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....
 
I started out in the blue-pencil mode of TVpaint...much like drawing with the old-school REAL blue pencil that i did when i was starting as a 'professional' animator in 1984..
it feels loose and intuitive...i can feel-out the drawing...lots of scribbles and basic shapes based on a line-of-action and then flesh-out the full image for each keyframe.
It was pretty wierd getting used to the new software and ALSO actually drawing again...
the first bunch of frames looked like crap... all tentative and weak lines.
but persevering over the days, i got back into the rythmn of things.
the shot was SO clear in my head i knew exactly what i wanted it to look like...
though i never actually planned it on 'paper' so to speak...i just started at frame 1 and worked my way ahead...straight-ahead animating the keys..again with the timing in my head...not really x-sheeting it at that point (the standard version software i have doesn't have an old-style x-sheet but works in a timeline for the timing).
i spose part of me felt that I could handle this non-planned approach in this case, because the shot was so familiar... i think i had acted it out in my mind for the past 13 years.
the first draft was not too bad...needed a Lot of timing adjustments...the full-action part worked well (i was key-framing roughly every 3rd drawing) because there is a LOt of movement...and i loved working through the flowing line-of-action stuff.
This was always more my forte.
but the simpler, still, contemplative stuff looked pretty drab...again - needs more keys to capture the changing expressions.,..and More time!... i always seem to speed things up too much...or Want things sped up too much...get so bored with long drawn out shots..but they are the most important in getting character into the storytelling in animation a lot of the time,
so i will re-work these.
and on reflection, i realised there was still something missing...
the project has a slightly post-modernist pop-cultural RE-appropriation reference-spoof-ish quality about it...
wellll..that's what i intend...
so i remembered the scene in Fantasia...the dancing hippo's in Dance of the Hours...mostly the shot where the female hippo wears the tutu  and has emerged from the fountain, powders herself up and prances around in front of her chorus...
the most important part was the tiny steps she takes in the pirouette...so cute and clever with that juxtaposition of her Huge frame and tiny feet...that large cumbersome body making such delicate movements.
so I found the reference on youtube (god, how we love youtube  - I have Every disney feature animation but all the early ones on VHS which i no longer have a player for!!! USELESS!)
*note to self- find some time to dub or buy the DVD's!
so - where it didn't need this in the main part of the 'dance' - i inserted an extra section in the middle...the tiny-stepping pirouette..
worked a treat...was an effective introduction to what's about to happen...
and also had enough referential quality to mimic the elephant dance.
I did another rough re-time.
then spent the next week or so cleaning up the drawings on another layer - after frigging around trying to work out the pencil/brush tools etc in the software..
a nice pencil line...a bit thick and scratchy at times, but i am Still such a Basic user...and really wanted to get something out...anything On Screen.
I really needed the satisfaction of having something to Show people...like it meant i actually WAS doing some work, rather than all this planning and preparation and development..it's all Hidden work, but most important of all..
 
but as I said - i broke some rules here and there...got stuck into it without it being Fully Mapped Out.
as I have been doing for this whole project.
i wanted to really put into practice this idea of mine in terms of studio methodology for working on an animated short...
that is...you don't necessarily have to 'start' with a finished script...with all the details completely worked out... nor a Finished storyboard (ditto) -particularly at this point whern working alone.
A lot of the time, things develop purely from the Visual - the image informs the story.
so once there is some image development, you come back and develop up the story/script aspect a little further...
gogo back and flesh out more images...then flesh out more story...and onwards.
So at what point is it necessary to have it locked in??
well - in many cases, this is right at the end...which should include some editing...
but the animating takes so long and is so complicated we are Loathe to edit.
however.
certain aspects are so much faster - the digital thing has given so much flexibility.
I realised this SO much even doing the roughs...
could rub out, re-draw, scratch, scrub, re-size so easily...it took around 9 days for roughly 45seconds of animation - roughly 5 seconds per day... a Lot in terms of disneyesque style... not that much in terms of TV-series style...somewhere in between..
but this is only cleaned keys...still needs adjusting, then inbetweening, then Masses of colouring (which i want to do in a painterly pastel style (TIME CONSUMING!)
so I figured the project should be around 7 minutes maximum...meaning it will take around 70 days just to animate - 70 more for inbetweening et al, and 70 more at least for colouring.. that's five more solid months of back-breaking arm-annihilating work...and then there's the sound and editing et al...
 
okay...
i need to do a bit of forward-planning now.
and the project really DOES need a more developed storyboard.
I already have one from the first working of the project..from 13 years ago when i first started researching the whole business of postnatal depression.
the overall idea is still sound - just really needs some script work...Gosh i have learnt a LOT in the past 13 years (thank the gods!) and pulling into shape to fit any new information and understanding of the condition.
but the major points have remained true...
I spent a few days trawling through PND websites also for any updates...
also to determine whether anyone has made anything like this in the intervening years since i started it... (no, not yet...but a doco on PND is being made as we speak...due for release in mid-2010 and supported through the BeyondBlue and PANDA organisations.
there's also some good info at the Black Dog Institute
so i still feel confidant that this makes sense to make...
also found a bunch of US websites dedicated to PND...PPD (postpartum depression) which were great...
Postpartum Progress is the mother of them all it seems - a great site indeedy!
they will be excellent links and a good forum to test distribution for this..
but I am getting ahead of myself.
 
so..back to the storyboard..
Trish suggested i get in contact with some local, current PND support groups for some documentary authenticity as such... will be good to test the response from the target market....
I did this many years ago (approx 1997) with the Kiing Edward PND speciualist clinic in Perth and got fantastic response and feedback... enough to encourage further investment (sadly the many other parts of my life intevened!)
so this is a good idea on two counts...
will have current local and specialist involvement and support
and also will engender greater strength in the storytelling, the structure and the evocative images based on other's Real-Life stories and input.
Funnily enough however...i read a number of "hear someone's true-life story" on the PND web-links and so many of them bear such strong correlation...not only to each other, but to my own experience also....some parts felt almost word-for-word...almost like a pre-ordained script!
so, once again i feel pretty confident in the gist of things as they are...
but also really want some further validation.
which means...
I need a decent storyboard (revised one) to show to the support groups for feedback and input!!!
 
now, i can see there are some flaws in this whole 'develop-as-you-go' methodology - somewhat...
as an underlying structure, I am still foloowing it...
as i said... image, then script, then imnage, then script etc...
this is just the 'script' part that i've resisting for a bit ;-).
 
Have identified some key sequences - mostly based on the original, with added notes and new ideas.
1 - intro and birth
2 - baby-gaze then swirl into ‘black hole’/blinkers (descend into cloak of depression)
3 - walking in fog – trapped in cocoon of gloom’ (fuzzy brain)..also the ‘”desolator” vacuum cleaner sucking up thoughts… also ‘short-circuited brain’..forgetful etc
4 - supermarket shelves turn into malicious monsters (irrational fears, anxiety) overwhelmed, out of control – cannot drive car to end of the street – panic, hyperventilation, can’t even work the controls
5 - months of jetlag (awake in middle of night) (extreme tiredness)
6 - life/love/libido switches (numb – loss of feelings) + loss of sense of self +non-sociable (turn on answer machine etc) + change in appetite
7 - trapped – prowling in cage, drowning, mother with a capital ‘M” branded on bum, out of her control, bandage on head (illness)
8 - ‘go back where I came from’ /used-baby-yard (perfect baby, useless as mother, guilt)
9 - The ‘masks’ – stuck-on smile, looking a million dollars, superwoman – failure as a mother
10 - Water tank /volcano of tears/ petrol station (endless crying) plus in cupboard, in shower, walking the pram…. Isolation/aloneness
11 - Tantrum / anger/rage (?) (wrong cheese, shoes in wrong spot, can’t shit)… others lose temper, crowds of people taunting..( she is a total failure), then offering help
12 - Long road to neon ‘crazy’ signs..then through thick forest
13 - Knowledge is power / Make a list of one thing (Recovery)- snakes and ladders…two steps up three snakes back…
14 - Jigsaw puzzle..pieces falling into place..cracks in the ‘doom cloud’… three good days in a row…then two bad days…one day at a time

 welll - there's 14 of them so far - and not even that comprehensive...
so will look at this over the next week or so and review yet again.
I also need to think of some snazzy names for each sequence so they all work as seperate entities within the whole project..

sometimes it's good to step back ;-p

I've created a very rough animatic from the storyboard images i had in the original...
hit another technical hitch in the software - trying to re-size images.
trying to do a technical work-around of it, but it's taking so long i may as well do it by hand...resize them all one by one..
but that should be solved soon..
then i will re-work the drawings in another layer and add some timing to it all.
will give two things...
a decent storyboard and animatic for people nto view and get the idea of the project..
and also give me a better idea of the length of this...so I can budget both time, money and human resources to it .
I really need an assistant!
but of course, once you have an assistant you need to be nicely pre-planned and organised!
thisd may well be another glitch in my 'studio methodolgy' experiment...hmmmm...
and also I want to animate the second shot/sequence...where she descends into the black hole of gloom.
It will be a great introductory piece for presenting the overall gist of the project, and a nice contrast to the slapstickiness of the first sequence.
so,
i'd better get cracking.