Category Archives: Process
The Fungus- 42 days until Picture lock
Using reference videos to try and get some better motion in this first scene. Katie was an awesome help with this. She pretty much figured out how my body would move if I had gotten hit by this car. You can see her on the left force-pivoting my hips.
The shot that this little piece is for has taken about 4 days to do- and it’s still not completely finished. You can see where it’s headed over here:
More work to do, but I have to move on. Loose-ends are for loose-ends-week. I’m a week behind right now and I have to start chugging. AGHHHHHHIT’s fun though. A lot more updating on the way if I can find the time. Some new stereo video from Joshua Tree National Park- and more animated fungal madness.
Production 1- 55 days until picture lock
A little less than 8 weeks until picture lock.
I’ve finished a rough edit of the animatic and started production TWO DAYS AGO. Two of the students in the composing school seem excited to help with the Fungus. I’ve got 29 shots to finish by April 3rd and that means 4 shots a week:
I’m already a little behind, but this iguana fight is looking goooood. My professors are strongly recommending that we go about this production in a highly professional way, so I made shot breakdowns for my movie:
I always do these extra clerical things partly because they make me feel like I’m in the movie industry, and partly as a procrastination tool. But so far all of these forms and break downs have ended up being really really helpful. Especially at making this project seem less scary.
But I’m still on an insane time-crunch. I gotta go finish an iguana fight.
Style-Boards and Rip-O-Matic
These style-boards are suppose to serve as examples of what final frames from the animation might look like. Probably more detail than it will have in the end- but I’m trying to stick to simple colors. I still don’t really know what I’m doing.
In OTHER news: Mike Patterson (one of my professors) recommended that I make a rip-o-matic to help potential composers understand what I’m going for with my production 1. Which is exciting, because I’ve never heard of a rip-o-matic. It’s something used (mostly in advertising I think) as a proof of concept. A rough animatic made out of ripped clips from other videos to help demonstrate the final tone of my animation:
Anyway- it was a lot of fun to make, and ultimately pretty helpful. THE ANIMATIC COMES TOMORROW.
Storyboards- 11 weeks until picture lock
Finished my storyboards for Production 1:
Planning this has been great. I haven’t had this much fun planning a project since in loooooong time. But I still can’t figure out a name. Cordyceps? Fungus? Anthropopathogen? The Coronation? Titles are definitely one of my greatest weaknesses. I want the kind of title that changes your interpretation of what you’ve seen. But right now I’ve got nothing.
The more I learn about this fungus, the better it gets. Katie and I went to a free talk that the International Documentary Association had at the cinefamily a few months ago. One of the things that the film-makers recommended was that we write down our initial reactions to things. If something catches our attention, immediately write down way, because it’s easy to lose sight of that after you’ve been scrutinizing it for months. With that in mind I returned to some of the old videos that originally got me excited for this concept and SHIIIIT CORDYCEPS FUNGUS IS THE COOLEST:
This video is the better one. The next video just has some really nice (pretty gross) time lapse fungus growth:
FURTHER YOUR FUNGAL EDUCATION:
Brainwashed By A Parasite – Neurophilosophy
Zombie Ants- Daily Mail
In other news: I finally got a frame for the Jay Ryan print that came in the mail. It’s now raining hell-fire on me as I work: 
NEXT WEEK: STYLE BOARDS • ANIMATIC • SOUND SCRIPT