Moth Film Update #3

I bet you thought I had forgot about this project?! That’s totally understandable as it’s been pretty much two months to the day since a moth update (or mothdate)? In my last post on this, I was at 626 moths drawn and in this one, guess what?!? I’ve finished!! All 1000 of them- I decided to go for 1000 instead of 1080 as it felt more complete to me, plus I didn’t really see what 80 extra moths could add to the film. If I decide later on that I do actually need a further 80, I will of course go ahead and draw them, but for now, I feel it’s surplus.

Like most animation projects, it took me a little longer to get to this state- I had hoped to have them finished by the end of February, but I decided to not stress it (what’s the rush?) and do them when I could, rather than forcing myself if tired or busy with other things (which I have been a lot lately). I’m such a sucker for all these arbitrary deadlines I set for myself, which in reality don’t mean a thing. Yes it’s nice to keep myself on track and not linger for too long on a project, but sometimes I can be too strict to my detriment. Unless there’s a pressing deadline from an exterior source, I’ve really been trying to be kinder on myself with my projects/ deadlines. And I must say- it’s a LOT nicer!! In fact, just reading through my last post on this, I pretty much wrote a similar thing about arbitrary deadlines! So I guess it must really be really deep seated within me…

I put all the finished moths in the timeline in DaVinci Resolve to see how they looked as one- and to be honest I was a little disappointed, at least at first. I thought it was such a cool achievement to have completed 1000 moth drawings and couldn’t wait to see how they looked altogether and animated, but for some reason watching it back, it fell a little flat. Maybe this was because there was a plain white background and no audio, or maybe it just didn’t look that good! Or maybe I have too high standards for myself and was expecting something I couldn’t match. I also felt when watching it back, it actually has no meaning/ emotion- perhaps this is why it fell flat. I got excited to make the project as I thought it would look really cool, but I guess that’s not reason enough to make art? Who knows…

There must have been a drive or a meaning when I started it or I wouldn’t have taken on such an amount of work, but when watching it back just now, it didn’t actually mean a thing to me. I had no idea what it was about or what it was saying- to be honest it didn’t say a lot. I think I need to go back to the drawing board to be able to finish it and make it mean something. I feel a meaning or a direction will guide me into finishing it.

To try and claw back any sense of achievement or happiness with it, I put some inked 16mm film behind it and yes, that made it look ‘nicer’/ more aesthetic- at least for my social media and to be honest, I was slightly more pleased with it as it did look ‘better’. But regardless, I definitely need to push it further. I do have some ideas for meaning, but we’ll have to wait and see…

Here’s an extract of how it currently looks: