High Strung

Well, I submitted High Strung to The Sundance Film Festival yesterday. Now I have 79 days to brace myself for rejection, which won’t be hard at all. Speaking of counting down days I have 8 days left in the studio that I’m working in. The “Higher Ups” have finally come to their senses and realized their faults of letting me use their facilities and are finally kicking me out. With my track record I’m pretty sure they’ll send some goons to take me out in the woods behind Evergreen to break my kneecaps so there’s no way I can crawl back to try use continue to use the studio. Anyways, lots to do in little time, this is nothing new though. The audio team has been brought back together and are ready to finish up the sound design. I should have the picture done by the end of this month, the audio should be done by the end of October, and compression will be done in the beginning of November. High Strung actually going to be finish? Who would have thunk it?

On a more interesting note a good friend, Sean Parker, is submitting his third feature length film, Coup de Théâtre, to Sundance. I was able to see a rough cut of it and it was a most enjoyable film full of heart and charm. This guy blows me away with everything he does. He’s only got a couple days left to tighten up the cut before he overnights it to Sundance. I wish him the best of luck and can’t wait to see the finished piece. By the way he’s only 22 and wrote, shot, and is almost through the majority of post in a little more than a year while I’ve been working on the same 13 minute short for two and a half years…

Here’s a link to his site with some info on the film and a trailer for it as well:

For the first time ever I almost kind of slightly might see the light at the end of the tunnel for High Strung. I only have 7 shots left to animate and 4 to re-shoot. Then all that is left is ALL the post and to finish the audio. Yeah…

Here’s some more hand-animated crane action. Only 8 takes this time. I was about an hour into take 7 when the power went out at the campus rendering the work I had done not visible to continue. Quite frustrating with no sleep. Four hours of sleep and 6 hours of animating later the shot was finished… well sort of. This shot does mark my last medialoan checkout. Quite a sad event, no more free use of amazing equipment.

The beginning of the end is upon me. I’ve said this so many times it’s numbing. Alas though a final, no exceptions, real deadline is quickly approaching. All animation and post must be finished before Fall Quarter begins because I will be officially graduated. They’re finally doing what they should have years ago and are kicking me out. I have 28 shots and all post-production to complete in roughly a month. The goal is to have the picture completely done by the end of September and the audio done by the end of October leaving the beginning of November for all final compression and outputting. As for the production itself, there might be a real ending to the story after all. You know a beginning, middle, AND end. Instead of the current long boring beginning, build up middle, and unsatisfying drop to the story. You only know what I am talking about if you went to the Eye Candy Animation Festival I put on, which I doubt you did. For that matter I doubt anyone is reading this. Anyways, Elliott has actually come out of the house. Of course I made it as complicated as possible and did a hand animated crane shot. Rigging up a dolly track and a jib arm I managed to shoot the opening of the third act relatively how I imaged it. It took a week to plan and 9 1/2 hours of straight animating to complete. Here’s a timelapses of the animation process…

Take #12 (Messed up the shot about 2 hours in…)

Take #13 (Completed Shot)

“You’re never going to let yourself finish it…” – An Evergreen Policemen

I’m wrapping up the prep work for the beginning of the quarter. Trying to get everything squared away so I can solely concentrate on finishing the remaining animation. I’m back to writing tiny “To Do Lists” on note cards. I feel the productivity beginning to rise again, or should I say the pressure of having an incredibly close deadline incoming. Much has been done in the past couple of weeks. The inevitable finally happened, two of Elliott’s fingers broke. It was quite a challenge to figure out how to fix them, in other words make completely new ones. Not being able to pull out the broken pieces I ended up drilling them out, making new fingers, tearing apart the broken ones, gluing the pieces to the new fingers, wrapping the new fingers in black string, and then white string. The whole process took several days. The story has been continually refined and rewritten. The piece went from basically having no solid story, to being over 440 shots, to being 267 shot, and finally cut down to 163 shots. This process has been the most difficult part out of everything I’ve encountered throughout this animation. Hopefully, it will pay off in the end. A shooting scheduled has been arranged and plans are being made. Below are some behind the scenes pictures to show what I’ve been doing, including the evolution of the storyline and storyboard. MORE DETAILS TO COME! Keep on checking in…

Though I doubt anyone has noticed, I have taken a lengthy break from posting on my blog but I have never halted production. I am still trudging through the vast ocean that has become High Strung. Today is the first day of Spring Quarter marking my sixth straight quarter of production on this piece. Much has changed and progressed since my last post but to get you up to speed as quickly as possible here is an amazing short multimedia video about High Strung and myself produced by Photoland as part of Inside Evergreen:

http://photo.evergreen.edu/portal/slideshows/highstrung/

I will be posting much more frequently so keep checking in. The clock is ticking, the pressure is on, and it’s time to make some magic happen.

So, I just got home from walking from school. I would have drove home since my car is at school, BUT…my rear right tire just happens to be completely flat! This would be the third flat tire in three weeks and the second in three days. I just so happened to have fixed the exact tired from being flat last Friday, which ate up over 6 hours of time I so dearly needed. Either someone really hates me or I just have horrible luck. Those damn fortune cookies lied to me, but that isn’t the only thing thats lied to me recently. Thankfully, I just got back from my final vistit to Mike’s house, so the set is safe back at school. I showed him my progress that I made since my last visit and we did some final touches. I still have at least one more full day of construction and then I will enter the dungeon that is known as the “3-D Experimental Animation Lab” for at least 8 weeks straight. These long hard days are nothing compared to what I’m about to get myself into.

MY LIFE
MY WORLD
MY TUNNEL

NO PRESSURE

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES TOMMY A DULL BOY

O wait…I hit that back in week five. I thought I was behind schedule, but then day light savings rolls back around and takes another hour away. Leaving the com building when it closed at 2am and getting home at 4am. That was the longest 5 minute walk of my life. My sleep schedule is all out of whack. I need to get back into my 2am to 6am groove, maybe 1am to 6am if things start to smooth out. I’ve been constantly working on the puppet and the set for the past two weeks now. I would say the set is about 90% completed and the puppet is 85% completed. Currently, Mckayla is in possession of Elliott and will be working on his costume for the next couple of days and should be done this Friday. I will then finish the small amount of work I still have to do on the shoes and wrap his head and hands in string. I had already done that once but he came out to “mummy-like” so I’m going to take a different approach. This is also why I painted his head black.Hopefully  having the base black will add a sense of depth, more so than the stained wood did at least. Though I’m making serious progress on the construction portions the story is still not all there, or should I say there at all. Overall the story contains a large amount of plot holes and lacks dimensionality. Hopefully, this looming pressure will help produce the ideas to fill in these holes and make everything come together. I have all the pieces, now its just putting the puzzle together.

“Story-writing is like solving a great puzzle made up of dozens of elements. Think of Rubik’s Cube. You twist the sides around to see if a given combination will work, then you twist it again, and again, until it comes out right. Along the way, you probably have to discard a few things as well, and that can be the hardest part.”
-Peter Lord: Director on Chicken Run, founder of Aardman Animation Studio

I have finally finished padding Elliott’s armature with memory foam so that when Mckayla sews the costume onto him it gives the right shape and form. He turned out larger than I would have liked. I snipped at that foam for two days to try to get the right shape but still be sleek and skinny. Elliott’s joints are just so big that if I cut down the foam anymore if wouldn’t give the right transition and wouldn’t look anatomically correct, even though he isn’t human. After Mckayla starts getting the clothes on him I’m sure I can do some final touch ups to give for the right look and aesthetic.

*click to enlarge