Short Film: Update #34 back on it

Hello! How are you? It’s now June, so happy summer!! You may have guessed, but I was on holiday last week hence no post. Down in sunny south Wales, via Worcester.

Also got some decent skate clips in the interim- improving on my boardslides and landed my first Varial Kickflip on a flatbank. Definitely going to start filming myself more, as I think it’s imperative for progression, as you can easily see what you’re doing wrong/ how your form is. Basically looking at my tricks from an outside perspective. It also makes stuff less scary, as it takes you out of your head, too. Couple of pics down below:

But, me talking about my jolly’s is likely not the reason you’re reading this- am I right? It’s that all important film progress you’re after. I think. Though I can (and will) happily chat skateboarding all day if given the go ahead…

So how is my film going? Since returning from my week off, I’ve come back full force on this project. I finished a few more things off my to do list, plus did a load of admin-y type bits, such as booking the location to film the shot with the extras and writing up my sound design notes. I also did a slight restructure of the edit, which improved the pacing/ tightness. Sometimes it’s hard to cut the stuff you’ve spent a lot of time animating, but if it’s no longer right for the film, then it needs to go. I can always post the unused clips on my socials and on here, so it’s not like they’ll go to waste as they’ll still get seen if I want them to be. Down below is a grab from one of these outtakes. It is technically still being used in the film, but this was a duplicate shot earlier on in the narrative, but ended up cutting as it wasn’t necessary to have it in twice.

I also started animating one of the three big remaining shots, plus created some clouds for one of the scenes in After Effects from this tutorial. I must say it’s been really nice to be doing some more rotoscoping again, as it’s been a while. It is something I find extremely relaxing and rewarding, plus also means I get to catch up on all my podcasts and music I’ve been wanting to listen to, because when I’m doing the editing or anything like that, I much prefer to work in silence with little distraction.

The film is feeling the most complete it has done at this point and I’m so pleased with how it is turning out, in both narrative and style. The end finally feels like it’s in sight and that is mega exciting! All the hard work I’ve put in definitely is paying off. Right, that’s it from me, time to do some more animation! Oh, by the way almost forgot: I’m hanging out at Sheffield Doc Fest next week, so if you see me, come say hello!

Short Film: Update #33 picking back up

The first half of this week didn’t go especially well, if I’m being totally honest. The (brand new) SSD I purchased over the weekend (see last weeks post) ended up being faulty, so I had to take that back. Then I had to wait a few days for a new one. So, yeah, that was fun. Resulting in a bit of a delay in being able to crack on with my project.

But, I was able to do a little work while I was waiting, as I copied a few assets over from my backup drive to my Mac, enabling me to do some stuff, albeit in a slightly preoccupied manner. I picked a couple of things which were more ‘low key’/ parts that didn’t need the full Premiere project or anything like that. Meaning I was able to drop them in the project once that was all back up and running again.

One was this re-do of the ‘drink shot’, which will become a photograph the protagonist takes in the film. The old version is first, followed by the re-do:

As the first version took a while to create, I kind of convinced myself that I liked it or that it was good enough to stay in the project. But the more I watched the film through, I knew that my instinct was correct and that I’d need to re-do it. The second version, in my opinion, is much better and deserving of a place in the film. I’m not even sure what the first one is trying to be, to be honest! But anyway, I guess I don’t need to think about that one anymore!

And since the enforced break because of, well, the (hard drive) break, I have been very, very productive. I blazed through a load of my to do list, which included fixing some things that had been playing on my mind for quite a while. For some reason (probably because of having a bit of time off the project), a few trickier bits seemed to just come easier. Not that I’m complaining, mind. Meaning the visuals really are, nearly almost done! I think the fact that the new SSD is a lot faster than my poor old HDD, is making my time editing my project a whole lot smoother, because it’s actually running as it should in Premiere. This is even with several layers of PNG sequences all stacked on top of each other. Whereas when playing through on my previous drive, it would skip/ stall as it just couldn’t keep up, making editing extremely frustrating (and difficult). So maybe the fact that the hard drive broke was actually a good thing. And I’m not just trying to be positive for the sake of it either!

Despite wanting to share a few more of the bits I finished this week as I’m kind of excited about (and proud of) them (especially one shot), I haven’t decided if they’re parts I want to publish prior to finishing the film. I think it’s best not to give everything away beforehand, at least not publicly anyway. Maybe in the trailer, when that’s ready, but we shall see… I held back parts of my previous short, and I think that was the correct decision, so apologies for the teaser but I guess you’ll just have to wait! So on that note, I’ll leave this one at that. There won’t be one of these next week, so see you in two! xo

Embroidery: Variation on a Theme

I alluded to this in my last post about embroidery. Basically, I've loads of spare hospital gown fabric left over from my film as I used it as a prop in that, so now tying it in to some embroidery projects. Here's some flowers embroidered between the gaps in the original pattern on the gown:

The printed pattern made me think of flowers when I was wearing it to film in whilst shooting the reference material for my short. So I decided to take that and run with it and sew flowers in the gaps. Plus it is also in contrast to the negative/ unhappy connotations surrounding a hospital gown, so these flowers kind of cheer the whole thing up! And the fact that when recovering in hospital, flowers tend to be something you get sent. So yeah, that's basically what this one is about. Would be amazing to embroider the whole thing like this, but that would take for absolutely ever!

Short Film: Update #32 breaking things

This week has definitely had its ups and downs. The major ‘up’ I experienced was finishing off the backgrounds- well first pass anyway, I still have a few tweaks to do on some of them. But, that is very exciting news and a great position for my project to be in. It didn’t actually sink it straight away: I was mainly just pleased for having finished off background for shot 016, which was giving me a bit of trouble. Then later in the day after I had stopped working, I realised that 016 was the last one! Which was a nice thing to have realised, but I can’t feel too happy about it just yet, because there’s still a fair few tweaks to do like I said above. And I do have three shots left to animate (one of which I haven’t even filmed), so it’s not all fun and games just yet. There’s still plenty of work to do. And some of it a little daunting.

So that’s the ‘ups’ out the way, we’ll move on to the ‘downs’: the first one being a render issue I’m experiencing in Blender. Cue crying. I do have one or two contacts who maybe able to help, but if they can’t fix it, then I’m going to have to screen shot the video frame by frame and then rotoscope it in TVPaint. Something that I’m not wildly looking forward to doing, but it’s a last resort solution if I’m unable to get the breakthrough I need to get it to work. I experienced this at the beginning of the week, so it went from my euphoria of creating the shot in Blender (which I was quite proud of as 3D isn’t my thing), to then quite quickly the opposite end of the emotional spectrum when I came across the aforementioned issue. Anyway, to be continued…

And finally, the big one: my hard drive decided to break on me yesterday.

More crying. I do keep a backup drive which is pretty much a duplicate of the one which has given up, so I’m not in a panic about it as I have copies of everything. But I’m more frustrated, because 1) these drives haven’t exactly lasted very long and 2) it’s a hassle/ expense/ time sap I can’t really be bothered with right now. But anyway, the new one is on the way and hopefully I can collect it tomorrow or latest Tuesday and get back to working on my film as soon as possible. I’ve decided to go for an SSD this time, and still use the HDD I was using as a backup still as a backup, until that inevitably breaks as well. Then decide how best to store/ backup my work. Anyway, I realise these last few sentences are probably pretty boring! Right, see you in the next one and hopefully things are going a bit better by this time next week! xo

Short Film: Update #31 on a Blender

I’ve been working on this project for a little over a year now (started scripting it in April 2024) and it finally feels like it’s shaping up and becoming the film I want. I exported it for the first time in a while on Friday evening to see how (or if) all this extra work (fine tuning/ finishing off some of the harder backgrounds etc) I’ve been putting in over the last month or so is paying off. Long story short: the additional work has definitely been worth it- the film is miles better than any previous viewing, but there’s still a lot to do- in a good way, if that makes sense.

Because I’m pleased with where the project is currently at, the remaining tasks (including the additional things I keep adding to the ‘to-do’ list, which is now at least twice as long as when I created it!) don’t feel quite as daunting as maybe they should do, or how they might have felt a month or so back. I just want to keep going with the project and improve it/ ‘plus’ it as much as possible. I’m fully motivated to crack on with it, even the difficult sections, because I can now see at this point, that if I do the things that I need to, it’s going to turn out how I want it.

This week has been testament to that in a way, because I (for the second time in this film) worked in 3D software Blender (not my forte or specialism by any means), to create an asset for a shot that I felt lent itself to this treatment. I tried it in After Effects (a program I am familiar with) but it just looked bad, so needed to figure out an alternative and quickly. To be honest the prospect of Blender was pretty daunting, as like I said, it’s really not my thing, but needs must and I got the result I wanted. I used this tutorial as a guide, which intimidated me to begin with, especially as I also had to figure out how to link an armature with an animation on my own accord! It does need tweaking a bit, so I will be re-doing it, but it shows that I now have the skill set to create the asset I want and not compromise on it. And it’s also given me an idea for another section of the film that still needs doing- so hopefully I can achieve that next week.

It has actually been quite fun exploring Blender in this project and to be honest, what I’ve achieved with it has definitely exceeded my expectations. Perhaps I’m better at this sort of thing than I give myself credit for. More self confidence from you please, Flora! I’m thankful that I have Blender in my bag of skills now, because it gives me more options for future projects and perhaps even more for this one- we’ll see. I’m still very tutorial reliant with it at the moment, but I’m slowly understanding it a little more and it’s not quite as intimidating as it was a few months ago. And I very much doubt I’ll ever be fully shifting over to the dark side that is 3D animation, but it’s a useful skill to have to enhance my 2D work. If you know me well or have been reading this blog for a long enough period, then you’ll know that I love mixing both media and disciplines within the field of animation.

Below are a couple of pictures from my Blender work: the first is the wide shot of the flock of birds I created (birds were done in Blender). The second is the photograph she takes of the birds, again, created initially in Blender (moved the camera angle to below the flock, so would be a realistic angle of where she’s taking the photo from), but enhanced in TVPaint- added textures and motion blur, as well as the background.

Short Film: Update #30 backgrounds and costumes

I’ll try and keep this one quite short I think, or it’ll end up sounding quite the same-y as some of the previous ones. Or at least the ones where it’s been going well, because this week (you’ve guessed it) it HAS been going well!

I managed to cross off a fair few of the smaller, more frustrating/ annoying tasks from the list mentioned in last weeks post. Which felt really good, because they were definitely ones which I had kind of been putting off. Or shots which I attempted earlier and had not gone very well, so left for a later date, once I’ve gained more clarity how to tackle said tasks. I’ve definitely mentioned this before, but I’m a big advocate for taking a break with something you’re struggling with. Because you often find it easier once you come back to it, as your subconscious seems to work it out for you over the elapsed time and/ or you build up more skill/ processes over the time spent away. This could mean stepping back for just an hour or so to go on a walk, or a longer period of a few weeks.

I also managed to cross off a couple of big things too, which were backgrounds I had been stuck on. One came unnaturally easy for some reason- it just felt right! I’m not complaining! And the other was more of a struggle, but I got there in the end. I’ll stick the process down below actually, because then you can see the way I work. I often start with a reference photo (or a few), which I then create a rough sketch from to see if it works, with the character in situ. This sketch is usually in super whacky colours for some reason- don’t ask, it’s just my way of working! And then once I’m happy with it (sometimes ask peoples opinions to see if they think it looks right)- I go ahead and do it in ‘neat’. Often this becomes the final image, but sometimes I realise it hasn’t worked and need to go back to the drawing board with it, whether that means scrapping it altogether in the more drastic cases, or doing a few smaller tweaks/ alterations in the less drastic cases.

The example below is the background for the cafe scene, which I ended up doing twice. The first iteration just looked poor IMO, as well as there being no extras or atmosphere- it wasn’t clear where it was and I decided I wanted a more ‘beach’ kind of vibe to the shot, in keeping with the fact that she is on holiday. So I left this for a while and came back to it and ended up utilising one of the photographs I asked my boyfriends’ parents to take for me while they were on holiday in a similar resort I have my character go to in the film. I’ve never been to one of these kind of resorts myself, so I asked them to take me a load of photos for extra inspiration for location and they very kindly delivered!

I’ll put both versions below: the previous discarded background (with the process), followed by the one that is used in the film.

Old one above, new below:

ended up removing the parasol type things, as they just looked bad

And finally (I said I’d keep this one short didn’t I, but that’s clearly not gone to plan!), the remaining bits of costume arrived for the medical staff shot towards the end of the film, so I was able to test out whether my costume idea would work. I wasn’t going to shell out on scrubs for all the extras, but from the images I Googled, the shape of the tops was essentially a v-neck t-shirt. So I thought if I had everyone wear one of those, some loose fitting trousers, combined with blue gloves, a face mask and a hair net type thing (the latter three items were the only props I purchased), then once I’ve coloured them how I want to in the animation software, it should look like a medical professional.

My test is below:

And I feel it definitely worked- I’m in my pyjamas here as well! So I can now go in to casting for my extras with confidence. I’m actually really excited to film this shot now and have it come to life, especially after having had a taste of how it might look. This was one of the shots which was giving me a bit of anxiety to be honest, because I dislike the ‘producing’ parts to making a film such as arranging locations and actors, but I just need to take it step by step and I’ll get there.

Ok, right, this is definitely it now (guess there was much more to say that first imagined)! See you next time! xo

Football Photos Again, Finally!

Back out yesterday (3rd May) for the first time since September with my 'proper' camera. I didn't take a full set, just a few to get me back into the swing of things and build my confidence up with it again. Loved it, nice to be back! Game was Lepton Highlanders 5-3 Greetland FC, in the Yorkshire Amateur League Supreme Division. Played at the super scenic Lepton Highlanders Sports and Social Club. Well worth a visit! Ten pics below...

Short Film: Update #29 'the list'

‘The list’, you say? Yes, ‘the list’. Sounds ominous doesn’t it? Well, if you’ve been following along with my progress on here, you will know that I’m on the completion stretch of my project (at least for the visuals, everything audio related is still outstanding). Despite being the farthest along in how the project is progressing, it feels like the remaining things to do are the most difficult, even though there’s not actually a whole lot left in terms of quantity. And being faced with my Premiere timeline and project tracking spreadsheet, it all felt pretty overwhelming. I was just sort of scrolling along both of them trying to pick out what to do next, then getting frustrated/ stressed. So, this is where I created ‘the list’ dun dun duuun!

Ok, it’s not even that weird, I basically just wrote a Pages doc of all the remaining tasks for my film- breaking them down into the most bitesize chunks, such as ‘take reference photo for 024’,‘redo background for 029’ and so on… I then pick at least one thing to do each day from the list, crossing them off as I go. Since creating this, I’ve been much more productive and less stressed regarding the remaining tasks on my film, as it makes it easier to work with it broken down into small tasks, displayed in such a clear manner.

Crossing things off it is also very motivating and definitely builds momentum- I’ve often completed several tasks off the list daily, rather than my minimum of one. And even if I do just one small task from it, then that’s still a step forward, even if it doesn’t feel like much. For example, one thing on the list was to ‘fix the title’, as I had previously had placement text there and needed to do it ‘properly’. So seeing it written down as a small step, I just got on and did it and it didn’t even feel that hard or annoying to do.

I actually did the same thing when I was at a similar stage of completion on my previous short- here’s the relevant post about that. I think a lot of this project and the last one have mirrored each other actually, in terms of the ups and downs/ struggles and achievements etc.

An example of one of the tasks that I initially couldn’t be bothered with was to ‘re-do the toilet cubicle background in the aquarium scene’. I wasn’t very keen on attacking this task, because I had already done it and didn’t fancy going through the process of it again, probably incase it didn’t turn out well the second time round either, plus it also felt like a bit of a drag as I had already been through it. But I wasn’t happy with the previous one and knew I could do better, hence it being on the list. And you know what, I just got on and did it, and I am so happy I did, because the new version is like 1000 times better than the previous one! I’ll stick the before/ after images down below- don’t laugh at the first one- in fact, it’s fine, you’re allowed: it’s absolutely terrible!!

I can't believe I even thought this one was acceptable to be in the project!

Ok, animation news out the way, just let me indulge a small bit on skateboarding! Probably this paragraph won’t make much sense if you don’t skate, but I guess if you’re super interested, you could just Google the terminology! This week I learnt how to boardslide on a rail, rather than just a kerb/ parking block type thing. For some reason the fact that it was a rail really weirded me out- just the fact that there was nothing underneath it, rather than being filled in like a kerb is. Anyway, I’ve been wanting this trick on a rail for the longest time, as I’ve always thought they look super cool. And this week I managed it! Thanks to my boyfriend for filming it <3 (screen grab from the video below). I’m excited to keep practising these and progressing with them.

I deffo need to sort out my skate outfits though, I don't really look very stylish do I?!

Right, see you next time, and maybe wearing some better clothes! xo

New Embroidery

Started these little stars towards the beginning of the year and finished them only yesterday morning! But you know, been super busy making my film(!) so my embroidery output has significantly slowed of late. Hopefully that should all pick up again soon as my film is drawing towards the finish line and I have a LOT of exciting and fun embroidery ideas, so watch this space!

The stars were embroidered on a scrap of hospital gown I cut off from the one I bought for my film as a prop. I've a load more fabric from it left to use and quite a few ideas for it, so there will be a fair amount of 'variation on a theme' kind of stuff from me this year...

The pics below is the 'before' and 'after' where I washed off the dissolvable stabiliser. It definitely needs a good go over with an iron, but I don't really like how the stabiliser leaves the stitching: it always feels pretty crusty and leaves it looking puckered. I guess I need to do a bit more research into using it- maybe I'm not washing it out thoroughly enough or just don't have the right technique for it yet- I'm still pretty new to the process. Any tips, drop them below!

Short Film: Update #28 light at the end of the tunnel

Hello hello! As suggested, there wasn’t one of these last week, so lucky you, you now get two. Joking, of course! Got you though, didn’t I?! Shhh, leave me alone, it’s my blog and I can make as many silly jokes as I want!

Right, so what has been going on since last time?

No, I didn’t mean that, although that was how I spent the bank holiday weekend… Seven games across four days- not a bad way to celebrate the resurrection of christ and all that!

That’s more like it: the backgrounds are really, almost complete. And I couldn’t be happier! But I still have a few left to do and they aren’t the easy ones. But I’m kind of at the point now where I’m picking the lesser of two evils each time I work on a background (or any of the remaining tasks), because they’re all pretty difficult as yep, I already did the easy(er) ones. But I’m definitely in the swing of things now with them, so the harder ones aren’t feeling quite as daunting as they did a month or so ago.

As you can see from the screen grab above, I also figured out how I was to finish the background for the nightclub scene. I had decided on the use of 16mm film a while back, as it gives a strobe effect by its very nature, alongside some great patterns and colours- somewhat reminiscent of the type of lights you get in such establishments (in a very abstract/ impressionistic way, of course). But the ‘extras’ were still just a figment of my imagination, until the beginning of this week when I got a great idea of how to add those in. Again, I wanted them to be quite impressionistic as well, so the focus stays very much on the protagonist, but I didn’t want her dancing in an empty club either, as that just would have looked bad. Or at least not suitable for the type of atmosphere I wanted to convey in this sequence.

So I went on to the stock footage website Pexels like I have many a time for this project and downloaded a load of clips of people dancing. I then selected 12 of those and rotoscoped the silhouettes of the people, but I did this on every other frame, so it would feel more ‘club-like’. I then brought them into Premiere and changed the opacity and blend mode, so they merged with the background. When moving, it really does look like they’re under strobe lights, and it gives the type of feel to the background I was after.

The nightclub shot was definitely giving me a bit of stress, as I had no idea how I would be able to set about creating it, or if I’d be able to pull it off altogether. Yay, self doubt. It still needs a bit of tweaking, as I have’t quite established how I’m going to organise the background characters- it’s turning into a mini logistical nightmare (but that’s nothing new at this point)! But I can see that once I get that sorted, it’ll be a really impactful shot: I’ve done a few test exports of that section and I am pleased with how it’s looking, even if it’s not quite there yet.

Next week, I’m planning on working through the remaining backgrounds, though there are a few which require reference shots, but hopefully I can get those this weekend. I’ll admit that I’ve kind of taken my foot off the gas with the film at present in terms of pace/ output each day. This is likely because of the difficulty of it right now, so it feels like half a days work is plenty before my brain starts to get too frazzled! Most of the work on it right now is ‘thinking work’, rather than just rotoscoping/ colouring etc, where it was easy to complete 7-8 hours of work daily. But completing a section or two each day at the moment is a pace I’m happy with. As long as I get something done on it every day, then I’m fine with that.

In addition to the above, I’ve also relaxed any deadlines I had- or at least any for this years festival cycle. I now have the end of August/ beginning September as my completion date, which has definitely released any stress the deadline was giving me. And judging by the fact that my sleep has improved almost 100%, then that was probably a lot! See previous posts for context… There’s no way I’d be able to finish it by the end of May anyway without rushing it and likely ruining my mental health in the process! Disappointing it will take longer than I had imagined, but the film (and my wellbeing) will be all the better for it. So yeah, I just wanted to quickly update on that. And I feel this Autumn deadline is much more realistic too and hopefully won’t need to shift any further.

Ok, this has turned into a bit of an essay as usual(!), so I’ll leave it here and see you in the next one xo