Words about animation, photography, art, creativity, football + occasional ramblings from other life stuff • See my work here: floramartyr.com • Contact email: dotdotdashdotuk@yahoo.com • Hyperlinks in RED
Hello! Now the festive period has all settled down and I kind of know what day it is again, it’s definitely time to start up these weekly round posts for my film again. Since the last one I’ve been busy, very, very busy. I started looking at background/ colour ideas and carrying out some tests:
Above are a couple of the tests I carried out and potential examples of what it all might look like when finished. I definitely need to do more development, especially on the character and look at how it all might work while animated as well. But I feel on the whole, I’m going to go with a textured background (similar to above) and a smooth character style, so there’s a solid bit of contrast. Anyway, that’s what I’m thinking at this point, though it is still early days. I’m also thinking to keep it all in TVPaint (the software I’m drawing all the animation in), in order to keep my work flow as streamlined as possible. It also makes any background components that may need animating a lot easier to do there and then, rather than swap from program to program. But I’ll see, who knows, I might say all this and then go and draw all the backgrounds in Photoshop or Procreate! Anyway, more on this at a later point when I’m at the stage to fully focus on the backgrounds and colour.
I’m super pleased that I did manage to spend a few days looking at the above though and doing a few tests, because it’s the part of the process I’m least confident in (the rotoscope animation is where I feel most comfortable). But, it’s actually boosted my confidence, because yes, although it still needs more R+D, I’m really happy with the direction it’s going in and I absolutely love the look I’ve created so far. It was nice to have got some of this done before I’ve finished all the outlines, because it means I can be mulling it over as I finish animating the character footage. It has also put me in good stead for when I do get to the background/ col stage, because I won’t be starting from a blank canvas so to speak.
I was also able to get a chunk of filming done:
…which has made me feel a whole lot happier. The filming is definitely a part of a process I find least fun, especially when I am not only behind but also in front of the camera (though I must admit I am pretty pleased with my performance so far). I now only have about four sequences left to shoot with me on screen, plus one shot using some extras. Just cracking on with it early this week has been great for the momentum of the film and has been a big relief to have been able to get it done. Though when it’s about 2 degrees outside and everywhere is covered in snow, it’s definitely not a time to be waltzing around in a dress and bikini pretending it’s summer!
I have also been busy animating for the remainder of the week:
On the last one of these I posted about a month ago now, I was on shot 044. So yes, significant progress has been made! The film is looking a lot more fleshed out in the Premiere Pro timeline and I’m really pleased with the pace I’m getting through the outlines. I’m also super happy with the quality of the animation I’m producing at the moment.
I’m feeling really positive about the project right now and it feels like the end is (almost) in sight. Or at least for the filming/ outlines part: I’m not under any illusion about how long the backgrounds/ colour/ score/ sound is all going to take. But I just need to keep at it one shot at a time and not let the rest of the project overwhelm me. I was able to take a little time over the festive period to actually take a look at festival deadlines and prices, as it was becoming quite apparent that the end of Feb deadline I had previously set myself was going to be wayyy off. On doing this, I realised that the prices don’t jump up that much, providing I get it done by April 30th. Which sounds a lot more achievable. So that is now my deadline.
What are my plans for the coming week? To continue animating the footage and see how far I get with it- it’s unrealistic to say that I’ll get it all done as there’s quite a lot, but I feel I can make a significant dent into it. So yeah, I’ll mostly be stationed at my computer! See you in the next one!
And now for the final 2024 round up post and it’s the one you’ve all been waiting for: football! So first things first- the all important stats! In 2024 I attended 97 matches, with 95 of those being ‘new’ (previously unvisited for me) grounds. The revisits were Wembley and Wembley again- I’ve become one of those people haven’t I?! One time for the Women’s FA Cup final and the other for the Lionesses vs the USA in an international friendly. The highest attendance was 78,346, for the aforementioned Lionesses game and the highest domestic attendance besides the Women’s FA Cup final (76,082) was 18,078 for Tottenham Hotspur Women against Leicester City Women in a Women’s FA Cup Semi Final game. The lowest attendance was (approximately) 8, for a Sheffield and District Fair Play League Division Two game as Sheffield Union FC took on Thurgoland Welfare FC on a cold Saturday morning at Norton Playing Fields. I saw 417 goals in total, averaging 4.3 a game and my most seen team was Manchester United Women (3 times in total).
It was a bit of a year in two halves actually (similar to my summary for 2023 as well)- the first half was spent visiting more exciting/ interesting grounds, as well as taking more photographs, alongside completing our ‘road to Wembley’ quest (attending a fixture from each round of the Women’s FA Cup). This was the highlight of my year in terms of football: it brought us to some completely different places and really made us pick some interesting fixtures/ grounds to visit. It was a great focal point for the 23/24 season. Hard recommend!
The second half of the year (after the summer break) was not as exciting: if you are a regular here then you will know that I’ve been mega busy working on my film. This has lead to me having less free time, meaning that photographing games has, unfortunately, taken a back seat. It’s not so much the photographing that takes the time as I’d be out anyway watching football, it’s more the editing and sifting through that takes a full morning (and more often than not, a bit longer). I’m hoping to remedy this once the weather gets slightly more pleasant and I’ve actually written a small list of grounds I want to photograph this coming year to keep me excited/ motivated. A large amount of my film has been completed, so I feel in a few weeks or so, I can start shifting my time around to allow for a little photo editing. Anyway, watch this space…
On a more positive note, since the new season began myself and my partner have actually started watching my home town club (and the club I support), Worcester City. Both the men’s and women’s teams were promoted last season and they now play in regional midlands based leagues (the Northern Premier League Midlands and the FAWNL Division One Midlands respectively). In both leagues, there are several grounds which we haven’t previously visited, so have been able to line up a few fixtures for both. We have watched two for each so far, with both the third games we had lined up postponed due to the weather. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting behind the club I support in person and it’s made for a really fun/ interesting venture to our weekends. I’ve a few more planned out for each for the remainder of the season. I am also now the proud owner of a Worcester City FC scarf (thanks Santa)!
Right, that’s the stats and summary complete, now for the fun bit! Here are my top ten grounds/ games I attended last year. These are not all just the ‘nicest’ grounds I feel I visited, but I’ve also taken into account enjoyable days out/ great clubs/ good overall football watching experiences. These are in the date order I visited.
Sharpenhoe Road
Luton Town Ladies FC 0-6 Brighton & Hove Albion Women 14/01/2024 Women’s FA Cup Fourth Round Proper Attendance: 1235
Silverlake Stadium
Southampton FC Women 1-3 Manchester United Women 11/02/2024 Women’s FA Cup Fifth Round Proper Attendance: 4554
Broadfield Stadium
Brighton & Hove Albion Women 0-4 Manchester United Women 09/03/2024 Women’s FA Cup Quarter Final Attendance: 3701
The Polegrove
Bexhill United 2-3 Eastbourne Town 13/03/2024 Southern Combination Premier Division Attendance: 164
Kenilworth Road
Hashtag United Women 2-1 Newcastle United Women 23/03/2024 FAWNL Cup Final Attendance: 3719
Edgar Street
Hereford FC 2-2 Buxton FC 01/04/2024 National League North Attendance: 3004
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Tottenham Hotspur Women 2-1 Leicester City Women 14/04/2024 Women’s FA Cup Semi Final Attendance: 18,078
Garden Walk
Gornal Athletic 4-0 Bustlehome FC 20/04/2024 West Midlands Regional League Div 1 Attendance: 220
Millmoor
Wickersley Youth Ladies FC 16-1 Eckington Belles Ladies FC 01/09/2024 Sheffield & Hallamshire Women’s & Girls League Open Age 4 Attendance: 40 (head count)
Southwold Common
Southwold Town FC 3-0 Hopton and Hawthorn Devs 05/10/2024 Lowestoft and District League Div 3 Attendance: 30 (head count)
Like last year, here are my top 25 film recommendations out of all the feature films I watched during 2024. In total I watched 143 (including 2 rewatches), up from 91 last year. My target is generally 104- which is two (new to me) watches a week. As a filmmaker, I appreciate the importance of watching feature films and look at them not only as entertainment, but also material to study.
As ever, it was a very hard list to compile- there are just a lot of good films aren’t there?! I feel this list is a nice overview of the films I have enjoyed during the year, so there’s a mix of live action, animation, documentary, bigger budget, smaller budget, British cinema, World cinema and so on. Which actually reflects my taste anyway- I’m up for watching a whole plethora of films.
This year I also did something unprecedented: I delved into the world of unlimited cinema! For a several reasons I have never looked into this (financial and not having a local cinema which would justify the cost- only screened the very mainstream/ high budget films), though since moving to Sheffield and being blessed with a choice of 6 cinemas (plus several alternative cinema offerings in the form of Kelham Film Club and Film Unit Sheffield), as well as being in a better financial situation, I decided to dive right in.
The first (yes, I did this more than once) cinema I chose was The Light. I selected this cinema because of it’s dedication towards supporting independent film, plus the chain hosts film festivals (Sheff Doc Fest and Bolton Film Fest- maybe more as well), I wanted to put my money towards something good. The viewing experience is great: large screens, decent audio, as well as comfortable, spacious seats. It was also very reasonably priced at just £15.99 a month for as many films as you like- and I really did indulge! I watched 45 with the 6 month membership, justifying the price and then some. Because I could see what I wanted, it made me pick several films I likely would not have seen without the pass, so it really opened me up to watching films I might not have picked to watch otherwise. Top marks!
Despite enjoying the pass immensely (as well as The Light cinema itself), once the 6 months was up, I decided not to renew the membership. The main reason: I live 3 miles from the cinema and to just watch a film, I was taking a whole afternoon out my day- an hours walk each way, plus the duration of the film. It also meant evening screenings were a little difficult and it felt like I wasn’t just paying for the cinema pass, but often bus fares to/ from home. Which added up cost-wise. If I lived nearer, I’d snap up the membership again in a flash.
After a couple months off, I was definitely craving cinema visits again, plus with it heading to ‘awards season’ it meant there would be loads of good new releases. The closest cinema to me offering a pass is Cineworld- it’s literally a 20 minute walk from my house, so super convenient. It’s slightly more expensive and the cinema experience isn’t quite as nice as The Light, plus it’s a much bigger corporation, meaning I don’t feel my money is going to something quite as ‘good’. But I am grateful to have a cinema so close to me offer an unlimited deal. It also shows a lot of the films I want to see, which is obviously a positive! When this pass runs out, I am likely to renew, because I love watching films in a cinema environment, and as I said, it’s so convenient with it being so close.
Wow, that was a bit of an essay, wasn’t it?! Right, back to why we’re here: the list…
These are listed in no particular order. The title of the film is in bold, followed by the the date which it was made according to IMDb (in brackets) and then the name of the director(s).
1. Last Resort (2000) Pawlikowski, Pawel 2. How to Have Sex (2023) Manning Walker, Molly 3. Hello My Beautiful Creatures (2024) Bernhagen, Eric; Haver, Joel 4. The Holdovers (2023) Payne, Alexander 5. All of Us Strangers (2023) Haigh, Andrew 6. The Zone of Interest (2023) Glazer, Jonathan 7. Perfect Days (2023) Wenders, Wim 8. Robot Dreams (2023) Berger, Pablo 9. Copa 71 (2023) Erskine, James; Ramsay, Rachel 10. Sometimes I Think About Dying (2023) Lambert, Rachel 11. Monkey Man (2024) Patel, Dev 12. Blue Giant (2023) Tachikawa, Yuzuru 13. Reality (2023) Satter, Tina 14. Anatomy of a Fall (2023) Triet, Justine 15. Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (2024) Mabott, Michale; Rosenberg-Lee, Lucah 16. We Can Be Heroes (2024) Mia Wong, Carina; Simmons, Alex 17. Fancy Dance (2023) Tremblay, Erica 18. Strike: An Uncivil War (2024) Gordon, Daniel 19. Wilding (2023) Allen, David 20. Silver Haze (2023) Polak, Sacha 21. Sky Peals (2023) Hussain, Moin 22. The Outrun (2024) Fingscheidt, Nora 23. Threads (1984) Jackson, Mick 24. A Different Man (2024) Schimberg, Aaron 25. Memoir of a Snail (2024) Elliot, Adam
Hope you enjoy and I’m always open to any watch recommendations, so write ‘em in the comments! xo
As 2025 fast approaches *checks notes* urm, tomorrow, then I guess it’s time for all my usual end of year round up posts- which I’m sure you’re looking forward to! As the title suggests, this one is about all my favourite bowling alleys I’ve visited this year, so without further ado, let's get into it!
I have been to a whopping 34 different (and all new to me) bowling alleys this year, which is my highest in a while. Unfortunately it did taper off towards the end of the year, the last one I visited being mid November (King Pins Manchester Arndale for anyone wondering). The best month was February, where I visited 6, closely followed by both September and March where I visited 5 in each month. My total is now up to 188- pushing towards the big 200! Though the more I do, the harder it gets to find new ones locally, which is why on holidays/ days away we tend to hammer it pretty hard. And contrary to how it sounds on here, I do actually really enjoy bowling as a sport/ activity in itself and I don’t just play in order to add it to my spreadsheet. I do get a load of enjoyment out of it, which is why I started attempting to go around them all in the first place. I absolutely love walking in to a new place to bowl and taking in the decor, characters, quality of the lanes and so on. I must admit the chain bowling centres such as your Hollywood’s and Tenpin’s sometimes do feel like a chore as they’re all quite similar, but I still find visiting each of those somewhat a unique experience, because there’s usually something of note between each one, such as the exterior/ architecture, the carpet, the staff and so on.
My bowling this year in terms of scores have been on the whole very good, though I did manage to get a couple under 100, which I am ashamed to admit out loud! My highest was a 203 (which I actually achieved twice), plus several scores in the 190-somethings. Which ain’t bad for an amateur! Hopefully I can continue this going into 2025 and look to improve further, though this will mean going more regularly…
Richardson’s Family Entertainment Centre, Lowestoft 25/09/24
JR’s American Diner + Bowl, North Walsham 04/10/24
Strikes Bowl, Dereham 07/10/24
Though it’s always hard to pick a top 5- there were wayyy more I could have chosen! Below are some pictures from this years bowling escapades- just a random selection, some from the bowling alleys mentioned above, though some just because I liked the image! See you at the lanes for a game, yes?!
Hello hello and Merry Christmas Eve! I know I should be indulging myself in mince pies and other such merriments instead of blogging, but this weekly update is already two days behind and to be honest, I really rather enjoy writing on here, so there’s that!
I don’t have all that much to report this time as unfortunately I was unwell last week, so not a lot of animation was completed. However, I am probably about two hours away from completing the last shot I have footage for, which I will aim to achieve by the end of today. Then I am breaking for Christmas for a few days, so I’ll likely be back on this properly early next week- maybe, though New Years is in amongst all of that too and I have football watching plans for then… So let’s see what gets done.
Once the festive period settles down and the days become more defined again, I am planning another batch of filming, plus I will start on the colouring and development of the background styles. If I get the filming done first though, the outlines will take priority until complete, but if for any reason I don’t manage it right away, then I will start on the other bits. Essentially, I am reiterating what I wrote in the previous update, but failed to act on because of illness. So I am really hammering home how the next few weeks on this project will be panning out!
Think that’s it for this post- there will not be one of these next week, so please don’t expect it! Instead, there will be bowling alley, football grounds and feature film yearly round ups as usual and anything else I do in between I feel is worthy of a blog post. No tracker screen grab this week as there wasn’t much change from last time, so enjoy this nice little wintery scene alongside the River Don. See you in the next one- hope you have a lovely Christmas for all those who celebrate it, and for those who don’t, have a lovely few days anyway! xo
I didn’t think I’d be doing any more embroidery this year, but I clearly underestimated my creative endeavours!
I had been reading about Solvy (brand name) Fabric Soluble Stabiliser of late: a wash off/ water dissolvable stabiliser that you can transfer your design to and put on the front of your fabric whilst you embroider. This to enable you to stitch onto darker or thicker fabric in which the usual means of tracing your design won’t be possible (or a lot harder at least). It’s hard to find an appropriate pen which shows up on dark fabric, or even if you can, it’s difficult to trace your design on, as seeing your design through dark (or opaque) fabric even with a lightbox or up against a window, is not easy!
The stabiliser, hoop and the fabric
The stabiliser above the pattern- you don't even need a lightbox to trace it
Anyway, with this stabiliser, you can trace your design with ease onto it: it is a thin, translucent, white material. You then put the fabric and the stabiliser in the hoop together (stabiliser on top) and stitch your design as normal. When fully stitched, rinse your design in water (I think both warm and cold work- though cold just takes a little longer), leave to dry and then enjoy your embroidery!
The stabiliser (with the traced design) atop the fabric in the hoop
I wanted to test it on a small scrap of fabric, as I didn’t want to go into anything too extravagant or complex without having tested the stabiliser myself first and understand its properties. So I chose a bit of denim I had as an off cut from a previous project (and piece of clothing), and the design I selected was a quite basic star. I wanted something I thought would look nice when embroidered, plus something that wouldn’t take too long to stitch. This definitely satisfied both those requirements! The design was from the DMC website, where they have a load of free downloadable patterns for both cross stitch and embroidery. I should say at this point I purchased the Solvy from a UK based online shop called embroideredjust4u.
The fully stitched design, before washing away the stabiliser
Because denim is a fairly bulky fabric, plus the added thickness of the stabiliser, stitching onto it took some getting used to as I usually sew on cotton, which is much more lightweight. It was also a little harder to hoop and stay taught- again because of the thickness of the material. Though I think this would be the case when using denim regardless of whether I used the stabiliser or not, because on the whole, the stabiliser is extremely thin. These comments aside, it was pretty much just straightforward from there on in.
I was a little apprehensive before rinsing away the stabiliser- I was concerned that it might ruin my design or the stitches would come out bad. But when I washed it away, there were no issues with the stitches- I think they sometimes can turn out a little baggy though- because if they aren’t pulled tightly enough, then once the stabiliser is washed away, then there might be a little spare tension in the thread making up for the extra layer that the stabiliser provides. So just make sure if you’re using something like this, then pull your stitches a little tighter than you would do otherwise.
Cutting away the stabiliser before washing off
I would say though, that after washing the Solvy off, the design feels harder as opposed to the silky feel that embroidery usually does. This might be because I hadn’t washed it thoroughly enough, or maybe that’s how it just turns out- I’m not yet sure as I’m still quite new to the process. It doesn’t affect the look of the design, but it definitely does with the feel of it, so that’s one thing to bear in mind. Though I would say this as an advantage in some circumstances, such as if it’s for a clothing patch, or on a piece of clothing, then you might actually want a tougher feeling design as it might be more durable. Anyway, something to think about…
Overall, I think it is an excellent piece of material to have in my sewing drawer and I will be making a lot of use out of it. It feels like a bit of a game changer for my embroidery and how I don’t need to feel constrained to only a few types or fabrics or colours.
I completed three shots in total and made good headway on a fourth. As these things always do, the shots took a lot longer than I was expecting: I was hoping to have completed this sequence by now. But, I still have 2.5 shots remaining going into next week.
I also did the organised but daunting thing of writing out every shot/ sequence I still have to shoot and animate. Which has kind of made me reconsider the deadline I set for myself last week, as it might not be all that achievable. Though time will tell…
There’s obviously a balance I have to straddle between the quality I want to achieve of my film in terms of both look and story (plus sound design/ score) and how much time to spend making it/ the work life balance I want. In my mind, there is no doubt I would like to have it completed in time to submit to next years festivals, but I feel the compromise will have to be that I will likely not be able to submit it for the earlier, nicely discounted rates unfortunately. I also do not want to forsake the quality of my film for a, essentially arbitrary, submission deadline- that is something I am going to be stubborn about, so if, on the chance that it looks like I might not hit any of the festival deadlines in 2025, then so be it. The film is more important than that and I can then have it at least ready to submit as soon as the festivals open for submissions the following year.
All the above said, I do feel I need to be ramping up the amount of hours I’m spending animating on my film each day. I’m currently averaging around 5 hours daily most weeks, which isn’t really good enough- I would ideally like to be at 7 hours. It always feels like time just eats away for some reason, especially in the run up to Christmas: I’ve had various other commitments/ things that need doing as well. I still want to retain a good work-life balance and don’t want to be working silly hours on my film because that’s not healthy, but I think around 7 hours animating a day is a more than reasonable target, especially if I want any chance of the film not dragging too far into next year.
So what’s in store for the coming week? More filming, hopefully, as well as the completion of the shots from the sequence I filmed last week. If for any reason I’m unable to get the filming done, because of the weather for example, then I will start to look at colour ideas and background style development. I definitely need to be thinking of those things in the upcoming weeks as I am on the final third of the outlines, so the next stages are not that far off. Seeing that written down is both exciting and frightening all in the same breath! But if it scares you, do it, as the saying goes, so I guess that’s what I’ve got to do…
Below is an image where I upped the contrast and lowered the saturation of the reference footage to assist me to pick out some of the lines on the hospital gown a little more clearly:
And a pic below of the fantastic Grace Petrie gig myself and my boyfriend attended last night in Sheffield. Just to prove that I do other stuff aside from animate, skate and watch football! Anyway, it was a super fun (and empowering/ inspirational) time and would totally recommend watching her if she has any tour dates near you. Was also a nice surprise to see that one of the support acts was a poet (the fabulous Molly Naylor- I shall be checking more of her stuff out for definite in the future)…
A little thing I made using a cross stitch kit I purchased from Hobbycraft a few weeks ago. I know I usually do my own designs, but I wanted something not so serious/ fun to do on the side. Plus I do quite like getting myself these little cross stitch kits from time to time as it feels like a nice, relaxing, cosy activity. I decided to make it circular and use some felt to back it, which I attached using a blanket stitch. So it's now a Christmas decoration- the felt backing was red and I used gold thread for the border, so it definitely gives Christmassy vibes! I have a few more ideas for some embroidery projects in the works, so watch this space as usual, though likely not for a little while...
You can probably tell by the optimism in the title that the film is going a little better than last week… I came back to it on Monday with fresh eyes (as I said I would) after having had a couple of days off from it over the weekend. I did a little further editing, then exported it again and watched it through and wow, it’s so much better! It’s a lot more aligned with the story I want to tell, but without any of the bagginess of the previous versions. The clarity is almost there- yes there are still a few tweaks I feel I’ll need to do such as adding a scene here and there, where there are gaps, but on the whole, it is much, much better.
I actually feel full on excited about it again and I’m extremely motivated to continue with it. Which probably explains why I had such a productive week: I did some more filming, animated a few shots and tied up a few loose ends on a couple of other shots which previously I hadn’t quite finished in full.
I didn’t expect to go into this week and film anything, but I felt fresh and therefore needed to strike when the iron was hot and get on with it. I’m really pleased with the footage I got, too- I must admit I actually quite like the acting I did in one of the shots, if I should say so myself! I plan on editing what I have over the weekend and then hopefully have animated all of those shots in full by this time next week- we shall see…
I also have more of a fixed deadline in mind now actually, which is end of Feb/ start of March next year. Which gives me 3 months. Eek!! It might be a little too tight and I am not going to rush it if it gets near the deadline if I’m still way off. There’s a ridiculous amount to get done, such as colour and backgrounds, voice records and sound design/ score, plus compositing etc. And to finish animating the outlines, of course! But that’s the date when some of the festivals I want to submit to close their cheaper submission rates. And as a person who has created this film independent of any funding, cutting costs down such as festival submissions is an important factor to consider. Submission fees really do add up and to be honest, I kind of loathe paying them as it’s a complete gamble whether your film gets in anyway, so often it’s just money wasted. Yes, of course I believe in the work I create and always think positively that my films will get in, but being realistic, myself and I expect a lot of other filmmakers, have more rejections than success when it comes to submitting to festivals. That’s just the way it is. Lot’s of the time, it doesn’t even reflect the quality of your film- it might just be down to programming or something like that.
I know you don’t have to submit to festivals at all and you can just upload it online or something, but I’d hate to put all this time and effort into making my film, for it to get 235 views on YouTube. I have a fairly small online following, so for it to break through organically is not that likely (again, not trying to sound super negative here- just speaking rationally). At least with festivals, there’s a chance of potential collaborators/ producers/ funders seeing it and liking what you do, which could lead to positive things in the future. My goal after this is to make my feature film, so if this film does well at festivals, then it opens up my chances of realistically looking into funding options for that.
I’ll add a few images below as there’s been a lot of words here. At first, it was actually a quite minimal post in that respect, but then I remembered I should mention the potential deadline I have in mind and then my hands couldn’t stop typing! I’ll also chuck in my Spotify wrapped while I’m about it, so you can see what kind of music I listen to while I animate!
These first two are from the footage I shot this week. PSA: hospital gowns are not warm- and I must have been in it for at least two hours at a time. But I suppose being so cold probably spurred me on to getting the footage quicker as I just wanted to get the clips done and then some warm clothes on!
And below is the rotoscoped outlines of the 3D fan I modelled several weeks ago which I (at long last) got round to animating:
Gooooood morning! Or whenever you are reading this and happy December!
As speculated last week, I have pretty much finished the majority of what I can animate for the while, without filming further footage. There’s little point putting the screen grab of my tracking spreadsheet up this week, as to be honest, not much new stuff was done- there were only a couple new shots completed.
I exported the film thus far on Thursday morning- so that was a combination of all the animated shots, coupled with the animatic/ storyboard. So it was about 50% animated and the other, just static images. And I was not happy. The story felt extremely disjointed and didn’t make an awful lot of sense. I honestly felt like giving up and/ or scrapping it, or making something else with the footage, or changing direction completely. All of which, I appreciate, are pretty drastic measures!
But it was great to have picked up on all that at this current stage, rather than having filmed and animated everything as per my storyboard, only to realise that many shots would need to be cut and it would have been a whole lot of time wasted. Some shots which I had already animated I have deleted, but luckily it’s not been many and some, I’ve been able to salvage/ repurpose in different areas of the film.
This feeling of disappointment after the export has sort of been a ‘blessing is disguise’ (I hate that term, but not sure what else to call it) if you like. It’s made me become more critical (in a good way) of the story I’m trying to tell and made me have a lesser attachment to certain shots/ scenes/ scenarios which I had liked previously and wanted to keep in for one reason or another. This can only be a good thing. I really want the film to work and tell a good, relatable and cohesive story, and with such a strong desire to achieve this goal, I have been happy to cut/ change/ edit my film, until it satisfies my aim of creating a solid short.
Since exporting, I’ve been extremely ruthless cutting scenes and shots which don’t work/ fit and had a bit of a rethink how I can go about the rest: mocking up several scenes and writing/ sketching out what else needs to be done. After having done this, I feel a lot better than I did about it the other day, knowing that the film does hold potential and if I put in the hard work, then I can turn it around. I’m going to give it a bit of a break over the weekend, while I go and enjoy some football watching, taking my mind off it all and come back tomorrow morning with fresh eyes and a fresh mind.
Come on Flora, you can do it!!
Remember I put an outlines clip up last week? Well I decided to give it a mocked up temp background, so I could stick it on my socials (still in two minds about how much I want to be engaging on Instagram these days, but whatevs) and also kind of take in and appreciate all the work I have put into it so far. Which shouldn’t be glazed over- creating a film by oneself like this is no small feat! It also gives me a glimpse of how my film could end up looking once complete and acts as a little motivational tool to encourage me to carry on and keep at it, especially when you can see some sort of results/ reward for what you have put in.
And finally, the usual bit of AOB in this blog, as I’m sure you all look forward to reading(!)- I performed my poetry again for the first time since 2019! I had been meaning to get back into this for a while, especially since moving to Sheffield last year, but had never got round to it before now. It was when I learned of a new spoken word open mic night at The Showroom Cinema, was when I thought, well I’m familiar with that venue (and I like it), so I signed myself up. I did this in advance, so I couldn’t bottle it on the day and you know what, I am so pleased that I went! I had such a brilliant time and met some super lovely people and heard some great stuff performed- all in different styles. A wonderful mix.
I can’t lie, I was pretty nervous in the lead up, but that all settled down once I started performing. And I’m quite looking forward to going again- not just for the performance side of things, but also because it was such a nice event. It’s also given me a good reason to start writing again- if I can aim for one new poem each month (as it’s a monthly event), then that would be excellent…
