It’s all starting to slow down, and it’s saddening and maddening and relieving all at once. The last 10 days or so, Ryan, Phil, Adrian and I have only gotten together a handful of times. Most of the work we’re doing is filler and re-crafting - correcting boards we knew weren’t going to work from the get-go, or rendering boards that while not entirely necessary for the purposes of the animatic can and will be used to beef up elements of the montage sequence.

Once again Adrian’s Shakespeare book has come in handy as a stand-in. We never knew that King Henry IV Part II was written as a descriptive book but it’s served the purpose well.

This sequence where Anna is first introduced to a D’ni linking book has been trouble since the start. Questions arise such as: how dynamic does the shot need to be? Do we focus on her reaction or do we follow the book as Aitrus presents it? How many layers of protective wrapping should be around the book? And, how would Aitrus least awkwardly, but most effectively unwrap it for presentation?

We’ve been getting more and more obsessive as the weeks have gone on. Watching how static the animatic can be at times with shots that stale out left and right has pretty much fed this obsession - and we’re now trying to introduce elements to spruce things up throughout the piece. Surprisingly enough, Phil hasn’t found this to be frustrating. I think we all kind of feel that if we just keep going, we’ll have something to keep doing.

I fear the dead weeks ahead sitting at home, looking for freelance work. I imagine a completed animatic that’s shelved while we wait for additional resources. Adrian and I should make a pact to show the piece to at least one or two new people every week, whether they’re investors or happenstance passerbys. It might keep things fresh as we play the waiting game to put together everything else in this package.

We finally mentioned a little more about the project to Chris S. at MAF. We have the feeling that she might be able to help hook us up with some people who could be of help, but I’m not sure. Sometimes that group snubs serious projects while fully supporting crap that’s going to go nowhere. Time will tell, I guess.

9:14 pm

tags: animatic, anna, images, linking, maf, Phil, Ryan, shakespeare, storyboarding