Production Schedule

Ok everyone this is our production schedule. Work to it and maybe stay ahead?

Lucinda

The characters

Here are the designs for all three characters. Though our Norman (name for the time being) interacts with a number of frozen figures, we liked the idea that they all be remarkably similar as to show how different he is, and how no one is individual in this corporate world we're presenting. I drew these in Flash- this seemed most logical as we will be doing the majority, if not all of our animation in the package- and taking inspiration from the teams designs decided on the above. I believe they are simple enough to animate, at the same time as having enough about them for the audience to understand their character, or rather, lack of.

Obviously at this early stage there is still time for development so these designs are not set in stone as yet.

Flash, saviour of the universe.

On Monday and Tuesday, I, director Ben, ran the team through the basics of Flash animation. It went rather well I feel, and everyone seems pretty confident moving forward with the software. Talking through the tools of the software I used a basic animation of our character to teach the guys what in truth is a simple package. I was keen to enforce the fact that we are not using Flash for its technical capabilities and that this project is very much a hand drawn project- just hand drawn straight into the computer. As the whole team has used Adobe products before they found navigating round the workspace simple enough, and, after using After Effects and Softimage in our digital lessons, the timeline and keyframe system is relatively straightforward to everyone. Throughout the project I am happy to be 'Flash support' though I am confident that, if we can all get used to drawing with a graphic tablet, we are going to come out with a great Flash animation.

As for the decision on our final character, I took in some sketches from each 'Goonie' to compare and perhaps combine, however I was really taken by Jamie's design as it reflected the idea I had in my head from the start and was just right for our film. Everyone seems to connect with this character and we look forward to animating him. 

So, for the time being, storyboards have been discussed and are still being worked on, and everyone is going to get to grips with drawing the character in Flash, creating turnarounds and facial expression sheets for reference.

Getting Started

A lot was sorted out in the group meeting on Monday, roles have kind of been sorted out, although its on more of an ad hoc basis at the moment. Ideas were discussed and bounced around. Work was viewed. All in all its a good start, I think we mesh well as a group and hopefully this will be reflected in the work that we collectively produce.

A schedule is now in the works as is a script, getting these two things outs of the way should get the project up and running and off.

Most of the ideas discussed were to do with how the middle of the film will play out. The beginning and end had been mainly figure out by Ben, as it is his story and idea, the group mutually agreed that what he had come up with was good. The middle section was left purposely open to interpretation for the group by him. Nay was very on board with discussing ideas and bouncing them around.

The next point of discussion was what format the film would be presented in. Director Ben's suggestion was to use Flash as the animating tool, even though no-one with the exception of him has used the program properly before, it was agreed by the the group that we would try it like that. I am a little hesitant about using a program that isn't well know by the team but I have faith in Ben to teach us how to us it.

Gemma has been given the task of drafting the story boards, we're just waiting on a complete script so she can get on with that. We are also all creating character designs and will pick out which one we think is the best. The diplomatic approach we've taken with the art style I feel is a good move as it give the group members who don't have much to do at the moment, as we are still in the planning and discussion stages, something to do so there isn't any time wasted.

No sign of James Hickman though, I hope he hasn't fallen off the face of the earth or something, that might cause problems...

The Beginning Of The Line

It’s the end of the first week and this is the first post of the new group blog. Hello. The directors have been decided and groups picked. I am Lucinda the producer of group one. Ben is the director, it is was his story that was given the green light. The other members that make up the group are Nay, James H, Gemma and James C.


This is Bens story in brief;


It is about a lonely man a train station. The people are all just passing by and not taking any notice of him. He observes them as they go about there business, waiting. For some reason, time stops, the man takes advantage of this. He plays with the frozen people as if they were puppets moving and posing them. He finally has friends. People he can be with. The final pose he makes is of all of them together, he takes a photo, a final memento. The time freeze breaks and everything begins moving again. The man tries to show all his new ‘friends’ the fun that they had together, but everyone just passes by.


He got his inspiration from this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo which is some kind of flash mob thing that happend in Grand Central Station, New York. 


This is the story that the team will be working with. Discussions will be had later on to finalise any details and smooth out the plot. Apart form that this is a good piece of narrative to work with.


On the creative level not much has happened since the groups were decided, most of it has been organising everything and everyone. No doubt this will pick up when we get things going.


GO TEAM!