tidy ready for the grad show and industry night in June.

As part of our hand-in we must fill in and submit a film festival submission form with 5 production stills, so here they are:

I'm looking forward to tweaking and finishing the film ready for the grad show. After compositing the film together over the last few days, I can see how much I have done and how much I need to do. It'd be a great achievement to fully finish it.

Also, in two weeks time, I will be attending a week-long masterclass with Joanna Quinn at uni with a number of my friends on my course. I'm looking forward to it a lot! :)


---jkl

The Final Stretch...

One week to go!

Animation has been coming along steadily over the last few weeks. I have been going into the uni studios every day to work which have included weekends for some time now.

I have had some fantastic helpers on my film. I really could not have got as far as I am now into my film without their help. As this is the final week before hand-in, I aim to give the helpers a few more shots to colour to be able to get a good majority of the film coloured for the deadline.

I now have only a few more "elements" left to animate which I aim to finish by at least Wednesday, so I can then start compositing everything together on the computers in the studios.

Over the brief Easter holiday at the end of March, I was able to meet with my composer at his home. We worked over the score. We produced a digital piano track as well as an "orchestral" version which he sent me after the meeting.

On April 23rd, our group had a critique. We all put together a "rough cut" of our film to show to the tutors and our class.

Feedback I received from tutors:

-Towards the beginning of the film, where we see Mollie amongst her classmates (etc) she needs to be clearer. Ie: Make Mollie stand out more (blurring or lighting effects)
-Shot 034, where Mollie is looking at Babbit and starting to walk forward, Mollie needs to look back, then towards Babbit as she should be confused as to how Babbit got outside....
-Some notes in the musical score sound a little too low and don't work with the visuals.

As well as this, the tutors said how impressed they were by the score itself, as the musical "themes" for the different characters were present throughout and helped with the visuals, which was really great to hear. They also said the film was very promising, so I am just hoping I get everything more or less done for the deadline. After the official hand-in on the 14th May, I aim to go over any areas of the film that need a little more attention, be it in the actual animation, or in the colouring, clean up or compositing aspects, in time for the grad show from the 1st June, in particular for the 13/14th June (Industry Night).


As well as this, we have to complete a 1500 word evaluation as well as 5 posters for the hand-in. Lack of sleep may be necessary, but I am hoping everything will be more or less OK for the deadline.

Wish me luck..

---jkl