spent the week or more being busy with course outlines etc
just wrote up my feedback about the ASP leave and also my RHD progress report,
which also made me realise i should write up a cohesive account of all this activity..
or maybe just finish off some more scenes while I can
or maybe i should edit what i have into some sort of cohesive form...
or maybe all three..
(in my dreams)
actually finishing more drawing is not a bad idea...assemblage can come next - when i am back at work and DILIGENTLY taking two days away to continue the research...like i am Supposed to.
though i also have to get some teaching stuff sorted. Painfully so.
another whingey blog
...... sighhhhhh....
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
orgesticulanismus
just had to note...
this was one of the most fantastic films of the MIAF..and well worth the trip down there - despite what ever else was not so right about the fest (still writing up a response/report)
the film deals with disability in a very special visual graphic way - actually it was astounding.
some comments from other peeps who've found the project on the web
from motionographer
http://motionographer.com/2008/04/30/orgesticulanismus-2/
and a chap with a lovely illo on his blog header
http://www.minhwind.com/blog/2008/05/15/orgesticulanismus/
and here is the film by Matthieu Labaye
and here is the text: (thanks to Ken from Minhwind)
this was one of the most fantastic films of the MIAF..and well worth the trip down there - despite what ever else was not so right about the fest (still writing up a response/report)
the film deals with disability in a very special visual graphic way - actually it was astounding.
some comments from other peeps who've found the project on the web
from motionographer
http://motionographer.com/2008/04/30/orgesticulanismus-2/
and a chap with a lovely illo on his blog header
http://www.minhwind.com/blog/2008/05/15/orgesticulanismus/
and here is the film by Matthieu Labaye
and here is the text: (thanks to Ken from Minhwind)
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
i think it's over....
I MEAN,, ANYTHING TO DO WITH "RESEARCH"...COZ IT'S BEEN A MONTH SINCE I'VE POSTED AND NOT MUCH DRAWING HAPPENED AT ALL IN THAT TIME. BEEN OVERTAKEN WITH SORTING WORK SHIZZLE...NOW COURSE OUTLINES ETC... AND MEANTIME A TRIP TO MELBOURNE ANIMATION FESTIVAL TO BE INSPIRED AND AWED..MEET UP WITH PEOPLE, DO SOME BUSINESS IN TERMS OF PROGRESS ON THE PROJECT...INTERVIEWS, ENGAGEMENTS, SET UP SOME STUFF FOR CONFERENCES ETC.... NOTHING!!... OKAY, NOT 'NOTHING' BUT THE SAME THING...NOT AS MUCH PROGRESS AS I WISHED.I REALLY NEED TO WRITE UP A REVIEW OF SOME OF THE FILMS IN miaf... PLUS ACTUALLY WRITE ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF ANIMATION FESTIVALS IN THIS DIGITAL AND ECONOMIC CLIMATE... THERE WAS SOOOOO FEW PEOPLE THERE IT WAS CRAZY...ALSO SO FRUSTRATING NNO SUPPORT FROM my GENERATION AS SUCH... TOO OLD AND LAZY...AND THE YOUNGER KIDS THE SAME (LAZY) PLUS YOUTUBE IS DRUG OF CHOICE AND YOU can VIRTUALLY SEE EVERYTHING WITH MAYBE ONLY A FEW MONTHS DELAY...plus...I GGOTTA SAY, THE SCREENNG QUALITY WAS ABSOLUTE SHIT FOR AT LEAST 80% OF IT...ALL BETACAM TAPE PIXELLATED...WAS SOOOOOOO BAD AND ANNOYING TO PAY 15 BUCKS FOR POOR QUALITY...BECAUSE LARGELY this IS THE REASON WE WOULD GO TO THE FESTIVAL...SEE GREAT STUFF ON BIG SCREEN.... sigjh ... ANYWAY, MORE ABOUT THAT TO FOLLOW. A TEENAGER OR TWO NEEDS MY ATTENTION NOW NOW now...
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
new targets
spend my life on this blog whinging about how little i am getting done...
well...that sickness killed two weeks, but spent some time reading and watching other things...
MUST incorporate some more sweet sassy metamorphosis randomness into the project a'la' Jeff Chiba Stearns "Anythink" (a little commercial job)..but the best -he also did "Yellow Sticky Notes" - he runs his life on notes to himself..yellow sticky notes... is a man after my own heart... i have drawers and drawers of them - sometimes i graduate to pieces of Yellow Paper..like old US legal notebooks (but no lines - I HATE lines) - and I have files at work called "The Yellow Note File". I think they're probably the most important things in terms of structure, form and management of life in general, but i am sounding like a poor-girls Douglas Adams
and being stupidly diversionary
so,
rethinking the list of what will be completed in 6 short weeks time sadness sadness...
these are the in-my-dreams bits...or maybe realistic targets to achieve by the end of semester 2, 2010, while i am also back at work and dealing with hell and high water...and teaching!!
sequence nine and ten and 11 outta the way TODAY!!!!!
well...that sickness killed two weeks, but spent some time reading and watching other things...
MUST incorporate some more sweet sassy metamorphosis randomness into the project a'la' Jeff Chiba Stearns "Anythink" (a little commercial job)..but the best -he also did "Yellow Sticky Notes" - he runs his life on notes to himself..yellow sticky notes... is a man after my own heart... i have drawers and drawers of them - sometimes i graduate to pieces of Yellow Paper..like old US legal notebooks (but no lines - I HATE lines) - and I have files at work called "The Yellow Note File". I think they're probably the most important things in terms of structure, form and management of life in general, but i am sounding like a poor-girls Douglas Adams
and being stupidly diversionary
so,
rethinking the list of what will be completed in 6 short weeks time
- complete initial rough animatic for all 15 sequences (currently on sequence 9)
- script re-drafted based on animatic/story - re-structure
- include dialogue script
- re-time animatic sequences to be more accurate
- inbetween sequence 1 (with timing adjustments)
- clean-up sequence 2 (including better and/or extended treatment of 'black hole' shot)
- list of books, films, quotes etc updated
- arrange meetings in Melbourne during/after MIAF with Terri Dentry, Dennis Tupicoff, Lizzette Atkins re: animated narrative documentary producing...development "interviews" to be used for quotes and leads etc
- go to MIAF last days... 24th - 27th june and be inspired and intimidated
these are the in-my-dreams bits...or maybe realistic targets to achieve by the end of semester 2, 2010, while i am also back at work and dealing with hell and high water...and teaching!!
- draft 2 of each sequence...adding detail, better drawing (!!), better structure, screen design and perspective, plus any additional peripherals, jokes, clarity
- concept design/treatment for key shots in each sequence - full colour, and include some experiments with paint/software/styling etc
- this is around 45 - 50 images...meaning for a 15 week semester, i will need to get 3 done per week (this is quite a lot!)
- pitch document for FUNDING
- meetings with PND support groups for feedback
- also pitch it to BeyondBlue et al
- timing and sequence schedule...the approximate correct length of each sequence so i can work out a suitable budget...ie money if there ever IS any, and time required to animate, then clean-up, then paint etc
- layout and "model" sheets for each sequence/scene/shot
- beg animators to work as interns/work experience on this project
- draft the 'overall' pitch/concept doc for the 'series' - to include the next one on Breast Cancer, plus the following one on Infertility, and the fourth one...i am now undecided... i thought it might be on Senility, but maybe it should be more focused on what happens to our middle aged girls personally/physically...it should be about divorce and seperation and all other shit that happens to us...but maybe that Senility idea is not that bad, coz it's around about 'middle age' that you have to deal with it in your parents, while coping with teenagers AND divorce etc..
- worry about that later
sequence nine and ten and 11 outta the way TODAY!!!!!
Friday, June 4, 2010
lurgy
what a waste of a week or so...
sick with flu..
lolling in bed and done nothing since last wednesday...
update on websites that inspired me and books that made me wonder what the hell i am doing
not a good week for research...but managed to do a bunch of 'housekeeping' stuff re: work et al so maybe that's all just part of the party
whatever possesses me to be so hard on myself???
sick with flu..
lolling in bed and done nothing since last wednesday...
update on websites that inspired me and books that made me wonder what the hell i am doing
not a good week for research...but managed to do a bunch of 'housekeeping' stuff re: work et al so maybe that's all just part of the party
whatever possesses me to be so hard on myself???
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
cat on lap
actually...she's sitting on my cintiq!!!
a bit difficult to draw ha ha
managed to get three more scenes done in the last week..still way behind target though...
but if i can keep the momentum up, it just ets easier to draw things out...
but i keep adding AND adding and adding things and of course it takes even longer...
have to be patient.
restructure my expected 'outcomes'...
a rough animatic is about ALL that will come out of this six months...
plus some random notes about methodologies and a bunch more info about postnatal depression, and something of a draft for the exegesis structure...
now..i AM still being too ambitious.
meantime - the garden is looking beautiful
we've had lovely people over for dinners
currently smelling a splendid beef n bacon casserole wafting down from the slow-cooker in the kitchen
my grandson is an angel...sitting up, crawling, laughing, eating granma's chicken soup...and his mother is on the UP (Yay!!)
is PND congenital???
god knows.
anyway..
bunch of books from Amazon arrived last week - thankyou Tony for the gift voucher for my birthday last year... i finally spent it! you rock!
except they are all 'work' books... stuff that's useful for teaching...but also a bit inspirational for myself i spose
both Walt Stanchfield's "Drawn to Life"...lovely books from the notes he'd made over the many years of inspiring Disney animators
Chris Robinson's collection of ramblings, essays, writings from AWN.com - the "Animation Pimp" - i used to LOVE reading his stuff on the website... but i dunno what it is, the book just made me feel a bit depressed - so many cynical rants and bites of bitterness coming through all in one collection...kinda put me into a bit of a funk as to why the hell I am making this film anyway...
perspective girl!! remember the perspective...
and also "Re-Imagining Animation: Contemporary Moving Image Cultures"..
one of the latest Paul Wells collaborations - he is truly an awesomely prolific writer on theories of animation - i feel humbled and don't even know if there's anything to ADD..
anyway...they'll be useful
plus got a lotta books from the library about the approach to screenwriting/scriptwriting so will pick and choose bits from there that will add to my grand theory.
been reading them in bed each night and morning...a good excuse to loll around in bed each morning til 8am when i have to actually get UP and get my daughter to school.
only 8 more weeks of this bliss left...
i better get a cracking schedule happening and get this to all come together
less blogging, more drawing
a bit difficult to draw ha ha
managed to get three more scenes done in the last week..still way behind target though...
but if i can keep the momentum up, it just ets easier to draw things out...
but i keep adding AND adding and adding things and of course it takes even longer...
have to be patient.
restructure my expected 'outcomes'...
a rough animatic is about ALL that will come out of this six months...
plus some random notes about methodologies and a bunch more info about postnatal depression, and something of a draft for the exegesis structure...
now..i AM still being too ambitious.
meantime - the garden is looking beautiful
we've had lovely people over for dinners
currently smelling a splendid beef n bacon casserole wafting down from the slow-cooker in the kitchen
my grandson is an angel...sitting up, crawling, laughing, eating granma's chicken soup...and his mother is on the UP (Yay!!)
is PND congenital???
god knows.
anyway..
bunch of books from Amazon arrived last week - thankyou Tony for the gift voucher for my birthday last year... i finally spent it! you rock!
except they are all 'work' books... stuff that's useful for teaching...but also a bit inspirational for myself i spose
both Walt Stanchfield's "Drawn to Life"...lovely books from the notes he'd made over the many years of inspiring Disney animators
Chris Robinson's collection of ramblings, essays, writings from AWN.com - the "Animation Pimp" - i used to LOVE reading his stuff on the website... but i dunno what it is, the book just made me feel a bit depressed - so many cynical rants and bites of bitterness coming through all in one collection...kinda put me into a bit of a funk as to why the hell I am making this film anyway...
perspective girl!! remember the perspective...
and also "Re-Imagining Animation: Contemporary Moving Image Cultures"..
one of the latest Paul Wells collaborations - he is truly an awesomely prolific writer on theories of animation - i feel humbled and don't even know if there's anything to ADD..
anyway...they'll be useful
plus got a lotta books from the library about the approach to screenwriting/scriptwriting so will pick and choose bits from there that will add to my grand theory.
been reading them in bed each night and morning...a good excuse to loll around in bed each morning til 8am when i have to actually get UP and get my daughter to school.
only 8 more weeks of this bliss left...
i better get a cracking schedule happening and get this to all come together
less blogging, more drawing
Friday, May 14, 2010
painting...and crashing
ohhhh frstrrrrrrration
got up to sequence 6 (it is friday) - - target was sequence 8 - - however decided it really needed some painting play.
however - my sweet little netbook machine is just too too weak to handle all this heavy bitmap stuff and going so slow and periodically crashing when i save
grrrrrrrrr
am backing up like a mad cowboy, but methinks i may need some more grunt if I'm going to be able to keep speeding ahead.
must be patient
will post some tests by lunchtime i hope.
i really like painting
another process of working it out as you go along..
i start with a hazy idea in my head about what it should look like based on what is going on in the story...she is disappearing into the 'black hole'... but the actual tools (software paintbrushes, papers etc) are somewhat dictating what happens frame by frame and therefore on screen, and by inference, what goes on in the story.
it's a bit scary and random
got up to sequence 6 (it is friday) - - target was sequence 8 - - however decided it really needed some painting play.
however - my sweet little netbook machine is just too too weak to handle all this heavy bitmap stuff and going so slow and periodically crashing when i save
grrrrrrrrr
am backing up like a mad cowboy, but methinks i may need some more grunt if I'm going to be able to keep speeding ahead.
must be patient
will post some tests by lunchtime i hope.
i really like painting
another process of working it out as you go along..
i start with a hazy idea in my head about what it should look like based on what is going on in the story...she is disappearing into the 'black hole'... but the actual tools (software paintbrushes, papers etc) are somewhat dictating what happens frame by frame and therefore on screen, and by inference, what goes on in the story.
it's a bit scary and random
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
back to drawing
interesting process sometimes...
feel like i've gone rusty all over again...trying to sketch out the updated 'script'...all these images in my head, and when i come to draw them they don't come out fast enough...and basically look crap...
i get disheartened.
But
must remember that the first draft of the first scene looked VERY crap to start with...by draft two it started to come together...by draft 4...and the clean-up stage it looked kinda alright...
and of course it STILL needs so much extra work.
but the 'writing' process becomes more important as a SCHEDULE of sorts...
at least it's a bit like a List or a Map..I have a clearer idea of what else i have to do...maybe easier to prioritise with this document rather than drawing blindly what's milling in my head...
but i still don't think it is LOCKED IN - and nor should it be at this point either - because so many things emerge from the actual DOING of it, the MAKING of it..
am i just making excuses?
I DO know that i also need to get some more experimenting done with the treatments for each scene and shot...means playing around more with the software...
why does it always feel like i am 'wasting time' by playing around witht he software...
is it from my old days of studio and commercial work where you just Locked something In and got On with It beacuse time and money were of the essence..
This is an important point.
How much time and money should be allocated for this kind of development? - where to stop? - does it stop?
i mean, my (possibly spurious) argument is that this short-animated-filmmaking process is Not about locking off a text script and then joining the dots like they only even seem to talk about in the "how to" books, but about evolving and emerging visual stories...from the Visual, not the Scriptual.
so
i must Argue with myself that spending more time in development is the Most CRUCIAL..
i just need three of myself though..
anyway...first thing i spose is to get these rough sketched shots completed for the next draft rough animatic and then decide which one i am going to work up with some painterly treatmenting..
but i have uncontrollable urges just to DO the bloody painterly treatmenting right now also.
hmmm...am up to "scene 5"... or should say "sequence 5" out of 14 at the moment...
target by friday - sequence 8,
.......plus some painting fun to quell the beast >_<
and i also need some sleep or some peace.
spent the night weeping and gnashing teeth like my dear girl in the film.
maybe it's a kind of "method animating" ha ha
feel like i've gone rusty all over again...trying to sketch out the updated 'script'...all these images in my head, and when i come to draw them they don't come out fast enough...and basically look crap...
i get disheartened.
But
must remember that the first draft of the first scene looked VERY crap to start with...by draft two it started to come together...by draft 4...and the clean-up stage it looked kinda alright...
and of course it STILL needs so much extra work.
but the 'writing' process becomes more important as a SCHEDULE of sorts...
at least it's a bit like a List or a Map..I have a clearer idea of what else i have to do...maybe easier to prioritise with this document rather than drawing blindly what's milling in my head...
but i still don't think it is LOCKED IN - and nor should it be at this point either - because so many things emerge from the actual DOING of it, the MAKING of it..
am i just making excuses?
I DO know that i also need to get some more experimenting done with the treatments for each scene and shot...means playing around more with the software...
why does it always feel like i am 'wasting time' by playing around witht he software...
is it from my old days of studio and commercial work where you just Locked something In and got On with It beacuse time and money were of the essence..
This is an important point.
How much time and money should be allocated for this kind of development? - where to stop? - does it stop?
i mean, my (possibly spurious) argument is that this short-animated-filmmaking process is Not about locking off a text script and then joining the dots like they only even seem to talk about in the "how to" books, but about evolving and emerging visual stories...from the Visual, not the Scriptual.
so
i must Argue with myself that spending more time in development is the Most CRUCIAL..
i just need three of myself though..
anyway...first thing i spose is to get these rough sketched shots completed for the next draft rough animatic and then decide which one i am going to work up with some painterly treatmenting..
but i have uncontrollable urges just to DO the bloody painterly treatmenting right now also.
hmmm...am up to "scene 5"... or should say "sequence 5" out of 14 at the moment...
target by friday - sequence 8,
.......plus some painting fun to quell the beast >_<
and i also need some sleep or some peace.
spent the night weeping and gnashing teeth like my dear girl in the film.
maybe it's a kind of "method animating" ha ha
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Coming Through - treatment 'script' - draft 2a
Coming Through - script draft 2a....there's already been a big bunch of changes since I've put this on paper...largely due to some more visualising, and some more input from 'quotes' and 'real-life stories i've come across...
and largely to make it a bit pithier...tighten up those images a bit...
I know it will change quite significantly again once i get pencil to screen in the next couple of days...
and largely to make it a bit pithier...tighten up those images a bit...
I know it will change quite significantly again once i get pencil to screen in the next couple of days...
sick of the pink
hmmmmmm, the pink!
especially when i was scrolling through blogs and i came across another one with the same template that was for some crazed fundamentalist christians from mid-west usa...
i really need to rig up a decent template myself...don't really want to waste too much time on this though...
maybe p0ut some pics together...
anyway...spent quite a bit of time re-writing up the 'script' as such./..
sequences of images and ideas in text form that expand upon the visual images that sketched up in pencil...
now i really need to flesh out these images...
i noticed how frustrating it was when writing in word doc...that i breally wanted to sketch the sequences then and there..
but couldn't be bothered adding another column to my table and then switching softwars to draw,,,
so i just ploughed on with the writing bits..
meantime, surfing through many PND blogs and sites...lots of pithy quotes eher and there that add to the "dialogue" part of the film...
i am still in two minds about the 'dialogue'/'voice-over...really wanted to try and do it WITHOUT voice...unless it is diagetic...
but we'll see... will add these lines anyway...some of them flesh things out...dewscribe elements not necessarily visualised..
like a yin/yang thing...they shoudl prop each other up...
also grabbed a bunch of books again from the libabry about scriptwriting...
mainly to start putting together a succinct Vidsual writing methodology for animation...
grabbing evidence as such of what is currently written about the way animated 'scripts' are crafted...
my argument is that short films (animated films) rely conspicuously in the visual script in crafting the 'story'..and not the written word script...
particulary when you are working independently or with a small crew..
the major example of this weas working obn "the Way of the Boirds" with Sarah Watt... it truly opened my eyes to the whole concept of visual storytelling and scripting..largely because i had been working in mainstream production pipelines for so many years before that...by the time it got to me in the layout or animation department...(even storyboarding things) it was largely a join-the-dots activity...it was SO locked in to the written script we really didn't have to think much...just make great visyuals out of what was there...regardless of how flimsy and stupid most of the 'scripts' were - even on paper...
and the fact that there was little understanding from the writers point of view about the magical penetrative and transformative qaulities in animation - they were SO literal, and severely based on live-action film sit-com style - which MOST TV animation remains (eg Simpsons et al).
anyway...some interesting bits and pieces gathered...
now to put it together into a methodological argument..
as i said...I have been supervising, teaching and practising the 'organic visual' approach to animation short story development for nearly 10 years now, so it's time to put it into some form of a Paper,..
at least to get it Down on paper so it's like a "how-to" as a teaching method...in the same way we have so many 'how-to' books for the traditional approach to scriptwriting, or technical elements including 'cinematography' framing, editing etc for animation.
thankfully there IS a few books around now that address this JUST for animation - will be helpful for teaching too..
there's a conference in sydney coming up...think i need to get the abstract in by tomorrow! - and it's in June.
will be a good draft for a 'chapter' in the exegesis...
if in fact, i can make it more coherent than THIS.
meantime, also need to get back to the drawing board...
too much typing lately...
will post up the 'script outline' - draft 2
time for a beer now
especially when i was scrolling through blogs and i came across another one with the same template that was for some crazed fundamentalist christians from mid-west usa...
i really need to rig up a decent template myself...don't really want to waste too much time on this though...
maybe p0ut some pics together...
anyway...spent quite a bit of time re-writing up the 'script' as such./..
sequences of images and ideas in text form that expand upon the visual images that sketched up in pencil...
now i really need to flesh out these images...
i noticed how frustrating it was when writing in word doc...that i breally wanted to sketch the sequences then and there..
but couldn't be bothered adding another column to my table and then switching softwars to draw,,,
so i just ploughed on with the writing bits..
meantime, surfing through many PND blogs and sites...lots of pithy quotes eher and there that add to the "dialogue" part of the film...
i am still in two minds about the 'dialogue'/'voice-over...really wanted to try and do it WITHOUT voice...unless it is diagetic...
but we'll see... will add these lines anyway...some of them flesh things out...dewscribe elements not necessarily visualised..
like a yin/yang thing...they shoudl prop each other up...
also grabbed a bunch of books again from the libabry about scriptwriting...
mainly to start putting together a succinct Vidsual writing methodology for animation...
grabbing evidence as such of what is currently written about the way animated 'scripts' are crafted...
my argument is that short films (animated films) rely conspicuously in the visual script in crafting the 'story'..and not the written word script...
particulary when you are working independently or with a small crew..
the major example of this weas working obn "the Way of the Boirds" with Sarah Watt... it truly opened my eyes to the whole concept of visual storytelling and scripting..largely because i had been working in mainstream production pipelines for so many years before that...by the time it got to me in the layout or animation department...(even storyboarding things) it was largely a join-the-dots activity...it was SO locked in to the written script we really didn't have to think much...just make great visyuals out of what was there...regardless of how flimsy and stupid most of the 'scripts' were - even on paper...
and the fact that there was little understanding from the writers point of view about the magical penetrative and transformative qaulities in animation - they were SO literal, and severely based on live-action film sit-com style - which MOST TV animation remains (eg Simpsons et al).
anyway...some interesting bits and pieces gathered...
now to put it together into a methodological argument..
as i said...I have been supervising, teaching and practising the 'organic visual' approach to animation short story development for nearly 10 years now, so it's time to put it into some form of a Paper,..
at least to get it Down on paper so it's like a "how-to" as a teaching method...in the same way we have so many 'how-to' books for the traditional approach to scriptwriting, or technical elements including 'cinematography' framing, editing etc for animation.
thankfully there IS a few books around now that address this JUST for animation - will be helpful for teaching too..
there's a conference in sydney coming up...think i need to get the abstract in by tomorrow! - and it's in June.
will be a good draft for a 'chapter' in the exegesis...
if in fact, i can make it more coherent than THIS.
meantime, also need to get back to the drawing board...
too much typing lately...
will post up the 'script outline' - draft 2
time for a beer now
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
another link for this project
created another blog today - a public one as such...so it's just got pictures and some intro stuff at the moment and not all my personal rambling...
so it gives me licence to keep rambling HERE...and the other blog will be for contacts and feedback and info etc from the wider PPD/PND and animation etc communities ( I hope)
it's here
http://secretwomanbusiness.blogspot.com/
and meantime i've changed the title of this one to Coming Through, coz i set up the other one as Secret Woman Business (just one woman this time ;-)
anyway - that kinda wasted at least half the day fuggerizing around...working out links etc (gosh i am so S L O W sometimes...and I STILL need to add stuff to it...
but it's a start...
which is a Very importnat thing in PND recovery incidentally...
so it gives me licence to keep rambling HERE...and the other blog will be for contacts and feedback and info etc from the wider PPD/PND and animation etc communities ( I hope)
it's here
http://secretwomanbusiness.blogspot.com/
and meantime i've changed the title of this one to Coming Through, coz i set up the other one as Secret Woman Business (just one woman this time ;-)
anyway - that kinda wasted at least half the day fuggerizing around...working out links etc (gosh i am so S L O W sometimes...and I STILL need to add stuff to it...
but it's a start...
which is a Very importnat thing in PND recovery incidentally...
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
the little video here...
how on earth do i get it to show on this blog page???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL_NsolF1aU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL_NsolF1aU
pencil test - rough draft shot/sequence 1
this is the start of it -
needs re-timimg, plenty of inbetweening...and a fair whack of editing/re-framing i think...
but in general it works..
downloaded a video converter but is only a trial version (hence the watermark)...looking for other ones...dunno what's good and what's not so good,..
maybe just use quicktime pro for all this stuff... and will re-post this so it looks prettier.
the first pencil test - shot 1 - intro
meanwhile, working on the animatic.. (still) (it's taking so long - so much stufferizing around that is distracting me!
have just whacked in all the images from the original storyboard and now realise how many Holes there are in it!
and how much needs re-arranging - and re-editing, and LOTS of re-timing,
plus more shots added in the scenes and sequences.
Currently around 5 minutes for the whole project... but i Always do things too fast.. it should come to about 7 minutes all up
there is no time to 'breathe' as such - to contemplate - to let the ideas sink in.
especially when it is largely text-less or dialogue-less - even voice-less..
though it does REALLY need a voice-over...probably some text-on-screen stuff too ...like i originally wanted to incorporate - it IS my 'thing' - being deaf and all.
so i gotta find a good voice-actor.
maybe somebody that's had PND..like the 'famous' doco/interview thing with Jessica Rowe...
Maybe Brooke Shields! - but it MUST have an australian voice i think
(does this matter? - yers, i think it does to me)
what about Elle McPherson???
needs re-timimg, plenty of inbetweening...and a fair whack of editing/re-framing i think...
but in general it works..
downloaded a video converter but is only a trial version (hence the watermark)...looking for other ones...dunno what's good and what's not so good,..
maybe just use quicktime pro for all this stuff... and will re-post this so it looks prettier.
the first pencil test - shot 1 - intro
meanwhile, working on the animatic.. (still) (it's taking so long - so much stufferizing around that is distracting me!
have just whacked in all the images from the original storyboard and now realise how many Holes there are in it!
and how much needs re-arranging - and re-editing, and LOTS of re-timing,
plus more shots added in the scenes and sequences.
Currently around 5 minutes for the whole project... but i Always do things too fast.. it should come to about 7 minutes all up
there is no time to 'breathe' as such - to contemplate - to let the ideas sink in.
especially when it is largely text-less or dialogue-less - even voice-less..
though it does REALLY need a voice-over...probably some text-on-screen stuff too ...like i originally wanted to incorporate - it IS my 'thing' - being deaf and all.
so i gotta find a good voice-actor.
maybe somebody that's had PND..like the 'famous' doco/interview thing with Jessica Rowe...
Maybe Brooke Shields! - but it MUST have an australian voice i think
(does this matter? - yers, i think it does to me)
what about Elle McPherson???
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
images from the intro sequence
a few keys while i get it together to load up the line-test thru youtube... they're a bit out of order (need tables in this thing and have totally forgotten all my HTML editing ;-(
reviewing so far
A LOT of reflection based on studio-practice so far.
Have reasoned that the main focus of the DVA will actually just be the PND 'episode'
and I expect to be able to complete this episode for the submission – ep should be 7 minutes maximum… approximately 10 - 12 ‘vignettes’ which will work as discreet 'webisodes' yet can be strung together in a longer form 'short film'
the overall (original dream) idea of the 26 part half hour episodes would be brilliant... there is great potential for this given there are So many 'womens' stories
possibly sometime in the future?
but meantime, it's important to get the Pilot off the ground - it's all very well to have this Huge Big Picture thing going on, but certainly to get any funding or support, people will need to see that it's feasible, possible, worthwhile...even that it works! - so am using the similar principle as the 'animated minds' series where they did the first 4, then the next 4 and hopefully will continue from there.
spent the past few weeks animating the intro shot...the part where she looks in the mirror having just discovered she is pregnant... a mix of feelings
she needs to think... am i a mother? what is a mother? could I be a mother? what the hell have I DONE??
actually this is cool? is it? maybe not? aaarghhh? do i look pregnant yet? can you tell? what will i tell people?
we don't actually KNOW she is pregnant yet...this will be revealed ibn the middle section, and then obvious by the end!
she is quite contemplative...when the camera pulls back, she feels her belly...cradles her tummy...thinking what it may feel like in a few months...
scared, but excited...
she resolves that actually it's FanTastic...
starts to twirl with joy...then starts her crazy dancing...
(make the most of the dramatic-darling poses)
by the time she circles and re-enters screen she is visibly pregnant...becoming more so...and more heffalump-like as the scene continues...
she twirls madly, trips over herself and squats to the floor when the baby whooshes out to twirl in the air and land in her arms...
joy...
shock.
wow....
Have reasoned that the main focus of the DVA will actually just be the PND 'episode'
and I expect to be able to complete this episode for the submission – ep should be 7 minutes maximum… approximately 10 - 12 ‘vignettes’ which will work as discreet 'webisodes' yet can be strung together in a longer form 'short film'
the overall (original dream) idea of the 26 part half hour episodes would be brilliant... there is great potential for this given there are So many 'womens' stories
possibly sometime in the future?
but meantime, it's important to get the Pilot off the ground - it's all very well to have this Huge Big Picture thing going on, but certainly to get any funding or support, people will need to see that it's feasible, possible, worthwhile...even that it works! - so am using the similar principle as the 'animated minds' series where they did the first 4, then the next 4 and hopefully will continue from there.
spent the past few weeks animating the intro shot...the part where she looks in the mirror having just discovered she is pregnant... a mix of feelings
she needs to think... am i a mother? what is a mother? could I be a mother? what the hell have I DONE??
actually this is cool? is it? maybe not? aaarghhh? do i look pregnant yet? can you tell? what will i tell people?
we don't actually KNOW she is pregnant yet...this will be revealed ibn the middle section, and then obvious by the end!
she is quite contemplative...when the camera pulls back, she feels her belly...cradles her tummy...thinking what it may feel like in a few months...
scared, but excited...
she resolves that actually it's FanTastic...
starts to twirl with joy...then starts her crazy dancing...
(make the most of the dramatic-darling poses)
by the time she circles and re-enters screen she is visibly pregnant...becoming more so...and more heffalump-like as the scene continues...
she twirls madly, trips over herself and squats to the floor when the baby whooshes out to twirl in the air and land in her arms...
joy...
shock.
wow....
serendipitous blogging advice
had a few work meetings yesterday...all about other people's business, and in the course of things was talking about this project ( I always manage to talk about myself SOMEhow ;)...mentioned this blog, and also mentioned the strange nature of blogging and the whole self-censorship thing..the public/private nexus - which of course got me thinking about what is the point of this blog... at the moment it's been fairly staid and dry...
a few bits tracking the surface features of the project mainly...
i am a very private lass - even though i appear all sunny and extroverted and talk about myself all the time (as noted above) - loathe to reveal much more than what IS on the surface except to my most intimate of intimates..
but then i realised that it is something of a waste of time...
I mean NO-One reads this blog except me..
i kinda thought it'd be a good way to keep track of the development and changes in the project - my thoughts, decision-making, mistakes, victories etc...but i am even keeping most of THOSE things to myself too!
I have lots of checkboxes in my inbuilt privacy settings.
so i think it would be better to use it more..track the daily slog a little more - probably be a little less verbose (difficult) - and in the long run. the blog may well be a more useful tool for the research evaluation. which was the whole point of it in the first place...
honestly - i could kick myself sometimes - and practice what i preach a little more!
so...here we go......
a few bits tracking the surface features of the project mainly...
i am a very private lass - even though i appear all sunny and extroverted and talk about myself all the time (as noted above) - loathe to reveal much more than what IS on the surface except to my most intimate of intimates..
but then i realised that it is something of a waste of time...
I mean NO-One reads this blog except me..
i kinda thought it'd be a good way to keep track of the development and changes in the project - my thoughts, decision-making, mistakes, victories etc...but i am even keeping most of THOSE things to myself too!
I have lots of checkboxes in my inbuilt privacy settings.
so i think it would be better to use it more..track the daily slog a little more - probably be a little less verbose (difficult) - and in the long run. the blog may well be a more useful tool for the research evaluation. which was the whole point of it in the first place...
honestly - i could kick myself sometimes - and practice what i preach a little more!
so...here we go......
Monday, March 29, 2010
getting somewhere-- and somewhere else
been making good progress with animating the intro and birth shot..halfway there with the keys..but godalmighty it always takes three times as long as you expect. But I LOVE animating again...getting easier and smoother and chirpier as i go. But is playing havoc with the RSI. I remember why i wanted to stop doing this crazy game..
anyway..
as it moves along, i think I should just concentrate on this ONE little film/piece, and not try and creat this massive PROJECT all at once...as in, the project will eventuate out of the success (pray pray) of this first example.
i think i am back where i started ten years ago.
is this a good or a bad thing?
back to the digital drawing board (wherein I am enjoying getting the hang of the new software and all the shortcuts and fandangery)
post a linetest very soon
anyway..
as it moves along, i think I should just concentrate on this ONE little film/piece, and not try and creat this massive PROJECT all at once...as in, the project will eventuate out of the success (pray pray) of this first example.
i think i am back where i started ten years ago.
is this a good or a bad thing?
back to the digital drawing board (wherein I am enjoying getting the hang of the new software and all the shortcuts and fandangery)
post a linetest very soon
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
nothing like a house move to ruin the momentum
haven't touched the project or the blog for the past coupla weeks and feeling very stressed about getting 'behind' - though will make up for it with some midnight oil soon...after i have sorted the rest of the unpacked boxes - many of which will no doubt STAY unpacked ~sigh~
anyway - my wonderful talented producer wizard and dear pal Miss Mel has helped me out yet again with an introduction to another brilliantly helpful woman - the terrific Terri, whose feedback and ideas about the project treatment and possibilities of structure/funding/collaboration et al are an inspiration.
More to follow.
today i must get that wacom pen burning up the screen and regain some of that aforesaid momentum.
zoooom
anyway - my wonderful talented producer wizard and dear pal Miss Mel has helped me out yet again with an introduction to another brilliantly helpful woman - the terrific Terri, whose feedback and ideas about the project treatment and possibilities of structure/funding/collaboration et al are an inspiration.
More to follow.
today i must get that wacom pen burning up the screen and regain some of that aforesaid momentum.
zoooom
Monday, February 22, 2010
the shape of things
getting a clearer picture of the overall project... it will largely be a series about women's health and welfare issues... for Women, not girls as such...roughly 30 - 55 years old - maybe it should be called the "middle ages" and make it all parchment and gothic or something..
but nay, i am being silly and rambling.
watched the full animated minds series - lots of nice ideas there, with lots of nice different styles and techniques, with quite simple animation.
Am hoping i will have time and energy to do the FULL thing, and not be limited to Limited Animation as I usually am with these kinds of projects..
Trish also put me onto the SBS podcasting "PodLove"
which is a nice example of funded televised and podcasted projects..
there's something in this!!!
so the projects at the moment are
Postnatal depression
Breast Cancer
Separation and Divorce
Senile Dementia (surely this will be about me!! - not sure yet if this is the right 'fit')
Four in the series to start with - i am always over ambitious, but this seems feasible.
Looking at the Animated Minds series - they did 4 to start with and another 4 a few years later after the first ones worked out well.
The next big step is to seek-out a Producer who is a) prepared to assist with some advice, b) might want to work with me on this, c) can help get contacts in the key funding type institutions and also the actual 'target' institutions and markets for the project - even though there are four very different 'targets' - is this too hard??
So I must email some people today!
But first..
get seriously cracking with the animating (how many times have i said this already???)
is so hot and humid here, is hard to concentrate on the wacom without my hand sliding down the screen.. reminds me of Dennis Tupicoff's "The Heat, The Humidity"
so true, so true
but nay, i am being silly and rambling.
watched the full animated minds series - lots of nice ideas there, with lots of nice different styles and techniques, with quite simple animation.
Am hoping i will have time and energy to do the FULL thing, and not be limited to Limited Animation as I usually am with these kinds of projects..
Trish also put me onto the SBS podcasting "PodLove"
which is a nice example of funded televised and podcasted projects..
there's something in this!!!
so the projects at the moment are
Postnatal depression
Breast Cancer
Separation and Divorce
Senile Dementia (surely this will be about me!! - not sure yet if this is the right 'fit')
Four in the series to start with - i am always over ambitious, but this seems feasible.
Looking at the Animated Minds series - they did 4 to start with and another 4 a few years later after the first ones worked out well.
The next big step is to seek-out a Producer who is a) prepared to assist with some advice, b) might want to work with me on this, c) can help get contacts in the key funding type institutions and also the actual 'target' institutions and markets for the project - even though there are four very different 'targets' - is this too hard??
So I must email some people today!
But first..
get seriously cracking with the animating (how many times have i said this already???)
is so hot and humid here, is hard to concentrate on the wacom without my hand sliding down the screen.. reminds me of Dennis Tupicoff's "The Heat, The Humidity"
so true, so true
Friday, February 19, 2010
new toy
well, the package arrived from France upon my return from Perth so have spent the past few days drawing and painting and working out all the myriad buttons...
but I can't get it to import... so i spend hours trawling through the forums and help panels etc to find nothing so far.
is worth the trawling though...
had plenty more thoughts about the shape of the overall project..
and thankYOU to my followers so far who've given blog and email feedback...
"standard standard standard" is a lovely brutal thing ;-) and i certainly take note...
don't want to seem like i'm just piking out and making a webizine...webilogue...crappyweb project coz i can't do anything better...
HOWEVER...
the whole big deal about the way we communicate these days (especially us middle aged chicks (or am i just being too self-centric here) is through web stuff...
but where's tha munney??
maybe THAT is something of the investigation...
(did I say this once already??)
anyway... if I can work out how to post some pictures on this it will be Very useful...
endeavouring to get a small sequence roughed out by monday
this is SUCH a boring blog post - i think i only did this thing so I could talk to myself...
is a funny thing being at home alone once again (has been a LONG time) - totally love it...
and the talking to myself is FAR more productive creatively than spending my life talking to Everyone else i think.
now there's a thought... creativity and aloneness
(Dr Lou, are you listening?)
but I can't get it to import... so i spend hours trawling through the forums and help panels etc to find nothing so far.
is worth the trawling though...
had plenty more thoughts about the shape of the overall project..
and thankYOU to my followers so far who've given blog and email feedback...
"standard standard standard" is a lovely brutal thing ;-) and i certainly take note...
don't want to seem like i'm just piking out and making a webizine...webilogue...crappyweb project coz i can't do anything better...
HOWEVER...
the whole big deal about the way we communicate these days (especially us middle aged chicks (or am i just being too self-centric here) is through web stuff...
but where's tha munney??
maybe THAT is something of the investigation...
(did I say this once already??)
anyway... if I can work out how to post some pictures on this it will be Very useful...
endeavouring to get a small sequence roughed out by monday
this is SUCH a boring blog post - i think i only did this thing so I could talk to myself...
is a funny thing being at home alone once again (has been a LONG time) - totally love it...
and the talking to myself is FAR more productive creatively than spending my life talking to Everyone else i think.
now there's a thought... creativity and aloneness
(Dr Lou, are you listening?)
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
playing with software..aka procrastinating
still mucking around with various softwares, and downloading trials and freewares.
a difficult decision to decide what to do... I always do this... worry myself sick making decisions when i really should be just picking up a pencil..
is part of the joy of my procrastinating nature... ;-)
was talking with my colleague yesterday (the esteemed Dr Lou) who is researching the creative process for us visual/digital/animation/artist types about this software choice stuff..
do i choose what would be Sensible..in terms of getting jiggy with the application we use at the college, or should i choose what i would MOST like and feel most comfortable with and get the look and feel that i want - meaning i won't be updating my specific tech skills in that one app we neeed to teach, but Will be updating my tech skills and evaluating a relevant production process in another app...
...sigh... - everything costs money and time also...
I think the best decision is to stop worrying about What Is Right and get on with the actual creative process...
she sent me a good quote about procrastination and perfectionism
"Most challenging of all, exposing ourselves creatively is likely to make us feel profoundly and often frighteningly vulnerable. When we pre-judge and filter our creative ideas in this way, before they have a chance to breathe and develop, they are likely by default to become bland and formulaic."
It's from 'Creative Filmmaking From the Inside Out' - a jolly good book
http://creativefilmmaking.com
anyway - i guess i'm doing a bit too much pre-judging!
so, meantime, i've been looking into the whole business of animated documentary which seems to be much more of a buzz thing these days..
certainly a lot of things have changed in terms of production possibilities (i.e., it is easier to make animation because we have such access to groovy programs unlike the old draw-xerox-cel days) and certainly there's a whole lotta creative rotoscoping going on in the 'mainstream'... starting with "Waking Life" back in 2001, and now "Waltz with Bashir" in 2008 - both of which have a documentary approach about them.
I was looking at the Leipzig film festival for documentary and animation again.. i had forgotten about this til my other esteemed colleague Mr P reminded me - gives me some confidence that I am not wayyyyy off track in this approach to the project
http://www.dok-leipzig.de
and then i found this awesome set of projects which are
"short animated documentaries which use real testimony from people who have experienced different forms of mental distress. A single aim underpins all the films: to help dispel myths and misconceptions about 'mental illness' by giving voice to those who experience these various difficulties first hand. Engaging animation is used in order to try and give some authenticity to the subjective experience of the various mental health problems."
well - I think that just about sums it all up for me... it started in 2003,produced by Mosaic films in the UK (they do everything awesome in terms of 'indie' animation there!) and gosh, i wish I knew about this way back then!!
http://animatedminds.com
so at least I have some inspiration to stop me procrastinating so much....
a difficult decision to decide what to do... I always do this... worry myself sick making decisions when i really should be just picking up a pencil..
is part of the joy of my procrastinating nature... ;-)
was talking with my colleague yesterday (the esteemed Dr Lou) who is researching the creative process for us visual/digital/animation/artist types about this software choice stuff..
do i choose what would be Sensible..in terms of getting jiggy with the application we use at the college, or should i choose what i would MOST like and feel most comfortable with and get the look and feel that i want - meaning i won't be updating my specific tech skills in that one app we neeed to teach, but Will be updating my tech skills and evaluating a relevant production process in another app...
...sigh... - everything costs money and time also...
I think the best decision is to stop worrying about What Is Right and get on with the actual creative process...
she sent me a good quote about procrastination and perfectionism
"Most challenging of all, exposing ourselves creatively is likely to make us feel profoundly and often frighteningly vulnerable. When we pre-judge and filter our creative ideas in this way, before they have a chance to breathe and develop, they are likely by default to become bland and formulaic."
It's from 'Creative Filmmaking From the Inside Out' - a jolly good book
http://creativefilmmaking.com
anyway - i guess i'm doing a bit too much pre-judging!
so, meantime, i've been looking into the whole business of animated documentary which seems to be much more of a buzz thing these days..
certainly a lot of things have changed in terms of production possibilities (i.e., it is easier to make animation because we have such access to groovy programs unlike the old draw-xerox-cel days) and certainly there's a whole lotta creative rotoscoping going on in the 'mainstream'... starting with "Waking Life" back in 2001, and now "Waltz with Bashir" in 2008 - both of which have a documentary approach about them.
I was looking at the Leipzig film festival for documentary and animation again.. i had forgotten about this til my other esteemed colleague Mr P reminded me - gives me some confidence that I am not wayyyyy off track in this approach to the project
http://www.dok-leipzig.de
and then i found this awesome set of projects which are
"short animated documentaries which use real testimony from people who have experienced different forms of mental distress. A single aim underpins all the films: to help dispel myths and misconceptions about 'mental illness' by giving voice to those who experience these various difficulties first hand. Engaging animation is used in order to try and give some authenticity to the subjective experience of the various mental health problems."
well - I think that just about sums it all up for me... it started in 2003,produced by Mosaic films in the UK (they do everything awesome in terms of 'indie' animation there!) and gosh, i wish I knew about this way back then!!
http://animatedminds.com
so at least I have some inspiration to stop me procrastinating so much....
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
in earnest
having a very unproductive day today after what seemed like a cracking good day of activity yesterday, so a good idea to update this blog and actually write something useful.
Currently I am working out all the technical software/hardware business for the project..
about which i really should write about first..
Secret Womens' Business
(now should that apostrophe be before or after the 's'...is it One woman or All women?)
The project has been developing for over 10 years (with plenty of interruptions in between) but essentially the idea is to produce a series of animated shorts that each deal with an aspect of adult women's lives.. some of the things we all talk about, experience, suffer through, rejoice in, but rarely, if ever do we see these treated in an honest, amusing and creative way - and particularly not in animation.
I have done masses of round-about research in this area...too much to list in this one post.. but plan to incorporate aspects of feminist film theories, current pop-culture theories, theories about animation and in particular, focus on female animators making female-orientated projects. All of this will mangle together in a phenomenally incisive exegesis for my doctorate.
But first,
the project in it's current state.
The overarching approach is to centre the series around a group of women friends that meet up once a fortnight for dinner together. Each 'episode' showcases one of the women's 'story' - a big picture thing that has significantly affected her life that is told from a first person perspective (childbirth, breast cancer, postnatal depression, divorce, aging parents, troublesome teenagers, etc etc) - and although each of us experience these things in different ways, there appears to be a 'universal experience' in many aspects of our lives - much of which is written about in books and blogs and live-action series and films, but less so in the mainstream animation realm.
That is not to say there isn't some amazing and pertinent short animated films out there that have covered some of this territory - and I will be writing about and referencing many of these in the process of the exegesis, as these films and filmmakers have been an enormous influence and inspiration to me for the 20 odd years I have been an animator - but by and large, adult-focused animation still has a distinctly male focus... I am hard pressed to find many mainstream or commercially distributed examples with a strong female main character (but am prepared to be enlightened otherwise).
So a lot of the preliminary research I have done is about the Business of Animation - the mainstream TV distribution models, including statistics about the numbers of lead female characters, the numbers of female writer/director/producers, and also the (slowly) changing climate in childrens' television in terms of central female characters and stories.
As mentioned, I have also been looking at a number of independant filmmakers and productions with a strong female focus and questioning the distribution and marketability of these projects.
so, largely the question relates to the production and distribution and market for female focused adult animation...
but more details about that to follow (this is a very edited off the cuff intro...)
back to the project as it stands...
the first story for this project is about post-natal depression ( a story i wrote over ten years ago while searching for some useful information about the problem and finding very little help except for some photocopied brochures and some self-help groups...okay, that's an understatement, but i realised that there was an opportunity to be able to get a whole lot of information across to women suffering through this situation in a succinct and engaging way - particularly for those that had very little time to read books (most new mothers), or had limited literacy - plus the fact that the visual language of animation can cross international boundaries.
The idea was to create a film for sufferers (and their associated partners and families and the general community) that could give them an 'ah ha' moment...in a short 10 minutes or less, the audience could experience the a) you're not alone, and b) oh my god, is This what she's going through... it's a kind of animated narrative documentary.
Most audio-visual projects I had seen relating to PND were so turgid and boring, they were certainly enough to make you even More depressed if you weren't already, so it seemed important to have some punchy impact, and plenty of black humour to carry it through.
From this, I started to think about other secret womens business...like discovering a lump in your breast and the emotional and physical and practical journey that follows.
Again - there IS material and literature about this, but there's still a hushhhhh about the whole thing that often lacks the 'universal' and engaging approach that is possible in animated form.
The other aspect I've been thinking about is in terms of the networking and distribution of this... how do women communicate these days? what and where and when do they watch stuff? what is the best length and format for this material?
I've always had a penchant for comics, graphic novels, and now web-strips and indeed webisodes.. there's some food for though there in terms of the structure of the projects...being episodic and largely told in vignettes and as part of a daily/weekly journey... more to come about that.
so, there's the concept.
Currently am developing some scenes from the PND episode as a trailer cum pilot.
It seems to be taking the 'animated documentary' form a little more... but not a sort of edutainment infomercial style (these are kinda dirty words)... It should work primarily as a stand-alone film, but my desire was to have some guts and meaning in there also..
I wonder if anyone cares?
Currently I am working out all the technical software/hardware business for the project..
about which i really should write about first..
Secret Womens' Business
(now should that apostrophe be before or after the 's'...is it One woman or All women?)
The project has been developing for over 10 years (with plenty of interruptions in between) but essentially the idea is to produce a series of animated shorts that each deal with an aspect of adult women's lives.. some of the things we all talk about, experience, suffer through, rejoice in, but rarely, if ever do we see these treated in an honest, amusing and creative way - and particularly not in animation.
I have done masses of round-about research in this area...too much to list in this one post.. but plan to incorporate aspects of feminist film theories, current pop-culture theories, theories about animation and in particular, focus on female animators making female-orientated projects. All of this will mangle together in a phenomenally incisive exegesis for my doctorate.
But first,
the project in it's current state.
The overarching approach is to centre the series around a group of women friends that meet up once a fortnight for dinner together. Each 'episode' showcases one of the women's 'story' - a big picture thing that has significantly affected her life that is told from a first person perspective (childbirth, breast cancer, postnatal depression, divorce, aging parents, troublesome teenagers, etc etc) - and although each of us experience these things in different ways, there appears to be a 'universal experience' in many aspects of our lives - much of which is written about in books and blogs and live-action series and films, but less so in the mainstream animation realm.
That is not to say there isn't some amazing and pertinent short animated films out there that have covered some of this territory - and I will be writing about and referencing many of these in the process of the exegesis, as these films and filmmakers have been an enormous influence and inspiration to me for the 20 odd years I have been an animator - but by and large, adult-focused animation still has a distinctly male focus... I am hard pressed to find many mainstream or commercially distributed examples with a strong female main character (but am prepared to be enlightened otherwise).
So a lot of the preliminary research I have done is about the Business of Animation - the mainstream TV distribution models, including statistics about the numbers of lead female characters, the numbers of female writer/director/producers, and also the (slowly) changing climate in childrens' television in terms of central female characters and stories.
As mentioned, I have also been looking at a number of independant filmmakers and productions with a strong female focus and questioning the distribution and marketability of these projects.
so, largely the question relates to the production and distribution and market for female focused adult animation...
but more details about that to follow (this is a very edited off the cuff intro...)
back to the project as it stands...
the first story for this project is about post-natal depression ( a story i wrote over ten years ago while searching for some useful information about the problem and finding very little help except for some photocopied brochures and some self-help groups...okay, that's an understatement, but i realised that there was an opportunity to be able to get a whole lot of information across to women suffering through this situation in a succinct and engaging way - particularly for those that had very little time to read books (most new mothers), or had limited literacy - plus the fact that the visual language of animation can cross international boundaries.
The idea was to create a film for sufferers (and their associated partners and families and the general community) that could give them an 'ah ha' moment...in a short 10 minutes or less, the audience could experience the a) you're not alone, and b) oh my god, is This what she's going through... it's a kind of animated narrative documentary.
Most audio-visual projects I had seen relating to PND were so turgid and boring, they were certainly enough to make you even More depressed if you weren't already, so it seemed important to have some punchy impact, and plenty of black humour to carry it through.
From this, I started to think about other secret womens business...like discovering a lump in your breast and the emotional and physical and practical journey that follows.
Again - there IS material and literature about this, but there's still a hushhhhh about the whole thing that often lacks the 'universal' and engaging approach that is possible in animated form.
The other aspect I've been thinking about is in terms of the networking and distribution of this... how do women communicate these days? what and where and when do they watch stuff? what is the best length and format for this material?
I've always had a penchant for comics, graphic novels, and now web-strips and indeed webisodes.. there's some food for though there in terms of the structure of the projects...being episodic and largely told in vignettes and as part of a daily/weekly journey... more to come about that.
so, there's the concept.
Currently am developing some scenes from the PND episode as a trailer cum pilot.
It seems to be taking the 'animated documentary' form a little more... but not a sort of edutainment infomercial style (these are kinda dirty words)... It should work primarily as a stand-alone film, but my desire was to have some guts and meaning in there also..
I wonder if anyone cares?
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
ahhhh, six months or more later
...and now I am officially on 'research leave' for the next six months and certainly need to crack some whip, so todays activity is to finish off the million emails (actual current figure 3044) and work bibs and bobs, and create a decent LIST - oh how i love lists
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