Case Closed

case closed mid term update

So far Case Closed is going really well. We are on track with our pre- production and we have finished our vertical slice ready for our progress screening. This film looks and sounds amazing and I cant wait for it to be finished. The hardest part of this year is that the projects are over the whole year and not just one term so it feels like everything is moving really slowly but its not we are just working on them for longer. 

Here is the shot list  i have created from our animatic- it will needs some improvements as we move along as the animatic and story are still changing slightly however this has helped us keep track of production on our vertical slice.

For Halloween the Director and I decided to dress up as our two main characters! this was a lot of fun and the team enjoyed it 

Here is the director, Head of animation and I presenting our vertical slice. Our lecturers were really pleased with our progress and happy for us to move forward 

Here is a meeting with the director, Sound artist and I present. we were discussing the sounds we wanted for our vertical slice.

Birmingham Film Festival

Big Feet! 

So big feet has already got into numerous festivals as part of a official selection including - Cornwall film festival, Nukhu and Birmingham film festival 

When it came to Birmingham one of our team members is from their so part of the team decided to travel up and watch Big feet on the big screen. it was a really fun experience and great to here feedback from people who had never seen the film before!

Film 2

the ones we love

So my Second project for my third year is called The Ones we Love. It is a 3D film about a boy who is struggling to deal with the loss of his sister. sadly i do not have an image of my team yet but here is a quick render test on of our directors did 

Film 1

Case Closed

So its final year and i have two very great projects to producer! 

Here is the heads of departments of the first. Im really excited to work on this project. It is a 2D Short film about a spy on a mission that has lead them onto a commuter train! 

Third Year Term 1

Third Year!

So Im finally in my third year at university! feels like I only applied yesterday but it also feels like I've been doing this for years

after producing three films in my second year I have decided that it is definitely the job role I would like to pursue after university. I never used to know what part of the pipeline I wanted to be involved in and as it turns out I like being involved in all parts from start to finish.

last week we had our project pitches and even though I'm very sad that the two projects I was helping on didn't get through I'm very excited that I have been asked by two other films if I could be the producer on their films!

the first film is called "case closed" a 2d animated comedy about a spy on a mission. this film is seems really good and the director is very hard working. Im excited to see where this project goes. I did help to complete a 2d film last year however I took that one over after the original producer was unable to continue, so I have not properly produced a 2d film since "tea talk" in first year.

the second film im producing is "the ones we love" a 3d animated short film about a boy who is recently lost his sister and is trying to come to terms with this loss. I love the idea of this film as it concentrates less on the sisters death and more on how boy is going to recover after this close bond has been taken away from him. I have never worked on a 3d film before so I'm going to have to try and learn the 3d pipeline whilst trying to keep up with deadlines this term. which is going to be difficult but I think I can do it!

Im a bit sad that I will not be working on a stop motion film this term as its something I know how to do very well, but I wanted to explore other mediums of animation more so that Im able to produce all types on animation and film.

Australia - Winton Film Festival

ButterFly dreaming. 

Friends we met in Winton

Whilst completing two films during my second term of second year i also applied to be a part of 5 students who would be travelling too Australia to create a short animation in the Outback. I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a part of this project and whilst we were their for two weeks we created the film 'Butterfly Dreaming' 

This film is about the belief of the indigenous people and to make the film we used two cameras, torches and whatever we could find in the outback! 

Overall this was an amazing experience and im really grateful I was chosen to go! 

view the film here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzMNUCWYQsg&t=124s

Bear

Bear End of Term update

Image of director, Myself and our head of animation.

The film is done!!!

I can't believe we have managed to animate the full film in four weeks but we did and bear is done! I was worried when i first joined this project that by doing so I would be working myself to hard and both films would fall behind schedule and not get done. But because i had two amazing teams working incredibly hard We managed to get Bear completely finished two day before the deadline.

Please view the film posted on my vimeo

https://vimeo.com/rebeccahardess

Big Feet- Update

Big Feet End of term Update

The film is done! 

We managed to get it completed on time and to a really great standard so I'm really pleased that i managed to produce a really great film whilst also working heavily on another project (more about bear in my next post !). I think the film has been finished to a really professional standard (So much so that our head of course has asked to put some of the film in a promotional video for the course which is usually reserved for 3rd years only) and we managed to get it completely finished a whole week before our deadline and ahead of schedule. I could not have asked for a better team and project experience this really has been amazing. I cannot release the film yet as we are currently submitting it to a lot of film festivals however the film will be released in April 2020

Bear

Animating

We have a very small team on Bear so we are struggling to get the animation done. when i joined the project in week 6 they did even have a final design for the characters yet. So i had to push that along quickly and start production. We now have 3 and a half weeks left to finish animation so it a bit tight, however i have come up with a new blending frames effect that fits the style of the film and means we can animate on 4s instead of 2s saving us a lot of time. I have also brought on some the directors from Big Feet as they are also 2D animators and really good at it (and fast)!
I am also doing a lot of the animation myself which is really interesting and a fun new experience. 2D animation is not something i have much experience in but im really enjoying the process.

This is our Simple Shot list that i created - This was a lot easier for my director to follow so they could see the work that was being completed.

Here is a meeting with Me, The head of animation and an animator present. 

I also arranged for a short amount of LAV to be created as their were some shots that our animators were finding particularly challenging 

New Project - producing bear

Taking over Bear

So Whilst doing Big Feet,  a friend of mine (who i worked with last term on Cuppa Jo) was directing another project of their own called 'Bear'. originally at the start of this term they asked me to be the assistant producer to help their producer whilst i did Big Feet. However I did not have to do much during the first month because they were very organised. We are now 6 weeks into term (Halfway) and because of personal circumstance their producer is having to step down from the role. My friend has asked me if I can take over as they really need someone to help organise their team. I have agreed to do it however it means that I have to do Big Feet and Bear at the same time which seems like a bit of a crazy thing to do in my second year! 

However, Big Feet is going really well and we are ahead of schedule- we have just finished our first week of Makin week and we have already created over half of our props, we will easily be able to start animating early (maybe even a week ahead of schedule!) and because of this I think i have the time to help out on Bear and I'm excited to see if I can pull this off. This is a new challenge! 

Big feet Producing

Producing 

I'm really enjoying the role of producer this term. The team are working so well together that I'm having to deal with little to no issues or delays! My whole team are also listening to me and my plans. Last term I found that sometimes my team wouldn't to me and argue with my organisation a lot however I think after that project got completed they were grateful that i pushed them to do their best and i think that has had an effect on this term as my team see me as a producer that knows what they are doing and is capable of getting the film completed on team, however I could not do it without them!

Here is the Shot list i created for Big feet. I think i can already see a development in my skills as a producer from last term. Im much more organised as I feel like I know what im doing more. 

This is the props list i created to keep track of all the props that we need made more the project. This is something I did not do last term which mean't it was really hard to keep track of what was being made and one of the sets almost wasn't finished. This was a mistake I did not want to make this term and this spreadsheet helped me stay organised

This is a dates availability sheet I made for the project. This was really useful to keep track of when people could work - especially when trying to organise animators as we only had one studio to animated in so it had to be organised perfectly. 

This is one of the weekly animation schedules I created. Like I said above we only had one studio to animate all 60 shots in and we only had 3 weeks to animated all 2 minutes, so I needed to run a tight schedule so we aren't wasting time. This weekly plan is helping me to do that  

Big Feet- Making

Making Weeks

I loved creating the film set for cuppa Jo and it was a really interesting process, however this term I really wanted to prioritise my role as a producer as I think this is the role I would like to have after I have completed my degree.  However i did manage to find the time to create the Twigloo that will be featured in the forest scene of Big Feet! 

To create this i wrapped mod roc round a bowl and left it to dry. I then painted it brown and using a hot glue gun, I glued twigs on it to make it a Twigloo, I even created a little door. This was a fun little project that didn't take to long. It was a nice break from spreadsheets! 

Big feet

New Term, New Project!

So its term 2 of my second year and I'm producing another project! 

this term we do not have to follow a client brief and its up to us what we do. I was approached by some people on the course as they had a good idea for a stop motion short film. They are usually 2D film makers so im interested to see how they create a film that will work with stop motion (as we have certain limitations at falmouth that mean we may not be able to be as creative as we would like!)  however they are great directors so im really excited to see more. 

They're idea follows a yeti who wants to find his family. They have already shown me some concept art and storyboards and i love the idea. I have brought on some other people to the project and we now have a great team of 7! 

we have animators, set makers and a DOP so we are ready to go.