Semester 2

The semester has really just been used to concentrate on the actual production of the film, with most of the pre-production accomplished in first semester. One of the earliest changes was from the film being about a fish that accidentally blows up his only means of food just to try and make a fire, to being about a fish's desire for a hot meal and the fire in which to cook it.

The film is still set in a desert because it still centres around a hungry fish, and I like the idea of a barren landscape to emphasise this. I've also had a number of comments on how the landscape is almost like a stage for the fish, which I had intended from an economical view, i.e. less backgrounds to draw up.

Apart from a few changes made to the landscape and story, the title has also been changed from "yliaD deeF" to "Open Fire". Although I was attached to the old title I can see why a change was a good idea. After meeting with Andi, Hania, James as well as a number of others, a more catchy name that could actually be easily pronounced and remembered after leaving the theatre was enough to convince me.

The soundtrack has changed over six times during the semester to come out with what you hear now. With many changes made to timing of the animatic, shots being cut and others being added the music was also edited to suit the pace of the film. The score has also become a much faster pace which I belive complements and carries the film very well, I don't believe anyone will get bored watching the film with the way everything has been condensed, going from a five minute film to just over two and a half.

I have had a fair amount of input over the semester also, which is a shame because much of the information is very useful and I only wish I got it in first semester so I act on it. I've met with Nina Paley who won Annecy, who gave me some good advice as far as empathysing with the fish. I also met with Bob Blasdall who has helped me with my editing, Peter Moyes who has given a lot of helpful advice as far as narrative, however much of what he has told me I was unable to go ahead with considering the time I had left. I've also worked very closely with James and Hania Lee as far as framing shots, timing and editing.

Sound design was tough, even though I only needed two sound effects, the explosion at the end, and the sound of thunder in the sky. I booked myself into the sound recording room, however I had people comming in and disturbing me with confusion over what day and room they had booked. After exporting the sound and bringing it into "Premier" I found the sound to be almost silent when the music was played over it, which was strange as I had been editing the sounds over the music in the sound room earlier and it was fine. I had to re-export my soundeffects with the music and then bring that into "Premier" once more, however this time it didn't sync up. This was very frustrating but easily resolved.

In the end there were many things that I would have liked to have gone back and improved, also I have learnt so much over the year just doing this project that if I could go back and do it again I would not have used so many types of software, I would have consulted with more people during the scripting stage also. However, this being my first film, and that I managed to pull it off by myself, with the help of my lecturers and friends of course, but I am proud of the final product, and special thanks must go out to all those who have encouraged me over the year. You know who you are.

Week14

Just been trying to get all my other subjects out of the way, however Hania was able to come up with this first experiment at a soundtrack, I really like the theme that carries throughout it. It's not timed to the animatic obviously, but it's good to get the visuals at the same time as the music none the less.

Week 13

We had our end of semester presentations this week where we had to show everything we had done up to this point. The assessors were Andi and the Head of the new Games Department. We were asked to have a number of items for this presentation: an animatic, production schedule and budget, scratch sound etc. I had most of this prepared the week before and had been using the last couple of weeks to get some test animation done.

I think the class did well; the films seem to be of a very high quality and all very different. It was good to see how everyone was progressing and it was all the more encouraging to have my presentation as prepared as possible.
I believe I did well over the semester; I’ve been able to keep to my schedule without letting my other subjects suffer. So presenting to the class was fairly easy, with plenty to show. I’m under the assumption that I did well as the only criticism I received were with the background style (which I’m happy to play around with) and the more difficult piece of advice to take, which was to think of changing the title from “yliad deef” to something else. So far this is the only person who hasn’t liked the title, so I’m still considering changing it or not, I’ll wait till I get more feedback from family, friends and peers before I start thinking of a new title.

Week 12

This week was pretty hectic getting other assignments in, but I still managed to complete a rough explosion test and a rough run cycle for my fish which proved much more difficult than I thought.

Week 11

I met with Hania, my composer for coffee and to discuss the soundtrack for my film. I showed her my test animations, layouts and latest animatic and asked for her opinion. She told me that she is excited to be working on the project with me, and because I realise she is very talented I want to give her the opportunity to come up with the score with very little influence from me. I know very little about music so I would only get in the way. I want the score to be original, so I didn’t want to put a soundtrack on my animatic and ask her to come up with a similar sound. Also because I am working solo, I’ve taken a few of her ideas on as far as timing. The only thing I asked was that there be a theme to the music that comes in significantly during the title and credits, and that she realises where the music needs to build up. Everything else I’ve left up to her, and I can’t wait to hear it. I gave her a 30 second piece of the animatic to come up with some experiments. I also worked on getting my background layout painted. Because there is only one setting and essentially only one background, I want it to look as impressive as possible.

Week 10

This week I experimented with some special effects in Adobe After Effects CS3. I managed to get a fairly good test of a fire with smoke, a lightning test and an effect that looks like light through the water’s surface. I still need to play around some more as it looks a little too realistic at the moment, but it’s a good start.

Week9

I got my mark back for last week’s presentation and I am very pleased with the distinction. The only criticism was in the lack of background layouts. It was very useful to learn where I should be concentrating however, and although I’ve been on track as far as animation and my storyboarding, my layouts have been neglected.
I spent this week completing a rough test animation for my fish throwing a hot ember.